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The Economic Times, Anindya Upadhyay, Feb 19, 2018 India’s dependence on imported components for electric vehicles could make the country vulnerable to cyber-security breaches, according to the government’s chief policy thinktank. India should manufacture the majority of the parts needed for its electric vehicle fleet as equipment shipped from overseas could be compromised, V.K. Saraswat, a member of the think tank, Niti Aayog, said in an interview. All of the software and at least 55 percent of the components need to be made domestically to keep electric vehicles and the grid secure. “There has to be a push toward local manufacturing,” Saraswat said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration said last year it aims to have mostly electric vehicles by 2030, in a country where about 3 million fossil fuel powered passenger vehicles sell annually. In an attempt to jump-start the nascent electric vehicle market, India recently conducted its first tender

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 ave

The Times of India, Feb 19, 2018 NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department has found that in the last financial year the Nirav Modi group had illegally diverted Rs 1,216 crore of diamonds meant for export from its special economic zone to the domestic market, selling them in cash. The Director-General of Income Tax (Investigations) had found that in 2016-17, the group which had units at the Surat SEZ diverted high quality diamonds imported for processing and export, to the domestic market for huge profit. Instead, low-quality diamonds were exported to associate units abroad to keep up the appearances. Learning with the Times: Why extraditing Nirav Modi may not be so difficult Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, along with directors of the Modi and Gitanjali groups are under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Department for allegedly committing fraud amounting to Rs 11,300 crore against Punjab National Bank, whose Letters of Undertakin

The Hindu, Business Line, Richa Mishra/KR Srivats, Feb 18, 2018 The RBI’s revised framework for stressed loans may prove to be disastrous and seems ill timed for an economy that is just recovering from twin policy blows of demonetisation and GST implementation. Though there are long-term benefits of administering such a bitter pill, the short-term risks are significant, say bankers. “This (revised NPA framework) is one more shock for the banking industry, which is not that strong any more. Don’t be surprised if 25 per cent of the banking system is NPA in one year’s time from now,” said a banker. The short-term implication is the risk of about  ₹ 3 trillion worth of loans, where payments have remained outstanding for 60-90 days, slipping into NPA category, requiring banks to make enhanced provisions. There may be increase in bad loans due to slippages from Special Mentioned Account (SMA) category. Accounts that remained unpaid for 60-90 days are categories as SMA2. Criti

The Hindu, Business Line, PTI, Feb 19, 2018 Gitanjali Gems, which is embroiled in the  ₹ 11,400 crore PNB loan scam, on Monday said two of its senior management officials including CFO Chandrakant Karkare, and a board member have quit. The company’s Vice-President (Compliance) and Company Secretary Pankhuri has resigned with effect from February 13, while Karkare has resigned from the post of CFO effective from February 15, Gitanjali said in a regulatory filing. Its board member Krishnan Sangameswaran has also resigned, the company added. The company’s website was not accessible and said it was “currently undergoing scheduled maintenance.” In the regulatory filing, Gitanjali Gems informed that its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Karkare has resigned citing personal reasons. In his resignation letter, Karkare said: “Recently, my wife has undergone a major surgery called Hemicolectomy at Lilavati Hospital. The post operation recovery is not up to the expected level. This h

The Hindu, Business Line, V Rishi kumar, Feb 19, 2018 The Telangana Government has constituted a task force on urban mobility to study the feasibility of monorail model and other modes of transport for the IT corridor of the city. Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary Municipal Administration, has issued orders after KT Rama Rao, Municipal Administration Minister observed the need for such a requirement in a growing metropolis. The committee/task force would suggest the corridors for Phase II and phase III of metro rail project, suggest best and most economical ways of transport including monorail, tram, e-vehicles and any other such rail or road connectivity on various routes in a synergistic manner. The committee would also suggest option for various methods of funding such projects and raising resources including PPPs, Joint ventures and annuity funding. The committee would submit its recommendations to government. It was felt there is a need to integrate and synergise var

Dawn, Feb 19, 2018 Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Monday warned the global community that placing the country on the watch list of countries funding terrorism would be counter-productive and hamper joint efforts to curb terrorism, Radio Pakistan reported. Iqbal's statements in Islamabad today come as a week-long plenary session of global anti-money-laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is underway, where review proposals have been tabled calling for Pakis­tan to be put back on a list of countries which have failed to prevent terrorist financing. If adopted the resolution would place Pakistan on the FATF grey-list of “jurisdictions with deficient anti-money laundering regimes”, where it was from 2009-15. In November 2017, the International Coopera­tion Review Group in Argentina adopted a resolution calling attention to Pakistan’s support to the Lashkar-i-Taiba, Jaish-i- Moh­a­mmad and affiliated groups like Jamaatud Dawa. Pakistan’s de facto

The Hindu, Business Line, Feb 19 2018 Hit hard by the country’s biggest bank fraud at PNB, the government is looking at tightening the norms for appointment of statutory auditors at public sector banks (PSBs) to help detect any irregularities early and take corrective actions, according to a government official. At present, PSBs appoint their own auditors and questioned have been raised in some quarters on why a USD 1.77 billion (Rs 11,400 crore) fraud could have gone undetected by the auditors of Punjab National Bank (PNB) for seven long years. A senior government official told PTI that perhaps there is a need to bring in a membrane in banks getting to choose their own auditor and to bring in a dispassionate arm’s length decision-making in such appointments. PSBs are allowed to appoint statutory central auditors on an annual basis, subject to their fulfilling the eligibility norms prescribed by the RBI. The Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) annually empanels audit

The Hindu, Business Line, Feb 19, 2018 Hackers who tried to steal nearly $2 million from India's City Union Bank this month used tactics similar to those employed in the unsolved cyber heist of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank in 2016, City's CEO said on Monday. The unknown hackers disabled the City Union Bank printer connected to global payments platform SWIFT on Feb. 6, preventing the bank from receiving acknowledgement messages for three fraudulent payment instruction sent that evening until the next morning. “Nobody suspected that it was an attack and thought it was a systemic network failure,” N. Kamakodi told Reuters by phone. "The system department people, everybody assembled, analysed the problem, rebooted, they closed shop only around 10-10.30 in the night.” The next morning, bank officials managed to reconcile the previous day's transactions and found out “three transactions which were not originated from our bank". The bank h

The Hindu, Business Line, Feb 19, 2018 The government should consider privatising public sector banks (PSBs) as over Rs 2.6 lakh crore capital infusion in the past eleven years has had limited impact in improving their health, and the move would also reduce drain on the exchequer, industry body FICCI said today. The suggestion comes in the backdrop of about Rs.11,40 crore scam in Punjab National Bank involving billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi. “Given the continuous pressure on the government finances on account of weak performance of the banks, the government should consider privatisation of PSBs. This would reduce drain on the exchequer and the money saved could be used for developmental schemes and programmes of the government,” FICCI President Rashesh Shah said. He argued that a dynamic banking sector is the need of the hour and we should examine if there is at all a case for public sector domination in the banking sector. “India needs sustainable high growth for its socio

The Hindu, PTI, Feb 19, 2018 Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reversed his decision to take stern action against Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD)and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FiF) fearing that any such move could trigger a political crisis, a media report said on Monday. Pakistan has come under intense pressure to rein in terror groups after United States President Donald Trump accused the country of harbouring terrorists and suspended nearly $2 billion in security assistance to it. The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014. He fears a crisis At a meeting, Mr. Abbasi said both the outfits “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 cri

Rediff.com, Feb 19, 2018 The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) will initiate a probe into alleged financial irregularities at Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises, according to a senior official. The corporate affairs ministry has been looking into the affairs of Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises after recent reports that financial irregularities have emerged at the two companies. A senior ministry official said an SFIO probe has been ordered against the two companies. The latest development comes against the backdrop of reports that the Fortis Healthcare's promoters - Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh - took at least USD 78 million out of the company without any board approval about a year ago. The SFIO, under the ministry, mainly probes white collar crimes. Fortis Healthcare has also come under the lens of Sebi, which launched an investigation into alleged regulatory lapses. On Saturday, Fortis informed the exchanges that Sebi, which has i