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The Hindu,  DECEMBER 10, 2017 Anti-nuclear campaign group ICAN is Nobel Peace laureate  The leader of the group that won this year's Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday urged nuclear nations to adopt a United Nations treaty banning atomic weapons in orderto prevent“the end of us”.  The International Campaign to Abolish NuclearWeapons (ICAN) was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize by a Nobel committee that cited the spread of nuclear weapons and the growing risk of an atomic war. ICAN is a coalition of 468 grassroots non-governmental groups that campaigned for a U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted by 122 nations in July. The treaty is not signed by - and would not apply to - any of the states that already have nuclear arms. Beatrice Fihn, ICAN's Executive Director, urged them to sign the agreement. “It provides a choice. A choice between the two endings: the end of nuclear weapons or the end of us,” she said in her speech at the N

 The Economic Times, DEC 11, 2017 It's commonplace to blame the promoters of bankrupt companies of gaming the system for years by diverting funds, wilful defaults, perpetrating fraud and indulging in malfeasance. But the corporates argue they are not unmitigated villains. In many cases, their businesses caved in due to lax government response, policy perversions, harsh judicial interventions or even wrong incentives. For some they were fatal, for others severe bodyblows. Rakhi Mazumdar & Rachita Prasad get behind those macro mess-ups.  Essar  Steel Raw material disruptions  1. De-allocation of Reliance KGD6 gas in mid-2011 for domestic steel sector robbed the main fuel linkage (68% of Hazira plant dependent on natural gas) & hit capacity ramp up, capacity utilisation came down to 35% Revenue loss on account of non-availability of gas was estimated at over Rs 26,000 crore by company.  2. Essar Steel built a 267-km pipeline in 2005 to carry iron ore in slu

The Times of India,  Bharti Jain |  TNN  |  Updated: Dec 11, 2017, NEW DELHI: Prominent Dubai and Pakistan-based Rohingya leaders have enlisted the support of Lashker-e-Taiba affliate Jamaat ud Dawah to espouse the cause of Rohingya settlers in Pakistan and other countries including India, according to latest intelligence reports. In fact, JuD offshoot Falah-e-Insaniyat is allegedly collecting donations from across Pakistan to provide relief material and medical aid to Rohingya immigrants. Firdous Sheikh, the Dubai-based president of Rohingya Federation of Arakan, had visited Pakistan last month to attend a seminar organised by NGO Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan (AKFP) in Manshera, PoK, and later a similar event in Islamabad, in support of Rohingya Muslims. During this visit, he met Naveed Qamar, JuD 'amir' based in Karachi, along with Noor Hussain, Pak-based leader of Rohingya Solidarity Organisation and President, Burmese Muslim Welfare Organisation. Naveed in

The Times of India, Rajat Pandit |  TNN  |   Dec 11, 2017, New Delhi Around 1,600-1,800 Chinese troops have now virtually established a permanent presence in the Doklam area, near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction, with the construction of two helipads, upgraded roads, scores of pre-fabricated huts, shelters and stores to withstand the freezing winter in the high-altitude region. Indian security establishment sources said while India "achieved its strategic objective" of not letting China extend its existing road in Doklam (or the Dolam plateau) southwards towards the Jampheri ridge, the fallout has been "the almost permanent stationing of People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops in the region ". "Earlier, PLA patrols would come to Doklam, which is disputed between China and Bhutan, between April-May and October-November every year to mark their presence and lay claim to the area before going back," said a source. "Now, after the 7

The Indian Express, By: PTI | New Delhi |  Published: December 10, 2017 The regulations for grievance handling procedure under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code have been notified, wherein the filing fee will be refunded to the stakeholder in case the complaint is found to be not “frivolous or malicious”. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), which is implementing the Code, has notified the regulations and will be applicable for all stakeholders, including creditors, debtors and service providers. Depending on the complaint, the IBBI can order an investigation or issue a show cause notice to the entities concerned. “The regulations provide for an objective and transparent procedure for disposal of grievances and complaints by the IBBI, that does not spare a mischievous service provider, but does not harass an innocent service provider,” the corporate affairs ministry said in a release today. The IBBI comes under the ministry. A large number of cases ha

The Indian Express, By: PTI | New Delhi |  Published: December 10, 2017  With right policy initiatives, the government’s target of achieving USD 1 trillion worth of digital services is possible by 2022, according to a report. “The Internet is a technology space with no geographical boundaries and is by its nature made to offer services to businesses crossing transnational boundaries. “Therefore, it is very important that legal and regulatory provisions pertaining to this sector are aligned to promote this open nature of the sector,” said the joint report on taxation of the digital economy brought out by IAMAI and Nishith Desai Associates said. While the country has achieved remarkable success in recent times in improving the global ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’, the digital industry has some specific concerns that need to be addressed to ensure the Indian digital sector reaches its full potential, the report added. It suggested that consistent and predictabl

07 December 2017 Once ridiculed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the flagship scheme for rural employment, Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), has been praised by his own government for helping in increasing rural household income. It has not only helped in increasing groundwater table in the last one decade, but also agriculture productivity, mainly cereals and vegetables and fodders. The MGNREGS was launched in 2006 by the UPA government in order to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed employment to rural households. When it comes to on the scheme’s impact on sustainable livelihood, there has been an 11 per cent increase in rural household income, 11.5 per cent increase in cereal productivity and 32 per cent increase in vegetable productivity, according to a study conducted by New Delhi-based Institute of Economic Growth. Moreover, due to the conservation work

The Indian Express, By: ENS Economic Bureau | Mumbai |  Published: December 11, 2017  Former State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya has said the issue of moral hazard was an important issue in the context of the resolution under the IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code), recently amended to bar promoters from bidding for their assets. Bhattacharya said if promoters were allowed to regularise their accounts and bid, it would make them wilful defaulters. “If they can bring in the money now, it means they had the means, so why did they not bring it in earlier?” “What is the moral hazard? It is that the same people who could not run a company, for whatever reason, would get it at a much lower price. The hazard is that others, who may not have the problem, would deliberately do things so that they can pare their debt and come back. It is because of this moral hazard that the Ordinance has been brought in,” Bhattacharya said at a panel discussion at the FE Best Ba

The Economic Times, By PTI, December 10, 2017 Wheat sowing, which was lagging behind by 6.23 per cent till last week of this rabi season, will pick up pace in the coming weeks, Agriculture Secretary S K Pattanayak said ruling out any reduction in total acreage.  Sowing of wheat, the main rabi crop, starts in October and harvesting begins in April.  As per the official data, farmers had sown wheat in area covering 190.87 lakh hectares till last week of the season, down by 6.23 per cent from 203.56 lakh hectares in the year- ago period. Normally wheat is sown in 300-odd lakh hectares of land.  The sowing is lagging behind in key growing states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana.  "There was delay in sowing. Therefore, wheat coverage so far remains less. The weekly data shows over 6 per cent reduction. However, we believe the sowing pace will pick up in the coming weeks," Pattanayak told .  There is no cause of concern and there will not

 The Indian Express, New Delhi ,  December 11, 2017 The Lashkar-e-Taiba’s charitable wing, the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, has established operations reaching out to Muslim populations inside Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state, the organisation has claimed in propaganda material released online. FIF volunteers, the organisation has said, “distributed millions in cash money and blankets among more than 300 besieged Rohingya Muslims”. The claim was backed by Bangladesh-based intelligence officials, who told The Indian Express that the group had been operating in refugee camps near the town of Cox’s Bazaar, with the help of local Islamist groups. Shahid Mahmood, FIF’s head of foreign operations, said in an online statement that a relief convoy raised by the organisation had succeeded in entering Rakhine “in extremely risky conditions” — an evident reference to the illegal crossing of the Bangladesh border. He said FIF intended to “start its relief activities in all areas of B