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Updated: August 7, 2017 21:14 IST | Press Trust of India The government is developing technology to eliminate chances of communication leakage of officials from mobile phones, an official from the Ministry of Electronics and IT has said. “Gadgets have become a source from where chances of espionage have increased. Mobile phones are most vulnerable and even set-top-boxes can be compromised. For mobiles, the government is developing a solution to prevent unauthorised access to communications of government officials,” an official source told PTI. He said the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing in Hyderabad has been working on the technology and expects to complete the project soon. “The problem is India does not have its operating system. Therefore, there are apprehensions that mobile communication may be getting leaked. There have been several cases as well where hackers have taken control over phone to access communication of officers,” the source said.

Suhasini Haider, Aug 7, 2017 Weeks after the India-Afghanistan air corridor trade project was launched, the project has run into rough weather, with fruit exporters complaining that procedural delays, particularly a shortage of cargo planes, are causing them major losses. Matters came to a head last week, when tonnes of fresh fruits, including apricots and melons, were left rotting at the Kabul airport. The flight chartered by Afghanistan’s national carrier, Ariana airlines, on July 20 failed to arrive on time, and the fruits were not moved to cold storage. Much of the load went only on July 29, officials say. Angered by the losses, traders, who say as much as 120 tonnes of fruits are still waiting to be transported from the airport, demanded that the government take swift action or they would find it hard to continue exporting perishable produce to India. ‘Inaccurate reports’ Calling the reports of more than 100 tonnes of rotting fruits “inaccurate and misleading”, I

Kalbe Ali Updated August 08, 2017 In an interesting shift, the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) on Monday decided to enter mainstream politics from the platform of a new ‘Milli Muslim League (MML)’ party and vowed to implement the ideology of Pakistan in accordance with the 1973 Constitution and the vision of Quaid-i-Azam and Allama Iqbal. The announcement by the representatives of the MML and JuD, a group which has been kept on a government list of organisations for their suspected militant activities, was made at a news conference held at the National Press Club. MML president Saifullah Khalid said that politics in Pakistan had been corr­upt­ed by those who came to power to serve their own interests and in order to avoid people’s attention from their politics of minting money other issues such as sectarianism and ethnicity were created. “Pakistan was established as an ideological state and as per the vision of Quaid-i-Azam and Allama Iqbal, which was based on the Quran and Sunnah,” Mr

By: FE Bureau | Bengaluru | Updated: August 8, 2017  Syndicate Bank on Monday has said it is planning to raise up to Rs 3,500 crore through the equity capital market route, besides mopping up another Rs 2,000 crore through other routes. Melwyn Rego, managing director & CEO, said the bank is planning to raise Basel III compliant additional tier-I bonds of up to Rs 1,000 crore and tier-II bonds of up to Rs 1,000 crore during 2017-18. Syndicate Bank posted a net loss of Rs 263 crore for the quarter ended June, as against a net profit of Rs 79 crore for the year-ago period. The net loss was primarily on account of a 79% year-on-year increase in NPA provisioning. Its operating profit for Q1, however, increased 26% to Rs 980 crore, as against Rs 774 crore during the same period last year. Reference http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/banking-finance/syndicate-bank-to-raise-rs-3500-cr-equity-capital/798235/

By Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, Aug 8, 2017 The Afghanistan government has requested India to launch a special satellite exclusively for its use, three months after India launched the South Asian Satellite. The Afghan Ministry of Telecommunications and Technology recently made such a request to the Indian government, officials in the Afghan government told ET.  Afghanistan minister Syed Ahmad Shah Sadat recently met Indian Ambassador Manpreet Vohra in Kabul to make the request.It is not yet clear if Kabul wants to use a dedicated satellite to track terrorist hideouts. The minister and the Indian envoy discussed opening of a terminal for Afghanistan in the South Asia Satellite, another special satellite and India-assisted small development projects.  A MoU would be signed soon to let Afghanistan benefit from South Asia Satellite. Two of the 12 transponders will be provided to Afghanistan and the satellite will be used in areas of telecommunications, television services, agricul

By Sachin Dave, ET Bureau | Updated: Aug 07, 2017 A leading Indian infrastructure company recently discovered to its dismay that its IT systems were compromised, with hackers gaining remote access to some of the most sensitive information for a fairly long period of time. While no official complaint has been made by the company, the attack might just be proverbial tip of the iceberg, and cyber-security experts engaged by the firm say Chinese hackers were behind the breach. Several Indian companies and some government institutions have seen an increase in cyber attacks originating in China, say industry trackers. Like in the case of the infrastructure company, these attacks are often carried out through difficult to-trace proxy servers in North Korea, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. Unlike a normal attack, the Chinese breaches tend to exploit vulnerabilities of Indian IT systems and "just observe.” “Often, cyber attacks originating from neighbouring countries a

AFP, August 07,2017 LONDON: Israel's decision to close the offices of broadcaster Al-Jazeera in the Jewish state is "a brazen attack on media freedom", Amnesty International said today.  "The move sends a chilling message that the Israeli authorities will not tolerate critical coverage," Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at the London-based group, said in a statement.  "The move sends a chilling message that the Israeli authorities will not tolerate critical coverage," Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at the London-based group, said in a statement.  "This is a brazen attack on media freedom in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories," she added.  She urged Israel to "halt any attempt to silence critical media", saying that "all journalists should be free to carry out their work without facing harassment or intimidation". 

Swaraj Singh Dhanjal, Aug 7, 2017 Private equity funds General Atlantic (GA) and True North are in advanced talks to jointly invest around $200 million in MedPlus Health Services Pvt. Ltd, the second-largest pharmacy retail chain in India, according to two people aware of the development. “The deal will see the two funds buy out the stakes of the three existing investors in the company. The existing investors have been looking for an exit for a long time,” said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to reporters. Bringing in new investors will also help the company fund its future growth, he added. MedPlus’s existing private equity investors are US-based Mount Kellett Capital Management LP, TVS Capital Funds Ltd and Ajay Piramal’s India Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd. The three investors together hold a 69% stake in MedPlus, while founder and chief executive officer Madhukar Gangadi holds the rest. Mount Kellett holds 4

PTI, UPDATED: AUGUST 07, 2017 12:11 IST India’s leading FMCG Britannia Industries would set up its largest plant in Maharashtra in a food park at Ranjangaon. “We are planning to set up our largest plant at the Ranjangaon food park in Maharashtra”, chairman of Britannia Industries Nusli Wadia told shareholders at the company’s AGM here on Monday. Mr. Wadia said the park would have the largest biscuits manufacturing plant with six lines, along with cake. He said that the proposed JV plant with Greek company Chipita would also be located there, adding that it would on stream from June 2018. Mr. Wadia said that the company was also planning to set up a diary project at the food park with a capacity of seven lakh litres per day. Relating to the Chipita JV, he said Indian consumers would be introduced to a new variety of croissants. The focus of the company would be “investments on new products and cost reduction,” he added. Over the last three years, the company had b

Updated: August 6, 2017 22:37 IST | Parvatha Vardhini C Most FMCG companies may well have taken the impact of the transition to GST on the chin, if their June quarter results are anything to go by. Aggregate net sales growth for FMCG players trickled to a muted 2.3 per cent over the year-ago period, while adjusted profits grew by just 2.4 per cent. These companies did recover reasonably well after demonetisation, recording sales and adjusted prof... Reference http://m.premium.thehindubusinessline.com/portfolio/fmcg-companies-reel-under-gst-impact/article9804795.ece

Jayanta Roy Chowdhury, Aug 6, 2017 The tide of opinion is moving overwhelmingly against hikes in bank transaction charges. A growing number of consumer complaints, online petitions and Twitter campaigns against the hikes are forcing the North Block and the RBI to wake up to possible voter anger. "Bank charges, whether on cash use or on electronic transfers, have been going up as has the GST on these. Cumulatively, the impact on a consumer has gone up... the ministry has been asked to look into this and we are thinking of ways to lower the burden on consumers," top officials said. There have been suggestions that electronic transfer charges should be cut further and the GST on such transaction be waived to provide partial relief to customers as well as to encourage a digital economy. Officials said complaints had been received from consumer groups, politicians and bureaucrats. Recently, a memorandum was submitted to RBI governor Urjit Patel by a group of c

Sunny Verma,  New Delhi |  Updated: August 7, 2017 Despite a series of steps to contain non-performing assets (NPAs), public sector banks (PSBs) wrote off a record Rs 81,683 crore worth of bad loans in the financial year ended March 2017, a jump of more than 41 per cent over the previous year’s write-off amount of Rs 57,586 crore, as per the finance ministry data. Even as the amount of loans written off has been rising steadily in the past five years, their combined profitability deteriorated sharply during the same period, as NPAs spiked and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-mandated asset quality review forced them to make higher disclosures of non-performing loans. In contrast to the write off amount of Rs 27,231 crore in 2012-13, when banks earned combined net profit of Rs 45,849 crore, the amount of loans written off in 2016-17 trebled to Rs 81,683 crore and the banks combined profits were a Rs 474 crore. Banks have written off a total of Rs 2.46 lakh crore worth of loans

Jul 18, 2017 India’s long-running plan to upgrade and operate maritime facilities at Chabahar Port in Iran faces fresh delays after an initial bidding process to select a private operator for the project proved futile despite vigorous government efforts to spur interest. Authorities are now planning to retender the contract, which involves management, operation and maintenance services, after Essar Ports Ltd., one of the two prequalified Indian bidders, failed to fulfill security clearance requirements, leaving Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone as the sole bidder. “As a single qualified applicant was left, the present RFQ [request for qualification] had to be scrapped,” Ministry of Shipping sources told JOC.com. Mumbai-based Essar Ports is essentially a bulk terminal operator with facilities at six port locations in the country, according to information available on the company’s website. APSEZ, which operates India’s biggest non-government cargo terminal at Mundra a

By Satish John, ET Bureau|, Aug 6, 2017 At the recent annual general meeting of shareholders of Reliance industries Ltd (RIL), at the very fag end of his speech enumerating the big strides made by his bread and-butter businesses — refinery and petrochemicals — and holding forth a little longer on Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani revealed his next dream project.  “It (RIL) will be known in the coming decade as an enterprise with lakhs of partners, supporting the small and young entrepreneurs and an enabler of a large ecosystem of entrepreneurs in India,” he told shareholders at the 40th AGM. He did not elaborate much.  As you read this, an ecosystem for entrepreneurs is taking shape on the outskirts of Mumbai, and the coming months might see it gain scale. In the 100-acre reliance corporate park, the nerve centre of the Rs 3,39,000 crore enterprise, a non-descript, two-storey structure called the MAB, or the Main Administrative Building, is home to a batch of 20 entrepreneurs tes

Nayanima Basu, Aug 04, 2017 The US has said that the Indian market is not spurring enough demand for its imports compared to China. Blaming the slowdown in the country’s GDP during financial year 2016-17 compared to the year before, the US said India has been unable to create effective linkages like what China has achieved. USITC review report “India’s economic growth also slowed, decreasing from 7.9 per cent in 2015 to 6.8 per cent in 2016. Although it still had one of the highest growth rates in the world in 2016, India has notably fewer linkages to the global economy than China does… As a result, India’s economy does not spur strong demand for imports,” stated a 2016 Annual Trade Review Report by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) released recently. The report said this is because India’s services sector accounts for much of its growth, and it has a relatively small manufacturing sector and a per capita income of $6,590 in 2016. USITC is an independ

ET Bureau | Aug 05, 2017 The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has mandated listed companies to inform stock exchanges if they default on interest or loan repayments to banks and financial institutions.  The disclosure has to be made within one working day of the default, the regulator said on Friday.  Sebi rules currently require the disclosure of material events and information by listed entities to stock exchanges. Companies have to make specific disclosures in instances such as delays and defaults in the payment of interest and principal on debt securities, listed non-convertible debentures, redeemable preference shares and foreign currency convertible bonds.  Sebi rules currently require the disclosure of material events and information by listed entities to stock exchanges. Companies have to make specific disclosures in instances such as delays and defaults in the payment of interest and principal on debt securities, listed non-convertible debent