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 Hindustan Times,  October 15, 2020 Russia’s top diplomat voiced doubt Wednesday that Moscow and Washington could negotiate an extension of their last arms control pact still standing, even as the United States offered a more optimistic view. Speaking in an interview with several Russian news outlets, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia can’t accept the conditions put forward by the United States for the extension of the New START treaty. “I personally don’t see the prospect,” Lavrov snapped when asked if the extension is possible before the pact expires in February. “We will never say that we will shut the door and cut all contacts. But we explain that it’s impossible to talk on the basis of an ultimatum they put forward that fully ignores the principles which were acknowledged as the basis for all our agreements for decades.” Lavrov’s pessimistic view contrasted with the statements from US diplomats, who said that Moscow and Washington were close to a deal. “We w...

 Hindustan Times, October 15, 2020 China drew bumper demand for a dollar bond sale amid growing uncertainties over the US elections and tensions with Washington. For a fourth straight fall, China brought a dollar debt offering with three-year, five-year, 10-year and 30-year maturities, according to people familiar with the matter who aren’t authorized to speak publicly. The nation pulled in more than $30 billion of investor bids, which includes $10.8 billion of joint lead-manager interest. The country’s ministry of finance raised about $6 billion via the new deal. The shorter-dated bonds have lower premiums than during the final price guidance marketing phase of the nation’s last dollar bond sale in 2019. The ministry of finance opened up its bond sale to a broad pool of US investors for the first time, potentially diversifying its investor base and setting aside concerns of decoupling in credit markets. The deal includes China’s debut issuance of 144A notes, as well as previously ...

 Hindustan Times, October 15, 2020 The election of countries like China, Russia and Cuba on the Human Rights Council is a win for tyrants and embarrassment for the United Nations, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, China as well as Russia and Cuba won seats on the Human Rights Council, which is a win for tyrants and embarrassment for the United Nations, Pompeo told reporters at a news conference here. “It’s an example, an indication of why we were right to leave that body. When institutions are irredeemable as was demonstrated yesterday, the United States under President (Donald) Trump simply will not participate,” he said. In 2018, President Trump withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council due to its well-established pattern of anti-Israel bias and membership rules that allow the election of the world’s worst human rights abusers to the Council. Prior to making this decision, and after its exit, the United States urged the UN member states to ta...

 Hindustan Times, October 15, 2020 China said on Thursday the United States was seriously undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait after a US Navy destroyer sailed through the waters amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Taipei. Zhang Chunhui, spokesman for China’s eastern theatre command, said in a statement that the Chinese military followed and monitored the USS Barry when the destroyer made what the US Navy called a “routine Taiwan Strait transit” on Wednesday. China considers Taiwan a wayward province that needs to be reunited with the mainland, by force if needed. The United States government, on the other hand, has stepped up support for the island recently to support what it considers an important democratic outpost. Beijing has accused Washington and Taipei of “collusion” towards the island declaring formal independence and recently ramped up air force activity near Taiwan in a show of force. The White House is pushing forward to sell to Taiwan sophistic...

 Hindustan Times,  October 15, 2020 A delegation of protesting farmers’ leaders from Punjab invited for talks by Union agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal walked out of the meeting, demanding the presence of farm minister Narendra Singh Tomar, according to an umbrella platform representing the cultivators. The Centre had invited at least 31 farmers’ organisations and their leaders from Punjab for talks in New Delhi, the second attempt in a month to reach out to farmers protesting a set of laws enacted to liberalise agricultural markets. “The meeting was an effort to try and create a false impression that the central government is engaging with farmers, when in fact it is going all out to roll out and enforce the black anti-farmer laws,” the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee said. The farmers’ delegation demanded the presence of agriculture minister Tomar and tore up copies of the laws. “First, the government should be ready to review and if necessary, repeal th...

 Hindustan Times, October 15, 2020 With several experimental vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) reaching late-stage trials, the government has started making logistical arrangements for procurement, storage and distribution to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of a vaccine, when one becomes available. The Centre has begun identifying both government and private facilities to create hubs for vaccine storage. The focus is on maintaining cold storage as most vaccines require to be stored and distributed at a fixed temperature, failing which the vaccine becomes ineffective. Under the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 that is chaired by Dr VK Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog, there are subgroups looking into various aspects of vaccine development, procurement and distribution, including one that looks at cold chain requirements. “The subgroup has already mapped the existing cold chain that is presently being utilized under the immunisation pr...

 Hindustan Times, October 15, 2020 Facing attacks from Opposition over the projection of International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Bangladesh is set to overtake India in terms of per capital income, the government said that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 11 times that of Bangladesh in 2019. Playing down IMF projections, people in the know said that under the Modi government, the per capita GDP has increased from Rs 83,091 in 2014-15 to Rs 1,08,620 in 2019-20, representing an increase of 30.7 per cent, as reported by news agency PTI. The GDP had increased by 19.8 per cent during the second term of Congress-led UPA, the people cited above added. In 2019, India’s GDP in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms was 11 times more than that of Bangladesh while population was eight times more, PTI quoted sources as saying. In PPP terms, India’s per capita GDP in 2020 is estimated by IMF at US $6,284 as compared to US $5,139 for Bangladesh, according to the sources. Sharing the IMF projec...

 The Telegraph Online,  October 15, 2020 British spies are trying to defend Covid-19 vaccine work against hostile powers that seek to either steal or sabotage research data in the race for the global prize of a jab that could provide immunity, the head of MI5 said on Wednesday. Oxford University’s vaccine candidate, which has been licensed to AstraZeneca, is in late stage trials, while a vaccine candidate being developed by Imperial College London is in early stage clinical trials. “Clearly, the global prize of having a first useable vaccine against this deadly virus is a large one, so we would expect that a range of other parties around the globe would be quite interested in that research,” security service (MI5) director-general Ken McCallum told reporters. McCallum, in his first major remarks since being named as the new boss of MI5 in March when the UK was under national lockdown, said there were a range of threats against the vaccine development work. “I guess there are t...

 The Telegraph Online, October 15, 2020 A top US apparel industry watchdog has launched an investigation into underwear maker Jockey International’s Indian partner Page Industries Ltd following allegations of human rights abuses at one of its factories. The investigation by US-based Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) comes after Norway’s $1-trillion sovereign wealth fund dropped Page from its investment portfolio because of concerns of human rights violations at “Unit-III” — one of Page’s Jockey manufacturing sites in Bangalore. Page has denied wrongdoing and called allegations of verbal abuse and workplace intimidation against employees “outrageous”. It did not answer Reuters questions about the the WRAP probe, but said it has evidence which “flatly disproves” the allegations. Shares of Page Industries fell as much as 3.2 per cent on the National Stock Exchange on Wednesday after the news of the probe. In an email to Reuters, WRAP spokesperson Seth Lennon said such...

 The Telegraph Online, October 15, 2020 The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed a reluctant Centre to issue by November 2 the circular on compound interest waivers relating to the moratorium on loans offered by banks till August 31. The bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah rejected solicitor-general Tushar Mehta’s plea to give the government time till November 15 for the circular as the Centre wanted to work out certain modalities for the waiver on loans up to Rs 2 crore given for homes, consumer purchases and MSMEs. “Why one month time (till November 15) to implement such a small decision? Not fair on the part of the central government,” the bench observed while adjourning the matter to November 2. By that time, the court said the government must issue the circular to give effect to the waiver. “… See the plight of common people, when you’ve already decided to help…their Diwali is in your hands, Mr Mehta…” the bench told the solicitor-general while passi...

 The Telegraph Online,  October 15, 2020 A spike in the prices of food items pushed wholesale price inflation to a seven-month high of 1.32 per cent in September, after turning positive in August for the first time since March. The WPI-based inflation appears to be moving in sync with CPI-based retail inflation which shot up to an eight-month high of 7.34 per cent in September, mainly on account of rising prices of food items. Although the RBI takes into account retail inflation while deciding the monetary policy stance, ICRA’s principal economist Aditi Nayar said, “Today’s data (on WPI inflation) further cements the likelihood of an extended pause from the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).” Before recording an increase of 0.16 per cent in August, the WPI inflation was in the negative territory for four straight months —April (-) 1.57 per cent, May (-) 3.37 per cent, June (-) 1.81 per cent and July (-) 0.25 per cent. Inflation in food articles in September was at 8.17 per cent ...

 The Indian Express, October 15, 2020 In their joint opinion piece, Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, professors at Pennsylvania State University and Ashoka University, respectively, argue that India’s intellectual and policy community has embraced atmanirbharta and “this inward turn — actually return — amounts to abandoning two core principles of the post- 1991 consensus: Export-orientation on the macro-economic side, and slow but steady liberalisation on the trade side”. So, will atmanirbharta work for India? “Not really,” state the two economists, one of whom (Subramanian) was the chief economic adviser to the Government of India in the recent past. Why? Isn’t India’s GDP big enough to sustain its future growth all by itself? The authors state that at $2.9 trillion, and as the fifth-largest in the world, India’s GDP “seems alluringly big”. But if the domestic market is to sustain growth, we need to look at the size of the market (say the “middle class”) with some amou...

 The Indian Express,  October 15, 2020 Disruptions in services caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have led to further setbacks and according to a new report, there has been a 25 to 30 per cent drop in tuberculosis (TB) case notifications across three high-burden countries – India, Indonesia and the Philippines – between January and June 2020 compared to the same period a year before. The Global TB report, released on Wednesday by the World Health Organisation, has collated data from over 200 countries that has shown significant reductions in TB case notifications. These reductions in case notifications could lead to a dramatic increase in additional TB deaths, according to WHO modelling. Their analysis of the pandemic’s impact on TB mortality indicates that a 50 per cent drop in the detection of TB cases over three months will lead to almost 4,00,000 more people dying from TB. “The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse recent progress in reducing the global burden of TB disease,...

 The Indian Express, October 15, 2020 A COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica has come under the spotlight after late-stage human trials were paused over a potential safety concern. This vaccine uses the same approach as that of Oxford-AstraZeneca — whose trials were globally paused over similar concerns last month. What do we know about the pause? Late on Monday, trials for Janssen’s vaccine candidate, including phase 3 testing with 60,000 participants, were put on pause after a participant developed an “unexplained illness”. According to J&J, the illness is being reviewed by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board as well as J&J’s internal clinical and safety physicians. The pause — decided by the company and not regulators — basically means the firm will temporarily halt recruitment and dosing of participants. What is common between the two trials that were halted? In the Oxford-AstraZeneca trials, a participant in the U...

 The Indian Express,  October 15, 2020 After the incident at the Line of Actual Control in Galwan in Ladakh in June, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese soldiers, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) approached both the Indian and Chinese governments and asked that they observe the Geneva Conventions to which both countries are signatories, The Indian Express has learnt. The violent encounter at Galwan that killed 20 Indian soldiers, including their commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu, took place on the intervening night of June 15 and 16. The casualties on the Chinese side have not been officially declared. Ten Indian soldiers captured by the Chinese during the brawl were returned on June 18. Days after this, said sources, the ICRC approached the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva and handed over a note verbale, a form of diplomatic communication, bringing attention to the rules under the Geneva Conventions in situations of a...

 The Indian Express,  October 15, 2020 Days ahead of the November 3 US election, a survey has found that while almost half of Indian Americans approve of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s performance, they remain steadfastly Democratic despite the apparent courtship between Modi and US President Donald Trump — 68 per cent plan to vote for Joe Biden and 22 per cent for Trump. The survey, by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pennsylvania, and released on Wednesday, however, found that Indian Americans voting for incumbent Trump have a much more favourable view of Modi (at a rating of 76 out of 100) than those voting for Democratic candidate Biden (52/100). The survey comes even as the 41.61 lakh-strong community finds its voting choices in the spotlight given one, their view on politics back in India and two, the Democrats’ choice of Indian-origin Kamala Harris as vice-presidential candidate. “While Republicans are mo...

 The Hindu Business Line October 14, 2020 Export of basmati rice and tea is likely to be severely impacted this year due to issues with Iran which is one of the major importers of the two commodities. Delayed payments from Iran on the back of the “depleting balance” in the rupee-rial trade account is the problem. Iran is one of the major importers of basmati rice accounting for nearly a third of India’s total exports of the commodity. It also accounts for over 21 per cent of the country’s total tea exports, particularly the orthodox variety. According to estimates by industry insiders, around ₹2,000 crore, due to basmati rice exporters to Iran, is currently stuck because of a payment crisis. While the tea industry was not able to share the exact figures of the outstanding dues, it would be a “considerable sum” given that no payments have been coming for the past four-six weeks, said Anshuman Kanoria, Chairman, Indian Tea Exporters’ Association. Payment crisis Ever since the US impo...

 The Sunday Guardian October 10, 2020 It has been officially confirmed that China has occupied Nepal’s territory and constructed buildings in the Limi region of Humla district, which is situated less than 70 km from Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. On 5 October, a 19-member fact finding team comprising Nepalese politicians and officials, who had gone to Limi to verify the news about Chinese encroachment, found that the Chinese had constructed buildings in the area and had reconstructed border pillar numbers 11, 12 without seeking any permission from Nepal, official sources privy to the development have told The Sunday Guardian. Nepal was forced to constitute the fact finding mission after reports in local newspapers and local outrage revealed that the Chinese had intruded into Nepal’s territory and occupied it. In the last week of August, the Nepal government got active and asked for a ground report from the Assistant Chief District Officer of Humla, seeking the details of the encroachmen...

 Mint October 14, 2020 State-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to leverage International Solar Alliance (ISA) to help land airport contracts in member countries, by showcasing Kerala’s Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), which is the first airport in the world to run fully on solar power. India has been trying to land solar power project contracts in ISA member countries against the backdrop of China’s attempt to co-opt countries into its ambitious One Belt One Road initiative. “The ISA secretariat has launched the corporate partner scheme, wherein corporate organizations across the globe can get corporate partner status, subject to approval of the ISA assembly, after contributing $1 million to ISA’s corpus fund," said ISA’ director general Upendra Tripathy in an interview with Mint. With clean energy projects comprising more than a fifth of its installed power generation capacity, India has been leveraging its solar energy credentials to build solar projects overse...

 Mint, October 14, 2020 A day after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a fresh set of measures to stimulate demand in the economy by incentivising spending by the central government employees and through additional capital expenditure, expenditure secretary in the finance ministry T.V. Somanathan explains the rationale behind the package. Edited excerpts: What's your assessment of the current state of the economy? The worst effects of the pandemic are over. We are beginning to see the recovery. The recovery is visible in a number of sectors, whether it is power consumption, GST collections, the recovery is fairly good. Even in terms of consumer behavior, there is some recovery. Whether it will be sustained in the remaining quarters of the year is a matter to be seen. So I am cautiously optimistic. Do you think the measures that the government so far has announced will be sufficient to put the economy on a sustainable recovery path? I would slightly look at it differently...

 Mint, October 14, 2020 The salt to technology conglomerate Tata Group has joined the conversations to pick up a minority stake in online grocer BigBasket, which has been looking to raise $200 million in growth capital, two people aware of the development told Mint. “Tata group, Temasek and Generation Investment Management are in advanced talks with BigBasket. The deal size is around $200 million, which will be entirely primary capital to boost the company’s growth," said one of the people cited above, requesting anonymity. BigBasket has seen strong tailwinds due to the covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, as more customers are now preferring to shop online for groceries, the person added. Spokespersons for Tata, Temasek, Generation Investment Management and BigBasket could not be immediately reached for a comment. Tata’s interest in BigBasket comes at a time when the group is looking to enter the online commerce market in a big way. In August, The Financial Times reported that th...

 Hindustan Times October 14, 2020 China is cementing its status as the world’s dominant trading nation, confounding warnings that a once in a century pandemic combined with simmering tensions with the US would derail that status. Surging global demand for everything from hazmat suits to work-from-home technology has allowed China, which contained the virus months ago, to capture record market share of global exports by quickly reopening its factories while the rest of the world grappled with lockdowns. It’s a striking reversal from the first two months of the year when China’s exports contracted by 17.1%. It’s also an outcome that underscores the nation’s enduring role in manufacturing even amid simmering tensions with the US that have fueled talk of shifting supply chains. For all the tariffs levied by the Trump administration, monthly sales to the US remain robust. “China’s export performance during this crisis is indeed a proof of its solid status as the world’s factory,” said Y...

 Hindustan Times,  October 14, 2020 The Narendra Modi government is considering a third economic stimulus package, combining fiscal and policy measures that could include incentives for the manufacturing and services sectors, income support for the jobless and incentives to people to spend instead of keeping their money in the bank, according to two officials aware of the plan. On Monday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a demand stimulus package consisting of ₹73,000 crore in public expenditure by March 31, 2021. These included allowing government employees to spend tax-exempt leave travel allowances on goods and services, special festival advances and 50-year soft loans to states for capital investments. The new incentives in the works will be targeted at sectors such as tourism and hospitality that have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the two officials cited above said on condition of anonymity. “Yesterday [Monday], we announced some measures to stimulat...

 Hindustan Times, October 14, 2020 The government is examining the decision of an arbitration panel last month favouring Vodafone Group Plc in a tax dispute, given its implications for India’s sovereign rights of taxation, according to a government official. Reducing tax litigation is a policy priority for the Narendra Modi administration but the dispute with Vodafone Group Plc on its $11 billion offshore deal acquiring Hutchison Essar Ltd—later renamed Vodafone India Ltd—has implications beyond the legality of retrospective taxes. An arbitration committee that had heard both the parties last month ruled that the Indian government should cease its tax claim, which it said was in breach of the protection guaranteed under the Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) signed with the Netherlands in 1995. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the arbitration was around the protection granted to foreign investment, not the 2012 retrospective...

 Hindustan Times, October 14, 2020 The World Bank said its executive board approved on Tuesday $12 billion in new funding for developing countries to finance the purchase and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments for their citizens. The financing plan, part of $160 billion in total resources that the multilateral development lender has pledged to provide to developing countries through June 2021 to help them fight the corona virus pandemic, was first reported by Reuters in late September. The World Bank said the financing program will include technical support to recipient countries so they can prepare for deploying vaccines at scale, and will signal to drug companies that there will be strong demand and ample financing for Covid-19 vaccines in developing countries. Reference:  https://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/world-bank-approves-12-billion-for-covid-19-vaccines-treatments-in-developing-countries/story-NS608n52gn1iteJaRtPK1H.html