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Daily Hunt July 23, 2019 The Tibetan government-in-exile has sought India's support on this issue of the Dalai Lama's reincarnation. New Delhi: The Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, has rejected the suggestion that the next Dalai Lama should be chosen with the consent and involvement of the Chinese government. In an exclusive interview to this newspaper, a senior official of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) said that lamas are born in places where they have the freedom to carry out their tasks without any hindrance, and China is a "repressive" state which does not allow that freedom. "As said by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a lama is reincarnated on his free will to fulfill the incomplete task of the former. So, the reincarnated lama should be born in a place where he is free to complete the task. If he is born in a repressive country, where he cannot contribute, then the very purpose of the reincarnation i...

Live Mint  July 23, 2019 The future of payment banks is uncertain and while the business will expand and evolve in time, they would require regulatory and government support to achieve their objectives, said a report by State Bank of India (SBI). The report said that recently, Aditya Birla Payments Bank (ABPB) announced shutting down its operations from 18 October, 2019 citing unanticipated developments in the business landscape that have made the economic model unviable. On 15 July, Vodafone m-Pesa had also shut shop. The payments bank model was conceptualised by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on recommendation of the Nachiket Mor committee for furthering financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payments services to unorganised sector entities. “However, it seems to have failed to achieve the stated objectives, as only 4-PBs are operational out of the 11 licensed players. In 1990s also, RBI had made an attempt to create Local Area Banks (LABs) t...

One India July 21 ,2019 The Deputy chief of the Falah-i-Insaniyat, the financial wing of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba routed funds from Pakistan to Dubai and then to India, the National Investigation Agency has said. Investigation carried out by NIA reveals that Chief of Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) namely Hafiz Mohammad Saeed along with Dy. Chief of FIF namely Shahid Mahmood hatched a conspiracy around 2012 to create sympathisers/sleeper cells and logistic base in Delhi and Haryana under the garb of religious work such construction of mosques, madrasas and financial assistance for marriage of poor Muslim girls.  On Saturday, the NIAS filed a chargesheet against a Rajasthan resident. The NIA filed charges against one Mohammad Hussain, a resident of Nagaur in Rajasthan. hahid Mahmood tasked his associates namely Mohammad Kamran, a Pakistani national based at Dubai, for re-routing funds from Pakistan to Dubai and further to India through hawala channels. Shahid Mehmood ...

The Wire July 23, 2019 By-Siddharth Varadarajan Their romance – once the talk of the world – had begun showing some signs of a cooling off even earlier but the relationship between US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now surely reached a decisive turn. Trump’s statement on Monday that Modi sought his help as a mediator to help resolve the Kashmir issue with Pakistan is the nearest thing in the Indian foreign policy playbook to a stab in the back. It doesn’t matter if Trump was speaking the truth, making things up or just plain confused. That this statement was made in the course of a joint press conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan makes the wound even more difficult to handle. The official Indian denial came swiftly and predictably, and will stem some of the immediate political damage that the Bharatiya Janata Party would have otherwise had to confront domestically. But there is no quick cure for the agony Modi and his...

The Economic Times July 23, 2019 Even as the government continues its push for renewables, coal-fired power is expected to remain the main source of energy for the next decade or so, Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister R.K. Singh said on Tuesday.  The capacity of coal based generation would increase from the current about 195 gigawatt (GW) to 238 GW by March, 2027.  "Accordingly, the total coal requirement would increase from 698 MT for 2019-20 to 877 MT during 2026-27," Singh said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.  As there is a already shortage in coal supply, the government needs to raise production to meet the needs of thermal power plants.  "Besides meeting the present deficit in coal supply to power sector, Coal India NSE -0.50 % Limited (CIL) may enhance its production to meet the growing requirement of the power sector,"  As per the National Electricity Plan (2018), the share of electricity generated from coal-bas...

Coin Desk July 23, 2019 A panel reporting to India’s Finance Ministry suggested the country’s regulators have an “open mind” about a governmental cryptocurrency and, at the same time, proposed fines and up to ten years in prison for general use of crypto in the country. The panel, created by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and the Reserve Bank of India, found that there was serious concern with the “mushrooming of cryptocurrencies almost invariably issued abroad and numerous people in India investing in these,” according to the report. “All these cryptocurrencies have been created by non-sovereigns,” they complained. “Therefore, the Committee is of clear view that the private cryptocurrencies should not be allowed. These cryptocurrencies cannot serve the purpose of a currency. The private cryptocurrencies are inconsistent with the essential functions of money/currency, hence private cryptocurrencies...

The Hindu  July 23, 2019 By- Suhasini Haidar The comments made by U.S. President at the White House on July 22 could raise red flags in New Delhi and other capitals, and his purported conversation with Narendra Modi on Kashmir is just one of them. The government stated in Parliament that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had never asked the U.S. President to mediate or arbitrate on the Kashmir issue, as stated by Donald Trump during a joint press meet on Monday with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement reiterating India’s traditional policy of handling all issues with Pakistan “bilaterally”, without a third party involved. The US undersecretary of state for South Asia Alice Wells sought to calm tempers by tweeting, “ While Kashmir is a bilateral issue for both parties to discuss, the Trump administration welcomes Pakistan and India sitting down and the United States stands ready to assist.” However, Mr. Trump’s c...

Hemindra Hazari July 17, 2019 Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was forced to disclose its confidential inspection reports, called Risk Assessment Reports (RARs), of the State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank for the years FY2013 to FY2015. Shockingly, among the four banks, HDFC Bank was assessed not only with poor scores on internal audit, operational (non-IT) risk, risk governance, senior management and board risk, but with the worst scores on internal audit in all 3 years, and in non-IT operational risk in 2 of the 3 years. This stands in contrast to HDFC Bank’s reputation for good governance. Although, on the aggregate risk, there was no cause for concern, the fact that RBI scored HDFC Bank as high-risk on these select segments, and that from FY2013 to FY2015 these segment risk scores kept getting worse, should be of concern to shareholders. It is worth recalling that in July 2011, Cobrapost had exposed the staff of banks brazenly marketing m...

Business Standard July 23, 2019 Arup Roychoudhury  &  Neha Alawadhi   A panel tasked with examining virtual currencies has recommended that the government should ban private cryptocurrencies and could consider launching its own digital money. It has also recommended that to deter the use of private cryptocurrencies, anyone doing so could be punished with imprisonment of up to 10 years. The committee on virtual currency is headed by Finance Secretary Subhash Garg. The other members are Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology; Ajay Tyagi, chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi); and B P Kanungo, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The committee submitted its report on Monday — after a delay of a year. A piece of draft legislation, Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019, was also put in the public domain on Monday. On Tuesday, the Suprem...

Business Standard July 22, 2019 The IMF has urged Pakistan to mobilise domestic tax revenues to provide for the social and development spending and place debt on a downward trend as the cash-strapped country is seeking bailout packages from global lenders to help its ailing economy return to "sustainable growth". The statement of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Acting Managing Director David Lipton came after he met Prime Minister Imran Khan who is on a three-day official visit to the US at the invitation of President Donald Trump. "I highlighted the need to mobilise domestic tax revenue now and on into the future to provide reliably for needed social and development spending, while placing debt on a firm downward trend," Lipton said Sunday. He said that they discussed recent economic developments and the implementation of the authority's economic reform programme supported by the IMF. "Their programme aims to stabilise the econo...

Business Line July 22, 2019 Venkatesh Ganesh Ratings agency CRISIL today clarified that it has never rated IL&FS Ltd, IL&FS Financial Services Ltd, or any debt issued by these companies. In reference to the recent announcement by IL&FS Ltd on the completion of the first phase of a forensic audit by Grant Thornton on the credit ratings assigned to it and group companies in the past, CRISIL in a statement said: "Way back in 2011, CRISIL had assigned 'CRISIL A/Stable/CRISIL A1' rating to the bank loan facilities of IL&FS Transportation Network Ltd (ITNL). As per the rating definitions standardised by SEBI, the ‘A’ category refers to ‘Adequate Safety’. The rating was withdrawn in July 2016 and since then, CRISIL has had no outstanding rating on ITNL either." However, CRISIL added that currently it has ratings on two road annuity project special purpose vehicles (SPVs) – North Karnataka Expressway Ltd, and Jharkhand Road Projects Impleme...

Business Today July 22, 2019 NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has voiced confidence that India will achieve economic growth of 8 per cent plus from fiscal year 2020-2021 onwards as structural reforms like the GST are set to produce the benefits. The eminent economist was in the city for the High Level Political Forum Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Headquarters. During his visit, he delivered the keynote address at the 'India Investment Seminar' held at the Consulate General of India, New York. Kumar stressed that in the next five, the Modi government is focussed on accelerating growth from the current about seven per cent to more than eight per cent that will propel the country to easily achieving the target of becoming a five trillion dollar economy. "I personally think that in the fiscal year 2020-2021 onwards, we will achieve higher than 8 per cent growth, (continuing) then for the next many years. It ...