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 Dawn September 30, 2020 Moody’s on Monday downgraded Sri Lanka’s sovereign credit rating by two notches, saying the South Asian nation would be hard-pressed to secure funding to service its huge foreign debt. Sri Lanka was pushed down from “B2” (high credit risk) to “Caa1” (very high credit risk), as the coronavirus pandemic compounded its economic woes, Moody’s said in a statement. “Moody’s expects government liquidity and external risks to intensify, as the government’s external debt service payments amount to approximately $4 billion (annually) between 2020 and 2025,” it said. Reference:  https://www.dawn.com/news/1582201?ref=whatsapp

 The Tribune September 30, 2020 Recent news reports from India show just how problematic financial oversight is in the country that has spent decades trying to paint Pakistan’s banking system as a broken mess. At least 44 Indian banks appear in the recently-leaked trove of data known as the FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) Files. The files are records of suspicious activity reports (SAR), which American banks must file with FinCEN when there is any suspicion of criminal activity in a US dollar transaction anywhere in the world. SARs were filed for over 2,000 transactions worth over $1 billion between 2011 and 2017 for parties with listed addresses in India. There could be millions of other such transactions. Keep in mind that Australian bank Westpac recently agreed to pay a regulatory fine of over US$900 million for allowing over 23 million suspicious transactions during a similar time frame. But even if we only consider the proven transactions, that is a lot of potentiall

 The Tribune September 29, 2020 Saudi Arabia took down a terrorist cell this month that had received training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, arresting 10 people and seizing weapons and explosives, the spokesperson for the presidency of state security said on Monday. In a statement carried by Saudi state media, the spokesperson said three of those arrested had been trained in Iran while the rest were “linked to the cell in various roles”. The weapons and explosives were confiscated at a house and a farm, he added. Cell members “received military and field training, including on how to make explosives, inside Revolutionary Guards sites in Iran” for several weeks in late 2017, he said. The statement said weapons and explosives were confiscated at two locations, a house and a farm, in the Gulf Arab state, the world’s largest oil exporter and a key US ally. Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in several proxy wars in the region, including in Yemen. Riyadh has blamed Iran for an unprecedente

 Huffpost September 29, 2020 Update: A special court will deliver the verdict on Friday in a criminal case in which BJP veterans such as LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti are among the accused. The Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case on November 9, 2019.  The Supreme Court pronounced its judgement in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case in November 2019. A constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, delivered the verdict. Other members of the bench were Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer. The Court granted the site of the demolished Babri Masjid to the Hindu parties to build a temple, while ordering that the Muslim litigants be given a 5 acre alternative site to construct a mosque. The Babri Masjid is believed to have been built in 1528 by Mir Baqi, a commander of the first Mughal emperor Babur. The first case was filed in 1885 by Mahant Raghubir Das, who asked for permiss

 The Caravan September 29, 2020 Since July, after the central government introduced three ordinances related to procurement and sale of agricultural produce, farmers in Haryana and Punjab have been protesting against the new policies. These protests intensified significantly after the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha passed the ordinances as bills—the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.  In the ongoing farmers’ movement in Haryana, a farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni has emerged as a prominent face. Chaduni has been leading farmer agitations in Haryana for nearly thirty years. He is also the president of the Haryana unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Union. He has organised several large demonstrations in Haryana against the three ordinances that have now been passed into law. Mandeep Punia and Amit Ohlan, two independen

 Firstpost September 29, 2020 More than one million people have died from coronavirus, according to an AFP toll, marking a grim milestone in the spread of the disease that has ravaged the world economy, inflamed diplomatic tensions and upended lives from Indian slums to New York City. In the nine months since the virus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, schools, businesses, live entertainment, and international travel have been upended by strict stay-at-home measures designed to curb the contagion. Drastic controls that put half of humanity — more than four billion people — under some form of lockdown by April at first slowed the spread, but since restrictions were eased, infections have soared again. By 1600 GMT Monday, the disease had claimed 1,002,432 victims from 33,178,275 recorded infections, according to an AFP tally collected from official sources by journalists stationed around the world, and compiled by a dedicated team of data specialists. The United States has

 Business Standard September 29, 2020 For over a century, the Shapoorji Pallonji group has been one of the country’s top construction firms and thanks to its 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons, one of the most influential as well. This dominance, however, did not really reflect in its business operations. The Mumbai-based group was financially conservative and preferred the low-risk model of project execution rather than asset ownership that may demand big-ticket investments. Around five years ago the group decided to shift gear. “A confluence of lower fiscal and current account deficits, declining inflation. Reference:  https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/cash-strapped-and-under-capitalised-sp-group-faces-biggest-test-ever-120092801472_1.html

 The Telegraph September 29, 2020 The strategic sale of the government’s 52.98 per cent stake in state-owned refiner BPCL is likely to be delayed close to two years, complicating the Centre’s ability to raise Rs 2.10 lakh crore from the centre piece of its disinvestment plan this fiscal. The deadline for the submission of bids for the oil refiner and retailer, which has been extended three times till now, ends on September 30. For the sale, only the third step of a 25-step process has been completed so far and it could take as long as another 21 months for the disinvestment to be completed, although some of the stages could be carried out concurrently. Potential buyers still need to obtain security clearance, conduct valuation assessments and agree to the financial terms. After the initial bids are submitted by the prospective bidders, they are given access to the data room to study the financials of the firm. However, given the restrictions on international travel at present, global b

 Nikkei Asia September 26, 2020 The world's nations must do all they can to understand the origins of COVID-19, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday, comments that could worsen tensions with China. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Morrison said an inquiry into the roots of the virus would minimise the threat of another global pandemic. "This virus has inflicted a calamity on our world and its peoples. We must do all we can to understand what happened for no other purpose than to prevent it from happening again," Morrison said via a teleconference video link. "There is a clear mandate to identify the zoonotic source of the COVID-19 virus and how it was transmitted to humans." Morrison's comments came after similar comments by the prime minister earlier in the year soured ties between Australia and China. At that time, he led global demands for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. China strongly rebuffed that move,

 Moneycontrol News September 27, 2020 The Indian population is still "far away" from achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 and everyone should continue following "COVID-appropriate" protocols, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on September 27. "Indian population is still far from achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 as shown by ICMR’s second sero-survey. Hence, all of us should continue following COVID appropriate behaviour," Vardhan said. The health minister's statement comes on a day when the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement that herd immunity against coronavirus is "not an option". Vardhan, who was interacting with his social media followers, also said that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is also "investigating and researching" reports of COVID-19 reinfections across the country. While the number of reinfection cases are "negligible", the government is "fully seized of

 BBC News September 29, 2020 Amnesty International says it has been forced to halt its India operations due to "reprisals" from the government. The watchdog has also accused the government of indulging in a "witch-hunt of human rights organisations". Amnesty says its bank accounts have been frozen and it's been forced to lay off staff in the country, and suspend all its campaign and research work. The government is yet to respond to the allegations. "We are facing a rather unprecedented situation in India. Amnesty International India has been facing an onslaught of attacks, bullying and harassment by the government in a very systematic manner," Rajat Khosla, the group's senior director of research, advocacy and policy, told the BBC. "This is all down to the human rights work that we were doing and the government not wanting to answer questions we raised, whether it's in terms of our investigations into the Delhi riots, or the silencing of

  Daily Hunt September 29, 2020 US imposes restrictions on Chinese computer chip manufacturer The United States has placed new sanctions on exports to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China's maker of computer chips. According to a report by South China Morning Post, the US Department of Commerce had imposed new restrictions on exports to SMIC, citing the "unacceptable risk" its products posed if they were used by the Chinese military. China, which relies heavily on the US to import chips, has in the past two years spent more than about USD 300 billion annually on imported chips. In recent months, President Donald Trump has taken several decisions against Chinese entities and organization over the concern on security. On August 6, Trump signed an executive order banning any US transactions with ByteDance,set to effect in 45 days. US Secretary of State Micheal Pompeo has claimed TikTok and other applications like WeChat  are feeding directly da

 Firstpost September 29, 2020 Congress MP from Kerala TN Prathapan moved the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of various provisions of the contentious Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 Protests against the controversial farm laws, which were recently passed by both the Houses of Parliament in the absence of an Opposition bench, raged across several states on Monday. The Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK), among others, held agitations at various places, including Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Farmer organisations, including the Bhartiya Kisan Union, have protested against the legislations which received President Ram Nath Kovind's nod on Sunday. Over the past few days, Punjab and Haryana have been roiled by protests. In Karnataka, after political parties demonstrated during a statewide bandh called by the Karnataka Raitha Sangha, Chief Minister BS Y

 Firstpost September 29, 2020 The dissident Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei staged a silent protest outside London's Old Bailey court on Monday against the possible extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he is wanted on an array of espionage charges. The court, meanwhile, heard that Assange, if convicted in the US, could end up spending the rest of his life imprisoned in the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. The facility is home to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, 1993 World Trade Center mastermind Ramzi Yousef and Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man ever convicted in a US court for a role in the 11 September attacks. Ai, who visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was holed up for seven years and subsequently at Britain's Belmarsh high security prison, said the authorities have a responsibility to protect the freedom of the press. “He is prepared to fight, but this is

 Firstpost September 29, 2020 In a major move, India has done away with offset requirements for government-to-government defence deals and single-vendor contracts under a new policy unveiled on Monday for the procurement of arms and military platforms for the armed forces, officials said. The Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) released by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh provides for allowing the three forces to take on lease military equipment, hardware and platforms like helicopters, simulators and transport planes as per operational requirements as it could be a cheaper option than their procurement, the officials said. The decision to do away with the offset requirements for government-to-government deals, single-vendor contracts and acquisitions under the framework of intergovernmental pacts came days after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) came down hard on the government over poor implementation of the offset policy. Under the offset policy, the foreign defence entities,

The Tribune September 29, 2020 India and Denmark on Monday decided to elevate their bilateral ties to a “green strategic partnership”, the first of its kind, during a virtual summit between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Mette Frederiksen. Niche pollution control solutions being offered by Denmark include those to curb stubble burning. “Danish companies are already talking to Indian companies to take it forward,” said MEA’s Joint Secretary (Central Europe). PM Modi in his address indicated that Indian expectations from Denmark went well beyond pollution control initiatives and partnerships. Mentioning the extensive reforms in the manufacturing, labour, regulatory and taxation sectors, he recalled Denmark’s constant attendance at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit since 2009 and cautioned against the risks of overdependence on a single source. The PM then spoke of virtual conferences with India, Japan, Australia and France to diversify supply chains and invited other like-minded democracies

 The Economic Times September 28, 2020 Microsoft Corp unveiled a new cloud platform on Monday aimed at enabling telecom operators to build 5G networks faster, reduce costs and sell customised services to business clients. After banning China's Huawei [HWT.UL] from its telecom network, the U.S. government has been pushing big American companies such as Microsoft to get more involved with 5G - a technology which promises to enable everything from self-driving cars to remote surgery and more automated manufacturing.  The new platform will be on Azure, Microsoft's flagship cloud computing business, and the company says it will reduce infrastructure costs, give flexibility to add services on demand and use artificial intelligence to automate operations. Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president for Azure Networking, told Reuters that it could cut costs by 30%-40% in some cases. The developer of Windows and Office software entered the 5G arena after its acquisition of cloud networking

 The Economic Times September 29, 2020 India’s Tata Group is in talks with potential investors about taking stakes in a new digital platform, people familiar with the matter said, seeking to modernize its consumer businesses as retail giants like Amazon.com Inc. and billionaire Mukesh Ambani pile into the country’s fledgling e-commerce market. Tata Sons Pvt., the holding company of the $113 billion coffee-to-cars conglomerate, is working with advisers to explore bringing in financial or strategic investors, including global technology companies, the people said, asking not to be identified as they aren’t authorized to speak to the media. The group plans to bring together digital assets across various Tata businesses to create the new entity, according to the people. A Tata Sons representative declined to comment on the stake sale discussions. Tata’s platform -- an e-commerce gateway for its consumer products and services ranging from beverages to jewelry and resorts -- may seek to comp