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India: IANS: July 29, 2019 Islamabad: The US and the Taliban are likely to announce a peace accord on August 1, paving the way for withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, according to reports in the Pakistani media. English daily, The News, said that talks between the US and the Taliban, slated to begin talks in Qatar’s capital Doha from Monday, could see a concrete agreement on bringing “nearly 18 years of military intervention and bloodshed in Afghanistan to an end”. It quoted “highly-placed” diplomatic sources as saying Mulla Abdul Ghani Brather will lead the Taliban, while the US Special Representative to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad will be heading the US team, and in “all probabilities, the historic accord would be inked in Doha, Qatar on Thursday (August 1)”. Both sides are fine-tuning the draft of agreement before its formal announcement and signing, it said, adding that the accord is intended to enhance the peace process to ensure a ceasefire and an

The Hindu: PTI: July 29, 2019 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday termed the practice of forced conversions as “un-Islamic” and said there was no precedent in Islamic history for forcefully converting others, according to media reports. Addressing an event in connection with the National Minorities Day at the Aiwan-e-Sadr (President’s House) in Islamabad, Mr. Khan also vowed to protect and develop worship places of minorities in Pakistan and also facilitate them to the maximum level to perform their religious rituals. Mr. Khan said the Prophet himself had given minorities religious freedom and protected their places of worship, the Dawn newspaper reported. “How can we then take it into our own hands to forcefully convert someone to Islam — either by marrying (non-Muslim) women (...) or on gunpoint or to (by threatening to) kill someone because of their religion?” he said. “All these things are un-Islamic. If God hadn’t given his messengers the power to

The Economic Times: Madhvi Sally: July 29, 2019 American multinational Monsanto’s Indian joint venture has sought another six weeks to respond to the Competition Commission of India on alleged abuse of its dominant position in the Bt cotton seeds market.  The investigation arm of the antitrust watchdog had said Mahyco Monsanto Biotech was charging unfair licence fees and entering pricing agreements to overcharge farmers for the seeds. In May, the CCI circulated the investigation report and sought response from all stakeholde by June 21. A hearing was scheduled for July 25.  Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, on behalf of the company, has asked for more time and said it wanted to cross-examine witnesses involved in the investigation.  MMB requests for additional time of at least six weeks, from the date of completion of cross-examination of all relevant witness or receipt of copy of the entire DG record following a complete review and inspection of the same, whichev

THE HINDU: Rajeev Jayaswal and Rezaul H Laskar: July 29, 2019 Sensitive trade negotiations with the US have held up the finalisation of India’s e-commerce policy and data protection legislation as both proposed laws are opposed by American multinationals, officials of two ministries said.  US assistant trade representative Christopher Wilson and additional commerce secretary Sanjay Chadha held discussions in New Delhi on July 11-12, days after the leaders of the two countries met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, to discuss irritants in ties. The meeting, people familiar with the developments in New Delhi and Washington said, didn’t lead to much forward movement though both sides displayed a desire to work closely. The sticking points include import tariffs and barriers, and the two proposed laws that officials now say may undergo changes to strike a balance between domestic interests and foreign investors’ concerns.  “A data protection policy is a must for

Economic Times: PTI-July 30, 2019 Even as more and more crippled banks come out of the dud asset tunnel, the heightening growth slowdown and the lingering crisis at non-banking lenders pose fresh challenges to their asset quality, warns a report.  In a report, which comes months after GDP growth slipped to a five-year low at 5.8 percent for the March quarter, international rating agency Moody's said it expects growth to be "weaker" in the next 12-18 months, without quantifying its growth expectation.  The government has projected an 8 percent or thereabout growth for fiscal 2020.  "While banks' operating environment will stay stable, the slowdown poses challenges to their asset quality," Alka Anbarasu, a senior credit analyst at the agency warned Monday.  She said growth moderation can lead to creation of a fresh bad loan mess in the retail, and small and medium enterprise segments.  The agency said the slowdown comes at a time wh

The Hindu: Jagriti Chandra: July 28, 2019 A Finance Ministry recommendation not to award the same player more than two airports, out of a total of six to be privatised by the Centre, was among some of the key suggestions brushed aside by the government panel for public private partnerships — the PPP Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) — effectively leading to Adani Enterprises Limited emerging as the winning bidder for all airports. Following the Union Cabinet’s in-principle nod in November 2018 to privatise six airports owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the PPPAC met on December 11 to recommend the proposal for final approval. The panel dismissed key suggestions made by the Finance Ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and the NITI Aayog to improve criteria for selecting bidders. These included the requirement of prior experience in operation and management (O&M) as well as providing the total project cost up front for each of the airports, to bet

News 18: Reuter: July 29, 2019 A former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Bimal Jalan, has warned that the higher income taxes the government introduced in its budget could lead to a flight of funds from the country. "In theory if tax rates are very high, obviously people look for other countries, which have lower interest rates, and also exemptions from income tax," said Jalan, 77, who chairing a central bank panel deciding on how much of the RBI's reserves should be transferred to the government. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget this month, raised taxes on people earning more than 10 million rupees ($145,000) a year to at least 42.7%. That included foreign portfolio investors registered as trusts. Analysts and traders say this has been a major reason for foreign investors being net sellers of more than 30 billion rupees of funds from Indian equity markets in July, after they invested more than 100 billion rupees in June. That

First Post, July 30, 2019 Dinesh Unnikrishnan According to a report in  The   Indian Express , the Narendra Modi government is considering the listing of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the insurance behemoth which is also arguably the largest financial institution in the country at the moment. If it happens, by far this will be the  biggest disinvestment  decision that has been taken by any government in many decades. This will be termed as a big-bang reform move by the Modi regime. Besides creating a heavyweight in Indian bourses (in all likelihood even bigger than Reliance Industries Ltd and Tata Consultancy Service or TCS in terms of market value), LIC’s listing will also testify the government’s intent to unlock the value in large state-owned companies helping the economy in a big way. A slowdown-gripped economy needs this at this point more than ever before. As T he   Indian Express  report says, on a capital base of Rs 5 crore, LIC last reported a valuation surplus —

Hindustan Times July 29, 2019  By Rajeev Jayaswal and Rezaul H Laskar Sensitive trade negotiations with the US have held up the finalisation of India’s e-commerce policy and data protection legislation as both proposed laws are opposed by American multinationals, officials of two ministries said. US assistant trade representative Christopher Wilson and additional commerce secretary Sanjay Chadha held discussions in New Delhi on July 11-12, days after the leaders of the two countries met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, to discuss irritants in ties. The meeting, people familiar with the developments in New Delhi and Washington said, didn’t lead to much forward movement though both sides displayed a desire to work closely. The sticking points include import tariffs and barriers, and the two proposed laws that officials now say may undergo changes to strike a balance between domestic interests and foreign investors’ concerns. “A data protection policy is a must for

The Indian Express, July 30, 2019 Ritu Sarin One of the large international corporations which used the Mauritius route to propose a joint venture (JV) in India and maximise tax benefits is Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and its subsidiary, the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). Advertising It was in 2011 that MFMER, described in the data of offshore specialist firm Conyers Dill & Pearman as a not-for-profit corporation, registered Mayo Clinic GBS Mauritius to be wholly owned by Mayo Foundation. The business plan of Mayo Mauritius states that “the main business activity of the company will be to invest in business that complement Mayo Clinic activities’’ and it should be structured in such a manner that it avoids giving Mayo’s US affiliates a taxable presence in India. The purpose of setting up Mayo Mauritius became clear when on November 30, 2011, the company (set up by Conyers affiliate Codan) entered into a shareholders agreement with

The Indian Express, July 30, 2019 Udit Misra The trend of crude oil prices mirrors the slightest of changes in geopolitics, apart from the steady course of economic news. In the simplest terms, crude oil prices will move up when something causes the demand to rise or the supply to fall. Advertising In the past six months, crude oil prices have steadily risen from the lows of December 2018 — from $50.1 per barrel on December 28 to $74.7 a barrel on May 16 — primarily because of oil production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group of 14 including Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates. It controls roughly 40% of the world’s overall oil supply and its exports account for 60% of all petroleum traded globally — as such, its decisions to cut or expand production have a huge impact on global oil prices. However, since mid-May, and especially over the past few weeks, oil prices have seen renewed fluctuations (see chart bel