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 HT Tech December 20, 2020 Looks like Microsoft is about to completely change how we unlock our laptops and smartphones. In the latest blog post the company has spoken about its efforts in moving towards a passwordless future and its intentions to reach that stage in 2021. In the blog post, the company has stated that almost 80% of the cyber-attacks are targeted towards the password with every 250 corporate accounts being hacked every day. And this has pushed the company to bring a password free solution.  “In November 2019 at Microsoft Ignite, we shared that more than 100 million people were already using Microsoft’s passwordless sign-in each month. In May of 2020, just in time for World Password Day, that number had already grown to more than 150 million people, and the use of biometrics to access work accounts is now almost double what it was then. We’ve drawn strength from our customers’ determination this year and are set to make passwordless access a reali...

 The Hindustan Times Deepali Sharma 03.12.2020 Australia’s parliament on Thursday passed legislation giving the federal government power to veto any agreement struck with foreign states, a move likely to anger China and intensify a bitter diplomatic spat between the two countries. The law allows the Commonwealth to block any agreement between Australian states, councils or institutions and a foreign government, such as a controversial 2018 deal between the state of Victoria and China. “Australia’s policies and plans, the rules that we make for our country are made here in Australia according to our needs and our interests,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra. Morrison has stressed the law is not aimed at any country but it is widely seen by analysts as directed at China. “It creates another trigger for the relationship to deteriorate,” said Melissa Conley Tyler, research fellow at the Asia Institute of the University of Melbourne. Under the terms of the new la...

 The Hindustan Times Mallika Soni 03.12.2020 The Trump administration banned cotton imports from a military-linked Chinese firm it accuses  of relying on “slave labor,” as the US seeks to ramp up economic pressure on Beijing over its  treatment of Muslim ethnic minority groups. The US Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that customs officers at American ports would impound “shipments containing cotton and cotton products originating” from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps., one of China’s largest producers. The organization -- set up by the Communist Party more than 60 years ago to help develop the far western region of Xinjiang -- was previously hit by Treasury Department sanctions barring it from transactions with American companies and citizens. “The human rights abuses taking place at the hand of the Chinese Communist government will not be tolerated by President Trump and the American people,” DHS Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said in...

 Financial Express Manoj Pant 03.12.2020 It is now clear that India remains outside the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement of November 15. Subsequently, a large number of articles have appeared that seem to argue in favour of the RCEP on strategic and economic grounds. Let us look at these two arguments in turn. It is true that trade agreements have a political/strategic context. For example, the extension of the US-Canada trade agreement to the NAFTA (subsequently modified) and the extension of the EU 15 to the EU 27 (both in the early 1990s) were certainly driven by political/security concerns. It is possible that for the RCEP a similar strategic motivation exists. This was also argued prior to the signing of India’s RTAs with the ASEAN, the AIFTA (ASEAN-India Free Trade Area). Presumably, the AIFTA was part of the Look East policy of the 1990s and was a strategic outreach to South-East Asian countries. Subsequently, this became the Act East policy. Logi...

The Hindustan Times Malika Soni 30.11.2020 China said a preliminary US ruling that it allegedly provided a trade subsidy to some exporters by undervaluing the yuan violated international rules. The case relates to a US investigation into Chinese exports of cable or twist ties, with the US Department of Commerce imposing tariffs on the products after determining that producers are getting an unfair advantage because of the currency. China’s Commerce Ministry called on US authorities to stop its investigation, while also disputing the preliminary finding. “The move seriously violated relevant international rules,” China’s ministry said in a statement on its website Saturday, citing an unidentified official. “We hope the US Department of Commerce will fully consider the evidence and counter opinions submitted by the Chinese side and correct the relevant wrong practices and conclusions.” The claim by the US that the yuan’s exchange rate to the dollar was undervalued by 5% in 2019 is “compl...

The Print  Shruti Srivastava  26.11.2020 Tariffs will be eliminated on at least 92% of traded goods among the 15 nations that signed the RCEP. Meanwhile, some of India’s top 10 exports will face erosion in market share. New Delhi:  India’s key manufacturing exports may lose market share to a China-backed Asian trade bloc, from which Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked away last year to protect the interests of local farmers and industry. Some of India’s  top 10 exports  such as engineering goods, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and electronics face erosion in market share on account of lower tariffs that members of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership enjoy for trading among themselves, according to economists. To put things in perspective, engineering products alone account for a quarter of the nation’s merchandise exports. “In sectors where India is somewhat contributing to the global supply chain, RCEP would prove to be disadvantageous,” Amit...

 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...

Seatrade Marytime News June 05, 2020 During the last ten days period of May, the cargo throughput of major Chinese ports kept increasing and posted an increase of 0.9% year-on-year. Ningbo-Zhoushan port is bringing a new 70,000 tonne-class container berth into operation in July. The overall container throughput and international container cargo volume of eight major Chinese ports increased 20% and 18% respectively comparing to middle May, resuming to around 98% and 96% of the volume in the same period of last year. The crude oil shipments at major coastal ports increased 15.43% year-on-year. The iron ore shipments at major ports increased 6% compared year-on-year, among which the growth rate of Ningbo-Zhoushan port and Qingdao port exceeded 10%. Related:   Container volumes at major Chinese ports fell 5.1% in mid-May The port business along Yangtze river continued recovering in late May. The cargo throughput of three major ports, Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing, h...

Sea Trade Marytime News June  05, 2020 During the last ten days period of May, the cargo throughput of major Chinese ports kept increasing and posted an increase of 0.9% year-on-year. Ningbo-Zhoushan port is bringing a new 70,000 tonne-class container berth into operation in July. ABB reports that it has added Sovcomflot’s Azipod-equipped icebreaking LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie - which last month completed a landmark early-season transit of the Northern Sea Route - to the list of vessels using its ABB Ability remote diagnostics services. The overall container throughput and international container cargo volume of eight major Chinese ports increased 20% and 18% respectively comparing to middle May, resuming to around 98% and 96% of the volume in the same period of last year. The crude oil shipments at major coastal ports increased 15.43% year-on-year. The iron ore shipments at major ports increased 6% compared year-on-year, among which the growth rate o...

The Indian Express June 05, 2020 By: Sanjaya Baru G-12 must include respect for human rights, adherence to international law, multilateralism in trade and security Sanjaya Baru writes: President Trump is not doing India a favour by wanting to invite it into the new group. As the world's largest free market democracy India desThe loud thinking by   United States   President Donald Trump on the need to enlarge the membership of the Group of Seven (G-7), the club of “free market democracies”, is only the most recent of many such initiatives aimed at making an anachronism relevant to a changing world. Formed in 1976, the G-7 no longer dominate the global economy as they did at their founding. It was the French who first flew the kite of membership expansion when they invited heads of government of several “emerging economies” for a meeting of the group at Évian-les-Bains, France, in June 2003. The G-7 became the G-8 in 1997 when Russia was invited to join. In 2014, Russi...

CNN Business February 23, 2020 Some of the world's biggest economies are on the brink of recession Markets closed out last week on an anxious note. It's not difficult to see why: the coronavirus continues to spread, and there are signs that some of the world's top economies could slide into recession as the outbreak compounds pre-existing weaknesses. Take Japan: The world's third-largest economy shrank 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2019 as the country absorbed the effects of a sales tax hike and a powerful typhoon. It was biggest contraction compared to the previous quarter since 2014. Then there's Germany. The biggest economy in Europe ground to a halt right before the coronavirus outbreak set in, dragged down by the country's struggling factories. The closely-watched ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment in Germany decreased sharply for February, reflecting fears that the virus could hit world trade. Bank of America economist Ethan Harri...

The Hindu January 05, 2020 Author:  D. Ravi Kanth Is the World Trade Organization dying? Why does America disregard the authority of the Appellate Body? The story so far:  Even as the trade war between China and the United States shows no signs of ending, Washington has paralysed the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body, which acts as a supreme court for international trade. In December 2019, the U.S. chose to spike the Appellate Body by starving funds for its functioning. It also stalled the selection process for filling six vacancies at the Appellate Body. Consequently, the Appellate Body is left with only one member, who will not be able to deliver any rulings on pending trade disputes — a minimum of three members is required to adjudicate any dispute. What is the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body and why is it in the news? Global trade disputes are complex and difficult to resolve. For proper enforcement of trade rules, a binding, two-stage disp...