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The Wire Sucheta Dalal Dated March 23, 2019 At Last, RBI’s Accountability Is Being Questioned in Multiple Forums RBI is facing at least three specific challenges today. What happens when a regulator digs in its heels and takes advantage of its independence to become unaccountable, non-transparent and capricious in all its roles – such as licensing, regulating, inspecting and supervising banks and finance companies as well as trading in debt and foreign exchange? Things reach a breaking point. For nearly three decades after India embarked on a massive economic liberalisation programme, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has repeatedly failed to detect massive scams and wrongdoing but has never been held accountable. Weak supervision (from the securities scam of 1992, to IL&FS in 2018), failure to check dubious lending; permitting bad loans to balloon to over Rs 12 lakh crore by expressly permitting various schemes to disguise them, delay repayment or perm...

Scroll.In Rohan Venkataramakrishnan Dated March 23, 2019 Explainer: What you need to know about the alleged ‘Yeddy diaries’ A report in Caravan alleges that Income Tax officials have a copy of Karnataka politican BS Yeddyurappa’s diaries detailing massive payoffs to top BJP leaders. Explainer: What you need to know about the alleged ‘Yeddy diaries’ A report in the Caravan set off a political storm on Friday, with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party holding press conferences to trade charges. The story claimed that an Income Tax officer had written to Union Minister Arun Jaitley asking whether the department should investigate a diary that was allegedly kept by former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa in which he detailed huge payoffs made to senior BJP leaders and others. Yeddyurappa has denied the allegations and claims that the diary was fabricated. The Congress, however, argued that there was enough information for an investigation t...

The Hindu Indian pharma’s cold reply to China call Dated March 23, 2019   Firms shrug off Yunnan’s proposal to source Indian drugs; lengthy process cited A call for expression of interest from Indian pharma companies desirous of supplying medicines to a Chinese province has met with lukewarm response, something which is bound to turn the spotlight on the regulatory approval process in China. There has not been one response thus far, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India Director General Ravi Udaya Bhaskar said late on Friday, when a deadline for the companies to respond to the Yunnan province’s call ended. A few companies had, however, sought to know the list of products the province wanted to source, he said. Pharmexcil, a body under the Commerce Ministry, had recently sounded out member-firms about the opportunity, in the wake of the Director General of Yunnan Provincial Foreign Affairs informing the Consulate General of India in Guangzhou ...

The Indian Express Dated March 24, 2019 Seizure of arms made in Myanmar NIA to probe links between Maoists, NE On February 7, Bihar Police had seized under barrel grenade launchers (UBGL) and a large number of AK-47 assault rifles in Purnia, said officials.   The three were questioned by NIA officials about the main arms supplier. Suspecting a larger conspiracy in the recent seizure of Myanmar-made assault rifles and grenades from a remote location in Bihar, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has involved the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe links between Maoist groups and militant outfits in the Northeast, particularly from Nagaland, which are active in Myanmar, officials said. On February 7, Bihar Police had seized under barrel grenade launchers (UBGL) and a large number of AK-47 assault rifles in Purnia, said officials. According to MHA officials, the probe has revealed so far that arms and ammunition were smuggled from across the Myanm...

The Indian Express Dated March 25, 2019 eBay partners with Google, will allow users to pay via Google Pay for purchases This integration will help consumers with Google Pay accounts to complete purchases on the eBay app or website. eBay last year announced that it plans to intermediate the majority of end-to-end payments on its platform by the end of 2021. Google and eBay have partnered up to offer customers Google Pay as a payment option to pay for their shopping on eBay. This is part of the company’s new managed payments programme, under which it provides customers with the ability to check out without the need for leaving the platform by using their preferred method of payment. This integration will help consumers with Google Pay accounts to complete purchases on the eBay app or website. However, this will only be available on products sold by sellers who are participating in the managed payments programme. The company has stated that the integration will ...

The Express Tribune  Islamabad  Dated March 24, 2019 World Bank Downgrades Ratings of Punjab Project The World Bank has downgraded the rating of a $100 million project, which it is financing in Punjab to reduce poverty and joblessness, due to the provincial government’s failure to approve a spatial strategy. Punjab Jobs and Competitiveness Programme for Result has been downgraded to ‘moderately satisfactory’ after its sixth review held recently, according to the World Bank’s Status and Result Implementation Report. In March 2016, the Washington-based lender had approved $100 million or Rs14 billion (at current exchange rate) under its hybrid financing instrument Programme for Result (PfR). The PfR disbursements are linked with progress on implementation of agreed set of conditions that makes it different from usual budget or project financing. It is for the first time that the lender has lowered both the ratings on progress towards Achievement of Pro...

The Indian Express Dated March 25, 2019    Convergence of views between India and US on international issues, economy: Indian envoy Shringla said the most recent political level engagement held at the bilateral Commercial Dialogue in Delhi last month also took note that annual bilateral trade in goods and services between the US and India more than doubled over the last decade, from USD 58 billion in 2007 to USD 126 billion in 2017. There is convergence of views between India and the US not only on international issues but also in their economic vision as the two countries are natural allies and partners in progress, according to India’s envoy here. Noting that the relationship between the two countries has evolved into a truly comprehensive partnership of mutual trust and confidence over the years, Indian Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday told a business audience that the visits by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington in 2016 and ...

Business Line Dated March 23, 2019 RBI delays implementation of new accounting rules again India delayed the introduction of tough new accounting rules for the second year running, in a move that will spare the country’s banks from adding another layer to the $190 billion pile of bad loans on their books. The Reserve Bank of India said late on Friday that legislative amendments needed to implement the new Indian Accounting Standards are still under consideration by the government. Accordingly, it has been decided to delay the implementation of the rules until further notice, the RBI added in a statement on its website. The new rules — based on the IFRS9 standards created in the aftermath of the financial crisis — were supposed to kick in at the start of the new fiscal year that starts on April 1, after being delayed last year. According to Fitch Ratings local unit, India’s state-run lenders would have had to increase provisions by as much as Rs 1,10,000 cr ($16 bil...

The Atlantic Dated March 24, 2019 All ISIS Has Left Is Money. Lots of It. BEIRUT—If you’re looking to transfer money here, there’s a chance you will be directed to Abu Shawkat. He works out of a small office in a working-class suburb of the Lebanese capital, but won’t give you its exact location. Instead, he’ll direct you to a nearby alleyway, and whether he shows up depends on whether he likes the look of you. Abu Shawkat—not his real name—is part of the  hawala  system, which is often used to transfer cash between places where the banking system has broken down or is too expensive for some to access. If he agrees to do business, you’ll set a password and he will take your cash, then provide you with the contact information of a  hawala  broker in the city where your money is headed. Anyone who offers that specific password to that particular broker will get the funds. Thus, cash can travel across borders without any inquiry into who is sending or r...