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Hindustan Times 14 June 2020 Posted by:Harshit Sabarwal For the time being, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies are relinquishing their share of the market in a bid to prop up crude prices, slashing millions of barrels of output as the pandemic crushes fuel demand. Once the global oil market emerges from the coronavirus crisis, it may be greeted by a surprising change: greater dependence on crude from OPEC. For the time being, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies are relinquishing their share of the market in a bid to prop up crude prices, slashing millions of barrels of output as the pandemic crushes fuel demand. They’d already spent the past three years forsaking sales volumes to offset the oil glut unleashed by burgeoning US shale production. Before the pandemic, forecasters were projecting that the group would need to cut production further in coming years. Yet the current upheaval could give OPEC another c

The Indian Express 14 June 2020 Written by: Prabha Raghavan It is unclear though how many firms with voluntary licences from Gilead have received the drug regulator’s go-ahead to manufacture and supply remdesivir in India. The government on Saturday released guidelines for doctors to use investigational antiviral medication   remdesivir in treating   India’s  Covid-19  patients, but there is still little clarity on how patients can access the drug. Health activists and industry sources allege “not a single” vial of the drug has been brought into India since its approval for emergency use by Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on June 1. Most generic pharma companies hoping to produce and supply the drug in India are still awaiting approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), which is learnt to be performing stringent checks on their manufacturing sites and testing their samples. It is unclear though how many firms with voluntary lice

The Hindu 14 June 2020 Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has raised a record ₹1.04 lakh crore in less than eight weeks from sale of minority stakes in its digital unit Jio Platforms to marquee investors. On Saturday evening, it announced sale of 0.93% in Jio Platforms to global investment firm TPG for ₹4,546.80 crore and 0.39% to private equity firm L Catterton for ₹1,894.50 crore. With these, Reliance has now sold 22.38% of Jio Platforms to investors including Facebook Inc, securing ₹1,04,326.95 crore in less than eight weeks, a company statement said. The investments in Jio Platforms, which comprises the firm’s telecoms arm Reliance Jio Infocomm and its music and video streaming apps, give the unit an enterprise value of ₹5.16 lakh crore, it said. It has literally been an investment spree into Jio Platforms ever since Facebook announced its ₹43,573.62 core infusion on April 22. Besides Facebook, Reliance has attracted some o

The Hindu (Business Line) 14 June 2020 Written by:Surabhi Private sector banks, including City Union Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, Bandhan Bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank, IDFC First Bank and Kotak Mahindra, could see significant changes, going by the Reserve Bank of India’s discussion paper on corporate governance and setting up of an internal working group to review guidelines on ownership and corporate structure.   Reference:  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/rbi-proposals-may-impact-top-management-at-private-banks/article31827407.ece

The Hindu 15 June 2020 After months of brinkmanship, India and Nepal have brought their relations to the edge of a precipice. The Oli government’s decision to pass the constitutional amendment  ratifying a change in its maps  that include Lipulekh,  Kalapani  and Limpiyadhura, territories that India controls, marks a decidedly new phase in ties. While the issue is an old one, it resurfaced in 2019 when  New Delhi published new political maps  to reflect the changes following the decision on August 5 to reorganise the State of Jammu and Kashmir, and  Nepal objected  to the depiction of disputed territory. In 2000 and 2014, India and Nepal agreed to hold talks about Kalapani and Susta, without much success. Matters snowballed when India’s  Defence Minister inaugurated a surfaced road  over the territory; when Nepal protested, Indian Army Chief,  General Naravane, suggested  it was at the “behest” of China. At the base of the rift is the lack of diplomatic manoeuvring to allow a s

The Indian Express 15 June 2020 Written by: Yubaraj Ghimire Moving the Bill, Law Minister Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe said it is a "rare and historic moment" for Nepal since Parliament is “solidly” behind the government in its attempt to reclaim territory currently under Indian “possession”. Nepal fast-tracked Sunday the passage of a constitution amendment Bill to approve the country’s new map that includes Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura which figure in Indian maps. The Bill, passed unanimously Saturday by the House of Representatives, was tabled in the Rastriya Sabha, the Upper House, where several members, while urging the government to “reclaim” the “encroached” territories, called for early dialogue with India. Moving the Bill, Law Minister Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe said it is a “rare and historic moment” for Nepal since Parliament is “solidly” behind the government in its attempt to reclaim territory currently under Indian “possession”. The passage of the

The Indian Express 15 June 2020 Written by Tabassum Barnagarwala While RT-PCR remains the standard, ICMR has widened the range of options for testing for Covid-19, including the familiar ELISA and a technology so far used for TB tests. When is which option to be used? The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently approved ELISA test kits for  Covid-19  developed by two companies. These were the first ELISA test kits approved other than those that use the ICMR’s own technology, and add to the basket of choices for testing for Covid-19. A look at these choices: ELISA Developed in 1974, ELISA stands for enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay. It detects whether a person’s immune system has produced antibodies against a particular infection — such as HIV. The test is called “enzyme-linked” because it uses enzymes to detect presence of antibodies in a blood sample. An ELISA test is of two types depending on the antibodies tested for — immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immun

Indian Express 15 June, 2020 Written by: Manish Sabharwal Education reforms are an endeavour of profound optimism but have been stifled by purists, vested interests, and regulators. It is illogical to deny the poorna swaraj that comes with the Institutes of Eminence tag to Ashoka University and Ahmedabad University or pursue regulation-driven standardisation for our 993 universities. A 1968 article about IITs by C Rajagopalan in the Economic and Political Weekly suggested that while no student was intentionally precluded from admission into IIT, many disabling factors ensured that a potential elite was being recruited from the higher strata of society almost to the neglect of the lower strata. Hindsight suggests that IITs were a masterstroke for India’s human capital, but the social mobility goal of higher education highlighted by Rajagopalan is important. The virus lockdown has exposed the urgency of more inclusive employment, employability, and education. Yet skill univer