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Economic Times, PTI, May 27, 2018 India today launched its second IT corridor in China to cash in on the burgeoning Chinese software market which remained elusive despite the presence of top Indian technology firms.  The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has established one more Digital Collaborative Opportunities Plaza (SIDCOP) platform in China in an effort to provide market access to Indian IT firms in the huge Chinese market, the NASSCOM said.  Agreements worth RMB 36 million (about USD six million) were signed between Indian service providers and Chinese customers at the launch of the corridor by China's Guiyang Municipal government and the NASSCOM, a NASSCOM official said.  The pilot projects launched on the SIDCOP platform would be executed over the next year, a NASSCOM statement said.  Last December, the NASSCOM established its first SIDCOP platform in the Chinese port city of Dalian, which is India's firs...

Shubhajit Roy, Indian Express, May 28, 2018 India and Pakistan will hold a meeting of their coast guard officials on Monday in New Delhi, sources said here on Sunday. Top on the agenda will be the issue of fishermen and illegal trafficking, they said. This comes even as former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav is facing death sentence in Pakistan on charges of espionage, and that has soured relationship between the two countries. This is the second time after the surgical strikes in September 2016 that security establishment officials from Pakistan will be visiting. In January-February this year, Islamabad sent a four-member team of counter-terrorism and intelligence specialists to attend an SCO meeting. Read | If Pakistan ready for talks, shows initiative, India won’t say no: Rajnath Singh On Monday, the chief of Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) Rear Admiral Zaka Ur Rehman will be representing Pakistan, while the Indian side will be represented by Ind...

The Telegraph: G.S. Mudur   May 28, 2018 New Delhi: The nipah virus outbreak in Kerala has prompted India's health research agency to propose reduction of the delays posed by the standard regulatory requirements for clinical trials and rapid deployment of candidate therapeutic molecules against rare and fatal infections on "compassionate grounds". The Indian Council of Medical Research had, on a request from the Kerala government, sought from research groups in Australia a candidate molecule against the nipah virus that had been tested on animal models and given to 20 people exposed to the virus outside India. Council director-general Balaram Bhargava had made the request within a day of the nipah infection being confirmed in Kozhikode on May 19. But health officials and epidemiologists say that India may not need the molecule for now, given the localised nature of the outbreak and the absence of new cases over the past three days. Health authorities had...

AMRITA NAIR-GHASWALLA, Business Line,  MUMBAI, MAY 27 Chinese internet giant Baidu’s next big market is India. Interested in fast-growing markets where it can score, Baidu has been in search of the elusive next billion. And helping the company in its efforts is an Indian start-up. From advising it to converting into English some of the Mandarin pages the search engine hosts so as to reach a wider audience, to promote Indian universities and colleges in China, right down to helping India’s hospitality industry get a share of 97.2-million Chinese outbound travellers, the Indian company has got some of the aspects covered. Apps Discover Technologies, a digital ad network marketing company, has exclusively partnered with Baidu. Aiming to provide Chinese traffic to Indian advertisers and brands, the alliance was meant to enable Indian companies promote their business in China. “After dealing with them for some time, we realised this business alliance could create a bur...

Tribune, Hasnaat Malik, May 27, 2018 ISLAMABAD .: Iran has warned Pakistan to careful as the Islamic State is being relocated in border region shared between Pakistan and Afgahnistan. Official sources told The Express Tribune that a senior Iranian official informed a delegation led by Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Ashtar Ausaf Ali that Iran have credible intelligence reports that the US has relocated Da’esh and its heads Abu Bakar Baghdadi to Afghanistan. The official also informed that the US and Israel intend to turn Pakistan and Iran into another Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. A delegation led by Ashtar Ausaf Ali visited Iran on the invitation of Iranian AG Muhammad Jaffer Monatazeri two weeks ago to discuss various issues, especially related to the judiciary of both countries. The AGP was accompanied with Additional Attorney General Syed Nayyar Rizvi and Deputy Attorney General Syed Nayyab Gardezi. The visit remained successful in various ways. ...

Bharani Vaitheesvaran, Economic Times, May 29, 2018 The Tamil Nadu government on Monday ordered the closure of the Sterlite Copper factory in Thoothukudi, marking a significant setback for the Anil Agarwal-owned VedantaNSE -1.08 % unit, which is at the centre of a violent agitation led by residents who claim the smelter has caused widespread pollution of air and water in the southern city.  The government order endorsed the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s directive last week to close the unit citing constitutional provisions to “protect and improve the environment,” and “in larger public interest.” Within an hour of the order announced on Monday afternoon, district officials of Thoothukudi, headed by Collector Sandeep Nanduri, arrived at the plant to seal the premises.  “The decision to close the plant was arrived at upon consideration of the interests and sentiments of the people of Thoothukudi,” said chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami speaking to reporter...

Live Mint, May 28, 2018 New Delhi: State-run NHPC Ltd is interested in acquiring Lanco Infratech’s 500 megawatt (MW) hydropower project on the Teesta river in Sikkim, said Balraj Joshi, chairman and managing director. Lanco Infratech Ltd is undergoing insolvency proceedings, and is among the 12 non-performing asset (NPA) accounts referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). “The Testa-VI project is half completed and we are interested in reviving the project by participating in the expression of interest (EoI) process,” said Joshi. Mint could not immediately reach out to Lanco Infratech for a comment. Lanco Teesta Hydro Power Pvt Ltd is the firm setting up the project having four units of 125 MW each. Joshi said NHPC cannot bid for the project under the current stipulation, with the public sector unit seeking a ‘solution’ from the government. Link:  https://www.livemint.com/Industry/n1T5FVKf5LltAKsnSkePEN/NHPC...

Indian Express,  Sandeep Singh , | New Delhi  May 28, 2018  Following sustained outflow of funds from Indian debt and equity markets on account of rise in treasury yields in the US, India is set to witness the highest outflow of funds by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) in May, since November 2016, when the government announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. With four trading days still to go in this month, as on May 25, FPI’s have pulled out a net of Rs 26,768 crore from the Indian markets (Rs 18,949 crore from the debt market and Rs 7,819 crore from the equity market). In November 2016, FPIs had pulled out a net of Rs 39,935 crore from the market and also pulled out Rs 27,111 crore worth of investments in the following month in December 2016. Between April and May 2018, FPIs have pulled out an aggregate of Rs 42,330 crore from the Indian markets. The significant rise in outflow of funds over the last six weeks along with sustained...

Indian Express,  Yubaraj Ghimire , |  Published: May 28, 2018  I have brought India to the point of respecting Nepal’s sovereignty: Prime Minister K P Oli made this unusual statement last week before the parliamentary committee of the newly-formed Communist Party of Nepal. At the same programme, he made two other announcements. One, the camp office of the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu will be removed. Two, he will visit China in June. The camp office in Biratnagar has been a bone of contention between the two countries. Nepal has been maintaining that the temporary office that was set up in 2008 June to repair and maintain the Kosi dam in the wake of floods and breach at some points was converted into a defacto consulate office. At least two letters from the Nepal government to wind up the office six years ago did not receive a response from India. But apparently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit agreed to Oli’s demand. An ann...

ET, May 27, 2018 The oil ministry plans to amend the Petroleum & Natural Gas Rules 1959 to include shale in the definition of petroleum, a change that would allow private companies to explore and produce the resource in the blocks they already operate.  It has sought public comments in the next two weeks for the proposed amendment.  The current definition excludes shale and therefore bars private companies from exploiting it from fields that are producing conventional oil and gas or coal-bed methane. The proposed amendment aims to broaden the scope of petroleum by dropping the line that refers to exclusion of shale.  The amendment will help Essar Oil, Great Eastern Energy, Reliance IndustriesNSE 0.51 % Ltd, VedantaNSE -0.90 % and other private players wanting to exploit shale in their fields. The government’s 2013 policy permits only state-run Oil and Natural GasNSE 2.76 % Corp and Oil India to explore shale.  ONGC’s experience in shale expl...

HT, May 27, 2018 China has agreed to roll over a loan of $500 million that it has placed with the State Bank of Pakistan as Islamabad’s official foreign currency reserves remain in a precarious position despite taking $44 billion in loans in the past five years. The Express Tribune reported that the People’s Bank of China, through China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), had deposited $500 million with the SBP in June 2012. The loan is going to mature in the first week of June this year, but China has agreed to roll it over for one more year, said sources in the ministry of finance. Pakistan cannot use the $500 million Chinese deposit and its only purpose is to shore up foreign currency reserves. According to sources, the loan has been rescheduled at the same old terms. Since the money could not be utilised, the interest rate was only 1 per cent, they said. During the week ended May 18, the SBP’s gross reserves dropped $479 million to only $10....

The Print: HUSAIN HAQQANI 27 May, 2018 It is very unusual for retired senior officers of a professional military to end up fighting alongside militants attacking soldiers they once commanded. But the recently reported saga of retired Lt. General Shahid Aziz — whose 37-year service in the Pakistan army included postings as director-general military operations, chief of general staff from October 2001 to December 2003, and commander of the IV Corps in Lahore from December 2003 to October 2005 — points to the hazard of allowing ideology to supercede professionalism in a modern military. After retiring from the military, Aziz was appointed chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, a post he left in May 2007. His heart, however, was in Jihad. General Pervez Musharraf, under whom Lt. General Aziz served in top positions, recently said in a television interview that he had learned about Aziz growing a long beard, going to Syria to fight alongside ISIS or some other Jihadi group,...

NDTV, MAY 26, 2018 WASHINGTON:  Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf has said there was a bias between treatment of India and Pakistan when it came to possession of nuclear assets. In an interview with Voice of America, Mr Musharraf said the US "ditches" Pakistan when convenient, and favours India instead. "Nobody asks India to control their (nuclear) assets. No one questions India's possession of nuclear threats. Pakistan became a nuclear state because India posed an undeniable existential threat," he said. "The US should've stopped them, we've been loyal to them throughout," he added. Mr Musharraf has said his country and India were on the path of reconciliation when he was president but that was no longer the case because Prime Minister Narendra Modi "isn't an advocate of peace talks". Mr Musharraf said when he was at the helm, "I spoke to both the Prime Ministers, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan ...

Tribune, May 30, 2018 ISLAMABAD:  The Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua on Wednesday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment in the fight against terrorism. Addressing the first Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting being hosted by Pakistan, the foreign secretary stated that terrorism should not be identified by any religion or nationalities. She said that Pakistan was cognizant of the threats posed by terrorism, separatism and extremism to the region and beyond. India to attend SCO anti-terror moot in Pakistan Janujua reiterated that having fought terrorism and losing of its citizens and law enforcement personnel, Pakistan has also suffered economic losses of over $120 billion. “But neither the human nor the financial losses have diminished my country’s resolve to fight this menace. Through our comprehensive efforts, over the past several years, supported by a firm domestic political consensus, we have been able to turn the tide,” she maintained. ...