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Prism July 24, 2019 Pakistan has locked in a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and will receive $6 billion as part of the deal. This is the 22nd IMF bailout Pakistan has received. However, the current account deficit driven by the trade deficit is still high. To extricate Pakistan from this cyclical dependency, the country must increase exports. In business terms, Pakistan needs to start clearing a profit. Pakistan’s total trade volume amounts to $84 billion (as of February 2018) — that is the total sum of imports and exports crossing the country’s borders. Only roughly $23 billion of that is exports. Pakistan is deep in the red and on a trajectory of increasing deficits. Pakistan’s neighbouring countries in South Asia are doing better business. If we add up the total value of the exports of all countries in the world, Pakistan’s share has declined over time, from 0.16 per cent in 2003 to 0.12pc in 2017, according to the Pakistan Busines...

The Express Tribune July 25, 2019 Many operational bank accounts of Pakistanis in Japan are being suspended for certain reasons, said Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Daroo Khan Achakzai. He was discussing issues pertaining to bilateral trade and economic relations with officials of the Japanese Ministry of Economy and Trade and Industry (METI). The issues under discussion included opening of new bank accounts, said a statement issued on Tuesday. METI officials pointed out that the problem of suspension of bank accounts was also being faced by Japanese nationals in Pakistan, which was hampering bilateral trade. The FPCCI president assured METI officials that he would take up the matter with the government of Pakistan and a joint meeting would be held in August 2019 to discuss bilateral banking procedures. The FPCCI president also met newly appointed Ambassador of Pakistan to Japan Imtiaz Ahmed and discussed promotion of bilateral trade ...

Republic TV July 23, 2019 By   Aishwaria Sonavane  Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan asserting his duplicity towards terror in a gigantic admission has claimed that the UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammed in 'operative in India' During a press brief, the Pakistani Prime Minister downplayed the ghastly terror attack, moreover shielded the perpetrator of Pulwama terror attack by stating that the "atrocities of security forces radicalised the Kashmiri boy" who blew himself up in the fidayeen attack.  He said, "What happened in Pulwama in February last year, it was clearly an indigenous thing. It was a Kashmiri boy radicalised by the brutality of security forces, he blew himself up."  He said that Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed is operative in India "as well" however Pakistan came into the limelight, further claimed that Pakistan had disarmed militants from the country before Pulwama terror attack.    ...

News Track July 23, 2019 Pakistani Army is engaged in another conspiracy against India these days. The plot also involved Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Islamic State (IS) operating in Afghanistan. Under the scheme, it can target the assets and interests of India and the US. This is evidenced by the active involvement of Lashkar-e-Taiba fighters in the war-footing country. Recently, a meeting between Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani army team and the country's spy agency ISI was held in Zaba area of Dangam district in Kunar province. It directs the terror outfit to damage Indian and US properties. This was disclosed by diplomats in New Delhi and Washington along with intelligence officials. Rahul Gandhi slams Modi government over Kashmir dispute says, PM Must Tell Nation What Transpired Lashkar commanders have been tasked with carrying out a variety of attacks, including suicide bombers sent from Pakistan. The move comes at a time when Pakistan is under constant pressure ...

The Economic Times July 24, 2019 DIVYA RAJAGOPAL Mumbai: The government will continue to support research in genetic engineering and modification in the country even as debate rages over the use of Genetically Modified (GM) seeds.  “We are supporting (GM) research, we are supporting scientists who are working on developing platforms for it,” Renu Swarup, secretary at the biotechnology department (DBT), told ET.  The department is also considering a gene-editing policy that would provide a regulatory pathway for gene editing for medical and agricultural purposes.  An expert group is looking at what will be regulatory requirement for using new genetic tech like CRISPRCas9 gene editing system, Swarup said.  “Gene editing, per say, will not become genetic engineering,” she said. There are components that are normal conventional mutations, which get edited because of mutations aspect. “So, we are spelling these things out clearly.”  ...

Hindustan Times July 24, 2019 Facebook Inc’s Libra cryptocurrency project has not responded to an information request by Switzerland’s data privacy watchdog, the authority said on Tuesday, noting it wants more details to help define its oversight role over the US social media company’s proposed digital currency. Facebook in mid-June announced plans to launch Libra next year as it expands to e-commerce and digital payments. Since then, it has faced scrutiny by politicians, regulators and central bankers around the globe, including over fear that widespread adoption by Facebook’s 2.38 billion users could disrupt the financial system and facilitate money laundering. David Marcus, who oversees Facebook’s currency project, said at a U.S. Senate hearing earlier this month he expected the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) to be Libra’s privacy regulator. This is because the nonprofit Libra Association, which Facebook had set up to oversee the c...

Hindustan Times July 24, 2019 Dandan Li China accused the US of undermining global stability, as the country released its first defense white paper since Chinese President Xi Jinping initiated a sweeping military overhaul in 2015. The paper titled “China’s National Defense in the New Era” -- in a reference to a key Xi slogan -- said that the U.S. had provoked competition among major countries. The paper noted that the “international security system and order are undermined by growing hegemonism, power politics, unilateralism and constant regional conflicts and wars.” The language represented a departure from the previous report, which focused on efforts to improve military-to-military cooperation between the world’s two largest economies. This year’s white paper “was the first to be much more explicit about Chinese concerns regarding the United States,” said M. Taylor Fravel, author of “Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy Since 1949” and a political scienc...

Business Standard July 24, 2019 Washington: Successive governments in Pakistan did not tell the truth to the United States, in particular in the last 15 years, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday, adding that there were 40 different militant groups operating in his country.   "We were fighting the US war on terror. Pakistan has nothing to do with 9/11. Al-Qaeda was in Afghanistan. There were no militant Taliban in Pakistan. But we joined the US war. Unfortunately, when things went wrong, where I blame my government, we did not tell the US exactly the truth on the ground," Khan said. He was addressing a Capitol Hill reception hosted by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Chairperson of the Congressional Pakistan Caucus. Lee is also a member of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. Part of the reason for this, Khan explained to the lawmakers, was that the Pakistani governments were not in control. "There were 40 dif...

Business Standarad July 23, 2019 Indivjal Dhasmana The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its projection for India’s economic growth by 0.3 percentage point to 7 per cent for 2019-20 due to subdued domestic demand. For the next financial year, the projection was also cut by 0.3 percentage point to 7.2 per cent. “India’s economy is set to grow at 7.0 percent in 2019, picking up to 7.2 percent in 2020. The downward revision of 0.3 percentage point for both years reflects a weaker-than expected outlook for domestic demand,” IMF said in its update on its flagship report -- the World Economic Outlook on Tuesday. IMF did not give details of muted domestic demand, but various sectors of the economy have been witnessing a slowdown, particularly auto. For instance, retail vehicle sales across the country fell by 5.4 per cent in June year-on-year to 1.64 million units, according to data by the industry body – the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA). ...

Hindustan Times July 25, 2019 Israel’s Director of Digital Health, Esti Shelly, is in India for the launch of the Global Innovation Index (GII 2019), in which her country is expected to be ranked among the top 10. Israel was ranked 11th in 2018, and 17th in 2017, while India rose to 57th in GII in 2018 from 60th the year before. The ranking judges countries on at least 80 indicators of innovation, including political environment, research, infrastructure and business. GII 2019 focus this year is on health innovation, which is integral to Ayushman Bharat, India’s health protection scheme that offers cashless hospitalisation cover of up to ~5 lakh to at least 10 million families. Shelly, who met her counterparts at National Health Authority and Niti Aayog to share Israel’s innovations in health technology, medicine and research, spoke to Sanchita Sharma on how transformative innovations in healthcare can fuel economic and social growth. What role does digital health pla...

The Business Standard July 25, 2019 Vrishti Beniwal India’s decision to sell its maiden overseas sovereign bond has been panned by at least two former central bank chiefs, but the government’s plan has just found support in another ex-governor who thinks it’s a good idea. Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan joined the debate on whether or not the nation should go for an offshore bond sale, saying India’s fundamentals supported the case for going ahead with the fund raising. “At the moment we are in a fortunate position. Our debt to GDP ratio is not very high, exchange rate is stable, and foreign exchange reserves are high,” Jalan said in an interview in New Delhi on Wednesday. “So foreign borrowing, if it’s long term, which it would be, is not a problem.” Former RBI governors C. Rangarajan and Raghuram Rajan have viewed the plan with skepticism, with the latter saying foreign currency debt has no real benefit and is fraught with risks -- a view echoe...

Mumbai Mirror   jULY 24, 2019 Vallabh Ozarkar and Somendranath Sharma The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which arrested 10 alleged Daesh men in January and foiled their purported plan of mass-killing devotees at the 400-year-old Shree Mumbreshwar Temple in Mumbra, said in the charge sheet that the accused had attempted to poison the temple’s maha prasad. The charge sheet said that one of the accused, Talha Potrik, had attempted to poison the prasad during the Shrimadh Bhagwat Katha organised at the temple in December last year. Around 40,000 devotees had consumed the prasad that day. The ATS identified an accused, Abu Hamza, as the leader of the group, and said in the charge sheet that he had conducted blast trials in the hills near Mumbra bypass. Besides Potrik and Hamza, the other accused have been identified as Mohsin Khan alias Abu Marya, Atai Waris Abdul Rashid Shaikh alias Mazhar, Mohammad Takky Khan alias Abu Khalid, Mushahed Ul-Islam, Jamman Khu...