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Firstpost, November 4, 2019 India will not join Asian trade deal RCEP: Narendra Modi says agreement doesn't reflect original intent, can't compromise on core interests India has decided not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement as its key concerns have not been addressed. Sources told ANI said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood firm as India's key concerns were not addressed. Sources said there will no compromise on the country's core interests and RCEP agreement does not reflect its original intent and the outcome is not fair or balanced. "India’s stand is a mixture of pragmatism, the urge to safeguard interests of poor and effort to give an advantage to India’s service sector," they said. RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of ASEAN and six FTA partners. In his speech at the RCEP Summit in Thailand, Modi said "India stands for greater regional integrati

Dawn, November 4, 2019 Amending NAB law The government has promulgated an ordinance through which it has amended the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 so that any person arrested for an offence involving an amount above Rs50m shall be entitled to ‘C’ class or equivalent in prison. This selective amendment in the NAB law, while many controversial elements remain in place, has rightfully elicited concerns that the government is only interested in amendments that affect its political opponents. This is unfortunate because the NAB law in its present shape is a holdover from the Musharraf years and its genesis is rooted in that regime’s intent to persecute and punish politicians on the other side of the divide. Framed with such a purpose in mind, the ordinance was packed with sweeping powers that often bypassed the established due process of law within the ambit of the courts. It is a telling failure of political will and vision that successive governments have refused to ame

Dawn, November 4, 2019 State of economy The last fiscal year was one of the toughest for Pakistan, and the challenges are far from over. This is the gist of the annual report just released by the State Bank of Pakistan regarding FY2019. Coming almost four months after the fiscal year concluded, the report remains timely for the important lessons it has for the present, particularly the insights it shares on why the investment scenario remains so dismal. Last year’s record high fiscal deficit of 8.9pc of GDP was the result of unrealistic targets set by an outgoing government, according to the bank. A poor revenue mobilisation effort combined with weak expenditure control contributed as well. The unrealistic targets can be attributed to politics, since an outgoing government was hardly incentivised to leave behind a robust revenue plan, although the drafters of that budget will argue that the innovative thinking around which the numbers were built never found acceptance

Mint, November 4, 2019 Aramco IPO could be world’s biggest. List of some of other biggest IPOs RIYADH : Saudi Aramco on Sunday confirmed it planned to list on the Riyadh stock exchange, describing it as a "milestone" in the history of the energy behemoth. Depending on the size of the sale and Aramco's valuation, it could be the world's largest initial public offering (IPO). Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba still holds the record with a USD 25 billion IPO in New York in 2014. Alibaba is also aiming to raise another USD 20 billion if it goes ahead with plans to list on the Hong Kong stock market. Here is a list of some of the other biggest IPOs to date:- Multinational conglomerate SoftBank raised USD 23.5 billion via the IPO of its mobile unit in 2018, in Japan's largest stock offering. - AgBank (USD 22.1 billion). Agricultural Bank of China made its market debut in 2010 in Hong Kong and Shanghai. - ICBC (USD 21.9 billion). Industrial

Business Standard, November 3, 2019 CAIT to launch a nation-wide movement against Amazon and Flipkart Traders' body CAIT on Sunday said it will launch a nation-wide movement to protest against e-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart, alleging that they are flouting FDI policy norms and destroying the country's retail business. In a statement, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said, "Both Amazon and Flipkart still continue to sell goods on their portal at predatory pricing, deep discounting, controlling inventory, promoting preferential sellers and influencing prices." Union Minister Piyush Goyal had last month said the government was looking into alleged predatory pricing by Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon. CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal criticised the attitude of Amazon and Flipkart and said the traders' body is all set to launch a national movement on this issue soon. The traders' body has also convened a me

The Quint, November 3, 2019 Modi-Merkel Meet: German Chancellor Prioritised Profit Over People October 31 was an eventful Halloween in India. German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in New Delhi with an entourage of 12 of Germany’s 16 cabinet ministers. On the same day a fact finding report was released on Kashmir: just a day after the touring MEPs expressed support for Modi’s scrapping of Article 370 — which granted Kashmir semi-autonomous status — calling it India’s “internal matter.” The majority of the two dozen visiting MEPs had hailed from extreme right-wing political parties, including Germany’s neo-Nazi Alternative für Deutschland — a party which will likely soon be headed by Björn Höcke, who has criticized Germany’s Holocaust commemoration policies and declared as his platform: “We want Germany to remain German.” Facts that EU Delegation May Have Ignored This other, not much publicised fact-finding team — one composed not of politicians from Europe but

Business Line, November 3, 2019 ASEAN backs India’s rising role in Indo-Pacific region The endorsement of India’s role assumes significance as it came in the midst of geo-political power play in the Indo-Pacific region and escalating territorial disputes between between China and a number of ASEAN countries. In a significant indication of India’s rising profile, the 10-nation ASEAN on Sunday clearly appreciated New Delhi’s growing role in the Indo-Pacific region as the two sides, with a combined GDP of USD 5 trillion, vowed to further broadbase strategic ties and deal with major challenges like of terrorism collectively. In his address at the annual India-ASEAN summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about the mutual coordination between India’s vision of the Indo-Pacific and ASEAN Outlook for the strategically key region which has been witnessing growing Chinese assertiveness. Modi also talked about cross border terrorism, spread of violent extremism and

Money Control, November 3, 2019 Led by India, South Asia moving towards becoming center of global growth: IMF Led by India, South Asia is moving towards becoming center of global growth and could contribute about one-third of the world's growth by 2040, according to a latest research by the International Monetary Fund. Notably, under the IMF's geographical division of the world, South Asia does not include Afghanistan and Pakistan. For IMF, South Asia includes India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives. Under a substantial liberalisation scenario, supported by stepped-up efforts to improve infrastructure and successfully harness South Asia's young and large workforce, the region could contribute about one-third of global growth by 2040, argues the IMF paper 'Is South Asia Ready for take Off? A sustainable and inclusive growth agenda,' to be released in New Delhi on Monday. "Looking at it both from the growth trajectory that we

Hindustan Times, November 4, 2019 Political detainees in J&K likely to be shifted in view of approaching winter As the winter sets in, the Jammu and Kashmir administration is looking for an accommodation to shift 34 political detenues from Centaur Hotel here as it lacks proper heating arrangements, officials said. The winter chill has already started taking a toll on the health of the detenues -- National Conference, PDP and People’s Conference leaders and prominent social activists -- and the security personnel guarding them. They have been lodged at the hotel on the bank of the scenic Dal Lake since August 5 when the central government announced its decision to abrogate Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and split the state into two Union territories. According to the officials privy to the development, Centaur Hotel, owned by the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), has submitted a bill of Rs 2.65 crore to the home

Hindustan Times, November 4, 2019 Bottlenecks in RCEP deal may be removed next year The signing of the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is expected to be pushed back to 2020, delaying a deal whose negotiations began seven years ago and which India has insisted must strike a balance between market access and services. RCEP comprises the 10 Asean states and six of the grouping’s FTA partners—Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea—and leaders of the 16 countries will discuss the deal at a meeting in Bangkok on Monday. An agreement will lead to the creation of the world’s largest free trade region of 3.6 billion people, or nearly half the global population, with 30% of the global GDP. “Most market access negotiations have been completed and the few outstanding bilateral issues will be resolved by Feb 2020,” said a draft agreement obtained by  AFP . India’s position on some of its key concerns has resulted in speculation that the p

Business Line, November 4, 2019 Excess monsoon, post-monsoon rain likely to hit kharif output The excess monsoon and post-monsoon rainfall across parts of Central and South India have spoiled the kharif party for many a farmer in these regions this year. However, officials at the Agriculture Ministry said that the overall impact on kharif food grain output would be limited because of higher expected yields in crops such as paddy. Crops such as soyabean, groundnut, pulses and cotton, among others, have been hit by excess rains both during the growth stage and in the harvest period, thereby trimming crop sizes in some cases and also impacting the quality of the produce. Besides, horticulture crops such as onions and tomatoes and perennial crops such as coffee and pepper have also been impacted. In Madhya Pradesh, it has been reported that kharif crops have been damaged on about 60 lakh hectares, according to State government estimates. Similarly, in Maharashtra, standing

Business Line, November 3, 2019 Slowdown: Aligning responses to causes There is a need to address immediate issues, such as collapse in credit following the NBFC crisis. A fiscal boost is also needed Many of the controversies on responses to the current economic slowdown can be traced to ideological positions that obscure a clear diagnosis of the causes and the required alignment of policy. Different ideologies The Rightist view is that the cause of the slowdown is inadequate reforms, and the solution is more reforms. Since the ideology says that markets work, any slowdown is due to impediments (largely created by the government) that need to be removed. So the cause is structural and the solution is also structural. Since remedies proposed are largely supply-side and long-term, they cannot reverse a demand-led slowdown that can become entrenched and persistently lower potential growth. A remedy the Economic Survey proposes, for example, is to raise exports. But th