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The Economic Times,  Megha Mandavia, Baiju Kalesh, September 27, 2017 MUMBAI: Tata Trusts, the philanthropic arm of the Tata Group, is starting on a project to eradicate malaria from India completely by exploring the new gene-editing technology that modifies the DNA of Indian mosquitoes thereby halting the spread of the deadly disease.  Tata Trusts will invest $70 million (Rs 458 crore) over the next 5 years by setting up The Tata Institute of Genetics and Society in Bengaluru in collaboration with the University of California San Diego in the US and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (InStem) in Bengaluru.  Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata, managing trustee R Venkataramanan and head of innovation Manoj Kumar will bet the trustees of the new Institute. The centre in the US is already operational and the Indian centre will be launched by end of this year or early next year.  "In India, mosquito borne diseases are increas...

The Economic Times,  Varsha Bansal,  Madhav Chanchani, September 27, 2017 BENGALURU: Paytm Mall has initiated discussions to raise a fresh round of Rs 3,000-4,000 crore ($460-610 million), said two people aware of the development.  "Paytm Mall is planning to close the new round of funding by end of this year and is talking to financial investors from Asia and the US," said one of the persons.  The Noida-based etailer, in which China's Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial own a majority stake, has ambitious growth targets as it jostles for third place in a market dominated by  India's Flipkart and the US-based Amazon.  Alibaba and Paytm Mall have been scouting aggressively for acquisitions and strategic investments in the Indian ecommerce space. They could also invest in logistics, said people familiar with the thinking in the company. Paytm did not reply to email queries from ETon these developments.  ET firs...

Economic Times, September 26, 2017 Terming as "arrogant" External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's scathing attack on Islamabad at the UN for being the pre-eminent terror factory, a state- run Chinese daily has in a grudging admission said "there is indeed terrorism in Pakistan".  "By trumpeting India's justice and grandeur while rebuking its neighbor's foolishness and ugliness, the minister seems to have moved herself and the whole country," it said in an editorial, adding: "A country that despises others can hardly seek agreement over conflicts."  Swaraj had on Saturday, at the United Nation, came down heavily on Pakistan saying while India produced scholars, doctors, engineers, Pakistan is producing terrorists.  However, the paper questioned the very fact that Pakistan is promoting terrorism, saying "what can Pakistan gain from exporting terrorism? Money or honor?"  "It is polit...

R. Prasad, September 27, 2017 In a blow to free sale of tobacco, the Health Ministry is tightening the screws on marketing, which will curb access and shield children. As part of the regulation of sale, the Ministry has asked all the State governments to develop a mechanism through the municipal authority to provide “permission/authorisation” to retail outlets selling tobacco products. Shops authorised to sell tobacco products will not be permitted to sell any non-tobacco products such as biscuits, toffees and chips that are essentially meant for non-tobacco users, especially children. Limiting exposure “We believe that such an initiative will prove to be beneficial in achieving the objective of preventing children/ non-user from exposure to tobacco products,” the September 21 letter says. “Essentially, the Ministry desires to license the sale of tobacco through authorised vendors only. Like alcohol, tobacco products too can be sold only by licensed retail outlets,” say...

Yuthika Bhargava, September 27, 2017 With a view to promoting domestic technology and preventing data theft by foreign entities, the government will soon announce a policy that accords preference in official procurement to ‘Made in India’ antivirus and cybersecurity solutions. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued a draft notification which states “preference shall be provided by all procuring entities to domestically manufactured/ produced cybersecurity products.” Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, MeitY said, “MeitY proposes to give a boost to domestic cybersecurity technology development by giving preference to good quality domestic products in government procurement.” The notification will cover all products and software used for “maintaining confidentiality, availability and integrity of information by protecting computing devices, infrastructure, programs, data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access,” as per the notification. ...

Financial Express, September 27, 2017 E-commerce major Flipkart has acquired Maharashtra-based mobile and IT repair services company F1 Info Solutions for an undisclosed amount. Flipkart will integrate F1 Info with its company Jeeves, a third part service provider for large and small appliances and furniture. F1 Info was founded in 2012 and has a distributed-repair service network of around 158 centres across 135 cities. While the acquisition will help Jeeves expand Flipkart’s offerings to entire lifecycle of electronic products sold on Flipkart to after-sales and repair services, it will also help eBay India which mainly deals with secondhand products and goods. F1 Info Solutions co-founder and CEO Shammi Moza will join Flipkart as a senior director and will continue to hold responsibility for the business. He will report to Abhijit Upadhye, vice-president at Flipkart and the head of Jeeves. According to F1 Info’s RoC filing, just before announcing the acquisition, Shammi Moza w...

Nanda Kasabe, Financial Express, September 27, 2017 Even as the government of Maharashtra is sending its top officials to the national capital to follow up on its proposal to the Centre for the procurement of moong and urad under the government’s Minimum Support Price ( MSP) scheme, farmers have begun distress sales. Maharashtra cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh said the Centre’s permission is expected over the next two to three days, failing which the state government may have to take its own decision. Farmers in the key pulses growing regions of Maharashtra have begun selling moong and urad at distress prices way below the Minimum Support Price (MSP) since a major portion of the produce has been damaged because of the recent rains. The government, meanwhile, has issued circulars to most agriculture produce market committees ( APMCs) in the state, directing them not to allow farmers to sell below MSP. The minister said that farmers have been directed to take advantage ...

Sajan C Kumar, Financial Express, September 27, 2017 Flinto Learning Solutions, a Chennai-based start-up, popularly known by its flagship product, Flintobox, is making waves in early child education in the country. The story of Flinto revolves around three young parents Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijay Gandhi and Shreenidhi Srirangam striving to find the best way to nurture kids’ creativity and curiosity. “I strongly believe that the existing early education system for children needs an upgrade,” says Shreenidhi Srirangam, CTO and co-founder, Flintobox. The trio thought it would be a great service/product if someone could curate new activities and ideas which would engage kids positively, at home, away from TV, and do not need the parents’ constant supervision. Since they couldn’t find anyone doing it professionally, they decided to do it themselves. “We quickly brought in people with expertise in child development, game design and education to build the first prototype, which was then...

JAHANZAIB HAQUE, OMER BASHIR,  September 14, 2017 They exist in plain sight, just one search and one click away from any of Pakistan’s 25 million Facebook users. An investigation carried out by  Dawn  across the month of April 2017 has revealed that 41 of Pakistan’s 64 banned outfits are present on Facebook in the form of hundreds of pages, groups and individual user profiles. Their network, both interconnected and public, is a mix of Sunni and Shia sectarian or terror outfits, global terror organisations operating in Pakistan, and separatists in Balochistan and Sindh. For the purpose of this investigation, the names of all banned outfits – including acronyms and small variations in spelling – were searched on Facebook to find pages, groups, and user profiles that publicly ‘liked’ a banned outfit. The biggest outfits on the social network, in order of size, are Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) with 200 pages and groups, Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) ...

Economic Times, September 27, 2017 Collections under the Goods and Services Tax, the single indirect tax regime introduced for all of India on July 1 this year, dropped marginally to Rs 90,669 crore for August from the revised figure of Rs 94,063 crore for July.  The collections for July were pegged at Rs 92,283 crore earlier, above analysts’ expectations. “The total revenue of GST paid under different heads (up to 25th September, 2017) is Rs 90,669 crore,” a finance ministry statement said on Tuesday.  Of the total collections, the share of Central GST (CGST) stood at Rs 14,402 crore, State GST (SGST) at Rs 21,067 crore and Integrated GST (IGST) at Rs 47,377 crore. Of the total IGST Rs 23,180 crore is from imports and the rest from inter-state sales.  Compensation Cess collections for August stood at Rs 7,823 crore, of which Rs 547 crore is levy on imports. Explaining the reason for revising the July collection figure, the statement said, “...

PTI, Indian Express, September 25, 2017 Reliance Industries Limited has jumped five places to rank as the world’s third-biggest energy company behind Russian gas firm Gazrpom and German utility E.ON, according to Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings. State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) broke into the top 10 club, climbing to 7th position in the 2017 ranking, up from 14th rank in 2016. IOC has been steadily climbing the rankings — it was placed at No. 66 in 2015. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) was placed at 11th position in 2017 as against 20th in 2016. “While 14 Indian energy companies made it to the S&P Global Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings, they were one short of the tally held last year,” Platts said in a statement. Reliance, the owner of world’s biggest refinery complex, was ranked at 7th position in last year. Coal India Ltd, the world’s largest coal producer, was the only Indian firm to have slipped in the ranking – 45 in 2017, down from 38 in...

BEIJING: China will block all efforts to internationalize the Rohingya refugee crisis because it has ambitious investment and infrastructure construction plans worth $7.3 billion in Myanmar's Rakhine state, three different experts told TOI on Tuesday. Rakhine has witnessed large scale violence and alleged ethnic cleansing resulting in mass migration of Rohingya Muslims to neighbouring Bangladesh, especially since August this year. Associate research fellow Irene Chan with the China Programme in Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) said, " China is investing+ in a $7.3 billion deep sea project in the Rakhine. It also has plans for an industrial park and a special economic zone in the region. I think this investment issue takes a higher precedence for the Chinese against the humanitarian issue." Reuters reported that Chinese official documents suggest that a consortium led by China's CITIC corporation has sought between 70% a...

The Economic Times, Rachita Prasad, Updated: September 26, 2017 Reliance Power aims to achieve financial closure for its $1 billion LNG-fired power plant in Bangladesh by the end of 2017-18, Chairman Anil Ambani told shareholders.  Reliance Power has signed agreements with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDP) to develop 3,000 mw of LNG power units at Meghnaghat near Dhaka and 500 mscfd LNG terminal at Qutubdia Island in Bangladesh. The first phase of 750 mw and the LNG terminal entails investment of $ 1 billion.  “Reliance Power’s 750 mw LNG based power project in Bangladesh being implemented with an investment outlay of $ 1 Billion is expected to achieve financial closure in the current financial year itself. The phase 1 of the project is expected to achieve commercial operation by March 2020,” Ambani told shareholders at the 23rd Annual General Meeting of the company.  The Anil Ambani-led company is setting up this plant by relocating equipm...

The Telegraph, Jayanta Roy Chowdhury, September 24, 2017 New Delhi, Sept. 24: Steel Authority of India Ltd is close to a deal with Arcelor-Mittal for a joint venture in automobile steel even as a few "commercial issues" are yet to be resolved. SAIL chairman P. K. Singh told The Telegraph, "We are close to clinching a deal. Some commercial issues, however, remain to be resolved." The two sides had signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2015 and have since been trying to hammer out an agreement. The SAIL chairman did not elaborate on the contentious issues. "It will be a 50:50 joint venture with substrate (raw materials ) from our Rourkela plant," said Singh. SAIL has drawn up a list of six sectors for which it wants to make high-value steel - infrastructure, including ports; engineering, including ship-building; defence and nuclear power plants; high-grade construction steel; specialised steel for the capital goods industry such as ma...