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The Economic Times March 05, 2020 ET Bureau The cabinet allowed non-resident Indians (NRIs) to acquire up to 100% of state-owned Air India and approved 72 changes to the companies law, paving the way for direct overseas listing and decriminalising a host of offences under the act. It also approved the previously announced consolidation of 10 public sector banks into four with effect from April 1. “Today’s decision on Air India is one milestone decision where NRIs who are Indian citizens will get permission to invest 100% in the airline,” information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters in a briefing. The government has put its entire stake in Air India up for sale. Previously, NRIs could own up to 49% in the carrier. The higher limit could increase participation in the divestment. An attempt to sell as much as 76% of Air India in 2018 had been unsuccessful. In Line with Other Airlines There is no change in the limit for overseas investors in ...

American Military News March 05, 2020 The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that it is launching an investigation into Harvard and Yale after they failed to disclose about $375 million in gifts and contracts from China and Saudi Arabia in the past four years. Harvard and Yale are the latest in the Education Department’s continuing efforts to crack down on foreign influence, particularly from China.  According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. universities have failed to report they brought in $6.5 billion from foreign nations since 1990. A major aspect of the alleged foreign influence on universities is through gifts and grants, which can come with strings attached and might compromise their academic independence. “This is about transparency,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a statement Wednesday. “If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve to know how much and f...

Business Strandard March 04, 2020 PTI India has the third-highest trade-related illicit financial flow among over 135 countries with a whopping $83.5 billion (Rs 6.14 trillion, which is 3.05 per cent of nation's gross domestic product) escaping the government's tax net owing to trade-based money laundering tactics, according to a report released on Tuesday by US-based think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI). The GFI classifies as illicit flows funds which are illegally earned, transferred, and/or utilized across an international border. The primary sources of illicit flows include grand corruption, commercial tax evasion, and transnational crime. A drug cartel using trade-based money laundering techniques to use the illegal proceeds of narcotics sales to purchase used cars, which will be exported to the drug source country and sold, is an example of illicit financial flow, it said. According to the report titled "Trade-related Illicit Financial Fl...

The Print March 04, 2020 Snehesh Alex Philip The Army is recalibrating and refining its plans for “dynamic responses” below the threshold of all-out war, like the Balakot air strikes, against Pakistan and China, General M.M. Naravane said Wednesday.  Addressing a seminar organised by CLAWS, the Army’s think tank, Naravane spoke at length about the evolution of warcraft even as he emphasised the continued relevance of the ancient philosopher Chanakya’s famous treatise Arthashastra. Among other things, he said the “military icons of the 20th century”, like tanks and fighter aircraft, were on their way out the same way the “Sony Walkman” was made redundant by newer technologies to hear music. The Army, he added, was looking at the possible induction of laser and directed-energy weapons. Apart from strengthening its conventional prowess, Naravane said, the Army was also focusing on “dynamic responses — actions below the threshold of all-out war”. The Balakot air s...

Business Standard March 03, 2020 PTI A parliamentary panel on Tuesday recommended setting up of market intelligence cell for MSMEs, and made a case for cut in tax rates for proprietary as well as partnership firms from 30 per cent to 22 per cent on the lines of reduction in corporate tax. The committee in its Report on Demand for Grants (2020-21) of Ministry of MSME to the Rajya Sabha expressed concern over under-utilisation of funds by the ministry and bulk of expenditure being used in the later quarters of the year. It also suggested that MSMEs should be allowed to have one unified GST registration, which is applicable to all states. The panel also proposed multiple registrations with several government agencies for various purposes should be done away with for MSMEs. Inter-ministerial coordination should be improved to bring out one registration to carry out all business activities - including exports, tax and day-to-day business activities - to improve ease of do...

Business Insider March 02, 2020 Isobel Asher Hamilton Apple's suppliers in China use thousands of displaced Uighurs for labour, according to a new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The report is wide-ranging and focuses on a coordinated government campaign to move and displace Uighurs, a Muslim minority found mostly in Xinjiang province. The report estimates that between 2017 and 2019 some 80,000 Uighurs were forcibly transferred to work in factories across China. The relocation programme is part of the Chinese government's broader persecution of the Uighur minority, which is predominantly Muslim. Over 1 million Uighur people in Xinjiang have been imprisoned in detention camps, and the government has launched a program paying Chinese men to sleep with Uighur women which was described as "mass rape" by one Uighur activist. Although the report highlights that the displaced Uighur workers are present in many...

Business Standard Abhijit Lele March 04, 2020 Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, a company controlled by the Anil Ambani group, has defaulted on paying dues to privately owned Yes Bank, state-owned Jammu & Kashmir Bank and other lenders. The defaults, on interest and principal, happened between January 23, 2020 and February 1, 2020, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Tuesday. The defaults on principal owed to SREI Equipment Finance amounted to Rs 1.04 crore and Rs 20.15 crore to Yes Bank. I t  failed to pay Rs 30.12 crore as interest to Yes Bank, Rs. 0.36 crore to Jammu and Kashmir Bank, and Rs 0.31 crore to SREI Equipment. The company's total borrowings from banks and financial institutions stood at Rs 3,872 crore on January 31, 2020. Its total financial indebtedness was Rs. 6,178 crore that day. Reference: https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/anil-ambani-group-firm-reliance-infra-defaults-on-loans-to-yes-bank-others-1200...

The Indian Express March 05, 2020 Express News Service The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), against Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. This is the first time the agency has booked Goyal for alleged money laundering. Sources said that the agency has taken cognisance of an FIR by Mumbai Police at MRA Marg Police Station on a complaint from a travel agency. Sources said the ED’s forex violations probe revealed alleged money laundering, but in the absence of a predicate offence it was not in a position to register a PMLA case. They added that the agency is also carrying out searches in Mumbai in connection with the new case. Last year, the ED questioned Goyal and searched multiple premises associated with him, after registering a case under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. As per ED sources, Goyal has 19 privately held companies, of which 14 are in India and 5 abroad. The Directorate has al...

Business Standard March 04, 2020 Swati Verma  In a bid to battle the economic fallout emanating from deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19), the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) cut its benchmark policy rates by 50 basis points (bps) in the range of 1 to 1.25 per cent on Tuesday. However, the emergency rate cut failed to cheer investors as US stocks tumbled. Market participants worried whether pumping more money into financial markets would address the central problem – a cut in business activity as workers and consumers stay home. Back home, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday it was ready to ensure that the markets ran well and confidence was maintained. It is monitoring global and domestic developments. Here's a look at what market analysts think about the developments: Deepak Jasani, Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities Basically, rate cut as an instrument is losing its potency. Despite so many rate cuts, growth resurrection has not happened across the...

The Indian Express March 05, 2020 Aashish Aryan The number of preventive internet shutdowns enforced by the central and the state governments in India saw a major spike between 2017 and 2019, and as many as 95 of these lasted for more than 24 hours. There were at least 147 instances over these three years for which there is no data on the duration of the shutdowns as there is lack of any form of communication on these blockades, according to data available in public domain and compiled by Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC). In most of these instances, there was no formal order being issued to the telecom operators, according to senior industry executives who requested not to be named. The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, where the internet had remained suspended until March 4 for 213 days, has seen since 2012 at least 60 instances of connectivity being snapped for more than 24 hours without any official order. Suspension of the Internet: What the Rules say, what ...

The Indian Express March 05, 2020 Karishma Mehrotra & Liz Mathew Under fire from the Opposition in Parliament over the communal riots in the national capital, the Union government is contemplating issuing fresh guidelines to social media platforms, which, the government feels, have become “tools to propagate hate and spread inflammatory messages”. The issue was discussed in a meeting held by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday in which social media firms came under severe criticism. Twitter, it is learnt, was singled out for lower and slower compliance rates, with the Delhi Police Commissioner referring to specific riot-related tweets circulated on February 23 and 24 that led to rumour-mongering. The meeting was led by the Home Secretary and was attended by officials from the Information and Technology and Information and Broadcasting ministries, Delhi Police officers, and executives from Google, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTok. “Many iss...

The Economic Times March 05, 2020 Anandi Chandrashekhar, Sanghamitra Kar & Ashwin Manikandan Crypto currency companies are expected to revive plans to invest and expand their business in India following a Supreme Court verdict overturning a Reserve Bank of India notification that had restricted banking access for virtual currency trading. ZPX will consider ramping up operations in India, said Ramani Ramachandran, CEO of the Singapore-based crypto firm. WazirX will start investing in the Indian market this year, said Nischal Shetty, cofounder of the crypto-exchange firm. India’s virtual currency industry had come to a standstill following the April 2018 notification that prohibited use of banking channels for transactions of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Several exchanges shifted overseas or closed their business altogether in the last two years. “When a regulator like RBI bans, the market closes down. Six months back, we pivoted from crypto to blockchain, as we ha...