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The Economic Times, Dipanjan Roy Choudhury, October 30, 2017 The Narendra Modi government will be trying to keep a delicate balancing act going as it engages with major powers in November and December.  While an official-level meeting of the India-Japan-US-Australia quadrilateral is expected in Manila in November—with an eye on balancing an aggressive China—on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, Delhi will be hosting foreign ministers of Russia and China in December under the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral format. The idea of the quadrilateral is expected in Manila in November—with an eye on balancing an aggressive China—on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, Delhi will be hosting foreign ministers of Russia and China in December under the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral format. The idea of the quadrilateral was conceived by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the first meeting was held in 2007.  However, Australia had later pulled out ...

Business Line, V Rishi Kumar, October 30, 2017 A study conducted across 4 major Indian cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad has shown that 76% of LED bulb brands and 71% of LED downlighter brands across 200 electrical retail outlets were found to be non-compliant with consumer safety standards. According to a study conducted by Nielson for Elcoma, these violate mandated norms for lighting products by the Bureau of Indian Standards and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. These spurious products pose a serious safety hazard for consumers besides causing significant loss in tax revenues for the government, as they are illegally manufactured and sold. The findings from the key markets surveyed showed that 48% of LED bulb brands had no mention of manufacturer’s address and 31 per cent brands did not have a manufacturer’s name, showing that these brands violate Indian Legal Metrology regulations and are manufactured illegal...

Business Line, Amrita Nair Ghaswala,October 30, 2017 Export contracts of Russian arms trade agency Rosoboronexport, part of Rostec State Corporation, amounted to $44 billion in FY 2016-17, with its portfolio in India exceeding $4 billion. Though Russian defence products are exported to 70 countries within the defence technology cooperation framework, India continues to be a key strategic partner for Rosoboronexport. Talks between the two nations are on for the acquisition of four Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates and the purchase of S-400 air defence systems, as well as acquisition of 200 Kamov 226T helicopters, sources said, adding that discussions are also on for a second nuclear-powered submarine. Rosoboronexport is currently producing the Su-30MKI and T-90 tanks, among others, in India, and has recently inked a joint venture with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for the production of Kamov 226T helicopters in an estimated $1-billion programme. Plans of the joint ventu...

DAWN, Shakeel Ahmed, October 29, 2017 Multan Road, the highway that leads from Lahore to Multan, is lined with many villages along both sides of the road. Every now and then, wall-chalking emerges in one village or the other in praise of the proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). And with the formation of the Milli Muslim League (MML), chalkings now venerate party chief Saif Khalid and ideologue Hafiz Saeed. Registered or not, the MML has introduced a new culture to electoral politics: the gun-toting ‘mujahid’ Hafiz Saeed is the new face on mainstream political posters. Formed on August 7 this year, the MML jumped into the by-elections for NA-120 after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was de-seated by the Supreme Court. It had thrown its support behind an independent candidate since the registration of the MML as a political party with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was being awaited at that time. Although voters’ response in the NA-120 by-polls was not of outright rej...

Indian Express By Abhishek Angad, October 27, 2017 In its complaint, ED alleges that Qureshi was “extorting” money from Koneru and the Blackberry Messenger conversations between Qureshi and his employee Aditya Sharma are evidence to show that there was “exchange of money” received from Koneru. The Enforcement Directorate has filed a complaint recording industrialist Pardeep Koneru’s statement in which he has alleged that more than Rs 5 crore he paid to meat exporter Moin Qureshi was for then CBI director A P Singh. In its complaint, ED alleges that Qureshi was “extorting” money from Koneru and the Blackberry Messenger conversations between Qureshi and his employee Aditya Sharma are evidence to show that there was “exchange of money” received from Koneru. ED cites extracts of Koneru’s statement in its complaint. According to these excerpts, Koneru said he met Qureshi at a social event in Chattarpur Farms in south Delhi in February 2012. And that Qureshi had “done his rese...

Indian Express By Shubhajit Roy , New Delhi, October 26, 2017 After the bilateral talks that lasted for over an-hour-and-a-half, Swaraj said US President Donald Trump’s new South Asia strategy would be successful only if Pakistan takes effective action against terrorist groups, without any discrimination. With External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj sitting by his side, visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday took on Pakistan, saying there are “too many terror outfits” which find a “safe place in Pakistan”. Stating that Washington has conveyed “certain expectations” to Islamabad, he said “terror safe havens will not be tolerated”. After the bilateral talks that lasted for over an-hour-and-a-half, Swaraj said US President Donald Trump’s new South Asia strategy would be successful only if Pakistan takes effective action against terrorist groups, without any discrimination. However, Tillerson also made it clear that Washington wants to work with Islam...

Indian Express By Parthasarathi Biswas, October 27, 2017 Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of NFCSF, said the online platform will allow for greater access as well as better price realisation. “Chances of cartelisation will be minimum on such a platform,” he said. Marketing of sugar by the mills this season may see an important change with the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) and the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) jointly introducing an online platform. This platform will allow millers to float their tenders online and buyers from across the country will be able to access the same. Traditionally, mills in both Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra float tenders and call bids for selling their sugar stock. Although the tenders are floated globally, mostly the local traders and brokers respond to the tenders. Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of NFCSF, said the online platform will allow for greater access as well as better price realisati...

Business Line By Urvashi Valecha, October 26, 2017 Singapore-based strategic investor ST Telemedia, Bharti Airtel’s subsidiary NxtraData and Mumbai-based Netmagic have emerged the top players in the Indian multi-tenant data centre market. According to a new report by 451 Research, a US-based information technology research and advisory company, the revenue for cloud computing in India is expected to have a 25 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) between 2016 and 2021, reaching $1.02 billion, a major boon for data centre providers. The report said Amazon Web Services is said to maintain the edge nodes in as many as five facilities in Mumbai alone, and has even moved some workloads from Singapore and Hong Kong in recent years. Microsoft Azure, for its part, has placed at least one major deployment with a dedicated substation, also in Mumbai, along with other edge nodes. Other top public cloud firms, such as IBM’s SoftLayer, Google, Baidu, Alibaba and...

The Hindu Peerzada Ashiq   OCTOBER 27, 2017 The United Jehad Council (UJC), a PoK-based conglomerate of militants, said on Thursday that it will support Hurriyat on the dialogue process with New Delhi. “They [the militants] are with the Kashmir leadership if they start a dialogue process. Since India is not sincere, we have decided to lay down three conditions,” UJC chief Syed Salahuddin told a press conference in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The three conditions were that India should declare Jammu and Kashmir a disputed territory; acknowledge that there are three parties to the dispute; and accept that Kashmir issue will be resolved in the light of the United Nations resolutions in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiris. He alleged that India, in the name of dialogue, had always committed fraud. “When there were no options, the youth of Kashmir took to arms. Under the present circumstances, armed struggle remains the only way out as India is eager ...

Medianama By  Shashidhar KJ ( @KJshashi shashidhar@medianama.com )      October 27, 2017    HuffPost and the Times of India Group have ended their partnership, multiple, reliable sources, including current and former employees, have confirmed to MediaNama. The deal was Times Bridge’s flagship partnership: Times Bridge is the Times of India Group’s international investments and partnerships division, and its investments and/or partnerships include Airbnb, Coursera, Uber, Vice, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, PC Mag, Advertising Age, Goal, Tech Radar and Techpost. HuffPost (previously Huffington Post) partnership had launched the Indian website in December 2014. This would be the second AOL deal to collapse in India. In 2013, Techcrunch’s India partnership with NetworkPlay fell apart after their India event. Sources said that HuffPost decided not to renew the 3-year partnership for business reasons, and also cited editori...