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The Economic Times September 18, 2018 Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury A tug of war has ensued between business groups based in Lahore and Karachi over contracts for the China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPECNSE 0.00 %)—a project that has drawn opposition from India as it passes over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.  Between 2013 and 2018, the Nawaz Sharif-led government had awarded contracts under CPEC to some Lahore-based business groups. According to people aware of the matter, some Karachi-based business houses, allegedly close to Prime Minister Imran Khan and the army, are now pushing to get their share of the pie.  The persons cited earlier alleged that the government’s calls for transparency in the $62-billion CPEC project is a reflection of pushback from Karachi-based Abdul Razak Dawood, a scion of Pakistan’s biggest business house and Khan's special adviser on economy, investment, trade and textiles.  In a recent interview with the Financial Times, just aft...

The Economic Times September 18, 2018 WASHINGTON/TIANJIN: U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his trade war with Beijing, imposing 10 percent tariffs on about $200 billion worth of imports in a move one senior Chinese regulator said "poisoned" the atmosphere for negotiations.  Trump also warned in a statement on Monday that if China takes retaliatory action against U.S. farmers or industries, "we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports."  China is reviewing plans to send a delegation to Washington for fresh talks in light of the U.S. decision, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday, citing a government source in Beijing, raising the risk of a prolonged trade battle between the world's largest economies that could hit global growth.  U.S. trade actions against China will not work as China has ample fiscal and monetary policy tools to cope with the impact, a senior ...

The Indian Express September 18, 2018 Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh on Monday said the army still rules Pakistan despite Imran Khan’s election as the new Prime Minister, and it remains to be seen whether “the person” will be able to bring about a change. India, he said, is adopting a “wait and watch” approach after the installation of a new government in Pakistan. Responding to a question on incidents of infiltration at the border after a change of government in Pakistan, he said without naming Khan, “Did you all expect a change? I don’t know. After all, the person has been propped up by the (Pakistan) army. The army still rules (in Pakistan). So, let’s wait and watch how things go — whether the person remains under army control or doesn’t remain under its control.” Dialogue with Pakistan can take place only if the environment is “conducive”, the minister said on the sidelines of the opening of a two-day conference — Smart Border Management — organise...

The Indian Express September 18, 2018 The government Monday proposed amalgamation of three public sector banks — Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank — to create what will be India’s third largest bank in terms of total business at Rs 14.82 lakh crore. This step will particularly help Dena Bank, the weakest of the three, which is currently under the Reserve Bank of India’s Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework and has been barred from extending fresh loans. The first major banking sector consolidation during the tenure of the NDA government was the merger of five associate banks of State Bank of India with itself. The government has also moved on Life Insurance Corporation of India’s proposal to acquire majority stake in IDBI Bank. Announcing Monday’s decision, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government did not want a merger of weak banks and has, therefore, suggested the idea of amalgamating one weak bank and two strong banks, in order to create an entit...

The Indian Express September 18, 2018 Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and urged her to help initiate a dialogue with Pakistan for opening up of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. Union Minister and Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, however, claimed that Swaraj “reprimanded” Sidhu for “messing up” the issue and accused him of “misusing” the political clearance granted to him for visiting Pakistan to attend Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony as the prime minister. “External Affairs Minister (Swaraj) reprimanded Sidhu for messing up Kartarpur Sahib corridor dialogue and misusing political clearance granted for private visit by hugging military chief responsible for killing our soldiers,” Badal said. While there was no official word from MEA, sources said that the issue of Kartarpur was discussed between Swaraj and Sidhu. However, the Indian side was waiting for an official proposal from Pakistan, they added. When asked wh...

The Indian Express September 18, 2018 Johnson T A long with S Nambi Narayanan, another former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist D Sasikumar was also arrested in 1994 and then acquitted in 1998 in the ISRO spy case. Unlike Nambi Narayanan, Sasikumar is not looking to seek compensation for the false allegations against him. But, he is willing to lay bare the truth behind the fake case before a committee set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the wrongful arrests in the case. The case, Sasikumar said Monday, not only sacrificed national interest but set the Indian space program back by decades. Sasikumar (79), one of the first generation of scientists at ISRO, who lives in Thiruvananthapuram after his retirement in 1999, is happy that his former colleague Dr Narayanan was awarded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh by the Supreme Court last week for the trouble he underwent on account of the false case but is of the personal view that money cannot compensate the lo...

BusinessLine September 17, 2018 After giving a fillip to the production of pulses through various strategies, the Agriculture Ministry is focusing on boosting oil seeds production over the next four years. The Ministry has proposed various strategies, including promoting the cultivation of oil seeds in non-traditional areas and cropping seasons besides targeting rice fallows to boost the domestic output, which could help reduce import dependence for edible oils by 2022. The Ministry will be deliberating on these strategies with the States at the National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2018-19 in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Ministry has pegged the country’s total vegetable oil requirement at 33.2 million tonnes by 2022 as per the agenda note circulated for the rabi conference. The current annual vegoil requirement is about 23 mt . The increase in the demand estimates by the Ministry assumes a per capita consumption of about 22 k...

The Indian Express September, 18, 2018 Shayamlal Yadav From BJP to Congress and NCP to Shiv Sena, leaders of India’s main political parties are at the helm of the top 10 District Central Co-operative Banks (DCCBs) ranked according to the value of banned notes exchanged during demonetisation, records accessed by The Indian Express under the Right To Information (RTI) Act show. According to RTI records from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the 370 DCCBs in the country exchanged old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 worth Rs 22,270 crore from November 10 to December 31, 2016, of which 18.82 per cent (Rs 4,191.39 crore) was processed by the top ten. Records show that four of these 10 are based in Gujarat, four in Maharashtra and one in Himachal Pradesh and one in Karnataka. Topping the list, with old notes worth Rs 745.59 crore exchanged, is the Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank, where BJP president Amit Shah is a director and BJP leader...

BusinessLine September 17, 2018 The CBI has written to Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research in connection with illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from the social networking platform, sources said on Monday. In the letters to the companies, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought the details of data collection exercise adapted by them, they said. After reference from the Centre, the investigation agency had initiated a preliminary enquiry against Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research last month over the alleged data theft. It is alleged that Cambridge Analytica received data from Global Science Research which employed “illegal means” of personal data harvesting of Indians using Facebook, they said. Facebook has over 20 crore users in India. A preliminary enquiry is the first step to decide whether the allegations deserve a full-blown investigation through an FIR or not, they said. Data mining and analysis f...

BusinessLine SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 By 2025, more than half of all workplace tasks that exist today will be performed by machines, yet in terms of overall numbers, the robot revolution will create 58 million net new jobs in the next five years, says a study. According to a new research by the World Economic Forum (WEF), adoption of automation and robotics will bring a “seismic shift” in the way humans work alongside machines and algorithms. However, in terms of overall numbers of new jobs, the outlook is positive. The surveyed companies report that at present, 71 per cent of total current task hours are performed by humans, compared to 29 per cent by machines. By 2022, this average is expected to shift to 58 per cent task hours performed by humans, 42 per cent by machines. By 2025, machines will perform 52 per cent of the total task hours. “Despite bringing widespread disruption, the advent of machine, robots and algorithm could actually have a positive impact on hum...

BusinessLine September 17, 2018 European and North American regulators have found a second toxin that may cause cancer in humans in a commonly used blood pressure drug made by Chinese firm Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. Health regulators in the European Union, United States and Canada had already recalled drugs made with the company's active pharmaceutical ingredient valsartan after finding traces of the chemical N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), considered a potential human carcinogen, in the medicine. On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said a different chemical, N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), had been detected in products produced before 2012. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also said it had detected the chemical in the recalled drug. Valsartan is a generic drug that had global sales of 10.4 billion pills last year, including combination products, according to healthcare data consultancy IQVIA. People with high blood pressure typi...

THE HINDU September 17, 2018 China will not be content to only play defence in an escalating trade war with the United States, a widely read Chinese tabloid warned, as President Donald Trump was expected to announce new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods as early as Monday. Beijing may also decline to participate in proposed trade talks with Washington later this month if the Trump administration goes ahead with the additional tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing Chinese officials. The Journal report quoted one senior Chinese advisory official saying China would not negotiate “with a gun pointed to its head.” The United States and China have already levied duties on $50 billion worth of each other's goods in an intensifying row that has jolted global financial markets in the past few months. Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department invited senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He for more talks on the tariff disput...

NEWS 18 SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 ROUNAK KUMAR GUNJAN New Delhi: In an effort to consolidate the worsening public sector asset stress, the Centre on Monday decided to merge three state-owned banks — Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank and Bank of Baroda, giving birth to India’s third-largest lender. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with financial services secretary Rajeev Kumar informed that the boards of the three banks will examine the amalgamation proposal. In a country where a majority of the population falls in the vast expanse of "middle class", a bank is viewed as a safe treasury to store hard-earned cash. Therefore, any change in bank rules or procedure is viewed with utmost scrutiny. As is the case now, when there isn’t a threat of a financial meltdown, typical bank mergers are the result of months of ongoing discussions before they are announced. In due course, banks notify customers of the changes (if any) that will occur. Likewise, Jaitley in the news con...

THE ECONOMIC TIMES SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 Bangladesh's Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of a proposed agreement with India to allow it to use the Chittagong and Mongla sea ports for transporting goods to and from its land-locked northeastern states.  The decision is another step in improving the friendly relations between Bangladesh and India, Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam said.  The draft says the agreement would be effective for five years with a provision of automatic renewal for another five years while either of the countries could scrap it giving a six-month notice.  "The agreement would allow India to use Chattogram (Chittagong) and Mongla ports to carry goods to their northeastern states in a very short time," Alam said after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.  "A draft of the communication network being built for connectivity between the Chattogram and Mongla ports has been approved for India's signing. On...

FIRSTPOST SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 Srinagar: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) announced on Monday that it will not take part in the upcoming panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir. hulam Nabi Malik, the state Secretary of the party, said here that the Central government's decision to go ahead with the polls despite a boycott by the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) only showed its arrogance. "The government should have convened an all-party meeting to discuss this issue. Unfortunately that has not been done. Keeping the prevailing situation in consideration, the CPM has decided not to participate in these polls," a party statement said. The statement said the CPM was for empowerment at the grassroots level but given the present situation, it was highly unlikely that people would participate in these elections. REFERENCE: https://www.firstpost.com/politics/cpm-to-boycott-jammu-and-kashmir-panchayat-polls-says-centres-...

THE ECONOMIC TIMES SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 RACHITA PRASAD Mumbai: Controversy erupted a day before the crucial Supreme Court hearing that would decide whether LN Mittal-led ArcelorMittal is eligible to bid for Essar Steel, with the former demanding action against rival Vedanta citing environmental violations, only to withdraw the complaint hours later.  In a bewildering turn of events, ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel firm, first asked the resolution professional of Essar Steel, Satish Kumar Gupta, to take suitable action against Vedanta as it allegedly has a history of violation of environmental law and human rights, illegal mining, and disregard for safety norms. The demand was contained in a letter written to Gupta on September 15.  It added that ArcelorMittal had made similar “condemnable attempts” during the bid for Electrosteel Steels and the allegations were dismissed by NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) and National Company Law Appellate Tribuna...