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Business Standard, PTI, June 20, 2019 China on Thursday urged India to make an "independent judgement" about Huawei's operations in the country without being guided by the US ban on the Chinese telecom giant's products and provide an "unbiased and non-discriminatory" environment for the Chinese businesses. The US has banned Huawei, the world's leader in telecom equipment and the number two smartphone producer, over concerns of security and Washington has been pressuring other countries to restrict the operations of the Chinese telecom firm. India, however, is yet to take a call on whether it intends to place curbs on Huawei or allow the Chinese telecom equipment maker to participate in the upcoming 5G trials, that are scheduled to commence in 100 days. Earlier this month, India's Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said India has its security issues over allowing Huawei to participate in the upcoming 5G trials. "We w...

The Times of India, June 21, 2019 Pakistan will be blacklisted if it fails to complete its action plan by October 2019, the Financial Action Task Force has told Islamabad, according to diplomatic sources. In June last year, Pakistan was placed on the 'grey list' of the international terror financing watchdog and given a 27 points action plan. The 'grey list' is a warning given to a country when it fails to curb terror funding and money laundering. Earlier this week, during a review of the plan, Pakistan had failed to complete 25 of the 27 points in the plan. In the run-up to the FATF plenary in Orlando, Florida from June 16-21, diplomatic sources have said Pakistan will, at the very least, remain in the 'grey list' which it went back into in 2018. After the second review meeting in Guangzhou, China, the Asia-Pacific Joint Group - a committee set up by the FATF to monitor Pakistan's compliance, distinct from the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) - told Islamabad...

The Tribune, By Salman Siddique, June 20, 2019 The government of Pakistan is all set to raise debt worth Rs200 billion from Islamic banks next week to partially pay off dues of energy firms on account of circular debt as further delay in payments is feared to trigger nationwide power outages. “If the government fails to (partially) clear dues of independent power producers (IPPs) by June 28, it is feared they will face shortage of working capital and it will not be possible for them to produce and provide electricity to the national grid,” a source said. “The Ministry of Energy is scheduled to issue the second Pakistan Energy Sukuk (Islamic bond) of Rs200 billion next week to help the IPPs come out of the financial crisis,” he added. “A consortium of around 15-20 full-fledged Islamic banks, Islamic asset management companies like mutual funds and Islamic banking windows at conventional banks are set to invest in the Sukuk,” Meezan Bank Product Development and Shariah ...

Hindustan Times, June 20, 2019 Mohammad Salman Khan and Shabir Ahmad Dar deserted the Jammu and Kashmir police’s counter-insurgency wing to cross over to the other side on June 5. The special police officers (SPOs) left Pulwama’s district police lines with their automatic weapons and joined Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad four months after it carried out one of the deadliest attacks in Kashmir on February 14 that left 40 paramilitary troopers dead. Within hours of their desertion, security forces raided a house where security forces were tipped off about the duo’s presence at Panjran Lassipora, around 12 km from the police lines. In a night-long exchange of fire that followed, the SPOs were killed along with two other militants holed up in the house. Khan and Dar represent a continuing trend of Kashmiri youths joining the militant ranks. The recruits have come from different professional backgrounds. The two belonged to Pulwama, which has emerged over the last ...

Hindustan Times, June 21, 2019 Indian intelligence officers and counterterrorism experts in Jammu and Kashmir police suspect that Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, an improvised explosive devices (IEDs) expert and former trainer at the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp in Pakistan’s Balakot, is behind the use of vehicle-borne IEDs in the Kashmir Valley. Terrorists used an IED to target an army patrol in Arihal, in Pulwama district, on Monday, injuring a dozen soldiers, two of whom died the following day. The army called the attack “a failed” one and said the IED was “vehicle-based”. On Wednesday, another IED was defused by security forces in Shopian district of south Kashmir. Pulwama in south Kashmir is the site of the February 14 suicide car bombing that killed 40 troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force. In retaliation for the attack, for which JeM claimed responsibility, the Indian Air Force bombed the Balakot terror camp on February 26, heightening tensions with Pakistan a...

Hindustan Times, June 21, 2019 The Union defence ministry has invited proposal from Indian companies to partner foreign firms to manufacture six new submarines under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. The project is expected to cost about ₹45,000 crore. The government on Thursday issued the Expression of Interest (EoI) — a process to shortlist Indian companies as Strategic Partners — to construct six conventional submarines, said a defence ministry spokesperson. A similar EoI to select the foreign companies who will partner the Indian companies will be issued in two weeks, the ministry added. In January, the defence ministry had cleared the construction of the submarines. Conventional submarines are crucial for “sea- denial”, not allowing the enemy space to operate in the sea. The Indian submarine arm is depleted and weak. In contrast to about 24 conventional submarines required to police Indian Ocean Region, it has only a handful of submarines that are available for deployment ...

The Hindu, June 20, 2019 The abuse of girls at government-run shelter homes including the Muzaffarpur shelter abuse case of 34 minor girls in Bihar has found mention in the United States Department of States annual-Trafficking in Persons Report June 2019, released on Thursday. The report criticised India for “systemic failure to address forced labor” adding that “sex trafficking in government-run and government-funded shelter homes remained a serious problem.” India remained in the Tier 2 category along with countries like  Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, and Singapore among others.   The Tier 2 countries are the ones where governments do not fully meet the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, the report explained. India has remained in this category since 2012. It said a Bihar government commissioned study noted abuse “varying in forms and degre...

Press Trust of India, June 19, 2019 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested two former executives in connection with its money laundering probe in the IL&FS alleged financial irregularities case, officials said. They said, former joint MD of the company Arun K Saha and, MD of transportation network K Ramchand were arrested late evening in Mumbai under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). These are the first arrests in this case by the Enforcement Directorate. The two will he produced before a special PMLA court in Mumbai on Thursday, they said. Representational image. Reuters. The central agency had filed a money laundering case in February this year and had twice raided a number of former executives in order to obtain additional evidence. The debt crisis at the infrastructure lender came to light following a series of defaults by its group companies beginning September, 2018. IL&FS has defaulted on payment of loans to SIDBI an...

The Hindu, June 19, 2019 Almost a fortnight after Home Minister Amit Shah took charge, he allocated work to the two junior Ministers in North Block. While the management of other departments has been distributed among the two Ministers of State, Mr. Shah will hold charge of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) himself. Former Home Minister Rajnath Singh also had IB report directly to him. The distribution of work comes at a time when Mr. Shah is expected to undertake his first official visit as a Home Minister to Jammu and Kashmir to oversee the preparations and security arrangements for the Amarnath Yatra that commences on July 1. The two Ministers of State, Nityanand Rai and G. Kishan Reddy, did not have defined roles till now. The order was issued late Tuesday night. Mr. Shah is known to put in long hours in the office. The three Ministers took charge on June 1. As per the new set of responsibilities, Mr. Rai will look after the Left-wing Extremism division, Centre...

The Indian Express, June 20, 2019 At a meeting with financial sector regulators, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday reviewed the state of the economy and discussed with them various budget-related suggestions and proposals. Advertising Sitharaman will present the first budget of the Modi 2.0 government on July 5 against the backdrop of India’s economy hitting a five-year low growth of 6.8 per cent in 2018-19. Financial sector regulators, including RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi, and IRDAI chief Subhash Chandra Khuntia, and top finance ministry officials were present in the meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) headed by the finance minister, an official release said. “As discussed in the other FSDC meetings, there was a general review of the current state of the economy, of the overall macro-economic situation, global developments, and there was a discussion on the forthcoming budget and various...

The Indian Express, June 20, 2019 In a bid to curtail the rampant cloning and theft of mobile phones across the country, the Telecom Ministry is ready to roll out a Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) — a database of IMEIs, the 15-digit numbers that uniquely identify each mobile device. Advertising Once implemented in the coming weeks, consumers in India whose mobile phones are lost or stolen can inform the Department of Telecom (DoT) via a helpline number after filing a report with police. The DoT can then blacklist the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, effectively blocking the mobile device from accessing any cellular network in the future. Alongside this, the stated objectives of India’s CEIR specifically refers to facilitating “IMEI-based lawful interception”. India had 1.16 billion wireless subscribers as of March 2019, according to TRAI data. The DoT had announced its plan to implement this project in July 2017 and a pilot was c...