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TELEGRAPH ONLINE DATED: November 20, 2020   Malaysia’s flagship budget carrier AirAsia Group Bhd has given its strongest indication to date that it could exit India, saying on Tuesday it was reviewing its investment in a joint venture airline there. The group said in a statement that its operations in India, like those of its now-shuttered Japan business, have been draining cash and adding to the group’s financial stress. “Cost containment and reducing cash burn remain key priorities evident by the recent closure of AirAsia Japan and an ongoing review of our investment in AirAsia India,” it said. AirAsia shut operations in Japan, the smallest of its foreign offshoots, last month. The airline owns 49 per cent of AirAsia India, a joint venture with Tata Sons. According to a media report last month, Tata Sons’ parent is in discussions to buy AirAsia Group’s stake. Group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes told Reuters in September that the group intends to consolidate and strengthe...

OUTLOOK Dated: November 17, 2020 The President-elect made the announcement on Monday after a video meeting with a select group of nine business and labour leaders US President-elect Joe Biden has unveiled his economic plan to help the country recover from the after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic, laying great emphasis on clean energy, job creation and investment into new technologies. The President-elect made the announcement on Monday after a video meeting with a select group of nine business and labour leaders, including Indian-Americans Satya Nadella (Microsoft) and Sonia Syngal (GAP Inc).  “Right now, Congress should come together and pass a COVID relief package like the HEROES Act that the House passed six months ago. Once we shut down the virus and deliver economic relief to workers and businesses, then we can start to build back better than before,” Biden said.  “We talked about how we have an opportunity to come out of this stronger, more resilient than we were wh...

The Economic Times Dated: November 18, 2020   By:  Mamtha Asokan Synopsis ​​While RBI rejected the Indiabulls offer, Clix Capital offer was stuck on valuation issues. Clix Capital had valued their loan book at Rs 4200 crore, while LVB valued it at Rs 1,200-Rs 1,300 crore, creating a mismatch of over Rs 2,500-Rs 3,000 crore. Ref:  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/lakshmi-vilas-bank-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-94-yr-old-troubled-bank-from-tamil-nadu/printarticle/79275567.cms

 ET PRIME The Covid-19 outbreak has shaken the world, with over a million deaths. The healthcare industry is playing the most crucial role in helping India face this tough challenge. At the peak of the crisis, while hospitals struggled hard to handle the surge of patients, the pharmaceutical industry had a tough time staving off raw-material supply challenges. Then, there were shortages of key drugs used for treatment. How did the industry manage and what are the lessons for the future? Ref:  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/spotlight/etprimehealthcareconference?utm_source=Emailer&utm_medium=PreviousDB&utm_campaign=IPA_Conference&ncode=ae88c8a4f8742a8682bf7d9294253f7f

 Hindustan Times Dated: November 19, 2020 By: Deepali Sharma The International Monetary Fund predicts GDP will shrink 10.3% in the year to March 2021 as Modi’s sudden lockdown paralyzed activity. India will be worst-affected among the world’s major economies even after the pandemic wanes, with output 12% below pre-virus levels through the middle of the decade, according to Oxford Economics. Balance sheet stress that had been building before the coronavirus outbreak will probably worsen, Priyanka Kishore, head of economics for South Asia and South-East Asia, wrote in the report. She projects potential growth for India at 4.5% over the next five years, lower than 6.5% before the virus. “It’s likely that headwinds already hampering growth prior to 2020 -- such as stressed corporate balance sheets, elevated non-performing assets of banks, the fallout in non-bank financial companies, and labor market weakness -– will worsen,” she said. “The resulting long-term scars, probably among the ...

Hindustan Times  Written by  Pratap Bhanu Mehta   Updated: November 18, 2020  This phenomenon is not just a matter of individual judges or individual cases. It is now a systematic phenomenon with deep institutional roots. In political science literature there is a familiar term — democratic barbarism. Democratic barbarism is often sustained by a judicial barbarism. The term “barbarism” has several components. The first is the overwhelming appearance of arbitrariness in judicial decision-making. The application of law becomes so dependent on the arbitrary whims of individual judges that the rule of law or constitutional terms no longer have any meaning. The law becomes an instrument of oppression; or, at the very least, it aids and abets oppression. This usually means weak protection for civil liberties and dissenters and an unusual degree of deference to state power, especially in constitutional matters. The court also becomes excessively concerned with its version o...

 Hindustan Times Dated: November 17, 2020 By: Deepali Sharma According to the report, in the IT services segment, job postings are mainly for sales, spring, interpersonal communication, automation testing and microservices. In an indication of improving hiring activities in metro cities, job postings rose over five per cent in October compared to the previous month, according to a report. The report is based on job postings on job portal SCIKEY. “There have been signs of recovery in the hiring activities in metro cities in India despite the festive season and impact of the coronavirus pandemic. There has been an uptick in hiring in the number of job postings in October by 5.55 per cent compared to September,” it said. On an year-on-year basis, hiring activities were down 17.6 per cent in October. Sectors that have shown a surge in hiring in September and October are e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, packaging, telecom, banking, financial services and insurance (...

 Hindustan Times Dated: November 18, 2020 By: Rajeev Jayaswal Addressing the third Bloomberg New Economy Forum, the PM said, “Technology is an important enabler in the journey of a smart, prosperous and resilient city. Technology has managed a city efficiently and built connected communities. We are looking at a future where a major chunk of education, healthcare, shopping, food experiences may happen online. Our cities need to be ready for the convergence of the physical and digital world.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Indian cities need to be ready for the convergence of the physical and digital world where a major chunk of education, healthcare, shopping, food experiences will happen online, while inviting investors to participate in the transformation of Indian cities with a project pipeline of $30 billion, including projects worth $20 billion under implementation. Addressing the third Bloomberg New Economy Forum, the PM said, “Technology is an important enabler...

 Hindustan Times Dated: November 18, 2020 By: Rajeev Jayaswal The GST council’s law committee will meet to tighten the process for registration. After launching a nationwide drive against fake Good and Services Tax (GST) invoices that saw 25 arrests in just four days, the Centre is considering to amend laws to check fraudulent claims of input tax credit (ITC) through bogus bills, a finance ministry official said. “An urgent meeting of the Law Committee of the GST Council is being convened on Wednesday [November 18] on this matter that will further tighten the GST registration process,” the official said requesting anonymity. The recent crackdown against people indulging in creating fake bills by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) resulted in the arrest of 25 people. The agency has also identified about 1,180 entities and booked 350 cases against unscrupulous elements involved in availing and passing on of ineligible input tax credit (ITC) fraudulently, he said. The ...

 Hindustan Times Dated: November 18, 2020 By: Shivani Kumar The calls for sanctions by Bardella comes as the rift between France and Muslim countries has widened. Concerned over terrorism emanating from countries like Turkey and Pakistan, French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Jordan Bardella has called for “real financial or trade sanctions” against Ankara, Islamabad, Kuwait city and Doha in order to make “European solidarity tangible”. The calls for sanctions by Bardella comes as the rift between France and Muslim countries has widened. France in last one month has witnessed several terror attacks after Charlie Hebdo announced the republishing of controversial caricature of Prophet Muhammed and French President Emmanuel Macron refused to criticise it in early October. Protests erupted in Muslims countries over the incident. Social media users in many Muslim countries joined calls to boycott French goods. On October 16, a terrorist beheaded a secondary school teacher Samue...

 Hindustan Times Dated: November 18, 2020 By: Srivatsan KC In a sign some senior members of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government want to find a circuit-breaker to ease the tensions, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will deliver a speech on Wednesday saying his nation is ready to re-engage in dialogue with Beijing after ministerial contacts were put on ice. China gave one of its most detailed explanations yet for souring ties with Australia, calling on the nation to stop trying to impose its will on others. “Looking back on China-Australia relations in the past few years, we see some people in Australia adhere to a Cold War mentality and harbor ideological prejudice, regard China’s development as a threat, and have then made a series of wrong moves related to China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. “This is the root cause for China-Australia relations worsening to the current difficult situation,” Zhao said. In a sign s...

 Hindustan Times Dated November 18, 2020 By: Shivani Kumar The deal is the first of its kind for Japan since its 1960 status of forces agreement with the United States, which set the terms for the basing of about 50,000 American troops to operate in and around Japan under the Japan-US security pact. The leaders of Australia and Japan held in-person talks on Tuesday and reached a basic agreement on a bilateral defense pact that would allow their troops to work more closely, as the two US allies seek to bolster their ties to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshihide Suga, said the legal framework, called a Reciprocal Access Agreement, would allow their troops to visit each other’s countries for training and joint operations. It would also enhance their inter-operability and cooperation, they said. The deal is the first of its kind for Japan since its 1960 status of forces agreemen...

 Hindustan Times Dated: November 18, 2020 By:  Press Trust of India | Posted by Shivani Kuma In an interactive session organised by Mumbai-based think-tank Gateway House, Jaishankar said the basis for the overall growth of the relationship between the two countries was peace and tranquillity along the borders. As the border standoff between India and China continued for over six months, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said there was “cause for concern” but efforts were on to work out solutions. In an interactive session organised by Mumbai-based think-tank Gateway House, Jaishankar said the basis for the overall growth of the relationship between the two countries was peace and tranquillity along the borders. “Now, if that gets disturbed, then it cannot be that if the foundation of the house gets eroded or fractured and the rest of the superstructure remains unaltered. I think we are going through a period of stressful relations with China,” Jaishankar said. ...