RBI ACT SHOULD MANDATE DISCLOSURE OF LOAN DEFAULTERS: AIBEA
In view of the recent
ruling of the Supreme Court, the government has to amend the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) Act sooner or later and publish the names of loan defaulters
periodically, a top official of the All India Bank Employees' Association
(AIBEA) said on Monday. Welcoming the apex court order directing the RBI to disclose
its inspection reports of banks and the names of loan defaulters, C.H.
Venkatachalam said the Supreme Court has vindicated the long standing stance of
the AIBEA on the issue of banks' non-performing assets (NPAs or bad loans). Sooner
or later, the government and the RBI have to come out, amend the RBI Act and
publish the names of defaulters periodically to let the country know who are
these defaulters and cheaters of people's money, he said.
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RBI MOVES TO TIGHTEN CURRENT ACCOUNT OPERATING NORMS TO CHECK
FUND DIVERSION
In a move to tackle fund
diversion, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed sterner rules on
opening and running of current accounts of corporate borrowers. Current
accounts, according to a draft circular shared by the regulator with the
banking industry, can only be opened with the lead bank in a lending consortium
while other banks having collection accounts will have to transfer funds at the
end of the day to the current account with the consortium leader. RBI has
suggested that the rule would apply to accounts of corporates which have
borrowed and availed credit facilities of Rs 50 crore or more from the banking
system. RBI suspects that many corporates run collection accounts (which are
used for holding sale proceeds and other receipts) with other banks so that the
consortium leader cannot impound the fund or push the borrower to fork out
interest on loans. This is particularly true for stressed accounts, a senior
banker told. However, once the proposed regulation is executed, many midsized
and smaller banks, which do not lead consortia, fear a dip in CASA (current and
saving accounts) numbers that enable banks to lower cost of fund. On one hand
RBI wants discipline in opening current accounts. On the other hand, a low CASA
often does not go well with the regulator which occasionally points this out in
the course of inspection, said another banker. According to RBI, while there
would be no restriction on the amount or number of ‘credits’ in collection
accounts with other banks (which are not leading consortium), the ‘debits’
should be limited to remitting the proceeds to the current or escrow accounts
maintained with the lead bank. The regulator has indicated that all such
‘existing’ current accounts where the account holding bank is not the consortium
leader/ escrow managing bank would either have to be converted into collection
account or closed, after giving due notice to the account holders, within three
months from the date of the final circular. Accordingly, no debits would be
permitted in such accounts after the stipulated period of three months other
than for remittance to the lending bank(s). The draft circular further suggests
that while customers (with Rs 5-50 crore credit) may open current accounts with
any lending bank (which is not a consortium leader), only collection accounts
can be run with non-lending banks. The proposed regulation owes its origin to
RBI’s 2004 directive to banks advising them to ensure that their branches do
not open current accounts of entities which enjoy credit facilities (fund based
or nonfund based) from the banking system without specifically obtaining a
No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the lending bank(s). Later, banks were
allowed to open current accounts of prospective customers in case no response
was received from existing bankers within a fortnight.
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RBI'S NEW ₹20 CURRENCY NOTE COMING SOON
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has announced that it will shortly issue ₹20 denomination banknotes in
the Mahatma Gandhi (New) series, bearing the signature of the central bank's
governor Shaktikanta Das. The ₹20 note will be greenish-yellow in colour. The new banknote
has a motif of Ellora Caves on the reverse, depicting the country's cultural
heritage, a statement by the RBI said. All the banknotes in the denomination of
₹20 issued by the RBI in the earlier series will continue to be
legal tender, it clarified.
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'RELAXED NORMS FOR SETTING UP FIRMS, OTHER STEPS TO HELP
IMPROVE INDIA'S EASE OF BIZ RANKING'
The government's
initiatives such as relaxed norms for company incorporation, and removing
requirement of a bank account for GST registration will help India further
improve its ease of doing business ranking of the World Bank this year, a
senior official has said. Several steps have been initiated by the government
this year on all the ten parameters. It will significantly help improve India's
ranking this year, the official said. In its annual 'Doing Business' report,
the World Bank ranks nations based on 10 parameters relating to starting and
doing business in a country. These parameters include ease of starting a
business, construction permits, getting electricity, getting credit, paying
taxes, trade across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
Other steps, which the government has taken, include clubbing of several forms
into one; elimination of fee for incorporation of companies where authorised
capital is up to Rs 15 lakh; removal of company seal or rubber stamp; and
combined registration for EPFO and ESIC. These reforms include introduction of
a single window for all import and export transactions, integration of all
stakeholders such as port and terminal operators at a common platform and fast
tracking clearances of consignments at ports. The government has launched
'PCS1x', an upgraded version of the e-commerce portal for Port Community System
(PCS), which intends to integrate 27 maritime stakeholders at a common
platform. Further, India has reduced the time and cost of exports and imports
through various initiatives, including the implementation of electronic sealing
of containers, upgrading of port infrastructure and allowing electronic
submission of supporting documents with digital signatures.
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GDP GROWTH MAY TOP 7 PER CENT THIS FISCAL, SAYS CEA
KRISHNAMURTHY SUBRAMANIAN
Though the general
elections have slowed down economic activity as the industry awaits a new
government to take shape at the Centre, the economic growth is likely to be
more than 7% in 2019-20, chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said
on Friday. He attributed the slowdown over the last two quarters to structural
factors as well as something that is a hangover of what has happened earlier. This
is an election season, and historically, we have always seen there is some
uncertainty around the election developments and therefore, there is a wait and
watch mode that corporate and other agents in the economy adopt this would be
something that we hope would go away once the election process is over,
Subramanian said. Subramanian said the Centre would stick to the 3.4% (of GDP)
fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 (for which data will be released next month)
and 2019-20. On difficulties being faced by more non-banking finance companies
(NBFCs), he said the government is aware of the matter and would initiate steps
at the right time. Besides the automobile sector, the slowdown faced by fast moving
consumer goods (FMCG) players have also created some concerns in the market. Capacity
utilisation has still not reached an average of about 75%. So, the demand for
investments from corporate is still to pick up and we also had corporates and
the banks leveraged significantly, which they are trying to wind down,
Subramanian said. So, this is a process because of which the capital formation
in the economy had come down and effects of which we are now seeing, he said. With
manufacturing, agriculture and small services faltering and government spending
slowing, the GDP grew at a five-quarter-low rate of 6.6% in the
September-December period (Q3) of 2018-19. The Central Statistics Office (CSO)
has revised downward the 2018-19 growth projection to 7% — a five-year trough —
from 7.2% in the first advance estimate released in January. With the fall in
growth rates, given a loss of momentum since Q2, including in the
high-frequency data available for post-Q3 period, economists predicted the
growth to be more anaemic in Q4 at 6.1-6.4%, with a recovery to be expected in
Q1FY20 or thereafter. On tax collection targets, Subramanian said the
government would put emphasis on indirect tax collections and some other steps
that are being planned. Those would help in bringing back buoyancy, increasing
the buoyancy on indirect tax collections, he said. On concerns with regard to
NBFCs, the CEA said, The NBFC situation is better than what it was at the time
when the IL&FS crisis had happened; it has been contained. He said the
government was aware of rating downgrade of some NBFCs and was seized of this
matter. There are some NBFCs which are facing some difficulties, which is
something we are monitoring very carefully and we will take steps as and when
required, he said.
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NEED TO DO MORE TO STRENGTHEN STARTUP ECOSYSTEM: DPIIT
Government is taking
various steps to reduce the time for examination of intellectual property
rights (IPR) applications, said Department for Promotion of Industry and
Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary. Ramesh Abhishek said We have taken several
steps but we need to do more on strengthening the start-up ecosystem in the
country. Abhishek said that as many as 120 start-ups have been granted patents
under the expedited examination process for applications since 2016 when the
facility was introduced. A total of 450 start-ups have filed applications under
this facility, he added.
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JET AIRWAYS TELLS STAFF IT CAN NOT PROVIDE MEDICLAIM
Faced with severe
liquidity crisis, grounded Jet Airways has informed employees that it will not
be able to fund the premium of Group Mediclaim Policy and advised them to take
medical cover of their choice. IANS first reported on April 27 that Jet
employees face uncertainty over extension of their Mediclaim provided by the
company. In the absence of any emergency funding from the lenders or any other
source of funds forthcoming in the near future, we find ourselves facing a
situation where we are not able to fund the premium of our Group Mediclaim
Policy, the airline Chief People Officer Rahul Taneja wrote in a letter to its
employees. He said that the Group Mediclaim Policy lapses on the midnight of
April 30, 2019, adding that these circumstances are not of our doing and much
as we would wish to do things differently, we are left with little choice.
Taneja, however, sounded optimistic and gave hope about revival of the airline.
I must also state that we have not yet given up on our efforts and continue to
engage with the lenders and support them in the bid process. We are working
with them proactively to find opportunities to revive our beloved airline. As
soon as we have more clarity on this matter, we will share the same with you,
he said.
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JET STAFF OFFER TO ARRANGE A BILLION-DOLLAR BAILOUT
In an attempt to salvage
Jet Airways, the company’s employees have put forth a proposal to take control
of it by infusing ₹7,000 crore Under a proposal submitted to SBI, the lead
lender, the employees plan to put up capital through stock options worth ₹4,000
crore and another ₹3,000 crore raised from external investors. The employees’
letter, addressed to SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar, said: We would like to suggest
that Jet Airways be taken over by a consortium of employees and external
investor(s) the contribution of the employee group over a hypothetical
over-five-year Employee Stock Ownership Programme (ESOP) is likely to be upward
of ₹4,000 crore. In addition, we are confident of securing up to ₹3,000
crore from outside investors. According to Tyagi, the employees have already
approached some investors. We are in conversation with other employee unions as
well, he said. We have discussed these issues informally with our colleagues in
different sections of the company who have reposed their confidence and faith
in an employee-led turnaround plan that is modelled on similar turnarounds in
the West, like that of United Airlines in 1994, the letter said. This exercise
will necessitate a complete overhaul of the management team of the company and
re-establishment of priorities of the short, medium and long term. The required
investment and other modalities on the financial aspects can be duly
deliberated over meetings to ensure complete confidence of the bankers in this
unique effort of recreating and establishing a version 2.0 of Jet Airways, it
added.
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SOME EMPLOYEES WANT TO BID FOR JET AIRWAYS, WRITES TO SBI TO
CONSIDER
A section of Jet Airways’
employees have now decided to bid for the airline that is grounded and is looking
for investors to start flying These employees have written a letter to State
Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar requesting him to consider their bids, as
they can arrange a funding of up to Rs 7,000 crore for the airline over a
period of time. The employees of the airline have said they would come together
– with the help of external investors – to revive the airline. On the basis of
extensive discussions with various employee groups across the company, and also
with colleagues, who have held management positions in the past, we would like
to suggest that Jet Airways can be taken over by a consortium of employees and
external investor(s), read a missive to SBI chairman Kumar. The group of
employees, however, do not have the support of the current top management, ‘who
the employee representatives feel are still working for the airline promoter
Naresh Goyal rather than working for the company’. As per our initial estimate,
the contribution of employee group over a hypothetical five-year Employee Stock
Ownership Programme (ESOP) is likely to be upward of Rs 4,000 crore. In
addition, we are also confident of securing an investment commitment of up to
Rs 3,000 crore from outside investors, the letter reads.
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AVIATOR'S BODY URGES PM TO DIRECT SBI TO RELEASE ONE MONTH'S
SALARY OF JET EMPLOYEES
The National Aviator's
Guild (NAG), which represents pilots of the grounded carrier Jet Airways,
Saturday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the airline's lender
State Bank of India to release one month's salary of all the employees. In a
late evening e-mail to the prime minister, the guild also sought government's
directive to stop de-registration of the airline's aircraft, which are now
being leased by other domestic carriers. We urge you to direct SBI to release a
month's salary to all employees on an urgent and humane basis. We don't want to
see a repeat of the human tragedy which unfolded post the Kingfisher Airlines
demise, said Karan Chopra.
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TO CUT COSTS, SBI MAY RETHINK ROLE OF BRANCHES
State Bank of India (SBI)
is planning to optimise costs by rethinking the role of branches to see what
activities and processes currently performed there can be centralised. As part
of the exercise, the nation’s largest lender will appoint a consultant to
suggest strategies to optimize balance sheet and maximize return on asset and
pre-provisioning operating profit, a document seeking bids showed. This comes
at a time when banks are increasingly looking at deployment of technology to
cut down on physical infrastructure cost. As part of its public sector bank
reform agenda announced in January 2018, the government said that banking from
home and mobile will progressively make brick-and-mortar branch visits
redundant. The consultant should perform an upfront diagnostic to identify
opportunities that have the potential to improve bank’s return on assets (RoA)
and pre-provisioning operating profit (PPOP) by performing a detailed design
for mutually selected opportunities, the bank said. In this process, the bank
wants to benchmark overall portfolio with peer banks, identify opportunities
for improvement in share of high-yield products like personal loans and
business loans.
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COOPERATIVE BANKS DIRECTED TO NOT GRANT LOANS TO FARMERS, SAYS
PRAKASH JAVADEKAR
Prakash Javadekar Saturday
alleged that cooperative banks in Rajasthan have been directed not to grant
loans to farmers. He said the cooperative banks have not been compensated for
farm loan waiver so they have no money to grant further loans to the farmers.
Replying to allegations levelled by Ashok Gehlot that the central government
has not provided money to the state, he said no letter has so far been written
to the Centre by the Congress government seeking funds to compensate the
nationalised banks for farm loan waivers. He said many BJP-ruled states have
arranged funds on their own for loan waiver. The BJP’s Rajasthan election
in-charge alleged that all the development projects initiated by former chief
minister Vasundhara Raje in the state have been stalled by the Congress
government.
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FINMIN STARTS CONSULTATION WITH GLOBAL INVESTORS TO LAUNCH ETF
IN OVERSEAS MARKET
The Finance Ministry has started
consultation with global investors for launching CPSE-scrip based Exchange
Traded Fund (ETF) in overseas market in the current fiscal, a government
official has said. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management
(DIPAM) will start developing the index for the ETF based on investors'
feedback about demand of sector specific stocks. We are eyeing large overseas
pension funds for investments into the overseas ETF. We will soon appoint fund
managers for developing the new ETF. Global roadshows have seen good investor
interest in ETF route for investments into CPSEs, the official said.
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UPI SCORES 87% TRANSACTION SUCCESS RATE IN MARCH 2019
Transaction success rates
on the Unified Payments Interface, an instant payment mode between bank
accounts, touched around 87% in March compared with around 78% in April last
year, data show. The percentage of transactions that have been declined on the
platform has gone down to around 2% compared with more than 3.5% in the same
time period, the data show. This is a pointer to the fact that transaction
declines due to technology challenges have decreased due to improvement in
connectivity and enhancement of bank server capacity. At the same time, errors
induced by people have reduced to around 10% from more than 18% last year. In
March, the number of UPI transactions stood at around 800 million, from 178
million in the year-ago period. A success rate of more than 85% for UPI is
‘commendable’ given that cards are also at the range of 90%, top executives in
the payments industry said, adding the success rates are only set to improve
further.
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INDIAN ECONOMY GETS A TOURISM BOOST; A TENTH OF GDP AND CRORES
OF JOBS
Travel and tourism
industry contributed a tenth of India’s GDP in 2018 and accounts for 42 million
jobs in the country, report says. In India, over Rs 16 trillion were created by
this sector alone. The same is expected to double by 2029, reaching Rs 35 trillion
mark. Also, the industry has given a major boost to the global economy as well
with it contributing over 10% to the global GDP. India’s phenomenal success in
travel and tourism was pushed by several measures that the government
undertook. One of these was the launch of the E-visa facility. The introduction
of E-Visa has led to a strong surge in Foreign Tourist Arrivals since its
launch in September 2014, the joint report from FICCI-Yes bank said.
Benefitting the natives of over 166 countries, the scheme has helped a healthy
growth of almost 40% increase in tourists in 2018 compared to the previous
year. In 2018, 2.37 million foreign tourists availed the E-Visa facility, the
report said. It has also helped in improving India’s position in the World
Economic Forum Travel and Tourism competitiveness index. E-Visa initiative has
helped India climb up 14 places in the International Openness parameter to 55th
position, the report said. Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD scheme have also
contributed significantly to India’s tourism and travel growth. Also, Ude Desh
ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme connecting regional airlines has been another
government initiative to boost the sector. Incredible India 2.0, Adventure
Tourism guidelines, India Tourism mart, Swacch Prayatan mobile application are
other government endeavours in travel and tourism direction. It is not just the
foreign tourists that have backed India’s tourism industry. In fact, the
domestic tourists have also been a strength of the sector, with them surpassing
the domestic inbound tourists in other countries.
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SC ALLOWS CENTRE TO CIRCULATE LETTER SEEKING ADJOURNMENT IN
RAFALE CASE
The Centre on Monday urged
the Supreme Court to adjourn hearing in Rafale review pleas, listed for
Tuesday, saying it needs more time to file its affidavit. A bench headed by
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi allowed the Centre to circulate the letter seeking
adjournment among parties which include petitioners who have filed review
pleas. The apex court will rule on the request later.
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EVM, VVPATS’ ‘DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR’: RESPOND TO PLEA, SC TELLS
ECI
The Supreme Court on
Monday sought a response from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to a plea
to decriminalise the act of reporting deviant behaviour manifested in
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Verifiable Voter Paper Audit Trail
(VVPAT) during polling. Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the poll body to explain
the requirement for Rule 49 MA of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 read with
Section 177 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises the reporting of
malfunctioning of EVMs and VVPATs. Petitioner Sunil Ahya submitted, It may not
be fair and just to charge an elector for reporting such a deviant behaviour. Yet,
presently, in all eventuality, the onus/burden of proof is on the elector, who
will face the criminal charges irrespective of whether that reporting is
truthful and honest. In fact, the rule worked to deter people from coming forth
to complain. Such grievances formed an essential ingredient in a continuous
exercise for improving the electoral process. The rule infringed upon a citizen's
right to freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right of free expression
guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, the petition said. The
petition explained the various forms of deviant behaviour the EVMs and VVPATs
could possibly have, including an unsolicited programme by ballots cast for one
candidate may be transferred, not sequentially, but rather intermittently (at
pre-programmed intervals or otherwise) to another candidate. And, therefore,
where an elector is asked to cast test vote as prescribed under Rule 49MA, he
may not be able to reproduce the same result which he was complaining about,
one more time in a sequence, because of the intermittent pre-programmed deviant
behaviour of the electronic machines, it said.
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‘CHOWKIDAR CHOR HAI’: RAHUL’S AFFIDAVIT AGAINST CONTEMPT PLEA
EXPRESSES ‘REGRET’
A 28-page formal response
from Congress president Rahul Gandhi to a criminal contempt plea expresses
‘regret’ for unintentionally intermingling political slogan chowkidar chor hai
with Supreme Court proceedings in a moment of euphoria, but has no word
‘apology’. Mr. Gandhi’s counter-affidavit is rather a carbon copy of the
explanation filed by him earlier in the Supreme Court about the circumstances
of his comment. Like the ''explanation,'' the affidavit falls short of offering
an unconditional apology to the court. However, in the last paragraph, Mr.
Gandhi undertakes that he will not attribute any views, observations or
findings to the court in political addresses to the media and in public
speeches, unless such views, observations or findings are recorded by the
court. The affidavit wants the court to dismiss BJP lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi’s
criminal contempt petition against him with costs.
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RAFALE REVIEW PLEAS: GOVT SEEKS TIME TO FILE RESPONSE
The Union government on
Monday made a mention before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi seeking
time to file its response to the Rafale review petitions. Senior advocate R.
Balasubramanium, for the government, sought permission to circulate a letter
for additional time to file a reply. He sought a deferment of the hearing
scheduled for April 30.
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DELHI HC REJECTS PLEA TO BAR MEDIA FROM PUBLISHING ALLEGATIONS
AGAINST CJI
The Delhi High Court on
Monday dismissed a plea seeking to restrain the media from publishing
allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by
a former Supreme Court employee. A bench headed by Chief Justice Rajendra Menon
said the top court is already seized of the matter and no interference was
needed. The plea, filed by NGO Anti Corruption Council of India, had said
publication of allegations against the CJI directly hit the Indian judicial
system. The petition had sought immediate restriction on the media from further
telecasting or publishing the allegations till conclusion of the three-judge
panel's inquiry.
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GOVT YET TO RECEIVE BANK GUARANTEE FROM IL&FS FOR ZOJILA
TUNNEL PROJECT
Though the government has
put Zojila tunnel construction contract for rebid, the National Highways &
Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) is yet to get the bank
guarantee amount from IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd. Secondly, the
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is yet to take back road projects
from the crisis-laden group. On April 22, NHIDCL, NHAI, and the Ministry of
Road Transport & Highways officials held a meeting with the representatives
of IL&FS Transportation Networks. During this meeting, it was discussed
that IL&FS would move National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to
allow encashment of bank guarantees submitted as performance security for the
Zojila Tunnel project. In case, there is a failure in payment of this bank
guarantee of around Rs 122 crore, NHIDCL will recover the amount from the
payment it is supposed to make to IL&FS Transportation Networks for Z Morh
Tunnel project in Jammu & Kashmir. The IL&FS Engineering and
Construction will be moving NCLAT for disbursemnt of this Rs 60.29 crore too If
the amount could not be paid, NHAI will recover it from IL&FS Group's other
projects.
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AGRICULTURAL GROWTH DOWN FROM 4.2% DURING UPA REGIME TO 2.5%
UNDER MODI, SAYS CONGRESS
The Congress Sunday
claimed agricultural growth rate had gone down from 4.2 per cent during the UPA
regime to 2.5 per cent under the Narendra Modi government. Randeep Singh
Surjewala said the Modi government would need 20 years to double the income of
farmers, as against the Centre’s promise of achieving the feat by 2022. As per
data shared by the Modi government in the Lok Sabha, agricultural growth rate
between 2014 and 2018 has gone down to 2.5 per cent. This rate was 4.2 per cent
between 2009-14 under the UPA government, Surjewala said. Going by this pace,
it would take 20 years for the Modi government to double the income of farmers,
he added. He said the Centre had not been able to provide Minimum Support Price
(MSP) to farmers despite promising to give them support price at 50 per cent
higher than production cost. While the MSP for paddy was fixed at Rs 1750 per
quintal, it was being sold at Rs 1600 while other crops were getting still lower
prices, he said, quoting what he claimed was government data. He alleged the
NDA government deceived farmers by reducing import duty on agricultural produce
to zero just before the arrival of crops in the market. Agricultural import was
worth USD 18,779 million in 2014-15, which rose to USD 32,830 million in
2017-18, Surjewala said. He claimed Food Corporation of India, under pressure
from the Centre and the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh unit, has written to the
Congress-led state government that it would purchase only that much grains on
MSP as is required for the public distribution system (PDS) in the state. The
farmers of Madhya Pradesh produce 90 lakh metric tonnes of grains while the FCI
would purchase only 30 lakh metric tonnes at MSP as required under PDS. What
would happen to the remaining grain stock, he asked.
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TOTAL BALANCE IN JAN DHAN ACCOUNTS NEARS ₹1-LAKH CR
Five years after its
launch, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) scheme has almost achieved a
total balance of ₹1-lakh crore According to the latest data, the total balance
in these basic bank accounts stood at ₹99,752 crore with 35.50
crore beneficiaries. Public sector banks have the lion’s share in total balance
at ₹79,177 crore, followed by regional rural banks and private
sector banks maintaining ₹17,648 crore and ₹2,926 crore, respectively.
The scheme focusses on rural areas with primacy given to women. Of the
35.50-crore account holders, those from rural and semi-urban regions were 21
crore. Female beneficiaries were 18.88 crore. Total balance under the scheme,
launched on August 15, 2014, grew faster in the last there years, which was
boosted by demonetisation in November 2016. It gathered momentum last year and
gained rapid pace in the last six months, leading to scepticism on the possible
link between elections and spurt in balances. For instance, in January 2018,
the total balance was about ₹73,000 crore with 30.93 crore beneficiaries. In January, it
reached ₹88,000 crore. By March, it touched ₹96,000
crore and now stands at ₹99,752 crore. Apart from the election impact, which needs to
be investigated, the advantages of the scheme, such as insurance cover and
overdraft facility, must be drawing some to maintain a balance. The average
balance in PMJDY accounts has also been going up.
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AMAZON SAYS REVISED FDI NORMS HAD MINIMAL IMPACT WITH ‘FEW
DAYS’ OF DOWNTIME; Q1 PROFIT DOUBLES TO $3.6 BILLION
The stir caused by the
changes in guidelines for FDI in e-commerce companies two months back had
little impact on the world’s largest online retailer — Amazon. The company,
which announced its net profit doubling to $3.6 billion in Q1 FY19 from $1.6
billion in Q1 Fy18 in quarterly financial results, said that there were only a
‘few days’ of downtime caused by the revised FDI norms. We’re just heading into
an uncertain period with the PN2 (Press Note 2) ruling. We did make some changes
to our structure to stay in compliance with all regulations There were a few
days of downtime for some of our selection. But for the full quarter, the
impact was minimal. And we’re in compliance and very, very happy with the
progress of the business in India, Brian Olsavsky, said. The minimal impact was
also quite evident in the fact that in just a little over three weeks since the
government brought in revised norms on February 1, Amazon brought back all of
its products that it had delisted from its marketplace platform Amazon Seller
Services. Amazon had 180 million products listed on its marketplace portal as
on January 17, a day after it sought an extension of the February 1 deadline by
four months. However, the number of listed products had gone down from January
17 onwards to 154 million on February 1, only to bring back all of its
catalogue having 182 million products by February 22, according to the data by
US-based e-commerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse.
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LACK OF ACCIDENT DATA PREVENTS GOVT FROM FRAMING POLICY ON
SCHOOL TRANSPORT: OFFICIAL
Absence of specific data
on road accidents and deaths of school children is preventing the government
from formulating a policy on school transport, a senior official said. We
account for about 11 per cent of road fatalities across the world. About seven
per cent of the deaths that occur in the country is (of those children which
are) below 18 (years). In absence of data, we are really failing to make our
policies, Abhay Damle said. This number of seven per cent is 10,000 deaths in
absolute numbers. But, in absence of data, we don't have an exact number as to
how many of them are due to accidents because of their commute towards
education (institutions) (by) the school transportation, he said. We do not
know that how many out of this 10,000 reported deaths were by school buses. We
have no idea. But, all we know is 10,000 children below the age of 18 die in
India every year, Rohit Baluja said. Two hundred and fifty million vehicles are
registered today in the country. Less than one per cent are buses. How many are
school buses, how children are travelling, we don't know. How many are walking,
bicycling we don't know, so there is a lack of data. So, here we begin the work
to say let's develop a policy where we can develop data, he said.
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92 TRIPS TO 57 COUNTRIES SINCE 2014
As Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi bids for reelection, his party has said his skillful diplomacy on
the world stage has increased India’s global stature and brought in a flood of
investment. But what exactly have Modi’s foreign travels achieved? With 92
trips to 57 countries since coming to power in May 2014, Modi has flown abroad
nearly twice as much as his predecessor Manmohan Singh in five years. A closer
look at Modi’s trips show that while some have yielded vague agreements that
may not develop into anything substantial, doubters may still be exaggerating
the negatives. Summit meetings accounted for roughly a third of Modi’s visits.
And his arrival in each foreign capital made a symbolic statement about New
Delhi’s world outlook. Modi also made a point of repeatedly meeting leaders
such as Japan’s Shinzo Abe and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, whose countries provide
much-needed industrial investment and defense technology. Foreign direct
investment into India in Modi’s first term amounted to $193 billion, 50 percent
more than the preceding five years. At the same time, despite a high-profile
push to generate jobs through manufacturing, much of the FDI has continued to
flow into India’s services and capital-intensive industries, not
labor-intensive ones. While Modi won investment commitments from longstanding
economic and strategic rival China, it largely remains a non-starter. FDI from
China totaled $1.5 billion in the four years to March 2018, data from India’s
central bank show, against $20 billion President Xi Jinping promised in the
five years from 2014. Under Modi, India started purchasing crude and liquefied
natural gas cargoes from the US for the first time. In the last five years, he
struck deals from Russia to the Middle East securing oil assets for India. He
got the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Aramco to agree to invest in India’s
largest oil refinery, and the U.A.E. to fill up strategic oil reserves,
reducing the strain on state finances. More broadly, Modi has maintained
relations with Gulf countries crucial to India’s energy security even as he
strengthened ties with Iran. However, the opposition has criticized the prime
minister’s diplomacy for failing to win continued access to cheaper Iranian
crude in the face of increasing US pressure on Tehran. Modi has tried to tap a
number of countries for strategic projects, which has occasionally brought him
political grief. After making the first-ever visit to Israel by an Indian
premier, Modi has continued to seek advanced defense and water technology from
Tel viv. With Japan, India is building a bullet train in Modi’s native Gujarat
state -- although the slow pace of land acquisition has led to criticism. In
2016, Modi signed an $8.7 billion deal for 36 Rafale fighter planes from
France. The move has come under intense scrutiny since then for alleged rule
violations, which his government has denied. Opponents have continued to use
the deal to question the government’s anti-corruption credentials. Modi has
tried to use his trips to bolster India’s global image as an investment
destination and a rising global power. He’s addressed the World Economic Forum
in Davos and the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore. Modi used a rare
informal summit with China’s Xi in the city of Wuhan last year to patch up
geopolitical tensions between New Delhi and Beijing following a military stand
off in the Himalayas.
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HRD MINISTRY ROPES IN EXPERTS FOR 5-YEAR EDUCATION PLAN
At a time when the
political class is busy with Lok Sabha elections, the bureaucracy is busy
readying sectoral blueprints for the next government, including 100-day
governance agendas that each ministry has started presenting to the Prime
Minister’s Office. The human resources development ministry is going a step
further by preparing a five-year action plan with the help of experts such as
former revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia, Amitabh Kant, principal scientific
advisor K Vijay Raghavan, Rediff founder Ajit Balakrishnan and former Infosys
CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan, people familiar with the development said. The
project, ‘Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme’ (Equip), that
seeks to bring transformational change in the system over the next five years,
has already got rolling, the sources said. Ten expert groups, led by the likes
of Kant, Adhia and Gopalakrishnan, have presented draft plans on various issues
specific to higher education after a three-day brainstorming boot camp at Lal
Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Mussorie from April
22-24, they told. A working group will now compile the reports of the ten
groups to create an ambitious five-year education plan by June 2019.
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TIKTOK APP BACK ON GOOGLE AND APPLE APP STORES
Following the Madras High
Court's order, the ban on the download of the popular social media app, TikTok
has been lifted and the app is now available on the Google Play store and the
Apple App store. Earlier in April, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court
had directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to disallow
Apple and Google from hosting the app on their application stores, ruling on a
public interest litigation that stated that the app encouraged pornography and
made children vulnerable to sexual predators.
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PAWAN HANS LATEST TO HIT BY FINANCIAL CRISIS AFTER KINGFISHER,
JET AIRWAYS; SAYS UNABLE TO PAY APRIL SALARIES
Turbulence continues in
the Indian aviation sector as Pawan Hans undergoes financial crisis after
beleaguered carriers Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways. India’s national
helicopter carrier Pawan Hans said in a circular sent to employees on Thursday
that the company cannot give their salaries for April as it is facing
uncomfortable financial position. Pawan Hansa said that the industry’s future
is uncertain as many of its established businesses and associated challenges
are threatening future deployments. The company’s revenue plummeted in the
financial year 2018-19 while reporting Rs 89 crore in net loss for the same
period, the circular said. The carrier also said that search trends have been
financially downturn due to ‘serious mismatch’ that has occurred between its
revenue income (based on the existing business volume) and its expenses,
particularly related to the staff cost. The financial instability has further
deteriorated following the outstanding amount lying with customers shot up to
an overwhelming level of more than Rs 230 crores. Hence, the entire company
requires overhaul with right measures in different segments of management,
areas of management, the company said. The employee union, on the other hand,
had condemned the decision by Pawan Hans calling it inhuman.
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LIQUIDITY DEFICIT MAY LAST TILL END OF ELECTIONS: SBI
Liquidity conditions could
remain tight till the end of May even though the Reserve Bank of India has conducted
two forex swap auctions in a month, a new report has said. This is a likely
scenario due to higher collection of the Goods and Services Tax, along with a
build-up of the government’s cash balances, according to the State Bank of
India’s latest Ecowrap report. It has pegged a liquidity deficit of ₹75,000
crore to ₹1-lakh crore at least till the end of the general elections. Even
though the RBI has done swap transactions, government spending is currently
significantly muted, the report said, adding that from the last Friday of March
till today, cash balances have increased by ₹61,000 crore, against a
draw down of ₹1.5-lakh crore in the same period last year, indicating
worsening systemic liquidity. It expects the RBI to conduct further Open Market
Operations (OMO) of ₹40,000 crore till August 2019. The RBI has already announced
two OMOs of a total of ₹25,000 crore in May. The research report also said that for
every $1 billion swap, the system hypothetically benefits by ₹256
crore per year. It has estimated that the net benefit to the system for the
three-year period is about ₹7,700 crore, or at about ₹2,600 crore every year. In
total, ₹69,435 crore of durable liquidly was injected in the first leg
through both the swap auctions. The novel swap transaction has some potential
cost benefit for the system, with the costs far outstripping the benefit, said
the report. Till date, the RBI has conducted two $5 billion of forex buy and
sell swaps for a tenor of three years to inject durable rupee liquidity in the
system.
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MODI GOVERNMENT’S SAUBHAGYA SCHEME LIVES UP TO ITS BILLING
Lauded by the
International Energy Agency (IEA) as one of the greatest successes in the
history of electrification, the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana
(Saubhagya scheme) has raised the bar on implementation of government
programmes almost managing to meet its target of providing power to all
unconnected households by March 31, 2019. Since its launch in September, 2017,
2.62 crore households have been provided with power connections, with only
18,734 households in extremism-affected Chhattisgarh remaining to be covered
under the scheme. With a total outlay of Rs 16,320 crore including budgetary
support of Rs 12,320 crore, the Saubhagya scheme mandated all willing
households in rural areas and poor households in urban areas being given free
electricity connections. Unelectrified households which fell outside the
stipulated segments were given connections on payment of Rs 500. In remote and
inaccessible places where grid extension was not feasible or cost-effective,
solar-based standalone systems have been provided. The power ministry had
reported the electrification of all of India’s 5,97,464 inhabited villages in
April, 2018 — there were 18,452 unelectrified villages in India when the
Narendra Modi government took over in May, 2014. Care Ratings has highlighted
that major Saubhagya states have aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C)
losses —an indicator of power pilferage — of over 25%. Uttar Pradesh (31.24%),
Bihar (36.3%), Jharkhand (34.6%) and Chhattisgarh (29.9%), laggards on AT&C
losses, account for about 52% of the total households connected under Saubhagya
— AT&C loss of one percentage point translates into under-recovery of about
Rs 4,000 crore on a pan-India basis. Bringing down AT&C losses would thus
be key to stabilising the power sector in India and would require an
improvement in revenue collection, especially from consumers added under
Saubhagya, the agency has said.
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TMC’S 40 MLAS ARE IN TOUCH WITH ME, CLAIMS MODI
Narendra Modi claimed on
Monday that 40 Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs were in touch with him and they
would desert their party once the BJP won the general election. Mr. Modi
accused TMC chief Mamata Banerjee of nepotism. She wanted to politically
establish her nephew in West Bengal, he alleged. Mr. Modi assailed her for her
'prime ministerial ambitions', saying Didi, Dilli door hai [Delhi is far away
for you.' Forty TMC MLAs are in touch with me and all your MLAs will desert you
once the BJP wins the elections. Political ground has slipped from under your
feet, he said at an election rally in Sreerampur. Ms. Banerjee, who often lost
her cool as she was sensing defeat, cannot even dream of becoming the prime
minister. With just a handful of seats, ‘Didi’ you can’t reach Delhi. Delhi is
far away. Going to Delhi is just an excuse. Her real intention is to
politically establish her nephew, he said.
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IP RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: US PLACES INDIA ON ‘PRIORITY WATCH LIST’
The US on Thursday placed
India on its ‘Priority Watch List’, alleging lack of sufficient measurable
improvements to its Intellectual Property (IP) framework on long-standing and
new challenges, which, it said, has negatively affected American right holders
over the past year. The office of the US Trade Representative identified 11
countries including India, in its ‘Priority Watch List’. China, Indonesia,
Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are among the others. The USTR has also
placed 25 countries, including Pakistan, Turkey and the UAE, on the watchlist.
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INDIAN CYBER INSURANCE MARKET GROWS 40%
Cyber insurance market is
gradually gaining traction in India as corporates have increasingly identified
cyber-theft to be amongst the most prominent threat to their operations, a
report from Data Security Council of India (DSCI) said. Data from the DSCI
report showed that 350 cyber insurance policies were bought by Indian
corporates in 2018 as against 250 in 2017 marking a 40 per cent increase in the
sale of these products. In this period, the average cost of data breach in
India rose by 7.9 per cent to Rs.12 crore. As threat surface continues to
expand due to rising digitisation in the country, ‘Cyber Risk’ becomes pivotal
in the overall risk management strategy. And it is not only the large
businesses; one of the recent bank attacks of 2018 highlighted the
vulnerabilities of co-operative banks in India, bringing into picture that even
small and medium businesses could be victims of attacks, the report said.
Rising digitalisation of businesses due to adoption of new technologies by
companies, increasing awareness on cyber security, new modus operandi for these
thefts and apprehensions around implications of GDPR and India’s Personal Data
Protection Bill were the main reasons why companies have been buying
cyber-insurance policies.
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LOGISTICS, AGRICULTURE SECTORS REGISTERED 10% GROWTH: CII
The need to adopt digital
trends and technologies by industries in the region. KV Mahidhar, said agriculture
and industrial logistics registered 10 per cent growth, which generated 20
million jobs in the country. He added that logistics is also one of the top
five employment generating sectors in India. Sudhir Gurtoo, said Industry 4.0
is the fourth industrial revolution in logistics where the snowball effect
plays a vital role, which means when one company implements the change the rest
pace up faster.
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EXPEDITE AUCTION OF MINES WITH EXPLORED MINERAL RESERVES:
FICCI
Industry body Ficci has
called for expediting auctions of mineral blocks with known or explored
reserves, highlighting that the average of such sales has nosedived to around
15 mines per year after the amendment in the Mines and Minerals Development and
Regulation Act. The chamber in a presentation to Niti Aayog stated that around
300-400 minerals concessions per year used to be allotted prior to 2015 which
has reduced on an average to around 15 per year post-amendment in the Act (MMDR
Act in 2015). It recommended that auctions should be expedited for areas with
known/explored mineral reserves. According to sources, officials from Rio
Tinto, Tata Steel, Vedanta and apex mineral body Federation of Indian Mineral
Industries (FIMI) among others who were part of the presentation. However, for
areas with no or minimal known/explored mineral reserves, it said the first-cum
first-served system must be adopted with the provision of first right of
refusal for granting mining lease, Ficci said. Thus, the record of converting
successful auction to production is poor and very few blocks have come up to
the stage of production, it added. As per that the latest government data
around 54 blocks -- 24 limestones, 19 iron ore, 4 gold, 3 graphite, 2
manganese, one bauxite and one diamond -- mineral blocks have been successfully
allocated through auction.
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ELECTION RELATED UNCERTAINTY TO WEIGH ON ECONOMIC ACTIVITY:
REPORT
According to Dun and
Bradstreet's (D&B) latest Economy Forecast, subdued consumption demand and
election related uncertainty is expected to weigh on India's industrial
production. D&B expects Index of Industrial Production (IIP) to be
moderated by 1.0-1.5 per cent during March 2019. There are concerns that the
dip in the growth momentum in Q3 FY19 is likely to continue given the headwinds
in the global economy and the various domestic issues, said Arun Singh. Singh
further said that lower inflation is one of the indications for subdued demand.
Currently, the election related uncertainty is expected to weigh on the
economic activity. Uplifting the domestic demand and resolving the issues in
the strategic sectors like aviation, power and banking and non-banking
financial companies becomes imperative as risks from slowing global economic
activity and trade can be difficult to circumvent, Singh said. D&B expects
the CPI inflation to be in the range of 2.7-2.9 per cent and WPI inflation to
be in the range of 2.8-3.0 per cent during April 2019, respectively.
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CYCLONE WATCH FOR ODISHA AFTER REVIEW OF 'FANI'S TRACK
Cyclone 'Fani' has resumed
its journey after losing momentum briefly, but it also forced weathermen to go
back to the drawing board and plot a fresh track that should takes it towards
Odisha coast later this week. India Met Department (IMD) has not indicated a
landfall area just yet, and said that the storm would start re-curving to
North-North-East from Wednesday and would be headed towards the Odisha coast.
In the meanwhile, the cyclone would undergo three rounds of intensification
into a severe cyclone later today (Monday, delayed by a day) and a very severe
cyclone by Tuesday. The Met has retained the outlook for its further
intensification an extremely severe cyclone from Thursday morning and retaining
the status until midnight on Friday. 'Fani' is expected to reach peak strength
from Thursday morning to midnight buffeted by winds reaching up to 180 km/hr
and gusting to 195 km/per. It would let out steam into Friday with wind speeds
winding down to 170 km and gusting to 185 km/hr until the same night, still
keeping the status of an extremely severe cyclone. Meanwhile, the Met located
it over the South-East Bay, about 620 km East-North-East of Trincomalee (Sri
Lanka), 840 km East-South-East of Chennai and 990 km South-South-East of
Machilipatnam by Monday noon.
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PECUNIARY JURISDICTION CAN'T BE RAISED AT APPEAL LEVEL IF NOT
RAISED EARLIER: CONSUMER BODY
The state consumer
disputes redressal commission (SCDRC), in an order rejecting the appeal of a
developer and builder, said that a case cannot be challenged on the basis of
pecuniary jurisdiction once it has already been decided on at a forum where it
was not raised. Consumer cases, as per rules, are decided on the notional value
of complaints. Complaints, in which value is less than Rs 20 lakh, are dealt
with district forums while complaints between Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore is dealt
by the state commission and those over Rs 1 crore are handled by the national
commission. Girishkar Building, had filed a case with the district forum; it
won the case and was granted compensation. However, the developer and builder
went into an appeal and challenged the order at the state commission. The
society had filed a grievance that it was not provided with building completion
certificate and occupancy certificate. As a result, the municipal corporation
did not supply water to society. They also failed to constitute or form a
housing society despite correspondence with the builders. Under these
circumstances, the society alleged deficiency in service, as well as unfair
trade practices on part of the builder or developers. However, the developer
and builder challenged the orders. They submitted that the consumer complaint
was not within the pecuniary jurisdiction of the learned district forum and
therefore, the same ought to have been dismissed. To challenge the complaint,
Ambrish Kumar Shukla & Ors. vs Ferrous Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd order was
cited which talks about the notional value of the units to decide the
jurisdiction at the respective forum.
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ABOUT 200 US COMPANIES SEEKING TO MOVE MANUFACTURING BASE FROM
CHINA TO INDIA: USISPF
About 200 American
companies are seeking to move their manufacturing base from China to India post
the general elections, a top US-based advocacy group has said, observing that
there is a fantastic opportunity with firms looking at alternatives to the
Communist giant. The US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum's (USISPF)
President Mukesh Aghi said that the companies are talking to them about how to
set up an alternative to China by investing in India. Aghi said that USISPF's
recommendation to the new government would be to accelerate the reforms and
bring transparency in the decision-making process. I think that's critical. We
would advise to bring more transparency in the process and to make it more
consultative because in the last 12 to 18 months, we are seeing US companies
look at some of the decisions being made, either e-commerce or data
localisation, as more domestic-oriented than global, he told. In his reply to
what the agenda of the new Indian government should be to attract investment,
Aghi suggested that New Delhi needs to accelerate reforms, be more transparent
in the process and engage more. He said that Mark Linscott, the former
Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asian Affairs, is
working with USISPF member companies to come up with a recommendation as to
what India needs to do to enhance its exports and work up from that
perspective. I think if India is concerned about cheap goods coming from China,
an FTA will eliminate that need. You can put barriers to Chinese goods and
still have the U.S. providing access to the Indian market and Indian companies
having more access to the US market, and issues like GSP would diminish, he
said.
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I WILL QUIT POLITICS, IF RAHUL GANDHI LOSES AMETHI: NAVJOT
SINGH SIDHU
Navjot Singh Sidhu has
said that he would quit politics if Rahul Gandhi loses elections from Amethi.
He rejected the claim that BJP candidate Smriti Irani is giving a tough fight
to Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Congress president Rahul Gandhi is also contesting
from Wayanad in Kerala on a second seat.
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EC ISSUES SHOWCAUSE NOTICE TO GIRIRAJ SINGH FOR REMARK AGAINST
MUSLIMS
The Election Commission on
Monday issued showcause notice to BJP leader Giriraj Singh for his remarks
against Muslims in Begusarai. He has been given 24 hours to respond to the
Model Code notice. Singh had said in Hindi, Those who cannot say Vande Mataram
or cannot respect the motherland, the nation will never forgive them. My
ancestors died at the Simaria Ghat and did not need a grave but you need three
handspans of space.
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ARTICLE 370 TO BE WITHDRAWN FROM JAMMU & KASHMIR IF VOTED
TO POWER: AMIT SHAH
Amit on Saturday said that
Article 370 will be withdrawn from Jammu and Kashmir, if the saffron party is
voted to power again. We will remove Article 370 if you make Narendra Modi the
prime minister again, Shah said. Shah said during the Congress-led UPA
government, terror groups from Pakistan used to target India continuously. Jawans
were beheaded by terrorists also, he said. We cannot compromise with the
security of the nation. Pakistan wants to separate Kashmir from India. We will
not allow it.
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MORE TROUBLE FOR KUMARASWAMY AS CONGRESS LEADER WRITES LETTER
TO SOLVE 'POLITICAL' CRISIS
S.T. Somashekar, a
Congress legislator, on Sunday shot off a letter to his party colleagues,
urging them to work towards resolving the worsening political situation in
Karnataka. Somashekar, the Congress legislator from Yeshwantpur in Bengaluru
invited like minded MLAs to get together and try and find a solution for the
present political situation which he described as worsening day by day. He has
called a meeting of legislators on Wednesday in Bengaluru. The letter is likely
to spell trouble for Karnataka Chief Minister H.D.Kumaraswamy who has already
spent significant time dealing with dissent within the Congress party. Somashekar
has courted trouble before with his statements. Somashekhar had in January
blamed Kumaraswamy for the poor development works in Bengaluru city.
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ECI WARNS MANEKA FOR ‘DEVELOPMENT WORKS’ REMARKS
The Election Commission of
India (ECI) on Monday strongly condemned and warned Union Minister Maneka
Gandhi for her remarks categorising development works based on the percentage
of votes the BJP would get. The Commission directed Ms. Gandhi not to repeat
the comments in future. She had given the impugned statement on April 14 in
Sultanpur, from where she is contesting on the BJP ticket. In her speech, Ms.
Gandhi said the village with 80% votes in her party’s support would fall under
A category, the one with 60% in B, the village with 50% voters in its favour as
C and the village with less than 50% would come under the D category. The
development work would be done accordingly. The Commission had barred Ms.
Gandhi for 48 hours from campaigning activities after taking cognisance of her
comments warning Muslims that she might not help them if they don’t vote for
her.
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BJP URGES ELECTION COMMISSION TO DEPLOY CENTRAL FORCES IN ALL
POLLING BOOTHS OF WEST BENGAL
The Bharatiya Janata Party
approached the Election Commission on Monday complaining that TMC workers have hijacked
democracy in West Bengal and creating ruckus during voting, and again demanded
deployment of central forces in all polling booths in the state. Following
reports of a clash between the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP workers
outside a booth in Asansol’s Barabani, and vandalism of the vehicle of Union
Minister and sitting MP Babul Supriyo, a BJP delegation met top officials of
the poll panel. Naqvi told, The ruling Trinamool Congress workers have hijacked
democracy in the state and are indulging in violence. They are being supported
by the local machinery and we demand deployment of central forces in all
polling booths in the state. Mr. Naqvi also expressed concern over no action
been taken against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his baseless allegations
against BJP chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and said a
memorandum in this regard has been submitted to the Election Commission. This
should be of concern for the poll panel as Mr. Gandhi, unabashedly and
shamelessly spreads lies and tears the model code of conduct, that the
commission has put together as a set of basic rules of the game, Mr. Naqvi
said.
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MISSION 'MAHAMILAVAT' WANTS 'KHICHDI' GOVT AT CENTRE: PM'S DIG
AT OPPN
Narendra Modi on Monday
said the 'mission mahamilavat' of the opposition is keen to form a khichdi
government at the Centre, the strings of which will remain in the hands of the
Congress. Modi alleged that the grand alliance of opposition parties does not
at any cost want a government with absolute majority. The 'Mission Mahamilavat'
(of opposition parties) wants a khichdi government at the Centre, and its
strings would remain in the hands of the Congress, as the party knows it cannot
form a government on its own under any circumstance, he said. The prime
minister also accused the Congress of rallying behind parties to destabilise
governments. The prime minister claimed that peace has returned in the state in
the last five years, as villagers in Jharkhand have to no longer relocate out
of fear of the Naxals. But, the Congress wants to scrap the sedition law, which
will encourage Naxalites and terrorists, he alleged.
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EVMS ARE MALFUNCTIONING IN KANNAUJ, SAYS SP
Samajwadi Party on Monday
urged the Election Commission to remove Uttar Pardesh’s police chief OP Singh
from his post, alleging that he was favouring the ruling BJP and affecting
elections. They alleged that there was a discrepancy between the votes cast on
the EVM and what was shown as on the Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine
(VVAPT). They said that in at least two polling booths, the VVAPT showed a vote
was cast for the BJP even though the ballot was cast for the SP. Dharmendra
Yadav said that the Director General of Police was misusing government
machinery to help the BJP. We demanded from the EC to remove him immediately,
Yadav told. He was part of a SP delegation that met Chief Electoral Officer L
Venkatenshwarlu and submitted a memorandum demanding immediate removal of the
DGP. It highlighted the issue of faulty EVMs. The memorandum highlighted
specific details about booths in Kannauj where EVMs are allegedly malfunctioning.
In booth number 482 and 483, the party claimed, that VVPAT showed lotus (the
BJP’s poll symbol) slip, after pressing cycle (the SP’s poll symbol) button..
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JITIN PRASADA ALLEGES FAKE VOTING IN SISTER'S NAME
Jitin Prasada complained
to the Election Commission (EC) about alleged fake voting in his sister’s name
in Shahjahanpur district. Prasada family had arrived to exercise their
franchisee at Sudama Prasad polling centre in his native Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha
constituency this morning. However, they discovered that someone had already
cast the vote through postal ballot in the name of his sister Janhavi Prasada. Later,
the Congress leader submitted a written complaint to the EC, seeking a thorough
investigation into the matter.
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SC AGREES TO HEAR PLEA OF CONGRESS MP ALLEGING VIOLATION OF
MODEL CODE BY MODI & AMIT SHAH
The Supreme Court will on
Tuesday hear a petition filed by a Congress MP demanding urgent EC action on
the alleged violations of the model code of conduct by Narendra Modi and Amit
Shah.bThe petition was mentioned before a bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi on
Monday for urgent listing by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Singhvi
said that multiple petitions had been filed regarding these violations and have
been pending ever since with the poll panel. He urged the court to direct the
EC to take a call either way on the representations to the EC on these
violations. The CJI first demanded to know the names of the dramatis personae
against whom the petition has been filed. PM Modi and Amit Shah? Why are you
not naming them? The CJI then said he would hear the case last asking Singhvi
to wait while he cleared the rest of the board of cases before him. The petition
among other things refers to the PM's statements regarding the armed forces
during campaigning and alleged hate speeches. The Congress, the petition said,
has filed 40 such complaints with the EC. But the EC hasn't taken any decision
on any of its complaints. One of the complaints relate to the PM's holding a
rally on election day.
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SHATRUGHAN SINHA SAYS MOHAMMED ALI JINNAH PART OF CONGRESS
Actor-turned-politician
Shatrughan Sinha said that Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah was part of the
Congress family and praised him for his role in independence and development.
Sinha said the Congress belonged to Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jinnah,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi. These leaders had played the
most important role in the development and freedom of the country.
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MAYAWATI MAY FEEL HEAT AS CBI FILES FIR IN SUGAR MILLS CASE
One year after the Yogi
Adityanath government recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in
disinvestment of 21 state-owned sugar mills during 2010-11, CBI has filed an
FIR and six preliminary enquiries after initial investigations. Though not
named in the FIR, the move could spell trouble for former UP CM Mayawati as it
all happened when she was in power from 2007 to 2012. According to the FIR, the
sale had resulted in the loss of Rs 1179 crore to the state exchequer as the
mills were sold below market price. CBI has not yet named any politician or
official of UP government as accused in the FIR, but sources said the agency is
looking into their role. As of now, CBI has booked seven private individuals,
who had allegedly submitted forged documents during the procurement of mills of
Uttar Pradesh State Sugar Corporation Ltd. Those named in the FIR as accused
are Rakesh Sharma and Suman Sharma from Delhi, Dharmendra Gupta from Ghaziabad
and Saurabh Mukund, Mohammed Javed, Naseem Ahmed and Mohammed Wazir from
Saharanpur in UP. CBI sources said the agency will soon issue notices, asking
them to join probes.
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PM MODI UPPER CASTE BY BIRTH, BACKWARD ON PAPERS: TEJASHWI
YADAV
Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday
rebuffed Narendra Modi's assertion of belonging to an ati-pichhda (most
backward) caste, insisting that he saw this coming from the PM a week ago. The
prime minister aggressively pitched his backward caste identity, declaring that
he was not just an OBC, but was born into the most-backward caste. Yadav, in a
tweet, said Sunday, I had said on April 20 (2019) said that @narendramodi ji,
after portraying himself as fake OBC, will call himself a person belonging to
extremely backward caste. He did so yesterday (in Kannauj rally in UP). The
fact is that he is an upper caste (person) by birth and backward on papers. He
(PM) will say so many things just to fetch votes.
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NYAY IS DIESEL FOR INDIAN ECONOMY'S ENGINE: RAHUL GANDHI
Rahul Gandhi on Monday
described the party's proposed minimum income guarantee scheme as diesel for
the engine of the Indian economy. Gandhi promised to give government jobs to 22
lakh youths in one year, make 10 lakh recruitment in panchayats and said no
farmer will be jailed for not repaying loan, if the Congress is voted to power.
Gandhi said the Congress will deposit Rs 3.60 lakh in bank accounts of five
crore women in five years unlike Narendra Modi who, he alleged, opened bank
accounts of people, but did not deposit a single penny in them. I am not here
to lie. Our NYAY scheme will jumpstart the economy. It will be a diesel for the
Indian economy. We will deposit Rs 3.60 lakh in five years in bank accounts of
five crore women, he said. He claimed that unemployment is highest in 45 years
and 22 lakh government jobs are lying vacant. We will fill the vacancy in one
year after coming to power, Gandhi said.
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‘AVENGERS’ BUG BITES AKHILESH TOO, SP CHIEF SAY BJP’S
‘ENDGAME’ IS NEAR
At a time when movie buffs
are in a frenzy over the new Avengers movie, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh
Yadav Friday came up with a political version, saying the BJP’s endgame has
begun. Over the last five years, the BJP has destroyed every pillar of
democracy. But the Endgame has begun. MahaGathbandhan Sarkar. Coming soon,
Yadav tweeted attaching an image of the words Mahagathbandhan Sarkar against a
blue background in the style of Marvel Studios. The SP chief’s tweet came at a
time when movie buffs across the world are making a beeline for tickets to the
latest Avengers movie. It assumes significance against the backdrop of three
political parties — the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the
Rashtriya Lok Dal — coming together in Uttar Pradesh against the BJP in the Lok
Sabha elections.
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EVERY DICTATOR FIRST TALKS OF NATIONALISM TO CAPTIVATE PEOPLE:
ASHOK GEHLOT ON NARENDRA MODI
Ashok Gehlot claimed on
Monday that Narendra Modi was on course to becoming a dictator who talks of
nationalism to captivate the people. Gehlot alleged that Modi had been dividing
the nation and the society in the name of nationalism, which posed a threat to
democracy. History says that every dictator first talks of nationalism and
captivate the people. Modi has been doing the same thing, but the people,
especially the young generation, need to understand this, the Congress leader
told reporters here after casting his vote with his family in the morning. Modi
is on course to becoming a dictator, which is a huge threat to the democracy of
the country, Gehlot said. He (Modi) has a perverted version of patriotism and
has got down to exploit this term to win the election only by emotionally
misleading the people, especially the youth, the chief minister said.
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AVIATION INDUSTRY MAY SEE SHORT-TERM SALARY CORRECTION:
HEADHUNTERS
With the grounding of Jet
Airways leaving tens of hundreds of trained staff up for grabs, there can be a
short-term salary correction in the industry, as there are not enough jobs in
the market due to the supply glut, say headhunters. Teetering for months, the
full service airline Jet Airways was finally grounded on April 17, leaving over
22,000 employees in the lurch. The once premium airline used to employ around
1,300 pilots and over 2,000 cabin crew. They are now out in the job market,
leading to a supply glut as other airlines are not in a position to absorb not
even a quarter of the them due to their poor finances. Given the current
situation, there are plenty of professionals willing to take a salary cut of up
to 50 percent to grab a job. However, this will only be for the short-term as
we see demand improving as the aviation sector is poised to grow further, Mohit
Bharti told. He also said the current employment outlook in the sector is more
optimistic than what is being reported. There are definitely not enough jobs in
the market now to absorb the influx of Jet employees in one go. But, it is very
encouraging to see other airlines increase their hiring as they recognise the
availability of good talent and the potential to secure them for their
businesses in the future, he added. Further, he said, jobs which are very
specific to the sector and do not see movement to other sectors will be most
vulnerable in the short-run.
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AIR INDIA REPORTED WORST PUNCTUALITY, MOST FLIGHT DELAYS IN
MARCH
The grounding of Jet
Airways has kept the limelight on troubles being faced by India's airlines
these last few weeks, but perhaps not enough discussion has happened on Air
India and its continued poor operational parameters. This weekend a passenger
service system (PSS) outage led to delays of AI flights on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, reservations, check-ins and baggage handling were affected by the
glitch from 0430 hrs till 0845 hrs. Quick response from the management helped
limit the pain for flyers with only 149 flights delayed; another 137 were
delayed beyond two hours by Sunday morning and the situation was expected to
normalise by Monday. But delays and flight cancellations are nothing new for AI
passengers. The airline reported the highest number of flight cancellations,
worst on-time performance and the lowest load factor (percentage of occupied
seats) in March, as per Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. This
despite a tottering Jet Airways leading to a severe capacity crunch in the
domestic market. While other airlines booked incremental passengers and talked
of leasing more aircraft, AI continued to report low occupancy and delays. Data
released by DGCA showed 9% AI flights, or almost every 11th domestic flight,
was cancelled last month. JetLite cancelled fewer (7.4%) flights while the
market leader IndiGo cancelled only 0.17% of its flights. Last month, as Jet –
India's second largest airline by passengers till recently – floundered and
operated a skeletal schedule – other airlines booked incremental passengers.
But AI's load factor (number of occupied seats as percentage of total seats)
was the lowest among all scheduled airlines at 80.8%; two in 10 domestic seats
were empty despite the industry-wide capacity crunch and in a month when every
other scheduled airline filled up at least 86% seats.
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IMMIGRATION SYSTEM SERVER FACES TECHNICAL GLITCHES AT DELHI
AIRPORT; SIX INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS DELAYED
Hundreds of passengers had
a harrowing time at the Delhi airport early on Monday as the immigration system
server faced technical issues for around one and a half hours, affecting six
international flights and resulting in long queues at the counters. An airport
official said technical glitches with the server lasted between 12.15 am and
1.45 am. At around 1 am, an Air India official told PTI that the immigration
system server was down at the airport and that crew for three Air India flights
was also affected. The system was restored at around 1.45 am, he said.
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AIR INDIA’S OPERATIONS HIT GLOBALLY DUE TO TECHNICAL GLITCH:
OFFICIAL
Hundreds of Air India
passengers were left stranded at several airports across the world due to a
glitch in its check-in software, the airline said Saturday. The airline’s
server is down, an official said. SITA server is down. Due to which flight
operation is affected. Our technical teams are on work and soon system may be
recovered, the airline’s spokesperson said. Air India’s software solution is
managed by SITA, a global airlines IT services major, which provides its
check-in, boarding and baggage tracking technology. According to an Air India
official, the server was down since around 3 a.m. Saturday morning due to which
the airline is unable to issue boarding passes to passengers at airports across
the world. Many passengers complained on social media about being stranded at
airports.
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AIR INDIA SCRIPTS NEW ERA IN FUEL CONSERVATION, NO 'ADDITIONAL
FUEL' FLIGHT LANDS AT HYD AIRPORT
Ushering in a new era in
fuel conservation and emission reduction, an Air India flight landed at the
Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here from New Delhi Monday without provision
for additional fuel which was hitherto necessary to carry in case of flight
diversion. This is the first flight in the country that has flown without
carrying any additional fuel. We will be implementing the same procedure for
all our 15 flights that are coming to Hyderabad daily, over a period of time,
an Air India official told.
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THE POOR GET LPG CYLINDERS UNDER MODI'S PMYU BUT THEY CAN'T
AFFORD REFILLS
73% of beneficiaries in
rural Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh--where two-fifth of
India’s rural population lives-- still use solid fuels for cooking due to
financial reasons and gender inequality, said a February 2019 study by Research
Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE), a non-profit research
organisation. Further, researchers found 85% of Ujjwala beneficiaries still use
solid fuels for cooking. While 76% of households owned a LPG connection by
2018, an increase of one-third from 2014; 98% of household owned both chulha
and a gas stove and 36% exclusively cooked on a chulha on the day before the survey.
The government has claimed that till January 2019, 80 million households
received free cylinders and 60 million received connection. But these numbers
do not reflect the reality of LPG use in the kitchens of beneficiaries, we
found by listening to the stories of the women members of a local self-help
group gathered in Goti Bai’s courtyard. The 2019 RICE study asked respondents
to name the fuel they used in their kitchens the day before they took the
survey: Richest households had higher chances of exclusively using LPG to cook
than those with fewer assets, it was found. The richest households also used
solid fuels to cook at least one food item a day, as per the study. Household air
pollution led to 482,000 deaths and 21.3 million disability adjusted life years
(DALYs)--years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death--in 2017,
according to a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health, a global
journal, as IndiaSpend reported in December 2018. The same study showed that
even in 2017 more than half (55.5%) of India still used solid fuels--dung,
coal, wood and agricultural residue--for cooking. The numbers were much
higher--over 72.1% or about 486 million people--in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha,
Chhattisgarh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. These states together
suffered half the deaths caused by household pollution. Of all premature deaths
caused by household air pollution, 44% were due to pneumonia, 54% due to
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 2% due to lung cancer. Women
and younger children who spend the most time at home are the most vulnerable.
Another study on 550 PMUY households found most of the households lacked
knowledge about health hazards of cooking with solid fuels. In their survey in
Bikaner, Rajasthan, researchers from Delhi-based Institute for Economic Growth
found 13% respondents considered serious health impact of solid fuels exist,
27% perceived no ill effects while 60% thought health effects were temporary
like eye irritation, coughing etc. when cooking with solid fuels. We have
provided gas connections to over 3,000 beneficiaries since April 2016, said
Rakesh Badala. He said in Pratapgarh, the gas agencies are recovering the
initial Rs 1,600 they waived off from the subsidies. After the initial 6-7
refills, the subsidy amount reaches the beneficiaries, he told IndiaSpend.
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ARMY INVOKES EMERGENCY POWERS FOR MISSILE DEAL
The Army is in the process
of procuring Spike-LR Anti-Tank Missiles from Israel and Igla-S Very Short
Range Air Defence Systems (VSHORAD) from Russia through a set of new financial
powers for emergency procurements sanctioned by the Defence Ministry earlier
this month, Defence sources said. Under the latest emergency financial powers,
armed forces have been given a free hand to procure equipment worth up to ₹300
crore on a priority basis. The Request For Proposal (RFP) for the two deals
have been issued and negotiations are ongoing, the source said. Entirely new
systems not in use can also be procured under the new powers, the source
stated. Tenders for both deals had gone through regular procurement process
earlier. While the Spike tender was cancelled during the cost negotiation
phase, the deal for Igla, after repeated delays, is in the cost negotiation
phase. However, given the questions that were raised in the earlier deals,
clarity is needed on the modalities for purchase through the emergency route.
Under the emergency route, the Army is looking to procure about 12 launchers
and around 250 missiles for each system. Deliveries have to be completed in
three months, but extendable to six months. The Spike-LR (Long Range) being
procured is a different variant from the one tested and shortlisted as part of
the earlier procurement for over 8,000 missiles and 300 launchers along with
technology transfer. As contract negotiations dragged on, the deal was
cancelled in January last year and it was decided to procure a smaller number —
170 launchers, 4,500 missiles and 15 simulators — through an Inter-Governmental
Agreement (IGA) and make up the balance requirement with an indigenous Man
Portable ATGM currently under development. While the benchmark price determined
was just over $2 bn, Rosoboronexport’s bid was much lower at around $1.47 bn,
while SAAB’s bid was at about $2.6 bn and MBDA around $3.68 bn. This led to a
division within the Ministry on how to proceed given such low bid from the
Russians compared to the benchmark price, but eventually Igla-S was declared
the winner. The deal is currently at the Contract Negotiation phase, the source
said.
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SPOTIFY TOPS ESTIMATES WITH 100 MILLION PAID SUBSCRIBERS
WORLDWIDE
Spotify has reached 100
million paid subscribers a first for any online music service, adding more
customers in the latest quarter than analysts expected and boosting confidence
the company has lots of room to grow. Spotify Technology SA took on 4 million
customers in the quarter, compared with the 3.3 million forecast by analysts.
But its first-quarter loss was 79 cents a share, wider than the 41-cent loss
analysts expected. After a brief rise, the stock fell as much as 2 percent to
$135.50 in New York trading. Competition from Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and
YouTube has done little to slow Spotify’s growth around the world, and the
company has relied on its independence from some of the world’s largest
companies to its advantage. It has boosted its customer base through
promotional deals with Hulu, Samsung and even Alphabet Inc.’s Google (YouTube’s
parent company). The music industry market is way bigger than most people
realized, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek said on a call with analysts. The
company forecast it would add a further 7 million to 10 million subscribers in
the current quarter. While Spotify has amassed its current user base thanks to
music, the company has acquired three podcasting companies in the past few
months to drive subscriber growth through other mediums.
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E-COMMERCE PLATFORM FYND COUNTERS GENDER GAP, PAYS WOMEN 10%
MORE
In a first, Google-funded
online-to-offline fashion e-commerce platform Fynd has not just levelled the
salaries for men and women employees, it is paying women 10% more than their
male counterparts. The idea was born when the 130-employee startup saw that
while it had an overall 40% representation of women, it was only 4-6% in the
engineering team, Fynd co-founder Harsh Shah said. An analysis showed that the
talent pipeline itself was skewed towards more male engineers applying. We
thought of coming up with an affirmative action policy where we pay women more.
That, we felt, would not only boost the pipeline by making the position more
attractive to apply for, but set a benchmark for other companies, said Shah.
The startup plans to conduct a recruitment drive for women engineers in Mumbai,
Pune and Bengaluru in May. The pay hike was discussed with and supported by all
the male employees, he claimed. The gender pay gap in India is still high, with
a recent Monster Salary Index revealing that women earn 19% less than men.
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FOCUSED ON PROFITS, SONY TO STAY AWAY FROM PRICING WAR
Sony India has decided to step
away from a pricing war with Chinese and online brands in the Indian market and
bucking the trend, the Japanese consumer electronics giant wants to grow profit
in India instead of chasing volume, Sunil Nayyar said. However, the company has
dropped prices of entry level TV models by 7-8% to stem any further market
erosion in the sub-40 inch segment where Chinese and online brands like Xiaomi,
TCL, Vu and Thomson have made rapid gains. Despite the price drop, Nayyar said
Sony still maintains 25-35% price premium over competition to remain
profitable. However, Sony will not drop prices in large-screen TV and others to
achieve value leadership. Nayyar said last fiscal Sony became leader by value
in premium categories; 40% share in 55-inches and above televisions, 50% in
noise cancellation headphones and full frame mirrorless cameras. It has also
deepened 'made in India' by increasing local production of TV from 50% last
year to 95% now and plans to expand local production to other categories, said
Nayyar, who just completed a year as the first Indian to lead Sony’s local
operation. India is the fourth-largest market for Sony globally. Our focus will
be to grow the 4K television market and educate customers how Sony is different
from the Chinese or online brands and why we have premium pricing, said Nayyar.
Sony’s selling pitch is that there is more to a TV than the television panel as
focused by the value brands. The panel is like a raw chicken. So, a Sony TV
will be like a five star chef cooking a dish as compared to a roadside shop,
said Nayyar. Sony grew in 55-inch and above television sales by 90% last
fiscal. The Rs 22,000-crore Indian TV market has moved to the value brands in
the 32-inch segment, which is the largest, accounting for 60% of the market by
volume and 45% by value. Samsung recently launched a specific series for online
by dropping prices across sizes. Nayyar said Sony will not have any exclusive
series or strategy for online.
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TCS FACES ANOTHER LAWSUIT OVER TRADE SECRET THEFT
Computer Sciences Corp
(CSC) has filed a lawsuit against Tata Consultancy Services, alleging that the
Indian IT bellwether is stealing its trade secrets to build an insurance
platform, following a $2-billion deal that TCS won from US insurer TransAmerica
last year. This is the second such suit against TCS, after the Indian IT major
lost a similar case to Epic Systems, setting it back by $420 million in
penalties. TCS is currently appealing that in a higher court. TCS is improperly
accessing its codes, the US-based CSC said in its lawsuit filed last week in
Texas, seeking punitive damages. Our legal team is reviewing the allegations
and will respond appropriately. TCS will strongly defend its position before
the court. CSC, whose parent is the NYSE-listed DXC Technology, had licensed
its insurance products Vantage and CyberLife to Money Services Inc (MSI), which
is owned by TransAmerica. MSI was using the CSC software to administer and
process TransAmerica's insurance and annuity policies, the suit said. TCS,
which took on board 2,200 TransAmerica employees as part of the deal, planned
to use its BaNCS platform to administer the policies. CSC discovered that TCS
employees were looking into its code when a CSC employee, who has a
TransAmerica email address, received a copy of the Indian software major's
mails, possibly by accident, CSC said in a separate court filing seeking a
temporary restraining order. CSC said it had no way of knowing if TCS was looking
at other parts of its code.
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STOP J&J BABY SHAMPOO SALE: CHILD RIGHTS BODY TO STATES
The National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights has written to the chief secretaries of all
states and Union Territories asking them to stop the sale of Johnson &
Johnson baby shampoo in their respective states and also remove the product
from stock of the shops in view of the findings of the sample testing report
from the Rajasthan Drug Control Officer. J&J’s baby shampoo has come under
the regulatory lens with samples collected in Rajasthan showing presence of
harmful ingredients that may cause cancer. J&J spokesperson said, We didn’t
accept the interim results of the government analyst that were based on unknown
and unspecified methods and have contested them. We will await the conclusions
of the re-testing process at the Central Drugs Laboratory. We are not aware of
any directions from NCPCR. ...Any such directions, under the law, can only be
issued under certain prescribed conditions.
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CHINA’S INDUSTRIAL PROFITS REBOUND IN MARCH, GROWS TO $87
BILLION
Profits at China’s
industrial firms grew in March, rebounding from four months of contraction,
adding to optimism the world’s second-largest economy may be starting to
stabilise. A return to profits could add to the debate over how much more
stimulus Beijing needs to pump into the economy if it is on the mend. Beijing
and Washington appear to be edging towards a trade deal, but investors are
concerned that a sharp slowdown in China will have repercussions on the wider
global economy. Profits in March rose 13.9 percent year-on-year to 589.52
billion yuan ($87.62 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on
its website on Saturday, recovering from a 14 percent fall in the first two
months. That marked the biggest monthly increase since July 2018. For the first
quarter of the year, profits notched up by industrial companies dropped 3.3
percent to 1.3 trillion yuan compared with a year earlier, according to the
NBS. The growth in March mainly came from an acceleration in production and
sales, as well as a recovery of profits in key industrial sectors, Zhu Hong of
the statistics bureau said in a statement accompanying the data. The pick-up in
industrial profits eased concerns about the slowing momentum in China’s economy
as it has been cooling for the past year, weighed down by a bitter trade
dispute with the United States, as well as a campaign to curb debt risks that
has led to higher financing costs for companies. The country’s largest listed
steel firm Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd posted its first negative growth
since 2015 on Wednesday. Jiangsu Shagang Co Ltd, China’s biggest private-owned
steel mill, reported a 60.62 percent decrease in its Q1 net profit too.
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TO ACHIEVE SDGS, 18 NATIONS DECIDE TO FOCUS ON HEALTH,
POVERTY, CLIMATE CHANGE
Representatives from 18
countries, who had converged at the Administrative Staff College of India,
listed out their priority areas which include health, poverty eradication and
climate change to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Their priorities
included efforts to end poverty in all forms, ensure healthy lives and promote
well-being for all, build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and
sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation and take urgent action to
combat climate change and its impact. The Sustainable Development Goals adopted
by the United Nations on September 25, 2015 was to drive global efforts to end
poverty and place the planet on a sustainable course over the next fifteen
years. While respective governments have developed their own blueprints to
translate the global SDGs into national plans for sustainable development
according to their own country-specific goals and time-bound targets, the
participants resolved to engage various countries in the implementation of the
SDGs 2030.
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JOB HOPPING IN US GETS TOUGHER FOR H-1B VISA HOLDERS
It is getting tougher for
H-1B visa holders to switch jobs. Even if the new job is similar and calls for
the same set of skills, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS), in several cases, has denied the application by the new employer on
various grounds. The most common reason for denial is that the new position
does not constitute a ‘specialty occupation’. The biggest challenge is that the
individual who is job-hopping could find himself or herself ‘out of status’,
with a bar on entry in the US for three to ten years. Usha Sagarwala, an Indian
citizen, had lived in the US since 2012 on an H-1B visa. When she sought to
change jobs in 2018, the USCIS denied the new employer’s petition for transfer
as the new position did not constitute a ‘specialty occupation’. Recently, when
she applied for preliminary injunction for retaining her H-1B status, till she
pursued a law suit over her H-1B denial for the new job, the US Federal Court
declined to intervene. The court noted that she had failed to substantiate the
kind of economic harm that justifies the court’s intervention. The Federal
Court, in its order dated April 16, observed that the only piece of evidence
that Sagarwala has submitted is a short declaration that focuses mostly on what
will happen if she is forced to go back to India. In her case before the
Federal Court, Sagarwala stated that she relied on her salary to pay her $3,711
monthly mortgage and other expenses but she did not specify how much she relied
on it. No information was available of her household income, or her current
financial situation, the Federal Court stated.
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IRAN INFLATION COULD REACH 40% THIS YEAR AS ECONOMY SHRINKS FURTHER:
IMF
Iran's economy is expected
to shrink for the second consecutive year and inflation could reach 40 percent,
an International Monetary Fund senior official said, as the country copes with
the impact of tighter sanctions imposed by the United States. Washington, which
re-imposed sanctions against Iran's oil exports last November, this month
demanded buyers of Iranian oil to stop purchases by May or face sanctions,
ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers to
continue importing limited volumes. Iran’s economy shrank by 3.9 percent last
year, according to IMF estimates, and is expected to shrink by 6 percent in
2019, Jihad Azour, told adding, however, that the projection preceded the
latest elimination of waivers. Clearly the re-imposition of sanctions and the
removal of the waivers will have additional negative impact on the Iranian
economy both in terms of growth and in terms of inflation, where inflation
could reach 40 percent or even more this year, he said. The Iranian currency,
the rial, lost more than 60 percent last year, disrupting Iran’s foreign trade
and boosting annual inflation. India is pressing for exemption from the high
duty imposed by the US on certain steel and aluminium products, resumption of
export benefits to certain domestic products under the Generalised System of
Preferences (GSP) programme, greater market access for its products from
agriculture, automobile, automobile components and engineering sectors.
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ANNUAL RS 600 CRORE WORTH INDO-BANGLADESH STONE BOULDER TRADE
FACING DEADLOCK
Indo Bangladesh cross
border trade of stone boulder has come to a halt following hike in import duty
by Bangladesh authority. Thousands of stranded loaded trucks in Indian Land
Customs Stations(LCS) at Fulbari and Changrabandha have become a major concern
for stake holders of the trade in Indian side. We are facing the crisis despite
no problem from Indian authority, said Mulchand Bucha. As he explained, Fulbari
and Changrabandha, these two land customs stations in northern side of West
Bengal are main gateways for Bangladesh to import stone boulders from India.
More than 15 major hilly rivers, those touchdown foothills forming huge river
bed in north Bengal region, are the sources of these boulders, highly preferred
in civil constructions for its physical property and value for money. As
estimated, around 800 trucks load of boulder go to Bangladesh a day through
these two LCS forming an export volume of over Rs 600 crore per annum. This has
come to a halt. We have taken it up with Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of
Commerce and Industry and expecting an early resolution, said Ujjal Saha,
General Secretary of West Bengal Exporters Coordination Committee.
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15 INCLUDING 6 CHILDREN FOUND DEAD AFTER SRI LANKAN FORCES
ENGAGE IN GUNBATTLE WITH EASTER BOMBING SUSPECTS
The bodies of 15 people,
including 6 children and 3 women, were discovered at the site of a fierce
overnight gun battle on the east coast of Sri Lanka, a military spokesman said
on Saturday, six days after suicide bombers killed more than 250 people. The
shootout between troops and suspected Islamist militants erupted on Friday
evening in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara, to the south of the town of Batticaloa,
site of one of the Easter Sunday blasts at three churches and four luxury
hotels. A police spokesman said that three suspected suicide bombers were among
the 15 dead after the shoot out. Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said in a
statement that as troops headed towards the safe house three explosions were
triggered and gunfire began. Troops retaliated and raided the safe house where
a large cache of explosives had been stored, he said in a statement. He said
the militants were suspected members of the National Towheed Jama'at (NTJ),
which has been blamed for last Sunday's attacks. The government has said nine
homegrown, well-educated suicide bombers carried out the Easter Sunday attacks,
eight of whom had been identified. One was a woman. Police said on Friday they
were trying to track down 140 people they believe have links with Islamic
State, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings. Police have
detained at least 76 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt, in
their investigations so far. Islamic State provided no evidence to back its
claim that it was behind the attacks. If true, it would be one of the worst
attacks carried out by the group outside Iraq and Syria. The extremist group
released a video on Tuesday showing eight men, all but one with their faces
covered, standing under a black Islamic State flag and declaring their loyalty
to its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
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SRI LANKA BANS COVERING THE FACE WITH VEILS
A statement from the
President’s Media Division on Sunday said covering of the face with veils, in a
manner that prevents identification of a person, will be banned from Monday
under emergency regulations. Zahran Hashim, who is believed to have led the
Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, were killed in Friday’s overnight gun battle
between troops and suspects in the eastern Ampara district, the police said on
Sunday. Further, a woman and a four-year-old child, rescued from a safe house
stormed in the search operation on Saturday, have been identified as the wife
and daughter of Hashim, police sources told. Sri Lanka is mulling stringent
laws to tackle the relatively new, unexpected threat of local radical Islamist
forces with apparent links with international groups. Terrorism should be ended
immediately. For that we will bring new and tougher laws, Mr. Wickremesinghe
said.
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SRI LANKA TO INTRODUCE TOUGH LAWS TO ELIMINATE JIHADISM: PM
RANIL WICKREMESINGHE
Introducing a tough new
legislation to eliminate jihadism and extremism from Sri Lanka is the
government’s top priority, Ranil Wickremesinghe has said in the aftermath of
country’s worst terror attacks on Easter Sunday. The deadly attacks could have
been prevented if the new Counter Terrorism Bill, which provides for
territorial jurisdiction, was passed in Parliament without delay, he said. No
anti-terrorism law in Sri Lanka provides for territorial jurisdiction under
which a cadre belonging to an international terrorist organisation could be
arrested in Sri Lanka if they are found. Not even the penal code provides that
provision, the Prime Minister was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. We have
included this provision in the new Counter Terrorism Bill. However, it is stuck
in Parliament for months. The Easter Sunday attacks could have been prevented
if this legislation was passed, he said.
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