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The Indian Express April 15, 2019 Processors extract as much as 18 kg of oil from 100 kg (quintal) of soyabean. The protein-rich mass and other solid matter left after extraction is used in the animal feed industry and is popularly known as DOC or soyameal. The Soyabean Processors Association of India (SOPA) seeks to urge the government to stop the import of genetically modified (GM) de-oiled cake (DOC) into the country. The DOC is imported only to be exported to Iran, but the import of GM crops and products is not allowed in India. Naresh Goenka, vice chairman of SOPA, said at least 2 lakh tonnes (lt) of GM oilcake might have landed in the country in the last few weeks. Processors extract as much as 18 kg of oil from 100 kg (quintal) of soyabean. The protein-rich mass and other solid matter left after extraction is used in the animal feed industry and is popularly known as DOC or soyameal. DOC is an exportable commodity that earns the processors foreign excha...

Business Standard April 15, 2019 BS web team T ax dept may pitch for lower I-T target when next govt presents Budget The income-tax (I-T) department will likely pitch for a reduction in the I-T target for the current fiscal year when the next government presents the Budget, because the previous fiscal year’s target was missed. If unchanged, the department may have to chase a personal I-T collection growth rate of 29 per cent, which is even higher than the 26 per cent growth in 2016-17 (FY17), the year of demonetisation and the income-declaration schemes, when collections shot up because people regularised their unaccounted income by paying higher levies. Diesel car phase-out won't impact Maruti sales, says R C Bhargava Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) will pull the plug on diesel cars from April 1, 2020, the day the new Bharat Stage (BS)-VI emission norms take effect and, though they account for almost a third of sales, the move is unlikely to dent the market leader’...

The Print 15 April, 2019 ANURAG JOSHI and RONOJOY MAZUMDAR Loans for projects came to Rs 520 billion in March quarter, the highest since 2011, compared with Rs 144 billion in previous quarter. Financing deals for Indian infrastructure projects are surging on market expectations that the next government will come through with at least some of the spending that politicians are promising now during a heated election campaign. Local-currency loans for projects came to 520 billion rupees ($7.5 billion) in the quarter to March 31, the highest since 2011, and compared with 144 billion rupees in the previous three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. As India aims to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024, the government is pushing to eliminate bottlenecks to growth, and is responding to voters’ frustration with problems such as an inadequate number of expressways, crowded commutes and congested airports. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said it will seek capital...

Business Standard April 15, 2019 Press Trust of India The  Islamic State  terror group is plotting deadly attacks across Europe along the lines of the one carried out on a concert hall in Paris in which 130 people were killed four years ago, a leading British newspaper has reported. The November 2015 Paris attacks were a series of coordinated terror attacks in Paris and the city's northern suburb of Saint-Denis. In the attacks, three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France stadium during a football match, followed by several   mass shootings   and a suicide bombing at restaurants. A total of 130 people people were killed at the Bataclan concert hall. Documents seen by The Sunday Times reveal detailed plans of terrorist attacks in Europe and the Middle East, funded and controlled by  ISIS  leaders who are "actively planning" to recreate the Paris-style attack of November 2015. "The operations in Europe are only a fraction of...

Economic Times April 14, 2019 PTI As many as 344 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have shown cost overruns to the tune of over Rs 3.16 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a report said.  "Total original cost of implementation of the 1424 projects was Rs 18,17,469.76 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 21,33,649.81 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 3,16,180.05 crore (17.40% of original cost)," the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation's latest report for December 2018 said.  The ministry monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above.  Of these 1,424 projects, 344 reported cost overruns and 384 time escalation.  According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till December 2018 was Rs 8,06,997.78 crore, which is 37.82 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.  However, it said the number of delayed project...

Firstpost April 15, 2019 Press Trust of India Nearly half of their total admitted claims worth over Rs 1.42 lakh crore have been recovered by financial and operational creditors from as many as 88 debt-ridden companies under the insolvency law, according to official data. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) seeks to provide market-determined resolution for stressed assets in a time-bound manner. Claims totalling a little over Rs 1.42 lakh crore were admitted in 88 cases under the IBC till 28 February, data collected by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) showed. Of the total admitted claims, financial creditors sought to recover dues worth Rs 1.36 lakh crore and operational creditors Rs 6,469 crore. Financial creditors recovered 48.24 percent of their admitted claims and operational creditors got 48.41 percent of their admitted claims. The figures are with respect to 88 cases, including those where resolution has been completed, for the period til...

Firstpost April 15,2019 PTI A whopping 99.8 percent of donations received by political parties was through electoral bonds of the highest denominations — Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore — between March 2018 and 24 January, 2019, revealed data obtained under the RTI Act. Donors purchased bonds worth Rs 1,407.09 crore of which Rs 1,403.90 crore were in the highest denominations of Rs ten lakh and Rs one crore during the period. Social worker Chandrashekhar Goud shared the data received from State Bank of India (SBI) through an RTI query. The donors bought 1,459 electoral bonds of denomination of Rs ten lakh and 1,258 bonds of Rs one crore denomination. They purchased 318 bonds of Rs one lakh, 12 bonds of Rs 10,000 and 24 bonds of Rs 1000 denomination, according to the RTI reply. Electoral bonds worth Rs 1,395.89 crore were redeemed by the parties. Gaud had also asked the bank how many parties redeemed the bonds and worth how much money, but the SBI did not disc...

First Post April 14, 2019 Ajay Verghese And Roberto Stefan Foa In contemporary India there are few problems as intractable as that of Hindu-Muslim conflict. From 1950 to 1995, over 7,000 Indians, overwhelmingly Muslim, died in communal rioting. The 1980s in particular witnessed an upsurge in Hindu nationalist politics that led to the 1992 destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and the Gujarat riots of 2002. Since the 2014 electoral victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India has witnessed more instances of sectarianism, including beef ban, cow-protection vigilantism and anti-Muslim mob lynching. Much of this violence against Muslims has been waged as revenge for supposed historical wrongs meted out to the Hindu community. In the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Hindus suffered “a thousand years of slavery” during the medieval era. Scholars either associated with or sympathetic to Hindutva have made a number of similar assertions: that in the past, millions ...

The New Indian Express April 14, 2019 Fayaz Wani Amid intense pressure from BJP leadership on scrapping of Article 370 (granting special status to J&K) and 35A (which prohibits outsiders from purchasing land and property in J&K) and upping the ante and rhetoric by state politicians on the state subject law, the common man in militancy-hit Kashmir is apprehensive and worried about the next move of the saffron party in case it comes to power again at the centre. They feel that the threat to two Articles of the Constitution is real and warn that any tinkering will lead to a catastrophe in the state, which is already witnessing a surge in militancy since 2016, and the flames would spread to other parts of the country as well.  Mohammad Shafi, a boatman in the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar, said removal of Articles 35A and 370 will set the entire J&K on fire. It will unite people of the state and cutting across party affiliations and ideologies, people will joi...

The Indian Express April 15, 2019 Express News Service Recent statements by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  have brought the spotlight on two erstwhile positions in Jammu and Kashmir — J&K Prime Minister and Sadr-e-Riyasat (President of the state). Following a statement by  BJP  president Amit Shah that Article 35A may be abrogated by 2020, Omar referred to the time when J&K had its own Sadr-e-Riyasat and Prime Minister. “Inshallah, we will also get that back,” he said. Modi subsequently criticised Omar at a rally and also tweeted: “National Conference wants 2 PMs, 1 in Kashmir & 1 for rest of India… Till Modi is there, no one can divide India!” J&K Prime Minister J&K had its own Prime Minister and Sadr-e-Riyasat until 1965, when the J&K Constitution was amended (Sixth Constitution of J&K Amendment Act, 1965) by the then Congress government, which replaced the two positions with C...