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Business Line PTI Oct 06, 2019 Foreign portfolio investors have offloaded equities worth around ₹3,000 crore in just three trading sessions of October amid fears of global recession and trade war. This follows a net investment of around ₹7,850 crore by foreign portfolio investors (FPI) into equities in September. Market experts, however, believe that FPI inflows are expected to pick up after the rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and several decisions taken by the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The central bank on Friday cut benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.15 per cent. The interest rates cut is for a record fifth straight time to almost a decade low. According to the depositories data, overseas investors pulled out ₹2,947 crore from equities and ₹977 crore from debt segment on a net basis. This resulted in a total net outflow of ₹3,924 crore from the Indian capital markets during October 1-4. Marke...

The Hindu Special Correspondence October 06, 2019 Jammu and Kashmir police arrested third member of a newly formed Jaish-e-Mohammad module that was raised to carry out terrorist activities in Baramulla district of North Kashmir. The alleged terrorist identified as Mohsin Manzoor Salhea is a resident of old town Baramulla. One of the members of the group was killed in an encounter with security forces in August, days after the Centre’s move on Article 370. In the encounter, a special police officer was killed and a sub-inspector was injured. The second member of the group, Iqbal Naikoo was arrested on August 27. With the arrest of the Jaish terrorists, police said, a terror plot to target security forces and other civilians has been “smashed”. Reference:  https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jk-police-arrest-jaish-operative/article29611897.ece

Business Line KS Badri Narayanan October 07, 2019 Compensation formula should be worked out to assess the loss incurred by a trader due to a glitch Of late, trading glitches, especially on the NSE, have been hurting traders and investors big time. September 23 (Monday) was a crucial day for traders and investors, as the market witnessed record buying activity after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (on Friday) announced major measures to prop up the economy. However, on that day, brokers were hit by a trading glitch as stock prices and index levels were not updating on the terminals linked to the NSE. Some brokers could not see the updated NSE feeds or prices on their screens due to a ‘technical glitch’ with one of the service providers. ICICI Direct, in fact, tweeted to its customers saying ‘price feeds not coming from NSE due to technical issue at NSE end. Limit orders not going across all products. Please place limit price’. According to an NSE spokesperson, t...

Financial Express Samarat Sharma Oct 05,2019 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced a cut in corporate tax, but even these big announcements could not regain confidence among manufacturers and industrialists in India.  A slump in order inflows, output and employment conditions in the second quarter led to a steep fall in the business sentiment. The business sentiment and expectations are at the lowest level in at least the last five years. The Business Assessment Index fell sharply from 108.4 in Q1 FY20 to 92.5 in Q2 FY20, according to the  RBI  report. Cost pressures from interest payments on borrowings, purchase of raw materials and salary expenses were assessed to have softened, but manufacturers seemed pessimistic about profit margins in view of slack demand and negative sentiments on selling prices.    The survey was conducted for qualitative assessments of the business climate by 481 companies in India’s manufacturing sec...

Indian Express Express News service October 06, 2019 The Pune office of the Central GST commissionerate has unearthed an alleged ‘Rs 700 crore racket’ that provided fraudulent GST invoices to companies to claim input credit. Advertising A press release issued by the headquarters, preventive wing Pune II of the commissionerate, stated that two people have been arrested in this connection. Companies avail input tax credit for goods purchased or services rendered by them. However, according to the commissionerate, the racket in question involved issuance of fake invoices that helped companies claim such credit without doing either of the two. The press release named two Pune-based companies in this connection. These firms, the press release alleged, had obtained GST registrations and issued invoices worth Rs 700 crore, of which the GST component alone came to about Rs 54 crore. Bogus Eway bills and LRs, the press release stated, were issued to sustain the claims....

The Telegraph TT Bureau October 06, 2019 The confidence of manufacturing companies about the immediate future has sunk to its lowest level in the past five years — marking a significant draining of optimism at a time the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee has slashed the growth forecast for this fiscal to 6.1 per cent from 6.9 per cent. Respondents to an industrial outlook survey carried out by the RBI have expressed deepening worries about rising cost pressures emanating from interest payments on borrowings, slump in order inflows and access to finance because of which they have become pessimistic about profit margins and have developed negative sentiments about selling prices. The survey computes two indices — one based on assessment about the existing situation and is named the Business Assessment Index, and the other based on expectations to compute the Business Expectations Index. Each indicator for the respective period is calculated as a weighted ...

T HE HINDU Special Correspondence October 06, 2019 The Home Ministry does not have information on any orders passed to block telecommunications and Internet, suspend radio and satellite television services, evacuate tourists and detain political leaders and activists in Jammu and Kashmir in August. The Ministry says it has no information on the names and locations of the detainees, and directed any queries to the State administration. In response to a recent Right to Information request to share copies of such orders, directions or advisories, two Central public information officers of the Ministry’s J&K division said the information was not available with them. The Ministry said, “The information might be available with the State government of J&K.” However, the RTI application could not be forwarded to the J&K government as the RTI Act, 2005 is not applicable in the State, said the response. According to it, a separate application could be filed ...

FirstPost K.M.Singh October 06, 2019 The provocative speech of Imran Khan at the UN General Assembly closely on the heels of abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir seems to have acted like a fuel to the fire for locals. Khan's speech has emboldened the separatist elements in Kashmir and restoring normalcy in Kashmir remains a major challenge for the administration and would need a deft handling. Two major concerns in the psyche of a sizeable section of people in Kashmir are: firstly, downgrading the status of a major state in India to a Union Territory and secondly, apprehension related to the protection of their land. Downsizing the status of Jammu and Kashmir to Union Territory came as a rude shock to Kashmiris. Union Home Minister Amit Shah,  in his statement in the Parliament in August , had assured restoration of its status as a state in course of time. A reiteration of this assurance at an appropriate level from the Union government would assua...

The Telegraph Paran Balakrishnan October 06, 2019 India’s economy is going to be stuck in the ICU for what could be a long time. The extent of the slowdown engulfing the economy can be gauged by the Reserve Bank of India slashing on Friday its year growth forecast by nearly a full percentage point to 6.1 per cent from 6.9 per cent predicted just two months ago. (To get a sense of how quickly the economy’s tanking, bear in mind the bank’s initial growth forecast in April was 7.2 per cent). The RBI’s also pared its benchmark lending rate for the fifth time this year, cutting it by a quarter point to 5.15 per cent. And the bank didn’t mince words about why it was cutting the rate, describing the economy’s near-term outlook as “fraught with risks”. After the early investor and business euphoria which followed the string of recovery packages in the wake of July’s lacklustre budget, the optimism’s faded and reality’s sunk in. The government’s efforts to revive the economy won...

SWARAJYA  Swarajya Staff October 06, 2019 In the first lot of big-ticket disinvestment, the government is aiming to stake sales of PSUs, including BPCL, SCI and Concor, among others, which have recently been cleared by the Amit Shah-led panel, at the earliest and they could be placed for cabinet approval by November-end. The ministerial panel headed by Home Minister Amit Shah held its first meeting last month. Officials said on Thursday (3 October) that the cabinet approved changes in the sell-off process where DIPAM (Department of Investment & Public Asset Management) becomes the nodal department for all decisions on strategic disinvestment while the other tweak in the process will be pre-bid stakeholder consultation before the government issues EOIs to get the prospective bidders' concerns, doubts and suggestions on board before floating the Expression of Interest (EOI). Roadshows will also be arranged by the DIPAM and the concerned PSU jointly to attract more...

Indian Express Mohamed Thaver October 07, 2019 Waryam Singh, the fourth person to be arrested from Mahim on Saturday evening in the Rs 4,355-crore scam at the bank, was remanded in police custody till October 9.  WARYAM SINGH, the former chairman of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) bank “was a bridge between the bank officials and business tycoons” who carried out the scam, the Mumbai Police told the court while seeking custody of Singh. Singh, the fourth person to be arrested from Mahim on Saturday evening in the Rs 4,355-crore scam at the bank, was remanded in police custody till October 9. While the police claimed he was the link between the accused, his lawyers argued that he was not aware about the day to day activities at the bank. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police, which is investigating the case, mentioned in its remand that Singh was also on the Board of Directors of HDIL in the past. “Hence, he is the connecting link who broug...

I ndian express Partha Sararhi Biswas October 07, 2019 At Lasalagon’s wholesale market, average price of onion, which had peaked at Rs 4,700 per quintal, has come down by around Rs 2,000 per quintal. A dip in kharif acreage of onion may result in another spell of price rise in the days to come. Agriculture department officials said that late onset of monsoon has resulted in reduced sowing, which would be difficult to bridge over given the hawkish attitude of the government towards higher onion prices. By the end of August, Maharashtra had reported sowing over 41,005.95 hectares for kharif onions, which is way below the target area of 70,000 hectares. Last year, farmers in Maharashtra had reported sowing over 97,221 hectares. Similarly, late kharif sowing this year till date is around 15,039 hectares. Depending on the time of transplantation and harvest, onion growers in the state classify their crop as kharif (May- July transplant and harvesting in October- November), late...

Indian Express Georage Mathew October 07, 2019 Overall financial flows to the commercial sector have declined sharply, by around 88 percent, during the first six months of the current financial year amid the slowdown in the economy. According to the latest RBI data, the flow of funds from banks and non-banks to the commercial sector has been Rs 90,995 crore in 2019-20 so far (April to mid-September) as against Rs 7,36,087 crore in the same period last year. The commercial sector does not include farming, manufacturing and transportation. With the financial sector going through a turbulent phase, there was a reverse flow of Rs 1,25,600 crore from the commercial sector to non-deposit-taking NBFCs and deposit-taking NBFCs as against a flow of Rs 41,200 crore in the same period last year. Non-food credit flow from banks to the commercial sector also declined, from Rs 1,65,187 rore to a reverse flow of Rs 93,688 crore to the banks. Net issuance of commercial pa...