Covid-19 has not affected ambitions, aspirations of 1.3 bn Indians: PM Modi

“India a country of political stability and policy continuity with commitment to democracy and diversity,” Modi said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that although the coronavirus pandemic was unexpected and was testing the country’s resilience, health and economic systems, it had not affected the ambitions and aspirations of 1.3 billion Indians. In his keynote address at the third leadership summit of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) via videoconferencing, PM Modi said: “India was among the first to advocate face covering as a public health measure and to create a campaign about social distancing.”

Saying that the world believed in India, Modi added: “India has undertaken far-reaching reforms to make business easier and red-tapeism less.” He also said that India offered a trasparent and predictable tax regime, which supported honest taxpayers.

ALSO READ: LIVE: Pandemic has not affected aspirations of 1.3 bn Indians, says Modi

“India a country of political stability and policy continuity with commitment to democracy and diversity,” he noted. US Vice-President Mike Pence had a fireside on Monday, the first day of the week-long summit titled “US-India Week: Navigating New Challenges”….

Donald Trump calls Biden’s pick Kamala Harris as ‘very unusual’ and ‘risky’

Harris, 55, whose father is an African from Jamaica and mother an Indian, is currently the US Senator from California

International News: President Donald Trump has said that Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris is a “very unusual” and “risky” pick as a running mate by Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Biden on Tuesday named Harris as his vice-presidential running mate, making history by selecting the first black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket. Harris, 55, whose father is an African from Jamaica and mother an Indian, is currently the US Senator from California.

“Look, he (Biden) made a choice. He picked her. I watched her. I watched her poll numbers go boom, boom, boom, down to almost nothing. And she left angry. She left mad. There was nobody more insulting to Biden than she was. She said horrible things about him including accusations made about him by a woman where she I guess believed the woman, Trump told reporters on Wednesday after Harris and Biden made a joint appearance in Wilmington in Delaware.

Trump, 74, is seeking his re-election and is facing a formidable challenge from Biden-Harris team. Last year, when Harris was running for presidency, she had attacked Biden in a debate and was very critical of the former vice president. “Now all of a sudden she’s running to be vice president saying how wonderful he is. I thought it was a very unusual pick because she said such bad things. And you know better than anybody what–you know–you won’t write it because you don’t want to do that. But – you know – better than anybody she said horrible things about him. Horrible things,” Trump said…

China to remove business restrictions on foreign banks, brokers: Report

China has stepped up efforts to open its financial sector amid a festering trade war with the United States, with increased access to its financial sector among a host of demands from Washington

International News: China will remove business restrictions on foreign banks, brokerages and fund management firms, a cabinet meeting chaired by premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday said, according to state television.

China has stepped up efforts to open its financial sector amid a festering trade war with the United States, with increased access to its financial sector among a host of demands from Washington. The country caught traders off-guard with a surprise injection into the financial system via loans to banks, ahead of data on Friday which is expected to show a further slowdown in the domestic economy.

The People’s Bank of China added 200 billion yuan ($28 billion) of one-year cash through the medium-term lending facility. It kept the interest rate steady. The economy has been under pressure amid a prolonged trade dispute with the US and a slowing domestic economy, prompting the central bank to ease monetary policy by lowering corporate borrowing costs and cutting banks’ reserve ratios this year. Data released this week showed that China’s factory deflation deepened and imports and exports fell last month…

‘Don’t be a fool’: Trump in a letter to Erdogan against Syria offensive

White House announced that US Vice President Mike Pence will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on October 17

US President Donald Trump has written a letter to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatening him against Syria offensive and asking him ‘not to be a fool’. In the letter, dated October 9, the President had also urged Erdogan ‘not to be a tough guy.’

“History will look upon you favourably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool. I will call you later”, the US President had said in his letter.

Threatening to destroy the Turkish economy, the US President added, “Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy -and I will. I have already given you a little sample with respect to Pastor Brunson.”

Switching from his aggressive tone,Donald Trump also offered him prospects of a favourable deal. “I have worked hard to solve some of your problems. Don’t let the world down. You can make a great deal. General Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you, and he is willing to make concessions that they would never have made in the past….

US V-P Pence to meet PM Modi during four-nation trip next week: White House

Pence will also participate in meetings with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Singapore premier Lee Hsien Loong and others

BS |US Vice President Mike Pence would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his four-nation trip next week, during which he will also attend the US-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit in Singapore, the White House has said.

Generally the summit is attended by US President. However, this time Pence would be representing the country at the request of President Donald Trump.

Pence will travel to Japan, Singapore, Australia, and Papua New Guinea between November 11 and 18 to attend the US-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit in Singapore as well as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Papua New Guinea.|Mike Pence

Pence will also participate in meetings with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Singapore premier Lee Hsien Loong, India’s Narendra Modi, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in addition to other bilateral meetings, the White House said.

National Security Advisor John Bolton will join Vice President Pence for the US-ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit in Singapore and APEC meetings in Papua New Guinea.

“The Vice President is honoured to represent President Donald Trump at the US-ASEAN Summit and APEC next week, where he will highlight American leadership in the region and reaffirm our commitment to freedom, economic prosperity, and security in the Indo-Pacific,” Alyssa Farah, Press Secretary for the Vice President said.| Business Standard 

How for better or worse, Mark Zuckerberg has become too big to fail

Even if Mr. Zuckerberg bore most of the responsibility for the company’s cataclysmic recent history, he alone possessed the stature to fix it.

A few weeks ago, after Facebook revealed that tens of millions of its users’ accounts had been exposed in a security breach, I began asking people in and around the tech industry a simple question: Should Mark Zuckerberg still be running Facebook?

I’ll spare you the suspense. Just about everyone thought Mr. Zuckerberg was still the right man for the job, if not the only man for the job. This included people who currently work at Facebook, people who used to work at Facebook, financial analysts, venture capitalists, tech-skeptic activists, ardent critics of the company and its giddiest supporters.

The consensus went like this: Even if Mark Zuckerberg — as Facebook’s founder, chief executive, chairman and most powerful shareholder — bore most of the responsibility for the company’s cataclysmic recent history, he alone possessed the stature to fix it.

More than one of his supporters told me it was bad faith to even broach the subject — that Mr. Zuckerberg’s indispensability was so plain that the only reason I might have to ask whether he should still run the company was the clicks I would get on this article. But even critics were not that excited about the idea of Mr. Zuckerberg’s removal. Barry Lynn, executive director of the Open Markets Institute, an organization that fights monopoly power, argued that Facebook’s problems grew out of its business model and the legal and regulatory vacuum in which it has operated — not the man who runs it.

“To be blunt, if we took Mark Zuckerberg out and we replaced him with Mahatma Gandhi, I don’t think the corporation would change in any significant way,” Mr. Lynn said.

Business Standard OR BS