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Business Standard March 08, 2018 Homegrown e-commerce giant  Flipkart   is planning to set up an integrated   logistics park   on the outskirts of   Bengaluru.   This will be the largest and one-of-its-kind facility in the country. The facility, for which the company is in the process of acquiring 100 acres of land, will house multiple massive warehouses that will rival in size those set up by Amazon and Alibaba in the US and China, respectively. The unit, which will help   Flipkart   consolidate all its warehouses in and around Bengaluru, will also act as the nerve centre or the logistics hub across the four southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The company says the unit will house 4.5 million square feet of warehousing space in the next few years. “This is going to be the largest investment from Flipkart’s side for the next five to 10 years. One is land acquisition and the other big investment is going to be the kind of facilities that we bu

Business Standard March 07, 2018 The next three to five years would see some key cardiovascular, diabetic and oncology molecules going off-patent in the Indian market. This could trigger launches of generic versions by local players and, thereby, a major drop in their prices. Experts expect the sharpest price drop in the oncology space. For the rest, pricing would depend on the number of players who get approvals after the patent expiry. Overall, the prices of these molecules could drop by 20-25 per cent. As such, only 5 per cent of the medicines used in India are patent-protected. In terms of market size, it is not big at the moment. However, some of the patented molecules like Apixaban (a Pfizer drug with the brand name Eliquis) has clocked a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 381.9 per cent over the past five years. According to data from the AWACS PharmaTrac, the market research wing of the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists that represents over 500,0

Daily Times March 08, 2018 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that Pakistan’s near-term outlook for economic growth is broadly favorable, however continued erosion of macroeconomic resilience could put this outlook at risk. The executive board of the IMF, which recently concluded the first post-program monitoring discussions with Pakistan, predicted that the real GDP is expected to grow by 5.6 percent in FY 2017/18, supported by improved power supply, investment related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), strong consumption growth and ongoing recovery in agriculture. Following significant fiscal slippages last year, the fiscal deficit is expected at 5.5 percent of the GDP this year, with risks towards a higher deficit ahead of upcoming general elections, it said. The executive board further said that surging imports have led to a widening current account deficit and a significant decline in international reserves despite higher external financing.

Dawn March 07, 2018 The United States has acknowledged that both Pakistan and the Taliban have legitimate grievances and the United States is willing to address those concerns. At a Monday news briefing, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells confirmed that senior US and Pakistani officials will hold a series of meetings in Washington this week, and Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua will lead the Pakistani delegation at these two-day talks. Official sources, however, said that Secretary Janjua’s visit has been delayed for a day as she had changed her schedule for last minute consultations in Islamabad. “Secretary Janjua was reaching Washington on Tuesday but now she will come on Wednesday,” said an official source, adding that “the delay will not impact her meetings with US officials on Thursday”. “We’re certainly not walking away from Pakistan. There will be very intensive dialogue through both our military and our c

The Hindu March 07, 2018 India has got the go-ahead to join the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), after shareholders of the London-based multilateral lender agreed to the country becoming its 69th member, enabling Indian companies to undertake joint investments in regions in which the EBRD operates. “This is an important step in the relationship between the EBRD and India, allowing us to build further on already very close ties,” said the development finance institution’s President Suma Chakrabarti. Set up in 1991, based on a proposal by former French President Francois Mitterand, the bank’s initial focus was helping central and Eastern European nations reconstruct their economies in the post-Cold War era. It remains committed to furthering the development of “market-orientated economies and the promotion of private and entrepreneurial initiative.” Other members who receive investments include Mongolia, Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Leban

The Economic Times March 07, 2018 A Chinese naval combat force that entered the Indian Ocean for the first time in four years may have helped deter an Indian intervention in the Maldives after its pro-China president imposed a state of emergency, according to military and diplomatic sources and analysts.  India has traditionally been the biggest player in the tiny island chain 400 km (250 miles) to its south, and faced calls from Maldives' opposition leaders last month to use force against President Abdulla Yameen to restore democracy.  After the state of emergency was declared India - which sent troops to foil a coup in the Maldives three decades ago - moved aircraft and ships to its southern bases and put special forces on standby, two military sources in New Delhi said.  But in the end, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held off from hard action, unwilling to entangle the military in a foreign country of 400,000 people, the sources said.  Beij

The Indian Express March 07, 2018 The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Pakistan and Punjab governments not to arrest or put Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed under house arrest until further orders. The Mumbai terror attack mastermind, Saeed on January 23 moved the court challenging his possible arrest. He requested the court to restrain the government from taking any action against him or his organisation arguing that government was under the pressure of the United States (US) and India. In the writ petition, the petitioner stated that Saeed and his allies were detained in Pakistan on the insistence of US and India, but the government could not provide any proof against them in the court of law. According to the Dawn, the judge also expressed his displeasure over the failure of the federal and the state governments in filing their replies on Saeed’s allegations. During the Wednesday’s hearing at Lahore court, both the governments have sought more time submi

The Telegraph March 07, 2018 The first ever consignment of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) would arrive in the country later this month, about nine months after the arrival of a consignment of American crude, indicating increasing energy ties between the two countries. The shipment, under a 20-year deal, is coming from Louisiana. State-owned GAIL India has contracted 3.5 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass liquefaction facility in Louisiana. "The cargo has been loaded on-board GAIL's first chartered LNG ship 'Meridian Spirit'. This LNG cargo originated from Cheniere Energy's LNG export facility at Sabine Pass LNG project," GAIL said in a statement. "The cargo will discharge LNG at Dabhol terminal of GAIL (in Maharashtra) on or around 28th of this month." Last October, India imported its first shipment of US crude. The US had stopped oil exports in 1975 and the ban was lifted b

JULIA LEE   ON MARCH 5, 2018 SEATTLE — Present-day India has seen many changes: women can work, the economy is fast-growing and there is a large food distribution program. However, India still suffers from severe poverty, due to factors such as corruption, lack of education, unequal distribution of wealth, a population explosion, the caste system mentality and mismanagement. The international poverty line is $1.25 per day. The World Bank reports that  32.7 percent  of the population in India lives below the poverty line, and 68.7 percent survive on less than $2 per day. India has the fourth worst  infant mortality rate  in Asia, and 45 percent of children in India are malnourished. Humans of New York  creator Brandon Stanton traveled through India to get the perspectives of those who live in the country. One woman shared how she has been dependent on others her whole life and was not prepared to face the outside world. She plans for her daughter to have  more opportunities  t

 Beijing |  Published: March 5, 2018 9:00 pm China on Monday said it has slashed three lakh troops, reducing the size of its 2.3-million People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to just two-million-strong force, a move aimed at making the world’s largest army a mightier force capable of winning modern wars. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made the announcement in his annual work report to the National People’s Congress (NPC). Li said the military had completed its goal of slashing three lakh troops, reducing the size of the 2.3 million PLA to just two-million-strong force. The PLA Daily, official newspaper of the Chinese military, said non-battle personnel were downsized. The troop cut was announced by President Xi Jinping in 2015. The PLA which was 4.5-million strong till 1980 was first resized to three million in 1985 and later to 2.3 million. PLA also announced last year that it would reduce its grounds troops to less than a million as part of Chinese military modernisation under which t

  Ashok Gulati  ,  Shweta Saini  |  Published: March 6, 2018 12:05 am Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  is one of the best orators in Indian politics today. He is not only coherent and inspiring but connects with his audience well. He is ambitious and committed to fast-track the economy. He sets high targets and drives government machinery to achieve them. In the process, he raises aspirations and expectations of people which if not met, run the risk of hurting his own and the government’s credibility. Unrealistic promises that remain unfulfilled could hurt the PM’s political capital. People could doubt his intent, his understanding of involved challenges, or the capability of his government to deliver. The case in point is his often-repeated ambition of doubling farmers’ real incomes by 2022. By all means, we want to see him succeed in his ambition. However, our analysis and professional acumen informs us otherwise. We believe that farmers’ real incomes cannot be doubled even by

Shubhajit Roy  | New Delhi |  Updated: March 6, 2018 8:46 am Days after the government sent out a note asking senior leaders and government functionaries of the Centre and states to stay away from events planned to mark 60 years in exile of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan government-in-exile has decided to cancel its two main events in New Delhi. In its note, the government had underlined that it is a “very sensitive time” for India’s relations with China. The two events, which were to be attended by the Dalai Lama, were scheduled to take place in New Delhi — an inter-faith prayer at the Gandhi Samadhi in Rajghat on March 31 and a ‘Thank You India’ event at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex on April 1. Following  a report in The Indian Express on March 2  — it was the first to report on Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s note to Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha who sent a directive to the Centre and states — the Tibetan government-in-exile decided to hold the ‘Thank You India’ event in Dhar