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The Hindustan Times Mallika Soni 03.12.2020 Japan has “grave concerns” about the jailing of three Hong Kong activists and has conveyed its worries to China over the situation, chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said on Thursday. Hong Kong authorities on Wednesday sentenced prominent democracy activists Joshua Wong to more than 13 months in prison over an unlawful anti-government rally in 2019, the toughest sentence for an opposition figure this year. They also jailed Wong’s colleagues Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam for 10 and seven months, respectively. Chow speaks fluent Japanese and is well-known in Japan. “Japan increasingly has grave concerns about the recent Hong Kong situation such as sentences against three including Agnes Chow,” Kato told a regular news conference. “We have conveyed our concerns to China about Hong Kong at various opportunities,” he said. https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/japan-voices-grave-concerns-about-jailing-of-hong-kong-activists/story-lJ430XZGMb5...

 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 Indian services economy remained on the right path to recovery during November with a further upturn in new work supporting business activity growth and the first rise in employment for nine months, according to the latest IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Thursday. Moreover, the overall level of positive sentiment climbed to the highest since February amid predictions that market conditions would normalise once a vaccine for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is rolled out. Meanwhile, rates of inflation for input costs and output charges accelerated, both of which outpacing their respective long-run averages. The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index posted above the critical 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for the second month in a row during November. Despite falling from 54.1 in October to 53.7, the latest reading was still indicative of a solid pace of expan...

 The Hindustan Times Deepali Sharma 02.12.2020 Conditions will improve for Indian corporates next year as economic activity picks up steam post-lockdown and earnings grow on the back of widespread demand revival across sectors, Moody’s Investors Service said on Wednesday. Most companies’ earnings will grow as demand starts to recover following a sharp slump, and financially strong companies will maintain good access to funding, but speculative-grade issuers will face challenges, it said. “Broad-based demand revival and a low base in 2020 will support strong GDP growth of 10.8 per cent in India in fiscal 2022 ending March 2022, following a decline of around 10.6 per cent in fiscal 2021 – the country’s first contraction in four decades,” Moody’s Analyst Sweta Patodia said. In 2021, conditions will improve for Indian corporates as economic activity gathers pace post-lockdown and earnings grow on the back of widespread demand revival across sectors, underpinning Moody’s stable outlook ...

 The Hindustan Time Mallika Soni 03.12.2020 A group of US states led by New York is investigating Facebook Inc for possible antitrust violations and plans to file a lawsuit against the social media giant next week, four sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The complaint would be the second major lawsuit filed against a Big Tech company this year. The Justice Department sued Alphabet Inc’s Google in October. More than 40 states plan to sign on to the lawsuit, one source said, without naming them. Facebook declined to comment. A spokesman for the New York attorney general’s office declined to comment. The Federal Trade Commission, whose commissioners met on Wednesday, could file a related complaint with an administrative law judge or in district court. It is not known what the states plan to include in their complaint. One allegation often made against Facebook is that it has strategically sought to buy small potential rivals, often at a big premium. These include Inst...

 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...

 The Hindustan Time Deepali Sharma 03.12.2020 Secrecy and cronyism at China’s top disease control agency led to widespread test shortages and flaws that hampered the early response to the coronavirus outbreak, an Associated Press investigation has found. Click here for complete coverage of Covid-19 China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention gave test kit designs and distribution rights exclusively to three then-obscure Shanghai companies with which officials had personal ties, according to the investigation. It was based on interviews with more than 40 doctors, CDC employees, health experts, and industry insiders, as well as hundreds of internal documents, contracts, messages and emails. The Shanghai companies — GeneoDx Biotech, Huirui Biotechnology, and BioGerm Medical Technology -- paid the China CDC for the information and the distribution rights, according to two sources with knowledge of the transaction who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retribution. The price: One ...

 The Hindustan Times Sameer 03.12.2020 The  Union home ministry  will deploy volunteers at the four entry and exit gates of New Delhi’s North Block on December 7 to collect donations to support the families of soldiers who have lost their lives in the line of duty, disabled ex-servicemen and their dependents. December 7 is celebrated as Armed Forces Flag Day and the fundraising is being done on the defence ministry’s request. According to a home ministry order, the volunteers will receive donations from people and officers visiting the offices in the North Block that houses key ministries. Officers have been asked “to contribute generously”. Defence minister Rajnath Singh  on Wednesday said the Armed Forces Flag Day will be celebrated throughout December. “It is our national responsibility to support families of our security personnel, who have lost their lives or suffered injuries in the line duty.” Armed Forces Flag Day has been observed annually on December 7 sinc...

 The Hindustan Times Sameer 03.12.2020 The Intelligence Bureau (IB)’s 55th annual three-day conference of Director Generals of Police and Inspector Generals of Police began on Wednesday. The  police  chiefs and central agencies officials will discuss policing, national security, and terrorism at the conference. Union home minister Amit Shah, who inaugurated the conference being held virtually for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic, directed the security agencies to have a coordinated approach to national security. He asked them to achieve the target of making India a developed and safe nation, according to a home ministry statement. Shah stressed upon the need to ensure the safety and dignity of the citizens. He underlined the importance of the capacity building of police to deal with emergency situations and disasters. Shah highlighted policy issues on national security and applauded the role of police as frontline warriors in crisis and disaster management. He ...

 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...