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Business Today June 06, 2019 You probably have never heard of them, and there's a good reason for it. For 66 years the Bilderberg Conference, an unofficial conclave of the Western world's 100 most powerful people, has been meeting in secluded places under a complete media blackout. Invitees usually are from business, politics, intelligence and defence, with a smattering of newspaper editors who are sworn not to reveal who said what at the conference. On June 4, 2019, they concluded their 67th meeting in Montreux, Switzerland. The security at these annual gatherings should give you an idea of how powerful the invitees are: air force jets fly overhead, commandoes ring the outer perimeter, and the local police are known to rough up anyone coming close to the conference venue. Officially, the Bilderbergs do not exist. Only once in their history, after being harried by a small group of non-mainstream journalists, they were forced to issue a statement, saying they nee...

Linked In June 09, 2019 Over the next two weeks, we will see all kind of news reports about the G20 Ministers of Finance discussing and deciding on virtual assets. One of the most damaging recommendations is hidden in an interpretive note (article 7b). Essentially it requires the private sector to build in a privacy leaking front-door in all blockchain applications, so that law enforcement officials in the whole world will have useful information already available nearby (rather than having to ask for it when need arises). We will see the FATF adopting this rule in their 16-20 June meeting. And then the G-20 heads of state will be adopting it in Osaka. There will be many news bulletins and spins outlining how important and good these steps are.  However, there is no reason to boast about it or be happy. What we are witnessing is a fundamentally undemocratic process leading to the adoption of a mass-surveillance rule for virtual assets, which violates the human r...

The Economic Times June 10, 2019 Chinese telecom giant Huawei said it has obtained 46 commercial 5G contracts so far in 30 countries and shipped more than one lakh 5G stations globally, emerging as a top player in the race for setting up the super-fast telecommunications system despite the US ban on use of its 5G services.  The Shenzhen-headquartered firm, which is under immense pressure after the US issued the ban warning that Huawei systems could be manipulated by Beijing to spy on other countries and disrupt critical communications, made the announcement on Thursday in a press statement.  China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Thursday granted commercial-use 5G licenses to four state-owned telecom giants to start rolling out 5G services, signalling Beijing's determination to be the global leader in setting up superfast wireless networks.  It issued licences to China Broadcasting Network and the country's top three telecom operato...

Business Standard June 9, 2019 The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), India's leading civil services training institution, has entered into an agreement with the Maldives Civil Services Commission for capacity building of 1,000 civil servants from the Maldives over the next five years, an official statement issued on Sunday said. The agreement was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Male, the capital of the Maldives, on Saturday. The agreement envisages that the NCGG will be the nodal institution for designing customised training modules and its implementation, taking into account the requirements of the Maldives Civil Services Commission. The subject matters of the training programme will include public administration, e-governance and service delivery, public policy and governance, information technology, best practices in fisheries in coastal areas, agro-based practices, self-help group initiatives, urban development and plannin...

Scroll In June 11, 2019 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday asked all citizens to declare their assets by June 30 through the Asset Declaration Scheme. “I am appealing to all of you to take part in the Asset Declaration Scheme that we have brought, because if we don’t pay taxes, we will not be able to raise our country up,” Khan said in a televised address, Dawn reported. The prime minister’s remarks come at a time of economic crisis in Pakistan, and a day before the announcement of its 2019-’20 annual budget. “We will need to change ourselves if we want to become a great country,” Khan said. He added that people can declare their benami assets, benami bank accounts and money kept abroad till June 30. “After June 30, you will not get this opportunity,” Khan said. “Remember our government today has that information which no government before had. Our agencies have information about who has benami accounts and benami properties.” Under the scheme, assets ...

Money Control June 11, 2019 A clue about how the Modi government was able to shrug off dismal economic data and return to power with a thumping majority is contained in the Reserve Bank of India’s latest consumer confidence survey. The survey shows that consumers are fully aware that the economy is struggling, their incomes are stagnating and unemployment is growing. Yet they are also hopeful that ‘achhe din’ are around the corner and things are going to get better soon. The government has done a remarkable job of keeping their hopes alive. Let’s take the data on jobs first. As much as 44.2 percent of those surveyed in the May 2019 round felt that job prospects were worse than a year ago. Another 22.1 percent felt there had been no change in the job situation. Only 33.7 percent, a third of those surveyed, felt that job prospects had improved. Nevertheless, 59.3 percent feel their employment prospects will improve a year from now. Hope springs eternal in the consumer’s b...

The Economic Times June 08, 2019 he Ministry of Corporate Affairs is likely to take a relook at a new framework of credit rating agencies as a strong corporate governance structure is essential for a market economy, Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas said on Saturday.  Srinivas while speaking at a national seminar on valuation said a lack of valuation standards and regulations is hurting the system.  Rating agencies which are partly regulated by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and also by the Reserve Bank of India have come under pressure from authorities and investors over their failure to flag financial problems at IL&FS that led the market to burst.  Rating agencies' roles have also come under the scanner due to their lack of alertness in recent cases of Zee and DHFL. They were late in identifying the stress in the IL&FS Group, which defaulted on its loans from banks, mutual funds and provident funds...

Hindustan Times June 8, 2019 In a rerun of Niyamgiri in Odisha, tribals on Friday started protest against mining operations on a hill in Bailadila area of Moaist affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh claiming that the hill was their deity. The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) owns the mine and has allocated it to Adani Enterprises for operation. Both NMDC and Adani Enterprises issued statements saying that they believe in “growth with goodness” and the mining operations were commencing after taking all clearances, including consent of the respective gram sabhas. The tribals, however, stated the protest under the banner of Sanyukt Panchayat Samiti and demanded to stop the mining operations. “The mining on hill has been given to Adani by NMDC for mining. The hill is revered as the shrine of Pitod devi, wife of nature god Nandraj and our faith has been associated with it,” said Nandaram Sori, a local Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and adde...

The Indian Express June 11, 2019 In drought-hit Maharashtra, where 24,000 villages are reeling under water scarcity, the production of sugarcane, a water-intensive crop, has increased by 10 per cent in 2018-19 compared to 2017-18. In the same period, the area under sugarcane crop has also increased by 22 per cent. According to the state government’s annual report for rabi and kharif crops for 2018-19, “area under sugarcane plantation has increased from 9.02 lakh hectares (2017-18) to 11.63 lakh hectares (2018-19). Sugarcane production has increased from 83,138 lakh metric tonnes (2017-18) to 91,704 lakh metric tonnes (2018-19). According to the report, however, there has been a decline in production of other crops in both kharif and rabi season in the same period. Kharif crops were sown on 151.03 lakh hectares, a marginal increase of 0.05 per cent compared to 150.96 lakh hectares in 2017-18. Consequently, foodgrain production has declined by 12 per cent and cereals ...

Financial Express June 09, 2019 Indian airlines are facing very tough competition and the cost environment too is not in their favour, IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac has said, amid more than 25-year-old Jet Airways shuttering operations. India was one of the fastest growing domestic aviation markets in the world but growth turned negative in April mainly on account of Jet Airways crisis. To a query on what could have gone wrong for Jet Airways, de Juniac said, in India full service airlines are facing some difficulties while low cost carriers are doing a little better. Currently, India has two operational full service carriers Air India and Vistara. The latter expects to start international operations in the second half of 2019. Speaking on the sidelines of the recently concluded annual general meeting, IATA’s director general and chief executive officer said high costs, adverse conditions such as fluctuation in rupee against the US dollar and strong competition...

Economic Times June 07, 2019 Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India's state-owned hydrocarbon explorer, is planning to drill 100 wells in 21 onshore Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) blocks in Sivasagar district at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore. The 21 onshore PML blocks in Sivasagar district will cover major oil producing fields of Lakwa, Rudrasagar and Geleki, where the company has already drilled more than 500 wells, ONGC said in an application seeking clearance from the environment ministry. The company had in January applied for drilling 200 wells in Sivasagar at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore. ONGC’s crude oil production from Assam blocks rose 2 per cent to 993 Thousand Tonne last financial year, while natural gas production dropped 5 per cent to 483 Million Cubic Meter. The company plans to spend an overall Rs 32,921 crore in the current fiscal (2019-20). Of this, 34 per cent is expected to be spent on capital projects, 28 per cent on drilling development wells and 2...

Business Line June 07, 2019 Telangana Chief Secretary S K Joshi has reiterated the State Government’s commitment and readiness to establish a Giga-Scale Li-ion battery manufacturing plant in the State. During a Video Conference held today by Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, the Chief Secretary has stressed why Telangana is ideally suited for hosting 5 GWh capacity battery manufacturing plant as envisioned by the Government of India. Joshi explained that Telangana has readily available land bank of 200 acres close to the airport and Outer Ring Road and is ready to supply power and water at discount. It is also provide access to skilled workforce. The Central Government has recently set up a National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Smart Storage comprising of an Inter-ministerial Steering Committee of Secretaries headed by CEO of NITI Aayog. The Telangana State believes it qualifies meeting all the criteria for selection including single window mechanism under TS-iPASS, encu...

The Hindu June 07, 2019 he Indo-Nepal Treaty of Trade and Transit will be amended soon to include waterways as a mode of cargo transport to enhance connectivity between the two countries. According to Pravir Pandey, Chairman, Inland Waterways Authority of India, currently the Indo-Nepal treaty of 1991 only allows movement of cargo by road and rail between the two countries. Need for amendment “We are working on enhancing the waterway connectivity between India and Nepal. Currently, the cargo that comes to Kolkata or Vizag has to go by road or rail to Nepal. This is because the trade treaty recognises only these two modes of transport. The clause is being amended to include waterways,” Pandey told newspersons on the sidelines of the Inland Waterways Summit organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here on Friday. The Commerce ministries of India and Nepal have taken the lead in bringing in the amendment. “A couple of meetings have already been held and they hav...

The Indian Express June 11, 2019 To plug loopholes in the fight against terror, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday proposed a “global conference” on countering terrorism, along the lines of summits on climate change. Addressing the Maldivian Parliament on his first bilateral visit in the second term, Modi said that “the water is now rising above the head”, as he urged world leaders to unite to combat the menace. Describing the fight against terror and radicalisation as world’s biggest challenge, the Prime Minister said, “The way the global community has actively organised summits on climate change, why can’t there be such summits on terrorism? I expect international organisations and prominent countries to organise a global conference on the issue of terrorism within a time frame, so that we can discuss the loopholes exploited by terrorists. If we delay this, future generations will not forgive us.” He said that it was unfortunate that many still make the distinc...