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The Hindu March 03, 2020 PTI Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog on Monday filed fresh cases against former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gilani and former President Asif Ali Zardari for misuse of authority and buying vehicles given by foreign leaders as gifts. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed the cases in an accountability court in Islamabad. According to NAB, during his tenure as Prime Minister, Mr. Gilani relaxed rules to allow Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif to buy expensive vehicles gifted to them by foreign leaders. As per law, the vehicles were state properties and could not be used for personal purposes. NAB claimed that Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif used dishonest and illegal means and bought the vehicles by paying a “nominal payment of 15% of the total value”. It said Mr. Zardari made the payments for the vehicles through the Omni Group CEO and his son “for which he has no plausible justification“. “It was established dur

The Hindu  March 03, 2020 ENS Economic Bureau  The agency said it analysed in detail the degree of vulnerability of the top 500 debt-heavy private sector issuers after assessing the mix between productive and non-productive assets (asset quality) held by each issuer along with their refinancing risk. India Ratings and Research has said the credit profiles of corporates are likely to remain under pressure as the economy grapples with a synchronised and prolonged economic slowdown, with at least Rs 10.52 lakh crore of the corporate debt (16 per cent of system level corporate debt) vulnerable to default over the next three years. “Empirically, about 25 per cent of the vulnerable debt is likely to turn delinquent, resulting in additional Rs 2.54 lakh crore of delinquent debt. This is likely to result in incremental delinquencies to the extent of 4 per cent of the system level corporate debt,” it said. However, in case the real gross domestic product growth slowdown inte

The Indian Express March 02, 2020 PTI Fitch Solutions on Monday cut its forecast for India’s economic growth to 4.9 per cent in the current fiscal that ends March 31, saying manufacturing could come under pressure from weak domestic demand and supply chain disruptions due to the coronavirus outbreak. The GDP growth is forecast to recover slightly to 5.4 per cent in 2020-21 (April 2020 to March 2021), it said. “We at Fitch Solutions are revising down our forecast for India’s real GDP growth to 4.9 per cent in FY2019/20, from 5.1 per cent previously, and 5.4 per cent in FY2020/21, from 5.9 per cent previously,” the agency said in its outlook for the country. India’s real GDP growth decelerated to 4.7 per cent in the third quarter (October-December) from an upwardly revised 5.1 per cent in the second quarter owing to slower government consumption, a steeper contraction in gross fixed capital formation and a smaller net exports contribution. “A failure of the FY20

The Indian Express March 03, 2020 Subhajit Roy India on Monday assured Dhaka that the updation of the NRC in Assam will have “no implications” for Bangladesh, asserting that it is an “entirely internal” process carried out at the direction and under the supervision of the Supreme Court. This assurance was given by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla during the first high-level visit from India to Bangladesh since the CAA issue introduced strains in an otherwise robust bilateral relationship. Speaking at a seminar titled ‘Bangladesh & India: A Promising Future’ in Dhaka, Foreign Secretary Shringla said the process of updating the NRC in Assam took place entirely on the direction and under the supervision of the Supreme Court. “Let me clearly state here what our leadership has repeatedly confirmed at the highest level to the government of Bangladesh: this is a process that is entirely internal to India. Therefore, there will be no implications for the gover

Daily Hunt  March 02, 2020 PTI A UN delegation on Palestine will visit New Delhi to seek India's political and diplomatic support for a peaceful resolution to the long-standing conflict between Israel and Palestine. India, which shares good relations with both Palestine and Israel, believes in a two-state solution in which both Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist peacefully. The two-state solution envisions independent Israeli and Palestinian states coexisting side by side peacefully. The Palestinians see East Jerusalem as their future capital. The delegation of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and senior officials in the ministry, as well as political leaders and think tanks during the 2-day visit from Monday. The delegation intends to engage India in looking for ways how it could play a more proactive role in the settling of t

Kashmir March  March 02, 2020 Geneva (KW): Indian delegation faced major embarrassment at its event in Geneva when a Kashmiri activist sought comment from pro-Modi politician MJ Akbar on remarks that it was safer to be a cow than a Muslim in India. A well known Kashmiri activist Hasan Bana asked MJ Akbar: “ One of your colleagues Mr. Shashi Tharoor has said that it is safer to be a cow than a Muslim in India.” Condoning Modi backed terror attacks on Indian Muslims in Delhi pro-Modi politician MJ Akbar called Tharoor’s statement irresponsible rhetoric. “ I don’t agree with Shashi Tharoor. Whatever has been said by him is far away from reality. He was in opposition and his comments were just irresponsible rhetoric,” he said. Claiming that Indian Muslims were enjoying equal rights and equal opportunities Akbar said “They have made huge progress in every field. Mahatma Gandhi has said Hindus and Muslims are one. God created them and no one can separate them,” MJ

Hindustan Times March 02, 2020 Jayshree Nandi  Demand–supply gap in eight of the surveyed towns in the HKH region is between 20% and 70%. The towns are Havelian and Murree in Pakistan; Mussoorie, Devprayag, Singtam and Kalimpong in India, Damauli and Tansen in Nepal. A new compilation of studies on water availability in eight towns in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region -- also known as the water towers of Asia -- has set off alarm bells on the demand-supply gap, which could aggravate further due to global climate change leading to an acute crisis by 2050 . The studies show that the demand–supply gap in eight of the surveyed towns in the HKH region is between 20% and 70%. The eight towns are Havelian and Murree in Pakistan; Mussoorie, Devprayag, Singtam and Kalimpong in India, Damauli and Tansen in Nepal. In line with current trends, the demand–supply gap may double by 2050, said the studies published in the journal Water Policy’s latest issue. The studies

The Indian Express March 02, 2020 ENS Economic Bureau Gross goods and services tax (GST) collections stood at Rs 1.05 lakh crore for February (for sales in January), a rise of 8 per cent over last year but lower than Rs 1.10 lakh crore in January, a Finance Ministry release said Sunday. Compliance rate was at the same level as last month, with total number of GSTR-3B returns filed for the month of January — till February 29 — being recorded at 83 lakh, the release said. GST revenues from domestic transactions for February posted a growth of 12 per cent over the same month last year, while GST revenue from imports posted a contraction of 2 per cent as against February 2019. With this, the total gross GST revenue now stands at Rs 11.25 lakh crore as against the approximate full year aim of Rs 11.26 lakh crore. “The gross GST revenue collected in the month of February, 2020 is Rs 1,05,366 crore of which CGST (Central GST) is Rs 20,569 crore, SGST (State GST) is Rs 27,348

The Indian Express March 03, 2020 Subhajit Roy India attending, US and Taliban have signed a peace deal. What are the takeaways for the Afghan government and for India, given its bitter equations with Taliban and closeness to Ghani regime? Aghanistan Taliban US peace talk, India Afghanistan Taliban, Afghan Taliban peace talks, Pakistan India Taliban, India in Afghanistan, us taliban peace pact, taliban peace pact signing, us Taliban ties, India US, Taliban. US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban delegation leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar sign the peace agreement in Doha on Saturday.  On Saturday, the US and Taliban signed an agreement for “Bringing Peace to Afghanistan”, which will enable the US and NATO to withdraw troops in the next 14 months. India attended the signing ceremony in Doha, and was represented by Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran. The pact is between the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state

The Hindu  March 02, 2020 Any reservations Afghanistan has with Islamabad should be resolved bilaterally rather than involving the United States, Pakistans foreign minister said on Sunday, in reference to part of a joint U.S.-Afghan declaration on peace efforts. The declaration was announced on Saturday by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at a ceremony to coincide with the signing in Doha of an agreement between the Taliban and the United States. “The United States commits to facilitate discussions between Afghanistan and Pakistan to work out arrangements to ensure neither countrys security is threatened by actions from the territory of the other side,” one of the clauses of the declaration reads. Pakistan bristled “They should talk directly to Pakistan. The U.S. is planning to withdraw and we will always remain neighbours, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told Reuters in an interview

The Hindu March 02, 2020 Reuters Pakistan and Afghanistan have been at loggerheads for years with Kabul publicly blaming Pakistan for harbouring Taliban leaders after they were ousted from power Afghanistan in 2001. Any reservations Afghanistan has with Islamabad should be resolved bilaterally rather than involving the United States, Pakistans foreign minister said on Sunday, in reference to part of a joint U.S.-Afghan declaration on peace efforts. The declaration was announced on Saturday by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at a ceremony to coincide with the signing in Doha of an agreement between the Taliban and the United States. “The United States commits to facilitate discussions between Afghanistan and Pakistan to work out arrangements to ensure neither countrys security is threatened by actions from the territory of the other side,” one of the clauses of the declaration reads. P

The Hindu March 01, 2020 The Taliban's political chief has met with senior diplomats from countries including Russia, Indonesia and Norway, hours after signing a deal with Washington aimed at ending the Afghan war, the hardline Islamist group said in a statement on Sunday. Saturday's accord was signed in the Qatari capital Doha by U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on hand to witness the ceremony. Soon after the agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would be personally meeting leaders of the Taliban in the near future and rejected criticism surrounding the deal signed with the Islamist insurgents. Mr. Baradar met Foreign Ministers from Turkey, Uzbekistan and Norway in Doha along with diplomats from Russia, Indonesia and neighbouring nations, the Taliban said, a move that signalled the group's determination to secure international legitimacy. “The dignitaries wh

The Economic Times March 02, 2020 Rajesh Mascarenhas The dislike for standardised tests isn’t restricted to high school students alone. Independent company directors, many of whom are sterling achievers in their respective professions, seem to have developed cold feet about attending formal classroom sessions and clearing qualifying exams to continue in their roles. About 170 independent directors of NSE-listed companies have resigned in last two months as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) deadline for registration process and registration process and passing an online selfassessment test nears. Some have said they do not have the time to study and appear for the exams. “I was given to understand that the MCA has made it mandatory for all independent directors to register themselves and also appear for a proficiency test thereafter. I am a chartered accountant qualified in January 1990 and I have a 30-year experience. I am finding it difficult to attend to the a