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Business Standards February 18, 2020  The draft of National Cyber Security Strategy 2020, that envisages creating a secure cyberspace in India, is ready and will soon be sent to key ministries for comments before seeking the Cabinet approval, an official said on Monday. "We have got industry inputs, the draft of the (National Cyber Security) strategy is ready, we'll do a quick round of sending it to some 2-3 critical ministries and we will put up to the Cabinet for release to the public. The vision of the strategy ... is to ensure a safe, secure, resilient, trusted and vibrant cyberspace for India's prosperity," National Cyber Security Coordinator Rajesh Pant said at an Assocham event. He said that there is need to create separate cadre of cyber security specialists from IT personnel because those who roll out IT infrastructure are generally unable to detect the flaws. The National Cyber Security Strategy 2020 is being prepared to fill the gaps and meet the ta

FINANCIAL EXPRESS FEBRUARY 18, 20202 The architecture of monetary policy has changed over the years, where central banks go beyond the reference rate to influence the monetary situation. It started with the quantitative easing (QE) process, which involved large-scale purchase of private bonds such as mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and asset-backed securities (ABS) by the Federal Reserve to provide liquidity to the market. This was when the interest rate was lowered to the extent that it ceased to matter, as banks were not willing to lend to one another following the Lehman crisis due to issues of trust. This was reminiscent of the Keynesian liquidity trap where the supply of money became flat and the only way to improve the situation was to move the money supply curve upwards through QE. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been at the same job for quite some time now, where it has worked hard to bring interest rates down to lower the cost of funds for industry. While the repo

LIVE MINT FEBRUARY 18, 20202 India's thermal power sector may be on a decline but for investors willing to place tactical bets, it continues to offer invaluable opportunities. A case in point is JSW Energy Ltd’s acquisition of 1,050 megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in Odisha, owned and operated by GMR Kamalanga Energy Ltd - a unit of GMR Energy Ltd. The company plans to purchase the power plant at an enterprise value of ₹5,321 crore. Around 84% of the plant’s capacity is tied-up under long term power purchase agreement (PPA) which assures revenue visibility. The plant, which is operational, has fuel linkage for the tied-up capacity and is situated in proximity to Coal India Ltd’s mines. Last fiscal, the plant operated at 73% capacity and generated an operating profit of about ₹740 crore, pointed out Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. According to JSW, the plant has a potential to generate a minimum operating profit of ₹900 crore next fiscal which can go up to ₹1,050 cror

HINDUSTAN TIMES FEBRUARY 18, 20202 For decades, the Uighur imam was a bedrock of his farming community in China’s far west. On Fridays, he preached Islam as a religion of peace. On Sundays, he treated the sick with free herbal medicine. In the winter, he bought coal for the poor. But as a Chinese government mass detention campaign engulfed Memtimin Emer’s native Xinjiang region three years ago, the elderly imam was swept up and locked away, along with all three of his sons living in China. Now, a newly revealed database exposes in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Emer, his three sons, and hundreds of others in Karakax County: their religion and their family ties. The database obtained by The Associated Press profiles the internment of 311 individuals with relatives abroad and lists information on more than 2,000 of their relatives, neighbors and friends. Each entry includes the detainee’s name, address, national identity number, detention date and loc

TRIBUNE FEBRUARY 18, 2020 The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has expressed satisfaction over the steps taken by Pakistan to curb terror financing and demanded that the country further tightens its laws to bring individuals involved in money laundering and terror financing to task. The five-day plenary session of the FATF is being held in Paris to review the progress made by Pakistan towards implementation of its 27-point action plan. The meeting will continue until February 21. The FATF required that Pakistan improve its prosecution system by handing down stricter punishments and penalties to the facilitators of terror financing. Citing the conviction of Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistani officials said that the judicial system in the country was fully independent and the courts were taking decisions on merit, which were being implemented. Last week, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore convicted Jamatud Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed in two terror-financing cases He was slapped with a pri

THE INDIAN EXPRESS FEBRUARY 18, 2020 Global rating agency Moody’s Monday cut India’s growth forecast for 2020 to 5.4 per cent from 6.6 per cent projected earlier, stating that any economic recovery will be “shallow” and “slower” than previously expected. “While the economy may well begin to recover in the current quarter, we expect any recovery to be slower than we had previously expected. Accordingly, we have revised our growth forecasts to 5.4 per cent for 2020 and 5.8 per cent for 2021, down from our previous projections of 6.6 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively,” Moody’s said in its update on Global Macro Outlook, adding that India’s economy has decelerated rapidly over the last 2 years and recovery is likely to be ‘shallow’. Last week, S&P — while affirming India’s sovereign rating at ‘BBB-’ — had said the economic growth rate is likely to improve to 6 per cent in FY21, 7 per cent in the following fiscal and 7.4 per cent thereafter. It said that India’s structural

FIRST POST FEBRUARY 18, 2020 India's sugar export may cross 5 million tonne in the marketing year ending September on higher demand from overseas amid global deficit of 8-9 million tonne, industry body ISMA said on Tuesday. For the current year, the government has allowed export of 6 million tonne of sugar under Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) to help deal with the surplus sugar. India had exported 3.8 million tonne during 2018-19 marketing year (October-September) against the mandatory quota of 5 million tonne. Indias sugar export may cross 5 MT this year on higher overseas demand; govt to reallocate export quota of mills: ISMA The country's sugar production has reached 16.98 million tonne till February 15 of the current marketing year, which is much lower than 21.96 million tonne output till the same period a year ago, it said. According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), global sugar prices for raw and white sugar are 20-25 percent higher than the

CAAPR February 17, 2020 Afghanistan accounts for more than 80 percent of the world’s opium production. Last year, production of pure opium increased by 21 percent to 6,700 metric tonnes compared to previous year.  More than half of it is converted into heroin in Pakistani laboratories before being smuggled out to markets worldwide through sea, air and land routes.  The African continent, which has long served as a transit point for smuggling this heroin to Europe, has itself been emerging as a major consumption market.  India, particularly its state of Punjab, is also witnessing increased incidence of narcotic consumption and the Khalistani terrorist groups, sheltered by Pakistan, are deeply involved in syndicates pushing drugs and weapons across the border. Recent international investigations led to arrest and sentencing of several Pakistani kingpins and their African distributors.  Senior politicians like Rana Sanaullah Khan, former Punjab Law Minister and provincial chief of

NEWS18 february 17, 2020 Government tenders worth about Rs 30,000 crore were cancelled because of discriminatory practices being followed, a top official said on Monday. Restrictive and discriminative tender practices prevent participation of domestic companies in government procurement, hurting 'Make in India' initiatives. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) from time to time has intervened to change conditions in those tenders in order to promote 'Made in India' goods. "Many of the restrictive and discriminative tender practices have been identified. Almost Rs 30,000 crore (worth) of tenders have been cancelled because of discriminatory practices," DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said here at a function. He said the vigilance cases have been ordered by the Central Vigilance Commission wherever the department felt that a tender has been floated deliberately with a mala fide intention to deny a level-playing field

LIVE MINT February 17, 2020 SBI Cards and Payment Services, the credit card unit of the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), has received markets regulator Sebi's go ahead to float an initial public offering. The company, which had filed draft IPO papers in November, obtained "observations" from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on February 11 latest update with the regulator showed. Sebi's observations are necessary for any company to launch public issues including initial public offer, follow-on public offer and rights issue. As per the draft papers, SBI Cards will offer up to 130,526,798 equity shares through offer for sale route. This will include up to 37,293,371 share sale by SBI and up to 93,233,427 shares on offer by Carlyle Group. In addition, the company will also issue fresh equity shares of ₹500 crore. SBI holds 76 per cent in SBI Cards and rest of the stake is held by Carlyle Group. According to market sources, the