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 Hindustan times Sep 22, 2020 The effects of climate change since 2000 will slow US economic growth slightly over the next 30 years, adding another drag on an economy that will struggle to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said on Monday. In a new research paper, the nonpartisan budget referee agency studied both positive and negative contributions to gross domestic product, from longer growing seasons in colder climates to drought to damage to factories from more intense storms. It projected that on net, climate change will reduce real US GDP by an average of 0.03% annually from 2020 to 2050, compared to what US growth would have been if global climate conditions remained the same as they were in 2000. That reduction in the growth rate, accumulated over 30 years, lowers the CBO’s projected level of real GDP output in 2050 by 1%, the paper showed. The findings were incorporated into the CBO’s long-term budget outlook released on Monday, which

 Business Standard Sep 22, 2020 In the goods and services tax (GST) regime, India levies one of the highest taxes on vehicles among key world markets when compared with the GST equivalent value-added tax (VAT) levied in other countries. Cars and two-wheelers attract a GST rate of 28 per cent in India and a cess that ranges from 3 to 22 per cent, taking the effective tax rate to up to 50 per cent. The GST was implemented in July 2017 and subsumed a host of indirect taxes, including excise duty, VAT and entertainment tax. Reference:  https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/at-up-to-50-cars-in-india-suffer-among-the-highest-tax-rates-globally-120092101207_1.html

 Hindustan Times Sep 22, 2020 Rajiv Jaishwal The government must take measures to boost demand, usher in an aggressive interest rate regime, provide support to informal economy, extend moratorium to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and revive distressed sectors such as real estate and hospitality to bring growth back on track, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) chairman and managing director Sanjiv Mehta said on Monday. In a conversation with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) president Sangita Reddy, Mehta said the government needs to take “special measures” to revive growth as “60% of our economy depends on private consumption” and “demand is the basis of the economy moving into a virtuous cycle”. “Demand will lead to more investments, investments will lead to more employment, the confidence will go up, people will start spending more and the economy will again, hopefully go back to the kind of rhythm we have seen in the past... Aggressiveness has to

 Money Control Sep 22, 2020 The US  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on September 22 its planned advisory committee meeting on the allocation of the initial limited doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine would not include voting on who will get the first shots. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of external medical experts that advises the CDC, was expected to vote on Tuesday on a plan to prioritize initial doses of any vaccine that proves safe and effective in clinical trials. However, a spokeswoman for the agency told Reuters that no voting is planned for the session. The committee may wait until government officials authorize a specific vaccine or vaccines for use before voting on how to give priority to initial doses, the Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The vaccine distribution is recommended to occur in a phased manner, with healthcare personnel, essential workers, people with high-risk medical con

The Hindu Sep 22, 2020 Sriram Lakshman ‘We reject the malicious reference made to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir’ Exercising its right of reply, India countered on Monday, references that Pakistan had made to Jammu and Kashmir during remarks delivered via video by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the U.N.’s 75th Anniversary Commemoration. “Our delegation had hoped that during this solemn commemoration of a shared global milestone, the General Assembly would be spared another repetition of the baseless falsehoods that have now become a trademark of Pakistan’s interventions on such platforms,” First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. Vidisha Maitra said. India had, via Ms. Maitra, responded to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s general debate remarks last September as well. On Monday, Mr. Qureshi had said that the Jammu & Kashmir and Palestine disputes were the U.N.’s “most glaring and longstanding” disputes. The Minister said the people o

The Print Sep 22, 2020 Snehesh Alex  Philip India and China have agreed to stop sending more troops to the frontlines in Ladakh, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground, and avoid taking any actions that may complicate the situation, the countries said in a joint statement Tuesday. The statement was issued after s enior Army officials of the two sides held the 6th round of commander-level talks Monday  a s part of the countries’ first military-diplomatic dialogue . The 14-hour talks were held at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point, on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), from Monday 9 am.   India and China said they had “candid and in-depth exchanges of views” on stabilising the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, where the two sides have been locked in a stand-off since April. “They (the two sides) agreed to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthen communication on th

 The Hindu  Sep 23, 2020 PTI The coronavirus pandemic means this year’s General Assembly is a work-from-home production, for the first time in its history. What do you do when Vladimir Putin offers you Russia’s new coronavirus vaccine, for free? United Nations staff in New York and around the world are now facing that choice, after the Russian president offered on Tuesday to provide them the Sputnik-V vaccine in a speech to this year’s General Assembly marking the body’s 75th birthday. Only results from small early studies on Russian vaccine have been published, raising concerns among some scientists that the vaccine isn’t ready yet for widespread use — and prompting worldwide memes about potential bizarre side effects. Also read: The Hindu Explains | What do we know about Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate Sputnik V? “Any one of us could face this dangerous virus. The virus has not spared the staff of the United Nations, its headquarters and regional entities,” Mr. Putin said in a pr

 The Hindu SEp 22, 2020 PTI Indian government continue to face a difficult challenge of border security, says Barrack Obama-era diplomat Alyssa Ayres Pakistan has used terrorist groups to change the status quo in Jammu and Kashmir, which has undermined every peace effort and impacted human rights negatively, a Barrack Obama-era diplomat has told US lawmakers. In a statement to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Non proliferation, Alyssa Ayres, senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, on Monday said the situation is complex and tragic in Kashmir The committee will schedule a hearing on “Stemming a Receding Tide: Human Rights and Democratic Values in Asia” on Tuesday. There is documented history of Pakistan-based terrorists active in Indian-administered Kashmir, and Kashmiris and the Indian government continue to face a difficult challenge of border security and terrorism in this region,

 Hindustan Times Sep 22, 2020 Deeksha Bhardwaj The Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology told the Parliament on Monday that it took down 3,635 social media pages/accounts in 2019 for violating the Information Technology Act. In a response to an unstarred question by Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu about the ministry’s regulation of social media, the ministry said that 1,385 pages were blocked in 2017 and 2,799 were blocked in 2018. “With a borderless cyberspace coupled with the possibility of instant communication and anonymity, the potential for misuse of cyberspace and social media platforms for criminal activities is a global issue,” the ministry said in its response. “In line with increase of usage of Internet as also the growth of social media platforms, there are increasing number of incidents of reporting of such content having potential to incite violence and hatred. Government has a well-defined system of reporting and blocking for public access within the framew

 Hindustan Times Sep 23, 2020 Global investment firm KKR will invest Rs 5,550 crore into Reliance Retail ventures Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, RRVL said. KKR’s investment will translate into a 1.28% equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis. Early this year, KKR invested Rs 11,367 crore in Jio Platforms for 2.32 per cent stake, making this KKR’s second investment in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. “This investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore. This marks the second investment by KKR in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a Rs 11,367 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year,” Reliance Industries said in a statement. Reliance Retail operates India’s largest, fastest growing and most profitable retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores nationwide.Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, said: “KKR has a proven trac

The Indian Express Sandeep Singh Sep 23, 2020 OVER 100 transactions worth $104.4 million by companies associated with Max Group founder and chairman Analjit Singh were red-flagged by Standard Chartered Bank, New York, to US financial watchdog  FinCEN . These transactions, between July 2014 and November 2016, were between entities in India and those located in Cyprus, UAE, Singapore, South Africa, Jersey and Isle of Man. Some of these companies had Singh as a director as well, according to the bank’s records of  Suspicious Activity Reports investigated by The Indian Express. In two SARs, the bank said that Singapore-based LGO Pte, a company where Analjit Singh is a director, which had an account with the bank, carried out transactions with “unknown entities, located in high-risk jurisdictions.” Incidentally, Analjit Singh has been probed for his overseas transactions in the past too. In 2012, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Singh, then the chairman of Vodafone India, with rega

The Wire Rahul Bedi September 22, 2020 Veteran Indian spooks narrate the deliciously sardonic tale of a purported exchange sometime in the mid-1970s, between the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and Ram Nath Kao, founding head of India’s external intelligence gathering agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). During their routine morning interaction, in which Kao presented his customary single-page daily intelligence report to the PM, she is believed to have looked up at the intelligence czar over her spectacle rims and acerbically remarked: “Ram Nath, I seem to recall having read this earlier today. In the morning newspapers.” RAW was founded in late 1968 by the dapper and intellectually razor-sharp Kao, with some 250 Intelligence Bureau officers, who in their initial years, were known as ‘Kaoboys’. In his oleaginous history of this agency – and its operatives – it seems Yadav, a New Delhi-based investigative journalist, was provided access to normally unobtainable classified