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 The Indian Exoress October 20, 2020 Amid the Sino-Indian military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and rising tensions in the South China Sea, the Quadrilateral grouping of US, Japan, India and Australia are sending their warships for the Malabar Exercise next month. New Delhi and Washington are also stepping up efforts to conclude the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) ahead of the Indo-US 2+2 ministerial meeting on October 26-27 – defence and foreign ministers of the two countries will be in a huddle at the 2+2. A key military pact, BECA will allow India to use US geospatial intelligence and enhance accuracy of automated systems and weapons like missiles and armed drones. In February, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for early conclusion of BECA. Geospatial specifics shared under the BECA will help enhance the accuracy of Indian missiles, and will be key to plans for armed drones. It will complete the...

 The Times of India October 20, 2020 From names of directors and their nationalities to a graph depicting the ownership structure, the Centre wants Chinese and Pakistan-based companies to bare it all to be eligible to bid for government and PSU contracts. Besides, details of all entities with over 10% shareholding has to be disclosed.  The move comes almost three months after the government decided to impose security checks on companies from countries sharing a land border with India — meant to do a security check on vendors from China and Pakistan. The guidelines, released last week, will result in security clearance for contracts, which could range from supplying mobile phones and laptops to more sophisticated equipment and for building roads and tunnels across the country.  Support is growing within India’s government to formally start talks on a trade deal with Taiwan as both democracies see relations with China deteriorate. Taiwan has sought trade talks with India fo...

 The Livemint October 19, 2020 Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has signed a pact with Delhi-based pharmaceutical company Mankind Pharma for marketing and distribution of its Sputnik V vaccine, two sources in the know of the matter said.  “It depends on how many doses they will give Mankind. RDIF has pacts with Russian and Korean manufacturers for around 50 million doses so far. Talks with Indian manufacturers are also ongoing. Mankind will get the doses once the approvals are in place and the doses are supplied," one of the sources said, adding that a formal announcement is likely to be made later this week. Queries sent to Mankind Pharma were unanswered at the time of publishing. A spokesperson for RDIF decline to comment on the development.  The pact with Mankind Pharma is expected to supplement the one with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, but unlike Dr Reddy’s, Mankind will not be conducting the clinical trials. Last month, Dr Reddy’s and RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth...

 The Livemint October 20, 2020 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday nudged central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to meet three-fourth of the capital expenditure target by the third quarter of the current fiscal to help the economy recover from the covid-19 induced slowdown. While reviewing the performance of CPSEs, the finance minister also said that capital expenditure of CPSEs needs to be scaled up for the current and the next fiscal year as it a "critical driver for economic growth". Sitharaman met secretaries of the ministries of petroleum and natural gas, coal ministry, along with the heads of 14 CPSEs belonging to these ministries via video conference, to review the capital expenditure in the current fiscal year. This was the fourth such meeting with the finance minister to review the progress in capex backdrop of the covid-19 pandemic. In the first six months of the current fisca year, little less than a third of the capital expenditure of these 14 CPSEs w...

 The Times of India October 19,2020 India is the fourth most powerful nation influencing the Asia-Pacific after the US, China and Japan but has lost its "major power" status in 2020, a study showed. According to the Sydney-based Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index for 2020, India's power score came down to 39.7 this year compared to 41.0 in 2019, leaving it marginally shy of the major power threshold of 40 points. "Asia’s second most populous country is now considered to be a high-performing middle power in the Indo–Pacific," said the Lowy Institute report, adding that the country is more than likely to recover its major power status in the coming years. Unbelievable it may sound in an otherwise poor state like Bihar, but records show that 153 out of the 1,065 candidates in the fray in the first phase of state assembly election are crorepatis! As per affidavits, 58% candidates of the Grand Alliance (RJD-Cong and Left) and 60% of the NDA (BJP-JDU-HAM-S and VIP) are...

 The Telegraph October 20, 2020 India has all but lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf after Iran decided to prefer domestic companies over foreign firms for the development of the field, sources said. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had in 2008 discovered a giant gas field in the Farsi offshore exploration block. OVL and its partners had offered to invest up to $11 billion for the development of the discovery, which was later named Farzad-B. After sitting over OVL’s proposal for years, the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) informed the firm in February this year about its intention to conclude the contract for Farzad-B development with an Iranian company, sources said. OVL, however, continued its engagements with NIOC over the development of the field and sought terms and conditions of the proposed contract for its evaluation, they said, adding that Iran has so far not responded t...

 Hindustan Times October 18, 2020 The combined market valuation of six of the country’s Top 10 most valued firms declined by Rs 1,02,779.4 crore last week, with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)taking the biggest hit.Over the past week, Sensex lost 526.51 points or 1.29 per cent. RIL, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies and Bharti Airtel suffered losses in their market capitalisation during the week, while Hindustan Unilever Limited(HUL), Infosys, HDFC and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the gainers. The valuation of RIL tumbled Rs 39,355.06 crore to reach Rs 14,71,081.28 crore.The market capitalisation of TCS plunged Rs 19,681.25 crore to Rs 10,36,596.28 crore and HDFC Bank’s valuation tumbled Rs 19,097.85 crore to Rs 6,59,894.13 crore. Bharti Airtel’s market capitalisation eroded by Rs 12,875.11 crore to Rs 2,19,067.91 crore and that of HCL Technologies dropped Rs 7,842.49 crore to Rs 2,24,447.24 crore. The valuation of ICICI Bank declined by Rs 3,92...

Hindustan Times October 18, 2020 Investments through participatory notes (P-notes) in the Indian capital market dropped to Rs 69,821 crore at September-end but experts believe foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continue to be confident about the domestic market. This marks the first decline in investment through the route since March, data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed. P-notes are issued by registered FPIs to overseas investors who wish to be part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly. They, however, need to go through a due diligence process. According to Sebi data, the value of P-note investments in Indian markets equity, debt, hybrid securities and derivatives declined to Rs 69,821 crore at September-end after hitting a 10-month high of Rs 74,027 crore at the end of August. Prior to that, the investment level was at Rs 63,228 crore, Rs 62,138 crore, Rs 60,027 crore and Rs 57,100 crore at the end of July, June, M...