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 Fair Observer December 03, 2020 (7days ago) As India completes 73 years of independence, agriculture has emerged as a mainstay of the economy. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, Indian agriculture is poised to grow by an estimated 3% in 2020-21. Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has  acknowledged  that agriculture remains a “beacon of hope” at a time the economy is shrinking. The government has announced a new agricultural  policy  that has drawn both supporters and detractors. Farmer  protests  have broken out in parts of the country. About 50,000 have marched to New Delhi from the agrarian state of Punjab, objecting to the loosening of price, storage and sales regulations that have traditionally shielded India’s farmers from the free market forces. As of August 25, the International Monetary Fund  projected  India’s real GDP growth to be 4.5% in 2020. This shrinking of the economy in a country with a growing population could lead to a major crisis. Already,

  The Indian Express December 09, 2020 Sandeep Singh Stock market: Investors who need some money and have to meet one of their financial goals of buying a home, car or funding higher education of kids can go for some profit booking at this time as the markets are on a high. The benchmark Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange closed above the 46,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday. Over the last one month, since it closed above the 42,000 mark on November 9, the Sensex has breached five milestones. Having risen by over 4,200 points or 10 per cent over the last one month while there is a sense of relief among existing investors as their investments have turned good, there are growing concerns among many over the high valuations and is leading them to book profits. What is fuelling the market? Over the last couple of months the markets have risen on various factors starting from signs of economic recovery in September and October, US election outcome, announcement of successful trials

  The Indian Express December 10, 2020 ENS Economic Bureau Speaking During a webinar at the TiE Global Summit, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee said nobody other than foreign capitalists would have the kind of fund depth to write down the debt of the Indian banking system. The Indian banking system is “half-dead” and will need a lot of capital for revival, which can only come from foreign sources, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee said on Wednesday. “I think restricting it to Indian ownership is, to me, a mistake. I think we have some ideological view that Indian capitalists are somehow good capitalists and foreign capitalists are bad capitalist,” Banerjee said during a webinar at the TiE Global Summit. Banerjee was speaking about the condition of banking sector in India, and said that nobody other than foreign capitalists would have that kind of fund depth to write down the debt of the Indian banking system. “The reason why we need that debt written down is that banking sector, in a sens

  The Indian Express December 10, 2020 Reuters Pfizer and BioNTech said they did not believe any personal data of trial participants had been compromised and EMA "has assured us that the cyber attack will have no impact on the timeline for its review." US drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said on Wednesday that documents related to development of their  COVID-19  vaccine had been “unlawfully accessed” in a cyberattack on Europe’s medicines regulator. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which assesses medicines and vaccines for the European Union, said hours earlier it had been targeted in a cyberattack. It gave no further details. Pfizer and BioNTech said they did not believe any personal data of trial participants had been compromised and EMA “has assured us that the cyber attack will have no impact on the timeline for its review.” It was not immediately clear when or how the attack took place, who was responsible or what other information may have been compr

 The Indian Express December 10, 2020 Shubhajit Roy The West is also seeking to “undermine” Russia’s close partnership and privileged relationship with India, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. In a scathing comment on the Quadrilateral (Quad) grouping, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described India as an “object” of the West’s “persistent, aggressive, and devious” policy against China in the Indo-Pacific. The West is also seeking to “undermine” Russia’s close partnership and privileged relationship with India, Lavrov said. “This is the goal of the US’s very tough pressure on New Delhi in the MTC (Military Technical Cooperation) area,” he said at the general meeting of the Russian International Affairs Council on Tuesday. The remarks were released on Wednesday. While this is not the first time that the Russian minister has criticised the Quad – the strategic forum of the United States, Japan, Australia and India – the strong language, and the reiteration of the

 Fox News December 09, 2020 Ronn Blitzer Bombshell report linked California Democrat with suspected spy. Rep.  Eric Swalwell , D-Calif., is keeping quiet about his past relationship with a woman suspected of acting as a  Chinese  spy. Axios  reported that a Chinese national named Fang Fang or Christine Fang targeted up-and-coming local politicians, including Swalwell. Fang reportedly helped fundraise for Swalwell's 2014 campaign and helped place at least one intern in his office. In fact, a former intelligence official told Fox News the Chinese for years have sent spies to “sleep with lesser-known members of Congress and staffers.” FBI STEPPED IN AFTER SUSPECTED CHINESE SPY GOT CLOSE TO SWALWELL, OTHER POLITICIANS, REPORT FINDS Fang's relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors turned sexual, according to Axios, with at least two incidents being caught by FBI surveillance. When asked about the nature of Swalwell's relationship with Fang, the Democratic congressman'

  Scroll.In December 08, 2020 Arunabh Saikia Tensions between communities defined as indigenous and those considered migrants had faded over the last decade. The new law brought them back. On December 11, 2019, Parliament passed  amendments to the Citizenship Act  that sparked an unprecedented nationwide protest movement against the legislation and other government policies that discriminate against Muslims and violate Constitutional norms. One year later, after riots in Delhi and the Covid-19 pandemic put a halt to public sit-ins,  Scroll.in  considers  the impact of this remarkable moment in Indian history. Sanjay Biswas lives in Ambagan, a village of mostly Bengali speakers in Middle Assam’s Nagaon district. But his home is in a neighbourhood that is entirely Assamese.   For Biswas, a Bengali man who was born and raised in Assam, and is married to an Assamese woman he met at college, it was a detail that was never really part of his consciousness. But that changed last winter when t

  BBC News December 09, 2020 China has removed 105 apps from its app stores as part of a campaign to get rid of content related to pornography, prostitution, gambling and violence. Most of the banned apps are Chinese but US travel app TripAdvisor is also included on the list. According to the Cyberspace Administration of China, all apps violated one of three cyber-laws, although it did not provide details. It comes as a second US court rules against the planned ban on TikTok. US district judge Carl Nichols said President Trump over-stepped his authority when attempting to ban the Chinese video-sharing app on security grounds. He is the second judge to rule in favour of TikTok. The majority of apps in the latest crackdown from Beijing are domestic ones, with authorities saying the ban was in response to content the public "deemed offensive". It is unclear why TripAdvisor has been banned. The BBC has contacted the firm for a comment but has not yet received a response. Tensions