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 DAWN 15 Sep 2020 Naveed Siddiqui FO rejects 'unwarranted' references to Pakistan in US-India joint statement on counter terrorism. The Foreign Office on Tuesday rejected the "unwarranted references" to Pakistan in the statement issued by the US-India Counter Terrorism Joint Working Group and Designations Dialogue, which underlined the "urgent need" for Islamabad to take steps to ensure that its territory is not used for terrorist attacks. "Our serious concerns and rejection of the unacceptable reference to Pakistan in the joint statement have been conveyed to the US side," a statement by FO Spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said. "It is important that partner countries take an objective view of the issues of peace and security in South Asia and refrain from endorsing positions that are one-sided and divorced from ground realities." In a joint statement released on September 10, the two countries had denounced the use of terrorist proxies a

 Firstpost September 15, 2020  Praveen Swami Unlike Pegasus, Zhenhua lacks prowess to spy; China's claims on data harvesting a smokescreen, exposes its weaknesses. Ensconced in their dour winter jackets, the red of carnations clasped in calloused hands was the only colour interrupting the grey ranks of the faithful, lined up on the second Sunday of January, 1988, to march in memory of the Berlin communists by Nazis. Vera Wollenberger waited by the roadside, hoping to hold up a placard of protest with the seditious words of the German Democratic Republic’s constitution emblazoned on it: “Every citizen has the right to express his opinion freely and openly.” The police were waiting, too: For more than a month, Wollenberger was held in Berlin’s Hohenschoenhausen Prison. Laid end-to-end, the files of the German Democratic Republic’s Ministerium für Staatssicherheit—popularly, the Stasi—run for 111 kilometres, documenting in intimate detail the lives of some 5.6 million people. In 1991,

 The Print 15 September, 2020 SIEGFRID ALEGADO and MICHELLE JAMRISKO Asia’s economy will shrink for first time since 1960s, ADB says. Developing Asia’s coronavirus-battered economy will shrink for the first time since the early 1960s, with the level of output next year still seen below pre-pandemic projections even as growth recovers, according to the Asian Development Bank. The region’s gross domestic product will decline by 0.7% in 2020, down from June’s projection of an increase of 0.1%, the Manila-based bank said in a report Tuesday. A contraction this year would be the first since 1962, Yasuyuki Sawada, the ADB’s chief economist, said in a live-streamed briefing. “The economic threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic remains potent, as extended first waves or recurring outbreaks could prompt further containment measures,” Sawada said. Downturns across developing Asia are more widespread than previous crises, with three-quarters of economies in the region tipped to shrink this year, h

 The Print 15 September, 2020 NAYANIMA BASU  NSA Ajit Doval storms out of SCO meet over Pakistan’s ‘fictitious’ map. India’s Ajit Doval Tuesday stormed out of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s virtual meeting of national security advisors after Pakistan showed a “fictitious” map violating the agenda of the gathering. During the meeting, which was chaired by Russia, Pakistan projected the new political map that the Imran Khan government released on 4 August, claiming all of Jammu and Kashmir and some parts of Gujarat as Pakistani territory. “The Pakistani NSA deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has recently been propagating. This was in blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting,” said Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs. “After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture. As was to be expected, Pakistan then went on to present

 The Indian Express September 16, 2020 Nirupama Subramanian , Krishn Kaushik Before Moscow pact, Indian and Chinese troops fired 100-200 rounds on Pangong north bank. Before External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi reached an agreement in Moscow on September 10 to dial down tensions along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the heightened tensions led to a firing incident between Indian and Chinese troops on the north bank of Pangong Tso, far more intense than the firing of warning shots in the Chushul sub-sector, The Indian Express has learnt. A top government officer, aware of the details, said this incident took place during the jockeying for dominating the Fingers on the north bank of the lake. According to the officer, “100 to 200 shots” were fired in the air by both sides on the ridgeline where Finger 3 and Finger 4 merge before moving north as one ridge. Both India and China had issued statements on the firing incident in the Chushul sub-secto

 The Indian Express September 16, 2020 Nushaiba Iqbal , Udit Misra  Ease of doing business: how states are ranked, what’s different now. The latest ease of doing business rankings for Indian states, released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), have thrown up some interesting results. The absence of more industrialised states such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra from the top rungs and the presence of states such as Uttar Pradesh (which was in the past far behind but has now shot up to all-India number 2) in the top ranks has surprised many. A look at what went into calculating the final rankings. How are the rankings arrived at? The objective of DPIIT’s reform exercise is to provide a business-friendly environment, for which the regulations in a state have to be made simpler. Therefore, it devised a methodology to rank the states according to the ease of doing business (EoDB) in a state. DPIIT provides a set of recommendations meant to reduce the time a

 The Indian Express September 16, 2020 Aanchal Magazine,Sandeep Singh EPFO looks at criminal action to recover stressed investments. WITH CONCERNS being raised about the exposure of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to downgraded debt securities, the retirement fund body is considering exercising all legal options, including criminal action, against companies for recovery of its stressed debt investments amounting to over Rs 12,800 crore. At its meeting last week, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) chalked out a plan of action after discussing the status reports of the risky investments spread across companies including Reliance Capital, DHFL, IL&FS, Yes Bank, Indiabulls and IDFC, three CBT members said. Measures for recovery will be taken for each company separately on “priority basis”, they said. “The Board has flagged concerns about distressed investments of the EPFO, pushing for immediate recovery of the investments as early as possible. All possible legal opti

 The Indian Express. September 16, 2020 Manraj Grewal Sharma  The Indian Express’s ‘China is Watching‘ investigation has spotlighted an elaborate operation by a Shenzen-based technology company with links to the government in Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party, to keep tabs on a very large number of individuals and entities in India. The company, Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. Limited, calls itself a pioneer in using big data for “hybrid warfare” and the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. China’s authoritarian government, ruling party, military, and many private companies frequently operate as a giant, coordinated operation, of which countries around the world are targets. When did China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) step into the field of cyber warfare? It was soon after the Gulf War of 1991 that the Chinese realised that the days of conventional warfare were rapidly coming to an end. Pavithran Rajan, a former Indian Army officer and information warfare exper

The Indian Express September 16, 2020 Explained Desk | New Delhi Quixplained: Stages of Covid-19 vaccine development, and the story so far. AstraZeneca, which is creating a vaccine for the novel coronavirus in partnership with Oxford University, paused its global vaccine trial on September 6 after a participant in the UK showed signs of severe illness. Several news reports described it as a neurological disorder affecting the spinal cord. Days later, the company resumed human testing of the vaccine candidate in the UK. It said it would work with health authorities “across the world” and “be guided” as to when other clinical trials can resume. There remains uncertainty in India, where the vaccine candidate is undergoing phase-2 and phase-3 trials simultaneously. Serum Institute of India (SII), which is conducting the trials, had to pause testing after a notice by India’s top drug regulator about the global issue. So far, around 100 participants have been administered the vaccine in Indi

 Firstpost September 16,2020 Press Trust Of India. Serum Institute of India gets DCGI's nod to resume clinical trial of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine. Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr VG Somani on Tuesday gave permission to Serum Institute of India to resume clinical trial of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the country while revoking its earlier order of suspending any new recruitment for phase two and three trial. The DCGI, however, put certain conditions like taking extra care during screening, providing additional information in informed consent and close monitoring for adverse events during follow-up of the study which have to be "scrupulously" followed by Serum Institute of India (SII). SII has also been asked to submit to the DCGI's office details of medication used in accordance with the protocol for management of adverse events. The DCGI had on 11 September directed Serum Institute of India to suspend any new recruitment in the phase two and thre

The Indian Express Wednesday, September 16, 2020. By: Express News Service | Vadodara  Visakhapatnam espionage case: NIA arrests man with suspected links to Pakistan’s ISI from Godhra The accused, Imran Giteli (37), a cloth merchant, was picked up from his home with the help of local police. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday night arrested a key accused in the Visakhapatnam espionage case from the Polan Bazaar area of Godhra town in Panchmahals district of Gujarat, for his alleged links with the Pakistani spy agency ISI. The accused, Imran Giteli (37), a cloth merchant, was picked up from his home with the help of local police. A statement from the NIA stated, “Investigation has revealed that arrested accused Giteli Imran was associated with Pakistani spies and agents under the guise of cross-border cloth trade. As per the directions of Pakistan-based spies, he deposited money into the bank accounts of Indian Navy personnel at regular intervals in lieu of sensitive and