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The Asian Age,  Sep 3, 2018,  Facebook's definition of what constitutes "terrorism" is "overly broad" and risks leading to censorship and the arbitrary denial of access to its services, a UN rights expert warned Monday. The UN Special Rapporteur on promoting and protecting human rights while countering terrorism has written to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to express concern about the company's efforts to block "terrorists" from using its platform, according to a statement. "The use of overly broad and imprecise definitions as the basis for regulating access to and the use of Facebook's platform may lead to discriminatory implementation, over-censoring and arbitrary denial of access to and use of Facebook's services," Fionnuala Ni Aolain warned. Facebook's definition, she said, equates all non-state groups that use violence in pursuit of any goals or ends to terrorist entities. The social media network's policie...

The Economic Times, September 02, 2018 Now that the RBI has admitted that 99.3% of all demonetised notes came back to the banking system (not counting what remains in Nepal and Bhutan), it is fairly clear that demonetisation was a flop. In economic terms. But it was a huge success in political terms for the prime minister personally and for his party in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. And that must be understood as having been the real goal of the demonetisation exercise, all along. The Economic Survey for 2016-17 estimated the loss in economic output arising from demonetisation to have been anything between a quarter of a percentage point to one percentage point of lost growth. GDP growth rate slowed from 8% in 2015-16 to 7.1% in 2016-17 to 6.7% in 2017-18. There are those who quibble that growth lost steam for reasons other than demonetisation, such as introduction of GST in July 2017 and the twin balancesheet problem depressing investment in the economy, as banks refused...

Firstpost, September 01, 2018 External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will hold an informal meeting with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) foreign ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is also expected to attend the meeting. This is an informal meeting at the foreign ministers' level which takes place every year on the sidelines of UNGA. The external affairs minister attended the meeting last year and will attend this year as well. The 73rd session of the UNGA is scheduled to open on 18 September. The first day of the high-level general debate will be on 25 September, and will last for nine working days. Link- https://www.firstpost.com/world/sushma-swaraj-to-hold-informal-meeting-with-saarc-nations-foreign-ministers-pakistans-shah-mahmood-qureshi-likely-to-attend-5095201.html

Business Standard, August 30, 2018 Urjit Patel, the 24th governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has had an interesting relationship with the Centre. Taking over from the suave Raghuram Rajan wasn’t easy, but being demonised for demonetisation would have felt much worse. A lot has been written about Patel’s subservience to the government on the immediate ban of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, which anecdotal evidence suggests, hurt the unorganised sector badly. Two years down the line, Patel and the government have more of a give and take relationship. On matters like giving an interim dividend to the Centre, he seems to be on the same page as the government. But he has had his moments. The RBI is quite willing to slug it out with the Centre on the issue of power sector companies being sent to the National Company Law Tribunal. He has taken a firm stand on the limited powers of the apex bank in the case of public sector banks. Recently, the RBI approached the government to rem...

The Financial Express, September 01, 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi. The bank aims to to leverage the expansive network of the postal department to ensure financial inclusion for the masses. The bank in which the government owns 100 percent equity aims to leverage the vast network of the Department of Posts (DoP) that has over three lakh postmen and Grameen Dak Sewaks. IPPB will have 650 branches and 3250 Access Points across the country. “Through India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) we will reach to every nook & corner of the country. Bank & banking services will be available at every person’s doorstep,” PM Narendra Modi said. The government aims to link 1.55 lakh post offices in the country to the IPPB system by December 31, 2018. A wide range of products such as savings and current accounts, money transfer, direct benefit transfers, bill and utility payments,...

ENTRACKR, September 01, 2018 Going against all the odds, UPI has again testified the quick adoption of digital payments in India. After a declination of 4.5 per cent in volume of transaction in July, the NPCI-owned payments channel has bounced back in August with a 32 per cent spike in the volume of transaction. According to the latest NPCI data, the volume of transaction for August was 312.02 million. In the previous month,  UPI transaction witnessed 235.65 million transaction, which was the  second ever fall  in terms of volume since its inception. As far as the value of transaction is concerned, UPI also managed to maintain its growth to Rs 54,212.26 crore, an 18 per cent increase as compared to the previous month. The instant payments service IMPS also witnessed an increase of 4.8 per cent in volume of transaction in the last month. It recorded 135.58 million as the volume of transaction worth Rs 1,23,733.51 crore. The spike in the volume of...