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The Wire Nov. 17, 2018 New Delhi :  CBI director Alok Verma, who was recently asked to step down to face an inquiry over charges of procedural irregularities, has accused the central vigilance commissioner K.V. Chowdary of bias and  violating a Supreme court order. Not only that, Verma has also put the blame squarely on the Modi government for the crisis India’s top investigation agency is currently facing. Verma had  recently filed a case  against Rakesh Asthana, his deputy in the CBI, for allegedly accepting bribes from a Hyderabad-based businessman. Asthana, in turn, had charged Verma with similar acts of corruption. The Supreme Court then ordered an inquiry by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to determine the truth of the matter. The CVC subsequently sent an elaborate questionnaire to Verma. Alok Verma’s response Verma’s official response – copies of which have been seen by  The Wire –  is scathing in its remarks against the CBI’s special director Asthana and

The Indian Express November 19, 2018 In the ongoing controversy over the Rafale deal, the answers of the senior officers of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to the questions posed by the Supreme Court on Wednesday are seen as being critical to the case. Although their summoning by the Chief Justice  Ranjan Gogoi  drew a lot of attention, their responses dealt with the technicalities of the fighter aircraft fleet of the IAF. Sources told The Indian Express that the response of the Assistant Chief of IAF, AVM J Chalapati, in the presence of Vice Chief and Deputy Chief of IAF, clarified that the Russian-origin Su30MKI is the latest aircraft to be inducted in India which will be under production at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) till 2021. Speaking of Mirage2000 in response to a question by CJI Gogoi, he said that the French aircraft, made by Dassault Aviation — the maker of Rafale — was inducted in 1985. AVM Chalapati also told the apex court that there is no standard de

The Indian Express November 17, 2018 Australia’s move Friday to refer India to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over subsidies paid to sugarcane farmers is the latest in a series of challenges and reverses in recent months. The action comes on the back of a November 12 filing by the US at the Geneva-based global trade regulator alleging that India has paid out far more in cotton subsidies than the WTO rules permit. Days earlier, on November 7, India lost a key trade dispute at the WTO after a settlement panel largely upheld Japan’s complaint on the imposition of safeguard duty on imports of hot-rolled steel flat products during September 2015 and March 2018. Earlier, in 2016, the dispute settlement panel had ruled in favour of a US complaint against the requirement that power producers under the  Jawaharlal Nehru  National Solar Mission compulsorily procure a part of solar panels and modules for their projects from d omestic producers. Trade analysts point to the tr

The Hindu Nov. 18, 2018 Environment Ministry and inland waterways body differed on need for clearances India’s longest waterway project, one terminal of which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, was made possible only after a high-power Committee of Ministers and senior officials from multiple Ministries overruled the recommendations of experts appointed by the Environment Ministry. The latter had recommended public consultations and a full-fledged environment clearance, documents made available through the Right to Information (RTI) Act show. As part of the the Modi government’s ambitious plan to make stretches of the 2,500-km-long Ganga suitable for transporting containers, it decided to make navigable a 1,390-km stretch of the river between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Haldia in West Bengal. The project entails construction of 3 multimodal terminals (Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia); 2 intermodal terminals; 5 Roll On–Roll Off (Ro-Ro) termi

The Hindu November 18, 2018 The Composite  Water   Management Index (CWMI) by the NITI Aayog, which was released this June, shows that 600 million people face high to extreme water stress in India. The report, which was published in association with the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the Ministry of Rural Development, places India at a dismal 120 among 122 countries in the water quality index. It predicts that a persistent water crisis will lead to an eventual 6% loss in the country’s Gross Domestic Product by 2030. A significant key to this stress is the vast gulf — of about 1498 billion cubic metres (BCM) versus 744 BCM — that has been predicted between the demand and supply of fresh water, by 2030. In the projections that the Central Water Commission (CWC) released in 2015, the sector-wise requirement of water (that is, for drinking and domestic use, industry and energy) will rise steeply between 2030 and 2050. This mou

The Wire Nov. 18, 2018 New Delhi:  The Central Information Commission (CIC) has called it “not legal” that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) refused to disclose the action taken on a letter from Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Earlier this month, the  CIC had asked  the PMO, RBI and Ministry of Finance to explain what action was taken on the letter Rajan sent in 2015. The commission’s order came a week after  The Wire reported  that the PMO and finance ministry had refused to provide any information about the letter. In his 2015 letter, the former RBI governor listed high-profile fraud NPA (non-performing asset) cases that required a multi-agency probe. Despite the CIC’s order, the three respondents did not come forth with the required information during the hearing by the central information commissioner, M. Sridhar Acharyulu on November 16. The CIC recorded that the PMO had contended that since first and second appeals were not file

THE HINDU NOVEMBER 18, 2018  Tonga is one of eight island nations in the South Pacific that owe significant debt to China. Tonga  has signed up to China's Belt and Road initiative and has received a reprieve from Beijing on its onerous debt repayment schedule, an official from the Pacific island nation told Reuters. Lopeti Senituli, political advisor to Tongan Prime Minister 'Akilisi Phiva, told Reuters by email on Sunday that Tonga had signed a Belt and Road memorandum of understanding, and that the concessional loan had been deferred for five years. Tonga is one of eight island nations in the South Pacific that owe significant debt to  China.  The deferment came just as Tonga was set to commence principal repayments on the debt, which is expected to put severe strain on its finances. China's ministry of foreign affairs did not immediately respond to request for comment on Sunday. Reference:  https://www.thehindu.com/news/i

The Hindu Nov. 18, 2018 New Delhi feels that Beijing will focus on food security by diversifying imports in view of trade war As the trade war with the United States continues to bite — with only a slim chance that the world’s two biggest economies can go past a possible truce — China appears to be opening up to non-U.S. imports. Smelling an unexpected opportunity to export more to the Middle Kingdom, India is quietly squeezing in the door. The focus so far has been on pushing agri-products into the Chinese market. Sensing that China would look first at its food security by diversifying imports in view of the trade war, New Delhi has stepped up its agro-diplomacy with Beijing. Over the past two months, Indian food and beverage producers have been conducting seminars and road shows in the Chinese capital. Soya source Though Indian soya bean exports are apparently a priority, especially after the China imposed a 25% levy on U.S. imports, success in the huge C