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The Hindu- Business Line 17 June 2020 HSBC is resuming a massive redundancy plan it had put on ice after the coronavirus outbreak and will cut 35,000 jobs over the medium term, a memo seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed. Reference:  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/hsbc-revives-plan-to-axe-35000-jobs/article31848923.ece

The Hindu- Business Line 17 June 2020 China is “throwing punches” and provoking its neighbours at a time when everyone expected that it would renounce confrontation and focus on the country’s economy, a top former US diplomat on Asian affairs has said in the wake of escalating border tensions between India and China. Reference:  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/china-throwing-punches-provoking-neighbours-us-expert-on-india-china-stand-off/article31849406.ece

The Hindu 17 June 2020 Stanly Johny On Tuesday, the same day news broke about the violent clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh, in which at last 20 Indian soldiers died, a Chinese J-10 fighter briefly entered Taiwan’s air defence zone, prompting the self-ruled island to scramble its aircraft in response. This was the third Chinese incursion into Taiwan’s airspace within a week. Two months ago, Chinese vessels had entered the waters of Malaysia and Vietnam. Last month, Chinese Coast Guard ships pursued Japanese fishing boats in waters claimed by both countries. All these incidents point to a newfound aggressiveness in China’s approach towards its already troubled neighbourhood, from the Himalayas to the South and East China Seas. Tensions in the neighbourhood are not new for China. The roughly 4,000 km-long India-China border, which is not clearly demarcated, has seen occasional flare-ups. In 2017, troops from both c...

The Hindu 18 June 2020 Kallol Bhattacherjee External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on June 17 afternoon when he held the Chinese forces responsible for the killing of at least 20 Indian soldiers. “ Exaggerated” claims will not help realise the understandings reached during the June 6 meeting between the Indian and the Chinese senior commanders, said Anurag Srivastava, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs. The response of the Indian diplomat came hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of China’s “firm will” in ensuring protection of its sovereign territory, indicating that Galwan Valley in Ladakh is part of China. “Both sides have agreed that the overall situation should be handled in a responsible manner and that the understandings reached between senior commanders on June 6 should be implemented sincerely. Making exaggerated and untenable claims is contrary to this understanding,” said...

The Indian Express 18 June 2020 Written by: Avishek G Dastidar , Ravish Tiwari A Chinese engineering major is set to lose a significant contract with the Indian Railways, and the Department of Telecommunications has conveyed to state-owned BSNL not to use Chinese-made equipment in its upgradation, top sources in both sectors said on Thursday. As tensions run high after the violent clash in Ladakh that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, a first set of actions have been initiated against Chinese businesses in the country. A Chinese engineering major is set to lose a significant contract with the Indian Railways, and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has conveyed to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) not to use Chinese-made equipment in its upgradation, top sources in both sectors said on Thursday. “DoT has conveyed to BSNL not to use Chinese-made equipment in the upgradation of its 4G facilities,” a source in the government said. “Th...

The Indian Express 18 June 2020 Written by: P Vaidyanathan Iyer , Harish Damodaran In this E-Xplained event on Zoom, Manish Sabharwal, chairman & co-founder of the staffing and human capital firm Teamlease Services, and Director, RBI Central Board, discusses lockdown, unlockdown and jobs.   In this E-Xplained event on Zoom, Manish Sabharwal, chairman & co-founder of the staffing and human capital firm Teamlease Services, and Director, RBI Central Board, discusses lockdown, unlockdown and jobs. Edited excerpts: I think people should be fearful of the unknown right now, because we are absolutely unmodellable. We don’t know if we are at the start, middle or the end of the virus… So I think the reality is, when confronted, there is uncertainty and there is risk. Risk is where all of us operate, which is, we can model different probabilities. Corona is uncertainty, we don’t know when the virus will come… But I think what is also clear...

The Indian Express 18 June 2020 The move comes two days after the worst flare-up on the Line of Actual Control between Indian and Chinese troops in over five decades which resulted in 20 Indian army personnel being killed. After asking state-owned telecom companies BSNL and MTNL to rework their tenders for network upgradation to promote indigenous equipment makers, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to ask private mobile companies to refrain from purchasing gear from Chinese vendors, according to senior government officials. The move comes two days after the worst flare-up on the Line of Actual Control between Indian and Chinese troops in over five decades which resulted in 20 Indian army personnel being killed.The government has also asked the public sector telecom companies to not use Chinese vendors in their procurements. This is an extension to the directive by the Centre sent to the companies to last month asking them to rework their t...

The Indian Express 18 June 2020 Written by: Amitabh Sinha Bambawale said the government must evolve a domestic consensus on a new China policy, but it needed to be done quickly, in “finite time”. Describing Monday night’s incident as an ‘inflexion point’ in India-China relations, Gautam Bambawale, India’s former ambassador to Beijing, said it was time for New Delhi to make a “deep reappraisal” of its policy towards China, because the old template that has been defining their relationship for the last 30 years was “no longer working”. “The current paradigm of India-China relationship was set in December 1988 during then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China. The key thing of that template was that while we continue our efforts to find a resolution of the boundary dispute, while ensuring peace on the border, the interactions and exchanges in other fields must proceed forward. After that there have been several agreements and understandings, in ...

The Indian Express 18 June 2020 Written by: Ajay Vir Jakhar Just as all ordinances aren’t reforms, all reforms aren’t the “1991 moment” for agriculture. The ordinances announced recently to facilitate trade in agricultural produce were historically resisted by the bureaucracy and the states. Pent up frustration at repeatedly failing to change the status quo of depressed farmer livelihoods, and the pressure of the PMO seeking instant delivery, has the establishment introducing ordinances rather than bills. Bills would require to be placed in the public domain for comments, consultations would be held with farmers, and states whose powers and revenues were being curtailed would get a hearing. In the hurry to impose ordinances, however, the baby has been thrown out with the bath water, specifically with ‘Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020.’ Due to the unionisation of middlemen (arhatias) and their financial ...

Dawn 17 June 2020 SLAMABAD: Services chiefs on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over preparedness of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to counter India’s sinister designs after receiving a rare combined briefing on occupied Kashmir and other regional issues at the headquarters of the premier intelligence agency. “A comprehensive briefing was given to military leadership on the regional security issues with special focus on situation of LoC and IOJ&K,” the ISPR said in a statement after the meeting, which was attended by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Nadeem Raza, Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Naval Staff Adm Zafar Mehmood Abbasi and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan. Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza also attended the meeting. “CJCSC and services chiefs appreciated the tireless efforts of ISI for national security and expressed satisfaction over professional preparedness,” the ...

Dawn 16 June 2020 ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday sought to tamp down fears about India’s imminent election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council saying “heavens would not fall”. In a televised statement, Mr Qureshi talked about the upcoming elections for five non-permanent members of the Security Council and addressed the concerns that India’s imminent election could pose challenges for Pakistan’s foreign policy.  The elections are scheduled to be held on Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York. Newly elected members would start their two-year tenure from January 1 next year. India, whose candidature has been endorsed by the Asia-Pacific Group, is all set to be elected. There is no other contestant from the regional group. However, for getting elected India would still require 129 votes, if all 193 members vote.  If elected, it would be India’s eighth tenure at the Security Council as a ...

NDTV 16 June 2020 Edited by: Deepshikha Ghosh New Delhi : Three Indian soldiers, Colonel B Santosh Babu, Havildar Palani and Sepoy Ojha, were killed in a "violent face-off" on Monday night with Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in Ladakh, in a massive escalation in the middle of efforts to defuse weeks of tension at the border. India retaliated and there were casualties on both sides, said the army. Army sources say the soldiers were not shot but were killed in a physical fight on Indian Territory that involved stones and batons. The foreign ministry said the clashes happened "as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there". Major Generals of both sides met to de-escalate tension after the clashes, according to an official statement. This is the first violent incident involving fatalities since 1975 between India and China, who fought a border war in 1962.   The army statemen...

The Telegraph 16 June 2020 SC sets Friday as deadline for filing detailed affidavits explaining the number of BS-IV vehicles in the country after March 31. The Supreme Court on Monday directed the ministry of road transport and highways besides the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) to file by Friday detailed affidavits explaining the number of BS-IV vehicles in the country after March 31. The apex court took umbrage over the “violation” of its March 27 order by which it had allowed the sale of limited number of BS-IV vehicles for 10 days across India, except in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), after the lifting of the Covid-19 induced lockdown. The top court had on March 27 said it was permitting the sale of 10 per cent of unsold BS-IV vehicles to make up for six days lost due to the lockdown which had started from March 25. It had also allowed registration of 1.05 lakh two-wheelers, 2,250 passenger cars and 2,000 commercial vehicles...

The Indian Express 17 June 2020 Coronavirus Drug Dexamethasone: Dexamethasone is a generic steroid widely used in other diseases to reduce inflammation. The drug helps stop some of the damage that can happen when the body's immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight off coronavirus. Coronavirus Drug Dexamethasone: In a major breakthrough in Covid-19 treatment, scientists in UK have claimed that the generic steroid drug dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalised patients. The results are a part of UK-based RECOVERY trial, one of the world’s largest randomised trial of drugs to treat COVID-19 patients. This is the same study that earlier this month showed the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was not working against the coronavirus. In the trial, led by a team from Oxford University, 2,104 patients were given dexamethasone and were compared with 4,321 patients who did not receive the drug. The drug is shown to c...

The Indian Express 18 June 2020 By: Explained Desk India-China Galwan faceoff: New Delhi must reduce its military and economic imbalance with Beijing for long-term regional stability and its own security, says Raja Mohan. The tensions on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between Indian security forces and China’s PLA have renewed the question of how New Delhi should deal with a rising, assertive Beijing. According to C Raja Mohan, director of the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore and contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express , the Chinese establishment, and others, are using the changed constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir to justify the PLA’s aggression and make Beijing a party to the Kashmir dispute. But this argument holds little water because the changes in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir have no impact on the current territorial disposition with China and Pakistan. In fact, Raja Mo...

Firstpost 19 June 2020 As protests against police brutality and racism draw lakhs in the US despite the coronavirus pandemic, movements like the antifa and Black Lives Matter have been blamed for incidents of violence witnessed during these gatherings. Often seen wearing Hawaiian shirts, carrying guns and seemingly set on starting a civil war, followers of the pro-gun and anti-government Boogaloo movement have also been seen at these protests. On Monday, a Texas bodybuilder arrested for running a steroid trafficking ring, was found to have been publicly associated with the movement. He had used his social media accounts to advocate vigilante ‘guerrilla warfare’ against the National Guardsman patrolling Black Lives Matter protests, Fox News reported. In another incident on Friday, a US Air Force sergeant wrote the word “boog” and the phrase, “I became unreasonable,” in blood on the hood of a car, shortly before being arrested on accusations of shooting ...

News 18 16 June 2020 Government sources on June 15 told CNN-News18 that the latest offer of talks on the issue of Nepal's new map was made by India before the constitutional amendment bill went to the Nepalese parliament for passage. He stated that China’s recent actions at the LAC are a part of the dragon’s ‘Five Fingers of Tibet’ strategy. He stated that China considers Tibet as the palm which is already occupied. They will now go after the first finger, Ladakh followed by other four fingers Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim & Arunachal Pradesh. Reference:  https://www.news18.com/videos/ivideos/sambit-patra-accuses-rahul-gandhi-of-escalating-politics-of-misinformation-and-propaganda-2676409.html

Hindustan Times 17 June 2020 Edited by: Amit Chaturvedi The Indian Army said that both Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged from the Galwan valley area. The US, meanwhile, said it is closely monitoring situation after the India-China border face-off. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in a face-off with Chinese soldiers at the border on Monday night. Initially, the Indian Army had put the number at three, but in an update on Tuesday evening, it said that 17 soldiers who were wounded in the clashes succumbed to injuries. The face-off has been going on for weeks. It began near the Pagong Lake in Ladakh on May 5-6. This is the first deadly conflict between India and China in at least 45 years. Around 43 Chinese soldiers have been injured in the violent face-off, pushing the bilateral relationship between the two nuclear powers to an all-time low. Here are the latest developments on the India-China face-off: The United States has said that it is “closely monito...