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The Times of India, March 18, 2018 NEW DELHI: Demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, which have been counted and processed for genuineness, are shredded and briquetted before being disposed of through a tendering process, the RBI has said. The central bank had earlier estimated the value of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes received, as on June 30, 2017, at Rs 15.28 trillion. "Old currency notes which include demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes are counted and processed in sophisticated currency verification and processing system. The notes processed are shredded and briquetted in the shredding and briquetting system installed in various RBI offices," the RBI said in reply to an RTI query filed by a PTI correspondent. Once compressed into 'bricks', the shredded notes are disposed of through a tendering process, according to the reply. "RBI does not recycle such processed notes," the RBI said. At least 59 sophisticated Currency Veri...

The Economic Times, MAR 17, 2018 Paul Krugman, the American economist who won a Nobel Prize in 2008, has warned that India could end up with huge mass unemployment if it does not grow its manufacturing sector.  There is this concept called artificial intelligence that you should be wary of. In future, while diagnosis may be outsourced to a doctor in India, it could also go to a firm based on artificial intelligence. Things like this could be a cause for worry for Indian services sector," Krugman said while speaking at a News 18 event.  "Japan is no longer a superpower because its working-age population declined, and China is looking the same. In Asia, India could take the lead but only if it also develops its manufacturing sector, not only the services one,” he said.  “India’s lack in the manufacturing sector could work against it, as it doesn't have the jobs essential to sustain the projected growth in demography. You have to find jobs for peopl...

The Telegraph, Mar 17, 2018 Calcutta : The Bengal government is keen to explore new employment opportunities in the cybersecurity space amid growing demand for professionals and experts. Industry body Nasscom has estimated the domestic cybersecurity market to touch $32 billion by 2025. The industry size was estimated at around $1.06 billion in 2015. This expansion is set to create a pool of 1 million (10 lakh) cybersecurity professionals to address the domestic and global demand, according to the Cybersecurity Task Force - Vision 2025. The Bengal government, which has set up a cybersecurity centre of excellence in New Town, estimates that it could potentially create at least around one-lakh cybersecurity experts from the state. "In a district meeting recently, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has stressed the need to introduce cybercrime as a course in colleges. The information technology department is in touch with the higher education department for framing the courses...

The Indian Express, Written by Rajshree Chandra |   March 17, 2018  On March 12, about 50,000 farmers reached Mumbai, walking 165 km in the hope that their elected representatives would listen when they spoke. A majority of these farmers were Adivasis and one of their demands was the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and through it, their land rights. The FRA was enacted in 2006 with the aim of protecting the claims of tribal communities over tracts of land or forests they have inhabited and cultivated for generations. It has the potential to democratise forest governance by recognising community forest resource rights over an estimated 85.6 million acres, thereby empowering over 200 million forest dwellers in over 1,70,000 villages. However, the FRA’s future is precariously balanced between the democratic control and protection of forests on the one hand and rapacious corporations backed by an unscrupulous political class on the other. It ha...

The Indian Express, By: ENS Economic Bureau | Bengaluru |  March 17, 2018  Online grocery delivery company Grofers has raised Rs 400 crore in a fresh funding round led by SoftBank Group, which also saw participation from Tiger Global and Apoletto Asia. The Gurgaon-headquartered company has now cumulatively raised $226.5 million with this latest Series E funding round, a press release from the company said. According to Grofers, it will continue to invest in building private labels and supply chain improvements. A significant amount of investment will go towards building infra and tech and efficient supply chain management to achieve deeper penetration in the cities where it has its presence. With FE inputs Link- http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/grofers-raises-rs-400-crore-in-softbank-led-funding-5100608/

The Indian Express, By: PTI | London | Updated: March 17, 2018  The British judge hearing the extradition case of liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Friday said that it was “blindingly obvious” that rules were being broken by Indian banks which sanctioned some of the loans to the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines. Presiding over a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, Judge Emma Arbuthnot described the case as a “jigsaw puzzle” with different pieces of “massive evidence” to be put together to paint a picture, which she said she was now able to see “more clearly” than a few months ago. “There are clear signs that the banks seem to have gone against their own guidelines [in sanctioning some of the loans],” she said, “inviting” the Indian authorities to explain the case against some of the bank officials involved because that relates to the “conspiracy” point against Mallya. The 62-year-old businessman, who is on trial for the UK court to rule if he can be extradited ...

The Indian Express,  By:   Express News Service   | New Delhi |   Updated: March 17, 2018 The Supreme Court’s suggestion Friday to file the probe report of the PNB scam in a sealed cover to it invited strong protests from the Centre which opposed this saying it would amount to a “parallel enquiry.” “What is the justification for any court, let alone this court, to ask to file the report…It will amount to a parallel inquiry”, Attorney General K K Venugopal told a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud. The AG was responding to the CJI’s suggestion while hearing a PIL — which sought directions to register cases against top officials of Punjab National Bank, deportation of Nirav Modi and directions to bank regarding grant of loans — that the Centre file the report in a sealed cover. At the outset, the AG apprised the court that the probe was on and 19 persons had been arrested so far, of whom eight were ...

The Hindu Business Line, March 16, 2018 In what is seen as the first official outlook for year 2018 monsoon, private forecaster Weather Risk Management Services (WRMS) has said that the June-September rainfall would be largely on the ‘positive side of normal’ (normal to above normal). The forecast comes in the backdrop of a season that flattered to deceive in the just past year, recording only 95 per cent of the normal in contrast to early projections by the India Met Department of a likely surplus. Weak La Nina The monthly precipitation forecasts for this year are based on NOAA/CPC CFSV2 ensemble model products dated February 27, according to Sonu Agrawal, Managing Director, WRMS. The WRMS processes the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US) CFSV2 model and adds statistical and synoptic interpretations to provide long-range weather forecasts. Providing some background, Kanti Prasad, Senior Consultant, WRMS, said that outlook by US agencies...