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The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By Avantika Ghosh Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday released the strategy document, which stated, “In the past few years, the government of India has placed health high on its political agenda and made a commitment to make significant increases in public spending in health." The World Health Organisation’s Country Cooperation Strategy for India for 2019-23 has heaped praise on the government for its “commitment” and for setting goals that recognise and act upon India’s changing health landscape where non-communicable diseases have replaced communicable diseases. Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday released the strategy document, which stated, “In the past few years, the government of India has placed health high on its political agenda and made a commitment to make significant increases in public spending in health. The National Health Policy 2017 calls for more than doubling in government health spending ...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By Pranav Mukul As TRAI examines the possibility of lawful interception of messages on WhatsApp and similar platforms, a look at the debate around such interception, the technical difficulties, and practices around the world On Tuesday, The Indian Express reported that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is studying the possibility of bringing platforms such as WhatsApp under the ambit of “lawful interception”. Lawful interception of online communications platforms such as WhatsApp, Skype, Signal or Telegram has been a long-running debate that has ranged governments and regulators across the world against technology companies and privacy activists. The authorities want such platforms to provide access to messages, calls, and their logs to law-enforcement agencies to aid them with investigations. India, too, has made demands for traceability of communications from instant messaging platforms. Why is TRAI looking at law...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By: ENS Bureau The bank also slashed its retail term deposit and bulk term deposit interest rates by 10 bps and 30 bps, respectively, for ‘1 year to less than 2 years’ tenor, with effect from October 10, 2019. Close on the heels of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) fifth cut in the repo rate last week, State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday slashed the interest rate on savings bank deposits (with balances up to Rs 1 lakh) by 25 basis points (bps), from 3.50 per cent to 3.25 per cent, with effect from November 1, 2019. The bank also slashed its retail term deposit and bulk term deposit interest rates by 10 bps and 30 bps, respectively, for ‘1 year to less than 2 years’ tenor, with effect from October 10, 2019. It has also reduced the MCLR (marginal cost of funds based lending rate) by 10 basis points, making home and personal loans cheaper for customers. This has been done “in view of the adequate liquidity in the system”, the ba...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By George Mathew, Anil Sasi  The PMC scam went undetected for around 11 years despite the RBI requiring all regulated entities — including cooperative banks — to submit details of transactions and accounts to it since February 2016. The last time Reserve Bank of India was forced to issue a statement on the robustness of India’s banking system was back in October 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis. So, on October 4, after the implosion at the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, when the RBI reiterated that the banking system was “safe and sound”, quite a few eyebrows were raised. Not just because this was seen as an over-reaction, disproportionate to the rumblings at a mid-sized, Maharashtra-based cooperative bank with a deposit base of just Rs 11,000 crore, but also because the RBI itself has a few questions to answer. For, the PMC scam went undetected for around 11 years despite the RBI requiring all regula...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By Subhajit Roy While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not brief Xi Jinping on Kashmir, sources said in case the Chinese President wants to understand the issue, the PM will provide an “outline”. Hours after New Delhi and Beijing officially announced Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India for the second informal summit in Mahabalipuram on October 11 and 12, India took strong exception to a reference to Kashmir in a meeting between Xi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. India said it is “not for other countries to comment” on its internal affairs. While government sources said Delhi will not raise Jammu and Kashmir unless Xi brings it up, the Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said: “India’s position has been consistent and clear that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India. China is well aware of our position. It is not for other countries to comment on the internal affairs of ...

Business Standard October 09, 2019 By Ajai Shukla Balakot hero Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was the star attraction as he flew past in a MiG-21 Bison fighter As the Indian Air Force (IAF) celebrated its 87th anniversary on Tuesday, a clear theme was the operations of February 26, when Indian fighter aircraft attacked the Balakot terrorist training camp in Pakistan and skirmished with counter-attacking Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighters the next morning. Drawing thunderous applause from spectators at Hindan Air Base outside Delhi was the “avenger formation” in the fly-past, a three-aircraft formation led by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in his MiG-21 Bison fighter, flanked by two Mirage 2000 fighters flown by pilots who had bombed Balakot. Varthaman was shot down and captured by the Pakistani military in that skirmish, but only after shooting down a PAF F-16 fighter, as claimed by the IAF. Meanwhile in Merignac, France, aerospace firm Dassault delivered...

The Hindu October 10, 2019 By T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan India to join RCEP e-commerce talks. India’s data localisation plans hang in the balance as it will join the other Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries on Thursday in discussing the e-commerce chapter of the RCEP agreement. The RCEP meeting will take place in Bangkok from October 10-13. If India agrees to the provisions of Chapter 10 on e-commerce, as specified by most of the other countries, it will mean it won’t be allowed to impose data localisation rules on companies looking to do business in India. This would go against the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) norms on localisation of payments data that it had ordered in April 2018. “No Party shall require a covered person to use or locate computing facilities in that Party’s territory as a condition for conducting business in that territory,” reads the wording in the draft chapter — as suggested by Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Kore...

First Post October 09, 2019 By Yatish Yadav  The Central Government is planning to create a National Coordination Centre (NCC) which will function as a databank on Maoists' core strongholds and cadres, and as a synergy point for intelligence gathering and anti-Maoist operations The NCC will also utilise the experience and knowledge of retired police officers who have served in anti-Maoist operations in areas of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh The joint platform will also help security forces to counter the Maoist strategy of using one state for action and another for escaping and seeking shelter Since the situation has significantly improved this year with effective tackling of Left Wing Extremism (LWE), the government is planning to create a National Coordination Centre (NCC) which will function as a databank on Maoists' core strongholds and cadres, and act as a synergy point for intelligence gathering and anti-Maoist operations. The NCC will ...

Dristikone October 09, 2019 Pakistan is in the midst of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action on its blacklisting.  And despite its best attempt spinning the whole situation, better than the legendary Abdul Qadir could do with the ball, things are looking ugly. And, to think of it, in the last five years, five law enforcement agencies investigated 2,420 cases related to money laundering.  Guess how many were indicted?  Only one accused under investigation of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was convicted.  That was Nawaz Sharif. That’s not fighting against terror.  That is the fight against your political opponent!  Imran Khan and the Pakistani establishment think that they can put anyone behind the bars and call it a victory on terror and money laundering, even when it was their own political opponent! This is the level of seriousness when Pakistan is on the brink of complete economic disaster – Terror-Hub Pakistan’s Economi...

Business Wire September 17, 2019 Emerging markets are powering growth in digital payments as the industry reacts to evolving regulatory and customer demands. As global non-cash transactions boom and competition flourishes, many banks remain reluctant to embrace Open Banking via data sharing, ecosystem partnerships and open platforms, with multiple incumbents still being cautious of change. Instead, they perceive Open Banking as a potential challenge when it is a necessity for improved customer experience and retention in the long-run. That’s according to Capgemini’s World Payments Report 2019, which tracks and analyzes non-cash transaction volume, regulatory and industry initiatives, and digital transformation across the global payments market. “The global payments landscape is undergoing significant evolution, but not all participants are comfortable with the pace and direction of change” The report finds that the transaction volume of non-cash payments is growing ...

CNBCTV18 October 09, 2019 By ASHUTOSH DATAR Overall currency in circulation continues to increase well above the nominal GDP growth even though we are almost three years into demonetisation. Within the larger ticket retail payments, it is not the digital payments that have accelerated. one of the (after-thought) goals of demonetisation was to reduce the cash intensity of the economy by encouraging people to shift to non-cash modes of payments. Supporting ‘digitisation’ of payments as it is otherwise known. And almost three years into this journey, some contradictory and perplexing trends have emerged. In this piece, I take stock of some of them. Overall currency in circulation (CIC) continues to increase well above the nominal GDP growth even though we are almost three years into demonetisation. In the June quarter, CIC grew at almost 13 percent YoY, well above the nominal GDP growth of 8 percent during that quarter. And in the September quarter too, CIC has grown a...

Business Line October 09, 2019 By Vinson Kurian   The Weather Company to launch later this year the GRAF model capable of predicting a thunderstorm virtually anywhere on the planet every hour. The Weather Company, an IBM Business, sets great by store by Artificial Intelligence (AI) which can be a game-changer in tracking/forecasting weather events in the context of climate change/global warming. "After all, the physics of the atmosphere doesn’t change. It's being governed by the same factors today and tomorrow," explains Kevin Petty, Director, Science and Forecast Operations at The Weather Company, Capturing weather events What we need to recognise here is that weather in different parts of the world will change from what it has been and that could mean more severe thunderstorms or precipitation events than in the past. "I guess we have generally done well in the past, but we need to do is to do a better job of capturing such events so t...

Business Line October 09, 2019 The RBI needs to shift focus from rate transmission to confidence-boosting measures on industrial debt, that can revive bankers’ risk appetite In recent months, there’s been active disagreement between India’s central bank and businesses on the issue of whether there’s a liquidity crisis. While the RBI has been insisting that systemic liquidity is ample after its LAF (Liquidity Adjustment Facility) and open market operations, businesses continue to crib about a liquidity drought. Data presented in the latest Monetary Policy Report explain this puzzle. They show that while liquidity conditions in India’s money market eased substantially in H1 of FY20, this made little difference to the commercial sector owing to a sharp shrinkage in credit flow. Credit flow to the commercial sector shrank on two counts. One, despite sitting on ample liquidity from the RBI, Indian banks withdrew from commercial lending activities in this period. Non-food ban...

Business Line October 10, 2019 By Lokeshwarri SK  The alarming growth in offshore rupee trading means the RBI will have less control over the currency. This must be arrested The alternative venues for foreign exchange trading that once lurked in the shadows are now beginning to take centre-stage and policymakers are now beginning to realise that this threat needs to be urgently tackled. Offshore trading in few currencies has burgeoned to such an extent that it is higher than the onshore trading volume. In a bid to contain the damage done by the offshore market for rupee, the RBI recently made two policy changes based on the recommendations of a task force headed by Usha Thorat. One, it has now allowed domestic banks to freely share foreign exchange rates with non-residents and, two, trading in rupee derivatives has now been allowed on International Financial Services Centres. It is, however, doubtful if the RBI’s measures will have any immediate impact. The cr...