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Hindustan Times July 28, 2020             Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who counts the campaign against India over Jammu and Kashmir as his government’s key achievement has roped in the Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, in its 18-point plan to commemorate the Aug 5 anniversary of India scrapping Article 370 that extended special status to the valley, people familiar with the development said. The ISI is Pakistan’s notorious spy agency accused of nurturing terror groups, mostly directed at India and Afghanistan. The 18-point programme includes a visit by Imran Khan to occupied Kashmir where he is tentatively scheduled to address the assembly, a speech that is going to be beamed live. Before he reaches Muzaffarabad, Khan’s government intends a field trip for foreign journalists to the occupied territory. Like in the past, the terror training camps funded by the ISI would be off-limits for the journalists. India had tabled ...

The Wire July 28, 2020           Multiple issues centred around the transparency of the  Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) have been raised since its inception. Adversaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party have repeatedly questioned the necessity of such a fund, especially when a separate corpus for disaster relief by the name of Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) already existed. By rejecting multiple Right to Information (RTI) inquiries on the fund’s accounting and auditing procedures, and its spending, the Prime Minister’s Office only added to the cloud of confusion prevailing around PM CARES.  Now, as the Bihar assembly polls nears, speculation about the possibility of misuse of the fund during the election campaign have been rife in the political corridors of New Delhi. In informal discussions, opposition leaders predict that the ruling BJP may tactically increase P...

Economics Times July 29, 2020        The government may consider lowering the base price of 5G spectrum to compensate telcos if they have to shell out more for buying non-Chinese equipment. Officials said the government was aware that keeping Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE away from India’s 5G market may push up network deployment costs and is thus open to reassessing the base prices suggested by the regulator to make it viable for operators. “Procurement procedures are being reworked, surveillance has become a global issue and companies such as Huawei and ZTE whose ownership is questionable are going to increasingly find it tough to get contracts,” one official told ET. In such a scenario, excluding Chinese vendors was “a natural progression or outcome of the concerns arising out of national security for countries,” the official said. Base rates too high Experts said the absence of Huawei and ZTE would leave Indian telcos ...

The Indian Express July 29, 2020      POINTING OUT that OIL “does not have, till date, the required consent to establish and/or consent to operate to either carry out drilling and testing of hydrocarbons in Well Baghjan-5,” a panel of experts set up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has flagged a series of violations in the company’s Baghjan project in Assam’s Tinsukia where a gas well erupted on May 27. In a preliminary report, the panel has recommended “scrutiny of all existing projects of OIL in Assam” in view of “serious and grave infraction against the statutory environmental safeguards”. The report blamed “deficiency in understanding” and “proper planning of critical operations” for the blowout. “There was a clear mismatch between planning and its execution at site and deviations from the standard operating procedure. There were serious deficiencies, of proper levels of supervision of critical operation at the well site, both from the contractor as well ...

The India Express July 29, 2020      In a widely noted and strongly criticised speech late last week, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, laid out two definitive propositions on China. One is that nearly five decades of US engagement with China have arrived at a dead-end. In the other, Pompeo recognised that the US can’t address the China challenge alone and called for collective action. He mused on whether “it’s time for a new grouping of like-minded nations, a new alliance of democracies.” Pompeo, however, insisted that tackling China is very unlike the “containment of Soviet Union”. It is “about a complex new challenge that we’ve never faced before. The USSR was closed off from the free world. Communist China is already within our borders”. Reference:  https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/us-coalition-against-china-mike-pompeo-india-6526867/

Oil Price.com July 27, 2020       Few global projects receive the same amount of praise and criticism as China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) does. Regardless of one’s opinion, the BRI is President Xi’s signature foreign policy project with magnanimous allure. According to Morgan Stanley, overall expenses could reach  $1.2-1.3 trillion by 2027 . Beijing has invested significantly not only in financial terms but also politically. In this context, the success of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is essential to showcase Beijing’s model of development.   The CPEC was announced in 2013 in response to the countries’ economic needs and political necessities. After the election that brought Imran Khan to power, Chinese-Pakistani relations entered a difficult phase due to the criticism of the new government concerning the conditions of the loans. More recently, however, the CPEC has seen a revival as the countries have settled certain differences and s...

Hindustan Times July 29, 2020         In his speech at the CII National Council, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das spoke about five dynamic shifts which are underway in the Indian economy. One of the five themes in the speech was “fortunes shifting in favour of the farm sector”. The speech cites record production of food grains, fruits and vegetables, and all-time high buffer stocks as “the most vivid silver lining in the current environment”. The speech also gives a policy direction for the future. “Shifting the terms of trade in favour of agriculture is the key to sustaining this dynamic change and generating positive supply responses in agriculture. Experience shows that in periods when terms of trade remained favourable to agriculture, the annual average growth in agricultural gross value added (GVA) exceeds 3%. Hitherto, the main instrument has been minimum support prices, but the experience has been that price incentives have ...

Hindustan Times July 29, 2020 The Union power ministry plans to request the cabinet to consider raising the borrowing limits of debt-laden state electricity distribution companies (discoms) so that they qualify for the  ₹ 1.25 trillion reform-linked loan package, two people aware of the development said. The circulated draft cabinet note seeks a one-time exemption for the discoms from the conditions laid out for accessing working capital under the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY). The Union government had announced the liquidity injection into discoms as part of a stimulus package to revive India’s virus-battered economy. The money is to be raised by state-owned Power Finance Corp. and Rural Electrification Corp. from the market against the receivables of discoms. “The draft cabinet note has been circulated for inter-ministerial consultations,” said a senior government official, one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. The  ₹ 90,000 c...

Cornell Alliance for Science July 27, 2020 In the two decades since their adoption, genetically modified (GM) crops have achieved significant environmental benefits by reducing pesticide use and greenhouse gas emissions and increasing yields, a new study finds. “GM crop technology continues to make an important contribution to reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture and securing global food supplies in a sustainable way,” says Graham Brookes, director of PG Economics and co-author of the paper published in the peer review journal GM Crops & Food. “It has also helped lift many small, resource-poor farmers and their families in developing countries out of poverty.” Though anti-GMO groups frequently claim that GM crops are associated with higher pesticide use, the paper notes that the issue is more complicated and nuanced, varying by countries and crops. Overall, however, farmers reduced pesticide spraying by 776 million kilograms, or 8.6 percent, ...

The Tribune July 27, 2020         Directing action against the sugar mafia, the federal government wrote to the Federal Investigation Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Competition Commission of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue, State Bank of Pakistan, and the chief secretaries of Punjab and Sindh governments, on Monday. The letters, sent from the office of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar, reiterate action against the sugar mafia based on the report of the sugar inquiry commission at the behest of the prime minister, and enclose commission's report within. The FIA and SECP have been directed to investigate instances of corporate fraud as indicated by the commission's findings. "Additionally, the SECP may also in light of findings of the Sugar Commission inquire, fix responsibilities and take cognizance of the failure of the external auditors/firms and also its own regulatory oversight mechanisms...

The Hindu Business Line July 27, 2020       We need to achieve much more indigenously to cater to the ever-demanding digital consumers. The present Chinese apps’ ban serves as a great opportunity for India to develop indigenous apps that are relevant from an Indian context Ever since the Central government announced the ban of Chinese apps, Indians have been forced to look for alternate applications. This is certainly a shot in the arm for the Indian app developers, who were ignored in the past due to the easy availability of popular apps like Tiktok, Helo etc. It is heartening to see over 10 million downloads of the “made in India” app Chingari (a Tiktok equivalent). It will take some time for this Indian app to take Tiktok’s position, considering that Tiktok had over 200 million subscribers in India. Reference:  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/a-watershed-moment-for-creating-a-digital-atmanirbhar-bharat/article32202018.ece

Economic Times July 27, 2020        India has asked the members of WTO to constructively engage in negotiations for a permanent solution to public stockholding for food security purposes, as committed in the ministerial conferences in Bali and Nairobi. According to statements delivered by Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the WTO, Brajendra Navnit, at the meeting of General Council of WTO on July 22-23, a permanent solution to the issue, which is simple and can be used by developing countries, would go a long way  in addressing their genuine concerns relating to food security of the most vulnerable sections of the society. Navnit said the current pandemic has shown how adversely the poor in developing countries are impacted, and developing governments have been struggling with the issues faced by the most vulnerable sections of the society, including agricultural farmers and labourers. "India takes this opportunity to re...