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Financial Express, June 08, 2018 Sudden surge in imports of Chinese and South Korean paper into the country has the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (Ipma) worried. It has asked the Union government to take urgent remedial measures. Imports of paperboard have clocked an unprecedented annual growth of 31.18% year-on-year in 2017, according to the latest data released by the Director General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S). “Domestic manufacturers have invested huge amounts in the recent past to upgrade and implement clean and green technologies, product quality, farm forestry, among others. More investments are in the pipeline. Such large investments should not be jeopardised by allowing imports at zero or preferential import duties”, says Saurabh Bangur, President, Ipma. Imports of paper and paperboard into India from Asean countries, China and South Korea in FY18 increased at 32.59%, 56.45% and 57.19%, respectively over FY17, according to Ipm...

Indian Express,June 07, 2018 By Rahul Tripathi After a crackdown on NGOs for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, when more than 18,000 NGOs had licences cancelled or ceased to exist, the Home Ministry has relaxed penalties for contraventions under the Act. Following an order Tuesday, offences under the Act can be compounded and NGOs will now face fines depending on the violations, which earlier could have meant suspension or cancellation of licences. Sources in the Home Ministry said the new rules will not be applicable restrospectively. Several top NGOs including those of social activist Teesta Setalvad, senior lawyer Indira Jaising, Greenpeace, Compassion International and Ford Foundation were under the scanner for alleged violations of the FCRA Act. NGOs being investigated were charged for receiving foreign donations in one account and utilising funds from another account, spending it on purposes other than for what it was received, or ...

The Wire, June 07, 2018 By Kabir Agarwal On June 6, the Union cabinet  announced  a Rs 7,000-crore bailout package to ‘deal with the current crisis in the sugar sector’. The government’s use of the word ‘current’ is curious as it is unlikely to provide any substantial and immediate relief to sugarcane farmers or the sugar industry.  Of the Rs 7,000 crore package, only Rs 1,175 crore (17% of the total) has been allocated to pay the pending dues of sugarcane farmers. The rest, worth Rs 5,732 crore, is aimed towards providing financial assistance to sugar mills in order to augment capacity by investing in infrastructure. According to the government’s own admission, sugarcane farmers in the country are currently owed Rs 22,000 crore. Yet, it has allocated only Rs 1,175 crore, a mere 5% of the total pending dues, to be credited directly into the accounts of farmers via the creation of a buffer stock of 30 lakh metric tonnes of sugar. The reimbursement will be made ...

The Mint, June 07, 2018 The US military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere. The effort has gone largely unreported, and the few publicly available details about it are buried under a layer of near impenetrable jargon in the latest Pentagon budget. But US officials familiar with the research told  Reuters  there are multiple classified programs now under way to explore how to develop AI-driven systems to better protect the United States against a potential nuclear missile strike. If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to think for themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery, with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look for signs of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half a dozen sources. The ...

The Mint, June 07, 2018 Water conservation efforts under the rural employment guarantee scheme has benefitted more than 140 lakh hectares of agricultural land in the past three years, the government said on Wednesday. A survey by the government-funded Institute of Economic Growth found “improvements in productivity, acreage, incomes and water table,” in a number of states since the programme was introduced in 2015. About 150,000 farm ponds were constructed under the scheme to ensure storage of rain water and improved irrigation in rural India, it added. “The water conservation thrust, with a focus on transparency, technically sound planning and execution, and timely wage payments, is transforming the lives and livelihoods of a large number of villages and households in rural India.” The statement issued by the government said that rejuvenation of 2,156 rivers has also been planned under the scheme. Revival of water bodies and the construction of new ponds were included un...

The Hindu, June 07, 2018 By Jagriti Chandra Concerns parental abduction of kids . The government is not yet ready to sign the Hague treaty on inter-country abduction of children by parents fleeing a bad marriage, said a senior official of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD). There has been immense pressure from the U.S. on the government to sign the treaty though the government has long held the view that the decision could lead to harassment of women escaping marital discord or domestic violence. “The government is not yet ready to sign the Hague treaty. If at all we do, we will follow the Japan example and put safeguards in place before acceding to the Hague treaty,” said the official on condition of anonymity. ‘Political decision’ “This is not a unilateral decision my Ministry can take. It has to be a political decision this government needs to take. We have sent the report to the Ministry of External Affairs and other Ministries, and we are...

The Hindu, June 06, 2018 By Suhasini Haider With India recalibrating its relations with other powers, the India-U.S. equation is not quite balancing out  At his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last week, billed as a major foreign policy statement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of India and the U.S.’s “shared vision” of an open and secure Indo-Pacific region. Yet his words differed so much from those of U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis, who spoke at the same event, that it seemed clear that New Delhi and Washington no longer see eye-to-eye on this issue, and several others as well. Oceanic gulf To begin with, Mr. Modi referred to the Indo-Pacific, a term coined by the U.S. for the Indian and Pacific Oceans region, as a natural geographical region, not a strategic one, while Mr. Mattis called the Indo-Pacific a “priority theatre” and a “subset of [America’s] broader security strategy” for his military command, now renamed the Indo-Pacific Comm...

The Business Line, June 06, 2018 The world cotton market may be poised for a bull run in the months ahead as the market fundamentals are changing. With global consumption in 2018-19 projected to run ahead of production and ending stocks set to decline to multi-year lows, prices could only be headed north. T he China factor But a more important reason for the emerging bullish sentiment is that China, arguably the world’s largest stakeholder in cotton, could be back in the market with a bang. The Chinese announcement that the country intends to raise its cotton imports with reduced-duty is seen as a positive for the market. In recent years, China’s cotton import volumes had declined drastically as the country continued to liquidate large inventory. The Asian major’s annual imports are currently close to a million tonnes , less than a third as compared with peak imports until five years ago. But, of late, cotton prices in the Chinese market have escalated sharply, prompting ...

Times of India, June 07, 2018 Former President  Pranab Mukherjee  on Thursday delivered the much-anticipated address at an RSS event and said that attempts to define our nation on religion, region, hatred and intolerance will lead to “dilution” of our country's identity. "Any attempt at defining our nationhood in terms of dogma and identities or religion, region, hatred and intolerance will only lead to dilution of our national identity. We celebrate our diversity," said Mukherjee. The former president hailed the diversity in Indian society and its rich history, saying that the country derives its strength from pluralism. "Soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance. This plurality came with assimilation of ideas over centuries," he said.  On secularism the former president said, “Our national identity has emerged after a long drawn process of confluence and assimilation, the multiple cultures and faiths make us special and tolerant. Secular...

Rediff.com, June 06, 2018 In the last 10 days, Brent crude prices have dropped by 4.35 per cent after Saudi Arabia and Russia promised to increase output, but the price of the Indian crude oil basket has dropped only 1.9 per cent. From $78.09 a barrel on May 18, Brent crude prices dipped to $74.69 a barrel on May 28, while the Indian basket prices saw a smaller decline from $77.43 to $75.95 a barrel. The Indian benchmark remained static in its last closing on May 28, while Brent prices dropped further to $75.71 a barrel.“This will be a temporary scenario. Indian prices will also come down as these are also dependent on Oman and Dubai prices,” said K Ravichandran, senior vice-president of ICRA. On the other hand, another expert said the prices of long-term and short-term contracts too were dependent on it, because of which there was a lag between both the prices. After international prices touched $80 a barrel, OPEC nations and Russia jointly indicated that production of cru...

News18. com, June 07, 2018 Just days after playing a vital role in BJP's defeat in Kairana Lok Sabha bypolls, dalit outfit Bhim Army said that defeating BJP and RSS in 2019 general election will be its top agenda. The organisation has seen swift advancement across Western UP but it has faced a stormy year since Saharanpur caste violence in 2017 and subsequent arrest of its founder Chandrashekar Azad 'Ravan'. Many of its activists including Ravan are still behind bars. Despite these challenges, Bhim Army is being credited with playing a major role in mobilising dalits against BJP in Kairana.   Bhim Army's national president and Chandrashekhar's close associate, Vinay Ratan Singh, who was recently released from jail, told News18, ''Our organisation played a silent but very crucial role in  Kairana. Our members fanned out across villages, mobilising voters against the BJP. Though we had nothing personal against Mriganika ...