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Business Standard March 07, 2018 A Buddhist mob set ablaze a Muslim man's shop and attacked a Mosque in  Ampara , as violence continues unabated in Sri Lanka despite an emergency.   United Nations  under-secretary-general Jeffery Feltman will visit   Sri Lanka  to take stock of the situation in the island country after the president,   Maithripala Sirisena  declared an   emergency . He will meet religious leaders there this week, a UN spokesperson said. Sri Lankan parliament's Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake has hit out at the government, saying that the emergency is a tactic to divert people's attention from more pressing issues and to suppress people's fight for their rights. However, the presidential decree hasn't been able to stop all violence as a mosque and a Muslim shop have been burnt. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa rejected suggestions that the clashes could be a result of some poli...

Financial Express  March 07, 2018 The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Vedanta (erstwhile Sesa Sterlite) to move a Bangalore court for release of its 34.544 tonne of seized iron ore after establishing its existence and ownership rights over it. Setting aside the Karnataka High Court’s judgement that directed release of the seized iron ore to Vedanta, a Bench comprising justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said, “it shall be open for Vedanta to file an appropriate application before the XXXII Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge and Special Judge for CBI Cases, Bangalore, for release of seized iron ore by establishing its existence and its ownership right over the same, which may be considered by Jurisdictional Criminal Court in accordance with law.” The order came on an appeal filed by the Karnataka government against the state High Court’s July last year’s order that allowed release of the Vedanta iron ore. A FIR was registered against the company in March 2010 for il...

Financial Express March 07, 2018 With credit spreads continuing to remain compressed, capex needs and acquisitions fuelling fund requirements and likelihood of overseas borrowing costs going north, at least ten Indian firms are currently exploring the possibilities of tapping the overseas bond market to collectively raise over $4 billion, investment bankers aware of the matter told FE. One of the companies in the list, IL&FS Transportation Networks (ITNL), had commenced pricing of its dollar bonds on Tuesday. According to latest information available till the time of going to press, it was not yet clear whether the pricing would be completed. “The markets have been choppy,” said a banker close to the deal. The initial price target was 7%. Investment bankers point out that credit spreads are still attractive and long tenor money is easily available in the dollar bond market. “This is a time when there are expectations that US Treasury yields might go up further. Of the f...

Financial Express March 07, 2018 There is good demand for Indian cotton from overseas markets this season. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia and various other countries are buying cotton from India heavily this season. Around 40 lakh bales of cotton have been exported from the country so far and another 15-20 lakh bales are expected to be exported by the end of this season, top officials of the Khandesh Ginning & Pressing Factory Owners & Traders Association said. Interestingly, there are market reports of the likelihood of export of some 10 lakh bales to China this season. Alongside exports, imports have also gone up this season because of the Pink Bollworm infestation, according to industry people. There is good demand coming from these countries for Indian cotton, according to Pradeep Jain, president of the Association. Around 14 lakh bales have been exported to Bangladesh so far, 9 lakh bales to Pakistan and the remaining to Turkey, Vietnam and Indone...

Financial Express March 07, 2018 Rockman Industries, the auto-components arm of the $6-billion Hero Group, on Tuesday announced the acquisition of a strategic stake in the UK’s MCT Engineering through its arm Moldex Composites, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is part of Rockman’s strategy to be a front-runner in emerging technologies and to expand footprint in the European and US markets. MCT Engineering is the UK’s specialist carbon-composites manufacturer, producing high-quality and innovative components for automotive, motorsport and defence industries. MCT’s clients include marquee motorsports and high-end luxury car makers such as Jaguar Land Rover and other European brands. In early 2017, Rockman had acquired a majority strategic stake in Moldex Composites, a British-Indian enterprise engaged in design and manufacturing of advanced composites, for Rs 100 crore. This partnership complements MCT’s existing capabilities by giving it access to M...

Business Standard March 07, 2018 Pakistan is in talks with a Chinese financial institution to obtain $1 billion as a foreign commercial loan, a media report said on Tuesday. The report in the Express Tribune said that amid declining foreign exchange reserves, the Pakistan government was in the process of scrutinising the loan term sheets and the agreement between the two nations was expected to be reached in March. Pakistan has already obtained $1 billion as foreign commercial loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in the past three months. During the last fiscal year, the Pakistan government had borrowed $2.3 billion from three Chinese financial institutions, according to the Finance Ministry publication. In addition to the borrowing, Pakistan was also expecting to receive $200 million from a Chinese bank immediately to support foreign currency reserves, the daily reported...

Business Standard March 07, 2018 Billionaire Anil Ambani’s plan to dig his telecom unit out of a debt hole, via an asset sale to his brother’s firm, is facing a fresh hurdle that threatens to delay the deal past a March deadline. A local arbitration tribunal on March 5 barred Reliance Communications, or RCom, from selling assets as the court examines a dispute over unpaid dues with the Indian unit of Ericsson AB. The loss-making operator is also expected on Tuesday to seek the consent of its bondholders in London on an amended payback schedule. RCom’s ability to navigate this twin test — persuading thecourt and bondholders — will help decide the fate of a bailout deal struck in December to sell airwaves, towers and fiber assets to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. The transaction, which RCom expected to close by March 2018, had helped stave off insolvency. The company is “restrained from transferring, alienating, encumbrance or disposing off any of its ass...

Scroll.in March 07, 2018 The retail price of various syringes are often marked up as much as 655% compared to the price at which distributors purchase them, an analysis by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority said. The regulatory body, which analysed data from official sources and manufacturers and importers on the trade margins of these products, said that distributors on an average pay Rs 14.92 for 50 ml hypodermic disposable needles, which are then sold for Rs 65.13. These needles are also marked up the most, sold with 270% trade margin on an average, the pricing body said. Insulin pen needles are marked up the least, with an average trade margin of 57%. The maximum trade margins, depending on the type of syringe, varies between 214% and 1,251%, according to the regulator. “The reason for these markups is that the market got distorted some years ago,” Pavan Choudhary, the President of the Medical Technology Association of India, told PTI. “Most companie...

Scroll.in March 07, 2018 Gangster Dawood Ibrahim is willing to come to India but on certain conditions, his brother Iqbal Kaskar’s lawyer Shyam Keswani told a court in Thane, Maharashtra, on Tuesday, the  Hindustan Times  reported. Kaskar was arrested on September 18, 2017, in connection with an extortion case. On Tuesday, the court extended his police custody till March 9. Ibrahim wants to be kept in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail and is ready to face all the charges against him, the lawyer told Chief Judicial Magistrate RV Thamadekar. If a compromise could be arrived at with Abu Salem, why not with Ibrahim, Keswani asked. “In fact, he had expressed his intent very clearly to senior counsel Ram Jethmalani,”  The Times of India  quoted Keswani as saying. “But the government refused to accept his conditional return and till this day, Dawood has not been arrested.” Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray had claimed in September 2017...

The Economic Times March 06, 2018 The US has been blocking the appointment of members of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body, a move that experts said could render it incapable of hearing and resolving disputes arising out of Washington’s decision to increase tariffs on steel and aluminium and other protectionist measures.  Citing disagreements with the procedures followed and some of the body’s rulings, the US has been preventing vacancies in the seven-member Appellate Body from being filled for almost two years, which has affected its functioning even as disputes continue to pile up.  “The US has already crippled the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism. There is no point going to dispute,” said Biswajit Dhar, a professor at Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in the School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.  The Appellate Body is an international tribunal that countries approach when they are unable to resol...

The Hindu March 06, 2018 With the assault on freedoms intensifying, it is crucial to engage more with international human rights law A few weeks ago, the World Justice Project released its Rule of Law Index 2017-18 report, which measures the extent to which 113 countries have adhered to the rule of law in that period. (India’s rank was 62, better than China, Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh; Denmark occupied the top spot.) Every country’s performance was assessed in eight areas, including fundamental rights, which is measured by “absence of discrimination, right to life and security, due process, freedom of expression and religion, right to privacy, freedom of association, and labour rights.” The survey found that 71 out of the 113 countries have dropped in score. This report, along with others such as the Amnesty International Annual Report 2017-18, indicates the serious erosion of international human rights law in recent times. Story across the world Even a cursor...