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October 8, 2017 7:46 pm Union Finance Minister  Arun Jaitley  has reiterated that demonetisation has drastically reduced insurgent and terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir, where stone throwers were no longer active in the last 8-10 months.  “You are having terrorist incidents (now), but the fact that you were finding 5,000-10,000 stone throwers being provided with money by the terrorist organisations, why is it that in the last 8-10 months it has not happened?” he asked. Jaitley was addressing the Berkley India Conference on Saturday, via video conferencing, when he gave the statement. The minister is set to visit the US to attend an annual meeting of IMF and World Bank in Washington DC and to interact with the corporate world. The Union minister was defending the government’s initiatives like demonetisation, GST and ‘Swachh Bharat’ which has been widely panned by the critics for not resulting in any changes on the ground. In November last year, the Prime Minister had a

Manoj C G  | New Delhi |  Updated: October 8, 2017 7:28 pm The Congress and the  Aam Aadmi Party lapped up a media report which said the turnover of a company owned by BJP President Amit Shah’s son increased 16,000 times over in the year following the election of  Narendra Modi  as prime minister and the elevation of Shah to the post of party president. The Congress sought answers from Prime Minister and the BJP president, and demanded a probe by the ED and the CBI. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said it seems the fortunes of some people have changed after the change of power. He said filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) have revealed that the company owned by Shah’s son Jay started making profits after 2014. The story was reported by The Wire today. He said in March 2013 and in March 2014, Shah’s Temple Enterprise Private Ltd recorded losses of Rs 6,230 and Rs 1,724 respectively. “In 2014-15 it started maki

OCTOBER 07, 2017 21:22 IST Carmichael coal mine will damage Great Barrier Reef, say environmental groups Large protests were held across Australia on Saturday against Indian  mining giant Adani Enterprises’ proposed Carmichael coal mine, which would be the country’s largest coal mine but has been delayed for years over environmental and financing issues. Damage to environment Environment groups say the mine in Queensland State would contribute to global warming and damage the Great Barrier Reef. The “Stop Adani” movement organised 45 protests. On the sands of Sydney’s Bondi Beach, more than 1,000 people formed a human sign saying ‘Stop Adani’, said organiser Blair Palese from activist group 350. “I think there’s a very real national concern that goes beyond Queensland about the idea of giving this mine a billion-dollar taxpayer-funded loan,” she said. The national rallies come as new polling shows more than half of Australians oppose the mine, reported local medi

October 6, 2017 Lost count of the amount of cash-backs you have earned in different mobile wallets, facing issues over lack of space on your smartphone, or having problem transferring money to someone who doesn’t have the same wallet as yours? Come April next, these issues will be a thing of the past. The Reserve Bank of India, in a notification on Wednesday, said that it will soon release guidelines for prepaid instruments (PPIs) that allow all KYC-compliant wallets such as Paytm, Mobikwik, Oxigen, FreeCharge and Citrus, among others, to be able to transact with each other from April 2018. The RBI will be issuing master directions by October 11, 2017. Hailing this as a welcome step, wallet players said interoperability or inter-wallet transactions will not only benefit consumers but also expand the adoption of wallets in the country, which witnessed huge growth since demonetisation last year. However, with the launch of UPI and UPI-enabled apps such as Bhim, PhonePe and

October 6, 2017 He said cleaning up of the bad loan problems is the first priority and after that the PSU banks could be consolidated. India will have 10-15 public sector banks with government’s majority stake, down from 21 at present, as part of its plan to consolidate banks, Finance Ministry’s principal economic advisor Sanjeev Sanyal said today. “There are something like 21-22 public sector banks.. The numbers will be reduced in terms of consolidation, but somewhere to the 10-15 range. We are not going to take it too far down...We need to consolidate some of these large number of banks, but be clear that we are not going to reduce these down to some people think like 4-5 national champions. We recognise that that will lead to too many ‘too-big- to-fail’ banks. Currently, we have one large bank State Bank of India... We do not want to create a large number of them. Then we will have a real problem in terms of concentration of risks,” Sanyal said at the India Economic Summ

Saturday 7 October 2017  01.32 BST The United Nations has defended its new global estimates on slavery after reports that India’s intelligence agency advised Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discredit the research, saying it may tarnish the country’s image and exports. A report by Australian rights group Walk Free Foundation and UN bodies the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) published on 19 September found more than 40 million people across the world were victims of modern day slavery last year. Indian government advised to ‘discredit’ slavery research  Read more The report said 62% of those in forced marriages or forced labour such as construction or domestic work were in the Asia-Pacific region. It did not provide country-specific data. But in a memo from India’s Intelligence Bureau to Modi’s office, the agency questioned the report’s methodology, claiming the data “has enough potential to substantia

Updated  October 07, 2017 The director general of the Intelligence Bureau met several parliamentarians on Friday only to assure them that a  list containing their names  and accusing them of having links with banned outfits was a fake document and not issued by his agency. Having names of 37 lawmakers who were alleged to have links with banned outfits, the list first came to light when a private television channel aired a report claiming that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had directed the IB to keep a close watch on these legislators, who mostly belong to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N. The meeting between the parliamentarians and IB chief Aftab Sultan was arranged by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The lawmakers named in the list complained to PM Abbasi that their opponents could use the document to institute cases against them and, thus, they would not be eligible to hold a public office. They demanded the government inform relevant ministries — foreign a

Oct 8, 2017, 12:57 IST The recent tension between India and China has prompted the government here to think of measures to reduce its dependence on China for pharmaceutical products. The health ministry along with drug regulators is planning to take a series of measures to limit reliance on China as well as tighten the regulatory checks and balances to ensure only good quality supplies are entering the Indian market. Currently, India gets 70-80% of its medicines and medical devices supplies, including raw material for pharmaceuticals (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) from China. This poses a major risk of severe drug shortage if India's diplomatic relations with China worsen. Read this story in Bengali In fact, in 2014, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval + had also warned the government about India's over-dependence on China for API and how tension between the two countries can cause a crisis in the public health system of India. Following Doval's alert,

India and the European Union (EU) have decided to resume talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) with a focus on strengthening two-way trade and investment, as well as agreeing to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. At the end of delegation-level talks, both sides also inked three agreements including: European Commission and the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB); finance contract of Bangalore Metro Rail Project Phase-2-Line R6 for 300 million euros, of the total European Investment Bank (EIB) loan; and a joint declaration between the interim secretariat of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the EIB. In a joint address to the media along with European Council president Donald Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker after delegation-level talks at the 14th India-EU summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “We agreed on fighting against terrorism together and increasing cooperation towards it. Both sides agreed to cooperate on global iss

Oct 06, 2017 13:54 IST The Pakistani Army on Thursday said the government was discussing ways to try to integrate militant-linked groups into the mainstream of the country’s politics. Milli Muslim League (MML), a new militant party controlled by Islamist Hafiz Saeed, backed a candidate in the September by-election for a seat vacated by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the eastern city of Lahore. The United States has offered a $10 million bounty for Saeed’s capture. Reuters reported last month that the foray into politics by MML and other Islamists groups followed the integration plan. Three of Sharif’s confidants and a retired army general said it had been presented by Inter Services Intelligence to Sharif last year, but the then premier had rejected it. Army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor did not comment on the military’s role in any such strategy but told a news conference in Islamabad the plan was aimed at developing a constructive role for them. Asked abo

OCTOBER 6 Reliance Industries has sold its stake in shale gas assets in Pennsylvania for $126 million, absorbing a stiff write-down in value on a seven-year-old investment. Reliance had acquired a 60 per cent stake in the upstream field in 2010 for $392 million as part of a joint venture with Carrizo Oil and Gas, which operated the field. In an exchange filing on Friday, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate RIL disclosed that its US subsidiary Reliance Marcellus II, LLC was divesting interests in certain upstream assets in north-eastern and central Pennsylvania. “The assets, which are currently operated by Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc., were sold to BKV Chelsea, LLC, an affiliate of Kalnin Ventures LLC, for consideration of $126 million,” the filing said. RIL could receive contingent payments of up to $11.25 million in aggregate if the price of natural gas exceeds certain thresholds over the next three years. The assets produce mainly gas and are located in Susquehann

Oct 07, 2017, 06.31 PM IST  Reliance Communications today said IT services major Tech Mahindra has filed insolvency petitions against the company and its two subsidiaries for recovering dues.  The quality of service and amounts billed are disputed, RCom said in a regulatory filing terming the petitions as "misconceived, premature and motivated by extraneous considerations".  "We wish to inform you that Tech Mahindra Ltd, a vendor for call centre services, has filed petitions, as an unsecured operational creditor under IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code against the company, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Big TV, subsidiaries of the company for certain bills submitted by them for services allegedly rendered," the Anil Ambani company said.  Noting that the aggregate amount of Tech Mahindra's claim against all the three companies worked out to Rs 8.20 crore, RCom said "the claim amount is not considered material by respective companie