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moderndiplomacy By Faryal Gohar    May 16, 2018 With the emergence of world as a global village, relations between two nations getting more popularity as compared to relations among respective governments. Governments always attempt to communicate with foreign public to export their ideas, its institutions and culture, as well as national goals and current policies. Public diplomacy can be defined as the efforts of one nation to influence public or elites of the next nation for using foreign policy to achieve its targets and cherished goals. Pakistan and India as two rival nuclear powers in south Asia have fought many battles because of their conflicting regional interests and still both states are on the edge of a new war. This leaves public diplomacy as the only option to normalize the situation. Many efforts have been made in nineties during the democratic government in Pakistan which can offer a wide canvas for interaction such as South Asian Dialogue, Pakista...

The First Post Ishfaq Naseem May 16, 2018  Hours after Union home minister Rajnath Singh issued a directive to halt security operations in Kashmir during Ramadan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) rejected the offer of a ceasefire, terming it as a compromise. However, mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, including Opposition parties National Conference and Congress, have said that peace needs to be given a chance. LeT chief Mahmood Shah said in a statement to the media that the “ceasefire is no option and no thought can be given to such a compromise. We deem it as a sin and disgrace to the sacrifices put up in the freedom struggle. We are the heirs of the martyrs. Opting for such a choice is treachery to the blood of martyrs...The statement of India's interior minister is nothing but a drama. It may be a wish of India and its few sympathisers and nothing else.” The LeT referred to army chief Bipin Rawat, stating that he believes that he can threat...

Business Line May 16, 2018 The CBI on Wednesday filed a charge-sheet against diamantaire Mehul Choksi and his three companies — Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshtra Brand — for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) to the tune of  ₹ 7,080.86 crore. Choksi was also the MD of Gitanjali Gems. Also named in the charge-sheet are former PNB MD and CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian, Executive Directors KV Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan, General Manager of the bank’s International Banking Division Nehal Ahad, and six other PNB officials. The accused have been charged with hatching a criminal conspiracy against the bank and fraudulently issuing letters of undertaking (LoU) to overseas banks to obtain buyer’s credit. Also, foreign letters of credit were issued in favour of the three companies controlled by Choksi without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in PNB’s central banking system. On Monday, the CBI had filed its first charge-sheet a...

The Times of India Reuters  May 16, 2018   Infosys  has formed a blockchain-based trade finance network with seven private-sector banks, to increase security and efficiency in the banking sector while also broadening its product offering. India's second-biggest software services exporter, whose  Finacle  software powers the core functions of the majority of Indian lenders, is in talks to sign up more domestic and foreign banks to the network, senior company executives told Reuters on Wednesday. Blockchain  technology allows all stages of transactions to be securely shared between network members, as opposed to each bank working independently which is more expensive and increases the chance of error. Just days earlier, HSBC Holdings said it had performed the world's first trade finance transaction using a shared blockchain platform, in a push to boost efficiency in the multi-trillion-dollar trade finance segment. Infosys is setting up its ...

The Economic Times By  Kirtika Suneja  May 16, 2018 Allaying fears that India has imported large quantities of sugar from Pakistan, the government on Wednesday clarified that the imports were 1,908 tonne in the current fiscal, only 1.63% of the country’s total imports and that the number is not abnormal.  Till May 14 in this fiscal, $0.657 million worth of sugar was imported from Pakistan as against 13,110 tonne valued at $4.68 million in 2017-18.  “This is nothing abnormal...It is difficult to say whether the quantity of sugar imported from Pakistan was duty-free at present," Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) chief Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi told reporters.  He was responding to reports that the Congress party and the NCP claimed that the centre’s policy of allowing the import of sugar from neighbouring Pakistan was leading to a crash in its prices in the domestic market.  At present import of sugar is free with a customs duty of 1...

Business Line PTI May 16, 2018 Production increase on the back of good monsoon and higher support price Import of pulses declined by nearly one million tonne (MT) in 2017-18 financial year on record output, helping the country save Rs 9,775 crore in foreign exchange, the government said today. “Pulses import has declined by 10 lakh tonne from 66 lakh tonne in 2016-17 to 56.5 lakh tonne in 2017-18, resulting in saving of foreign exchange amounting to Rs 9,775 crore,” the agriculture ministry said in a statement. The output touched an all-time high of 23.95 MT in 2017-18 crop year ending next month, beating the earlier record of 23.13 MT achieved in 2016-17. The production increased on the back of good monsoon as well as higher support price offered by the government. After pulses’ prices skyrocketed to over Rs 200/kg in retail market in mid 2016, the centre has been taking various steps to boost their output and make country self-sufficient. The country has been importing ...

The Indian Express Written by  George Mathew     May 17, 2018  The rupee has fallen 3.8 per cent in the current financial year with the dollar exchange rate dropping from 65 to 68.07 from March 28, 2018 to May 15, 2018. Though the rupee on Wednesday recovered to 67.80 against the dollar from the 16-month low of 68.07 mainly due to intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the foreign exchange market is betting on the currency’s slow and steady march towards the hitherto untested 70 mark as emerging markets are witnessing unwinding of currency carry trade and outflow of foreign capital. The rupee has fallen 3.8 per cent in the current financial year with the dollar exchange rate dropping from 65 to 68.07 from March 28, 2018 to May 15, 2018. Putting pressure on the rupee, Indian markets witnessed foreign portfolio outflows to the tune of $ 2,765 million and $1,795 million in April and May 2018 compared with FPI inflows of $ 3,513 million in Ap...

The Economic Times May 16, 2018 The Trump administration has said that China's strategic intentions and trajectory in the Indo-Pacific are destabilising and counterproductive, reiterating its pledge to maintain the region free and open.  Randall Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defence, Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, during a Congressional hearing told lawmakers that the US will continue to pursue a constructive, result-oriented relationship with China, but it will not accept policies or actions that threaten to under mine the international rules-based order.  "Our approach to the region and our strategy to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific region accounts for our relationship with China.  "China should and does have a voice in shaping the international system, as do all countries. However, in recent years, we have grown concerned by China's strategic intentions and trajectory, including some activities in the region that we view as destabilisin...

Economic Times PTI May 16, 2018 The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published its first 'essential diagnostics list', a catalogue of tests needed to diagnose the most common conditions as well as a number of global priority diseases.  The step was taken to address the problem of people's inability to access diagnostic services, thus failing to receive the correct treatment.  "An accurate diagnosis is the first step to getting effective treatment. No one should suffer or die because of lack of diagnostic services, or because the right tests were not available," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHODirector-General.  An estimated 46 per cent of adults with Type 2 diabetes worldwide were undiagnosed, risking serious health complications and higher health costs, said a statement by the world health body yesterday.  Late diagnosis of infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis increases the risk of their spread and makes them more difficult to tr...

Business Standard By: Tish Sanghera   May 17, 2018 07:48  No more than 1% of PMJDY account holders-3.1 million beneficiaries-use overdraft facilities available to them, and 17% of PMJDY accounts are 'zero-balance'. Up to 80% of Indians now have a bank account, the same proportion that  have a mobile phone , but financial inclusion levels are still among the world’s worst, lower than sub-Saharan Africa on some counts, according to a new  report . Despite the availability of mobile-banking services and the narrowing of gender, wealth and education gaps in account ownership, few account holders are using facilities available to them, raising doubts around improvements for financial inclusion, according to the latest  Global Findex Survey  released by the  World Bank  in April 2018. India’s unbanked population has been the target of the government’s flagship  Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana  (PMJDY), or the Prime Minister...