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Business Standard March 13, 2018 Despite a ban on the genetically modified Bollgard 3 cotton seed, farmers are buying it from online portals. The suppliers are said to be companies based in Gujarat, according to a ToI report. Bollgard 3 (BT3) has been developed by Monsanto and is so designed that it can 'kill Helicoverpa spp. larvae'. It is being sold on online portal IndiaMart. Why farmers are buying Bollgard III illegally The technology currently licensed out by Monsanto is known as Bollgard II. The company received a patent in 2009 in India for Bollgard II's ability to modify cotton seeds to include a microbe called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which fortifies cotton plants against bollworms. After hitting a record high in 2014, cotton yields and output in India have declined due to a pest attack and two straight droughts. Farming experts say that yields from the current strain of Monsanto's modified cotton seed (Bollgard II) have hit a platea...

News 18 March 12, 2018 Venezuela wants to trade with India using Indian rupee, its Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Monday. Arreaza said Venezuela wants India to buy its oil using Indian rupee, which the South American country in turn can use for trading Indian food products and medicines. The arrangement to trade in Indian rupee currently exists between Iran and Bhutan and Venezuela wants a similar arrangement with India. "We don't want to use dollar at all," Arreaza told reporters. Arreaza said his country has a similar arrangement with Turkey, China and Russia. He said a proposal in this regard was discussed with the finance and the petroleum ministries of India. "We want to import technology, food products and medicines by paying (Indian) rupees and they will pay us (Venezuela) not in (US) dollars but in rupees," he said. The reason cited behind the move was the sanctions imposed by the US. Nearly 44 Venezuelans have...

Politico Magazine March 13, 2018 Hands on the wheel, eyes squinting against the winter sun, Lauren Miehe eases his Land Rover down the main drag and tells me how he used to spot promising sites to build a bitcoin mine, back in 2013, when he was a freshly arrived techie from Seattle and had just discovered this sleepy rural community. The attraction then, as now, was the Columbia River, which we can glimpse a few blocks to our left. Bitcoin mining—the complex process in which computers solve a complicated math puzzle to win a stack of virtual currency—uses an inordinate amount of electricity, and thanks to five hydroelectric dams that straddle this stretch of the river, about three hours east of Seattle, miners could buy that power more cheaply here than anywhere else in the nation. Long before locals had even heard the words “cryptocurrency” or “blockchain,” Miehe and his peers realized that this semi-arid agricultural region known as the Mid-Columbia Basin was the best p...

Live Mint News  March 12, 2018 The bilateral trade between India and France worth $11 billion was far below potential, President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said, adding that the trade basket between the two countries could be diversified and new avenues explored. Welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron, Kovind said India’s strategic ties with France had been expanding not just in traditional sectors of defence, space and civil nuclear energy, but also in the emerging areas of counter-terrorism and maritime and cybersecurity. “Our economic collaboration is on course. But we can do much better. Our bilateral trade of about USD 11 billion is far below potential. We need to diversify our trade basket and look for new avenues to boost trade,” he said. The President noted that close to 1,000 French companies have invested in India, a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said. “We value these investments and would encourage France to associate with our flagship initiatives suc...

The Japan Times March 11, 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 kilometers (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. Beijing’s signals that i...

The Times of India March 11, 2018  Two days after Islamabad high court paved the way for registration of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Milli Muslim League as a political party in Pakistan, Indian intelligence agencies underlined the sharp contradiction between his stated positions and his plan to enter electoral politics. Pakistan court clears way for registration of Hafiz Saeed's political party. An intelligence officer pointed out Saeed’s focus on Quran and shariah or “God’s law” and his declaration on innumerable occasions that he would not submit to man-made laws, wondering if he had reconciled to supremacy of the Pakistani constitution and laws. The JuD, a front for banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), had claimed the court functioning from its headquarters at Jamia Qadsia, Chaubhurji, only offered arbitration and resolved disputes in accordance with the Islamic judicial system. However, the “summons” and strict action against non-compliance were...

The Indian Express March 11, 2018 CHANGING ITS stand on Aadhaar, the Election Commission (EC) has filed a revised application in the Supreme Court seeking mandatory seeding of the 12-digit unique identity number with all voter cards, The Sunday Express has learnt. While the poll panel has always supported linking Aadhaar with voter ID cards, its stated position in court earlier was that seeding is completely voluntary. The EC changed its opinion after A K Joti took charge as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) — he retired on January 23 this year. The EC is learnt to have justified the shift — from voluntary to mandatory seeding — on the ground that the government has passed the Aadhaar Act, and Aadhaar can also help ensure that each person has only one vote and, thus, prevent voter fraud. The Aadhaar Act, passed in March 2017 and notified four months later in July, makes Aadhaar seeding mandatory for almost all aspects of life. The EC had initiated the exerci...