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Business Line Our Bureau December 22, 2017 Amid bright spots in the economy, the farm sector needs serious attention as it is facing severe constraints, felt S Narayan, former Finance Secretary, Government of India. Farmers are in more distress in the last three years than ever before. Tight minimum support price and allowing fertilisers to reach close to market prices have created challenges for farmers, he said while addressing a discussion on the state of the Indian economy, organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Narayan asserted that issues pertaining to food supply, demand, price stability and food preservation have to be addressed. He felt that paradigm of economic management must change. “We have reached a point where we can’t say GDP is a measure of development and growth should be looked at the inclusive point of view,” he added. Presenting an outlook on the economy, Anjan Deb Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Rating Officer,...

India Today Prabhash K Dutta New Delhi, December 22, 2017 There are strategic and diplomatic reasons why India at UN voted against the US move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Many observers were surprised with India voting in favour of a resolution brought by Turkey and Yemen in the United Nations opposing the United States' decision recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Given the increasing inclination of India towards the US and Israel, speculations were rife that New Delhi might abstain from voting in the UN like 35 countries including Australia and Canada. India decided to support the resolution,  which was approved with a majority of 127-9 at the UN General Assembly. And, India had its reasons to vote to serve its interests. GLOBAL OPINION There was ample evidence to show that the world opinion was not in favour of giving a stamp of recognition to Jerusalem as Israel's capital and thereby completely rejecting Palest...

The Hindu Suhasini Haidar & Atul Aneja Updated: December  23, 2017  Scope of boundary talks extended China and India must “transcend the bilateral dimension” of their ties for stability in Asia and the world, said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China’s State Counsellor Yang Jiechi in their first boundary talks since the Doklam standoff. They discussed enhancing confidence-building measu- res and an “early settlem- ent” of the boundary issue, a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said. The 20th round of Special Representative talks, which officials said were held in New Delhi on Thursday under an extended mandate, referred repeatedly to the consensus reached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the subject of bettering ties. “We know that President Xi and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi met this year in Xiamen and reached an important consensus. So the special representatives meeting [followed] the ...

The Indian Express Written by  Praveen Swami ,  Chiang Mai December 23, 2017  Thailand’s intelligence services had begun noticing the use of Rohingya refugees by jihadists as early as 2007, claiming they were being used as mercenaries by Islamist insurgents operating in the country’s conflict-torn southern provinces.   Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room and a central hall. But the sparse two-floor house-for-rent wasn’t open for entrepreneurs flocking to the exuberant town of Mae Sot on Thailand’s border with Myanmar: dealers in electronics and used cars, smuggled gems and teak, narcotics, laundered cash and trafficked women. Its clientele was special: Khalistan terrorists from India and the UK, Lashkar-linked operatives from Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state, Bangladesh jihadists, all arriving for discreet, week-long courses in the art of fabricating improvised explosive devices. This month, photographs surfaced of Rohingya jihadists fr...

India Today By Mayank Pratap Singh  December 23, 2017 In a wholly deplorable development, Jamaat Ud Dawah chief has created an army of his own. The images of the special security team created by the Lashkar-e-Taiba for global terrorist and Jamaat-u-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed are seen on the passing out parade of new recruits. In a wholly deplorable development, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief has created an army of his own. Images of passing out parade of new recruits that forms the special security team for the UN designated global terrorist and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, created by the Lashkar-e-Taiba have come up. In Gujranwala, the new recruits of Jamaat-ud-Dawa are going to take an oath for serving the global terrorist. Hafiz Saeed visited the Gujranwala town for the passing out parade of the new recruits, after being in house arrest . The LeT squad has been charged with providing Saeed round-the-clock security cover even when he travels outside Lahore for...

Indian Express By:  ENS Economic Bureau New Delhi   December 23, 2017    The government, however, is working on consolidation among the state-owned banks. The finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India on Friday dismissed rumours of closure of certain public sector bank, and said the government was committed to strengthen the PSBs. The decision of the RBI to initiate a ‘prompt corrective action’ (PCA) against Bank of India led to rumours that the government may close down some banks. The RBI in a statement on Friday said that it has come across some “misinformed communication circulating in some section of media, including social media, about closure of some public sector banks in the wake of their being placed under the PCA.” The government too dismissed such rumours. “No question of closing down any bank. Government is strengthening PSBs by 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan. Do not believe rumour mongers. Recap, Reforms roadmap for ...

Indian Express By:  ENS Economic Bureau December 23, 2017 The raids, which began in the morning, were conducted by over 70 officers from Sebi’s investigation, surveillance and enforcement division.   The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday raided over 30 locations mostly in Mumbai and Delhi in connection with the alleged leak of price sensitive information of listed firms through social media, said sources familiar with the development. The raids, which began in the morning, were conducted by over 70 officers from Sebi’s investigation, surveillance and enforcement division. The Sebi officials were assisted by the state police officers, said a source. “The markets regulator has seized numerous documents, registers, laptops, phones and computers during the raids,” the source said. According to sources, this is one of the biggest operations since Sebi got the search and seizure powers. The searches follow a probe into circulation of ...

Business Line TV Jayan December 22, 2017 In a development that could give much reprieve to wheat farmers across the world, scientists have gained gene-level insights into how a deadly fungus attacks the cereal crop, leading to its widespread destruction, as seen already in many countries in Africa and West Asia. Though the fungal epidemic caused by a strain of fungus Puccinia graminis tritici (Pgt), called Ug99, has not reached India yet, it has been lurking in the neighbourhood; in Iran and Afghanistan for a while. The fungal strain, first detected in Uganda around 1999 (thus the name Ug99), is much dreaded because 90 per cent wheat grown all over the world could be susceptible to it. This is because it can overcome the resistance conferred by a specific gene called Sr35 which is part and parcel of the most high-yielding wheat varieties. Now, in two studies, published in the journal Science on Thursday, scientists from Australia, the UK and the...

The Indian Express   ENS Economic Bureau   December 23, 2017 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has bagged a fresh $2.25-billion contract from its existing customer, global TV rating measurement company Nielsen, making it one of the largest ever such deal for the Indian IT industry. TCS’ relationship with Nielsen began in 2007 with a 10-year, $1.2-billion contract which was further extended to 2020 taking the total value to $2.5 billion. A filing with the SEC said, “Nielsen has committed to purchase services from TCS from the Effective Date through the remaining term of the Agreement (the ‘Minimum Commitment’) in the amount of $2.25 billion, including a commitment to purchase at least $320 million in services per year from 2017 through 2020, $186 million in services per year from 2021 through 2024, and $139.5 million in services in 2025.” This fresh $2.25-billion dollar contract comes as a big boost for TCS as it growth has slipped into single digits and sets up...

Indian Express Khaled Ahmed December 23, 2017 On Friday, December 8, Pakistan announced that it would allow the wife and mother of the arrested Indian spy,  Kulbhushan Jadhav , to meet him on humanitarian grounds on December 25. It has also allowed an Indian embassy official to accompany them, as requested by New Delhi. The two countries are contesting the Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. This is clearly an “olive branch” gesture on the part of Islamabad. Why has this happened? Some say it is going to be a case of exchange of spies, or a “spy-for-spy” game instead of spy-versus-spy. In April, India caught Muhammad Habib Zahir, the retired Lt Colonel of the Pakistan Army who disappeared from Lumbini near Nepal’s border with India and is now suspected to be in Indian custody because “he was in the team that nabbed Kulbhushan Jadhav in March 2016”, according to The Indian Express. On the Pakistani side, it was revealed that Zahir ...