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Jacob Koshy: The Hindu: February 06, 2019 A committee, chaired by Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, has accorded wildlife clearance to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed train corridor that encroaches upon a flamingo sanctuary and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the home to leopards, in Mumbai. The proposal involves diversion of 3.2756 ha of forestland from the Thane Creek Flamingo Wildlife Sanctuary and 97.5189 ha of land close to the boundary of the forest’s protected area. The project for one of India’s first ‘bullet trains’ was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad in September, 2017. It is expected to be ready by 2022. A wildlife clearance is a critical part of the forest clearance process. A person privy to the process said forest clearance wasn’t part of the original agenda of the meeting. “In some cases, a file can come in through the intervention of the Chair [in this case, Mr. Vardhan]. Thi...

Ratan Bhushan, Sambhavi Anand, Economic Times: February 06, 2019 Over a dozen small, fringe sellers have begun exiting or suspending their accounts on Amazon, unable to manage logistics and order deliveries on their own after norms for online marketplaces kicked in on February 1.  This move, however, is unlikely to affect the e-commerce giant’s revenue. Most of these entities sold products through Amazon-owned Cloudtail and Appario, companies that helped in fulfilling orders and have now stopped operations due to restrictions. In the absence of guidelines and directions from Amazon, the small sellers have started leaving.  “There has been no communication and direction to us from Amazon on the matter. It’s practically impossible to sustain logistics and deliveries on our own; the procedures are too tedious,” a New Delhi-based mid-sized apparel seller said.  “Amazon remains committed to enable a large number of sellers (400,000+ sellers) on its marketplac...

The Indian Express: February 06, 2019 Replying to an application filed by a bank consortium seeking to liquidate assets belonging to businessman Vijay Mallya, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said that it does not have any objection as it is in ‘public interest’. A 12-bank consortium including State Bank of India had filed an application last month seeking the restoration of Mallya’s assets attached by the court in 2016, to get ‘best value’. The ED in its reply filed before the special court on Tuesday said that it leaves it to the best judgment of the court to decide on the banks’ plea. It, however, said that the banks should give an undertaking from them to return the said amount in case any order is passed to that effect by the court. “In case the court deems it fit to allow the application, it shall take an undertaking from the applicants (bank consortium) to return the said amount with interest in case the court any point in time deem it fit and appropriate to depo...

The Indian Express: February 06, 2019 The UP Assembly’s Budget session began amid chaos Tuesday as the Opposition attacked the state and central governments on issues like “misuse” of CBI, stray cattle, farmer crises and unemployment, hurling paper balls as Governor Ram Naik addressed a joint sitting of both Houses. Wearing red and blue caps, newly-allied SP and BSP leaders put up a show of strength, shouting slogans like ‘Khet bachao sando se, desh bachao choron se’ and ‘CBI aur ED ka rajnaitikaran band karo’. They also held up placards portraying CBI as a dog being pulled from both sides and photographs of grazing cattle. Outside, they protested wielding giant cut-outs of bulls. As some Opposition members stood on their seats and others tried to push their way towards the Governor, SP legislator Subhas Pasi, who represents Saidpur constituency, fainted in the Well of the House. He was rushed to King George’s Medical University with high blood pressure. Trauma surgery de...

The Indian Express: February 06, 2019 A large section of state government employees announced that they will go on a strike starting Wednesday to demand revival of the current pension scheme. The state government, on the hand, invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on Monday, banning any strike by the employees for the next six months. The strike was announced by ‘Purani Pension Bahali Manch’, which claimed to have the support of 30 lakh employees. “We are going on a strike since Wednesday and have around 30 lakh employees with us… We are intensifying the protest because this is election season,” Hari Kishore Tiwari, coordinator of the manch, said adding several secondary education teachers will join the strike which will affect the state board examinations to begin from Thursday. The manch has been demanding scrapping of the New Pension System (NPS), applicable for those who joined the government service from April 2005, and restoration of the older one. T...

Indian Express: February 06, 2019 A report prepared by the Society for Health Alternatives (SAHAJ) has pointed out “an acute shortage of trained human resources” in the health sector in Gujarat, which according to it “has very serious implications for providing quality healthcare services, especially to women in rural areas”. The report, which was released by the Vadodara-based outfit here on Tuesday, is a compilation based on field experiences of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) members along with state and national level data from secondary sources, including Census of India (2011), CAG reports, NFHS-4 (2015-16). “There is an acute shortage of trained human resources — trained doctors, nurses and specialists — (in Gujarat). This has very serious implications for providing quality healthcare services, especially to women in rural areas. Attempts to rope in private partners to improve efficiency of services lack explicit framework for reaching people. Maternal health remains a ...

PTI, Economic Times: February 06, 2019 Around Rs 3.5 lakh crore or 3.9 percent of the stressed corporate loans continue to remain unrecognised on the books of banks and nearly 40 percent of them may become dud assets by September 2020, warns a report. These accounts are part of the total stressed corporate exposure (interest coverage ratio of 1.5x) of 19.3 percent or Rs 13.5-14 lakh crore as of September 2018. "Around 3.9 percent of the stressed corporate exposure of 19.3 percent total stressed corporate accounts are still unrecognised and are standard in banks' books, while around Rs 1.5-2 lakh crore of them may slip into NPAs by H2 of FY20," Jindal Haria, associate director for banking and financial institutions at India Ratings told reporters Tuesday. Of the Rs 13.5-14 lakh crore stressed corporate loans, banks have recognised only Rs 10 lakh crore as of September 2018, he added. Jindal said banks may need an additional f Rs 40,000 crore in provis...

ETNOWNEWS.COM: February 05, 2019 New Delhi: The finance ministry expects Rs 69,000 crore dividend from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the next financial year, sources said. The government has projected to mobilise Rs 82,911.56 crore as dividend or surplus from the RBI, nationalised banks and financial institutions during 2019-20. If the central board of the RBI approves the transfer of Rs 28,000 crore requested by the government as interim dividend for the current fiscal, the total surplus transfer by the central bank would be Rs 68,000 crore in 2018-19. The RBI, which follows July-June financial year, has already transferred Rs 40,000 crore in the current fiscal. The receipt from various sources, including RBI dividend, help the government meet the fiscal deficit target. In the Interim Budget 2019-20, the government has projected a fiscal deficit target of 3.4 per cent for the next financial year 2019-20. The government also came out with a road map to reduce the fis...