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The Indian Express May 04, 2018 Top Chinese and American officials today kicked off their two-day crucial talks in Beijing to avert a trade war following US President Donald Trump’s demand that China should immediately cut its trade surplus with the United States by USD 100 billion. A US delegation-led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is also President Trump’s special envoy, held talks with a Chinese team headed by Vice-Premier Liu He, a close confidant of President Xi Jinping and also a member of the powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC). The US delegation also includes Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, assistant to the president for economic policy Larry Kudlow and assistant to the president for trade and manufacturing policy Peter Navarro. Confirming that the talks between the two sides have started, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China welcomes the US delegation ...

Live Mint May 04, 2018 The board of Flipkart Online Services Pvt Ltd has approved an agreement to sell about 75% of the company to a Walmart Inc.-led group for approximately $15 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, an enormous bet by the American retailer on international expansion. Under the proposed deal, SoftBank Group Corp. will sell all of the over 20% stake it holds in Flipkart through an investment fund at a valuation of roughly $20 billion, said the people, asking not to be named because the matter is private. Google-parent Alphabet Inc. is likely to participate in the investment with Walmart, said one of the people. A final close is expected within 10 days, though terms could still change and a deal isn’t certain, they said. That would seal a Walmart triumph over Amazon.com Inc., which has been trying to take control of Flipkart with a competing offer. Flipkart’s board ultimately decided a deal with Walmart is more likely to win regulatory a...

Business Standard May 04, 2018 India’s clampdown on unaccounted cash has sent a flood of money into the private banking industry, prompting a major lender to embark on a hiring binge for wealth managers. HDFC Bank Ltd. -- the most preferred wealth manager in India among high net worth clients surveyed by Euromoney -- plans to add as many as 150 relationship managers by the end of 2020 to the current 250, said Rakesh Singh, group head of private banking. He started hiring at a faster pace last year, when he added about 50. The recruitment drive at the private banking unit, which started in the early 2000s, moved into high gear last year as India’s rich started shifting investments away from property and gold and into financial markets, Singh said in an interview last month. Real estate and gold purchases were often financed with cash as a way to avoid Indian taxes, and have come under greater scrutiny since demonetization. “Demonetization has been the inflection point for ...

The Times of India May 04, 2018 Nearly a fortnight after the Gadchiroli police claimed one of its biggest successes in an anti-Maoist operation, 21 of the 40 bodies remain unidentified. Most of them decomposed beyond recognition, these lie at four mortuaries, in Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Gondia and Bramhapuri, and could contain answers to what happened to eight people who went missing from Gattepalli village in Gadchiroli district around the same time. Of the 19 identified too, five bodies are yet to be claimed by their next of kin. The relatives of the missing eight belonging to Gattepalli — the youngest 15, the oldest 39 — have been doing the rounds of police and mortuaries to see if their kin are among the dead. Their fears were strengthened when one of the bodies appeared to resemble one of the missing girls, Bhujji Usendi, 15. However, DNA result is awaited. The government ordered testing of all the bodies after reports emerged of eight missing villagers. The fam...

Business Line May 03, 2018 Luring farmers away from their traditional cropping choices is an onerous task. Often, they refuse to switch to a new crop even if the conventionally-grown ones have long become economically unviable. Tata Trusts, a century-old philanthropic organisation of the Tatas, however, made a beginning when it convinced a few thousand small and marginal farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh to grow onions in the place of wheat and maize. “Soil and climatic conditions in the region were conducive for onions, but the farmers were not growing them in a big way,” said Amita Jain, Regional Director of Tata Trusts. “As a result, consumers in the region were dependent on onions coming from other parts of the country,” she added. This prompted the organisation to promote the cultivation of the bulbous vegetable in 2015-16. “We were able to convince around 8,000 families in 11 eastern UP districts to participate in a pilot programme. This helped us arran...

The Indian Express May 04, 2018 The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday instituted a stronger mechanism to check non-compliance of listing conditions, giving exchanges the power to freeze promoter shareholding and even delist the shares of such defaulting companies. The Sebi’s move is aimed at maintaining consistency and adopting a uniform approach in the matter of levy of fines for non-compliance with certain provisions of the listing regulations. Under the new framework, exchanges would have the power to freeze the entire shareholding of the promoter and promoter group in non-compliant listed entity also holding in other securities, the regulator said in a circular. Apart from this, exchanges can levy fines on non-compliant company, place the stocks of such firms to restricted trading category and suspend trading in the shares of such entities. In case an entity fails to comply with the requirements or pay the applicable fine within six month...

The Indian Express May 04, 2018 The central government has proposed amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, to bring in regulation to permit online sale of drugs. A final draft proposal to invite suggestions from stakeholders is yet to be released. On Thursday, representatives from the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) met officials from the Union health ministry to oppose the e-pharmacy regulations. “Online sale of drugs will affect retail sale to a large extent. We are against e-pharmacy as it is difficult to regulate online sale of scheduled drugs. How can we ensure scheduled drugs are sold after thorough scrutiny of prescriptions?” said Jagannath Shinde, president of AIOCD. The draft proposal permits an online portal to sell medicines after registering with the Central Licensing Authority. Based on recommendations by the drug technical advisory board, each online pharmacy portal will be issued licence for three years and has to be inspe...

Newskart May 03, 2018 The philanthropic arm of Google, Google.org, has extended its support for education and learning efforts in India. On Thursday, Google.org announced additional grants of $3 million to two non-profit organisations – Central Square Foundation and The Teacher App. Google.org to provide a $2 million grant and technical assistance from the YouTube Learning team to Central Square Foundation – a policy think tank focused on improving the quality of school education in India which will support a minimum of 20 content creators to produce at least 200 hours of quality science, technology, engineering and Math content in Hindi and vernacular languages.. Whereas the remaining $1 million grant will be given to The Teacher App to empower teachers with the right training and resources on concepts of Math, science, language and pedagogy. The funds will be used to scale the platform to reach 500,000 teachers in two years. On this move, Nick Cain, Education Lead...

Business Line May 03, 2018 The campaign for energy-efficient agricultural pumpsets seems to be catching up thanks to the Centre’s backing. Through Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), the Union Power Ministry has taken up the initiative of accelerating the programme of agriculture demand side management (AgDSM). The ministry has earmarked ₹400 crore for the project. The programme is aimed at replacing inefficient agriculture pumps with energy-efficient, IoT-enabled pumps, free of cost to farmers with free maintenance for five years. Statistics reveal that there are over two crore pumpsets used in farms across the country at present and over five lakh new pumpsets are added each year. The annual consumption of electricity by these pumps is put at 173.2 billion units. “Low-cost or free electricity coupled with high inefficiencies has resulted in a massive wastage of water and high energy consumption. The implementation of AgDSM is crucial as electricity bills fo...

The Times Of India  May 03, 2018 After the fake video and messages on social media regarding measles and rubella vaccination went viral, parents have become sceptical whether they should get the vaccination done or not. Since vaccination is to be done in schools, worried parents are asking teachers about this vaccination. However, the district health department assured that vaccination was 100% safe, and videos and messages were totally fake. In the video, it is being shown that vaccination was being injected in a particular community, so that they do not increase their population. They are spreading the rumour that vaccination can make boys impotent and girls infertile. In the video, allegations have been levelled against RSS and the Modi government. So, some parents expressed concern about the vaccination. But some videos are also circulating positive messages regarding the vaccination to encourage parents to get the vaccinations done. Rupali Thakur, a parent, sai...

The Economic Times May 03, 2018 India's Aadhaar technology does not pose any privacy issue and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the World Bank to take this approach to other countries as it is worth emulating, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said.  The 62-year-old multi-billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist said Nandan Nilekani, Infosys founder who is considered as the chief architect of Aadhaar, was consulting and helping the World Bank on the project.  Asked if India's Aadhaar technology is worth emulating by other countries, he replied, "Yes".  "The benefits of that (basic ID -- Aadhaar) are very high," he told PTI.  More than a billion people in India have enrolled in Aadhaar, the world's largest biometric ID system.  "Yes, countries should adopt that approach because the quality of governance has a lot to do with how quickly countries are able to grow their economy and empower their people,...

The Economic Times May 04, 2018 The US, Japan and Singapore have proposed free flow of cross-border data electronically, prohibition of server localisation and formation of clear processes for government intervention invoking data privacy, moves that experts said will require India to safeguard its interests.  Experts fear the move could compel countries to share their confidential data with foreigners and put pressure on developing countries such as India to participate in these discussions and demands.  India is framing an e-commerce policy at present, besides insisting that foreign companies must store consumer data on servers located in India. These countries could expect easier norms in India’s national policy on ecommerce to suit their interests, especially in areas of server localisation and data sharing, experts said.  The three nations, part of a 71-member bloc that’s seeking global rules for ecommerce, made the proposals to the World Trade Or...

Business Line  May 03, 2018 The Reserve Bank of India is likely to unveil this month the final guidelines for digital wallets to be interoperable. The banking regulator also wants the wallet players to integrate the functions and procedures by the end of June. “The final guidelines on interoperability are likely to come this month. The RBI is working with the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) and a few other groups to frame the guidelines, but these are complex processes and systems and everyone wants to be 100 per cent sure before the final roll-out. Technology has to be tested, and hence, it is taking time,” said a banker requesting anonymity. The RBI, in its master directions for prepaid payment instruments (PPIs), had proposed the idea of interoperability among digital wallets within six months, following which digital wallets present in the ecosystem will be able to interact or transact with each other. At present, a user of a wallet, such as Pa...

The Economic Times  May 03, 2018 Union home ministry on Wednesday took another step towards ease of getting visas by launching online "event clearance system" for grant of security clearance to foreigners wanting to visit India to attend conferences, seminars or workshops.  This will enable the Indian missions abroad to issue conference visa to foreign nationals or delegates intending to attend such events organized by central and state governments, public sector undertakings, central educational institutions, public funded universities, private institutions or NGOs, said an official release issued by the ministry of home affairs.  After launching the event clearance system (https://conference.mha.gov.in), Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba said" the whole process has become paperless and standardized resulting in effective monitoring and timely disposal". Various officials involved in the process can access the online application and documents and tak...

Business Line May 01, 2018 The rural economy appears to be under stress, going by the trends in rural wages, especially those of agricultural labourers. According to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) study, there has been a “significant deceleration” in rural wages since 2014. Rural wage dynamics have an impact on inflation and overall economic growth. The RBI working paper, titled ‘Rural Wage Dynamics in India: What Role does Inflation Play?’, by Sujata Kundu, says rural wages saw high growth from FY08 to FY13, followed by significant deceleration. From a peak of 38 per cent growth in 2014, wages of agricultural labourers slowed to almost zero. The same was the case with wages for masons. “Because of a spell of high inflation, growth in real wages even slipped into negative territory,’’ the paper said. The study used monthly wage data for both agricultural and non-agricultural labourers from Wage Rates in Rural India (WRRI), published by the Labour Bureau...