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Livemint October 22,2020 INS Kavaratti, last of the 4 indigenously built Anti-Submarine Warfare stealth  corvettes   was commissioned today in Indian Navy. Indian Navy   in a statement said that the designed by Indian Navy's Directorate of Naval Design, "The ship portrays our growing capability in becoming self-reliant through indigenization". "With the induction of Kavaratti into its fold, the Indian Navy’s preparedness will be enhanced," the Navy said. It was the last of four indigenously built Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) stealth corvettes “INS Kavaratti" under Project 28 (Kamorta class) and was commissioned into the Indian Navy by General Manoj Mukund Naravane, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC, Chief of the Army Staff at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam. Touted as a potent Stealth ASW Corvette, Kavaratti is indigenously designed by the Indian Navy's in-house organisation, Directorate of Naval Design(DND), and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers ...

Livemint October 22,2020 The Government has decided to make a graded relaxation in visa and travel restrictions for more categories of foreign nationals and Indian nationals who wish to enter or leave India. The Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) has issued a statement in which it said that, "It has been decided to permit all OCI and PIO card holders and all other foreign nationals intending to visit India for any purpose, except on a tourist visa to enter by air or water routes through authorized airports and seaport immigration check posts. This will also includes flights operated under Vande Bharat Mission, Air Transport Bubble arrangements or by any non scheduled commercial flights as allowed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. All such travelers will, however have to strictly adhere to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare regarding quarantine and other health/COVID-19 matters. In view of the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of In...

Firstpost October 22,2020 Amid speculations and buzz over India finalising a trade deal with Taiwan, China has said that it 'firmly opposes' any such deal, asserting that New Delhi should abide by the “one China” policy. As per reports, there is increasing support within India to start talks on a trade deal with Taiwan as both countries have seen a decline in their respective relations with China. Taiwan and China have been at odds for a long time with Beijing regarding Taiwan, which lies 160 kilometers off its east coast, as a renegade province. Taiwanese are increasingly asserting an independent identity despite the population’s mostly Chinese roots. India, on the other hand, has been in a border standoff in eastern Ladakh with the Chinese military. Recently, the US has been pushing countries for international support against Chinese unilateralism, with Donald Trump at its forefront, vowing to make China pay for the 'Wuhan flu', with the outbreak of the coronavirus...

The Indian Express October 22,2020 The centre is at an advanced stage of monetising “idle land assets” of key ministries and departments, including Railways, Telecommunications and Defence, and plans to use the resources generated to create infrastructure assets across the country, The Indian Express has learnt. Sources said that after a detailed assessment of surplus land assets, various ministries are now ready to go ahead with monetisation of idle parcels for commercial development and infrastructure creation. “The Union Budget had stressed on asset monetisation to put the available resources to better use. The Rail and Defence ministries are close to finalising monetisation of various surplus land assets. They have done their assessment and it has been discussed in detail. Among state-owned companies, BSNL is at an advanced stage to monetise (surplus assets) to aid infrastructure creation,” a senior government official said. The Rail and Defence ministries are th...

The Indian Express October 22,2020 Amid rising onion prices , and perhaps also keeping in view the Bihar elections, the Centre on Wednesday relaxed import norms for the bulb until December 15 and asked Indian High Commissioners in “relevant” countries to contact traders there to facilitate its import by India. The government has expressed hope that kharif onions, likely to start arriving soon in mandis, will give reprieve to the rising prices. The move comes at a time when retail price of onion has increased in recent days. According to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, a sharp spike in prices by Rs 11.56 per kg over the last 10 days has taken the all-India retail price of onion to Rs 51.95 per kg. This is 12.13 per cent higher than the price of Rs 46.33 per kg at this time last year. On September 14, the government had  announced a ban on onion expor t   “to ensure availability to domestic consumers at reasonable rates during the lean seaso...

The Indian Express October 22,2020 Addressing the officers of the Higher Defence Management Command at the College of Defence Management (CDM), Army Chief General M M Naravane called the creation of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and appointment of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) a “momentous” decision and said the next logical step would be the creation of integrated theatre commands. The Army said in a statement that General Naravane “spoke on a number of issues concerning integration, theaterisation and modernisation of the armed forces in general and the Indian Army in particular”. According to the statement, he called the government’s decision to appoint the CDS and create the DMA “momentous” and said the services needed to “demonstrate great wisdom and statesmanship in enabling the CDS, a long-standing demand of the Armed Forces”. Naravane said the next logical step in the process of defence reforms was the “formation of Integrated Theatre Commands to synergise the cap...

The Indian Express October 22,2020 The United States Department of Justice (DoJ)  sued Google on Tuesday , alleging that the company had abused its dominant position in a way that had harmed its competitors as well as customers. Eleven US states have joined the DoJ in the anti-trust lawsuit against Google “for unlawfully maintaining a monopoly in general search services and search advertising”. What is the lawsuit about? In his statement announcing the initiation of the lawsuit, Deputy Attorney General of the DoJ Jeffrey A Rosen said the main concerns are business practices that may have led to “massive concentrations of economic power” in a few companies such as Google. The lawsuit will focus on Google as it “is the gateway to the Internet and a search advertising behemoth”. “Google achieved some success in its early years, and no one begrudges that, but, as the antitrust complaint filed today explains, it has maintained its monopoly power through exclusionary practices ...

Telegraph India October 22,2020 The cabinet is set to consider wide-ranging reforms of PSUs, while the government is looking to extend the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to 7-8 more sectors, department of economic affairs secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Wednesday. In May, the government had promised sweeping PSU reforms but these have not made much headway. The plan envisages the government defining strategic sectors in the economy where there will be a minimum of one PSU and a maximum of four state-owned entities, apart from private players. State entities in the non-strategic sectors will be privatised. “The other important thing which is slightly delayed... and it is testing the patience of all of you and ours too. It is the policy that we have to come up with for the privatisation of our public sector units,” Bajaj told a CII seminar.  “Though it is an open secret, but till it gets the stamp of the cabinet we are not satisfied about it. It should happen very soon. So th...

The Wire October 22,2020 When the Indian government detained hundreds of foreign Tablighi Jamaat members for allegedly violating COVID-19 lockdown measures in March, the largest group was from Indonesia, key to New Delhi’s Act East policy. In the past eight months, diplomats from both countries had their jobs cut out to keep a lid on the possible consequences that the arrests of hundreds of Indonesian nationals in India could have on the bilateral relationship. For Indonesia, a quick, quiet resolution of the Tablighi issue was important so that it did not flare up into an issue of domestic political concern. But as the months wore on, Jakarta aired its worries at ASEAN meetings. The Indian side had to deal with an internal security system that initially gave conflicting messages. When the government decided to take stringent action against the Tablighi Jamaat for allegedly breaking lockdown measures for their congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi and later, when the visitors trave...