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THE TIMES OF INDIA AUGUST 22, 2019 Globally, one in two people who need insulin, lack access to it due to high prices and poor availability. The problem in India is availability, quality and the huge price differential between newer, second generation (rapid and long acting) insulin  and older versions, while developed markets like US have witnessed skyrocketing insulin prices. One of the most comprehensive studies ever done on insulin globally, published in reputed medical journal BMJ, points out the huge differential, saying human insulin is far more affordable than analogue insulin i.e. 1.3-1.9 (human) versus 4.6-9.2 (analogue) days’ wages. (The affordability of insulin is expressed as the number of days wages needed by the lowest paid unskilled government worker to purchase 10 ml insulin from private pharmacies). Analogues (newer versions of insulin) are priced in India three to five times the price of the older versions, and hence unaffordable for a majority of...

BusinessLine August 21, 2019 Calls for long-term policy direction  The Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) has asked the government to do away with the Cottonseed Price Control order and the minimum support price (MSP). It felt that agriculture should be treated as as an industry. “The government should not interfere in the pricing of agricultural inputs, especially seeds and fertilisers, and leave the pricing to be determined by open markets,” it said. The MSP, it felt, is distorting the market and not benefiting anyone. “It is, in fact, rewarding inefficiencies. Instead of MSPs and subsidies, it can offer a premium over market price to farmers, instead of interfering with the market forces,” it said. The  ₹ 18,000-crore seed industry also called for introduction of a National Agricultural Policy and expedition of the Seed Bill and Biotech Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill to ensure policy direction and predictability. ‘Ineffective regul...

P Gurus March 15,2017 The Income Tax’s Chennai Investigation Unit’s report having more than 200 pages about former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s family and especially son Karti and his companies huge assets in more than 14 countries are now out in the public domain. Recently some portion of this sensitive report was exposed in public by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy in a press conference. Many media houses whose owners are friendly and in collusion with Chidambaram tried to black out the news. In the interest of public, we are producing the entire data of assets and bank accounts found in the joint raid of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate. 21 foreign bank accounts  by Karti and his companies in Metro Bank in UK, 4 accounts in OCBC in Singapore in the name of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pte Ltd, the controversial company caught in kickbacks in Aircel-Maxis scam, 2 banks in Spain namely Sabadell Atlantico, La Caxia Bank, HSBC UK, Barclays ...

Business Standard Dated August 22,2019 Rahul Satija and  Suvashree Ghosh India is stamping out shadow financiers at the fastest pace in recent years, in the latest blow to a beleaguered sector battling a prolonged funding crunch due to rising wariness toward it in the nation’s credit markets. The central bank canceled registrations of 1,851 non-bank finance companies in the year ended March 31, more than 8 times those in the previous year, according to data received from the Reserve Bank of India in response to a Right to Information request. The number of lenders dropped to about 9,700, the lowest in at least a decade, as a result. Firms may be failing to secure the minimum funds needed to operate due to the cash crunch.  “RBI canceled permits of these NBFCs as they couldn’t raise even Rs 2 crore” to meet regulatory requirements, said Mahesh Thakkar, director general at Finance Industry Development Council. The lobbying body for th...

The Telegraph August 22, 2019 Sebi has decided to relax the registration procedures for foreign portfolio investors, who have been seething against the tax surcharge slapped on them in the budget. The regulator on Wednesday said its board had accepted the recommendations of the H.R. Khan committee. Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi denied any connection between relaxing the registration process and the budget levy that has seen FPIs turning into net sellers on the bourses since July. Tyagi said the Khan panel report was in the public domain since May and its recommendations were adopted by following a due procedure. He said the board has combined as many as 57 circulars and 183 FAQs on FPIs into a single circular.Sebi will come out with a detailed notification soon on the changes. The regulator will speed up and simplify registration, while easing compliance. The broad-based eligibility criteria for institutional foreign investors will be dropped. The number of FPI categor...

The Print 21 August, 2019 Mumbai:  ITC Ltd., Asia’s largest cigarette maker by market value, is considering a bid to buy a stake in Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. as it seeks to diversify away from tobacco products, according to people familiar with the matter. The maker of Classic and Gold Flake cigarettes has been given access to Coffee Day’s assets and financial for due diligence, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. ITC could be vying with Coca-Cola Co., which has evaluated India’s biggest cafe chain but hasn’t made a formal offer, said one of the people. A successful bid will help ITC further diversify its business to reduce dependence on cigarettes as India raises taxes on tobacco and restricts smoking in public places. Coffee Day is under pressure to pare borrowings after its founder V.G. Siddhartha took his own life as debt strains began to emerge in his companies. Deliberations are at preliminary stage and may not lead ...

The Print August 22, 2019 Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting France for his  third  state visit and fourth trip. Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to discuss a gamut of issues ranging from trade and economics to energy security, counter-terrorism, defence and security cooperation and collaboration in the Indo-Pacific. France seems to have replaced Russia as India’s trustworthy friend and partner in the Western world. France’s stock is currently high in Delhi after it  supported  India’s stand on Kashmir at the UNSC closed-door meeting called by China. The French have also previously backed the UNSC resolution on global terrorist  Masood Azhar  and pushed for  stronger FATF  sanctions on Pakistan. Filling in Russia’s vacuum During the Cold War, the erstwhile Soviet Union was India’s veto-providing friend in the UN Security Council. It was t...

The Print August 22, 2019 My Führer is upset again, and again the reason is Narendra Modi. On August 18, in his weekly Sunday outburst on Twitter, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan  informed  the world that “India has been captured, as Germany had been captured by Nazis, by a fascist, racist Hindu Supremacist ideology & leadership.” He  apprised  everyone of how the “Hindu Supremacist Modi govt poses a threat to Pakistan as well as to the minorities in India & in fact to the very fabric of Nehru & Gandhi’s India.” According to Imran Khan, all one has to do “to understand the link between the Nazi ideology & ethnic cleansing & genocide ideology of the RSS-BJP Founding Fathers” is “just Google” – something that the prime minister often fails to do himself. Imran Khan  shared  a Haaretz  article , ‘Hitler’s Hindus:...

The Print August 22, 2019 As former Union minister P. Chidambaram  faces arrest  for alleged corruption in the INX Media case, it is worth remembering that Chidambaram was the home minister when Amit Shah was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of  murder  in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. Today, Amit Shah is the home minister. Since 2014, the Narendra Modi government has been relentlessly pursuing corruption allegations against opposition leaders. Raids and summons intensify especially when an election is around the corner. But this is not a fight against corruption because if it was one, it wouldn’t spare BJP leaders accused of corruption. The selective nature of this ‘anti-corruption’ agenda makes it a witch-hunt. This witch-hunt stands in sharp contrast to the Modi government’s refusal to have the controversial  Rafale deal  investigated, or to the manner in which it dragged its feet over  appointing ...