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By Shubhajit Roy and Naveed Iqbal The Indian Express Dated: January 30, 2019  In an unusual move, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Tuesday dialled All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to brief him on “the efforts of the government of Pakistan to highlight the gross human rights violations” in Jammu and Kashmir.This is the first time that the new government in Pakistan, under Prime Minister Imran Khan, has reached out to the Hurriyat. Qureshi also informed the Hurriyat leader about events being organised in London, including at the House of Commons and an exhibition on February 4-5, where these issues will be highlighted. Official sources in Delhi told The Indian Express that it is “extremely unusual” for a top Pakistan government representative to call Hurriyat leaders directly, and said that they do not recall any such conversation in the last decade. Usually, they said, Pakistani representatives meet Hurriyat leaders while v...

Indian Express January 30,2019 In the past three months, 10 PSUs have announced or executed buybacks for a cumulative amount of Rs 15,000 crore, which will count toward the government’s target of Rs 80,000 crore from disinvestment of state-owned entities. The Centre’s bid to boost its non-debt capital receipts by pushing the cash-rich central PSUs to buyback their own shares has impacted the credit profile of these firms. S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday that corporate activities that are designed to support the government coffers by PSUs are ‘credit negative’ for such entities. In the past three months, 10 PSUs have announced or executed buybacks for a cumulative amount of Rs 15,000 crore, which will count toward the government’s target of Rs 80,000 crore from disinvestment of state-owned entities. In fact, the PSUs are also being made to invest in the government’s assorted schemes and programmes. As per S&P, the credit impact on the respective companies can va...

www.firstpost.com January 30, 2019 The militant groups supported by Pakistan will continue to conduct terrorist attacks in both India and Afghanistan, America's spymaster has said. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats also said Pakistan's "narrow approach to counterterrorism cooperation — using some groups as policy tools and confronting only the militant groups that directly threaten Pakistan — almost certainly will frustrate US counterterrorism efforts against the Taliban." "Militant groups supported by Pakistan will continue to take advantage of their safe haven in Pakistan to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan, including against US interests," Coats told the members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Coats and heads of other top American intelligence agencies appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on their worldwide threat assessment. Prominent among them included CIA director ...

By Shahbaz Rana,  The Express Tribune Dated:January 29, 2019 As the outstanding circular debt surges to a record Rs1.41 trillion, the federal government on Tuesday decided to take Rs400 billion in loans from a consortium of Islamic banks to partially ease the crumbling sector’s woes. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet approved the term sheet for raising Rs200 billion from commercial banks at an interest rate of around 11.3% by floating the ten-year Pakistan Energy Sukuk bonds. The decision to borrow Rs200 billion was taken in November last year. This loan, obtained by pledging the assets of the power distribution and generation companies, will be utilised to pay off circular debt and net hydle profit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. The ECC also directed the Ministry of Energy to explore the possibility of getting another Rs200 billion in loans. The ECC allowed the Ministry of Energy to proceed with the raising of syndicated Islamic Term ...

By Maziar Motawani www.aljazeera.com Dated: Janauary 29, 2019 The Central Bank of Iran has released an early draft of its regulations on cryptocurrencies, reversing a previous ban, but still imposing restrictions on the use of the digital currency inside the Islamic Republic. The bank published on its official website late on Monday a "Version 0.0" of its regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, which it said is aimed at organising and defining boundaries of ongoing crypto operations in the country, and allowing traders to plan for their future.The announcement was made on the eve of the annual two-day Electronic Banking and Payment Systems conference, which kicked off in Tehran on Tuesday with the theme, "blockchain revolution". As speculated, the central bank recognised and authorised global cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, central bank cryptocurrencies like Iran's upcoming sovereign cryptocurrency, and regional cryptocurrencies. ...

January 25, 2019, The Wire Rishika Pardikar In November 2018, the NITI Aayog released a  document  titled ‘Strategy for New India @ 75’. It outlined a vision to build a ‘New India’ by 2022 through policy proposals for furthering cauincluses like housing for all, doubling farmers’ incomes, renewable energy, sustainable environment, etc. But look closer and you will notice that its various aims are not all consistent with each other. F or example, as part of policies to create a sustainable environment, the document says we need to increase forest cover to 33.3% of India’s geographical area as well as improve the quality of existing forests. The nation’s forest cover currently stands at  about 21% . Getting to 33% has been the goal since 1952, when the first national forest policy was drafted. However, it has only become harder since that time to meet this goal and the document itself shows why. It also hopes that  Parivesh  – purported to be a sin...

J anuary 26, 2019, The Indian Express  Khaled Ahmed  America is thinking of quitting Afghanistan because its soldiers are too expensive to send abroad. It stands to save $43 billion annually if it leaves. Pakistan is scared of what will happen if America really quits and Afghanistan returns to its heroin-sustained warlordism. The Afghan Taliban are winning on a daily basis and control half of the country, eying the 250,000-strong Afghan army as future Taliban. India has presence in Afghanistan after the construction of the game-changing Chabahar Port in Iran and the highway that links it to Kabul. Advertising Three South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members — Afghanistan, Pakistan, India — could have cooperated but are poised to fight instead. And it is difficult to say who will fight who. The Taliban have warriors in their hordes who have come from the Middle East and Central Asia; and there are ISIS-Daesh and Al Qaeda still operationa...

J anuary 30, 2019   The Indian Express   Shubhajit Roy India and South Africa sealed a three-year strategic programme covering all aspects of bilateral ties as Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  met visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Friday. The strategic programme will cover cooperation in a range of areas, including defence and security, trade and investment, the blue economy, tourism, IT and agriculture. Advertising Ramaphosa, who arrived Friday from Davos, will be the chief guest at the  Republic Day  celebrations Saturday. This is the second time a South African leader is Chief Guest at Republic Day —  Nelson Mandela  was the chief guest in 1995. In his statement to the media, Modi said, “During our interactions today with the President, we reviewed all the dimensions of our relations. Our trade and investment relations are becoming more and more intense. Our bilateral trade is more than $10 billion. S...

January 26, The Hindu Atul Aneja Chinese President Xi Jinping has delivered a tough back-to-the-trenches call to his comrades in the Communist Party of  China  (CPC) to weed out the “grey rhinos” and “black swans” that dare to undermine the economy of China and confidence of its people in its political system. By referring to “grey rhinos”, the President was asking the CPC to eliminate highly probable events that can rock the markets, resulting in massive financial outflows, haemorrhaging business confidence in the economy. The 2008 financial crisis was a blaring “grey rhino” global event. Conversely, Mr. Xi’s spotlight on “black swans” was a call on cadres to nail hard-to-predict events that can range from terror strikes to Brexit, which can also attack markets, resulting in extreme financial consequences. On January 21, when Mr. Xi spoke at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, his remarks pointed to gathering storms around China, with the trade war ...

January 26, 2019 The Hindu Emran Feroz The far-right Freedom Party, which is part of the Austrian  government,  triggered a new controversy when party leader and Interior Minister Herbert Kickl recently attacked the European Convention on Human Rights. Freedom Party is known for its controversial views on migration, Islam and policing, among other issues. Mr. Kickl, who used to write the speeches of right-wing politician Jörg Haider, also created the “At home instead of Islam” slogan (‘Daham statt Islam’) of the Freedom Party and used to be one of the main organisers of the right-wing ‘Defenders of Europe’ conference that took place in 2016 and in 2018 in  Austria. Recently, Mr. Kickl called for harsher measures against refugees in an interview with ORF, Austria’s public television broadcaster. “The law has to follow politics, politics doesn’t have to follow the law,” he said. In this context, the Interior Minister, who wants to deport refugees rather quic...