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The Indian Express, New Delhi, October 13, 2018 Countering a report in French news portal Mediapart which cited a Dassault document of May 2017 to claim that the Rafale manufacturer had told its workers it was “imperative and mandatory” to choose Reliance Defence as its offsets partner, Dassault Aviation has said it has “freely chosen to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group” to deliver “some of these offsets”. In a statement, Dassault Aviation said: “Within the framework of the September 2016 Inter-Government Agreement between France and India, Dassault Aviation has sold 36 Rafale aircraft to India. In compliance with the Indian regulations (Defence Procurement Procedure) and as frequent with such a contract, Dassault Aviation has committed to offsets in India worth 50% of the value of the purchase.” “In order to deliver some of these offsets, Dassault Aviation has decided to create a joint-venture. Dassault Aviation has freely chosen to make a partnership wi...

The Indian Express, October 13, 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an official visit to Japan on October 28-29 for the annual India-Japan summit with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe that will focus on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday. It will be the fifth annual summit meeting between Modi and Abe and their twelfth meeting overall since 2014. Besides bilateral issues, the two leaders are expected to deliberate on a range of regional and global issues, including the situation in the Indo-Pacific region. “Under the framework of the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan, the two leaders will have wide-ranging discussions over two days on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest,” the MEA said. It said the visit will reaffirm the traditional bonds of friendship between the two countries and strengthen their multi-faceted cooperation...

The Indian Express, Shubhajit Roy, October 13, 2018 Despite being in the same room, Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan did not meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tajikistan capital Dushanbe. This was the second time in a fortnight when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were attending a multilateral meeting. Both were in New York on September 27 at the SAARC foreign ministers’ meeting, but Swaraj had walked out of the meeting after delivering her speech, citing other commitments. India had last month cancelled a scheduled meeting in New York, accusing Pakistan of terrorist attacks on security personnel and glorification of terrorists. Pakistan denied the charges, saying that they were mere excuses given by Delhi, and had blamed the Indian leadership for vacillating on the bilateral meeting. At Tajikistan’s capital to attend the two-day conclave of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Counc...

The Hindu, Business Line, October 12, 2018 The Mumbai branch of the State Bank of Mauritius India, which faced a cyber attack earlier this month, has been able to recover almost all of it, barring  ₹ 19 crore. The cyber attack took place on October 2 through a fraudulent SWIFT payment at the bank’s branch at Nariman Point, Mumbai. “Necessary measures have been taken to prevent any further damage. Based on proactive and prompt measures, we have managed to recover most of the lost amount,” said an SBM India spokesperson, adding that the lost amount is limited to  ₹ 19 crore. This will come down even further after claiming insurance, it further said. “We are working with the relevant authorities to get to the root of the matter,” it added. Link: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/state-bank-of-mauritius-india-cyber-attack-loss-set-at-19-crore/article25207965.ece

The Hindu, J. Mulraj, October 12, 2018 Indians have no fear of law and of the consequences to them of breaking it. The investigative agencies are slow, and succumb to a variety of influences (including political influence to protect crony capitalists) and weaken their investigative process through inordinate delays and even presenting a weak case. The judiciary, too, is inexplicably lenient in its grant of adjournments; the judges come up through the ranks of lawyers and are wont to permit delays, thus benefiting the culprit and punishing the victims. Countries such as Singapore have a set timetable, determined at the start of a trial, which grants each side leeway to ask for only one or two adjournments per side. Justice is delivered speedily, as it should be. There is respect for law. That’s how it is with other developed countries too. Justice is not only dispensed speedily but also impartially, not granting leniency or favours to the culprit whosoever it may be. In star...

The Indian Express AAnchal Magazine, Deepak Patel September 27, 2018 The government on Wednesday increased customs duty on total 19 categories of “non-essential items” such as washing machines, refrigerators, radial tyres, and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) that saw an import of around Rs 86,000 crore in 2017-18. The hike in customs duty on these items will be effective Thursday, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. While the Centre said it had taken the decision to hike tariffs “to curb import of certain imported items” and that these changes aim at narrowing the current account deficit (CAD), analysts are of the view that the move is unlikely to have any significant impact on curtailing the size of the CAD in 2018-19. For instance, in 2017-18, ATF imports were 0.03 per cent of total imports in value terms (in US dollar). Import of washing machines of less than 10 kg and radial tyres are other categories where volumes are limited. According to the decisions, the import...

The Indian Express EANS, Economic Bureau September 27, 2018 While the earlier fund infusion was to help PNB meet minimum regulatory capital requirement, this round of capital injection will enable the lender to step up growth in lending. Punjab National Bank’s (PNB) board will meet on Thursday to seek Rs 5,431 crore capital support from the government through preferential issuance of equity shares. While the earlier fund infusion was to help PNB meet minimum regulatory capital requirement, this round of capital injection will enable the lender to step up growth in lending. The announcement by PNB comes within a day of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing that the government will consider state-owned banks’ request for advancement of capital infusion. “The meeting of Board of Directors of the Bank is scheduled to be held on 27th September, 2018 for considering infusion of Rs 5431 crore by Government of India by way of preferential issue of Equity share and Fix...

The Indian Express Deeptiman Tiwary September 27, 2018 The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested three people from New Delhi for allegedly receiving terror funding from Lahore-based Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), a front-end organisation of proscribed terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The agency has seized around Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 43,000 in Nepali currency from the three accused, identified as Mohammed Salman, Mohammed Salim and Abdul Rashid Wani. “Salman, the key accused, was the one receiving the money. The other two are couriers. Salman is basically from Uttawar, in Mewat region of Haryana. He was into tour-taxi and dairy products businesses, but had incurred losses. Later, he visited Saudi for Umrah. He also visited Dubai a few years back where he met few Pakistani nationals and thereafter he had started getting funds through hawala,” an NIA officer said. Wani is from Kashmir and Salim hails from Delhi, sources said. The arrests...

The Hindu PTI, September 27, 2018 State govt. to soon hold an all-party meeting on the issue.  The Meghalaya government will soon hold an all-party meeting to discuss an NRC-like exercise in the State, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma announced in the Assembly on Wednesday. He said the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government is on the job and the State has various ways to check illegal immigration, ensuring that indigenous people are protected. Growing demand “We intended to call an all-party meeting to discuss with stakeholders before embarking on an exercise such as the NRC,” Mr. Sangma said. He was replying to a short-duration discussion on news reports that the demand for conducting an NRC-like exercise in all the Northeastern States is growing. The National Register of Citizens is a record of all legal citizens and it was created for Assam in 1951. It is being updated under the Supreme Court’s supervision with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for ...

ZeeNews Manish Shukla September 23, 2018 Pakistan’s ISI has started making attempts to hamper the upcoming panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir. According to sources, the ISI has constantly been pressuring terrorists in the state to carry out attacks. For this purpose, the spy agency of Pakistan has deputed its officials at Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices in Lahore and Karachi. Pakistan’s ISI has started making attempts to hamper the upcoming panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir. According to sources, the ISI has constantly been pressuring terrorists in the state to carry out attacks. For this purpose, the spy agency of Pakistan has deputed its officials at Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices in Lahore and Karachi. The ISI operatives, stationed at the offices of most wanted terrorist Hafiz Saeed’s JuD offices, are carrying out online campaigns for terrorists. Sources have told Zee News that the ISI has hired technical experts for the purpose and is paying them a salary between ...