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Financial Express July 11, 2018 FE online The news of Shams-ul-Haq, brother of an IPS officer, taking up the path of militancy had come as a shocker and now it has been learnt that militant groups have stepped up the recruitment of local youths in Kashmir following the end of the Ramzan ceasefire. As many as 82 local youths have joined the militant groups this year till June-end, including 27 in June itself, according to Indian Express report. “The increase in the number of local youths picking the gun last month came after June 16, which was Eid, when the ceasefire ended and the security forces decided to undertake operations,” said a Srinagar-based security official was quoted as saying by IE. The data has been compiled by Jammu and Kashmir’s Multi-Agency Centre (MAC). The data shows April witnessed the highest number of joining with 28 and May was the lowest with 14 joining the militant groups. Among the 82 youths, 38 joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, 18 joined the La...

Financial Express July 11,2018 Reuters The Trump administration raised the stakes in its trade war with China on Tuesday, saying it would slap 10 percent tariffs on an extra $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. U.S. officials released a list of thousands of Chinese imports the administration wants to hit with the tariffs, including hundreds of food products as well as tobacco, chemicals, coal, steel and aluminum. It also includes consumer goods ranging from car tires, , furniture, wood products, handbags and suitcases, to dog and cat food, baseball gloves, carpets, doors, bicycles, skis, golf bags, toilet paper and beauty products. “For over a year, the Trump administration has patiently urged China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in announcing the proposed tariffs. “Rather than address our legitimate concerns, China has begun to retaliate against U.S. produc...

Firstpost July 11,2018 Tara Kartha Finally, after a long and rather surprising wait, the main political parties in Pakistan  brought out their manifesto s . The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was among the first to produce a highly detailed manifesto, which is fitting for a party hoping to make it back to the high table of power. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) continued to suffer its mysterious bouts of bad luck as its launch was delayed after its website was the target of anonymous hackers. The religious grouping Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) brought out a somewhat rambling manifesto that reflected the diversity of beliefs and motivations of parties that have come together under its banner. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) displayed the best marketing skills, being the last to announce its manifesto, which ensured it received considerable coverage in the media. It also has to be admitted that the PTI’s manifesto was the most well-conceived, committed itsel...

Firstpost July 11,2018 Indo-Asian News service India spends just a little over one percent of its GDP on healthcare and this is leading the country into "a comprehensive healthcare crisis", according to Nobel laureate and noted economist Amartya Sen, who has called for greater allocation on healthcare in India and highlighted what he calls "three general failures" in the country's healthcare segment. "The fact that India allocates only a little over 1 percent of its gross domestic product on public healthcare contrasts sharply, for example, with nearly three times as much by China. We reap as we sow, and cannot expect to get what other countries achieve by allocating much more resources — as a proportion of their respective levels of the gross national product — to healthcare," Sen writes in his elaborate foreword to  Healers or Predators? Healthcare Corruption in India , which will be launched in New Delhi on Thursday. Sen, a recipient o...

OpIndia July11,2018 OpIndia Staff Even though he was arrested in September 2017, the details of the operations were only recently confirmed to  Indian Express  by diplomatic and intelligence sources.The common man seldom hears about India’s unsung heroes. But an unprecedented act by the counter-intelligence operation has saved the lives of many, by preventing an Afghan operative of the Islamic State (IS) from executing suicide-bombing in New Delhi,  Indian Express  has  reported . Described as a son of a ‘wealthy businessman’, the Afghan operative was directed to spend his time in the national capital, and even took an admission in a private engineering college, on the outskirts of New Delhi. To ensure that they keep a grasp over the targeted Afghan bomber, security agencies had deployed 80 security personnel for “physical surveillance” during one crucial month of the operation. The operation began when the Research & Analysis Wing (R...

Livemint July 10,2018 Sayantan Bera A high-level expert panel set up by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has found that nearly 15% area under cotton was planted with illegally produced and unapproved herbicide tolerant (HT) seeds in the 2017 kharif crop season. Not only is this creating an unregulated market for genetically modified (GM) seeds, it is potentially harmful to the environment because it entails use of herbicides which are otherwise restricted. At the same time, given that these seeds are not approved by the regulator there is every chance the seeds, which are expensive, could lead to crop failure, increasing the downside risks to farmers—cotton farming has witnessed the highest number of suicides. The Field Inspection and Scientific Evaluation Committee, or FISEC, under the department of biotechnology was set up by the PMO in October last year, after reports emerged that farmers are using unapproved genetically modified HT cotton seeds to save on labour ...

The Indian Express July 12,2018 Shubhajit Roy Intelligence chiefs of Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan gathered in Islamabad on Tuesday to discuss measures against the threat of aggregation of the Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, Russian news agency TASS has reported. The official confirmation of the meeting came from Sergei Ivanov, chief of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service’s press bureau. The Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, represented Russia. “The discussions focused on the dangers arising from a build-up of the Islamic State on the Afghan territory,” Ivanov said. “The conference reached understanding of the importance of coordinated steps to prevent the trickling of IS terrorists from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan from where they would pose risks for neighboring countries,” he said. Sources in Delhi told The Indian Express that India has bilateral engagements with all the relevant agencies in Russia, China and Iran, esp...

The Indian Express July 12, 2018 Express news Service The CBI has registered three cases against three companies, their directors and some State Bank of India officials, including two AGMs, for causing the public sector bank a loss of Rs 136.93 crore. The first case pertains to alleged fraud committed by Top Worth Pipes and Tubes Pvt Ltd , its directors Abhay Lodha, Shishir Hiray and Harshraj Bagmar, and bank officials — Thyagaraju Inamanamelluri, the then AGM, Vilas Ahirrao, the then deputy manager and Madhura Sawant, the then deputy manager (bills). Their alleged actions caused a loss of Rs 56.81 crore, the CBI said. The second case pertains to the alleged irregularities caused by Maheep Marketing Pvt Ltd, its directors Gajendra Sandim and Hemant Sanghvi, and Inamanamelluri, the AGM, Ahirrao, and Sawant, which caused an alleged loss of Rs 49.99 crore. The third case pertains to the alleged irregularities caused by Harsh Steel Trade Pvt Ltd, its director Chetan Mehta, Maha...

The Express Tribune July 11, 2018 APP A spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry has rejected media reports that Pakistan had asked Beijing for financial assistance amid its shortage of foreign currency reserves and increasing debt. The official said she believed that the Pakistani government would devise a strategy to come out of the situation. “Reports by the western media in this regard are totally false,” said spokesperson Hua Chunying during her regular press briefing on Wednesday. “We believe Pakistan will try to evolve an economic strategy against all odds,” she said, when asked to comment if Pakistan could ask for help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it was not able to receive assistance from China. Responding to a question on whether the current financial situation could affect the completion of projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Hua said, in fact, Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar has already...

The Telegraph July 12, 2018 Imran Ahmed Siddiqi The Union home ministry has voiced doubts over the utility of persisting with Dineshwar Sharma as the government's interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir in a situation where separatists have been refusing to meet him since the state came under governor's rule last month. Even civil rights groups and common people are reluctant to engage with the former Intelligence Bureau chief. Sources said Sharma had in a report to the home ministry expressed anguish over the political fallout in the state and its impact on his efforts to carry forward the dialogue process with all stakeholders. "The role of Sharma is now in a limbo. In the absence of a government in the state, people who had earlier engaged with Sharma have now refused to hold any dialogue with him," a ministry official said. "He was in touch with some of the separatist leaders and was looking forward to a meeting with them but things have now beco...

Livemint July 12,2018 D. Ravi Kanth India needs to tread carefully without losing sight of its core trade-related priorities. Given the dark protectionist clouds arising from the trade war, India faces several challenges in agriculture, industrial goods, and services. Its main adversary in global farm trade remains the US which has repeatedly undermined New Delhi’s developmental initiatives for reforming rules governing global farm trade. Washington has repeatedly blocked multilateral instruments such as the special safeguard mechanism and the permanent solution for public stockholding programmes for food security. Recently, the US, at the behest of its powerful farm trade lobbies, alleged that India’s farm support programmes for rice and wheat breached its World Trade Organization commitments. Consequently, India needs to build a strong alliance with China and other developing countries facing similar threats to their agriculture from the fat-cat farmers in the US. B...

Outlook July 12, 2018 PTI Amid a global crackdown on fake and automated accounts, Twitter today said it will begin removing "locked" accounts from the follower numbers, in a bid to offer a "meaningful and accurate" view of users' follower count. "This is another step to improve Twitter, and ensure everyone can have confidence in their followers," Twitter said in a statement. The move comes at a time when Twitter is becoming more vigilant about any abuse of its platform for spreading misinformation, and has been weeding out fake accounts by the millions. In a statement on Wednesday, Twitter said over the years it has locked accounts after detecting "sudden changes" in account behaviour. The platform thereafter reaches out to accounts owners, and pending validation of the account and password reset by them keeps these accounts in a locked state "with no ability to log in". "This week, Twitter will be removing thes...