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TOI, July 31, 2017 NEW DELHI: Despite India willing to invest as much as $11 billion to develop Iran's Farzad B gas field, the war of words between the two countries has only intensified with  Tehran  now saying that it is under no obligation to award the contract to India.  Iran has also made light of India's threat to import less crude oil from it, with its  Parliament Energy Commission chief saying Iran could find other customers for its oil.  In May, Iran signed a basic agreement with Russia's Gazprom for development of the gas field which was discovered by a consortium of Indian state-run companies. This was seen as a retaliation against what Iran saw as a threat from India to cut purchase of Iranian oil if the commercial contract for Farzad B didn't happen.  India officially said last month that it wants Tehran to reciprocate the faith shown by New Delhi in it as reflected in India's decision to buy substantial crude from Iran even ...

The Hindu, Arun S, July 30, 2017 The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has said 4,445 complaints have been registered against CAs as on June 30 this year, and punishment has been awarded in 402 cases until March 2017. The CA regulator, however, said it was pushing for amendments to the norms to help expedite action against wrongdoers in the profession. PM sought action This development comes within a few weeks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicating stringent measures against those involved in money laundering — including through shell companies — following demonetisation, and asking the ICAI to hasten action against CAs “helping tax evaders.” ICAI president Nilesh S. Vikamsey informed  The Hindu that till March 2017, the ICAI had awarded punishment in 402 cases (under the old and new disciplinary mechanisms) to the erring members. He said the action ranged from “[issuing] letter of caution to permanent removal from the ‘Register of Members’ ...

Written by  Sandeep Singh  | New Delhi | Updated: July 31, 2017 9:05 am THE UNREST in J&K over the last year severely dented economic activity and credit growth across nine districts in the Valley, which were affected the most by the turmoil, according to data available with Reserve Bank of India. RBI data show that credit growth across these districts, including Srinagar, fell below 5 per cent for the quarter ended March 2017. While the year-on-year credit growth in Srinagar stood at 8.37 per cent in the quarter ended March 2016, it fell to 0.34 per cent in the quarter ended March 2017, which was lowest among the 22 districts in the state. In Shopian, it fell from 10.25 per cent to 1.15 per cent in the same period and in Anantnag, from a high of  20.6 per cent to 7.35 per cent (see box, page 2). The story is similar across Samba, Bar amulla, Bandipore, Kulgam, Ganderbal, Badgam and Pulwama. An economic expert in Srinagar said that the unrest since the m...

The Indian Express, February 5, 2014 Chinese telecom equipment maker  Huawei  allegedly hacked state-owned BSNL’s network and the government is investigating the matter, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. “An incident about alleged hacking of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited network by Huawei, a Chinese telecom company, has come to notice. “The government has constituted an inter- ministerial team to investigate the matter,” Minister of State for Communications and IT Killi Kruparani informed the Lok Sabha. There were reports of a mobile tower being impacted a few months ago in coastal area of Andhra Pradesh that was attributed to hacking by the company’s engineers. The written reply of the minister did not share any detail of the incident. BSNL had awarded a major part of its network expansion tender of about 10.15 million lines to another Chinese company ZTE in 2012. Huawei was also top contender in this bid but the company declined to supply equ...

News wrap, S Ronendra Singh, Nayanima Basu, July 13, 2017 Even as Indian and Chinese troops remain locked in a tense military standoff along the Sikkim sector of their border, the prospect of Chinese companies bidding to lay a submarine telecom cable system for the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), with defence implications, has set off alarm bells in some quarters. Sections of the government and industry are against allowing Chinese bidders for the cable system between Chennai and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, but BSNL’s detailed notice inviting tender does not prohibit them, sources said. “The tender for design, engineering, planning, supply and implementation (including management and coordination) of the submarine cable system between mainland Chennai and A&N Island using four fibre pair with 100 Gbps initial traffic capacity consisting of six segments with one being repeatered from Chennai to Port Blair and five unrepeatered segments from Port Blair t...

CNN, Rishi Iyengar, July 30, 2017 The operators of two virtual private networks, or VPNs, said Saturday that they had been notified by  Apple   ( AAPL ,  Tech30 )  that their products were being taken down.  "We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China," Apple  said in a notice  to ExpressVPN. "We know this stuff is complicated, but it is your responsibility to understand and make sure your app conforms with all local laws."  A second service, called Star VPN, said in a tweet that it had received a similar notice.  China's internet is tightly controlled by censors, who block access to services such as  Google   ( GOOGL ,  Tech30 ) ,  Facebook   ( FB ,  Tech30 )  and even the  New York Times ( NYT ) . To get around the firewall, many people use VPNs, which use encryption to disguise intern...

Jonah Bennett, THe BUzz, May 31, 2017 A major Chinese telecom company with links to Chinese military and intelligence services has been indirectly selling equipment to the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security. In order to bypass attempts to block the use of Chinese telecom gear, ZTE Corporation has  partnered with a U.S. equipment contractor  that sells to the Pentagon, rather than attempting to sell equipment directly, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with the Free Beacon. While subcontracting through a U.S. company is not illegal, U.S. security officials are beginning to worry about possible penetration of the military supply chain and the use of malicious software implanted in devices for espionage. This fear has its roots in a brief by Northrop Grumman Corp for the 2012 congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which stated that  ZTE had close connections to the People’s Liberation Army  (PLA). Accord...

LiveMint,  Shruti Srivastava , July 28, 2017 New Delhi:  A photo of your shiny new car on Instagram or the Facebook post about your chic holiday cottage may lead India’s taxman to your door.  Starting next month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will begin amassing a warehouse of virtual information collected not just from traditional sources like banks but also from social media sites, as it looks to match residents’ spending patterns with income declarations, said people familiar with the matter. Officials will be able to spot those who pay too little tax without raiding offices and homes as they currently do, the people said, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking with the media. Built over seven years at a cost of about Rs1,000 crore ($156 million), ‘Project Insight’ will complement the world’s largest biometric identity database and India’s most ambitious tax overhaul as policy makers try to get more people to pay up. While the economy is...

PTI  | Posted by Sadia Akhtar, July 30, 2017  Russia and India are holding talks with a view to sign a contract for 48 (Mi-17V-5) helicopters Russia and India are holding negotiations for the supply of 48 Russian Mi-17 military transport helicopters with Moscow hoping to seal the deal by the year end, a top Russian official has said. Russian arms supplier Rosoboronexport's CEO Alexander Mikheev said India has more than 300 helicopters belonging to the Mi-8 and Mi-17 family, which are deployed in troop and arms transport, fire support, convoy escort, patrol, and search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. He said India knows their specifications well. TECHNO-COMMERCIAL NEGOTIATIONS TO COMMENCE Mikheev said Russia and India are holding talks with a view to sign a contract for 48 (Mi-17V-5) helicopters and the techno-commercial negotiations are set to commence. "We hope that we will reach an agreement before the end of this year," he told a select gr...

Vijata Singh, The Hindu, July 30, 2017 Haj pilgrimage, LoC trade, and financial links between separatists and professional stone-throwers under probe  The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is focussing on a hawala racket relating to the annual Haj pilgrimage and trade fraud along the Line of Control (LoC) as two funding channels being used by separatists and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. As part of its probe, which recently led to the arrest of seven Kashmiri separatists, the NIA is examining what it regards as a ‘deep conspiracy’ to ‘keep the Valley burning’, and not just individual acts of terror.  According to the NIA, some travel agents who send Indians on the Haj pilgrimage are hand in glove with associates of separatists based in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. A part of the money collected from pilgrims is diverted for terror and separatist activities, while the cost of accommodation and food are borne by these associates. Said an NIA official: “S...