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The Economic Times December 6, 2017 NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the proposed FRDI Bill protects the rights of depositors, denying reports to the contrary.  "The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 is pending before the Standing Committee. The objective of the government is to fully protect the interest of the financial institutions and depositors," he said in a tweet.  he government stands committed to this objective, he added.  According to Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg, FRDI Bill proposes to protect existing rights of the depositors.  "There is no dilution thereof. Instead it enhances present protections in certain ways. Principal guarantee for PSU Banks' depositors come from government ownership which also remains completely unaffected," Garg said.  The government tabled the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 in August in the Lok Sabha, which was referred to a Joint...

The Indian Express December 7, 2017 Breaking ranks with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference of which he is an  executive committee  member, Abdul Ghani Bhat, leader of the Muslim Conference, met Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre’s Special Representative on Jammu Kashmir, because, according to him, “dialogue is the only effective and civilised way of addressing issues bedeviling relations between nations or peoples”. Ahead of Sharma’s first visit to the Valley in early November, the Hurriyat’s Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and Yasin Malik, had issued a statement against any engagement with Sharma. “…For any Kashmiri to be part of this futile exercise will only undermine our internationally acknowledged legitimate and just struggle, nourished by the blood of our martyrs and great sacrifices and hardships rendered daily by the masses,” the JRL statement had said. However, Bhat, a former chairman of the Hurriyat who ha...

The Economic Times Dec 07, 017 In a leap towards building laser weapons capability, India has made a breakthrough in its efforts to develop directed energy weapons, or DEWs, that can potentially end future wars before they begin.  It’s not exactly what we saw in Star Wars films or Flash Gordon comics decades ago, but DEWs such as high powered lasers can destroy enemy missiles, aircraft and advanced weaponry based on electronic circuitry.  India’s primary defence research organisation Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) recently conducted a successful test of a laser system mounted on a truck, and plans are now afoot to create a more powerful laser with a longer range, people familiar with the development told ET.  Private companies such as Kalyani Group and Rolls-Royce are also looking to develop or build DEWs in the country. DEWs are weapons that produce a beam of concentrated electromagnetic energy. There are mainly two types of DE...

The Economic Times December 7, 2017 Max Super Specialty, Patparganj has made “unfair” and “excessive” profits on the sale of disposable syringes to patients admitted in its hospital, an investigation by the Competition Commission of India has revealed. The commission is expected to hold a hearing on this issue on December 20.  CCIBSE 0.00 % in 2015 ordered a probe into allegations that the hospital had colluded with multinational syringe maker Becton Dickinson’s Indian arm to sell a particular brand of disposable syringes for nearly twice its open market price.  Delhi-based lawyer Vijay Sharma, who filed the complaint, claimed he purchased Becton Dickinson India's disposable syringe brand 'Emerald' from Max Patparganj's in-house pharmacy for Rs 19.50 as per the Maximum Retail Price (MRP).  Yet, he claimed he was charged only Rs 10 for the same syringe at a medical store outside the hospital. The product's MRP there was much lower at Rs 11.50 even...

The Times of India Dec 07, 2017 Even as China continues to stall India's Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership+ , Russia has come out strongly in support of India saying that India's application cannot be "interlinked" with that of Pakistan and that Moscow is discussing the issue with Beijing at different levels. China has favoured a criteria-based approach for expansion of the 48-member group, which controls international nuclear commerce, instead of one based on merit, in what India sees an attempt to draw a false equivalence between India's case and Pakistan's. The issue again came up for discussion on Wednesday as Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov met foreign secretary S Jaishankar. "We recognise that at the moment there is no unanimity on Pakistan's application and that the same cannot be interlinked with India's," said Ryabkov, after his meeting with Jaishankar. This is probably the first time that a...

The Hindu December 7, 2017 Following up on the resolution passed in the December 1 Cabinet meeting, the government on Wednesday issued an order allowing the AP-Genco to take up the execution of the 12 X 80 MW Polavaram hydro electric project subject to certain conditions. The project is to be awarded as per the AP-Genco Board’s recommendation. As per GO MS. No. 34, the AP-Genco has to appoint a Project Management Agency (PMA) and an internal management team, which should review the project regularly and own up responsibility of completing the project in time without any cost and time overruns and bear the additional cost, if any, due to delay in the completion and not pass it on to the Discoms. The other conditions are: AP-Genco should reduce the Operations and Maintenance cost norm of 2% to 1.5% per annum in order to reduce the tariff further; make efforts to avail the ‘Interest Subvention Scheme’ being formulated by Government of India by completing the project within...

The Indian Express December 7, 2017 The government on Wednesday released an anti-profiteering application form (APAF-1) for consumers to complain against profiteering under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Using the form, which has been released by Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), consumers would be able to complain against cases of inadequate commensurate reduction of prices of goods or/and services even after a cut in GST rate or availment of benefit of input tax credit by companies/service providers. Affected consumers may file the application before the state screening committees if the profiteering is of local nature or standing committee on anti-profiteering if the profiteering is of all-India character, the CBEC said. The three-page form has columns for consumers to fill in their details along with details of the registered supplier who has not passed on the benefit. Among the mandatory information needed to be filled by the complainants is the...

The Daily Brief Dec 07, 2017 While middle class Beijingers breath the cleanest air in recent winters, in Zhuozhou, a small city just 20 minutes by train from the capital’s downtown, residents are shivering through cold nights without heating. The reason: a five-year anti-pollution drive has forced rural areas in northern China to switch from dirty coal to the cleaner alternative. The massive retrofitting campaign has sent gas prices soaring while many are left without heating systems at all. In two villages close to Zhuozhou’s high-speed railway station, on the city’s eastern edge, villagers estimate only about one third of homes have been connected with natural gas supply, while others say they’re still anxiously waiting for the gas company to install furnaces. Their old fashioned coal stoves were all demolished as the government intensified efforts to phase out coal use in rural homes. As temperatures drop to around -6°C, they say nights are “increasingly unbearab...

The Indian Express December 7, 2017 India’s second largest software exporter Infosys on Wednesday said it has approached the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to settle a case of alleged disclosure lapses involving the severance pay deal with former chief financial officer, Rajiv Bansal. “The settlement application pertains to matters relating to severance agreement entered into with the former CFO in October 2015,” said Infosys in a filing to the stock exchange. “Through the settlement process, the company wants to resolve allegations relating to the company not seeking prior and separate approval of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee and the Audit Committee in relation to the severance agreement with the former CFO; and in relation to disclosures pertaining to the said severance agreement, cessation of payments and initiation of arbitration under the severance agreement.” Earlier this year, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy had raised concer...

The Economic Times Dec 06, 2017 In a move that will further India's cause to protect farm products such as apples and poultry from sudden import surges or price falls, the Philippines has proposed a tool that will allow developing countries to raise duties of certain products to deal with such volatile situations.  Called special safeguard provisions, this trade remedy tool would be used to mitigate price volatility risks and balance distortions in agricultural trade. It is important for India as the cappedtariffs of some agricultural products such as apples and chicken legs are not high enough to protect domestic farmers.  The Philippines has made these recommendations in a series of proposals to the World Trade Organization (WTO) ahead of the crucial ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires next week. It has been leading the cause on special safeguards on behalf of the G-33 for a long time.  "While the Philippines has spearheaded this idea, it is in India...

Economic Times December 6, 2017 The government is looking at extending fixed cost recovery period of hydro projects to 30- 35 years, from 12 years at present, to bring the tariff down to as low as Rs 2 per unit, Power Minister R K Singh has said.  The ministry is working on the hydropolicy Rs 16,000 crore assistance to projects to promote the clean source of energy and it is expected to be tabled before the Union Cabinet for approval this month.  "The depreciation period should also be increased to reduce the (fixed) cost of hydro plants. The life of hydropower plants is above 70 years," Singh, who is also the minister of new and renewable energy, told PTI in an interview.  "Thus, the depreciation should be spread over 30-35 years instead of 12 because tariff is linked with depreciation," he added.  He said it happens with a lot of hydropower plants that the tariff remains high at Rs 6 per unit during the recovery period and after realisation...

The Telegraph December 6, 2017 A deal struck by the G20 steel ministers in Berlin may mean better days for India's steel sector that has been at the centre of the country's massive bad loan problem, disrupting both the banking sector as well as industrial recovery. The G20 deal by a body, called the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, has promised countries will phase out subsidies and cut over-capacity, a move aimed at China which is found to be guilty on both counts. The move could also help to curb dumping by Korea and Japan. The deal negotiated in the eleventh hour despite a row between the US, the largest importer of steel, and China, the biggest exporter, on Saturday will be presented at the WTO meet in Beunos Aires later this month. However, Indian officials who were part of the conclave said the deal was more a statement of intent and fell short on actual deliverables as China resisted US pressure to take on more responsibility for market distorti...

The Hindu November 28, 2017 High-level political commitment stressed India had the highest share of welfare costs (or a loss of income from labour), of about $220 billion (about ₹1.4 trillion), in South and South-East Asia — of a combined total of $380 billion from mortality due to air pollution, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The global mortality costs from outdoor air pollution are projected to rise to about $25 trillion by 2060 in the absence of more stringent measures. At regional and national scale, China’s welfare costs from mortality were the highest at nearly $1 trillion followed by the Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) countries with a combined total of $730 billion, the report added quoting a 2016 projection by the OECD. Although certain forms of pollution have been reduced as “technologies and management strategies have advanced,” approximately 19 million premature deaths are estimated ...

Business Line December 5, 2017 Experts from the agriculture sector have sought measures to offset the impact of inflation on crops and income security for farmers and also debated the farm loan waiver at a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday. This was the first such meeting and the Finance Minister will meet more sectoral groups this week to get their proposals for the Union Budget 2018-19, which is likely on February 1. As the farm sector provides employment to nearly half of the country’s total workforce, its prospects will play a crucial role in the upcoming Assembly elections as well as the 2019 general elections. Pointing out that the median income of farmers in 2012 was just ₹1,600 per month, B Dasaratha Rami Reddy, Secretary General of the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, said, “The farming community of India demands an Income Security Act for farmers as well as tenant and farm labour.” Ashok Gulati, former Chairman o...