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The Telegraph Published 18.11.19, 2:15 AMUpdated 18.11.19, 2:15 AM In the three months since Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, there have been small signs that the internal structural challenges have been addressed even though in some aspects the realities within the former state have become even more complicated. The three distinct regions, with varied cultures, geography and languages, became a singular political entity called Jammu and Kashmir in 1846 when the British East India Company transferred the Kashmir Valley, which it had acquired from the disintegrating Punjab empire, to Gulab Singh of Jammu in consideration of a sum of 75 lakh rupees. Gulab Singh’s general, Zorawar Singh, had conquered Ladakh in 1834. With a population of nearly 300,000, the Ladakh region seems to be the main beneficiary of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act. The region was administered from the winter capital, Jammu, and the summer capital, Srinagar. Coinciding...

Dailyhunt  Monday, 18 Nov, 1.57 pm The BJP-led government in the centre is planning to introduce the One Nation One Pay Day scheme to safeguard the interest of the workers employed in the formal sector, labor minister Santosh Gangwar said. A legislation in this regard may get passed soon, said the minister. Labor Minister said 'There should be a pan-India single wage day every month across various sectors to ensure that workers get paid on time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on this legislation to get passed soon. Similarly, Government is also looking at uniform minimum wages across sectors which will safeguard the better livelihood of workers,'. The Narendra Modi government is in the process of implementing Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, and Code on Wages. Parliament has already passed the Code on Wages and rules are being framed for its implementation On July 23, 2019, the OSH Code was introduced in the Lok Sabha. The OSH Cod...

Business Line  Venky Vembu     | Updated on  November 18, 2019   Published on  November 18, 2019 Burying unflattering data is fraught with perils for the economy The NDA government’s decision, announced on Friday, not to release the consumer expenditure survey results of 2017-18 citing “data quality issues” is only the latest such instance of its attempt to sweep unflattering datasets under the carpet. Leaked accounts of a draft copy of the survey results, published in a section of the media a day earlier, had established that consumer spending fell in real terms in 2017-18 for the first time in more than four decades. That fall was driven in large part by a slump in demand in rural areas, where — more disquietingly — even expenditure on food items had been scaled back. Those findings tie in with other indicators that point to a demand contraction in the economy, and particularly in rural India, as a consequence of widespread agrarian distress...

Business Line, By  GN Bajpai   | Updated on  November 18, 2019   Published on  November 18, 2019 A host of factors, including a weak economy, dues from discoms and lending bottlenecks, have combined to undermine the power sector Dues of discoms double A weak economy, delayed payments from state-owned power distribution companies, lending bottlenecks and climate change-induced natural calamities are rattling stakeholders across the board in the power sector. A recent report by SBI has highlighted the fact that electricity demand in India contracted to an eight-year low in September. This contraction in demand has had an impact on all the three stakeholders – the power producer, power distributor and the lender (in this case banks). JSW Energy, a part of the $14-billion Sajjan Jindal-backed JSW Group, in Q2 of this financial year, said that India’s power demand growth had declined to 1.6 per cent from 6.8 per cent, when compared on a yea...

Live Mint  Updated: 18 Nov 2019, 12:54 PM IST India’s credit crisis has come with a silver lining for some of the country’s funds investing in top-rated corporate bonds. Returns have jumped after the central bank delivered a string of rate cuts in part to fight the crisis. The broader credit market woes have also helped indirectly by burnishing the appeal of higher-rated debt, even as lower-rated credits have struggled. “The rate-easing cycle is on and liquidity is expected to stay surplus," said Lakshmi Iyer, chief investment officer for fixed income at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co. Average returns have jumped to the highest in three years on funds holding company notes rated AA and above overseen by the top 10 asset management companies. The Reserve Bank of India this year has delivered five back-to-back rate cuts.\ The gains may extend as the RBI is expected to further ease policy amid continued weakness in the economy, fund managers say. The ...

Livemint, Updated: 18 Nov 2019, 01:53 PM IST  Reuters Cabinet has given 'in-principle' approval for the sale of strategic stakes in 28 state-run companies including state carrier Air India, Anurag Singh Thakur told lawmakers on Monday. The government has so far raised 173.64 billion rupees ($2.43 billion) in the 2019/20 fiscal year ending in March, against the full-year's target of 1.05 trillion rupees, the minister said in a written reply in the lower house of parliament. Link-  https://www.livemint.com/news/ india/india-plans-strategic- stake-sales-in-28-state-run- companies-anurag-singh-thakur- 11574065095999.html

The Hindu Business Line,  Bloomberg   Singapore | Updated on  November 18, 2019   Published on  November 18, 2019 Morgan Stanley predicted that American equities and corporate bonds will underperform peers next year, while the dollar weakens as growth outside the U.S. picks up. We see the biggest potential upside in markets with a clearer path to achievable earnings growth (Japan and EM) or scope for some multiple re-rating on falling political risks (Europe), strategists including Andrew Sheets, Michael Wilson and Matthew Hornbach wrote in a yearly outlook dated Nov. 17, with regard to stocks. The Wall Street bank sees a modest decline in the S&P 500 Index by the end of next year, to 3,000 from 3,120 at last weeks close. American shares have been global leaders this year, though closely followed by European ones as both markets benefited from central banks starting another monetary easing cycle. That was a cycle Morgan Stanley miscalc...

NEW DELHI : Telecom is a "critical" sector with direct impact on economic growth, employment and other crucial domains like healthcare and agriculture, and the advent of 5G will strengthen this connect, DoT Secretary Anshu Prakash said on Monday. Addressing the ASEAN-TRAI program on 'capacity building and sharing of best practices in policy regulation and development', Prakash said the sector is also playing a major role in empowering citizens, contributing to better governance and enhancing transparency. "Telecom is critical, it is a core infrastructure sector with direct impact on economic growth, on employment and on other sectors because other sectors ride on telecom. Digital connectivity is an integral part...be it finance, agriculture, healthcare, and with the advent of 5G this linkage will certainly emerge stronger," Prakash said. Speaking on the occasion, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman RS Sharma said information...

The Hindu Business Line,  Rahul Wadke   Mumbai | Updated on  November 19, 2019   Published on  November 18, 2019 Farmers’ association demands higher compensation from sugar mills The cane crushing operations in over 100 sugar mills in the Kolhapur region, Maharashtra has been delayed due to strong protest by the farmers of the political outfit, Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana (SSS). Last week one of the mills, which had begun the crushing operations by using poor quality sugarcane, was shut after massive protests. The outfit led by Raju Shetti has been demanding higher compensation per tonnes from the sugar mills. The bonus would be over and above Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs 2,750 per tonnes fixed by the Centre in July. A final breakthrough might happen on November 23 at farmers' Oosh Parishad (Sugarcane Conference), which is an annual meet of the sugarcane growing farmers in Maharashtra. Sugar Commissioner of Mahar...

Updated: 18 Nov 2019, 11:10 PM IST The finance ministry said on Monday that India is on track to reach the $5 trillion target by 2025, and although the economy has slowed down, it is still projected to grow at the fastest pace among G-20 nations this year. In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that despite some recent deceleration in growth, India’s economy is still projected by the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook of October 2019 to grow at the fastest rate in 2019-20 among G-20 countries. “(The) Government has been taking several measures to address moderate levels of fixed investment rate in the economy, plateauing of private consumption rate and a modest export performance, with a view to increasing the GDP (gross domestic product) growth," Sitharaman said. Minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur, who responded to a question on economy, defended the demonetization in 2016...

The Livemint,  The shares of HCL Infosystems surged 20% in the afternoon trade on Monday, after the company concluded the sale of HCL Insys, its wholly-owned subsidiary. At 1413, HCL stock traded at  ₹ 8.79, 20% up from its previous close. On Friday, after market hours, the company in the an exchange filling announced that it has concluded the sale of entire shareholding of its wholly-owned subsidiary HCL Insys, Singapore on 15 November 2019 to PCCW Solutions, Hong Kong for a consideration of SGD 57,628,787. “The investment of HCL Insys, in its subsidiary, namely Nurture Technologies FZE (formerly known as HCL Infosystems MEA FZE) was excluded from the transaction along with the trading business carried out by HCL Insys which was carved out before transfer of the entity," the company said in the filing. The IT giant had posted a wider consolidated loss of  ₹ 39.92 crore for the September 2019 quarter. The company had posted a consolidated loss of ...

The Hindu BusinessLine,  Our Bureau   Mumbai | Updated on  November 18, 2019   Published on  November 18, 2019 As the Indian economy transcends to a lower interest rate regime, there could be a flight of bank deposits to the equity markets as evident from the increasing participation of retail investors from April 2019, albeit with some volatility, according to State Bank of India's research report EcoWrap. Link- https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/growing-participation-of-retail-investors-in-equity-markets-may-be-a-sign-of-flight-from-bank-deposits-sbi-report/article30005384.ece

THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE,  Reuters  DUBAI | Updated on  November 18, 2019   Published on  November 18, 2019 India and Russia signed a deal in 2015 for purchasing 200 helicopters The head of Russian Helicopters said on Sunday that India was delaying the signing of a firm agreement for purchasing 200 helicopters despite providing all information. Chief Executive Andrey Boginsky also said it would benefit India if the planned order for over 100 rotorcraft for the Indian Navy could be combined with the 200 India is looking to buy for the Army. Russian Helicopters is owned by state-owned Russian conglomerate Rostec. India and Russia signed a deal in 2015 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India programme for the supply of 200 Russian KA 226T helicopters, with Russia to deliver 60 and the remaining to be assembled and manufactured in India. The two countries also have held preliminary talks for the supply of over 100 of the KA 226-T helicop...