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The Indian Express August 21, 2020 Six months after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic — and over 27 lakh cases and 52,000 deaths later — several indicators have begun to suggest that an improvement in the situation might just be round the corner in India. Consider: For the first time since May, the overall positivity rate in the country has begun to decline. Which means, for the same number of tests, fewer people are now being found infected with the virus. The positivity rate touched a high of 9 per cent on August 9, and has been declining steadily since. As of Tuesday (August 18), positivity had fallen to 8.72 per cent. Simultaneously — and not unrelatedly — there is a relative stagnation in the numbers of new positive cases being detected every day. This number has been locked in the mid-60,000s for almost two weeks – much longer than it has remained in any other range of quite some time now.  Overall positivity rate has come down to 8.72 per c

The Hindu August 19, 2020 Calls for more reforms in health, land, labour and financial sectors to counter the impact of the pandemic.  The World Bank on Wednesday indicated further lowering of growth projection for India. It has also pitched for accelerating reforms key areas such as health, labour, land, skills and finance so that the country can come out stronger from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Reference:  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/macro-economy/covid-effect-world-bank-may-project-steeper-growth-contraction-for-india-in-october/article32391955.ece

OP India August 13, 2020 Be it the battlefield or business environment, Chinese have always tried to strain India’s economy in all possible aspects. After conquering and destroying the smartphone manufacturing market, Chinese companies are yet again ready to barge-in and take over the telecom equipment/ infrastructure space. While there are supporters of Chinese players giving the logic that they provide products and services at a cheaper rate than other players, but one has to wonder how is it, that only the Chinese companies can often offer disruptive pricing and no other players or indigenous or any other foreign players can afford to sell products at that price? The answer to this question is that while other players focus their energies on developing and bringing new technologies, the Chinese focus on stealing patented and unpatented technologies from around the world through sophisticated cyber-attacks, thereby developing cheaper products. China often rides on the

The economist August 19, 2020 MILLIONS MORE are going to die before the covid-19 pandemic is over. That is the stark message of Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s largest philanthropists via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in an interview with Zanny Minton Beddoes,  The Economist ’s editor-in-chief, in early August. Most of these deaths, he said, would be caused not by the disease itself, but by the further strain on health-care systems and economies that were already struggling. He also lamented the politicisation of the response to the virus in America, and the spread of conspiracy theories—some implicating him—both of which have slowed efforts to contain the disease’s spread. But he offered reasons for hope in the medium term, predicting that by the end of 2021 a reasonably effective vaccine would be in mass production, and a large enough share of the world’s population would be immunised to halt the pandemic in its tracks. Mr Gates had

Hindustan Times  August 19, 2020 China has extended an anti-dumping tariff on optical fibre made in India, the ministry of commerce said in a notice published on its website on Thursday.  The duties will be renewed from Friday and remain in place for five years. In the announcement, the MOFCOM “…decided to continue to impose anti-dumping duties on imported single-mode optical fibers originating in India from August 14 on the basis of the final review of the investigation results. The implementation period is 5 years”. The ministry defined single-mode fibre as a fibre that transmits only a single-mode optical signal within a certain wavelength range.  The punitive tariff on single-mode optical fibre takes effect from August 14 and lasts for five years, with tariffs ranging between 7.4 percent and 30.6 percent depending on the specific Indian manufacturers, the ministry said. The extension of the anti-dumping duties comes in the backdrop of the ongoing Sino-India bord

Business Standard August 19, 2020 In November 2019, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced a framework of margin collection in the cash segment where one needs to pay for the securities purchased within two days to the stockbroker. Till November 2019, the margins from clients were mandatorily required only in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment. For the past several years, these cash margins were not demanded from clients and were borne by their brokers. The market regulator, however, tightened the margins norms due to the misuse of securities by a few unscrupulous brokers in the industry. These new norms also brought along multiple challenges for investors and stockbrokers alike. Come September 1, stockbrokers will have to report the upfront margin collected and available with them from their clients – both for sell and buy trades, and failure to do so will attract a penalty. The stocks lying in the investors’ demat account, which were equival

The Economic Times August 19, 2020 UNITED NATIONS: After a resounding defeat in the U.N. Security Council, the United States is poised to call for the United Nations to reimpose sanctions on Iran under a rarely used diplomatic maneuver - a move that is likely to further isolate the Trump administration and may set off a credibility crisis for the United Nations. The sanctions had been eased under the 2015 nuclear deal that President Donald Trump withdrew from two years ago. But last week the U.S. lost its long-shot bid to indefinitely extend an international arms embargo on Iran and has now moved to a new diplomatic line of attack. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the move would come "soon," but he would not discuss timing. He was expected to travel to New York on Thursday to notify the Security Council president that the U.S. was invoking the "snapback" mechanism in the council's resolution that endorsed the nuclear deal. "

Indian Express August 19, 2020 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has categorically rejected any possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, according to a media report. "Our policy on Israel is clear: The Quaid-i-Azam (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) had said that Pakistan can never accept state of Israel until the people of Palestine get rights and an independent state," Khan said in an interview with private news channel 'Dunya TV' on Tuesday. Pakistan and Israel do not have diplomatic relations and their aircraft are not allowed to use each other's airspace. "If we recognise Israel and ignore tyranny faced by the Palestinians, we will have to give up Kashmir as well, and this we cannot do," His remarks came in the backdrop of recent peace overtures between the UAE and Israel, with the former becoming only the third Arab nation to enter into a peace deal with the Jewish state. Questions were also asked in Pakistan why it was

Swarajya August 19, 2020 Amid China's aggressive political and military behaviour, India, Japan and Australia have begun talks for launching a trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) to reduce dependency on Beijing, reports Economic Times. Stressing on the urgency to take the initiative forward, Japan through its Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had recently approached India. The three countries are now working on fixing dates for the first meeting of the their respective commerce and trade ministers by next week. Amid the tension with China at the line of actual control (LAC) in Ladakh, India has taken the proposal quite seriously, contrary to its erstwhile approach of considering any such proposal cautiously. The decision to become the part of the global supply chain, which can potentially serve as an alternative to China, has reportedly been taken at the highest levels of the Indian government. The development comes after PM Modi's Ind

The Hindustan Times August 19, 2020 Officials in Odisha have busted a GST invoice racket allegedly involving Rs 712 crore. They have also arrested a businessman for carrying out fake transactions. Odisha GST commissioner Sushil Lohani said GST officials arrested Madhumita Steels Industries Private Limited director Kashmira Kumar Agrawal for allegedly transferring bogus input tax credit of Rs 129 crore to recipients in and the state Odisha through fake invoices worth Rs 712 crore. He said Agrawal had hired middlemen who collected documents, like PAN card, Aadhaar card and photographs, from people in Sundargarh and Sambalpur districts seeking employment, in exchange for money. He, then, allegedly misused the documents to create dummy firms in the name of these people. Agrawal also allegedly transferred huge sums of money to dummy firms. In case of one firm, he had shown to have purchased goods worth Rs 13 crore but had transferred Rs 38 crore through its bank accounts

The Telegraph August 19, 2020 The People's Bank of China (PBOC) — the Chinese central bank — is using the portfolio route to pick up stakes in Indian companies amid the standoff between New Delhi and Beijing in Ladakh and the Modi government tightening its rules on foreign direct investment (FDI) from China. After picking up a stake in the country’s largest pure mortgage lender HDFC, the PBOC has acquired a very small stake in ICICI Bank through the recently closed Rs 15,000-crore qualified institutional placement (QIP) by the country’s second largest private sector lender.  The PBOC was among 357 institutional investors that subscribed to the issue. Sources confirmed that the Chinese central bank had picked up shares worth Rs 15 crore. Based on current market capitalisation, the stake of the PBOC in ICICI Bank is about 0.0065 per cent. The share price of ICICI Bank on Tuesday settled with gains of 2.54 per cent, or Rs 9.15, at Rs 369.40 on the BSE. The Chinese