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 Financial Express December 15, 2020 F E Bureau The company is gearing up to launch the first of its range of electric scooters in the coming months. The new manufacturing plant – expected to be operational in a year's time – aligns with Ola's global vision to move mobility into a more sustainable, accessible and connected future. Ride-hailing platform Ola on Monday said it has inked an agreement with the Tamil Nadu government to invest Rs 2,400 crore for setting up its first electric scooter factory at Hosur in the state. Upon completion, the factory will create nearly 10,000 jobs and will be the world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility that will initially have an annual capacity of 2 million units, a company statement said. “We are excited to announce our plans to set up the world’s largest scooter factory. This is a significant milestone for Ola and a proud moment for our country as we rapidly progress towards realising our vision of moving the world to su...

 The Telegraph Online December 15, 2020 Bureau Agency Monday’s move brings end to incumbent Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn poll results The voting of the 538-member Electoral College began in New Hampshire at 10 am , when the electors met at a statehood chamber and gave their four votes to Joe Biden. By Monday noon, battleground states including Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, ground zero for many of President Donald Trump’s fruitless lawsuits, had backed Biden too. Bill and Hillary Clinton in New York, along with 27 other electoral members, cast their votes to Biden. His win was confirmed at around 5:30 pm when 55 electors of California backed Biden, to push him past the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, putting the official seal on his victory after weeks of efforts by Trump to use legal challenges and political pressure to overturn the results. With the Electoral College vote behind him, Biden called for...

 The Telegraph Online December 15, 2020 Reuters Singapore became on Monday the first Asian country to approve Pfizer Biotech corona virus vaccine and said it expects to start receiving shots by the end of the year. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, said he would be among the early recipients in the city state of 5.7 million people, which has one of the lowest fatality rates globally from the coronavirus. The government said it expects to have secured enough vaccines for everyone by the third quarter of next year. “My colleagues and I, including the older ones, will be getting ourselves vaccinated early. This is to show you, especially seniors like me, that we believe the vaccines are safe,” Lee said in a national broadcast, adding that the vaccines would be free, voluntary and given first to healthcare workers and the elderly. Singapore has also signed advanced purchase agreements and made early down payments on promising vaccine candidates including those being de...

 The Telegraph Online December 15, 2020 A staff reporter Till date in 2020, the average Indian investment banking pool has jumped 30 per cent to $800-900 million from $600-700 million in 2019 Investment bankers are bullish about their business, backed by a healthy pipeline of initial public offers, mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments. Till date in 2020, the average Indian investment banking pool has jumped 30 per cent to $800-900 million from $600-700 million in 2019. This is expected to rise to $1 billion over the next 2-3 years. During the year, deals in the equity capital market accounted for 37 per cent of the banking fee pool followed by private equity at 37 per cent. Mergers and acquisitions accounted for the remaining 26 per cent. While fundraising via IPO has jumped 2.25 times to Rs 45,000 crore compared with Rs 20,300 crore in 2019, QIP has also doubled t...

 The Indian Express December 15, 2020 Harikishan Sharma The Narendra Modi-led government is said to have taken a political call not to yield to the protesting farmers’ demand that the three laws be repealed — but is willing to continue talks with them. “A repeal is not possible; and a 0-1 binary will not work. The government has given an amendment option. It is also willing to change the wordings of the three laws based on farmer concerns,” said a top government source who is in the know of developments in Krishi Bhawan. “The door for talks is always open.” On Day 19 of the protests, leaders of 32 farm unions escalated their agitation by observing a day’s hunger strike beginning 8 am at the Singhu border. The police, meanwhile, put up shipping containers using cranes on NH-44 to firm up the barricades already fortified with dumpsters laden with sand and barbed wire to prevent protesters from entering Delhi The Narendra Modi-led government is said to have taken a politi...

 The Indian Express December 14, 2020 Associated Press Iran President Hassan Rouhani's comments in a news conference marked the first time he has directly accused the Jewish state of carrying out the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh late last month.  Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Monday claimed that Israel was behind the killing of a scientist who founded the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program in the 2000s in an effort to start a war in the last days of President Trump’s administration. Rouhani’s comments in a news conference marked the first time he has directly accused the Jewish state of carrying out the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh late last month. Israel, long suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the last decade, has repeatedly declined to comment on the attack. “Waging instability and war in the final days of the Trump administration was the main aim of the Zionist regime in the assassination,” Rouhani said. Rouhani vowed to aven...

 The Indian Express December 15, 2020 Express News Service The CDS was speaking at the launch of the first Project 17A stealth frigate ‘Himgiri’, an addition to the might of the Indian Navy, built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), in Kolkata. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Monday said that “high levels of preparation are underway on land, sea and air” as “China attempts to change the status quo on Line of Actual Control (LAC) along the northern border”. The CDS was speaking at the launch of the first Project 17A stealth frigate ‘Himgiri’, an addition to the might of the Indian Navy, built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), in Kolkata. The PSU was awarded a contract, amounting to over Rs 19,293 crore, for construction of three stealth frigates under Project 17A. General Rawat said the Indian armed forces will leave no stone upturned to safeguard the nation against any eventuality and Himgiri wi...

 The Indian Express December 14, 2020 Kurunjit Singh The Sebi requires, since April 1, 2020, that the top 1000 listed companies by market capitalisation have a woman board member who is also an independent director. The NASDAQ stock exchange in the US may soon require all companies listed on the bourse to include at least one female board member as well as one member from a racial minority group or from the LGBTQ community on their board of directors. There also are in place diversity requirements from Indian companies and their compliance with these rules. What are the diversity requirements that Indian companies need to meet? All public companies which are listed on stock exchanges and companies with either a paid-up capital of Rs 100 crore or annual turnover over Rs 300 crore are required to have at least one woman board member under the Companies Act. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) further requires, since April 1, 2020, that the top 1000 listed...

 The Indian Express December 15, 2020 Jahangir Aziz What needs to be ensured is that the recovery is not hamstrung by damaged household and SME balance sheets because of the extended loss of wages and incomes. This requires extensive income support now. Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees, and at other times the trees themselves become the story. That seems to be the case with India’s 3Q20 GDP print. Some have exulted over headline growth printing a “better-than-expected” -7.5 per cent rate on a year-ago basis, while others, including the RBI, have lamented that this puts India in its first ever “technical recession”. But neither inference is meaningful. After clocking -24 per cent the previous quarter, printing a growth rate that is one percentage point higher than expected is nothing to write home about and, no, India is not in a technical recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the US defines a technical recession to be one where the g...

 The Indian Express December 14, 2020 Reuters The results are crucial for India, where the vaccine is being tested on humans in mid- to late-stage trials by Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. Russian coronavirus vaccine developers published fresh results from their trial of the Sputnik V vaccine on Monday based on new data, and said the shot had again been found to be 91.4% effective in providing protection from Covid-19 . The results are crucial for India, where the vaccine is being tested on humans in mid- to late-stage trials by Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. More than 100,000 people have already been vaccinated against the disease as part of Russia’s mass inoculation programme, which began in September alongside a Moscow-based human trial of the shot. The new results are based on  data from 22,714 participants in the trial, and were published after 78 confirmed coronavirus cases were reported among the group, researchers at the Gamaleya Instit...

 Hindustan Times December 13, 2020 Kunal Gaurav According to several media reports, IRCTC has started sending out emails with a 47-page attachment titled ‘PM Modi and his government’s special relationship with Sikhs’. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has denied reaching out to the Sikh community through emails on behalf of the central government amid ongoing farmers’ protests. IRCTC refuted the reports suggesting it had sent out the mails, highlighting the relationship between Sikhs and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to people with surname ‘Singh’ and those from the Punjab region. It said the emails were sent to all and that such activities are not unprecedented. “It may be informed to all that the comments of IRCTC have not been quoted correctly and the mails have been sent to all irrespective any particular community...This is not the first instance. Earlier also such activities have been undertaken by IRCTC to promote government welfare sche...

 First Post December 13, 2020 The Associated Press However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson played down hopes of a breakthrough, saying the 'most likely' outcome was that the two sides wouldn't reach a deal and would trade on WTO term. Brussels : Throwing overboard a self-imposed deadline, the European Union and Britain said on Sunday they will "go the extra mile" to clinch a post-Brexit trade agreement that would avert New Year's chaos and cost for cross-border commerce. British prime minister Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen had set Sunday as the decisive moment for a breakthrough or breakdown in deadlocked negotiations. But they stepped back from the brink, saying there was too much at stake not to make a final push. "Despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations and despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over, we both think it is responsible at this poi...

 First Post December 13, 2020 Press Trust of India Chaudhary was arrested on Saturday from Gandhinagar for allegedly embezzling Rs 14.8 crore that was meant to give bonus to employees of Dudhasagar Dairy cooperative in Mehsana, of which he was a former chairman, a state CID official said  Chaudhary was arrested on Saturday from Gandhinagar for allegedly embezzling Rs 14.8 crore that was meant to give bonus to employees of Dudhasagar Dairy cooperative in Mehsana, of which he was a former chairman, a state CID official said. Ahmedabad :  Vipul Chaudhary, former chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has been arrested for his alleged role in a Rs 14.8 crore embezzlement case involving bonus of employees of a Mehsana-based dairy entity to which he was connected, police said on Sunday. Chaudhary was arrested on Saturday from Gandhinagar for allegedly embezzling Rs 14.8 crore that was meant to give bonus to employees o...

 The Telegraph Online December 14, 2020 Reuters The US expects to immunize 100 million people, or about 30 per cent of its population, by the end of March. The first shipments of Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine left a factory in Michigan early on Sunday on a convoy of semi trucks, kicking off a historic effort to stop a surging pandemic that is claiming more than 2,400 lives a day in the US. Mask-wearing workers at a Pfizer factory in Michigan began packing the first shipments of its vaccine in dry ice shortly after 6.30am on Sunday. Three trucks carrying pallets of boxed, refrigerated vaccines rolled away from the Kalamazoo facility at 8.29am, escorted by body armour-clad security officers in a pickup truck and an SUV. The US expects to immunize 100 million people, or about 30 per cent of its population, by the end of March, US Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui said in an interview with Fox News Sunday. About 2.9 million doses of the vaccine are to tr...

 The Telegraph Online December 14, 2020 Anasuya Basu The association cited crisis in the supply of semiconductors red-flagged by one of its members, Bosch The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (Acma) of India has highlighted the need for localisation and self-reliance in auto electronics in the country in the wake of the crisis in the supply of semiconductors red-flagged by one of its members, Bosch. The German component supplier, in compliance under Regulation 30 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), had stated that “imports of Bosch Ltd have been impacted with severe supply shortage for micro-processors (semiconductors), leading to reduced ability to deliver to the automotive market demand in India. Restoration of normalcy in global supply situation for imported components and impacts are being very closely assessed and addressed on top priority”. The OEMs currently impacted by this shortage of semiconductors include M...

 The Indian Express December 14, 2020 Sunny Verma, Sundeep Singh Concerns over PSU stocks over the last year have led to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) lower their holdings, as they pumped in a net of `1.56 lakh crore into equities in April-November, but did not pay much attention to state-owned companies. The government has renewed its focus on improving the market capitalization of state-owned companies and banks in line with the profitability and other financial parameters. Sources said state-owned companies are increasing their interactions with institutional investors to look at ways to study the reasons for lag in their performance and how it can be improved. Even as consumption-focused government-owned companies such as IRCTC , IGL, MGL have done well on stock exchanges, most are lagging their private sector counterparts across sectors. Given that equity benchmark indices have made lifetime highs after crashing in March due to sudden shock of Covid-19 pandemic ...

 The Indian Express December 15, 2020 Udit Mishra China followed a radically different approach by creating incentives and institutions needed for a market economy. Dear Readers, The farmer protests in the national capital refuse to weaken and with each passing day more and more people in the country seem to be growing curious about the wisdom behind the government’s new farm laws. At The Indian Express , we have written several “Explained” pieces about what the new farm laws aim to do, what the current state of Indian farmers is, including those hailing from Punjab and Hfrom Punjab Haryana — the two states which have opposed the farm laws the most. Incidentally, these are also the two states that benefitted the most under the previous policy regime. One is the question of whether these reforms will benefit the farmers or not. This is a question of economics. Broadly speaking, the government’s argument is that opening up the agriculture sector to market forces will no...

 Indian Express December 14, 2020 Reuters US officials have not said much publicly beyond the Commerce Department confirming there was a breach at one of its agencies and that they asked the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI to investigate. Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg. The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday, said one of the people familiar with the matter. US officials have not said much publicly beyond the Commerce Department confirming there was a breach at one of its agencies and that they asked the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI to investigate.  National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot added that they “are taking ...

 Indian Express December 14, 2020 Amitabh Sinha With new infections of Covid-19 having seemingly established for over a month now, experts believe that a larger share of Indian population may have already been infected by the virus than what surveyors have been indicating. For over a month and a half now, reported cases of the infection have dropped to below 50,000 a day. During this time, there have been festivals, elections, farmers’ protests, and relaxations in restrictions. All this was feared to result in a surge in the number of people being found to be infected. But not only has there been no surge, the numbers have been on the decline, slowly but steadily. For the last two weeks, the daily detection of new cases has remained firmly below 40,000. Follow Coronavirus India Live Updates The largest number of cases are still coming from Kerala and Maharashtra, each reporting about 4,000 to 5,000 cases a day, while a state like Bihar, where the numbers were expected t...