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Business Line June 26, 2019 The Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) has opened a facility here to discuss and share the best practices in climate change mitigation programmes.  The facility was opened on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 34th CIRDAP technical committee meeting, being held at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (NIRDPR). Delegates from 15 member-countries, with a combined population of 255 crore people, are attending the conference. The CIRDAP is a regional, inter-governmental and autonomous organisation.  This is the third time that India is hosting the CIRDAP technical committee meeting. The previous technical committee meeting was held in Fiji. “This represents 34 per cent of global population. We, with our activities, will be impacting a combined rural population of 154 crore people in CIRDAP member-countries,” Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture Fa...

Business Line June 26, 2019 Committee led by the Principal Scientific Advisor to submit report on the issue soon.  The governmrnt is likely to allow 5G trials by all telecom equipment companies, including Chinese firm Huawei, top sources in the government said. The committee is looking into the 5G trials issue is also expected to table its report shortly, multiple sources told  BusinessLine . Last month, the government had constituted a committee, headed by the Principal Scientific Advisor, to decide on Huawei India’s participation in the 5G trial. “All parties (companies) are likely to be permitted on the trial of 5G…it is just a matter of time now,” a senior government official said requesting anonymity. The official said that the Committee may table its report to the Ministry of Communications within a week. The Digital Communications Commission (DCC) — the highest decision-making body of the Telecom Department – had recently cleared norms for 5G trials. Comp...

Business Line June 27, 2019 Four steps — income support, Centre-State action, RBI moves and change in bank attitudes — can transform the sector.  Much has been written about the problems of the farm sector. The new Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, will not be short on advice on what should be done for agriculture as part of Budget-making for July 5. The challenge will be to integrate these ideas into a viable action plan for India’s 14 crore farmers. Having given enough evidence of her determination to initiate changes, the Finance Minister is not one who will baulk at problems. One vividly recalls her direct interaction with the agitated Okhi-hit fishermen of Kerala when even the State’s own ministers were booed away from the spot. Agriculture is a State subject but it eagerly awaits its 1991 moment of comprehensive reforms which should involve the Centre, the States, banks and the RBI.  While many changes were brought about to deal with corporate sector woe...

Hindustan Times June 27, 2019 Swiss authorities have issued orders to freeze four bank accounts linked to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, a move that adds to the celebrity designer’s troubles who is already in a London jail pending a decision on India’s extradition request. “His four Swiss bank accounts with deposit worth Rs 286 crore have been frozen,” a source familiar with the development in Enforcement Directorate said. The ED has already seized Nirav Modi’s assets worth around Rs 2,000 crore in India and abroad. The ED is among the central agencies that started investigating Nirav Modi after state-run Punjab National Bank first accused companies owned by the fugitive businessman and his uncle Mehul Choksi of a $ 2 billion loan fraud in January last year. Both of them have denied the charges. Mehul Choksi who owns Gitanjali Gems had picked up citizenship of the Caribbean twin-island state of Antigua and Barbuda before the PNB filed its complaint. Nirav Modi emerged...

Hindustan Times June 27, 2019 The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday said that it has recovered two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a drain in Bengaluru on the disclosure of a Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative, who was arrested on Tuesday. The NIA has arrested Habibur Rehman Sheikh, wanted in the 2014 Burdwan blast case, from the Dodabalpur area of the Karnataka capital. The official said the agency has sought help of the bomb disposal squad of Bengaluru Police to defuse the IEDs. The official said the accused has also revealed his involvement in several instances of robberies committed in Bengaluru in 2018 in order to raise the fund for the activities of JMB. According to NIA officials, Sheikh was a close associate of senior JMB leader Jahidul Islam alias Kausar and was associated with other JMB leaders such as Rahamatullah Sheikh and Moulana Yusuf. He was named in a chargesheet filed by the NIA in the case in March, 2015 for his dire...

News 18 June 26, 2019 In a big diplomatic win for India and testament to its global stature, India's candidature for a non-permanent seat at the powerful UN Security Council for a two-year term has been unanimously endorsed by the Asia-Pacific group at the world body. Elections for five non-permanent members of the 15-nation Council for the 2021-22 term will be held around June next year. The announcement of the massive support was made on Wednesday morning by Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the UN. "A unanimous step. Asia-Pacific Group @UN unanimously endorses India's candidature for a non-permanent seat of the Security Council for 2 year term in 2021/22. Thanks to all 55 members for their support," Akbaruddin tweeted. Asia-Pacific Group @UN unanimously endorses India’s candidature for a non-permanent seat of the Security Council for 2 year term in 2021/22. A video message accompanying Akbaruddi's tweet said "Asia...

Business Line June 25, 2019 Identifying seeds as a key factor in ensuring sustainability for farmers, the Union Government is developing a software to let the farmers trace the origin of the seeds they buy. Using technologies such as barcode and QR code, the software solution will allow the farmers to cross-check whether they are buying the seed that intend to. “We are going to introduce it by June 2020. It goes a long way in ensuring quality of seeds,” Sanjay Agarwal, Union Agriculture Secretary, said. Addressing the inaugural session of the 32nd ISTA (International Seed Testing Association) Congress 2019 here on Wednesday, he said the country could achieve productivity levels and production of seeds above what was needed. “But quality of seeds is the key to ensure better incomes and sustainability to farmers,” he added. Representatives from over 70 countries are attending the conference, which is being organised by the Agriculture Departments of the State and Central ...

Business Line June 25, 2019 The Fall Army Worm (FAW), a pest found to attack maize and other crops, had spread to 14 States in the country till May this year as against eight States affected in 2018-19, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed Parliament on Tuesday. But, the area affected is still less than last year, he said. The new States where the FAW infestation is wreaking havoc are those from the North-eastern region. While two major States which the infestation had a major impact on last year — Karnataka and Telangana — have so far remained free of the pest, the attack seems to be rampant in Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, Tomar said in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. Last year, the worm, which predominantly attacks the maize crop and sorghum and ragi to some extent, affected an area of 2,11,300 hectares in Karnataka and 24,288 hectares in Telangana. In comparison, it has so far destroyed 4,553 ha in Nagaland, 4,342 ha in Manipur and 1,877 ha in Miz...

Business Standard June 26, 2019 Oil rigs in Nigeria, ships, a business jet and a plush flat in London were among the assets, worth over Rs 9,700 crore, attached by the ED Wednesday as part of its  bank fraud  and money laundering probe against Gujarat-based pharmaceutical firm Sterling Biotech. The  Enforcement Directorate  said it has issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attachment of these properties.  This is one of the biggest attachment of assets order issued by the agency and in this, most of the properties attached are based abroad, a senior official said, adding that the total value is Rs 9,778 crore. Four oil rigs and an oil field named OML143 in Nigeria, four Panama registered ships --'Tuljabhawani', 'Varinda', 'Bhavya' and 'Brahmanietc', a gulfstream jet registered in the US and held in the name of SAIB LLC, and a residential flat in London have been attached, the federal probe agency s...

The Free Press June 27, 2019 Bhavdeep Kang The illegal cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in several states reminds us that, as consumers, we have little or no control over the quality of farm produce we purchase. We buy paalak on faith, with no clue as to the quantum or nature of pesticides it may have soaked up in the field. The mangoes we consume with such relish don’t carry a label, informing us how many times the tree from which it came has been “washed” with pesticides. We keep our fingers crossed and repose faith in the de-toxifying powers of our livers. The disconnect between consumer rights and farm policy is not exclusive to India. That consumers are entitled to safe food is accepted. That farmers are entitled to maximise their yield through potentially hazardous methods is also accepted. Policy-makers prefer not to address the challenge of reconciling the two. As long as food products are available in adequate quantities and at a reasonable price ...

The Print June 27, 2019 Niranjan Sahoo he Maoist movement in India is among the longest and most lethal homegrown insurgencies that the world has seen. While the origin of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country goes back to the  Telangana peasant rebellion  (1946-51), the movement took the young republic by storm in 1967. On 25 May that year, peasants, landless labourers, and adivasis with their  lathis,  arrows and bows undertook daring raids of the granaries of a landlord at the Naxalbari village of West Bengal. The rebellion, quelled by the police in a matter of a few days, gave birth to what would be called the Naxalite movement (named after the hamlet) led by the charismatic Charu Majumdar and his close associates, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal.  The arrest of Charu Majumdar in 16 July 1972 and his subsequent death in police custody some days later prompted analysts to pen obituaries for the Naxalite movement. Within a decade, however, the ...