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The Telegraph, Feb 23, 2018 Calcutta:  Dali, a picturesque prefecture in China's southwestern Yunnan province, came calling on Thursday with a 22-member delegation. This is the second Chinese trade delegation to visit Calcutta in 2018 after representatives of 30 companies attended the state government's global business summit in January. Chen Jian, secretary of the Communist Party of China's committee of Dali prefecture, made a strong pitch for the city of eternal spring, 338km from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. Kunming is two and half hours by air from Calcutta. Dali has the ideal climate to produce tobacco, walnut, livestock, bio medicine, high mountain green tea, yam, speciality fruits and flowers, and silkworm and mulberry," Jian pointed out. He also highlighted Dali's high tourist inflow. The delegation had representation from tea, mineral water, walnut, tourism and tie-and-dye industries as well as from Dali University. "India produces on...

Hindustam Times, Rezaul H Laskar, Feb 23, 2018 The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is set to include Pakistan in its “grey list” of nations not doing enough to counter terror financing and money laundering after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and China withdraw their opposition to the move. A formal announcement is expected later on Friday. Multiple sources in New Delhi and Islamabad said a plenary meeting of the FATF in Paris passed a US-backed resolution to list Pakistan after the GCC and China withdrew their objections. The resolution was initially opposed by Saudi Arabia, which was acting on behalf of GCC, China and Turkey. In the final vote, only Turkey backed Pakistan, sources said. Besides the US, the resolution was backed by the UK, Germany and France. The Western powers lobbied the other nations and were successful in last-minute turnaround. The FATF had reviewed action taken so far by Pakistan to crack down on the financing of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) an...

The Economic Times, Nishanth Vasudevan, Feb 23, 2018 MUMBAI: Axis BankBSE 1.24 % has asked its president and chief information officer Amit Sethi to resign. Sethi’s exit from the country’s third-largest lender followed a complaint from a whistleblower regarding the functioning of the bank’s technology department, which he headed, said two sources familiar with the development.  In response to an ET query, an Axis spokesperson confirmed the development. “The concerned official is no longer in charge of the IT function at the bank.Matters that require further inquiry are being taken up in accordance with the bank’s policies and procedures.” The contents of the whistleblower’s letter to the Axis management could not be ascertained. But, it is believed to contain allegations of irregularities and inappropriate deals. This could not be independently verified by ET. A text and a WhatsApp message to Sethi requesting comment on the matter went unanswered till the time of going t...

The Times of India, Pankaj Shahi, Feb 23, 2018 LUCKNOW: Barely a week before he was taken into CBI custody on charges of defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore, Rotomac chairman Vikram Kothari was among the top 100 key invitees to the mega UP investor summit. Kothari’s name was removed from the list soon after his company’s loan defaults became public. The initial invitee list prepared by the UP government — TOI has a copy of it — had Kothari’s name at the 88th spot, followed by the name of his brother and chairman of Pan Parag group, Deepak Kothari. The list, which began with Mukesh Ambani, comprised 113 top industrialists and corporate heads. Sources said all the key invitees were supposed to interact with chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior ministers during the investor meet and pledge investments. Industry minister Satish Mahana said Kothari’s name was included well before the report...

The Indian Express, Feb 23, 2018 India has been ranked at 81st place out of 180 countries on a ‘Corruption Perception Index’, in a list released by Transparency International. India’s ranking is worse than those of China and Bhutan but better than those of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The index ranks the countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, Transparency International says on its website. It uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. Compared to recent years, this poor performance is nothing new, Transparency says. India’s score is 40. Among neighbouring countries, Pakistan has been ranked at 117th place with a score of 32, Bangladesh at 143rd (score 28), Myanmar at 130th (score 30) and Sri Lanka at 91st (score 38). Bhutan has the highest score among India’s neighbours, 67,...

The Indian Express, Feb 23, 2018 The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday provided two additional measures to listed companies to ensure these firms comply with 25 per cent minimum public shareholding norms. Sebi allowed listed firms to allot shares to qualified institutions placement (QIP). The regulator also allowed promoters or promoter groups to sell up to two per cent of the total paid-up equity share capital of the listed firm in the open market. Sebi, however said, such a sale will be subjected to up to five times average monthly trading volume of the stock. Under Sebi norms, every listed firm will need to maintain a public shareholding of at least 25 per cent. Listed public sector companies have been provided additional time till August 21, 2018 to comply with the requirements. Currently, listed companies can use several routes to comply with the minimum public shareholding requirements. These include issuance of shares to public through prospec...

Finanacial Express, PTI, Feb 23, 2018 India is willing to help the US with aviation maintenance in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said today. The Pentagon also praised India’s developmental role in the war-torn country. “India has been very supportive, and they’ve pledged additional developmental aid in Afghanistan. They’ve been willing to help with aviation maintenance,” Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana White told reporters. “All of that is very helpful in ensuring, again, that this regional approach works. India is an important part of that,” she said. Responding to another question, White said that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis believes that Pakistan has an opportunity to do more with respect to the regional security, and that it’s in its interests to do more with respect to regional security. “It’s an opportunity, and we would welcome P akistan’s involvement,” White said. Link: http://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/india-willing-to-help-us-with-aviation-maintenance-in-afgh...