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The Wire Nov. 21, 2018 New Delhi:  Over 20,000 farmers are participating in a two-day march which began in Thane and will culminate in Mumbai’s Azad maidan on Thursday,  NDTV  reported. The agitation will continue in the island city’s maidan till the demands of the protesting farmers are met, according to a report in  The Week . The key demands of the farmers are the fulfilment of the promises that were made by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis after the long march from Nasik to Mumbai in March this year. “We have been consistently asking the state government to fulfil our long-standing demands, but the response has been lukewarm. We are forced to launch this agitation,” Pratibha Shinde, Lok Sangharsh Morcha general secretary which has organised the protest,  told   India Today . The demands that remain unfulfilled are a complete loan-waiver, land rights to the tillers, compensation for crop loss, minimum support prices at cost ...

The Economics Times Nov. 21, 2018 BEIJING: China has installed a new platform on a remote part of the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea which could be used for military purposes, according to recent satellite images reviewed by a U.S. think tank.  The strategic waterway is claimed almost in its entirety by China, whose continued building of military and other installations on artificial islands and reefs there has unnerved the region and angered Washington.  The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies said the images showed a "modest new structure" on Bombay Reef, topped by a radome and solar panels.  "The development is interesting given Bombay Reef's strategic location, and the possibility that the structure's rapid deployment could be repeated in other parts of the South China Sea," the group said in a statement on Tuesday.  The purpose of the platform and rado...

The Tribune Nov. 21, 2018 Prime Minister Imran Khan, on a two-day official visit to Malaysia, said Pakistan intended to learn from Malaysia’s economic development and progress through the years. The premier also invited Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohammad to attend Pakistan Day celebration in 2019. The two countries agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade, privatisation, foreign direct investment, food and tourism. “We look up to him [Mahatir] – a leader who transformed his country. We have followed Malaysia’s progress and my party [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] wants to learn from your leadership. How Malaysia transformed its economy, developed and raised per capita and gross domestic product.” The cricketer-turned-politician said Pakistan was particularly interested in how Malaysia developed its tourism. “We have untapped tourism potential in Pakistan. We have tourism spots but no resorts.” Noting that the two leaders had acquired mandate campaigning ...

Tehran Times Nov. 21, 2018 The foreign minister claimed that large amounts of money are laundered in Iran, but according to official sources 90 percent of European banks and Canada are systematically engaged in money laundering.  He further claimed that the opponents of joining FATF are against financial transparency and benefit from money laundering profits which amount to billions and joining FATF would prevent such transactions.  It seems that the term “financial transparency” has turned into a pretext for FATF defenders to silence critics and justify their claims. The important question here is “is FATF a reliable organization in combating money laundering and do its members have total financial transparency?”  By looking at the background of FATF member countries, it is revealed that money laundering is still closely interwoven with their financial and banking systems and this international organization has failed to prevent money launderin...

The Indian Express Nov. 22, 2018 The European Union has suggested that the Indian government, which is in the process of making a data protection law, should not stress on data localisation as apart from being unnecessary and potentially harmful to the cause of data protection, any such measure would create unnecessary costs, difficulties and uncertainties that could hamper business and investments. The caution with regard to data localisation being part of a proposed data protection law is part of EU’s responses to the draft Data Protection Bill drafted by Justice Srikrishna committee which is being processed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. As is known, most global companies present in India who deal with data have been opposing data localisation, which basically means that whatever data is generated in the country should either be stored within the country or at least a mirror copy of it should be stored in the country. “As a matter of...

The Indian Express Nov. 22, 2018 Ahead of the UN climate conference in Poland next month, the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group met to put pressure on developed countries to meet pre-2020 climate efforts, and to “progressively” and “substantially” scale up their financial support for future action. The group, through a joint statement, urged developed countries to take urgent actions to close the pre-2020 implementation gaps by 2023 which they said can be a useful input for the first Global Stocktake (GST) — which they said should be conducted in light of equity and the best available science. “The GST process should be comprehensive, considering mitigation, adaptation, means of implementation, as well as including loss and damage and response measures, and reflecting equity.” The GST refers to a proposed five-yearly-review of the impact of climate change action undertaken by countries. Under the Paris Agreement, each country has to present a climate ...

Rediff.com Nov. 20, 2018 In the first verdict after the riots-related cases were reopened by a Special Investigation Team in 2015, the court held that Singh's offence fell under the 'rarest of rare' category warranting the death penalty. The Delhi Police had closed this case in 1994 for want of evidence. The SIT is investigating nearly 60 cases related to the riots, while it has filed 'untraced report' in 52 cases. The court also imposed fine of Rs 35 lakh each on both the convicts and directed payment of the fine amount as compensation to surviving family members of deceased Hardev Singh and Avtar Singh. While this is the first death penalty after the SIT was formed, one Kishori was earlier given the death penalty by a trial court in as many as seven anti-Sikh riots cases. However, the Delhi high court confirmed death penalty only in three cases, which were later commuted to life-term by the Supreme Court. Sikh leaders across parties, including P...