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Economic Times May 03, 2019 By Ratna Bhusan The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (or ASHA) has said PepsiCo “should have apologised for the intimidation and harassment of farmers", in context of the company suing nine farmers in Gujarat for alleged “rights infringement” on the grounds that they “illegally” grew its registered potato variety used to make Lays chips.  On Thursday, PepsiCo India said it is withdrawing its legal case against farmers in Gujarat after intense backlash from political parties, concerns from its headquarters in New York and Dubai to resolve the issue at the earliest and work as a team, and heightened social media backlash.  The statement from ASHA, an alliance of close to 400 organisations, also said the government should put in place clear mechanisms to avoid a repeat of incidents like these in future.  The India arm of the US-based beverages and snacks maker said in a statement on Thursday that it has "...

The Firstpost  May 03, 2019 Telecom tribunal TDSAT on Thursday granted partial stay on Rs 8,300 crore demand raised by the telecom department from Bharti Airtel for approving its merger with Tata Teleservices. The TDSAT has directed "the concerned authorities of the Union of India to take the merger of two companies and licence on record", subject to stay on one-time spectrum charges (OTSC) demand of around Rs 7,000 crore. The merger will bolster Airtel's spectrum pool with significant additional 178.5 MHz spectrum in 1800, 2100 and 850 MHz bands, widely used for 4G. The proposed merger will include transfer of all the customers and assets of Tata CMB to Airtel. The matter will come up for the next hearing on July 18, 2019. Reference: https://www.firstpost.com/business/telecom-tribunal-grants-partial-stay-on-rs-8300-cr-dot-demand-from-bharti-airtel-for-tata-teleservices-merger-6562381.html

                                                                   The Hindu May 03, 2019                                                                     By S Harpal Singh The corporate world does not spare any effort in minting money even if it means bribing the obstinate Maoists. Former Maoist Central Committee member Oggu Satwaji and others spoke about such efforts of companies in the last few years. “There have been instances where the party was offered bribes for permitting mines in tribal areas. Though we had given in in one case of iron ore mining in Gadchiroli, the decision of the party was reviewed and revoked in 2107,” Mr. Satwaji ...

                                                                  The Hindu May 02, 2019                                                                   By Suhasini Haider and TCA Sharad Raghavan U.S. refuses to extend sanctions waiver to India on Iran oil import; OMCs stop placing orders from Iran India has a “robust plan” to import oil from other countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said, even as the deadline for the U.S. sanction waiver for oil imports from Iran expired on Thursday without an extension from the U.S. Last year, the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran, prohibiting countries from importing oil from it, but waived these sancti...

The Indian Express, May 03, 2019 By Shubhajit Roy The UN Security Council decision to list Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist was sealed about 10 days ago, just before the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, after weeks of hectic and keenly fought closed-door negotiations,  The Indian Express  has learnt. Advertising Much of the diplomatic negotiations took place in New York, while Washington, Delhi, Beijing, Paris, London and Islamabad were in the loop, officials from at least six countries involved in the discussions told The Indian Express. “It was a multilateral game played at a subterranean level,” a top source said, explaining the complex web of give-and-takes involved. Underlining India does not negotiate on terrorism, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Thursday: “Let me make it very clear that we do not negotiate on terrorism and matters related to the security of the country. China has already gi...

                                                                  The Hindu May 02, 2019 The ED said that according to the NIA, Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation is a Pakistan-based terror organisation established by Jamat-ud-Dawa, which was founded by Hafiz Saeed The Enforcement Directorate has attached more properties in connection with an alleged terror funding case against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder and UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed and others. In the past few months, the agency has identified proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹212 crore in more than a dozen cases of terror financing. Flat, shop In the latest case, the attached properties, worth ₹73.12 lakh on paper, were in the name of one Mohammed Salman and his family members. They include a residential flat, a shop and bank accounts. The action has ...

Economics Times, May 02, 2019 By Kiran Kobatta Somvanshi T he US has blamed India for being a major source of counterfeit drugs globally, but for pharma companies in the country, substandard medicines pose a bigger problem than what has been flagged by their largest market overseas.  According to the US Trade Representative office’s annual report on intellectual property protection and review of notorious markets for privacy and counterfeiting, studies have suggested that up to 20 per cent of all drugs sold in the Indian market are counterfeit  .. — posing serious threat to patient health and safety. India has trashed the report, calling it an attack on cheap generic drugs, of which it is the world’s largest exporter.  A review of the annual reports of the country’s top 10 pharma companies shows that words like “counterfeit”, “spurious" or “fake” drugs do not find any mention. But this does not mean that they don’t suffer from the problem of counterfei...