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 Business Standerd December 16, 2020 T E Narsimhan In October, Punjab and Sind Bank had also reported the account of IFIN as fraud with outstanding dues of over Rs 561 crore to the RBI. Indian Bank  said on Tuesday said that it has reported to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the account of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) as fraud with outstanding dues of over Rs 408 crore. In October, Punjab and Sind Bank had also reported to the RBI the account of IFIN as fraud with outstanding dues of over Rs 561 crore. In September 2018, the government ordered an SFIO probe into the affairs of IL&FS and its subsidiaries. In October, the same year, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) suspended the erstwhile board of IL&FS amid the financial turmoil. On the resolution process proposed by the new board of directors of IL&FS, the company said it has submitted several progress reports and updates to the NCLT. The scam at the IL&FS group came to light in September 20...

 Business Standerd December 15, 2020 PTI This proposal will be considered as part of the govt efforts to help clear outstanding dues to sugarcane farmers, according to sources. The   Union Cabinet   may on Wednesday consider a proposal to provide export subsidy worth Rs 3,600 crore to sugar mills for the marketing year 2020-21, as part of its efforts to help them clear outstanding dues to sugarcane farmers, according to sources. The food ministry has proposed Rs 3,600 crore subsidy for exports of 60 lakh tonnes of sugar in the marketing year 2020-21 (October-September), they added. The sources said the proposal is likely to be taken up by the Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday (December 16). In the previous marketing year 2019-20, the government provided a lump sum export subsidy of Rs 10,448 per tonne, costing the exchequer Rs 6,268 crore. The ministry has proposed lower export subsidy for the current marketing year 2020-21. Mills exported 5.7 million tonnes of sugar ag...

 The Telegraph Online December 16, 2020 Special Correspondence At a virtual chat Mark Zuckerberg, he said it was Facebook's investment of $ 5.7 billion in Jio Platforms that set the ball rolling for FDI into India  Reliance Industries Ltd  chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday forecast that India will grow to be among the top three economies in the world in the next two decades and that it would become a premier digital society. At a virtual chat with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Ambani said  it was the social media giant’s investment of $ 5.7 billion in Jio Platforms in April that set the ball rolling for FDI into India during the pandemic. The result has been that India has received the largest ever FDI during April-August 2020 over any comparable period. “And during the pandemic, India has attracted the largest foreign direct investment in its history. Mark, we have our own example of how Jio and Facebook concluded our partnership right in the middle of lockdown.”“I ...

 Business Standerd December 16, 2020 Sohini Das Cold chain of agriculture research body may come in handy Global pharma major Pfizer may price its vaccine lower in India than in the UK and the US, sources in the know said. The government in the recent past had indicated that India wouldn’t be keen to procure the Pfizer-Biotech vaccine because of its high cost and the extreme cold chain requirement at minus 70 degree Celsius. Responding to the concern over the temperature requirement, a senior government official pointed out that India had cold chain infrastructure, owned by the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, that would be sufficient for a vaccine like the one ... https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/pfizer-may-price-covid-19-vaccine-lower-in-india-than-in-uk-and-us-120121501347_1.html

 The Print December 15, 2020 Ameya Pratap Singh and Urvi Tembe With measures like MSP, India has been carefully treading the thin line between food and livelihood security and practices classified as 'trade distorting' under the WTO law. can India legally guarantee minimum support price, or MSP, to its farmers without contravening its obligations under the World Trade Organization law? What are these laws surrounding domestic price support measures and agricultural subsidies and what are India’s commitments? Until now, with domestic support measures like MSP, India has been carefully treading the thin line between food and livelihood security and practices classified as “trade distorting” under the WTO law. India has been a founding member of the WTO and is a signatory to the multilateral Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which, among other things, regulates domestic subsidies granted by governments in the agricultural sector. The ‘disciplines’ on agricultural subsidies aim to cu...

 The Telegraph 17.12.20 The report published by United Nations Development Programme has placed India in the 131st position among 189 countries.   India has slipped two notches, to 131st place, in the latest Human Development Index (HDI) rankings published by the United Nations Development Programme although most of its neighbours have improved their scores. The Human Development Report 2020 has placed India in the 131st position among 189 countries, down from the 129th last year. Bhutan, ranked 134th last year, has leapfrogged India to the 129th spot. The HDI measures achievements in life expectancy, education and per capita income. The report found that India’s gross national income per capita had fallen to $6,681 (Rs 4.9 lakh) in 2019 from $6,829 (Rs 5.03 lakh) in 2018 on the basis of purchasing power parity (PPP). The PPP is a measurement for prices in different countries in terms of the purchasing power of the currency for specific goods. Nepal has risen from 147th last y...

 The Telegraph 16.12.20 Authorities in the EU and Britain built momentum on Tuesday for tougher oversight of the technology industry, as they introduced new regulations to pressure the world’s biggest tech companies to take down harmful content and open themselves up to more competition. In Brussels, EU leaders unveiled proposals to crimp the power of “gatekeeper” platforms like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which policymakers argue deserve more oversight given their outsize influence.  The proposed EU laws would require the companies to do more to prevent the spread of hate speech and sale of counterfeit merchandise, and disclose more information about how services like targeted advertising work. In Britain, the government proposed banning some harmful Internet content like terrorism material, suicide videos and childhood bullying, which could result in billions of dollars in fines. Separately, Irish regulators announced a fine of 450,000 euros (about $547,00...

 The Telegraph 17.12.20 The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to form a committee to resolve the farmers’ agitation, saying the government’s negotiations would “again fail” and the dispute would “soon become a national issue” if allowed to fester. After taking on itself the responsibility to broker a possible settlement, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde listed the matter for urgent hearing on Thursday. It issued notices to the Centre and eight farmers’ organisations. Earlier, when solicitor-general Tushar Mehta suggested that senior ministers were holding talks “regularly” and insinuated that the farmers’ stand was opaque, Justice Bobde cut him short. “Your talks will again fail…. It seems the government may not be able to work out a solution. The issue will soon become a national issue,” he said.  Tens of thousands of farmers have besieged Delhi’s borders in protest against three new farm laws that they say would deprive them of the minimum support price a...

 Hindustan Times Dec 16, 2020 Posted by Kanishka Sarkar Piyush Goyal said, “India is looking forward for working with friends and neighbours, and having a global footprint. India is working to turn the COVID crisis into an opportunity, and is confident of reaching the target of $5 trillion economy by 2025, and $10 trillion in another 7-10 years.” The government is making efforts to deregulate the economy with an aim to attract greater investments from across the world, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday. He said the government has opened up defence, manufacturing, mining, finance and capital market sectors. The government has further liberalised agricultural laws to encourage more investments in agri-processing and open up markets so as to increase the income of farmers, he said at CII’s Partnership Summit. “India is making efforts to deregulate its economy for greater investments from other parts of the world,” he said. Goyal further said India provides ...

 Hindustan Times Dec 17, 2020 Posted by Ayshee Bhaduri Vietnam’s central bank, refuting the US Treasury’s move to designate the Southeast Asian nation a currency manipulator, said it does not use its exchange rates “to create an unfair competitive advantage in international trade,” the regulator said in a statement on its website. Vietnam’s “exchange rate management in recent years is within its general framework of monetary policy and aims to achieve the consistent goal of controlling inflation, stabilizing macro-economy” and does not create an unfair competitive advantage for the nation, the State Bank of Vietnam said. The Vietnamese dong traded at 23,127 per dollar, little changed from yesterday. The benchmark VN Index of Vietnamese stocks lost 1% as of 9:22 a.m. local time and is poised for its biggest decline in a month. Vietnam’s trade surplus with the US and its current account surplus are the result of a range of factors related to the peculiarities of the Vietnamese econom...

 Hindustan Times Dec 17, 2020   Posted by Shankhyaneel Sarkar Pakistan will start building a 1,100 kilometer (684 miles) pipeline in July with Russia that will allow the South Asian nation to operate more liquefied natural gas terminals. The South Asian nation will have a majority share of 51% to 74% in the project, while Russia will own the remainder, Nadeem Babar, petroleum adviser to the prime minister, said in an interview on Dec. 14. Pakistan’s gas distribution companies Sui Southern Gas Co. and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd., which have started acquiring land for the pipeline, will be a part of the project, while a Russian consortium will lead construction. Pakistan has become one of the top emerging markets for the super-chilled fuel in recent years as domestic gas production has plateaued, forcing the nation to import cargoes. The nation has also auctioned a record 20 oil and gas blocks to encourage exploration activity, with bids expected by mid-January, said Babar. ...

 Hindustan Times Dec 17, 2020 Posted by Karan Manral President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday U.S. sanctions imposed on Turkey over its purchase of Russian defence systems were a “hostile attack” on its sovereign rights and defence industry, and the move was bound to fail. Washington slapped the sanctions on NATO member Turkey’s Defence Industry Directorate (SSB), its chief Ismail Demir and three other employees on Monday over its acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defence systems. In his first public comments on the move, Erdogan said problems stemming from the sanctions would be overcome and vowed to ramp up efforts towards an independent defence industry, while criticising Washington for punishing a NATO ally. “What kind of alliance is this? What kind of partnership is this? This decision is an open hostile attack on our country’s sovereign rights,” he said in a televised address. “The real goal is to block the advances our country started in the defence industry recently an...

 Hindustan Times Dec 17, 2020 by  Yashwant Raj A US defence spending legislation that has been cleared by both chambers of the US Congress expresses “significant concern” with Chinese aggression along the border with India, and urges Beijing to settle the dispute through “existing diplomatic mechanisms” and “refrain’’ from using force and coercion. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), 2021 seeks to convey this message as an expression of the “sense of Congress”. Though it is neither a demand nor a threat tagged with enforceable consequences, it is a significant show of support for India and solidarity, passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and Republican-controlled Senate. The legislation is now awaiting the signature of President Donald Trump. He has until December 23 to sign the bill into law or veto it, as he has threatened to. However, since the legislations passed both the House and Senate with two-thirds majorities, the measure has enough...

 Hindustan Times Dec 16, 2020 By  Shishir Gupta Phone companies in India can only use telecom equipment certified by a top security panel to have come from a “trust source”, the Union Cabinet decided at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. The certificate will be issued by a security panel headed by Deputy National Security Advisor Rajender Khanna who reports to NSA Ajit Doval. A former chief of India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing, Khanna heads the technologies section in the National Security Council Secretariat, people familiar with the matter said. “This is a very important decision with respect to national security,” Union telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said as he unveiled the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector that had been cleared by the cabinet minutes earlier. The directive does not require phone companies to replace their existing equipment and will not impact ongoing annual maintenan...

 Hindustan Times Dec 17, 2020 Edited by Shankhyaneel Sarkar Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina will hold a virtual bilateral summit on Thursday and hold discussions to improve trade and connectivity between both nations. Modi and Hasina will jointly inaugurate the Haldibari-Chilahati rail link which is aimed at fostering people-to-people connectivity on both sides. The rail link is also expected to enhance connectivity and trade between Assam, West Bengal and Bangladesh. “During the summit, the two leaders will hold comprehensive discussions on the entire spectrum of the bilateral relationship, including further strengthening cooperation in the post COVID era,” the Ministry of External Affairs was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. India and Bangladesh have both been very keen to restart the six pre-1965 rail links between both countries. There are five links that are currently operational between both nations - Petrapole (India) - Benapole ...

 Bloomberg December 16 2020 By Ira Dugal The U.S. Treasury Department’s semi-annual report on the macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of major trading partners has put India on the watchlist of countries being monitored for currency manipulation. This comes after the Indian central bank stepped up purchases of foreign currency as portfolio flows surged in the second half of the year. The monitoring list comprises China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and India. While India had been included in this list in 2018, it was removed in 2019. The U.S. Treasury uses three benchmarks to judge currency manipulators: A bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. of more than $20 billion. A current account surplus of at least 3% of GDP. Net purchases of foreign currency of 2% of GDP over a 12-month period. India breached the first and the third benchmarks. On the second, on a four-quarter basis, the country’s current account surplus remained below the th...

 Reuters DECEMBER 16, 2020 By  Neha Arora ,  Aftab Ahmed NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will have to spend $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion in the first phase of a coronavirus vaccination programme, even after getting support under the COVAX global vaccine-sharing scheme, according to estimates by the GAVI vaccines alliance. India, which has the world’s second highest caseload of coronavirus behind the United States, plans to inoculate 300 million people over the next six to eight months, likely with vaccines from AstraZeneca, Russia’s Sputnik, Zydus Cadila and India’s own Bharat Biotech. Documents reviewed by Reuters underline the scale of the funding challenge India faces to immunise its vast population, with 600 million shots required in the first wave alone for critical workers and people most at risk from COVID-19. If India got 190-250 million shots of the vaccine under the COVAX facility - a best case scenario - then the government would need to line up about $1.4 billion ...