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The India Express July 15, 2019 By Chandan Haygunde According to the Maharashtra Police record, the youth, identified by Pahadsingh as “Vishwa” is Santosh Vasant Shelar, a resident of Kasewadi slum in Bhavani Peth area of Pune. Surrender of senior Maoist leader Kumarsai, alias Pahadsingh, before the Chhattisgarh Police in August last year has revealed some vital information, including that about a youth from Pune, who went missing in November 2010 and is now suspected to have risen to the ranks of “deputy commander” of the “Tanda Area Committee” of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). According to the Maharashtra Police record, the youth, identified by Pahadsingh as “Vishwa” is Santosh Vasant Shelar, a resident of Kasewadi slum in Bhavani Peth area of Pune. A “missing person’s report” lodged by Santosh’s family with the Pune City Police on January 10, 2011 stated that he left home on November 7, 2010 saying he was going to Mumbai to work with an exhibition for ...

The India Express July 15, 2019 Over the last few weeks, as the Trump Administration has been pushing for a rapprochement in Afghanistan between the Taliban and the elected government, it has opened up strategic possibilities for Pakistan. Both editorials and articles by columnists in the country’s press have recognised this opportunity to mend fences with the US. After all, the ISI and Pakistan deep state became salient — almost indispensable — in the US’s strategic calculus during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The editorial in Dawn on July 14 welcomes what appears to progress in the “peace talks” among stakeholders in Afghanistan, especially as the Taliban seems to “be softening its rigid stance”: “A few days ago, in Doha, members of the militia met Afghan politicians and civil society activists, with the latter two appearing in a ‘personal’ capacity, and discussed numerous issues. While the Taliban maintain their rigid stance of not talking to the Ashraf Ghani-le...

The Indian Express July 15, 2019  By Subasis Banarjee Its technical design requires serious reconsideration, following amendments to the law. Neither the Aadhaar holders nor the agencies responsible for service delivery have any control over either identity or authentication, causing understanding gaps and making grievance redressal difficult. The Aadhaar amendment bill, which provides for voluntary use of Aadhaar for KYC (know your customer) under the Telegraph and Prevention of Money Laundering Acts, has now been passed by both Houses of Parliament. It has reinstated many of the provisions of Section 57 of the original Aadhaar Act which was struck down by the Supreme Court in September 2018 as unconstitutional. Considering that Aadhaar virtual identities and offline authentication were introduced well before the judgment, the amendment comes with no major alteration in either design or use cases. Aadhaar undoubtedly is a technical and administrative achievement ...

The Indian Express July 14, 2019 By PR Sanjai The plan to sell bonds overseas comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces shrinking options to raise funds as a slowing economy crimps tax revenues. India’s plan to issue foreign currency debt has no real benefit and is fraught with risks, according to former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan. A global bond sale won’t reduce the amount of domestic government bonds the local market has to absorb and the country should worry about short-term “faddish investors buying when India is hot, and dumping us when it is not,” Rajan has said. Rajan adds to the growing chorus of opposition to the plan Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced earlier this month. The plan to sell bonds overseas comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces shrinking options to raise funds as a slowing economy crimps tax revenues. Investors have also been concerned about his plans to borrow a record 7.1 trillion rupees ($103 billion) this fisca...

The Khamma Press July 14, 2019 News Agency The security forces arrested a Burqa-clad Taliban commander during an operation in Takhar province. The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said Sunday the security forces arrested the Taliban commander as he was attempting to escape the province. This is not the first time the security forces have arrested Burqa-clad militants during their operations. The anti-government armed militants often disguise themselves in Burqas and women’s dress in attempt to escape the military operations or conduct attacks. Meanwhile, the Shaheen Corps did not disclose further information regarding the detained Taliban commander and his identity. The Taliban group has not commented regarding the arrest of the group’s commander in Takhar so far. Reference:-https://www.khaama.com/burqa-clad-taliban-commander-arrested-in-north-east-of-afghanistan-03916/

The Economioc Times July 15, 2019 By Saloni Sukhla A State Bank of India NSE -0.98 % commissioned forensic audit of Jet AirwaysNSE -4.97 % books has revealed misappropriation of funds relating to provision of loans and fraudulent billing for JP Miles, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.  The report also highlights that invoices raised were not verified leading to excess billing and fuel expenses were raised substantially for Jet even when they remained static for other airlines.  “Provision has been made for Rs 3,353-crore loan given to Jet Lite over four years. Board resolution, shareholder approval for making the provision was not made available to the auditors,” the forensic audit conducted by EY says. ET has seen a copy of the report. “Loans were given to Jet Lite despite Jet Airways recording losses in fiscal year 2015 and declining profit over the years,” the report added.  The government had recently ordered a p...

The Quint July 12, 2019 New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) In what could be bad news for the tech industry, Apple has reportedly shelved plans to develop its Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. According to Taiwan-based portal DigiTimes that cited people familiar with the situation, the Apple team working on the AR/VR project has been temporarily disbanded and "reassigned to other product lines". "Supply chain-related companies said that Apple is adjusting R&D resources, and the development team for AR/VR headsets has been disbanded and transferred to other product lines," claimed the report. It suggests that the discontinuation of the AR project happened after Microsoft HoloLens co-creator Avi Bar-Zeev left as Apple's AR headset development team in January. Several reports in the past have claimed that the iPhone maker is serious about launching AR glasses as early as 2020, including the Apple famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo....

The Hindu July 15, 2019 By AFP Pakistan will have to pay almost $6 billion in damages to a foreign gold mining firm whose dig was shut down by the government in 2011, the World Bank said on Sunday. The consortium Tethyan Copper company is the largest Foreign Direct Investment mining project in the country. More than a decade ago the group found vast gold and copper deposits at Reko Diq, in the turbulent southwestern Baluchistan province, and had planned a hugely lucrative open-pit mine. But the project came to a standstill in 2011 after the local government refused to renew the consortium's lease, and in 2013 Pakistan’s top court declared it invalid. On Friday, the World Bank’s international arbitration tribunal committee awarded $5.84 billion in damages to Tethyan, according to a statement from the company, because of the government’s decision to shut down the mine. Pakistan Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan said in a statement they had noted the deci...

Daily Hunt July 15, 2019 Cuttack: Union minister Nityanand Rai, Sunday, urged Naxals to shun violence and lead a peaceful and dignified life, but made it clear that if they don't do so, the Centre will exercise all options, including deployment of Army, to free areas held by left-wing extremists. The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs said Naxals should return to the mainstream by accepting the flexible rehabilitation scheme offered by the government. If they don't, Rai warned, the Centre will be forced to weigh the option of using the Army to crush Naxals. 'Naxal-prone areas in the country are shrinking everyday and there has been a drastic reduction in the cadres of left-wing extremism,' he told reporters here. Para-military forces are deployed in sufficient numbers in the last Naxal-hit pockets, he said. Rai said many rebels have given the path of violence and returned to the mainstream because of the anti-Naxal operations by security ...

Daily Hunt July 14, 2019 A minister in the UK's Shadow Cabinet has slammed India over the violent attacks on Muslims and called on the British government to look into and respond to the "extremely worrying situation".Jonathan Ashworth, a Labour Party MP from Leicester South a constituency with a prominent Indian-origin electorate in the East Midlands region of England, wrote in a letter last week to foreign secretary and prime ministerial hopeful Jeremy Hunt that many of his constituents had raised concerns that the Indian government was not doing enough on the issue. "I have been contacted by members of Muslim communities in my Constituency in regard to the on-going violent attacks on Muslims in India," Ashworth wrote in his letter addressed to the senior Cabinet minister in the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).Calling for Hunt to look into and respond over the "serious issue", the shadow minister for health said: "The s...

India Today July 14, 2019 Reuters  The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a top executive at the retail conglomerate Future Group, one of the largest retailers in the country, on customs fraud charges involving more than $2 million of unpaid customs duties on garment imports, a government statement said on Saturday. he Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a top executive at the retail conglomerate Future Group, one of the largest retailers in the country, on customs fraud charges involving more than $2 million of unpaid customs duties on garment imports, a government statement said on Saturday. The DRI, part of India's finance ministry, arrested Dinesh Maheshwari, executive director and chief financial officer of Future Enterprises Ltd, for flouting import rules that allow duty-free shipments of certain items under a free trade pact with Bangladesh. It didn't say where he was detained. Future Group did not respond to a Reuters e-mail an...

First Post July 15, 2019 Press Trust Of India Housing finance firm DHFL has said the developments in last few quarters threaten its ability to continue as a going concern, as the company posted biggest-ever quarterly loss of Rs 2,223 crore for the fourth quarter ended 31 March. The debt-ridden company had reported a profit of Rs 134.35 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal. "In the backdrop of a significant slowdown in disbursement and loan growth post-September 2018, the financials of the company have been quite strained for the quarter impacting the overall performance of the year," the company said in a late evening regulatory filing on Saturday. The operating profit was Rs 372 crore for the quarter and Rs 2,378 crore for the whole year. "However, due to the additional provisioning of Rs 3,280 crore (including net loss on fair value), the company reported a net loss of Rs 2,223 crore for the quarter and net loss of Rs 1,036 crore for the whole year,...

The Quint July 15, 2019 Raghav Behl I sat bolt upright as I heard Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman utter these words in the 97th para of her long budget speech in Parliament on 5 July 2019. What! Had Modi 2.0 just mounted its most audacious structural reform by agreeing to privatise India’s sprawling, inefficient public sector undertakings (PSUs)? But my excitement was rudely cut short when I read the words that had gotten obliterated by the audio disturbance: “in case where the Undertaking is still to be retained in Government control”. And the last vestige of any joy disappeared when I heard a government secretary say, I just slumped back in my chair, my heady high punctured. Frankly Madam, I am delighted that finally, after seven decades of independence, our bureaucracy has learnt that ownership and control should not be conflated. This rather simple realisation could ignite entrepreneurial energy in first-gen founders if the principle is extended to them. But for now,...

The Quint July 15, 2019 AHMED ALI FAYYAZ Al Qaeda Chief Ayman Al Zawahiri’s 14-minute video that was released on Wednesday, 10 July, asking his cadre and followers to inflict “unrelenting blows” on the Indian security forces and the government in Kashmir, has little scope of replacing the three-decades-long Pakistan-controlled conventional insurgency in the Valley. It could however, eventually prove to be a game-changer – for the worse. Significantly, there has been no reaction to Al Zawahiri’s appeal either from the Valley’s separatist leadership, or from its intellectual support structure which has been vociferously asserting through write-ups, speeches and tweets, that the pan-Islamic extremist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS have no room in Kashmir. They have been emphatically projecting the separatist-militant combo as an “indigenous political movement with only the moral support from Pakistan”. Even as a group of local lawyers had performed Osama Bin Laden’s namaz-e-ja...

Hindustan Times July 15, 2019 By Miao Han and Kari Lindberg China’s economy continued slowing in the second quarter, as fragile domestic output and continuing trade tensions pulled growth down to the weakest pace since the early 1990s. Gross domestic product rose 6.2.% in the April-June period from a year earlier, below the 6.4% expansion in the first quarter and matching economists’ estimates. In June, factory output rose 6.3%, retail sales rose 9.8%, while investment gained 5.8% in the first half of the year -- all three beating estimates in further evidence that stimulus measures to curb the slowdown may be feeding through. The slowdown underlines the pressure that Chinese policy makers face as they attempt to negotiate a deal with the U.S., while balancing the objective of job creation with the need to defuse financial risks at home. Although Chinese negotiators are talking with their U.S. counterparts again, there is no certainty that a deal will be reached in...

The Dawn July 15, 2019 By Afshan Subohi    The staff report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week must have provided some measure of comfort to the champions of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as well as China that chose Pakistan to be the first key destination for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to sustain its economic triumph and realise future ambitions. If this is just a coincidence, it is intriguing. After a long lull, there is light blipping again on the CPEC drawing board. Last Friday, a 55-member Chinese delegation of business executives met Prime Minister Imran Khan and reportedly committed to ploughing $5 billion investment over the next five years. “Probably the interaction with the Chinese delegations was already planned, but the fact that it did materialise as soon as details of the IMF deal were made public kindled new hope for the future,” commented a top leader of the government’s economic team. ...