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The Indian Express May 02, 2018 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) will be allowed to invest in treasury bills issued by the government in a move that could lead to more foreign portfolio investment in India. The RBI announcement came two days after it allowed foreign investors to invest in government and corporate bonds with tenures below one year. However, it did not indicate when the change on investment in T-bills would come into force. “FPIs are permitted to invest in treasury bills issued by the Central government,” the RBI stated in a circular. The requirement that investment in securities of any category — government securities, state development loans (SDLs) or corporate bonds — with residual maturity below one year should not exceed 20 per cent of total investment by an FPI in that category applies, on a continuous basis. “At any point in time, all securities with residual maturity of less than one year will be r...

The Indian Express May 02, 2018 Lenders to Bhushan Power and Steel (BPSL) have rejected the proposal for a second round of bidding for the troubled steel-maker, a development that could cheer UK-based Liberty House, which has submitted the highest bid for the beleaguered firm, though after the designated deadline. The other contenders — Tata Steel and JSW Steel — had submitted their bids within the February 8 deadline, but their bids were lower. The rejection of a second round of bids means that the lenders would need to agree on the proposal to accept from bidders in the first round and proceed with the resolution process. Sources close to the development said that BPSL’s lenders, led by state-run Punjab National Bank, did not find merit in the rebidding proposal, initiated by BPSL’s resolution professional (RP) Mahender Khandelwal. The reason for the RP to propose rebidding to the lenders was not immediately known, though this could have been with the intent of offeri...

The Indian Express May 02, 2018 The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday ordered that status quo be maintained with regard to the implementation of Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta’s resolution plan for Electrosteel Steels. This means the resolution process can’t move till the appellate tribunal disposes of a plea by Renaissance Steel India Private Ltd (RSIPL), challenging the NCLT-Kolkata’s April 17 order that approved Vedanta’s Rs 5,320-crore bid to acquire the bankrupt steelmaker. The Abhishek Dalmia-promoted RSIPL had bid for the troubled steelmaker unsuccessfully. According to sources, the NCLAT directed the committee of creditors of Electrosteel Steels to submit the evaluation criteria and comparative chart showing the score matrix done by the lenders for the top three bidders — Vedanta, Tata Steel and RSIPL. The NCLT had quashed RSIPL’s objections on Vedanta’s eligibility under section 29 A of the IBC and approved Vedanta’s offer. “NCLAT has directed R...

The Indian Express May 02, 2018 Two Australian companies BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, and Heathgate Resources, an affiliate of US company General Atomics, are in discussions with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for exporting uranium to India. A sales contract for enabling the transfer, which is part of the ongoing commercial negotiations between Australian uranium vendors and India’s DAE on fuel contracts for civil nuclear-power generation, is currently under discussion, officials indicated. Once the contract is wrapped up, Australian companies could potentially join utilities from four other countries that are already supplying nuclear fuel to India. Incidentally, in July 2017, Australia had sent its first uranium shipment to India but that was “a small sample of uranium” transferred “purely for testing purposes,” according to a statement by the Australian government. Imported uranium from Australia, as and when despatches start, wo...

The Telegraph May 02, 2018 A fortnight before Karnataka goes to polls, PSU oil firms have stopped revising petrol and diesel prices although benchmark international rates have gone up by almost $2 per barrel. The daily price notification issued by oil firms showed that petrol and diesel prices have been static since April 24. This is despite the benchmark international rate for petrol going up from $78.84 a barrel, which was cited for raising the price to Rs 74.63 a litre on April 24, to $80.56 now, according to sources privy to fuel-pricing methodology.The benchmark international diesel rates during this period have climbed from $84.68 per barrel to $86.35. Also, the rupee has weakened to Rs 66.14 to a US dollar from Rs 65.41, making imports costlier. Before the price revisions stopped, petrol had hit a 55-month high of Rs 74.63 a litre and diesel a record high of Rs 65.93. Oil company officials declined comment.  https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/oi...

The Business Line April 30, 2018 L&T Defence, an arm of L&T, will manufacture and commercialise the unmanned remote operating vehicle (ROV) that can scan the sea surface in both shallow and deep waters. The company will get the technology from the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai. Facilitating this is a tripartite agreement signed between NIOT, under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), the NRDC, a corporation promoting indigenous technology transfer, and L&T. The ROVs developed over the years and field-tested by the NIOT can operate up to depths of 500 metres in shallow waters and 6,000 metres in deep waters. They can be useful in generating images and data that find wide application in both civilian and military fields. An MoU for the ROV was signed by M Purushotham, CMD of NRDC, S Ranganathan, Vice-President, L&T Defence, and M. A. Atmanand, Director, NIOT, in the presence of M Rajeevan, Secretary, Dept of Earth Sciences,...

The Indian Express May 02, 2018 On Sunday, members of a Dalit family that had been targeted by cow vigilantes in Una, Gujarat, in July 2016, and nearly 300 other Dalits converted to Buddhism at Mota Samadhiyala village, where they had been allegedly beaten by the gaurakshaks. Pradip Parmar, a Dalit MLA from the BJP who attended the function, told The Indian Express: “I am a BJP worker, but had Babasaheb not given the Constitution and the provision of reservation, I would not have become an MLA.” Is it common for Dalits to convert to Buddhism? There have been numerous instances in recent years where Dalits, individually, families and in large groups, have embraced Buddhism. For instance, 30 Dalit youth converted to Buddhism at Sankalp Bhoomi in Vadodara, a place connected with B R Ambedkar, last October. Every year, people visit Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur where Ambedkar embraced Buddhism along with over 3 lakh followers on October 14, 1956, and take vows to follow the Buddh...

The Indian Express May 02, 2018 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) will be allowed to invest in treasury bills issued by the government in a move that could lead to more foreign portfolio investment in India. The RBI announcement came two days after it allowed foreign investors to invest in government and corporate bonds with tenures below one year. However, it did not indicate when the change on investment in T-bills would come into force. “FPIs are permitted to invest in treasury bills issued by the Central government,” the RBI stated in a circular. The requirement that investment in securities of any category — government securities, state development loans (SDLs) or corporate bonds — with residual maturity below one year should not exceed 20 per cent of total investment by an FPI in that category applies, on a continuous basis. “At any point in time, all securities with residual maturity of less than one year will be r...

Financial Express May 02, 2018 Delhi and Varanasi are among the 14 Indian cities that figured in a list of 20 most polluted cities in the world in terms of PM2.5 levels in 2016, data released by the WHO showed today. The WHO data also said that nine out of 10 people in the world breathe air containing high levels of pollutants. Other Indian cities that registered very high levels of PM2.5 pollutants were Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur followed by Ali Subah Al-Salem in Kuwait and a few cities in China and Mongolia. In terms of PM10 levels, 13 cities in India figured among the 20 most-polluted cities of the world in 2016. The World Health Organisation has called upon member-countries in its Southeast Asia Region to aggressively address the double burden of household and ambient (outdoor) air pollution, saying the region, which comprises India, accounts for 34 pc or 2.4 million of the seven million premature de...

The Hindu May 01, 2018 Downtrend in chana and other pulse seeds continued on weak demand and bumper crop reports with chana (kanta) in Indore mandis being quoted at ₹3,475-3,500 a quintal, while chana (desi) ruled at ₹3,400. However, compared to last week chana is ruling at ₹100 a quintal higher. Chana dal (average) was at ₹4,500-4,600, chana dal (medium) at ₹4,700-4,800, while chana dal (bold) ruled at ₹4,900-5,000 a quintal. Sluggish trend also continued in dollar chana on weak domestic and export demand with its prices at ₹4,800-5,400 a quintal. In container, dollar chana (42/44 count) fetched ₹6,250; 44/46 count ₹6,000-6,100, while dollar chana (58/60 count) ruled at ₹4,700 a quintal respectively. Reference-  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/headerbumper-crop-reports-drag-chanaheader/article23740183.ecehttps://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/headerbumper-crop-reports-drag-chanaheader/article23740183.ece

Tribune  April 30, 2018 May 3 is commemorated as World Press Freedom Day, a day which aims to highlight the importance of a free press in present-day times. The specific theme for 2018 is “Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law.” Its goal is to highlight the importance of a proper legal environment to protect journalists. This is a theme that is very important for the Pakistani media given the challenges it has faced over the years. To give some context, one can refer to a recent report compiled and released by the respected international non-governmental organisation (NGO) — Reporters Without Borders, also known as Reporters Sans Frontières. The report showed that Pakistan was ranked 139th out of 180 countries on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index. Pakistani media ‘most vibrant’ in Asia, threatened by powerful groups inside country: RSF According to a country-specific analysis by RSF which accompanied the publication of the annual listing, t...

The Hindu May 01, 2018 Riding on improved compliance and an upswing in economic activity, GST revenues came in at a record ₹1,03,458 crore in April (for March 2018 economic activity), official data released on Tuesday showed. The average monthly GST collection so far has been ₹89,885 crore. The collections in April — the highest-ever since the GST launch in July 1 last year — were also bolstered by the ‘March effect’, when companies generally pump up sales to boost their annual performance. In addition, March would have seen some arrears payments and adjustments, leading to an uptick in collections. The April 2018 collection, therefore, cannot be taken as a trend for the future, said the Finance Ministry. But indirect tax experts feel it is sustainable in the coming months, given that anti-evasion measures like e-way bills have been implemented. The April GST collection is a “landmark achievement” and a confirmation of increased economic activity, tweeted Financ...

The India Express May 02, 2018 This month the BJP-led NDA government completes four years in office at the Centre. It is appropriate, then, to look back at the promises made in the BJP’s manifesto and evaluate the government’s performance in the four years. We restrict our analysis to agri-food issues that impact the largest number of people in the country. The problems of the agriculture sector are possibly what Prime Minister Narendra Modi aimed to address the most when he called for “sabka-saath, sabka vikas”. Modi set expectations of the farming community soaring even before he assumed the prime minister’s office. In October 2013, he asked Indian farmers to donate their used farm-implements to build the Statue of Unity in memory of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Sardar Patel represented farmers nationally and was behind the setting-up of the first dairy cooperative in Gujarat. Building his statue with metal from used farm-implements was an ingenious idea that helped Modi con...

The Hindu May 02, 2018 Despite a series of government website failures, and the Supreme Court hearings over Aadhaar data security and privacy, India’s cybersecurity chief, Chief Information Security Officer in the Prime Minister's Office Gulshan Rai tells The Hindu he is confident of India’s cybersecurity systems, and says the government, consumers and civil society must work closer to ensure a balance between national security and privacy is maintained. There have been a spate of incidents involving government run websites, including the Defence Ministry website, NICNET failures, and the Supreme court website being hacked. What is the reason for this? There are several trends when it comes to cybersecurity that are leading to these attacks or incidents. The proliferation of IT is increasing in all sectors, including government, industry, everywhere. CERT has seen about one lakh reported cyber incidents in the past year, and the number is rising definitely. The fi...

Business Line May 01, 2018 Efforts by a set of growers — assisted by Nabard financially, and a private university in the form of marketing interventions — have helped boost the prospects of ‘Mattu Gulla’ (a brinjal variety ) with geographical indication (GI) tag in Udupi district of Karnataka. ‘Mattu Gulla’ is now seeing better prospects after growers started marketing it with trademark stickers as a stamp of authenticity. For over 120 growers including Laxman Mattu, who live near the seashore at Mattu village in Udupi district, the cultivation of the vegetable is the main source of livelihood. They grow this unique brinjal on around 200 acres of land for almost eight months from October to June. Considering the demand for this variety in the market, traders were earlier marketing brinjal grown in other villages of the district also as ‘Mattu Gulla’. Laxman Mattu, who is also the manager of Mattu Gulla Belegarara Sangha (Mattu Gulla growers’ society), told Busin...

Business Line May 01, 2018 With the PNB fraud – roughly estimated at over ₹12,700 crore – involving diamond traders Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi casting a shadow over the industry’s credibility, gems and jewellery exporters have called upon bankers not to reduce their current credit limits as it would hamper exports. Instead, they suggest that stricter collateral norms and inventory and subsidiary financing guidelines be put in place to reduce borrowing risks. The suggestions are part of a white paper to be released next week. “We have worked on a white paper in consultation with lenders, including leading banks in the major areas of concerns, such as collateral norms and subsidiary financing. The guidelines suggested would ensure that good promoters are not choked for funds while the bankers’ concerns are also taken care of,” Colin Shah, Vice-Chairman, Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), told BusinessLine. The white paper will be released in Mum...