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Financial Express Samrat Sharma Two-thirds of the total power capacity added this year came from renewable sources. On the back of the Modi government’s aim of achieving 175 GW renewable energy generation capacity by 2022, two-thirds of the total power capacity added this year came from renewable sources. 5.8 GW of new capacity has been added during the first half of the current fiscal year, primarily including solar and wind energy, said a  Care Ratings  report.  This is almost double the capacity added during the corresponding period last year. “Renewable energy capacity addition is expected to peak over the next 3-4 quarters on the back of execution of strong order book pipeline. Solar Project developers would also be looking to take benefit of moderation of safeguard duty on the imported solar panel,” said Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Care Ratings. However, renewable energy generation growth moderat ed and recorded 5.7 per cent growth in H1 FY20. T...

Dawn Ikram Junaidi Fearing that year 2020 can be more lethal, the government has decided to get latest technology from Australia to control dengue. Moreover, it has also been decided that preventive steps would be started from February 2020 so that larva of the dengue mosquito could not spread.  This year, 53,805 dengue cases and 95 deaths were reported in the country. According to a document available with  Dawn , 13,292 of the cases were reported from Islamabad, 16,657 from Sindh, 10,118 from Punjab, 7,876 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 3,474 from Balochistan, 1,690 from AJK and 696 cases were included in the ‘other’ category. In some cases, it cannot be ascertained in which province the patient was bitten by the mosquito. So such cases are placed in the ‘other’ category.  At least 46 people died of dengue in Sindh, 22 in Islamabad, 23 in Punjab, three in Balochistan and one person in AJK. National Institute of Health (NIH) Executive Director Maj Gen Dr Aame...

First Post Dinesh Unnikrishnan Recently, Bank of Baroda reported a divergence of Rs 5,250 crore in gross NPAs for the year ended March 2019. An element of trust deficit is taking hold in the investor community towards banks that have under-reported their non-performing assets (NPAs) in the last fiscal year but was caught later by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) inspection team. The small investors now prefer to stay away from such companies till the firms come clean on the corporate governance issues, analysts say. The total gross NPA divergence figures reported by banks so far stands at Rs 29,231 crore from 12 banks. That’s a big number. The stark divergence in banks’ estimates vs that of the RBI has raised many eyebrows in the investor community prompting them to avoid such companies till clarity emerges. Starting with private sector lender Yes Bank to the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), a dozen banks have reported divergence on their gross NPAs th...

First Post Reliance Infrastructure on Monday said it has won an arbitration award of Rs 1,250 crore against Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). The proceeds will be used to pay lenders and reduce the debt of the company, the infrastructure firm said in a filing to BSE.  A three-member arbitration tribunal unanimously gave the award in favour of Reliance Infrastructure on Saturday, the filing said. Reliance Infrastructure was the engineering and construction contractor for DVC's 1200 mw Raghunathpur thermal power project in West Bengal commissioned in 2012.  Reliance Infrastructure has won a major arbitration award of Rs 1,250 crore against DVC, a government of India undertaking, the firm said. The arbitration tribunal awarded the case in favour of Reliance Infrastructure and directed DVC to pay Rs 896 crore and return the bank guarantees of Rs 354 crore within four weeks or pay additional interest, at the rate of 15 percent per annum, for any delay in payment beyo...

Business Line Asserting that the Army must lead in embracing technology, Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said that non-contact warfare will help in gaining advantage over adversaries in the future. Addressing a defence seminar here, he said that necessity was no longer the need for invention and innovations were driving technological advancement. Indian Army has to remain at the forefront of technological embrace, he said. “Non-contact warfare is gaining relevance in future wars. That is not to say that the man on the ground...with a rifle in his hand will no longer remain relevant. They will remain relevant all through the ages,” he said. “Non-contact warfare will help us in gaining advantage over the adversary in future. Therefore, it is important to understand the context in which we need to move forward in this direction,” General Rawat said. Quantum technology, cyber space and above all artificial intelligence, all these need to be leveraged, he said. ...

Business Line China will lower tariffs on products ranging from frozen pork and avocado to some types of semiconductors next year as Beijing looks to boost imports amid a slowing economy and a trade war with the United States. Next year, China will implement temporary import tariffs, which are lower than the most-favoured-nation tariffs, on more than 850 products, the Finance Ministry said on Monday. That compared with 706 products that were taxed at temporary rates in 2019. The tariff changes were made to “increase imports of products facing a relative domestic shortage, or foreign speciality goods for everyday consumption,” the Ministry said in a statement on its website. China and the United States cooled their drawn-out trade war earlier this month, announcing a Phase-1 agreement that would reduce some US tariffs in exchange for more Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods. The finance ministry said the tariff rate for frozen pork will be cut to 8...

The Hindu Pon Basanth B.A. Jakob Lindenthal, a German student on an exchange programme at IIT-Madras who took part in a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act here, was asked to leave India on Monday by Bureau of Immigration officials. Sources in IIT confirmed that no written communication was given by BoI officials. He was orally informed that he had violated his visa regulations. Though he was scheduled to board a flight in the early hours of Tuesday, he couldn't board as his Air India flight from Chennai to Delhi got delayed by nearly four hours.  The Hindu  confirmed that the student is waiting at Delhi airport for an alternate flight. He was summoned to the BoI office here on Monday morning through the office of the Dean of International and Alumni Relations (IAR) in the IIT. He was questioned till afternoon on a range of topics, including his views on Indian politics and what he thought of the anti-CAA protests, the sources confirmed. ...

The Indian Express Last month, Moody’s Investors Service reduced the nation’s credit-assessment outlook to negative, citing issues ranging from a worsening shadow banking crunch and a prolonged slowdown in the economy to rising public debt. Other Highlights India needs to consolidate its finances by curbing expenditure and boosting taxes to trim its debt, the International Monetary Fund said. “A credible medium-term fiscal consolidation path driven by subsidy-spending rationalization and tax-base enhancing measures is needed to reduce debt, free up financial resources for private investment, and reduce the interest bill,” the Washington-based fund said in a staff report following its latest regular review of the economy, known as an article IV consultation. The IMF, which estimates India’s economy will expand 6.1% in the year through March, is set to reduce the prediction amid continuing weakness signaled by a decrease in rural consumption and lower business sentim...

Indian Express Shubhajit Roy   INDIAN AMBASSADOR to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla will be the next Foreign Secretary, and will take charge after current Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale’s two-year term ends next month. The appointment has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister  Narendra Modi , according to the order by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).   “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Ambassador in Washington DC as Foreign Secretary with effect from 29.01.2020 upon completion of two year of Vijay Keshav Gokhale as Foreign Secretary on 28.01.2020,” the government statement said on Monday. An Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1984 batch, Shringla has held several important positions in his diplomatic career spanning 35 years. To his credit, he was one of the main negotiators for the India-Bangladesh land bou...

Indian Express In the OMO purchase of 6.45 per cent GS 2029, which is a benchmark security, the RBI received Rs 20,826 crore worth of bids from the participants but accepted Rs 10,000 crore of bids. The Reserve Bank on Monday purchased Rs 10,000 crore worth of long-term government securities and sold Rs 6,825 crore of four short-term securities through the special open market operations (OMOs). Last week, the RBI had announced simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under OMOs for Rs 10,000 crore each. In the OMO purchase of 6.45 per cent GS 2029, which is a benchmark security, the RBI received Rs 20,826 crore worth of bids from the participants but accepted Rs 10,000 crore of bids. The central bank received 161 bids to purchase 6.45 per cent-2029 bonds whereas it accepted 145 bids. The cut-off yield to accept the bid was 6.546 per cent. The RBI offered to sell four government securities — 6.65 per cent GS 2020; 7.80 per cent GS 2020; 8.27 per cent GS...

The Hindu ‘Accord special focus to securing land and maritime borders’ Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday there was a need “to co-opt professional experts in specific fields like cyber security”. Delivering the 32nd Endowment Lecture of the Intelligence Bureau, he pointed to the interlinked challenges of human and weapons trafficking, cross-border infiltration, fake Indian currency notes (FICN), hawala transactions, drug trafficking and cyber threats. Mr. Shah said the IB was the ‘brain’ of the national security apparatus and the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to wipe out terrorism, left-wing extremism and insurgency in the northeast in the next five years. He asked the security agencies to accord special focus to securing the land and maritime borders, which he listed as challenges in the coming years in achieving the dream of becoming a $5-trillion economy.  He lauded the IB for ably tackling the challenges of nation...

The Hindu Alemla Jamir accused of transporting terror funds from Delhi to Nagaland on the instructions of T. Muivah’s wife The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches in Delhi and Nagaland at the residence of Alemla Jamir, a member of the steering committee of the NSCN(IM) that is involved in peace talks with the Centre.  The NIA has accused Ms. Alemla Jamir of transporting terror funds from Delhi to Nagaland on the instructions of Icrak Muivah, wife of T. Muivah of the Isak-Muivah faction of the NSCN(IM). Nagaland Governor R.N Ravi is engaged in final round of negotiations with Mr. Muivah and other Naga groups for the Naga peace deal. The NIA re-registered a case on December 20, initially being probed by the Special Cell of the Delhi police. The NIA said Ms. Jamir was detained at the Delhi airport on December 17 with ₹72 lakh by the Income Tax authorities. She was later arrested by the Special Cell. “The case relates to terror funding of NSCN(IM), w...

DAWN Tehran and Delhi have agreed to accelerate the development of an important Iranian port, India’s foreign minister said during a visit to the sanctions-hit Islamic republic on Monday.   The Chabahar port — being jointly developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan — is on the Indian Ocean about 100 kilometres west of the Pakistan border.  But development has stalled, despite waivers to sanctions that the United States began reimposing last year after withdrawing from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. “Just concluded a very productive #IndiaIran Joint Commission Meeting,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted.  “Reviewed the entire gamut of our cooperation. Agreed on accelerating our Chabahar project,” he added, as he wound up a two-day visit to the Iranian capital. Washington withdrew from the nuclear accord and reimposed sanctions on Tehran as part of a campaign of “maximum pressure” aimed at reducing its arch-enemy’s regional ...

Hindustan Times Declining consumption and investment, and falling tax revenue, have combined with other factors to put the brakes on one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the IMF said in its annual review. India’s government must take steps quickly to reverse the economic slowdown of an economy that has been one of the engines of global growth, the International Monetary Fund said Monday. After lifting millions out of poverty “India is now in the midst of a significant economic slowdown,” Ranil Salgado, of the IMF Asia and Pacific Department, told reporters. “Addressing the current downturn and returning India to a high growth path requires urgent policy actions.” However, the government has limited space to boost spending to support growth, especially given high debt levels and interest payments, the fund warned IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath last week said India’s slowdown had “surprised to the downside,” and said the fund is set to significa...