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The Economic Times Januay 24, 2018 Union minister Nitin Gadkari today said decks have been cleared for the implementation of the Ken-Betwa river linking project and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would lay the foundation stone within the next two months in Bundelkhand.  The ambitious project of the NDA government aims at addressing water needs of dry swathes in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.  "I assure you that the Prime Minister will come to Bundelkhand within two months and lay the foundation stone of this project (Ken-Betwa river linking). We will try to ensure its implementation within the next three years, though project (completion) time is five years and free the Budelkhand region from the drought-like situation," Gadkari said while addressing a programme here.  Gadkari said the project would irrigate 15 lakh acres of land in Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh and about six lakh acres in Uttar Pradesh.  A plea last year had challenged the env

Financial Express January 24, 2018 The Finance Ministry on Wednesday tightened the noose on public sector banks (PSBs), saying that the massive Rs 2.11 lakh crore bank recapitalisation announced by the government will alongside reforms by the banks to ensure that the banking crisis does not get repeated. In October last year, the Union Cabinet approved an unprecedented Rs 2.11 lakh crore for recapitalisation of banks over the next two years in a bid to clean banks’ books and revive investment in a slowing economy. Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar laid down 6-point reforms for the PSBs and said their performance will be under the annual assessment. Of the 21 PSBs, IDBI will be getting the highest capital of Rs 10,610 crore from the government. Here’s the full list of the PSBs and how much they will get: 1.IDBI Bank: Rs 10,610 crore 2.Bank of India: Rs 9,232 crore 3.SBI: Rs 8,800 crore 4.UCO Bank: Rs 6,507 crore 5.Central Bank: Rs 5,158 6.Canara Bank: Rs 4,865

The Hindu January 24, 2018 India is among the bottom five countries on the Environmental Performance Index 2018, plummeting 36 points from 141 in 2016, according to a biennial report by Yale and Columbia Universities along with the World Economic Forum. While India is at the bottom of the list in the environmental health category, it ranks 178 out of 180 as far as air quality is concerned. Its overall low ranking — 177 among 180 countries — was linked to poor performance in the environment health policy and deaths due to air pollution categories. The report was released on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It said deaths attributed to ultra-fine PM2.5 pollutants have risen over the past decade and are estimated at 1,640,113 annually in India. Switzerland leads the world in sustainability, followed by France, Denmark, Malta and Sweden in the EPI, which found that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public

The Hindu January 24, 2018 For the first time, a vaccine conceived and developed from scratch in India has been “pre-qualified” by the World Health Organisation. The Rotavac vaccine, developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Limited last year, was included in India’s national immunisation programme. To be “pre-qualified” means that the vaccine can be sold internationally to several countries in Africa and South America. While several vaccines from India have been pre-qualified, this is the first that was entirely developed locally and, according to experts, is a sign that there is a credible industrial, scientific and regulatory process in place to develop vaccines in India. The Rotavac vaccine protects against childhood diarrhoea caused by the rotavirus and was built on strain of the virus isolated at the the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here over 30 years ago. India included the Rotavac in its national immunisation in 2016, with about 35 million

The Hindu January 24, 2018 Order issued ahead of U.N. team’s visit. On the eve of a visit by the U.N. Security Council’s sanctions monitoring team, a Pakistani court on Wednesday restrained the government from arresting Hafiz Saeed till March 17. The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief, who was listed under the UNSC Resolution 1267 in December 2008, had on Tuesday moved the court seeking protection from arrest or action against JuD and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). A team from UNSC’s 1267 Sanctions Committee will be visiting Islamabad from Thursday for an assessment of Pakistan’s compliance with the UN’s sanctions regime. According to a media report, the Pakistani government will not allow the committee any direct access to Saeed or his entities. In his plea, Saeed had said that the government wants to arrest him at the behest of the U.S. and India. Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Amin Aminuddin Khan heard Saeed’s plea and restrained the government from tak

The Hindu January 24, 2018 In a bid to safeguard the world from hackers and growing data breaches — especially from nation-states — the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday announced a new Global Centre for Cybersecurity.  Headquartered in Geneva, the centre will become operational from March. “Cybersecurity has been the most pressing issue of our times. We badly need a platform to ward off cyber criminals. The centre will help bring all the stakeholders together in achieving that,” Alois Zwinggi, Managing Director, WEF, said during a panel discussion here. “We need to collaborate with the governments as well as international organisations. To begin with, we will reach out to key industry players and G-20 countries to make this platform a success for dialogue and real-time action on cyber threats,” Zwinggi added. Cyber breaches recorded by businesses are on the rise. In the last five years, these have almost doubled to an average of 130 breaches per business

Money Control News Jan 24, 2018 Banks must accept and use blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to expand their business rather than fighting its development and spread, a former Reserve Bank of India executive has said. Amarendra Sahoo, former Chief General Manager and Regional Director at RBI, said that with the growing pace of virtual currencies, no regulator or nation can stop it. Sahoo was the keynote speaker at the Bankers’ Conclave 2018, in MIT School of Business at Pune, held on Wednesday. "Can you stop the digital currency? No...Instead of fighting the digital currency, banks should accept and adapt to the technology and make use of the blockchain technology behind it and expand their business," Sahoo said, addressing students and a panel of bankers and fintech experts. According to him, although Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have disadvantages like anonymity and lack of regulations, they have the pote

Financial Express Jan 24, 2018 Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today urged IL&FS Transportation to explore the possibility of a rail alignment also in the Zojila pass tunnel project to provide all weather connectivity between Srinagar, Kargil and Leh in Jammu and Kashmir, an official said. IL&FS Transportation has been awarded the project for Zojila pass tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir for which a construction period of 2,555 days has been fixed. “Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari has urged IL&FS to explore the possibility of laying a rail alignment also in the tunnel as per Prime Minister’s suggestion,” an official said. The Minister during an event for signing of MoU for the tunnel, also asked IL&FS to complete the work faster than the assigned seven years, the official said. “The IL&FS has said that they will explore the possibility of escape tunnel for this (rail alignment), the official added. The Cabinet on January 3 had approved strategic Zojila p

Financial Express Jan 25, 2018 As India showcases its formidable military might at the  Rajpath on Republic Day, a few weapon systems including  Akash    surface to air missile (SAM) and BrahMos would be in the highlight seeing the recent successful trials. Both the missiles are export-ready and most of representatives of Asean, who would witness the Republic Day parade this time, have at various meetings sought their imports. When the 10 Asean leaders meet for the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi on Thursday, sources told FE: “Exports of Akash and BrahMos missiles will be topping the agenda.” As part of India’s ‘Act East Policy’, India has increased its engagement with the Asean countries in the fields of maritime security, military exercises as well as trade and investments. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her recent visit to the NCC Republic Day Camp had said, “The prime minister’s intention that the Look East policy should now be an Act East policy i

The Indian Express Jan 24, 2018 Google is willing to pay more tax globally, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of the largest business unit of Alphabet Inc, said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We are happy to pay more tax, whatever the world agrees to,” Pichai said. But he said the question was where Google should pay it. Critics have accused large US technology companies like Google of paying too little tax outside the US, despite deriving a large portion of their revenue from these other countries. Pichai said that as Google hired more engineers globally – for instance, in France, where Google said this week that it would add more engineering and research staff – it would equalize the distribution of its tax payments across different countries. Nations should also come together and agree not to use artificial intelligence for military purposes, Pichai said. He said that the militarization of AI was unlikely to give a long-l

The Hindu Jan 24, 2108 As world leaders await to hear Donald Trump in Davos about his “America First” policy, top officials from his administration on Wednesday asserted protections are necessary for the markets to function properly but refused to comment on what the President will talk about, saying he himself makes changes to his speeches. A number of world leaders in Davos, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have spoken about an urgent need to shun protectionism. Mr. Trump’s speech, scheduled for Friday, is being keenly awaited in the backdrop of his America First policies. Addressing a press conference, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the size of the U.S. delegation to Davos this year is testament to the scale of Mr. Trump’s work over the past year. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sought to brush aside criticism about lowering of corporate tax rates in the U.S. and said tax reductions impeding trade are a fallacy. “The U.S. was an uncom

The Hindu Jan 24, 2018 The capital infusion plan for 2017-18 includes ₹80,000 crore through recapitalisation bonds and ₹8,139 crore as budgetary support. The Union government on Wednesday announced the detailed contours of the recapitalisation plan for public sector banks (PSBs) it announced in October last, including a reforms package across six themes that cover 30 action points such as customer responsiveness, responsible banking and credit offtake. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and several secretaries of the Finance Ministry, including Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia; Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar; and Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg, held a press conference to outline the details of the recapitalisation plan. The capital infusion plan for 2017-18 includes ₹80,000 crore through recapitalisation bonds and ₹8,139 crore as budgetary support. The bonds are to have a maturity period of 10-15 years and would be issued in six tranches. They will be n

The Hindu Jan 24, 2018 ICICI Bank is looking at new areas of growth opportunities in the Indian economy as new areas are coming up to be tapped post demonetisation and introduction of GST, its chief Chanda Kochhar has said. She said more SMEs are becoming part of the formal economy, creating big opportunities for growth and the government has also provided a strong impetus to increase lending to MSMEs. “Further, as the resolution process progresses and government capex picks up, the investment climate will improve leading to private corporate investments eventually looking up. We will look to participate in this pick up as and when it happens,” Kochhar told PTI. Asked about how the banking sector, including ICICI Bank, was tackling the NPA problem, she said, “As a universal bank, we have participated in every growth opportunity in the economy. With a presence across the spectrum of financial services, business cycles are a part of the growth process. “In the cur

The Times of India Jan 24, 2018 The US on Tuesday placed Indian-origin Islamic State terrorist from Britain Siddhartha Dhar on its global terrorism list, a designation that allows the government to impose sanctions and freeze assets and property owned by him. Here's all you need to know about the man dubbed as the "New Jihadi John". * Siddhartha Dhar is a British Hindu who converted to Islam and now goes by the name Abu Rumaysah. * He was a leading member of now-defunct British terrorist organization Al-Muhajiroun. * In 2014, he skipped police bail in the UK and traveled to Syria with his wife and young children to join ISIS. * Dhar became a senior commander of the dreaded outfit and is believed to have replaced ISIS executioner Mohammad Emwazi after the latter was killed in a drone strike in 2015. This earned Dhar the monicker "New Jihadi John". * The US State Department said it suspected Dhar to be the masked leader in a January 2016

Hindustan Times Jan 23, 2018 A major call centre racket operating separately from different buildings in Udyog Vihar Phase 5, which allegedly duped American and other foreign citizens by offering them loans, lotteries and tax benefits, was busted by Gurgaon police late on Monday night. The police got a whiff of this scam while investigating a fraud concerning foreign clients of a multi-national firm based in Gurgaon, ho were being duped by the Gurgaon-based operators. In the raids on Monday night, police said 33 persons working as managers and team leaders were arrested from these call centres while over 250 employees were included in the investigation. The police also seized a large number of laptops, computers and other IT equipment used in the con operation. The accused were booked under sections 406, 419 and 66 of the IT Act. Upon questioning the employees, the police found that the owners of Gurgaon-based racket were Nitin Dahiya, a Gurgaon resident, Rohit

Times of India January 24, 2018 With  Budget 2018  round the corner, you may be taking comfort in the hope that this year may see no new  cess  announcement thanks to the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last year. But what about the money that you have already paid over the years towards cesses? Till last year, before  GST , India had 20  cesses  including  Swachh Bharat cess , Krishi Kalyan cess, Clean energy cess, Education cess etc., each levied for funding a particular purpose. But what is surprising is that money collected from some of these cesses is lying unused. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), six major cesses fetched the government Rs 4 lakh crore till 2016-17. Of this, over Rs 1.81 lakh crore, or nearly 45 per cent of the funds collected, remained unutilised and were not transferred from the government's Consolidated Fund of India to the dedicated funds or the intended schemes. (Explore 2 decades of budget files

T he Indian Express January 24, 2018 Making a case for eliminating rifts and differences to build a new world order, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday flagged the rising threat of protectionism, saying that a new layer of tariff and non-tariff barriers were being erected with countries increasingly focusing inward. Speaking at the World Economic Forum on his first visit to Davos, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 20 years, Modi also pitched for India as an investment destination, emphasising on efforts to improve the ease of doing business. “We have made it so easy to invest in India, manufacture in India and work in India. We have decided to uproot licence and permit Raj. We are replacing red tape with red carpet,” he said in his keynote address on the opening day of the WEF. Highlighting how technology was influencing the way we work and live today, the Prime Minister said, “He who is able to control data will control the world.” http://indianexpress.com/arti

The Indian Express January 24, 2018 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case of corruption and cheating against officials of various companies, including public sector undertakings (PSUs) NTPC and MMTC, for allegedly importing inferior-quality coal disguised as superior-quality coal and causing a loss of Rs 487 crore by inflating invoices. The case is based on a probe conducted by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence which found that between 2011-12 and 2014-15, over-invoicing was allegedly done by the firms. The CBI FIR has named Ahmed A R Buhari, promoter of Chennai-based Coastal Energy Pvt Ltd (CEPL), as an accused among others such as unidentified officials of NTPC, MMTC and Aravali Power Company Pvt Ltd (APCPL), a joint venture of NTPC and Haryana and Delhi governments. According to the FIR, NTPC and APCPL had floated global tenders for the supply of imported coal of a certain grade and quality. The grade and quality of the coal are crucial fo