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The Business Standard: Shrimi Choudhary  : January 14, 2020 The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has given India Inc another two years to separate the positions of chairman and managing director (MD) in companies, giving a breather to many top guns of industry. The move follows resistance by big companies and industry bodies, which cited a compliance burden amid a downturn in the economy. The regulator had mandated the top 500 listed companies by market value to separate the chairman and MD posts by April 1 this year. Through a gazette notification dated January 10, the date of compliance has been postponed to April 2022. Sebi hasn’t given any reasons for the deferment. Despite Sebi giving ample time to India Inc to meet the requirement, many companies were yet to comply with this, with less than three months left for the deadline. It is learnt that many companies had approached the ministries concerned and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), seeking a re...

Dailyhunt: January 13, 2020 The Jammu and Kashmir police who detained a Deputy Superintendent of Police will question the officer for his alleged links with Afzal Guru. Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar while confirming the arrest of Davinder Singh said that the officer would be treated like any other terrorist. He would be questioned for his links with Afzal Guru, Kumar said. He also said that another person, a lawyer by profession had also bee caught. Singh on the other hand is a decorated police officer who had served in the Special Operations Group and had earned a President's medal. In the year 2004, Afzal Guru, who was lodged in the Tihar jail had written a letter to his lawyer. In the letter he had said that Singh then posted with the J&K Police's Special Operations Group had asked him take Mohammad, a Pakistani national identified as one of those who carried out the Parliament attack to Delhi, rent a flat and purchase a car for him....

Outlook: Vappala Balachandran: January 11, 2020 Recent events connected with protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) have led to an unmistakable public impression that our police are influenced by the ruling party. Their harsh measures in Uttar Pradesh and in Jamia Millia and their conspicuous abdication of responsibility at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5 are quoted as evidence. The cascading country wide student protests after the JNU violence have been linked by the foreign media to the Home Minister’s lack of interest in “reconciliation with student protesters”. The Lt.Governor and the Commissioner of Police of New Delhi who are in charge of the capital city’s law and order chose to avoid the media instead of briefing them on the developing situation, when unprecedented violence was unleashed by masked goons on the campus of JNU, an internationally recognized university. It looked as though they were waiting for a cue from higher politica...

The Hindustan Times: Reuters: January 14, 2020 International banks have called on the European Union to make its system for financial market access more transparent and predictable to avoid hurting markets and consumers. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), whose members include major international banks and asset managers, said it was “timely” to review and improve the bloc’s financial market access regime known as equivalence. The EU grants market access to foreign financial firms like asset managers and clearing houses if it deems their home market rules are similar enough to regulation in the bloc. Brexit has already put equivalence under scrutiny as there is a June 30 target for the EU to assess the equivalence of Britain’s financial regulation to allow the UK finance industry to maintain some access to EU markets after a Brexit transition period ends in December. In its 14-page report on Tuesday, London-based AFME only directly mentions Br...

Dailyhunt: January 13, 2020 The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over a plea by Congress leader Karti Chidambaram seeking the return of Rs 20 crore, which he had deposited with the top court's registry as security for travelling abroad. Karti Chidambaram is facing criminal cases being probed by ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). One of the cases relates to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media for receiving foreign funds of Rs 305 crore when his father and Congress leader P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. The top court had granted Karti Chidambaram permission to travel abroad in January and May last year asking him to deposit Rs 20 crore—Rs 10 crore for January and 10 crore for May—with the secretary-general. It had in May last year dismissed the Congress lawmaker's plea seeking the return of Rs 10 crore, claiming he had taken the money on loan and was paying interest o...

Dailyhunt: January 13, 2020 Indian Army has busted a temporary camp of Naga separatist group 'National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM)' in Manipur's Tamenglong district. Army recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the temporary hideout used by militants of the outfit recently. Based on intelligence input about the presence of militants belonging to NSCN (IM), the Army troops launched an operation at Nungkhao area in Tamenglong district of Manipur. On detecting the movement of security forces, the militants abandoned their hideout and fled the area leaving behind a huge cache of arms and ammunition and war-like stores. Security personnel recovered one G-3 rifle, one US-made carbine, one country-made carbine, one 9 mm pistol, one point 22 mm pistol, magazines, a large quantity of ammunition, walkie-talkie sets and other war-like stores from the temporary camp. Later, the army handed over the recovered articles and other sto...

The Hindu: Atul Aneja: January 13, 2020 Beijing apprehends that the law, if it alienates Muslims in India, could have repercussions in the vast strategically important border region, which has faced separatist violence. The adoption of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which excludes citizenship for Muslim migrants who had illegally entered India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before December 2014, is fuelling anxiety in China. A Chinese official who did not wish to be named told The Hindu that Beijing apprehends that the law, if it alienates Muslims in India, could have repercussions in Xinjiang—a vast strategically important border region, which has faced separatist violence. “We fear that if possible Muslim alienation triggered by India’s new Act spreads, it could channel into international terrorism and eventually bolter separatism in Xinjiang,” the official said. Xinjiang is China’s strategic lifeline. The West-East gas pipeline network drawing ...

The Indian Express: January 14, 2020 Siemens, the Germany-based engineering company, Monday (January 13) said it would continue to honour its contract with India’s Adani Power in its upcoming mining project in Australia, defying calls from environmental activists, including Greta Thunberg. Siemens is supplying signaling systems for a railway line that Adani is building in Australia’s Queensland state. The coal from the project is meant for export and would be burned in India, Reuters reported. On Saturday, Thunberg had tweeted, “It seems that @SiemensDE have the power to stop, delay or at least interrupt the building of the huge Adani coal mine in Australia. On Monday they will announce their decision. Please help pushing them to make the only right decision. #StopAdani”. What is the mining project that Adani is developing in Australia? Adani is building the Carmichael Coal Mine and Carmichael Railroad project at the Galilee Basin in Queensland state. This will be t...

The Hindustan Times: Sunetra Choudhary: January 14, 2020 An alleged link between arrested counter-insurgency officer Davinder Singh and 2001 Parliament Attack convict Afzal Guru would have made no difference to the trial in the terror case, the judge who found the 44-year-old Kashmiri man guilty said on Monday. Singh, a decorated officer with the Jammu & Kashmir Police, was arrested on Saturday for alleged ties with militants in Kashmir. Police intercepted a car on the national highway and arrested deputy superintendent Singh with two militants and an alleged aide. The arrest, and Singh’s treatment as a terrorist by police, put the spotlight on an allegation made by Guru in a letter to his lawyers in 2004. In the letter, written to his lawyer Sushil Kumar, Guru said he helped one of the terrorists killed in the 2001 attack, Mohammed, at the behest of Special Task Force of J&K police and Singh. It was Singh, alleged the letter, who asked Afzal to accompany Moha...

The Hindustan Times: PTI: January 14, 2020 The Supreme Court asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday to attach Indian properties of JPMorgan (JPM), which engaged in a transaction with the now-defunct Amrapali Group to allegedly siphon off home buyers’ money in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and FDI norms. The ED said it had prima facie found violations of FEMA norms by JPM and that a complaint in this regard was lodged. The Supreme Court also allowed ED to take into custody the defunct group’s chairman and managing director, Anil Kumar Sharma, and two other directors, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, who are behind bars on the top court’s order, for interrogation as regards alleged money-laundering offences. It said the central agency could take them into custody immediately and once their interrogation was over, they could be sent back to a prison here. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit was told by ED joint director Rajeshwa...

President Emmanuel Macron raised the Kashmir issue during a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying France continues to track developments in the region closely. The matter came up last Friday, according to a statement from Elysee Palace, which added that the two leaders agreed to work together to ease tensions in West Asia by urging all parties to show restraint. An Indian statement issued on Friday made no reference to the Kashmir issue. The development comes at a time when the European Union mission in New Delhi is holding discussions with the external affairs ministry on a visit to Kashmir by envoys of the EU states, including France. “In the spirit of trust and frankness that characterises their relations, the French President and the Indian Prime Minister discussed the situation in the region of Kashmir, which France continues to follow closely,” the Palace statement said. A group of 15 envoys and senior diplomats, including the ambassadors ...

The Telegraph: PTI: January 14, 2020 The commerce ministry has sought a reduction in import duty on gold in the forthcoming budget to push exports and manufacturing in the gems and jewellery sector, a source said. In its budget proposals, the ministry has suggested its finance counterpart to consider a significant reduction in the import duty on the yellow metal, he said. In the last budget, the government has increased the import duty to 12.5 per cent. The gems and jewellery export industry has sought reduction in the import duty to 4 per cent in the budget, which is scheduled to be presented on February 1. Gold imports in December declined sharply to 39 tonnes from 152 tonnes in November. The imports, which have a bearing on the current account deficit, fell about 7 per cent to $20.57 billion during the April-November period of the ongoing financial year, according to commerce ministry data. Imports stood at $22.16 billion in the same period of 2018-19. ...