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Indian Express By Abhishek Angad, October 27, 2017 In its complaint, ED alleges that Qureshi was “extorting” money from Koneru and the Blackberry Messenger conversations between Qureshi and his employee Aditya Sharma are evidence to show that there was “exchange of money” received from Koneru. The Enforcement Directorate has filed a complaint recording industrialist Pardeep Koneru’s statement in which he has alleged that more than Rs 5 crore he paid to meat exporter Moin Qureshi was for then CBI director A P Singh. In its complaint, ED alleges that Qureshi was “extorting” money from Koneru and the Blackberry Messenger conversations between Qureshi and his employee Aditya Sharma are evidence to show that there was “exchange of money” received from Koneru. ED cites extracts of Koneru’s statement in its complaint. According to these excerpts, Koneru said he met Qureshi at a social event in Chattarpur Farms in south Delhi in February 2012. And that Qureshi had “done his rese...

Indian Express By Shubhajit Roy , New Delhi, October 26, 2017 After the bilateral talks that lasted for over an-hour-and-a-half, Swaraj said US President Donald Trump’s new South Asia strategy would be successful only if Pakistan takes effective action against terrorist groups, without any discrimination. With External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj sitting by his side, visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday took on Pakistan, saying there are “too many terror outfits” which find a “safe place in Pakistan”. Stating that Washington has conveyed “certain expectations” to Islamabad, he said “terror safe havens will not be tolerated”. After the bilateral talks that lasted for over an-hour-and-a-half, Swaraj said US President Donald Trump’s new South Asia strategy would be successful only if Pakistan takes effective action against terrorist groups, without any discrimination. However, Tillerson also made it clear that Washington wants to work with Islam...

Indian Express By Parthasarathi Biswas, October 27, 2017 Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of NFCSF, said the online platform will allow for greater access as well as better price realisation. “Chances of cartelisation will be minimum on such a platform,” he said. Marketing of sugar by the mills this season may see an important change with the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) and the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) jointly introducing an online platform. This platform will allow millers to float their tenders online and buyers from across the country will be able to access the same. Traditionally, mills in both Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra float tenders and call bids for selling their sugar stock. Although the tenders are floated globally, mostly the local traders and brokers respond to the tenders. Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of NFCSF, said the online platform will allow for greater access as well as better price realisati...

Business Line By Urvashi Valecha, October 26, 2017 Singapore-based strategic investor ST Telemedia, Bharti Airtel’s subsidiary NxtraData and Mumbai-based Netmagic have emerged the top players in the Indian multi-tenant data centre market. According to a new report by 451 Research, a US-based information technology research and advisory company, the revenue for cloud computing in India is expected to have a 25 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) between 2016 and 2021, reaching $1.02 billion, a major boon for data centre providers. The report said Amazon Web Services is said to maintain the edge nodes in as many as five facilities in Mumbai alone, and has even moved some workloads from Singapore and Hong Kong in recent years. Microsoft Azure, for its part, has placed at least one major deployment with a dedicated substation, also in Mumbai, along with other edge nodes. Other top public cloud firms, such as IBM’s SoftLayer, Google, Baidu, Alibaba and...

The Hindu Peerzada Ashiq   OCTOBER 27, 2017 The United Jehad Council (UJC), a PoK-based conglomerate of militants, said on Thursday that it will support Hurriyat on the dialogue process with New Delhi. “They [the militants] are with the Kashmir leadership if they start a dialogue process. Since India is not sincere, we have decided to lay down three conditions,” UJC chief Syed Salahuddin told a press conference in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The three conditions were that India should declare Jammu and Kashmir a disputed territory; acknowledge that there are three parties to the dispute; and accept that Kashmir issue will be resolved in the light of the United Nations resolutions in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiris. He alleged that India, in the name of dialogue, had always committed fraud. “When there were no options, the youth of Kashmir took to arms. Under the present circumstances, armed struggle remains the only way out as India is eager ...

Medianama By  Shashidhar KJ ( @KJshashi shashidhar@medianama.com )      October 27, 2017    HuffPost and the Times of India Group have ended their partnership, multiple, reliable sources, including current and former employees, have confirmed to MediaNama. The deal was Times Bridge’s flagship partnership: Times Bridge is the Times of India Group’s international investments and partnerships division, and its investments and/or partnerships include Airbnb, Coursera, Uber, Vice, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, PC Mag, Advertising Age, Goal, Tech Radar and Techpost. HuffPost (previously Huffington Post) partnership had launched the Indian website in December 2014. This would be the second AOL deal to collapse in India. In 2013, Techcrunch’s India partnership with NetworkPlay fell apart after their India event. Sources said that HuffPost decided not to renew the 3-year partnership for business reasons, and also cited editori...

Coin Desk By Nikhilesh De Oct 26, 2017   Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has joined the ranks of those who believe the market for bitcoin is in bubble territory. According to MarketWatch, Buffett touched on the subject during an annual question-and-answer session held in Omaha earlier this month. While Buffett focused on a range of topics, he honed in on the cryptocurrency market during his remarks. "People get excited from big price movements, and Wall Street accommodates," he was quoted as saying. Describing bitcoin as a "real bubble," according to the publication, Buffett also criticized the idea of applying a value to bitcoin. He told attendees: "You can’t value bitcoin because it’s not a value-producing asset." Buffett's comments came amidst a significant month for bitcoin's price, according to CoinDesk data. After fluctuating around $4,300 at the beginning of October, the price surged to more than $6,100 less than a week...

Economic Times ET Online, Oct 30, 2017 The government procurement departments were perceived as dens of corruption, where norms were often compromised to favour suppliers who offered cuts to conniving officials. A novel alternative by the government aims to put an end to the Procurement Raj. The government is building its own 'Amazon' where suppliers and service providers will list to be eligible for government supplies. All government purchases will be done through this portal called the Government e-Marketplace, or GeM, which was  launched in August last year with the main aim of making the process much more efficient.  The GeM portal will manage procurement for ministries and departments for items such as laptops, air conditioners, furniture and items of daily use like stationery at both the state and central level. Services such as taxis and florists also come under the purview of GeM.  Thousands of products and services such as security...

Economic Times PTI | Updated: Oct 27, 2017 A crucial Senate Committee today confirmed the nomination of Ken Juster as the next American envoy to India, paving the way for a full Senate confirmation of the old India hand, who played a key role in the landmark Indo-US civil nuclear deal.  Juster's nomination was agreed by the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee by a voice vote, reflecting the bipartisan support his nomination has in the Congress.  The nomination of Juster, 62, now moves to the full Senate before he can be sworn in as America's new Ambassador to India.  He would replace Richard Verma as the top American diplomat to India if confirmed, The position has been lying vacant since January 20 after Verma resigned from the post with the swearing in of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States.  Given his overwhelming support among lawmakers, Juster is expected to be confirmed by the full Sen...

Economic Times Neeraj Chauhan,  Bharti Jain, TNN Oct 27, 2017 Under the guise of preaching Islam, Zakir Naik made a fortune, receiving huge sums from within India and abroad over the years that he camouflaged as "friendly loans and gifts" and donations by "well-wishers".  In order to establish systematic money laundering by Naik, the NIA collected and analysed thousands of financial documents of 13 entities and 40 individuals, including his companies, NGOs, associated firms, directors and real estate agents, apart from scrutinising 85 bank accounts.  The probe revealed that a huge quantity of cash was generated by entities and individuals connected to Naik, and invested in real estate and holding companies over the years. According to the NIA chargesheet, Naik owns 10 immovable properties (land and buildings) worth Rs 104 crore. Sources say most of these properties are in Maharashtra, and all of them will be attached soon.  Explaining the m...

PTI | Updated: Oct 27, 2017 WASHINGTON; Seeking to achieve a "more balanced" trade relationship, the Trump administration has pressed India on key issues like market access, lifting of trade barriers and intellectual property protection.  During the first US-India bilateral Trade Policy Forum (TPF) under the Trump administration which was attended by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu, India strongly differed with the American position on many of the contentious issues.  Describing his discussions with Lighthizer as "positive", Prabhu said "despite differences over minor issues", there was alignment on "capturing the huge potential" of bilateral trade.  Lighthizer said the US pressed for strong outcomes across a number of areas, including non-science-based barriers to agricultural trade, continuing and new regulatory and technical barriers to trade that ..  "O...