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The Print  October 12, 2019 The recent merger of 10 state-run banks into four entities was “unnecessary”, given that the economy is in a downturn and these banks are grappling with high levels of bad debt, former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has said. Delivering the O.P. Jindal lecture at Watson Institute, Brown University, on 9 October, Rajan pointed out that mergers take a lot of time and are a ‘big headache’, adding that the mergers are probably the “right move”, but not at “the right time”. “Bank mergers are coming at a time when the banks are dealing with high levels of NPAs and at a time the economy is slowing… Banks are going to be engulfed in managing the mergers over the next few years instead of focusing on making better loans,” he added. The government announced the merger in August and said that it will help ease the credit flow to the economy. It proposed to merge Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India with Punjab Nation...

The Economic Times October 14, 2019 During President Xi Jinping’s weekend visit, China attempted to emerge as a net security provider of Nepal by assuring to protect its sovereignty. This is the first such occasion when China has publicly made an assurance to protect another nation’s sovereignty. Xi in Kathmandu said: “China will always support Nepal in safeguarding its national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” This can be viewed as an attempt by China to replace India as the net security provider of Nepal despite the Himalayan state not agreeing to sign the extradition and defence treaties during Xi’s visit. A ‘serious’ attempt by China to strengthen security partnership did not yield any result at this stage even as Xi made his intentions clear, according to persons familiar with the development. Most of the 18 agreements signed during the visit were either in the form of expression of interest or feasibility study, one of the persons said. Th...

The Indian Express October 16, 2019 The Nobel Prize in Economics for 2019 has been awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for “their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. The approach, popularly known as Randomised Control Trial (RCT), has been the buzzword among development economists for almost two decades. Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer have used this technique (inspired by the use of RCTs in medical science) to test the effect of small interventions on individual behaviour. Most of these interventions carried out under the aegis of Abdul Lateef Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), co-founded by Banerjee and Duflo, in Africa and Asia, have produced evidence on the response to a particular intervention by the poor using these randomised trials. The approach basically examines the impact of these micro interventions by treating one set of individuals/households and comparing the outcome with another set of individuals/households, which are s...

The Hindu  October 15,2019 U.S. President imposes new sanctions on the NATO ally. Targeting Turkey’s economy, President Donald Trump announced sanctions Monday aimed at restraining the Turks’ assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria an assault Turkey began after Trump announced he was moving U.S. troops out of the way. 'Stop invasion' The United States also called on Turkey to stop the invasion and declare a ceasefire, and Trump is sending Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser Robert O’Brien to Ankara as soon as possible in an attempt to begin negotiations. Pence said Trump spoke directly to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised not attack the border town of Kobani, which in 2015 witnessed the Islamic State group’s first defeat in a battle by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters. “President Trump communicated to him very clearly that the United States of American wants Turkey to stop the invasion, implement an immediate c...

The Telegraph October 16, 2019 The auction of 5G and other spectrum bands in the current financial year may generate some interest among operators now with telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday assuring a “reform” in its pricing. The industry, reeling under mounting debt, had expressed concern over the exorbitant pricing of radiowaves, including 5G, and Prasad’s statement could come as a big relief. “Spectrum auctions will be done this financial year... We are undertaking some reforms in spectrum pricing,” Prasad said at the India Mobile Congress 2019. The auction will be India’s first for 5G airwaves. Jio board member Mahendra Nahata, who was present at the event, asked the government to critically look at 5G spectrum pricing. “Prices for 5G spectrum need to be critically looked at. Higher floor prices will lead to 5G networks being unviable and, therefore, getting delayed. An equilibrium needs to be established between government revenue and overa...

The Wire October 15, 2019 Pakistan has had more IMF programmes than all other South Asian countries combined, and none of the earlier twenty-one programmes appear to have left a lasting impact on its profligate bureaucracy and political leadership. The country’s budget deficit has remained stretched and there was no reform in increasing the tax base.  The latest bailout package is worth $6 billion, of which immediate disbursal, upwards of $1 billion, has been completed, while the remaining is due in the next three years. The IMF’s fiscal programmes have shown remarkable effects on the economies of some countries. Yet in the case of Pakistan, there have mostly been negative effects. One of the main reasons for this is the non-compliance to the conditions agreed to at the time of obtaining the loan. Critical institutional and governance constraints also deter sustained growth. Pakistan’s macro-economy Islamabad’s debt and liabilities have peaked to a record 40.2...

The Times of India October 14, 2019 A new category of wheat, first developed in Mexico, may hold the answer to several health isues with Indian kids. Fortified with zinc and iron it has already been tested in some parts of India, with encouraging results. India has made impressive gains in overcoming hunger, but the fight against "hidden hunger" remains a huge challenge. Nearly three out of five children below age 5 and more than half (54%) of all pregnant women in the country are anaemic. close to two out of five kids in the same age group are stunted and more than one in every five is waste, which means they are too thin for their height. Reference:  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/how-humble-wheat-can-help-in-fight-against-hidden-hunger/articleshow/71150646.cms?from=mdr

The Ken October 15, 2019 After pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into building India’s preventable disease vaccine market, the $48 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) wants to step back. But if the Modi government doesn’t pick up where BMGF left off, the house the Foundation painstakingly built could come crashing down. Despite lots of opposition, the world’s largest charity—Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)—gave the Global Goalkeeper Award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The award was part of a charm offensive as the Foundation realises its success in the region is contingent on the Indian government’s support. Having built a vaccine market—helping to fund both vaccine makers and also footing part of the government’s tab—BMGF now wants to step back. But it needs a buyer for all the vaccines it has brought into the Indian market. Can it convince the Indian government to foot the bill for its 25.7 million-strong birth cohort? ...

The Economic Times October 15, 2019 With the unemployment rate at a 50-year low, the hope is that the U.S. consumer will more than offset an otherwise faltering economy. Don’t bet on it. Clearly, the broad economy is not only weak, but weakening. The yield curve has inverted, with 10-year Treasury note yields falling below two-year yields. Every time that’s happened in the post-war era, a recession has followed if it hadn’t already commenced. No exceptions. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reports that the lower real interest rates are at the time of inversion, the longer the recession and the higher the unemployment rate climbs. The real 10-year yield is minus 0.13%, even lower than the 2.2% that preceded the 2007-2009 Great Recession. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell further below the critical 50 level in September to 47.8, indicating contraction. Manufacturing employment constitutes just 8.5% of gross domestic product, but add in transportat...

The Hindustan Times October 14, 2019 Rezaul H Laskar Pakistan has handed over to India its final draft agreement for the Kartarpur Corridor though differences remain between the two sides on some issues, including a service fee of $20 for Indian pilgrims, people familiar with developments said on Monday. The draft agreement was handed over to the Indian high commission in Islamabad last Friday, and New Delhi’s response to it couldn’t immediately be ascertained. The people cited above said Pakistan had retained the service fee of $20 per pilgrim, saying the amount is needed to meet operational costs for the corridor that will link Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Punjab state to Darbar Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan’s Kartarpur. India has called for the fee to be waived. Pakistan accepted India’s request that the corridor shouldn’t be limited only to Sikh pilgrims and the draft agreement states it will be open to people of other faiths, the people said. The Pakistani s...

The Observer Research Foundation October 14, 2019 Kartik Bommakanti As was the case with Wuhan Summit in April 2018, the Mamallapuram Summit was no different – a tactical summit with both sides agreeing to avoid rubbing each other the wrong way. Like Wuhan produced a joint statement. Mamallapuram, like the Wuhan summit held more than year ago the latest was at best a palliative. The underlying structural problems afflicting the Sino-Indian relations. These include, an unresolved boundary dispute, Chinese penetration into Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Maldives, India’s burgeoning trade deficit with China and finally Beijing’s relationship with its “all weather” friend Pakistan remains as steadfast as it was, when the Wuhan Summit occurred. Further, on the issue of 5G spectrum allocation, New Delhi is already under intensive American pressure to reject Chinese involvement and offers, despite its lucrativeness. These structural problems are unlikely to disappear any tim...

Live Mint December 26, 2016 Roshan Kishore ,  Pramit Bhattacharya India’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes is a dramatic example of a policy announcement made without any serious thought given to implementation, said Esther Duflo, one of the leading development economists of the world and a professor at the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. Duflo, whose research has focused extensively on India, said the real impact of the currency-scrapping gambit may never be known because India’s statistical machinery does not capture data on the informal economy on a regular basis. Born in France, Duflo studied history and economics at the Paris-based Ecole Normale Supérieure before moving to MIT, where she finished her doctorate in 1999. A few years after finishing her doctorate, Duflo became one of the leading architects of a new kind of experimental economics, which relied on randomized control trials (RCTs) t...