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NDTV September 11, 2018 Washington:  US President Donald Trump has said India wants a trade deal with the US despite   the tough stance taken by his administration on the issue.  Donald Trump wants to stop the subsidies that growing economies like India and China have been receiving as he wants the US, which he considers as a developing nation, to grow faster than any other nation.  He often accuses India of imposing 100 per cent tariffs on American products. Frankly, I'll tell you, India called us the other day. They said they would like to start doing a trade deal, first time," President Trump said without mentioning who   called up whom. "They wouldn't talk about it with previous administrations. They were very happy with the way it was," Donald Trump told his supporters on Friday at a Joint Fundraising Committee Reception, in Sioux Falls in South Dakota. Donald Trump said his trade representatives headed by Bob Lighthizer (the US Trade Represent...

The Wire September 09,2018 Kabir Agarwal Meerut:  On September 4, the Allahabad high court impugned the detention order under the National Security Act (NSA) of three persons accused of being involved in caste violence that occurred last year in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Thakurs and Dalits clashed in three connected but distinct incidents of violence in May last year, leaving one man from each community dead. Following the violence, several Dalits and Thakurs were arrested. The draconian NSA was applied against six persons – three Dalits, including the leader of the Bhim army, Chandrashekhar Azad and three Thakurs. The three that have been granted relief by the Allahabad high court are Thakurs. Against the Dalits, NSA continues to remain in force and they continue to be in jail. The state has acted steadfastly and renewed the application of NSA on the Dalits whenever it was about to lapse. One of the lawyers representing members of the Dalit community, Dalip Kumar, beli...

The Indian Express September 10,2018 In her first address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday praised the Supreme Court for decriminalising same-sex relations between consenting adults but urged India and Pakistan to take meaningful action on addressing issues highlighted in the UN report on human rights violations in Kashmir. This was part of a written statement by the new UNHRC chief. The former Chilean president succeeded Zeid Raad al Hussain as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights this month. In her opening remarks at the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Bachelet said the people of Kashmir had the same rights to justice and dignity as people all over the world. “The people of Kashmir have exactly the same rights to justice and dignity as people all over the world and we urge authorities to respect them,” she said. Bachelet also reiterated the UNHRC’s request for unconditional access to K...

Financial Express September 10,2018 Interpol has issued a red corner notice (RCN) against Purvi Modi, a Belgian national and absconding billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi’s sister, in connection with the alleged $2 billion PNB money laundering case, officials said Monday. The notice, which acts as an international arrest warrant, states that Purvi Deepak Modi, 44, is required on charges of “money laundering”. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), the central agency probing the case along with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has charged Purvi Modi with playing “a major role in laundering the proceeds of crime generated from the PNB scam and being a beneficiary of the scam to the tune of at least USD 133 million (over Rs 950 crore)”. “She is also the owner/director of several shell or investment companies formed solely for the purpose to launder the proceeds of crime in companies located in the UAE, British Virgin Islands and Singapore,” the agency said in its probe report. Th...

Dawn September 10,2018 Anwar Iqbal WASHINGTON: The Pak­istan Embassy in the United States sent out an appeal this weekend, urging the Pakistani-American community to donate generously to a fund set up by the government to build Diamer-Basha and Mohmand dams. But experts continue to debate the concept of building dams with public donations. The government hopes to raise a sizable portion of the fund from the Pakistani-American community, which is considered the most affluent among the Pakistanis living abroad. “Imran Khan has got ample supporters and fundraisers within the Pakistani-American community. Still, I doubt there’s a critical mass of Pakistanis overseas with the financial capacity (much less the will) to participate in this campaign,” says Michael Kugelman, a Pakistan expert at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for Scholars in Washington, describing the appeal as “an ambitious ask”. “Khan knows the diaspora better than anyone,” tweeted Xulqi Moon, pointing out that Imran ...

The Indian Express September 09,2018 Former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya was picked up by a team of Ahmedabad Crime Branch from Dhule in Maharashtra in connection with his alleged involvement in Bitcoin case on Sunday. Kotadiya had gone underground after his name popped up in the investigation by the Gujarat CID (crime) in the multi-crore case earlier this year. Kotadiya was detained during a raid on residential premises in Amalner town in Dhule district of Maharashtra by the crime branch and was taken to Ahmedabad. “He was detained from a house in Amalner town in Dhule this morning. We brought him to Ahmedabad late in the evening. We are in the process of handing him over to CID (Crime),” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad Crime Branch, Deepan Bhadran told The Indian Express. Kotadiya, who was BJP MLA from Dhari between 2012-17 was on the run for last four months after CID (crime) summoned him in connection with the case registered under IPC Sections 364-A (kidnapping for ran...

The Hindu Business Line September 09,2018 RICHA MISHRA & AMITI SEN India is clear that commercial considerations will drive its crude oil imports from the US and that oil bought from Washington should not be seen as replacing Iranian petroleum. “Yes, scaling up oil imports from the US was discussed at the 2+2 dialogue between the two countries as part of measures to correct the trade deficit. But we are clear that these are commercial decisions — dependent on how competitively oil is priced and on the requirements of our refineries,” said a senior government official. Besides, the US is working on improving the infrastructure for exporting oil and gas, said the official, adding that “once done the scope of scaling up imports will be higher”. Asked if scaling up crude imports could mean replacing Iranian oil, the official told  BusinessLine:  “We are dealing with two issues separately and our stand has been communicated to the US.” According to Vandana Hari, ...

The Indian Express September 10, 2018 Rahul Tripathi INDICATING THAT New Delhi is willing to accept the leadership of the 33-year-old Karmapa Lama Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the adviser on Tibetan affairs in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Amitabh Mathur, told The Indian Express, “India doesn’t doubt 17th Karmapa’s commitment to Tibetan civilisation struggle and he is the future face of Tibetan Buddhism.” Mathur was appointed as an interlocutor on Tibet affairs, a major stumbling block for India-China relations, three years ago. He will complete his tenure on September 21. New Delhi for long suspected the Karmapa — recognised by Beijing and most adherents of the Kagyu sect — to be a “Chinese agent”. It is now trying to portray him as the most credible face of Tibetan struggle in India, after the Dalai Lama. The change in India’s stand is seen as an attempt to please China, which in the past had refrained its senior leaders and government functionaries to attend ‘Thank You India’ ev...

The Indian Express September 10,2018 Sandeep singh and Sunny Verma The rupee continued its slide against the dollar last week, falling below 72 at one stage before closing at 71.73 Friday. While a surge in crude oil prices has been largely blamed for the projected rise in the current account deficit (CAD) and the pressure on the rupee, a closer look at items imported by India shows that apart from a jump in crude imports (in value terms), several other items are playing a role, alongside a slower growth rate of exports. Changing import basket In line with the rise in global crude prices from around $50 per barrel in April 2017 to around $70 towards the end of March 2018, the value of petroleum and crude imports jumped almost 25% from $86.9 billion in FY17 to $108.6 billion in FY18, thereby leading to a jump in the CAD from 0.6% of the GDP to 1.9%. As the prices of crude continue to rise, some estimates suggest that the CAD may rise to levels of around 2.8%-3% of the GDP in FY...

The Indian Express September 10,2018 Deeptiman Tiwary The Enforcement Directorate (ED), whose request for an Interpol Red Notice (RN) against Mehul Choksi has been pending for months, has now accused the international agency of leaking information to the key accused in the Rs 13,600 crore PNB scam. In a communication sent last week, the ED asked Interpol to desist from providing information about the ED’s RN request to Choksi. The ED has said this because the Interpol’s queries against its request are based on objections raised by the fugitive jeweller. “The fact that Choksi’s objections to our request for a Red Notice against him are pin-pointed, only means that he has all the details of our request,” an ED official said. He added that the ED believes that details should be shared with an accused only after the Interpol has recorded the charges in its database. “Following that, the accused can challenge it. But Interpol appears to have a different view. The fact tha...

          The Hindu          September 10, 2018         Happymon Jacob The  India-U.S. 2+2 meeting on September 6  between the Defence and Foreign Ministers of the two countries appeared to be a singularly one-sided affair. Washington was calling the shots, and New Delhi was trying to wriggle out of U.S. pressure without much success. The inaugural round of the 2+2 Dialogue is therefore ‘advantage U.S.’ While carefully analysing the outcomes of the talks and the future direction of India-U.S. relations, it is difficult to get overjoyed by heart-warming American phrases like “India is a consequential emerging partner” or Washington naming and shaming Pakistan. Let’s look at the bigger, more nuanced and consequential picture. Buy American Behind the carefully-constructed narrative of strategic rationales and geopolitical calculations underpinning India-U.S. relations, the American team came to N...