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Firstpost April 01, 2019   Sumit Chaturvedi The recent approval of 1.7 lakh hectares of forest land in the Hasdeo Arand forest stretch in Chhattisgarh for open cast coal mining (non-forest use) has raised concerns for the future of country’s forests. The government’s decision is indeed alarming, as the total forest land diverted for non-forest use in Chhattisgarh between 1980 and 2003 was 1.71 lakh hectares, out of which 67 percent was for mining, according to the report of Committee of Land Reforms and State Agrarian Relations (CLSR). This committee, appointed by the central government in 2008, submitted its report in 2009 to the Government of India. The committee, in its report, had expressed alarm over the trend of diversion of forest land for non-forest use and the total amount of land which has been diverted thus far in the country as a whole. The committee noted that the situation has only worsened since 1976, when the central government issued new guidelines to states for

The Indian Express April 02, 2019 Rajasthan and parts of western India will experience hotter days ahead, and minimum temperatures will also be on the higher side than what is recorded normally, the forecast states. Unlike the last two years, the summer this year will be hotter and chances of severe heatwaves are very strong, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said on Monday. The IMD’s summer forecast for April, May and June suggests that the season’s average maximum temperature is likely to be warmer by 0.5 degree than normal in most parts of the country. Rajasthan and parts of western India will experience hotter days ahead, and minimum temperatures will also be on the higher side than what is recorded normally, the forecast states. “Chances of above-normal events of heatwave is very strong this year. Both maximum and minimum temperatures forecast indicate that it will remain up by 0.5 degree to 1 degree Celsius,” D S Pai, head, Climate Research a

The Hundu April 00, 2019 The Enforcement Directorate attached assets worth about ₹89 crore in connection with a case allegedly involving the Micro Finance group of companies and others. It is alleged that Micro Finance Ltd and others earned huge money by making false promises of high returns on investment in various schemes. Its MD Durga Prasad Mishra and others allegedly laundered the funds. Ref:- https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ed-seizes-89-cr-assets-in-investment-scam/article26706516.ece

The Indian Express April 02, 2019 If the NPAs owned by the public sector banks are taken into account, then the merged entity will account for 32 per cent of Rs 27,602 crore bad loans that existed in Gujarat. With Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank merging with Bank of Baroda, the Non-performing Assets (NPAs) of the amalgamated entity in Gujarat stands at Rs 8,890 crore, which is 23 per cent of the total bad loans that existed in the state as on December 2018. “The (gross) NPAs of this entity in Gujarat is Rs 8,890 crore,” confirmed K V Tulshibagwale, General Manager (Ahmedabad Zone) of Bank of Baroda. As on December 2018, the percentage of gross NPAs of Dena Bank stood at 12.45 per cent, while that of the Bank of Baroda and Vijaya Bank was 11.88 per cent and 4.27 per cent respectively in Gujarat. If the NPAs owned by the public sector banks are taken into account, then the merged entity will account for 32 per cent of Rs 27,602 crore bad loans that existed in Gujarat. R

Financial Express April 01, 2019 Meghnad Desai he Preamble to the Indian Constitution begins with the words ‘We, the people…’. Indian democracy is also a Republic. The people are sovereign as we and all politicians will soon realise when they have voted. United Kingdom, India’s model for its democracy, does not have people as sovereign. It is not a Republic but a constitutional monarchy. Sovereignty lies with the ‘Crown in Parliament’. Parliament has one chamber popularly elected and its executive is held by the Party that gets a majority. People are indirectly sovereign via their MPs. Even so, it is the executive—the PM and her Cabinet—which controls the business of Parliament. Most of the legislation is proposed by the executive. Backbench MPs can introduce Private Members’ Bills but very few get to the statute book. It is the PM who represents the Crown for all parliamentary purposes. Indeed, the PM can sign treaties with other governments and even take the country to war as

The Economic Times April 01, 2019 Rashmi Rajpoot The Serious Fraud Investigation Office made its first big arrest in the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) case by taking former vice chairman Hari Sankaran into custody.  A special sessions court in Mumbai remanded Sankaran to SFIO custody till Thursday.  “Sankaran has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigations into the affairs of IL&FS and its group entities. He has been arrested on the grounds of abusing his powers in IL&FS Financial Services Ltd (IFIN),” SFIO said in a press release on Monday.  Sankaran was part of the erstwhile board that granted loans to undeserving or ineligible entities, according to the investigative wing of the ministry of corporate affairs that is probing IL&FS under provisions of the Companies Act. The IL&FS board was reconstituted in October after it defaulted on loan payments.  SANKARAN HAD RECEIVED SHOW-CAUSE NOTICE  He c

The Economic Times April 01, 2019 Atmadip Ray Reserve Bank of India has made life a little bit easier for banks by tweaking the bad loan divergence rule. Banks’ disclosure of divergence practice mandated by RBI aims at improving transparency in asset classification and preventing under-reporting of bad loans. The central bank has on Monday appears to have diluted the rule a bit without compromising the intent “Some banks, on account of low or negative net profit, are required to disclose small divergences which is contrary to the regulatory intent that only material divergences should be disclosed,” RBI said.  It told banks to disclose divergence when the additional provisioning for NPAs assessed by RBI exceeds 10% of the reported profit before provisions and contingencies for the reference period, instead of the earlier rule of 15% of the published net profits after tax.  There was no change in the second condition: the additional gross NPAs identified by RBI exc

Deccan Herald April 01, 2019 Kalyan Ray, Nearly six months after it was issued, the USA has modified its Zika travel advisory to India, following a prod from the Indian Council of Medical Research.  Between September to November 2018, India witnessed an outbreak of Zika virus disease in Jaipur as well as Bhopal and its neighbouring districts in Madhya Pradesh. While the outbreaks were contained by November end, a travel advisory issued in December 2018 by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) described India as a country with ongoing Zika outbreak. On instructions from the Health Ministry, ICMR took up the issue with the CDC. Balram Bhargava, secretary, department of health research and ICMR director general wrote to his counterpart in the CDC and providing the US health agency with evidence of how the outbreak was effectively contained by November 2018.  “The communication was successful in ensuring modification of the travel advisory on March

Business Standard April 02, 2019 Iain Marlow & Jason Scott One month after an ageing Indian Air Force jet was shot down in a dogfight with neighboring Pakistan, New Delhi has demneighbouring new weapons capability aimed at another, more powerful geopolitical rival: China. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a national address to announce India had “established itself as a space power” by sending an indigenously designed ballistic-missile interceptor up 300 kilometers (190 miles) to destroy a satellite orbiting the Earth. The move -- with political overtones just weeks ahead of a national election -- sends a stark message to India’s nuclear-armed rivals, China and Pakistan, and changes Asia’s strategic calculus by proving India has the ability to knock out enemy satellites. The development suggests India, which has long struggled with a lethargic military-procurement process and outdated defense technology, is getting closer to sitting alongside China,

Dr Marius-Cristian Frunza, Director and Schwarzthal Kapital Introduction to uber-terrorism Presumably, the Islamic State has learned valuable lessons from the experience of other terrorist groups. Its vision of terrorism focuses on low-cost actions and strong media impact. Why ? Probably, because to finance and organize a global extremist network, managed by a centralized chain of commands has become a difficult task. Consequently, ISIS aimed to a lesser extent for complex actions such as the attacks of September 11, 2001 that would require lengthy preparations and implicitly substantial financial resources. Rather, it focused on actions organized by local groups managed in a decentralized manner requiring minimal funding. The recent attacks in Boston, Paris and San Bernardino marked the entrance in a new era of low-cost terrorism. Under this model, the organization of the attacks should not rely solely on centralized commands or on a clear hierarchy. The manufacturi