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The Times Of India  Jan 18, 2018 India is keeping a hawk eye on the continuing presence of Chinese troops and their construction activities in north Doklam near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction, even as Army chief General Bipin Rawat said bilateral bonhomie had returned to the same level+ that existed before the 73-day troop faceoff in the region last year. The Indian security establishment believes People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers may return in "greater numbers" to the Doklam area (the Dolam Plateau), which is disputed between China and Bhutan, for some muscle-flexing after the harsh winter is over. "They have built infrastructure for it in north Doklam (separated from south Doklam by the Torsa Nala rivulet). But our troops, atop the watershed that dominates Doklam, are much better placed in terms of terrain. We are in a wait-and-watch mode, prepared for any eventuality," an official said. Indian troops will step in again if the PL...

Financial Express Jan 18, 2018 West Bengal has received investment proposals worth around Rs 2.20 lakh crore for this year, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said at the end of the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit on Wednesday. Though the break-up of these investment proposals is yet to be made available, commitments poured in from Adani Group director Pranav Adani, JLL India CEO and country head Ramesh Nair, The Chatterjee Group (TCG) chairman Purnendu Chatterjee, and Future Group chairman Kishore Biyani on Wednesday, the concluding day of the event. While representatives from the Centre were notably absent, a top state government official said the Centre’s investment plan of Rs 8,000 crore for illuminating rural roads this year has been taken into account and the investment for developing a deep draughted port at Tajpur has also been factored in while calculating the proposed investment figures. The port at Tajpur is going to be a joint venture of the Kolkata Po...

The Hindu Jan 18, 2018 There should be a frank public conversation on the judiciary — an internal patch-up is not enough As the consequences of the historic press conference of the four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court play out, a constant refrain that has been heard is of the need to resolve differences internally. This was always going to be the stock response of dominant sections of a legal and judicial fraternity that constantly speaks truth to government but is uncomfortable when the same standards are applied to them. Such a refrain, at first glance, is curious, as it appears to be an attempt to close the stable doors after the horse has bolted. But in reality it is the carefully calculated response of an entrenched mindset that seeks to maintain public confidence in the judiciary by keeping it insulated from public spotlight, discussion and criticism. It is this mindset that was challenged, in cause and effect, by the press conference. Lack of transparency ...

The Indian Express Jan 18, 2018  At a time when every drop of crude oil counts, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has run into a production loss. Neelam, its third-biggest oil field off west coast after Mumbai High, was forced to shut down oil wells after an L&T-owned barge ripped two gas lines and dragged two gas lift lines 60 metres away. Papers with The Indian Express show that 28 wells are shut since January 2 after L&T Sapura Shipping’s offshore vessel LTS 3000 damaged the four pipelines while handling the anchor during the laying of a 12-inch pipeline from NLG Process platform to wellhead platform NLM 13. “This has resulted in damage to gas lift lines and consequently, disruption of production. Our preliminary survey indicates damage to LTR1, LTR3, 4 inch gas lift lines to NLM-6 and NLM-7; 8 inch gas lift line to NLM-8 during anchor handling,” says the ONGC report. “The shutdown initially resulted in production loss of 1,558 barrels of crude but soon...

The Wire Jan 16, 2018 The Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), a network of people’s movements, has said banks charging a penalty for not maintaining a monthly average balance is directly affecting the poor, who are often unable to maintain the minimum balance because of their financial compulsions. In 2012, India’s largest public sector bank, the State of Bank of India (SBI) had withdrawn the clause involving a penalty charge for not maintaining a minimum account balance (MAB). This penalty was re-introduced five years later, in April 2017. This meant that savings accounts in metropolitan centres would have to maintain a balance of Rs 5,000, and urban centres, a balance of Rs 3,000. Consequently, the bank has mopped up a revenue of Rs 1,771 crore in penalty charges, an amount that exceeds the bank’s second-quarter (July-September) net profits of Rs 1,586 crore. Criticising the move for “penalising the poor”, the CFA, has said in public statement, “These customers...

The Hindu Jan 17, 2018 Meeting headed by Shashi Tharoor deliberates on why electoral provision meant for NRIs should not be extended to others If proxy voting is meant to make it easier for NRIs to exercise their franchise and save up on travel costs, then why shouldn’t the same facility be extended to a migrant worker within India? This and many other questions were raised at a meeting of the Parliamentary panel on External Affairs headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday. The committee was briefed on “Voting Rights to NRIs” by MEA Secretary (Economic Relations) Vijay Keshav Gokhale and Secretary, Legislative Department, G. Narayana Raju. The Cabinet in August last year had cleared an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, which allows NRIs to vote by proxy, a facility only available till now to armed personnel and certain offices notified by the Election Commission. “What is the justification to allow proxy voting for NRIs? The governmen...

The Indian Express Jan 17, 2018 The last full Budget presented in an election year typically witnesses an expenditure spike, as was the case before the last two Lok Sabha polls in 2008-09 and 2013-14. However, as the NDA government finalises its last full Budget before the general elections next year, the room for that expenditure is severely restricted, given the uncertainty over revenue mainly due to dipping GST collections and rising global crude oil prices. Figures show that the average rate of increase of government expenditure in the two years before the 2014 elections — 2012-13 and 2011-12 — was 8.5 per cent. The years before and after the 2009 elections were an aberration with a higher rate of increase in government expenditure due to the farmers’ debt relief scheme and a stimulus package, respectively. The government expenditure for 2009-10 was estimated at Rs 10.2 lakh crore, 15.9 per cent higher than the previous year. For 2007-8, it was estimated at Rs 7.13 lakh...

The Hindu Jan 18, 2018 Manufacturer allegedly bribed two Joint Commissioners The book of accounts seized by the Income Tax department in the multi-crore gutkha scam points to the involvement of more police officers, including two in the IPS, in illegally facilitating storage, transportation and sale of the tobacco product in Chennai. While the involvement of two DGP-rank officers is already being probed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, on the directions of the Madras High Court, it has come to light that the two Joint Commissioners of Police who served in Chennai during the year 2015-16 had allegedly received payments from a gutkha manufacturer through a middleman. The Hindu has access to the copy of the Income Tax report to the Chief Secretary, the book of accounts and the statement of Madhava Rao, a partner in MDM Gutkha. The documents reveal that bribes were paid on various dates to the State Health Minister, two former Commissioners of Po...

DAWN Jan 18, 2018 US authorities said on Tuesday they had arrested a former CIA agent, Hong Kong resident Jerry Chun Shing Lee, after discovering he had an unauthorised notebook that had the identities of undercover US spies. Lee, a naturalized US citizen also known as Zhen Cheng Li, was arrested late Monday after he arrived at JFK International Airport in New York. The Department of Justice said Lee, 53, grew up in the United States and served in the US Army before joining the Central Intelligence Agency as a case officer in 1994. He served in unnamed overseas locations and left the agency in 2007, later apparently taking a job in Hong Kong. In a complaint filed in a New York federal court, the Justice Department said that in 2012, FBI agents with court-ordered warrants secretly searched Lee’s luggage while he was travelling in the United States and found he was carrying top secret materials he was not authorized to have. “Agents found two small books con...

News18 Jan 18, 2018 With the Bitcoin craze dominating conversations, discussion on cryptocurrencies have shifted from the geek's chatroom to the drawing rooms of aspirational Indians. And taking advantage of the situation are fraudsters. So beware if someone approaches you with an Indian version of Bitcoin and promises to double your cryptocurrency. In all likelihood, they are fake.  Over the past few months, investigating agencies have been flooded with complaints of alleged Bitcoin exchanges that are nothing but multi-level marketing schemes. Delhi Police have received several complaints and have started investigating some of these suspicious companies, apart from keeping a close watch on the others. Taking advantage of the growing fascination with Bitcoin, numerous ponzi schemes have cropped up in the name of cryptocurrency, targeting thousands of unsuspecting investors. Recently, the Delhi Police arrested 32-year-old Narendra, who was operating one of these ...

Live Mint Jan 18, 2018 The Trump Administration has slapped anti-dumping duties on stainless steel flangs and finer denier polyester staple fiber from China and India. Exporters from China and India received countervailing subsidies of 41.73 to 47.55% and 9.50 to 25.28%, respectively, the US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross alleged on Wednesday. As such he has instructed US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of fine denier polyester staple fiber from China and India based on these final rates. “The US will no longer sit back and watch as its domestic businesses are destroyed by unfair foreign government subsidies. We will continue to take action on behalf of US industry to defend American businesses, workers, and communities adversely impacted by unfair imports,” Ross said. In 2016, imports of fine denier polyester staple fiber from China and India were valued at an estimated $79.4 million and $14.8 million, respectively, the Departmen...

The Economic Times  Jan  17, 2018 Those who hold undeclared assets or bank accounts in Singapore, or even did so in the past few years, could be headed for trouble with the two countries exchanging financial data under the revised double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) that came into force last year.  A Delhi-based person was among those surprised by a letter from Singapore's tax authorities at the end of 2017. The island nation is seeking details of accounts and looking to unearth the beneficialownership of assets held in Singapore between 2008 and 2017 from banks and other agencies. This information will be shared with the Indian tax authorities.  If such accounts or assets haven't been declared to the Indian authorities, the holder could face prosecution under the harsh foreign black money law that was passed in 2015. Many individuals are believed to have closed accounts or moved them to other jurisdictions in the belief that these will not be ...

DAWN Jan 17, 2018 India will buy more than 160,000 guns worth $553 million for troops on its disputed, high-altitude borders, the defence ministry said on Tuesday. The defence acquisition council cleared the purchase of 72,400 assault rifles and 93,895 carbines for 35 billion rupees ($553m) in a meeting chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The weapons will be bought to “enable the defence forces to meet their immediate requirement for the troops deployed on the borders,” the ministry said in a statement. New Delhi has signed several big-ticket defence deals since Prime Minister Narendra Modi stormed to power in 2014. India — the world's largest defence importer — has been investing tens of billions in updating its Soviet-era military hardware to counter long-standing territorial disputes with its nuclear-armed neighbours China and Pakistan. India and China fought a brief war in 1962 over their border and last year were involved in a months-l...

Vinayak Chatterjee  |  Published: January 17, 2018 4:12 AM Order by Dir Genl of Safeguards of 70% duty on import of solar cells creating consternation in Renewable circles. 1st – itfs for 200 days. Then what? 2nd -lack of clarity on immediate vs prospective. Impact on existing bids/ shipments? 3rd –  units i n SEZs deemed  foreign? • Solar equipment protectionism The jury is still out on the merits/demerits of policy focussing on the Make-in-India potential for local manufacture of solar equipment versus reducing solar tariffs through cheaper imports. A spot of good news for the Realty sector after quite some  time:  Relaxation in policy now allows 100% FDI under automatic route in construction-development of townships, housing, built-up infrastructure and real estate broking services. • Real FDI gains for realty A stable and transparent regulatory regime under RERA may inspire foreign investors, given realty retail in India is expected to...