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 Deccan Chronicle Sep 17 2020 PTI India ranks 116 in World Bank's pre-pandemic human capital index. Washington: India has been ranked at the 116th position in the latest edition of the World Bank's annual Human Capital Index that benchmarks key components of human capital across countries. However, India's score increased to 0.49 from 0.44 in 2018, as per the Human Capital Index report released by the World Bank on Wednesday. The 2020 Human Capital Index update includes health and education data for 174 countries covering 98 per cent of the world's population up to March 2020, providing a pre-pandemic baseline on the health and education of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries. The analysis shows that pre-pandemic, most countries had made steady progress in building human capital of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries. Despite this progress, and even before the effects of the pandemic, a child born in a typical coun...

 Hindustan Times Sep 17 2020, Ron Malka What the Israel-UAE-Bahrain accord means for India and the world. The peace agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain is a historic moment that brings together the most advanced states in West Asia for the good of humanity. Combining forces and finding common ground has never been more urgent than now, in the midst of a pandemic, and the Abraham Accord is set to generate immediate results. This historic agreement also brings opportunities for India, which enjoys strong bilateral relations with these developed and thriving economies. India will benefit greatly by expanding its cooperation in many areas including health care, energy, agriculture, cyber security, regional security, technology, water and more. The leaders of Israel, the United States (US) and the UAE hailed the agreement as a “historic diplomatic breakthrough that will advance peace in the Middle East”, “chart a new path”, and “unlock the great potenti...

 Financial Express Sep 18, 2020 PTI US law firm files class action suit against HDFC Bank for misleading claims. A law firm in the US has filed a class action suit against HDFC Bank, claiming damages for the losses incurred by investors because of “materially false and misleading” representations made by India’s largest private sector lender. The suit by Rosen Legal specifically names the bank’s managing director and chief executive Aditya Puri, his chosen successor Sashidhar Jagdishan and company secretary Santosh Haldnakar, who are the defendants in the suit, as per a copy of the complaint uploaded on the website. The complaint did not mention the exact quantum of the damages sought, though it maintained that may be thousands of investors would have suffered. HDFC Bank could not be immediately reached for comment. As per the suit, bank officials “engaged in a plan, scheme, conspiracy and course of conduct, pursuant to which they knowingly or recklessly engaged in acts, transactio...

Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Abhinav Sahay India welcomes Abraham Accords, calls for talks on ‘two-state solution'. India on Thursday welcomed the signing of the Abraham Accords by the US, Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and reiterated its call for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians for a “two-state solution”. US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined the foreign ministers of Bahrain and the UAE for the signing of the historic agreements aimed at normalising relations between Israel and the Arab countries. They came almost 26 years after the signing of a declaration for a peace deal between Israel and Jordan. “We have followed the Abraham Accords signed in Washington DC by the UAE, Bahrain, Israel and the US. As I have said earlier, India has always supported peace and stability in West Asia, which is our extended neighbourhood,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava told a weekly news b...

Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Shivani Kumar Centre to allow private firms to utilise ISRO infrastructures: Jitendra Singh. The government will allow private companies to utilise infrastructures of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which are otherwise not available elsewhere in India under Indian National Space, Promotion and Authorisation Centre (INSPACe), said Union Minister of Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha regarding the involvement of private initiative in space exploration, Singh said on Thursday, “Government will allow them to utilise those infrastructures of ISRO which are otherwise not available elsewhere in India and there will be reasonable charges for utilisation of government infrastructure which will be varying depending on the requirement.” “There are more than 500 companies that partner with ISRO in carrying out space activities. The broad areas and sectors covered by private companies are providing materials, mechani...

Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Arpan Rai Bangladesh economy shows early signs of pandemic recovery. A rebound in garment orders after demand crashed during spring shutdowns is helping to revive the Bangladesh economy. Apparel makers, the country’s main export industry, say they are looking ahead to Christmas orders from the U.S. and other major markets. Remittances from Bangladeshi workers employed overseas have also recovered, helping to relieve pressures from a pandemic quasi-shutdown during the spring. The Asian Development Bank reported this week that the economic comeback was encouraging. It is forecasting the economy will grow at a robust 6.8% annual pace in the fiscal year that ends in June if current conditions persist. That’s a much brighter outlook than in April-May, when global clothing brands suspended or cancelled orders worth more than $3 billion, affecting about 4 million workers and thousands of factories. “At the moment we can say that the ready-made garment industry has...

 Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Prashasti Singh India at UN cautions against linking environmental degradation to peace and security. India at the UN on Thursday cautioned against “securitisation” of environmental issues, saying linking up everything related to environmental degradation to peace and security does nothing to address climate concerns meaningfully nor does it ensure that real perpetrators adhere to their commitments on environmental issues. Environmental degradation can have humanitarian impact or effect just as many other aspects of human activity have humanitarian dimensions, India said in a statement to the UN Security Council’s high-level open debate on maintenance of international peace and security: Humanitarian Effects of Environmental Degradation and Peace and Security. “However, merely to link up everything related to environmental issues with peace and security does nothing to enhance our understanding of the problem; nothing to help us address these issues in...

 Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Harshit Sabarwal United States accuses Hezbollah of storing explosive chemical in Europe. Militant group Hezbollah has stored chemicals that can be used to make explosives in several European countries, a senior State Department official said as he appealed to countries in Europe and elsewhere to impose bans on the organization. Hezbollah operatives have moved ammonium nitrate from Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland in recent years and are suspected to still be storing the material throughout Europe, said Nathan Sales, the State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, on Thursday. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound commonly used as a fertilizer, but it can be used to make explosives. It can also be dangerous in storage, as demonstrated by the huge explosion last month in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Sales, without offering evidence, said the US believes that Iran-backed Hezbollah has since 2012 transported ammonium ni...

 Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Ishita Guha DoT proposes telcos to undertake network audits. The department of telecommunications (DoT) has proposed that telecom companies undertake network audits to address security risks from spyware and malware, minister of state for communications Sanjay Dhotre said. In a written reply submitted to the Rajya Sabha, the minister said telecom equipment and network could have backdoor and trapdoor vulnerabilities, adding operators are responsible for the security of their networks. The proposal for the telecom sector audit assumes importance amid the ongoing India-China border standoff. Tensions between the two nations escalated in June when 20 soldiers of the Indian Army were killed in a clash with Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. Since then, the government has taken several steps to limit trade with the neighbour, including a ban on more than 200 Chinese mobile apps. The minister said the government has not banned t...

 Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Gireesh Chandra Prasad, Asit Ranjan Mishra and Anil Padmanabhan ‘Need to reprioritise spending on health’: N.K Singh The Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) is finalizing its recommendations for the sharing of resources between the Centre and the states. Ahead of the release of the recommendations, FFC chairman N.K Singh spoke to Mint candidly and shared his views on the challenges the panel faced and the broad contours of their proposals. Edited excerpts: How have your recommendations been influenced in such a tumultuous year? I have already given a report for one year, 2020-21, in the context of the economic slowdown at that time, because you know even before Covid-19, if you look at the figures around October of last year, when we gave the report we factored in that we wanted to look to better growth prospects. To some extent, for 2020-21, whatever we wanted to give, we have given to the President, the government accepted it and placed before Parliam...

 Hindustan Times Sep 17 2020 Press Trust Of India Centre allows up to 74% FDI in defence sector under automatic route. The government has permitted foreign direct investment (FDI) of up to 74 per cent under automatic route in the defence sector with a view to attracting overseas investors, according to a press note issued by the DPIIT on Thursday. However, foreign investments in the defence sector would be subject to scrutiny on the grounds of national security and the government reserves the right to review any foreign investment in the sector that affects or may affect national security, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said in the note. As per the current FDI policy, 100 per cent overseas investments are permitted in the defence industry -- 49 per cent under the automatic route, while beyond that government approval was required. According to the Press Note 4 (2020 series): “FDI up to 74 per cent under automatic route shall be permitted for com...

 Money Control september 18 2020 Vandana Ramnani Government keen on infrastructure investment to revive economy: MoHUA secretary Stating that the real estate sector will have a crucial role to play in the revival of the economy post the pandemic, Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), has said that the government is keen on infrastructure investment as it will help revive the economy. “The real estate sector will have a crucial role to play in the revival of the economy post the pandemic; be it in terms of employment generation; contribution in the GDP or the direct multi-sectoral link,” he said addressing a special session of the FICCI 14th Annual FICCI Real Estate Summit. He also said that the pandemic has thrown up a new set of requirements and that lessons need to be learnt and new strategies thought of post COVID-19. “We need to think more. With the online system in place you (real estate developers) will be empowering homebuyers and on...