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DNA  April 04, 2019 Manju AB Bank-led resolution for the full-service  domestic airline Jet Airways will be the first casualty of the Supreme Court’s sweeping order quashing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular of February 12.  The signing of the agreement to convert debt into 11.4 crore shares at Re 1 was scheduled on Wednesday (April 3, 2019). But now with the court cancelling the circular, bankers are unable to convert the debt into equity or take over the shares of Naresh Goyal at Re 1.  Bankers are waiting for some clarity on the plan from both the government and RBI. Lenders were getting statutory and regulatory permissions when the SC order came on Tuesday and overturned their plans. Now the airline may head to NCLT, where it will be auctioned off or Etihad would need to come up with an offer. “The situation is very fluid now. Now the only hope seems to be Etihad buying out Goyal’s shares. Heading for NCLT will only delay the process and ground the

Times Of India  April 04, 2019 Preparing creditors for bad news, the government-appointed board of IL&FS said that 90% of the Rs 18,800- crore assets of I-Fin, the financial service subsidiary, are non-performing. The board said that it was impossible to give a timeline to the creditors of group companies on when they could expect a court-imposed moratorium to be lifted and also indicated that the sale of road assets was facing a delay. Addressing a press conference to provide a six-month update, chairman Uday Kotak said that the board has strengthened the management by appointing C S Rajan as managing director and bringing in chief executives for various verticals. Vineet Nayyar has been repositioned as executive vice-chairman. “We have a solid management team to manage the resolution process,” said Kotak. Highlighting the need to continue with the freeze on any payout by IL&FS, which has Rs 94,000 crore of fund-based debt, Kotak said that a period of calm was

Hindustan Times April 03, 2019 India and the US are planning to revive the Defence Policy Group (DPG) between the two countries after a four-year gap, with a discussion on the text of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) one of the key items on the agenda, according to senior officials familiar with the matter. BECA will allow India to use US geospatial maps to get pinpoint military accuracy of automated hardware systems and weapons such as cruise and ballistic missiles. Along with Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), and Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), BECA is one of the foundational military communication agreements between the two countries. LEMOA, which allows the Indian and American defence forces to use each other's facilities and establishes procedures of easier access of supplies and services required by them, was signed in 2016. COMCASA, which allows the US to transfer communication equipment to

The Financial Express April 04, 2019 Manisha Singhal and Arun Nayal The airline is left with only 15 aircraft on domestic routes; its eligibility to fly international will be examined. Jet, which had informed the civil aviation ministry on March 26 that there will be no further grounding and that it will bring 40 of its grounded aircraft back into service by April end, in fact on April 2 grounded 15 more aircraft. With the interim bank funding of `1,500 crore still not flowing to Jet Airways, the crisis at the beleaguered airline has deepened to the extent that it is left with operating only 15 aircraft on the domestic routes as on Wednesday. This is the lowest number of aircraft being operated by any carrier on the domestic routes. Even newer airlines like AirAsia India and Vistara operate 20 and 22 aircraft, respectively, on domestic routes. As per rules, an airline can only fly on international routes if it has 20 aircraft on domestic routes, but Jet may get a

The Economic Times April 04, 2019 ET Bureau The United States may soon seek Nirav Modi’s extradition from the UK in connection with a bankruptcy case, a development that officials said might prompt the fugitive Indian jeweller who is behind bars in London not to contest his extradition back home since he faces a potentially stiffer punishment in the US.  Modi, who is wanted in India on charges of defrauding the Punjab National Bank NSE 0.16 % of more than Rs 13,500 crore, was charged in the US last week under the stringent Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act, said people aware of the matter. Under the RICO Act, Modi could face a jail term of up to 20 years, along with the attorney’s fees and three times as much damages as he faces in India under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), they said.  “We have learnt that the US too is likely to stake claim for Nirav Modi’s extradition and might be

Business Stranded April 03, 2019 Enforcement Directorate informed a Delhi court Wednesday that it has summoned Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, for interrogation in a money laundering case related to the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. ED told Special Judge Arvind Kumar that Puri, Chairman of Hindustan Powerprojects Pvt Ltd, was summoned for confronting him with Sushen Mohan Gupta, an arrested middleman in the case, whose custodial interrogation was today extended by three more days by the court. Seeking the extension of Gupta's custody, ED told the court that he was required to be confronted with various people including Puri in the case pertaining to the now scrapped Rs 3,600 crore chopper deal. Puri, who was summoned to join the probe on Wednesday, denied having "any connection or involvement of any kind in defence or the case". In a statement, his company said: "He would by fully cooperating with the ED inv

The Indian Express April 04, 2019 Abhishek Angad The first complaint came from 104 people of Santhal (Adivasi) community from Giddi Jhopri village about location of the water treatment plant (WTP) - as part of Baghbera multi-village scheme of  Adivasi residents complain, inspection panel finds anomalies: Nod for probe into World Bank-funded project in Jharkhand Ongoing project in one of the villages in Jharkhand.  The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved an independent investigation into World Bank-funded water supply project in two villages of Jharkhand. The development comes on the back of allegations that the district authorities “failed” to consult members of local Adivasi communities before implementing the project, “sidestepped” valid Gram Sabha consent, “used force” in implementation, and overlooked impacts on indigenous cultural resources and environmental impact. The approval for investigation was given after the World Bank inspection

The Indian Express April 04, 2019 Nidhi Gaur Terror has two faces. One face is easier to recognise, it is the face of extreme fear. If you look at this fear-stricken face for a moment, you will recognize the other face as violence. The Pulwama attack has left us terrorised and hurt. When feeling terrorised, the first thing one needs to ensure is to restore the feeling of safety for all. Then comes the part of aiding to the wounds. Healing takes a long time. It also requires a lot of support from our fellow citizens. There is a bond between us. This bond could be observed in marches and the public outcry after the attack. We need to remember what Ela Bhatt calls anubandh- we are all bound to each other. What we needed to be reminded of was to not react when in shock. This is our ancestral wisdom. First catch your breath. Look for the wounds, aid to them and then assess the situation. Mahatma Gandhi opens the dialogue in Hind Swaraj with explaining the role of media in

The Hindu April 04, 2019 The lower house of the British Parliament on Wednesday approved a legislation which would force Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a Brexit delay to prevent a potentially disorderly departure on April 12 without a deal. The legislation, put forward by opposition Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper, was rushed through all of its stages in the House of Commons in less than six hours. It was approved at the final stage by 313 votes to 312. It now has to pass the upper chamber, the House of Lords. Ms. May said on Tuesday she would seek another short extension to Brexit beyond April 12, in order to try and work with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to get her thrice-rejected Brexit deal approved by Parliament Mr. Cooper said the legislation was still needed to set out a clear process for how decisions are taken over the length of any extension. The Bill requires Ms. May to get the Parliament's approval for the detail of any delay and allows lawmakers to

The Quint April 04, 2019 Responding to the objections raised by the Election Commission of India over electoral bonds, the government has filed a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court and said that concern is “without legal or factual merit”. Earlier on 27 March, the EC had filed an affidavit saying electoral bonds and removal of cap on corporate funding would have “serious impact” on transparency of the funding of political parties. It had also said “anonymous” funding through electoral bonds opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate donations to political parties. However, the finance ministry countered the argument and said that the electoral bonds attempt to bring in “transparency” in comparison to the earlier system of cash donations. The affidavit further reads that the “identity of the buyer is known to the authorised bank as the RBI instructions regarding KYC norms are applicable to the buyers of the bond.” It states that the identity of donors is

The Indian Express April 04, 2019 Luo Zhaohui The Imperial Hotel in New Delhi is much favoured by the Chinese because of its close bond to the People’s Republic of China. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India on April 1, 1950, the hotel was rented as a temporary chancery for Chinese diplomats for three years. The first batch of Chinese diplomats started their mission from scratch and made a great contribution to laying the foundation of China-India relations. As a Chinese saying goes, “A man seldom reaches the age of 70 years in ancient times.” Looking back on history after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India for nearly 70 years, I can’t help but feel emotions. In my view, China-India relations can be divided into four phases since the establishment of diplomatic ties: The first phase is the “honeymoon period.” In addition to jointly proposing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, Premier Zhou Enla

The Quint April 04, 2019 State-run telecom provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has approved a proposal of laying off close to 54,000 employees, but is waiting for the Lok Sabha elections to get over before making the final call, the Deccan Herald reported, citing sources in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). However, the layoff proposal is unlikely to be implemented until the elections are over as the officials are waiting for the new government to take a final call on this issue. The report added that among the recommendations approved by the BSNL board, there is the plan to reduce the retirement age to 58 from the previous 60, a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for all employees above the age of 50 and expediting the allocation of 4G spectrum to BSNL. These new decision, will see around 54,451 BSNL employees being laid off. The Deccan Herald reported that this is 31 percent of its workforce of 174,312 people. The average age of BSNL employe

The Indian Express April 04, 2019 Khusboo Narayan The spike in stop filers, according to officials, could be due to loss of jobs or drop in income due to fall in economic activity following demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. 88 lakh taxpayers didn’t file returns in year of noteban, 10-fold jump over previous year. In 2016-17, the number of stop filers jumped 10-fold to 88.04 lakh from 8.56 lakh in 2015-16.  Claiming the success of demonetisation in increasing tax compliance, the government said it added 1.06 crore new taxpayers in the financial year 2016-17, almost 25 per cent more than the previous year. The records reveal a massive spike in the number of “stop filers” in the same year, reversing a four-year trend. Stop filers are individuals who filed returns in the earlier years but did not do so in the current year even though they are liable to do so. They do not include taxpayers who have passed away or whose PAN cards have been cancelled or su