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The Indian Express, May 10, 2018 US-based retail giant Walmart Inc said Wednesday it will invest $16 billion to acquire a 77 per cent stake in Indian e-commerce major Flipkart, a deal that is the biggest M&A (merger and acquisition) in India so far, higher than the $12.9-billion acquisition of Essar Oil by a consortium led by Russia’s Rosneft in 2016. The deal marks the entry of Walmart into the Indian consumer retail business and gives it the ability to leverage Flipkart’s customer insight into the Indian market and its strength areas such as the fashion apparel segment and smartphones. Flipkart, which is pitted in a neck-and-neck battle for market leadership against Amazon, would be able to cash in on Walmart’s omni-channel retail expertise, grocery and general merchandise supply-chain knowledge and financial strength. The acquisition of Flipkart’s majority share will also add group companies such as online fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong, logisti...

The Indian Express, Written by Shubhajit Roy | New Delhi |  May 10, 2018 Hours after President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Massoud Rezvanian Rahaghi, Tehran’s envoy to New Delhi, said if European partners and others stick to promises and commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), then Iran too will fulfil its commitments, and oil trade with India will not be affected. In an exclusive conversation with  The Indian Express  Wednesday, Rahaghi — he is the Deputy Chief of Mission and has been officiating as Ambassador following the departure of Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari — said since development of the Chabahar port is of strategic importance to India, it should not be affected by “any political cause or excuse”. “To us, strategic interests need strategic decisions and actions in a timely manner,” he said. Rahaghi, who served as a soldier in Iran’s army in 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war ...

The Economic Times,  By PTI, May 08,  With business sentiment at the "weakest" in four years, India slipped to the 6th position globally in the business optimism index for the first quarter of this year, says a survey.  Business optimism is however at an "all-time high" globally with the index at net 61 per cent, the highest figure recorded in 15 years of research, as per Grant Thornton's quarterly global business survey released today.  Noting that business sentiment in India has been the weakest since 2014 in the first quarter, the advisory firm said the confidence has been shaken since the third quarter of 2017 with weakening currency and a surge in oil prices.  "While entering the last year of the current regime, the business optimism in India has deteriorated with the country ranking 6th globally on the optimism index in the first quarter of 2018... India has been topping the chart since the new government came into power in 2014,...

The Economic Times,  May 08, 2018 The US has placed India on its watch-list of ‘currency manipulators’. This is a warning: economic sanctions may follow if the US determines that India is, indeed, a manipulator. There is no immediate danger.  The US has three criteria for declaring a country a currency manipulator: a bilateral trade surplus with the US of over $20 bn; a current account surplus of over 3% of GDP; and net forex purchases of 2% of GDP within one year. India runs a big current account deficit of over 2.5% of GDP and, on that criterion, is well outside the danger zone of US sanctions.  However, the US definition of currency manipulation is economic bunkum. Bilateral trade deficits are completely irrelevant to currency manipulation. Worse, the US ignores other acts that artificially depress exchange rates. Why? Because the US itself is guilty of such manipulative acts, and pretends that these are just fine.  Stop Press! Actually, Don’t No...

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 inflectio...

Business Standard, May 04, 2018 The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Centre's demand for a stay on the court's March 20 ruling on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 or SC/ST Act, saying the judgment was only aimed at putting a filter on immediate arrest. "We have made it clear that there is no bar on arrest if any other offence is committed. The judgment does not say there should be no FIR but the judgment simply puts a filter on immediate arrest", the court said. The Centre has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court over its recent ruling on the SC/ST Act. In a bid to check the misuse of the SC/ST Act, the apex court had on March 20 ruled that preliminary enquiry in a case under the Atrocities Act would be done by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) to ensure the allegations are not frivolous, and to avoid the false implication of an innocent person. The court also held that a gover...

Business Standard, May 04, 2018 A period of pre-election political limbo coinciding with an increasingly perilous economic backdrop is prompting predictions that a rally in Pakistan stocks is set for a reversal. The benchmark KSE100 Index will probably fall 10-15 percent in the run-up to elections in July or August, said Muhammad Rameez, the head of international sales at Foundation Securities Pvt. in Karachi. That would wipe out this year’s 10.6 per cent gain in local-currency terms, the best performance in Asia. “A chain of events including politics and economic vulnerabilities, coupled with a lack of earnings growth” will spur drops, said Rameez, who correctly predicted declines in Pakistani stocks before its upgrade to emerging-market status by MSCI Inc. last year. Losses might not be as bad if a planned tax amnesty scheme is approved and implemented in the next few months, he said. A caretaker government will take over June 1 before the election and w...

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, ...

The Economic Times,  May 09,2018 Google has unveiled an artificial intelligence tool capable of handling routine tasks -- such as making restaurant bookings -- as a way to help people disconnect from their smartphone screens.  Kicking off the tech giant's annual developers conference, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai argued that its AI-powered digital assistant had the potential to free people from everyday chores.  Pichai played a recording of the Google Assistant independently calling a hair salon and a restaurant to make bookings -- interacting with staff who evidently didn't realize they were dealing with artificial intelligence software, rather than a real customer.  Tell the Google Assistant to book a table for four at 6:00 pm, it tends to the phone call in a human-sounding voice complete with "ums" and "likes," and sends you a message with the details.  "Our vision for our assistant is to help you get things done," ...

Business Standard,  May 09, 2018 Vietnam has requested China to withdraw its military equipment from South China Sea outposts, saying their deployment seriously violates Hanoi’s sovereignty, increases tension and destabilizes the regional situation. The comments came after CNBC reported last week that China had installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three outposts in the contested Spratly Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam, among others. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement that Vietnam has sufficient legal basis and historical evidence to affirm its sovereignty over the Spratlys and the Paracels in the South China Sea. “Vietnam request that China ... show its responsibility in maintaining peace, stability in the East Sea, do not carry out militarization activities, withdraw military equipment illegally installed on features under Vietnam’s sovereignty,” she said, using Vietna...

The Hindu, May 08, 2018 India is among the top 10 victim nationalities identified as being at risk of exploitation, with numbers more than doubling since 2015 Indians employed in the hospitality industry are at a greater risk of falling victim to modern-day slavery in the UK, according to a new report on labour exploitation in the country released on Tuesday. India is among the top 10 victim nationalities identified as being at risk of exploitation, with numbers more than doubling since 2015 - when the UK’s Modern Slavery Act came into force. Vietnam is at the highest risk, followed by nationals from Romania, Poland, China, Sudan and then India, the new report by the UK’s Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) found. GLAA intelligence shows that, where known, Indian workers are most commonly found in the hotel and restaurant sector. Open source reporting also shows that India is ranked a ‘severe risk’ source country from which modern day slaves enter the UK, ...

The Hindu, May 10,2018 After U.S. President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has indicated that his government remains committed to that pact and that he would be negotiating with the deal’s remaining signatories — the European countries, Russia and China — to salvage the deal if possible. For Tehran, a lot is riding on how these powers engage in the coming months. India too has a lot at stake in this regard. Iran’s attempt to woo Chinese investment in Chabahar, often projected as India’s pet project (and a response to Gwadar in Pakistan), has raised eyebrows in New Delhi. Inviting Chinese investment is perceived as an attempt to dilute Indian influence. The view from Tehran The development of the Chabahar port, however, needs to be viewed as Iran’s call for “engagement”. The participation of Pakistan’s Minister of Shipping at the inauguration ceremony made it clear that for Iran Chabahar means business. Post-s...