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BBC, Ayeshea Perera, Feb 19, 2018 Despite plenty of photo opportunities, including at the Taj Mahal, Mr Trudeau and his family's tour has been largely ignored by senior members of the Indian government so far. When he arrived in the capital, Delhi, he was met at the airport by a junior minister in what many interpreted to be a "snub". Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, on many occasions, personally received visiting government leaders. He also famously hugs his foreign counterparts. Most recently Mr Modi extended the courtesy - both the personal reception and the hug - to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who visited in January. But Mr Modi has not yet met the Canadian prime minister, despite him being in India for two days. He was also absent when Mr Trudeau visited his home state of Gujarat on Monday. And it's not just the prime minister. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) was greeted by his Indian counterpart N...

Hindustan Times, Rajesh Ahuja, Feb 19, 2018 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday registered a case against pen maker Rotomac Global, its directors Vikram Kothari, Sadhana Kothari and Rahul Kothari, and unknown bank officials in connection with an alleged Rs 2,919 crore loan scam. The case was registered based on a complaint by the Bank of Baroda, following which raids were conducted at the home and offices of Vikram Kothari on Monday morning. “It was alleged in the complaint that in the Rotomac case, conspirators cheated a consortium of 7 banks by siphoning off bank loans to the tune of Rs 2,919 crore (principal amount),” an official with the CBI said, adding that this does not include the interest liabilities of these loans. The total outstanding amount, along with interest liabilities for M/s Rotomac, is Rs 3,695 crore. The complaint by Bank Of Baroda comes within days of Punjab National Bank unearthing a Rs 11,400 crore-fraud involvi...

The Hindu, Mohit M Rao, Feb 19, 2018 Where is the scam in Rafale fighter jet procurement when no such deal was signed in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime?, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Bengaluru on Sunday. “I assure you there is no controversy. I [as the Defence Minister who was appointed after the signing of the deal]) have not walked into any controversy, because it is not there... They [the Opposition] just want to create a scam to equate this scam-free government with theirs,” she said in a conversation with N. Ravi, Publisher, The Hindu, on “In defence of the realm: How prepared is India?” at The Huddle. Seeking to tear into the Opposition’s claims of illegalities in the purchase of 36 fighters from French company Dassault Aviation, she said that during the three years of negotiations under the UPA government between 2011 and early 2014, the price quoted for the jets was revised upwards, to up to 300% of the original price.  Files t...

The Print, Manu Pubby, Feb 16, 2018 New Delhi: Arunachal Pradesh, one of India’s top illicit opium producing states, has launched what is seen as its biggest anti-narcotic drive, with officials even venturing into areas “protected” by armed outfits like the NSCN to destroy several thousand hectares of cultivation. The crackdown — being launched in coordination with the excise department and the state police — has already resulted in the destruction of 1,000 hectares of opium fields, with officials looking at increasing this to 1,500 hectares in the next two days. Drug abuse has grown to epidemic levels in several Arunachal districts, with the cultivation of opium also linked to the gun trade and running of extortion rackets that some insurgent groups have morphed into. “This is the biggest attempt by us to destroy opium cultivation. We had warned the villagers not to indulge in this,” Oli Koyu, Arunachal’s Narcotics Cell nodal officer, told ThePrint. “We are looki...

Business Today, Anand Adhikari, Feb 19, 2018 It is now clear that Nirav Modi has changed his status in the Indian documents from resident Indian to Non Resident Indian (NRI). This happened sometime last year. It is not known whether Indian banks, especially the Punjab National Bank, were aware of their borrower's status shifting to a NRI. All along, Modi was classified as Indian promoter of his borrowing companies that were issued the letter of undertakings (LoU). Many other banks also had a fund and non-fund based exposure to his other companies. There are already reports of Modi taking up the citizenship or permanent resident status of some other country. Currently, Modi has companies in US, UK, Russia, UAE, Belgium, Armenia, etc. There is a suspicion that he must have siphoned off bank funds to a country where he plans to hole up. The documents where Modi clearly states that he is a NRI have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. A certified copy of the r...

Firstpost, Yatish Yadav, Feb 19, 2018 New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths are examining details of over 250 shell firms linked to Nirav Modi, his brother and Mehul Choksi, which they suspect were used to move ill-gotten financial assets after they defrauded state-owned Punjab National Bank of Rs 11,360 crore. These ghost entities, sources said, allegedly acted like a sleeper cell to launder money in India and abroad. File image of Nirav Modi. Official Nirav Modi websiteFile image of Nirav Modi. Official Nirav Modi website "Many companies, which are dormant or dead suspected to have been used by the Nirav and Choksi's group to route and receive money to trick the system. These companies have no specific business activities and could have been activated only to avoid paper trails. Many of such companies were floated by Nirav's brother Neeshal and other close associates," sources said. Neeshal's promoted firms Anantnath Valuers Private Lim...

The News, Azaz Syed, Feb 19, 2018 ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had decided to take strict action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and its humanitarian arm Falahi Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) on Jan 1 but he had to reverse his decision after his attention was drawn to another possible political crisis, The News has learnt. “The prime minister said both the organisations should be banned but Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was of the view that if these organisations were banned at this point, the government would be facing a similar crisis which it faced in November in the shape of Faizabad sit-in by Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah led by Khadim Hussain Rizvi,” two different sources who attended the meeting confirmed to this correspondent. The sit-in had paralyzed the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. In the meeting, PM’s Adviser on Finance and Economic Affairs Miftah Ismail and Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua apprised the prime minister of the possible reperc...

Business Standard, PTI, Feb 18, 2018 Pakistan Army   chief Gen Qamar Bajwa has claimed that there are no safe havens for terrorists in his country and asked the US to stop blaming Islamabad for its failure in Afghanistan. Gen Bajwa asked the American leadership to instead search for the reasons for its failures in the war-torn country. Speaking at the three-day Munich Security Conference where military chiefs and civilian leaders have gathered to discuss the world's most pressing security issues, the army   chief yesterday categorically denied the existence of terrorist sanctuaries on the country's soil and recalled the steps taken to prevent unauthorised movements across the porous border, the Dawn reported. Gen Bajwa said Pakistan   was being attacked from terrorist hideouts on Afghan soil. Pointing to the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan   and Islamic State safe havens, he said terrorists had established sanctuaries on ...

Business Standard, Feb 19, 2018 Facebook will start using postcards sent by US mail later this year to verify the identities and location of people who want to purchase US election-related advertising on its site, a senior company executive said Saturday. The postcard verification is Facebook’s latest effort to respond to criticism from lawmakers, security experts and election integrity watchdog groups that it and other social media companies failed to detect and later responded slowly to Russia’s use of their platforms to spread divisive political content, including disinformation, during the 2016 presidential election. Facebook revealed the plans a day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller unsealed an indictment accusing 13 Russians and three Russian companies of conducting a criminal and espionage conspiracy using social media to interfere in the election by boosting Republican Donald Trump and denigrating  Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton . The process of using...

Business Standard, Feb 19, 2018 Amid its apparent failure to withdraw support and funding to proscribed terrorist organisations, Pakistan will now have to contend with some more scrutiny – from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). FATF, which began its week-long plenary meeting on Sunday in Paris, will take a call on a proposal to put Pakistan back on the "grey list" of countries that have failed to put a stop to terror financing. As reported earlier this week quoting a senior Pakistani official, the US has pushed a motion to place Pakistan on anti-money-laundering monitoring group FATF’s global terrorist-financing watchlist. Islamabad, for its part, has been scrambling for the past few months to prevent its addition to the list of countries deemed non-compliant with terrorist financing regulations of FATF – a measure that officials fear could hurt Pakistan's economy as well. If Islamabad is found complicit in terror financing and it fails to avert the propose...

Reuters, Feb 19, 2018 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia, the United States, India and Japan are talking about establishing a joint regional infrastructure scheme as an alternative to China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in an attempt to counter Beijing’s spreading influence, the Australian Financial Review reported on Monday, citing a senior U.S. official. The unnamed official was quoted as saying the plan involving the four regional partners was still ”nascent“ and ”won’t be ripe enough to be announced’ during Australian Prime Minister Turnbull’s visit to the United States later this week. The official said, however, that the project was on the agenda for Turnbull’s talks with U.S. President Donald Trump during that trip and was being seriously discussed. The source added that the preferred terminology was to call the plan an “alternative” to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, rather than a “rival.” “No one is saying China should not build infrastructure,” ...

Business Standard, Feb 19, 2018 Nirav Modi, the 47-year-old billionaire jewellery designer has been the centre of the news for Rs 114-billion banking fraud at Punjab National Bank. Modi left the country on January 1 even before a case was registered against him. Following Nirav Modi's footsteps, another defaulter Vikram Kothari, the promoter of Rotomac Pens, was alleged to have left the country. Kanpur based Vikram Kothari had taken a loan of more than Rs 8 billion from five state-owned banks — Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda (BoB), Indian Overseas Bank, and Union Bank of India. However, the promoter denies the rumour of fleeing the country as "baseless". "I am a resident of Kanpur and I will stay in the city," local media reported, according to NDTV. Kothari, Chairman & MD of popular Rotomac pens, took a loan of Rs 4.85 billion from Mumbai-based Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 3.52 billion from Kolkata-based Allahabad Ba...

The Economic Times, Feb 18, 2018 NEW DELHI: As many as 349 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore and above, have shown cost overruns to the tune of Rs 2 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a government report has said.  The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above.  "Total original cost of implementation of the 1,283 projects was Rs 15,58,352.33 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 17,59,443.87 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 2,01,091.54 crore (12.90% of original cost)," the ministry's latest flash report for October 2017 has revealed.  Of these 1,283 projects in question, 349 reported cost overruns and 302 time escalation.  According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till October 2017 was Rs 6,59,009.46 crore, which is 37.46 per cent of the anticipated cost.  "Out of to...

The Indian Express, Feb 19, 2018 President Donald Trump attacked the FBI and lawmakers probing suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, drawing sharp criticism for saying an excessive focus on Russia led investigators to miss signs that could have prevented a deadly school shooting in Florida. In a series of tweets over the weekend from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump said congressional investigations and political “hatred” showed Russia had succeeded in sowing “discord, disruption and chaos” in the United States. He accused his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, of failing to do enough to stop Russian election interference. “They are laughing their asses off in Moscow,” Trump tweeted on Sunday morning. In a tweet on Saturday night, Trump criticized the Federal Bureau of Investigation for missing warning signs in the case of Nikolas Cruz, 19, who is charged with killing 17 people on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Scho...

The Indian Express, Avishek G Dastidar, Feb 19, 2018 THE RAILWAYS has launched a crackdown on what senior officials believe is “fake data” being recorded in its systems over the years by staff, leading to under-reporting of inefficiencies. Recently, the Railway Board issued instructions to zonal units that all asset failures must be “truthfully reported” so that a “correct picture of the state of affairs is available for informed management decisions”, according to documents reviewed by The Indian Express. The Board has made clear that all asset failures must now be recorded in the online platform called Integrated Coaching Management System. Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani has instructed general managers and divisional railway managers that manual feeding of system data will no longer be allowed. Besides, officials will not be allowed to edit the data retrospectively, as is now possible, thereby taking away the scope of window-dressing the figures later. Another se...