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September 18, 2017 M Zulqernain Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's Jammat-ud-Dawah will foray into Pakistan's political scene by contesting the 2018 general elections, a senior member of the outfit said, a day after its candidate finished third in a crucial bypoll. Last month, Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a front for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack, announced that it was launching the Milli Muslim League. Sheikh Yaqoob, a JuD-backed candidate who was defeated by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif's wife Kuslsoom from a parliamentary seat that fell vacant after he was disqualified by the Supreme Court, said the new front 'will field candidates in every constituency of the country in next year's election'. Yaqoob wanted to contest Sunday's election from Milli Muslim League, launched just before the NA-120 by-poll, but could not do so as the Election Commission of Pakistan is yet to register it...

September 18, 2017 Nauzer Bharucha Maharashtra will be the first state in India to form a conciliation committee under the new Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), comprising a panel representing builders and consumer groups to arbitrate complaints.  It will mediate between two parties and help resolve their issues so that they can avoid taking the dispute before the housing regulator. Only in case the dispute is not settled can the party challenge it and lodge a complaint with the state regulator.  "The panel should start functioning in the next three months," said state RERA chairman Gautam Chatterjee, adding that it would help build trust between purchasers and developers. Last week, leading developers and consumer activists met state RERA officials to iron out how the new committee will operate.  "Talks have progressed very well so far," said consumer activist Shirish Deshpande of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP). "MGP is pres...

September 18, 2017 Business Line Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), a Pune-based non-governmental organisation working among women farmers, has won this year’s UN Equator Prize. SSP is the only Indian organisation among the 15 winners that were chosen from 800-odd entries. The award recognises SSP’s initiative to empower over 20,000 women farmers from the impoverished Marathwada region in Maharashtra, a release said on Monday. Through these farmers, SSP has been promoting climate-resilient agro-ecological farming that addresses many issues relating to sustainable development, such as food security, income security and natural resource management. The prize was received by Godavari Dange and Kamal Kumbhar, two women farmers from Osmanabad district, at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Sunday. SSP’s climate-resilient farming model works by giving cultivation rights of a small piece of land, which is usually half or one acre, to women from marginal families...

September 18, 2017 Businness Line Onion auctions at Lasalgaon and other markets in Nashik resumed on Monday after last week’s strike by traders. As a mark of protest against the Income Tax Department raids on large onion traders in Lasalgaon in Nashik, the trading community had stopped participating in the auctions from Thursday afternoon. They were also protesting against the coercive measures being adopted by State Government for preventing hoarding of onions by the traders. Bearish trend Jaydutt Holkar, the Chairman of the Lasalgaon Agriculture Market Committee (APMC), said that the trading has resumed after assurances from the District Collector that no coercive action would be taken against the traders. However, the market sentiment remained bearish with prices in the range of ₹1,200 to ₹1,300 quintal (100 kg), he said. http://m.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/commodities/bl19bmrawonionbriefbl/article9864060.ece

Septembe 18, 2017 R Balaji With Tamil Nadu facing a shortfall in sugar production in 2017-18 (October-September), local markets are witnessing the arrival of stocks from Karnataka and Maharashtra. The State’s annual estimated consumption is 12-15-lakh tonnes , and production in the coming season is estimated at about 6-lakh tonnes. The South Indian Sugar Mills Association – Tamil Nadu was hoping the Centre would allow mills in the State to import duty-free raw sugar to offset at least a portion of the shortfall. However, the Centre has allowed import of 3-lakh tonnes at an import duty of 25 per cent through ports in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which get the lion’s share, and some quantity through Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Mills in Tamil Nadu will process about 1.40-lakh tonnes of the imported raw sugar; Karnataka 1.10-lakh tonnes; Andhra Pradesh 34,000 tonnes; and Maharashtra 5,900 tonnes. Tamil Nadu mills have welcomed the move to import raw sugar, as it adds a b...

September 18, 2017 L N Revathy The recent wet spell, it appears, has come as a ray of hope for sugar mills in Tamil Nadu. “Though not immediately, we hope things will look up in the next two years,” said Palani G Periasamy, President, South India Sugar Mills Association (SISMA - TN). Worst crisis Speaking on the sidelines of the four-day international symposium on ‘Sugarcane research since Co 205: 100 years and beyond’, organised by the Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, in association with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and SISMA-TN, he said the industry in the State witnessed its worst period the last 3-4 years due to extreme drought. Lower capacity utilisation Sugar production slipped from 25-lakh tonnes to 6-lakh tonnes and factories were operating at a mere 20 per cent of their installed capacity. Mills in the State have a capacity to produce 30-lakh tonnes of sugar a year. Lower capacity utilisation had resulted in rising fixed costs – sugar mills...

September 18, 2017 Abhishek Law, Pratim Ranjan Bose Panic over potential foodgrain shortfall and opportunistic trading in Bangladesh have sent the price of rice soaring on both sides of the border. Over the last three weeks, the price of common rice varieties in West Bengal increased by 10-20 per cent at the miller’s end. The price of Swarna has gone up from ₹22 a kg to ₹27 a kg, Ratna from ₹28 to ₹30 and Minikit from ₹32 to ₹35. Retail prices are ₹2 to ₹5 higher. The buzz in the market is that prices will increase further after Durga Puja next week. Reason: The sudden rise in demand from Bangladesh, which reduced import duty from 28 per cent to 2 per cent in phases between June and August. According to customs sources, approximately 2,300-2,400 tonnes of rice is exported to Bangladesh from West Bengal every day; taking the total to over 600,000 tonnes in the last four-five weeks. This is as much as the annual imports of Bangladeshi traders in 2014-15. The inten...

Septmber 19, 2017 ENS Economic Bureau The Chennai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday ordered commencement of corporate insolvency resolution process against the beleaguered home-stay start-up Stayzilla on a petition filed by city-based Jigsaw Solutions. The NCLT bench, comprising Mohd Shariff Tariq, member judicial, and S Vijayaraghavan, member technical, appointed Karthigeyan Srinivasan as interim resolution professional (IRP) and ordered completion of the process within 180 days. NCLT had reserved orders in the insolvency case filed against Inasra Technologies, which runs Stayzilla, by Jigsaw Solutions after hearing the both parties on September 12. The counsel for Jigsaw Solutions had argued that it was seeking the unpaid dues for the job undertaken by demanding dissolving of the troubled home-stay start-up. The company was hired by Stayzilla to do outdoor and bus-shelter publicity for the latter. Stayzilla counsel submitted that there were deficie...

September 15, 2017 PT Jyothidatta When Ranbaxy’s promoter family sold its entire stake to Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo for $4.6 billion in 2008, many sat up and took note of this tectonic trade transaction between the two countries. But soon enough, details began to tumble out of the United States Food and Drug Administration on transgressions at Ranbaxy’s plants. And the import bans and expensive settlement with US authorities that followed did not just mark a floundering Ranbaxy-Daiichi relationship. It also scorched business confidence between the two countries, particularly in the realm of medicines. Daiichi subsequently sold its stake to Sun Pharma in 2014 for $4 billion. But Ranbaxy’s promoter family and Daiichi are still locked in a legal battle in India. This week, though, saw Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in India launching the high-profile bullet train project. But will this track of diplomacy funnel some confidence in the pharmaceutical sector a...

September 19, 2017 FE Bureau Despite the majority of domestic-global player tie-ups in the auto sector failing and eventually breaking up, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and US major Ford on Monday entered into a pact to explore a strategic alliance covering areas like product development, electric vehicles and distribution in India and abroad. Under the agreement, teams from both companies will collaborate and work together for up to three years to leverage the benefits of Ford’s global reach and expertise and M&M’s scale in India, the two companies said in a statement. “Any further strategic cooperation between the two companies will be decided at the end of that period,” they added. This is the second time the two have entered into an alliance. In 1995 when Ford first entered India, it had a 50:50 joint venture with M&M under which the two produced a sedan called Escort. The joint venture was dissolved in 1998. M&M took a second shot in 2005 at manufacturing...

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017, Special Correspondent Iqbal Kaskar, the brother of wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, was on Monday arrested by the Thane Police Crime Branch. Sources confirmed that Iqbal, who stays in Bhendi Bazaar, was arrested from his residence in connection with a case registered against him by a Thane-based builder. According to the builder, on Iqbal’s demand, he had paid him some money in the past. When his demands did not stop, he approached the Thane police. “We arrested Iqbal after inquiries confirmed his involvement in the offence. We might arrest some more accused in the case soon,” a Thane police officer said. Iqbal is the younger brother of Dawood http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/dawood-ibrahims-younger-brother-arrested/article19711464.ece .

The Financial Express, September 19, 2017 The $25.4 billion of capital inflows into the country, primarily via foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investments (FPI), in Q1FY18 have ensured a surplus in the balance accounts of $11.4 billion—a two-year high. Given the abundance of liquidity in global markets, flows are expected to remain reasonably good, and there is no real concern they will not be adequate to cover the current account deficit (CAD). Nonetheless, the relative strength of capital flows masks the weakness in exports which is creating bigger merchandise deficits. In Q1FY18, for instance, a fairly large trade deficit, of $41.2 billion, drove up the CAD to $14.3 billion, or 2.4% of GDP—a four-year high. Exports, after growing at close to 18% y-o-y in April, clocked a sedate 6% y-o-y and 4.1% y-o-y in May and June respectively. Coming on the back of very modest increase in the last 18 months and a contraction for more than a year before that, this is d...

PTI Islamabad, September 18, 2017,  Pakistan today summoned the Swiss Ambassador to lodge protest over the display of anti-Pakistan posters in Geneva, Radio Pakistan reported. Ambassador Thomas Kolly was summoned by the Foreign Office in the wake of some posters, which read “Free Balochistan”, emerging in Geneva. The poster campaign was apparently orchestrated by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a banned entity in Pakistan. Officials said the Switzerland government has been urged to take action against moves which are against the sovereignty of Pakistan. Earlier, the Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva demanded that the government of Switzerland take strict actions against those involved in the act. In his letter, the Permanent Representative of the Mission, Farrukh Amil, said the use of Swiss soil by terrorist and violent secessionists for nefarious designs against Pakistan and its 200 million people is totally unacceptable. He said ter...

The Hindu, September 18, 2017, Special Correspondent  In a first-of-a-kind ‘name and shame’ exercise, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA) has begun making public the lists of disqualified directors across the nation as well as those associated with struck-off companies. Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, jailed politician V.K. Sasikala, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala and Gulf-based business tycoon M.A. Yusufali are some of the prominent names figuring in these lists. Four ‘shell companies’ linked to Sasikala, jailed aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, are among the companies struck off by the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in Chennai. This follows a MoCA statement on September 12 that as on that day, it had identified 1.06 lakh directors of ‘shell companies’ for disqualification under the relevant provisions of the Companies Act, 2013. The move is part of actions to break the network of ‘shell companie...

Sep, 19 2017 , Sreemoy Talukdar Centre's affidavit at the Supreme Court on Monday on the issue of deportation of Rohingya Muslims from India puts to rest some needless confusion. The NDA government has expectedly taken a stringent stand. According to media reports, Centre has told the apex court that there are enough intelligence inputs to consider the illegal immigrants as "a serious security threat to the country", pointing out that the issue has become a witches' brew of terrorism and Pan-Islamic assertiveness with Pakistan's ISI and Islamic State operatives thrown into the mix. There is no point denying the massive humanitarian crisis that stares at us. As a responsible state, a major player in Asia and an ascendant power, India must shoulder its quota of responsibility. But as this writer has argued variously to define a multi-layered crisis solely through the prism of human rights would be a cardinal error that may eventually destabilize the en...

Sep 18, 2017, PTI China has opened a strategic highway in Tibet to the Nepal border which could be used for civilian and defence purposes, a move that Chinese experts say will enable Beijing to make forays into South Asia, according to a media report on Monday. The 40.4-kilometre highway in Tibet between Xigaze airport and Xigaze city centre officially opened to the public on Friday with a short section linking the national highway to the Nepal border. The highway will shorten the journey from an hour to 30 minutes between the dual-use civil and military airport and Tibet's second-largest city. State-run 'Global Times' quoted experts as saying that the highway "will enable China to forge a route into South Asia in both economic and defence terms" and being a forerunner to a railway line connecting Nepal. Geographically, any extension of the road and railway connectivity to South Asia is through India, Bhutan and to Bangladesh. Chinese officials hav...