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DECCAN CHRONICLE SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said he was 'disappointed' with the lack of response from the international community over the Kashmir issue. Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Khan said: "(I am) Disappointed by the international community. If eight million Europeans or Jews or even eight Americans were put under siege, would the reaction have been the same? There's no pressure yet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift the siege. We'll keep putting the pressure... What are 900,000 troops doing there? Once the curfew is lifted, god knows what is going to happen after that…' Khan also acknowledged India's economic stature and global prominence while responding to why Pakistan's narrative on Kashmir is being overlooked. "The reason is India, people look upon India as a market of 1.2 billion people... Some are appalled by it but by the end of it,

INDIAN EXPRESS SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 SUNNY VERMA The reduction in corporate tax rates is set to cost Rs 1.45 lakh crore annually. The government has maintained that it would keep its fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP by March 2020. In a bid to compensate for revenue loss due to last week’s corporate tax rate cuts, the Centre is working on a three-pronged strategy: fast-track monetisation of idle state-owned land, strategic stake sale in key companies, and sale of residual stake in other state-run firms, sources told The Indian Express. The reduction in corporate tax rates is set to cost Rs 1.45 lakh crore annually. The government has maintained that it would keep its fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP by March 2020. The companies identified for strategic stake sale include BPCL, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) and Air India. A complete sale of government holding in BPCL and CONCOR alone can fetch the government Rs 73,745 crore at Wednesd

BUSINESSLINE SEPTERMBER 25, 2019 CP CHANDRASEKHAR, JAYATI GHOSH A spike in residents’ outward remittances, along with a change in their composition, suggests that India is now prone to ‘capital flight’ when economic conditions turn adverse Those who follow trends in India’s balance of payments trends have noted an unusual development. Outward remittances under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) for resident Indians have recently spiked, from just above $1 billion in 2014-15 to nearly $14 billion in 2018-19 (Chart 1). This spike is unusual even when compared to pre-2015-16 trends in the outflow under the LRS. Introduced in February 2004, for a long time the scheme did not open the gates for outflows of foreign exchange from India. As Chart 1 shows, having risen gradually to a little over $1 billion in 2010-11, the outflows under this scheme remained around that level for the next five years. When the LRS was first introduced, resident individuals were allowed to f

BUSINESSLINE SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL) will shortly launch its e-commerce platform. The move is expected to be as disruptive as the launch of its Jio mobile services. RIL's e-commerce platform will attempt to create links between the online market and its offline stores. The company is not new to retail, having opened its first Reliance Fresh store in Hyderabad in 2006. However this marks a new chapter for RIL, which is seeking to ride on India's digital revolution. We take a look at the big factors behind Reliance's advent in the e-commerce space Reference: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/interactive-why-mukesh-ambani-is-excited-about-e-commerce/article29509024.ece

BALOCH NATIONAL MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 "In Balochistan, where Baloch genocide has been going on for years, a shameful tradition of abducting women and raping them in secret cells has also become common, "the central spokesperson for the Baloch National Movement said in a statement issued here. "Deprived of human values, the Pakistani troops abduct and disappear women and children during the military operations in Balochistan. In many cases, they are also subjected to sexual abuse." The spokesperson said that a Baloch student, Hani Gul Baloch, exposed the brutality and black deeds of the Pakistani brutal army in her press conference a few days ago. The incident had shocked the Baloch nation and the courage of Hani Gul strengthened thousands of victims who had been silent. Hani Gul Baloch along with her fiancé Mohammad Naseem was forcibly disappeared from Karachi by Pakistani intelligence agencies. Hani Gul was released after three months of ment

INDIAN EXPRESS SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 A state-of-the-art terminal designed to eventually handle more than 100 million passengers a year is symbolic for President Xi Jinping, who faces a raft of challenges, including a trade war with the US, a slowing economy and mass protests in Hong Kong. Just five years ago, Daxing was a dusty area of farmland to the south of Beijing, largely neglected by visitors to the city. That’s no longer the case, now that an enormous airport has emerged there to thrust China even closer to toppling the US as the world’s biggest aviation market. Beijing Daxing International Airport, an 80 billion yuan ($11.2 billion) starfish-shaped structure hailed by state media as a “new gateway” to the country, opens just in time for the People’s Republic of China’s 70th birthday. A state-of-the-art terminal designed to eventually handle more than 100 million passengers a year is symbolic for President Xi Jinping, who faces a raft of challenges, including a tr

BUSINESSLINE SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 MCX has handled delivery of 398,600 bales (of 170 kgs each) of cotton valued at ₹853 crore in the cotton crop season ended August. Last year, it handled 182,300 bales of cotton delivery. During this season, cotton deposits at 42 MCX-accredited warehouses hit an all-time high of 2.14 lakh bales compared with 1.81 lakh bales last year, an increase of 18 per cent. The increase in overall participation from the cotton value chain has led to higher delivery and deposits of cotton at exchange-accredited warehouses. As the futures contracts for crop year 2018-19 have concluded, all cotton stocks at designated warehouses in Rajkot, Kadi and Mundra in Gujarat; Jalna and Yavatmal in Maharashtra and Adilabad and Warangal in Telangana were delivered to the buyers. PS Reddy, Managing Director, MCX, said efficient price discovery coupled with a robust delivery and settlement mechanism made it widely acceptable. Reference: https://www.thehindubu

BUSINESS LINE  SEPTEMBER  26, 2019 SEBI has made changes to the valuation matrix of money market and debt securities. Valuation of debt market securities has often been a tedious task, as a large number of debt instruments are not traded actively. Now, SEBI has decided to define what are traded and non-traded securities and how their valuation should be decided. In a circular to bring in consistency in valuation, SEBI said a money market or debt security shall be considered as traded when, on the date of valuation, there are trades (in marketable lots) in that security on any recognized stock exchange or there are trades reported (in marketable lots) on the trade reporting platform of recognized stock exchanges or the clearing corporation. In this regard, the marketable lots shall be defined by AMFI, the mutual fund body, in consultation with SEBI. A money market or debt security shall be considered as non-traded when, on the date of valuation, there are no trades in such

BUSINESS LINE  SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 Incoming European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the global economy is likely to dodge an outright contraction, though trade tensions remain the top threat to the growth outlook. “It is not in the baseline to have a recession,” Lagarde said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday. “That said, its mediocre growth, its at risk because of essentially one major threat, which is the trade war that we see developing or brewing and the uncertainty it generates for investors.” The comments from the former International Monetary Fund leader come as she prepares to take the helm of the ECB at a precarious time for Europe and the global economy alike, as well as growing divisions inside the central bank. The IMF has made a series of cuts to its global growth estimate for this year, reducing it to 3.2 per cent in July, which would be the weakest pace since the financial crisis. The fund will release updated economic proj

BUSINESS LINE  SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 Did Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) take loans from Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, which has now been placed under regulatory restrictions, in a bid to enter into one-time settlement (OTS) with Bank of India (BoI) and stave off the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP)? As per a letter written by BoI to HDIL promoter Sarang Wadhawan in late August 2019, the former acknowledged receipt of two PMC Bank pay-orders totalling ₹96.50 crore towards OTS of the bank’s investments in HDIL’s non-convertible debentures (NCDs). Though BoI has encashed the pay-orders issued by HDIL, it is yet to take a call on the OTS offer, a senior executive said. As per HDIL’s latest annual report, it has taken loans payable on demand from PMC Bank. The loans are secured by pledge of fixed deposit receipts with the bank. The report did not specify the quantum of loan taken by the real estate developer from PMC Bank.

BUSINESS LINE SEPTEMBER 25, 22019 Saudi Arabia has restored its oil production capacity to 11.3 million barrels per day, three sources briefed on Saudi Aramco's operations told Reuters, maintaining a faster than expected recovery after the September 14 attacks on its oil facilities. Crude output from the Khurais field is now at 1.3 million bpd and the Abqaiq plant is currently at about 4.9 million bpd, the sources said. On Monday, sources had said Abqaiq production was about 3 million bpd. The September 14 attacks on the two plants caused a spike in oil prices, fires and damage that halved the crude output of the world's top oil exporter, by shutting down 5.7 million bpd of production. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and the chief executive of state oil company Aramco, Amin Nasser, have said output will be fully back online by the end of September. The attacks initially sent oil prices up 20 per cent although they dropped soon after as the