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Amnesty International 15 June 2020 Nine human rights defenders, most of whom have been fighting for the release of the Bhima Koregaon 11 through litigation, research, or activism, were unlawfully targeted with a spyware attack. This blog post is jointly written by Amnesty International and Citizen Lab. Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Summary Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab have uncovered a coordinated spyware campaign targeting at least nine human rights defenders (HRDs) in India. Eight of the nine HRDs have been calling for the release of other prominent activists, popularly known as the Bhima Koregaon 11, most of whom have been imprisoned in Maharashtra, India since 2018. Between January and October 2019, the HRDs were targeted with emails containing malicious links. If these links were clicked, a form of commercially-manufactured Wi

The Hindu- Business Line 15 June 2020 Amiti Sen Export of footwear, garments, marine products and furniture may take a knock . India’s exports of footwear, garments, marine products and furniture to the European Union stand to be the worst-hit once the 27-member bloc starts dismantling its tariffs for Vietnam under the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) to be operational soon. Reference: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/world/eu-vietnam-free-trade-pact-may-hurt-india-the-most/article31835550.ece

The Indian Express 16 June 2020 Written by: Ravish Tiwari The next round of talks at the Lt General level will happen only after disengagement at Patrolling Points 14, 15 and 17 in the Galwan and Hot Springs region. As military and diplomatic talks look to lower tensions along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, India will continue to assert its military strength at the field level till it reaches an honourable understanding with China, highly placed government sources have told The Indian Express. China, sources said, has altered the status quo in the region and brought in additional troops. “We have to demonstrate our strength on the ground. Only then will they come to the talking table,” sources said, adding “there is no need to show aggression, only our strength”. The Indian Army, a top source said, has been given emergency powers to act according to the situation on the ground and assessment. “Army has been given emergency powers for deployme

The Indian Express 16 June 2020 Written by: Shubhajit Roy Sources said the demarche — a protest lodged through diplomatic channels —“to the Pakistan CDA (charge d’affaires) made clear that there should be no interrogation or harassment of the Indian officials”. TWO STAFFERS of the Indian High Commission in Pakistan, who went “missing” for most of Monday, have “returned” after India summoned Pakistan’s Acting High Commissioner Syed Haider Shah and issued a demarche, sources told The Indian Express. Pakistani media reports claimed that the two staffers had been arrested in Islamabad after their vehicle hit a pedestrian. Sources said the two “went missing in the morning”, but later returned and have undergone a medical examination. Sources said the demarche — a protest lodged through diplomatic channels — “to the Pakistan CDA (charge d’affaires) made clear that there should be no interrogation or harassment of the Indian officials”. “Responsibility for

The Indian Express 16 June 2020 Written by: Sunny Verma Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India shows that transactions and payments through various banking channels fell between 26 per cent and 71 per cent in April over March, depending upon the mode of transaction. PAYMENT transactions contracted by a massive 46 per cent in value in April over the previous month as the nationwide lockdown affected economic activity across the board. Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows that transactions and payments through various banking channels — cheque payments, ATM withdrawal, NEFT and RTGS, fell between 26 per cent and 71 per cent in April over March, depending upon the mode of transaction. The sole exception was direct benefit transfer (DBT) payments by the government using the Aadhar-enabled platforms, which recorded a 138 per cent jump. Transactions through issuance of cheques – a paper instrument – saw the sharpest contraction of 71 pe

The Indian Express 16 June 2020 Written by: Vijay Gokhale It is not China's sea, Indians have sailed its water for centuries. Delhi has stakes in commerce, peace and security in Indo-Pacific, it must now play the long game. The Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s perceptive essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs cogently spells out the dilemma that confronts Singapore, and indeed the rest of us in the Indo-Pacific, as the two most consequential powers of the world, the United States, which PM Lee calls the “resident power”, and China, which he says is “the reality on the doorstep”, are engaged in a fundamental transformation of their relationship. Almost nobody any longer thinks that China will conform to the US worldview, or that China’s rise from hereon will be unchallenged. The Indo-Pacific has prospered under American hegemony for the previous 40 years not just because of their huge investments — $328.8 billion in the Association

Marco Polo Countries, companies, and institutions around the world are mobilizing to apply the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to an enormous range of economic and social problems. That application requires bringing together several key inputs: research and engineering talent, data, computational power, and a healthy innovation ecosystem. Talent is one of the most important—and the most clearly quantifiable—of those inputs. To assess the global balance and flow of top AI scientists we focused on what many consider the top AI conference for deep learning: Neural Information Processing Systems, a.k.a. NeurIPS. For its December 2019 conference, NeurIPS saw a record-breaking 15,920 researchers submit 6,614 papers, with a paper acceptance rate of 21.6%, making it one of the largest, most popular, and most selective AI conferences on record. We created a unique and rich dataset of researchers with papers accepted at NeurIPS 2019, using that as a proxy for

Morningstar 9 June 2020 A reader asked us about Bharat Bond ETF 2023 and 2030, citing their “fantastic annualized returns”. He wanted to invest Rs 25 lakhs for a duration varying between 4 to 12 months. Our response. When looking at fund returns, consider ‘Absolute Returns’ for investment periods less than 1 year, annualized returns for longer time periods. Also, remember that returns rarely follow a straight line, the only exceptions being funds such as Overnight Funds and Liquid Funds. The Bharat Bond ETF April 2023 and April 2030 are Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that invest and replicate the NIFTY Bharat Bond index of the respective maturities. The index comprises of AAA-rated Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). The index constituents, and thus the fund holdings, are constituted such that they are run with a target maturity date of April 2023 and April 2030, respectively. i.e. the bonds mature around the given maturity date of the ETF (before not after).

Business Standard 16 June 2020 As many as 155 Indian companies have invested $22 billion in the US, thus creating nearly 125,000 jobs in the country, according to a report issued by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on Monday. The report, Indian Roots, American Soil 2020, is a state-by-state breakdown of tangible investments made and jobs created by 155 surveyed Indian companies doing business in all 50 states, as well as Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Texas, California, New Jersey, New York and Florida are home to the greatest number of workers in the US directly employed by the reporting Indian companies, the report said. Indian-Americans have made so many important cultural, economic and scientific contributions to our country and Texas values your hard work and innovation. So keep up the good work! said Senator John Cornyn, who is also co-chair of the Senate India Caucus. CII said that the surveyed companies disclosed the highest amoun

Hindustan Times 16 June 2020  Posted by: Prashasti Singh Dr. Michael Ryan, emergencies chief of the World Health Organization, said the finding that this virus genome “may represent a strain commonly transmitting in Europe” is significant but that verifying the hypothesis requires the sequences be shared. The emergencies chief of the World Health Organization said he “fully expects” China to share the genetic sequences from the resurgence of coronavirus that have recently hit Beijing, even though they have not yet done so. Chinese officials said that their examination of the virus shows it originated in Europe, but they have not yet shared the sequences with WHO or the global scientific community. “We fully expect our colleagues in China will share that information,” said Dr. Michael Ryan at a press briefing on Monday. Ryan said the finding that this virus genome “may represent a strain commonly transmitting in Europe” is significant but that verifying the h

Hindustan Times 16 June 2020 Prashant K. Nanda The national unemployment rate fell sharply to 11.63% in the week ended June 14 from 17.51% in the previous week, bringing the job loss rate closer to the levels prevailing before the lockdown, a survey by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) found. India’s labour market showed surprising strength in the second week of June, restoring many jobs that were lost to the economic upheaval caused by the nationwide lockdown, and offering some substance to the hope that the worst may be over. The national unemployment rate fell sharply to 11.63% in the week ended June 14 from 17.51% in the previous week, bringing the job loss rate closer to the levels prevailing before the lockdown, a survey by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) found.  The improvement comes as offices, shops and self-employment avenues reopened after the government lifted nearly all lockdown curbs after more than two months. T

Hindustan Times 15 June 2020 Posted by: Harshit Sabarwal Bitcoin slid below $9,000 on Monday for the first time since May, joining a downdraft in global equities begun during Asia hours amid growing concern about the risks of a second wave of coronavirus infections. The largest cryptocurrency tumbled as much as 5.1% Monday and recovered to about $9,100 as of 8:55 a.m. in London, according to consolidated pricing data from Bloomberg. For the first time since the end of April, the token dipped below its 50-day moving average, a level that’s considered a point of resistance for some traders. Bitcoin has flirted with $10,000 since May, failing to sustain a rally above that key psychological level after the closely watched “halving” industry event that reduced the amount of the cryptocurrency earned by miners. Stocks slid globally on Monday alongside US equity futures, in an echo of last Thursday’s risk-off mode. Chinese economic data Monday disappointed investors

The New Indian Express 13 June 2020 By: Sumi Sukanya Dutta A whopping 6.2% of the country’s GDP is required to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in India with intensified public measures, a report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said. Considering that Union health ministry’s budget is 1.3 per cent of the GDP and the Centre has pledged Rs 150 billion towards the public health crisis so far. This means that the cost of Covid-19 care could be nearly five times the annual allocation for health budget and 75 times the money dedicated currently towards the disease management. In absolute number that means, cost of Covid-19 management in the country could be Rs 25,534 billion or US $339 billion. The report “A Model-Based Analysis for COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Implications for Health Systems and Policy for Low- and Middle-Income Countries” has also noted that “in the event of a lockdown for 8 weeks, the peak of the epidemic shifts by 34-76 days, and the

The Hindu- Business Line 13 June 2020 Beijing has shut down several markets, including the largest Xinfadi wholesale food market, and locked down 11 residential communities near it after six new domestically-transmitted coronavirus cases were reported, taking the tally to nine in the capital city in the last three days, while 12 new infections were registered in other parts of China.Officials in Beijing found the coronavirus on a chopping board of imported salmon at the Xinfadi market. China’s National Health Commission, (NHC) said on Saturday that out of the 18 new coronavirus cases, 11 were confirmed cases reported in the country on Friday, including six domestically-transmitted infections in Beijing. Also on Friday, seven new asymptomatic cases were reported, taking the total number of such people in quarantine to 98, it said. Everybody, including customers and meat dealers have undergone nucleic acid tests. In total, six major wholesale markets in Beijing s

The Hindu- Business Line 12 June 2020 Maitri Porecha Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is set to hold a meeting with all associations of pharmaceutical manufacturers in connection to nearly ₹ 6,500 crores that the centre is planning to dole out as incentives for local production of drug raw materials to domestic producers.  The meeting is slated to occur in three phases on June 13 over video conference to discuss draft guidelines of the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme. The PLI scheme is being floated for promotion of domestic key starting materials, drug intermediaries and active pharmaceutical ingredients for antibiotics, steroids, anti-tuberculosis (TB) and diabetic medication amongst others identified as critical for manufacturing in India.  For 20 years now, India has been importing KSMs and APIs crucial for drug manufacturing from China. For instance, Penicillin is a key raw material made by fermentation technology used i

The Indian Express 14 June 2020 Written by: George Mathew The central bank said cross-country cooperation with Bhutan is already in place with CTS, NACH and NEFT operational there as well. NEFT is available for one-way transfers from India to Nepal. After successfully implementing a low-cost payment system in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is exploring the possibility of expanding its payment system abroad following “requests” from several countries. The central bank said “specific interests or requests are being received” for implementing payment systems like CTS (cheque truncation system), NEFT, UPI and messaging solutions by certain jurisdictions. “There is scope for enhancing global outreach of our payment systems, including remittance services, through active participation and co-operation in international and regional fora by collaborating and contributing to standard setting,” the RBI said in a note on ‘Oversight framework for financia

The Indian Express 14 June 2020 Written by: Yubaraj Ghimire The Bill will now go to the Rastriya Sabha. No date has been announced yet for its tabling in the Upper House which is dominated by the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Ignoring Indian objections to its territorial claims, Nepal’s House of Representatives, in a rare show of unanimity Saturday, passed a constitution amendment Bill to approve the country’s new map that includes Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura which figure in Indian maps. The Bill will now go to the Rastriya Sabha. No date has been announced yet for its tabling in the Upper House which is dominated by the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, who had been very critical of India over the boundary issue, chose not to speak during the debate Saturday. Later, Oli told reporters outside the House: “The first course is now over. And now dialogue with India will be the next course. I am happy about this unprecedented unity.” Delh