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G Sampath, Jan 09, 2018 The fundamental value proposition of the blockchain is that it eliminates the need for trust The Finance Ministry recently issued a statement warning against investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (CCs). Likening CCs to ‘Ponzi schemes’, it linked them to terror-funding, smuggling, drug-trafficking, and money-laundering. The stern advisory came after three other warnings issued by the Reserve Bank of India. Why the distrust? Two aspects of the bitcoin phenomenon have attracted great interest: the challenge it poses to states and central banks; and the potential of its underlying technology to unleash a new wave of creative destruction. It would be safe to say that the world’s top central bankers have finally realised the futility of trying to control CCs. They are preparing to join them — by issuing their own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs). A CBDC is a complex tool whose functionality is still being researched. But there is

PTI ISLAMABAD, JANUARY 08, 2018 16:42 IST Pakistan has been denying that ISIS had an organised presence in the country, however, even though the terrorist group has claimed responsibility for several other attacks in Balochistan in recent years. Though Pakistan government has denied the presence of the Islamic State (IS) on its soil, a leading think-tank here has warned that the dreaded terror outfit is alarmingly increasing its presence, posing a major threat to the country. The security report by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) on Sunday stated that the IS, especially active in northern Sindh and Balochistan, was also behind the abduction and killing of two Chinese nationals last year, Dawn News reported. The PIPS shared the findings of its security analysis titled Special Report 2017, providing an insight into security challenges of Pakistan. Pakistan has been denying that ISIS had an organised presence in the country, however, even though the terrori

APP | Dawn.comJanuary 08, 2018 In the face of mounting US pressure against Pakistan, China has opposed the idea of linking terrorism to any country and placing the onus of responsibility of counter-terrorism on a certain country, reported Radio Pakistan, the state-run radio station. Referring to the recent statements of US President Donald Trump and other US officials, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang on Monday said that 'pointing fingers' at each other is not conducive to the global counter-terrorism efforts. "Terrorism is a common enemy of the world and crackdown on the menace needs joint efforts from the international community," Kang said during a press briefing in Beijing. The spokesperson once again acknowledged Islamabad's sacrifices and contributions in the war against terrorism. “As we have stressed many times that Pakistan has made important sacrifices and contributions to the global anti-terrorism cause," Kang was quo

ANI|Jan 08, 2018 NEW DELHI: Digital payments platform Paytm Payments Bank on Monday announced its partnership with IndusInd Bank to introduce a first-of-its kind facility to create a fixed deposit when the balance of a customer's account exceeds Rs one lakh, at the end of the day.  The facility allows Paytm Payments Bank customers' to redeem their deposits instantly, anytime without paying any pre-closure or miscellaneous charges and can earn up to 6.85 percent annual interest.  Additionally, if a customer becomes a senior citizen before the maturity period, the deposit will be auto renewed under the senior citizen scheme, thus earning higher interest.  This new offering, which provides hassle-free and paperless experience for Paytm Payments Bank customers, will further help boost their savings and earnings potential.  "We are confident our customers would appreciate our efforts to simplify investments while providing assured returns," said MD

BY PRABODHAN A. POL ON 08/01/2018 The recent violence at Bhima Koregaon has once again brought the relationship between the Dalits and Marathas of Maharashtra into the limelight. The violence follows a long and complicated history of their camaraderie as well as the antagonism between them, which often revealed the social and political turbulence of the time. The terms of the relationship between the two communities are not directed solely on the basis of caste; they are also defined by the roles these communities play on the ground. Numerically, Marathas are dominant in the state. They are a landed community and enjoy significant monopoly over key political offices. Compared to them, Dalits are less in number, but have a significant population dispersed across Maharashtra. After the arrival of the Ambedkarite alternative, Dalits, particularly Mahars, have consistently posed a challenge to Maratha hegemony by explicitly rejecting stigmatised traditional village-based duties. Sinc

Reuters, JANUARY 08, 2018 20:54 IST Protests that shook Iran were not just aimed at the economy, President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday, remarks suggesting the real targets were powerful conservatives opposed to his plans to expand individual freedoms at home and promote détente abroad. Mr. Rouhani also called for the lifting of curbs on social media used by anti-government protesters. “It would be a misrepresentation (of events) and also an insult to Iranian people to say they only had economic demands,” Mr. Rouhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. “People had economic, political and social demands.” Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the security forces had put an end to a week of unrest fomented by what it called foreign enemies. The protests, which began over economic hardships suffered by the young and working class, spread to more than 80 cities and towns and resulted in 22 deaths and more than 1,000 arrests, according to Iran

Updated: January 8, 2018 17:23 IST | PTI The commerce and industry ministry is awaiting a concrete proposal from iPhone maker Apple to set up manufacturing unit in India, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said today. “We are waiting for a good proposal from Apple...Please give us a concrete proposal. If the proposal comes, we will examine it. We are always open for that,” Prabhu told reporters here. During a recent meeting with Apple officials, the minister has asked them for a proposal. Nick Amman, Director, Government Affairs and Priya Balasubramaniam, Global Vice President, Operations, Apple Inc met the minister last Friday. In March, the then Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has not accepted most of the demands of the company. Apple India had sought concessions, including duty exemption on manufacturing and repair units, components, capital equipment and consumables for smartphone manufacturing and service/r

SUNDERARAJAN PADMANABHAN, Pune, January 8, 2018 India today took a major step ahead in upgrading computing capacity in the area of weather forecasting and climate monitoring. Union Minister for Earth Sciences Dr.Harsh Vardhan inaugurated a super computer system at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) here on Monday, taking its total high performance computing (HPC) power to as high as 6.8 Petaflop. With this, India will now occupy the fourth position, next only to United Kingdom, Japan and USA in terms of dedicated capacity for HPC resources for weather and climate proposes. The UK leads with a capacity of 20.4 Petaflop, followed by Japan with 20 Petaflop and USA with 10.7 Petaflop. India had till now occupied the eighth position with a capacity of 1 Petaflop. With the new system, it has now jumped over Korea (4.8 Petaflop), France (4.4 Petaflop) and China (2.6 Petaflop). A petaflop is the ability of a computer to execute one quadrillion floating point

PTI | Updated: Jan 8, 2018, 21:01 IST An Italian court today acquitted Giuseppe Orsi, the former president of defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica, of charges related to alleged bribes paid in exchange for a Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal to sell 12 AugustaWestland helicopters to India. Orsi was arrested in 2014 and resigned as chief executive of the aerospace group which was later renamed as Leonardo. Orsi was at the helm of AugustaWestland when the deal was struck and he is suspected of involvement in the payment of bribes. He had been sentenced to four-a-half-years years in jail for false accounting and corruption. Bruno Spagnolini, former CEO of the company's helicopters subsidiary AgustaWestland, who had also been handed a four- year jail term on the same charges, was also cleared, Italian news agency ANSA reported. The case against Orsi and Spagnolini resulted from an investigation launched in 2012 into the sale of 12 luxury helicopters to India. India

PTI, Tue, Jan 09 2018 The government will start a fresh process this month to procure 12 advanced minesweepers for the Indian Navy after negotiations for the Rs32,000 crore project between the Goa Shipyard and a South Korean company hit a dead-end. The Navy badly needs the minesweepers or mine counter-measure vessels to guard India’s critical sea lanes in the backdrop of China’s growing naval might in the Indian Ocean region. “We will issue fresh EoI (Expression of Interest) for the project very soon. It will be issued this month,” chairman of state-run Goa Shipyard Ltd Rear Admiral (retd) Shekhar Mital told PTI. People in the know said the Goa Shipyard had to call off the negotiations with Kangnam Corporation following differences over a host of issues including terms and conditions for technology transfer. The EoI is likely to be issued to a number of major foreign defence majors which build minesweepers. According to original understanding, the Goa Shipyard

PTI, Tue, Jan 09 2018 Drug firm Orchid Pharma Ltd on Monday said it has received establishment inspection report (EIR) from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for its Chennai facility. The company has received the EIR from the US regulator on successful inspection closure for the post-marketing adverse drug experience reporting inspection (PADE) conducted at Nungambakkam, Chennai facility, Orchid Pharma said in a BSE filing. The facility was inspected by USFDA in the month of June, 2017, it added. As per the USFDA, after the completion of an inspection of a facility, an EIR is issued to a company detailing inspectional findings. On Monday, Orchid Pharma shares closed 4.93% higher at Rs23.40 per scrip on BSE, while the Sensex ended 0.58% up at 34,352.79 points. Reference http://www.livemint.com/Industry/usgkoEmer22gqsCUtwvOYO/Orchid-Pharma-gets-EIR-from-USFDA-for-its-Chennai-facility.html

India FP Staff Jan 08, 2018 The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) expelled Mannan Bashir Wani, a Kashmiri research scholar at the university, until further inquiry after reports of him joining militants in Jammu and Kashmir surfaced. The Uttar Pradesh Police also conducted raids at the AMU campus to search for the missing Kashmiri student. Mannan, a 25-year-0ld who was pursuing his PhD in applied geology at AMU, reportedly joined Hizbul Mujahideen on 5 January. The news broke out after Mannan, who was visiting his home on a break, went missing. He was supposed to reach home on 3 January but he failed to turn up. Subsequently, photographs of him flaunting an assault rifle cum grenade launcher surfaced on social media. Mannan joined AMU after completing Bachelors in Geology and Earth Sciences from the University of Kashmir. He had also completed his Master's and MPhil in geology from AMU. He had been studying at AMU for past four years. He also won an award for the best p

Scroll, Jan 08, 2018  Militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen has told its members to pour acid into the eyes of the people who participate in the upcoming panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday. The panchayat elections, which were due in 2016, will be held from February 15. They were postponed because of the unrest that followed the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016. The previous panchayat elections in the state were held in 2011. An audio clip, purportedly a leaked conversation between Hizbul’s Operational Commander Riyaz Naikoo and militant leader Sameer Tiger, was circulated on social media. “You saw in 2016 how many youth lost their eyesight,” the person believed to be Naikoo was heard saying. “That is why we have planned...whosoever fights elections, he will be dragged out of his home and concentrated acid – sulphuric or hydrochloric – will be poured into his eyes so that he loses his eyesig

IndiaSpend Jan 09, 2018  The benefits of Aadhaar, India’s biometrics-based unique national identity system–the world’s largest–are unclear and the impact of direct benefit transfers it will be used to deliver to the poor is not studied enough, a new study published by an arm of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has concluded. The paper, ‘Biometric and Its Impact in India’, was a part of Staff Papers series published in its October 2017 edition. It is written by S Ananth, an adjunct faculty at the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), which was established by the RBI as an autonomous institute. Aadhaar is becoming central to India’s public policy with increasing number of programmes being linked to it. And its scope is constantly increasing. In the seven years following its introduction, 1.12 billion Indians or 88.2 percent of the population have enrolled for Aadhaar, IndiaSpend reported in March, 2017. Established by Unique Identification