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P R Sanjai | Bloomberg   Last Updated at February 23, 2019 08:25 IST Indian billionaire  Anil Ambani  has spent years fending off creditors and suing critics of his debt-saddled business empire. But his moment of reckoning may have arrived, as he races to pay debts or face a possible jail sentence. On Feb. 20, India’s  Supreme Court  said that the Reliance Group’s phone unit had disobeyed a ruling to pay about $77 million owed to the local subsidiary of supplier Ericsson AB, adding that the tycoon will personally face three months of jail unless the payments are made within four weeks. Ambani’s group said it will comply with the order and make the payments within the required time. It’s an extraordinary fall for a man listed by Forbes magazine in 2008 as the world’s sixth-wealthiest person. The court’s decision comes after a tough year for Ambani, as parts of his empire saw losses and competition in India’s telecommunications market became increasingly brutal. H

Jacob Koshy NEW DELHI,   FEBRUARY 23, 2019 23:42 IST As flows decline and pollution worsens, there will be less irrigation and drinking water available in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh The Ganga river basin could see crop failures rise three-fold and drinking water shortage go up by as much as 39% in some States between now and 2040, says an assessment commissioned by the World Bank and submitted to the Central Water Commission. If there is no intervention, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are likely to see a deficit in irrigation water of 28%, 10%, 10% and 15% respectively in 2040 as compared to the current levels. Madhya Pradesh would see a 39%, Delhi 22% and Uttar Pradesh a 25% deficit in drinking water during the same period, the assessment released earlier this week noted. Nation’s lifeline The basin provides over a third of India’s available surface water and contributes more than half the national water use, of which 90% is for irrigation.

  Rashmee Roshan Lall   Feb 21, 2019 17:31:11 IST The Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to New Delhi was historic, but perhaps only for the frankness with which Mohammed bin Salman never even pretended he was on the same page as India with respect to Pakistan. MBS, as the Crown Prince is known, courteously stood by and listened as Prime Minister Narendra Modi made reference to the Valentine’s Day Pulwama attack. But for his part, MBS spoke only in vague terms about India and Saudi Arabia’s shared concerns on terrorism. In choosing not to join the dots, or to allow any explicit link to be made in his presence between Pulwama and Pakistan, the man who will be king of Saudi Arabia when his 83-year-old father passes sent a message. It is instructive and goes as follows: India and Saudi Arabia can certainly have a strategic partnership, as it’s being called. But there must be acceptance that its terms are circumscribed by a previous, long-term relationship. Don’t expect monogamy or fidelity.

Editorial Updated  February 23, 2019 THE decision by the country’s civilian and military leadership to take action against Jamaatud Dawa and its charity wing, Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, is significant. On Thursday, the National Security Committee, with the prime minister in the chair,  took the decision , with the Prime Minister’s Office later saying that the state cannot be allowed to “become hostage to extremism”. The JuD is of course an avatar of Lashkar-i-Taiba, one of the many jihadi groups that dot this country’s landscape. However, making an announcement about the group’s proscription is not enough; if the state has evidence of the outfit’s involvement in militancy it should present the facts and pursue the legal course so that JuD’s leadership can face justice. As has been witnessed for nearly two decades now, the state moves to ban militant outfits, but, in very little time they are back, up and running,  with new names  and the entire structure of violence intact.

FE Bureau  |  Updated: February 23, 2019 4:13 PM While the government has so far not been able to make much headway with  WhatsApp  regarding checking hate messages, fake news, etc, by tracing their origin, it has moved in to take action against offenders by asking the department of telecommunications (DoT) to block mobile numbers through which hate messages emanate. The process adopted is simple: If anybody receives objectionable, obscene messages on their WhatsApp, all they have to do is to take its screen shot and mail it at ccaddn-dot@nic.in along with the mobile number from which it came. The DoT will then send number to the telecom service provider asking it to block it. This can be done as the telcos are licensed operators and their licence conditions mandates that their network will not carry objectionable, obscene, unauthorised content. There are some WhatsApp numbers which are not connected to mobile network but only to a Wi-Fi network. Even such numbers can be bl

PARIS:   Irfan Ghauri Published: February 22, 2019 The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday that Pakistan has taken steps towards improving its anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and the body continues to work with the country to curb such activities. Pakistan had been hoping to get off a “grey list” of nations with inadequate controls over such activities. While there are no direct legal implications, it brings extra scrutiny from regulators and financial institutions that can chill trade and investment. During the meet, India had pressed for Pakistan to be kept on the terrorism financing  watchlis t following an attack in occupied Kashmir that was reportedly claimed by JeM. The global body said that since June 2018, Pakistan had taken steps to improve its AML and CFT regime including operationalising the integrated database for its currency declaration regime. It noted that Pakistan had revised i

Monday, February 25, 2019 THE  United Nations Security Council’s condemnation statement Thursday  on the Pulwama terrorist attack is the very first time that a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir has been condemned by the UNSC. Advertising For, the fact is that the UN considers Jammu and Kashmir “disputed territory”, and has not been able to come to a consensus on the definition of “terrorism.” As a result, the UNSC has never been involved in past terrorist attacks in Kashmir. That’s why the statement was a major breakthrough and it came after frenetic diplomacy, with more than a little help from Washington, sources have told The Indian Express. “In the UN community, one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. That debate has been at the heart of not being able to adopt the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT). That conventional divide was the key issue to be breached,” said a source who negotiated the text of the statement that condemne