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Daily Hunt June 20, 2018 China is taking advantage of Pakistan being isolated by the international community post allegations of it sponsoring terrorism and is fully aware that its patronising attitude will eventually turn Islamabad into a colony dependent on China for day-to-day survival, a Netherlands-based think tank has said. The Amsterdam-based European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) said, "As long as Pakistan operates in the shadow of another East India Company (i.e. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC project) and does not realize the importance of protecting its national interests, which in essence are the people of Pakistan, any attempts for national development will transform into national calamity."  The EFSAS article further goes on to state, "The Chinese master plan conceives (of) a picture where the majority of Pakistani socio-economic sectors are deeply penetrated by Chinese companies and Chinese culture; thus, Islamabad...

The Economic Times June 21, 018 The Odisha cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, on Thursday approved a proposal by Tata Steel NSE 0.20 % for utilising 1,735 acres of land for developing a private industrial park at Gopalpur in Ganjam district. Of the 2,970 acres of land handed over to Industrial Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp (IDCO) for setting up a steel plant at Gopalpur by Tata Steel, 1,235 acres notified by the Central government as SEZ may be utilized by the Tata Steel Special Economic Zone Ltd (TSSEZL), said a Cabinet note. "The balance 1,735 acre may be utilized by the said company for setting up a private industrial park as domestic tariff area." "The balance 1,735 acre may be utilized by the said company for setting up a private industrial park as domestic tariff area." The Cabinet also approved the lease of government land measuring 181.77 acres near Sambalpur in favour of IIM-Sambalpur for construction of...

The Economic Times June 21, 2018 India today signed three memoranda of understanding with three top UK academic institutions to facilitate meaningful exploration and early adoption of 5G technology.  The MOUs were sUniversity of Surrey, igned between representatives of King's College, University of Bristol and Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director of C-DOT, a government-owned body engaged in research and development in the field of telecommunications in India.  The agreements were signed at the India House in presence of India's minister of state for communications Manoj Sinha and High Commissioner to the UK Y K Sinha.  "It is a win-win situation for both C-DOT and the three universities. The Government of India is fully committed to ensuring that we march in step with the world, and be among the leaders to accelerate the exploration, adoption, and full-scale deployment of 5G technology for the benefit of our citizens," Sinha said after the signing ...

Business Line June 20,2018 India's cotton shipments to China could grow five-fold to 5 million bales (850,000 tonnes) in the next crop year as exporters rack up orders amid a trade war that is forcing the world's top consumer to look for other sources of supply. A bale is 170kg. The US, the world's biggest exporter of the fibre, has cornered the bulk of Chinese imports for at least a decade. But China's decision to impose a 25 per cent import tax from July 6 on American farm commodities, including cotton, in retaliation for tariffs enacted by the administration of US President Donald Trump will allow India to grab a bigger share of the Chinese market. Enquiries up “In the last few weeks we are getting good inquiries from China for the new season crop,” said Arun Sekhsaria, managing director of D D Cotton, an exporter that earlier this month sold cotton to China for shipments in November and December. “If the 25 percent duty stays there as announced, ...

Business Line June 20, 2018 India is holding bilateral dialogues with China, Australia and New Zealand to get them to agree to less ambitious tariff cuts for sensitive products. The aim is to end the logjam in the negotiations for the mega regional trade bloc, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The pact is being negotiated between 16 countries including the 10-member ASEAN, Japan and Korea. “All member countries negotiating the RCEP now agree that as members may have different sensitivities with each other, efforts must be made bilaterally to sort them out and reach a common ground. Without such efforts, it would not be possible to reach an agreement between 16 members,” an official said. Once concluded, the RCEP is likely to result in the largest free trade bloc in the world covering about 3.5 billion people and 30 per cent of the world’s GDP. Trade ministers from all the RCEP countries, including Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, will parti...

Hindustan Times June 22, 2108 In a first, a Dalit women’s collective organised a side event and offered testimonies of caste-based gender violence, at the 38th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, currently under way in Geneva. The All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM), a collective of Dalit women and girls, which works as an advocacy forum, released a report —Voices Against Caste Impunity: Narratives of Dalit Women — and showed a short documentary, #DalitWomenFight. The film tells the story of a 17-year-old girl from a Scheduled Caste who was sexually assaulted and killed in Haryana in 2017. Her family is still awaiting compensation while one accused named in the FIR is yet to be jailed. This was one of the three testimonies presented by Asha Kotwal, AIDMAM general secretary, at the event. The report quotes official data on caste-based gender violence and discrimination and puts it in context through several narratives of Dalit women and girls. The...

Daily Hunt June 21, 2018 A section of middlemen's malpractice is leading to the hike in the price of onion in city markets, despite there being sufficient supply of the same. The middlemen are creating panic by pointing finger at truck strikes and it is leading to "unnecessary hike" in the price of onion, said Rabindranath Kolay, a member of the task force set up to regulate market prices of essential commodities. He said that there is no valid reason behind the increase in the price of onion as 17 and 11 trucks containing onions have entered the city on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Each truck carries around 16 metric tonnes of onion. Trucks containing 1,600 metric tonnes onion is going to enter the city on Friday. "It is a huge quantity and there is no question of any shortfall in its supply," Kolay said, adding that in wholesale market it is getting sold at Rs 17.50 to Rs 18 per kg. Onions of smaller sizes are getting sold at Rs 12.50 per kg. It...

The Indian Express June 22, 2018 Ahead of the biannual meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna Friday, international news organisations were reporting that crude exporters were close to a “deal”. What could this be? OPEC might ultimately decide to pump another 500,000 to 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), significantly less than the 1.5 million bpd that Russia — which is not a part of OPEC but is, along with Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer — wants to raise output by. Khalid al-Falih, Energy Minister of Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC, said Thursday that an increase of 1 million bpd might be “a good target to work with”. Russia and OPEC reached a deal in December 2016 to cut production by 1.8 million bpd, which has helped lift oil prices by nearly three times since then. Russia’s commitment to the agreement has been weakening of late, and it wants an immediate increase in output with the option to recalibrate...

Hindustan Times June 21, 2018 Tamil Nadu police on Thursday arrested advocate S Vanchinathan, one of the two lawyers accused of engineering anti-Sterlite Copper protests in Thoothukudi that resulted in police firing which killed 13 people on May 23. Thoothukudi police picked up Vanchinathan at Chennai airport on Wednesday night on his return from New Delhi. He was the legal advisor for People’s Right Protection Centre, which actively participated in the Thoothukudi protests. According to police officers who asked not to be identified, Vanchinathan is a practising advocate before the Madurai bench of the Madras high court and has been periodically visiting Thoothukudi, instigating villagers to protest against Sterlite Copper. The copper factory of Sterlite in the coastal town has been a controversial one and locals worried about its environmental and health impact have been protesting its presence since the 1990s. Both Vanchinathan and another lawyer, Hari Raghav...

India Today June 20, 2018 As governor's rule gets imposed today in Jammu and Kashmir, two important developments will take place in the trouble-torn state on June 28. The term of Governor NN Vohra will expire and the annual Amarnath Yatra will commence on the same day. Vohra was appointed as governor in 2008. He was reappointed in 2013. After breaking up alliance with Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, it has become easier for the BJP-led NDA government at the centre to take a call on the governor's post. There are the two possibilities if Vohra, 82, chooses not to get reappointed or if the Modi government opts to replace him. The Modi government may fill the post with a former bureaucrat well-versed with the affairs of the state or a retired top military officer. Centre's representative to Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma and former Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag are believed to be the front-runners for the governor's post...

Live Mint June 21, 2018 The government plans to warehouse stressed power projects totalling 25,000 megawatts (MW) under an asset management firm to protect the value of the assets and prevent their distress sale under the insolvency and bankruptcy code till demand for power picks up. State-run Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd (REC) has identified projects with a total debt of around Rs 1.8 trillion as part of the scheme, which is under government consideration and has been tentatively named Power Asset Revival through Warehousing and  Rehabilitation,  or ‘Pariwartan’, said a government official aware of the plan, requesting anonymity. The ‘Pariwartan’ scheme is inspired by the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, or TARP, which was introduced in the US during the 2008 financial crisis. The proposed plan also aims to stem the rise in bad loans in the power sector. These stressed power projects will be housed under an asset management and rehabilitation company (AMRC)...

Economic Times June 22, 2018 The Odisha cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, on Thursday approved a proposal by Tata Steel NSE 0.74 % for utilising 1,735 acres of land for developing a private industrial park at Gopalpur in Ganjam district.  Of the 2,970 acres of land handed over to Industrial Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp (IDCO) for setting up a steel plant at Gopalpur by Tata Steel, 1,235 acres notified by the Central government as SEZ may be utilized by the ata Steel Special Economic Zone Ltd (TSSEZL), said a Cabinet note.  "The balance 1,735 acre may be utilized by the said company for setting up a private industrial park as domestic tariff area."  The Cabinet also approved the lease of government land measuring 181.77 acres near Sambalpur in favour of IIM-Sambalpur for construction of a permanent campus and decided to withdraw provision regarding the appointment of pro-chancellor of the Biju Patnaik Universi...

Livemint June 21, 2018 The government plans to warehouse stressed power projects totalling 25,000 megawatts (MW) under an asset management firm to protect the value of the assets and prevent their distress sale under the insolvency and bankruptcy code till demand for power picks up. State-run Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd (REC) has identified projects with a total debt of around Rs 1.8 trillion as part of the scheme, which is under government consideration and has been tentatively named Power Asset Revival through Warehousing and Rehabilitation, or ‘Pariwartan’, said a government official aware of the plan, requesting anonymity. The ‘Pariwartan’ scheme is inspired by the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, or TARP, which was introduced in the US during the 2008 financial crisis. The proposed plan also aims to stem the rise in bad loans in the power sector. These stressed power projects will be housed under an asset management and rehabilitation company (AMRC) tha...

Business Line June 18, 2018 Groundnut sowing in Gujarat is set to dip this kharif season as last year’s crop lies unsold and rains are delayed. Nafed-led agencies procured over 8 lakh tonnes (lt) of groundnut at the minimum support price, but a negative sentiment prevails. A 25 per cent decline in acreage as compared to last year's 16.61 lakh hectares (lha). "Farmers have suffered heavy losses. As against the cost of ₹8,000-10,000 per `bigha’ (about half of an acre), we got a market price of ₹3,500 per quintal on a yield of three quintals. Also, there are chances of crop failure in groundnut due to pest and climate conditions. Hence, most of the farmers in our region have decided to turn to cotton or other short-duration pulses crop," said Lalitbhai Vagadiya, a farmer from Mithapur in Junagadh District. But there is a section of farmers who prefer groundnut crop for this kharif season. Jagdish Rangaliya of Halvad in Morbi district asked, "What...

Dailyhunt June 22, 2018 The Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed that the Goa Chief Secretary`s report on the alleged Rs 51 lakh Brics food scam during the 2016 international event, should be submitted to the Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC). The decision by Justices Nitin Jamdar and Prithviraj Chavan came after the state government challenged the Commission order to the Chief Secretary to conduct a fresh enquiry on the alleged human rights violation caused by unhealthy food supplied to the police personnel on duty. The state government had contended before the High Court that an enquiry had already been conducted. In his petition before the Commission in October 2016, a city lawyer Aires Rodrigues said the contract for Rs 51.60 crore was given to a well known food caterer, but it was allegedly sub-let to another contractor who prepared the sub-standard food in an open space. "Casual labourers were engaged for cooking the sub-stand...