US-India trade deal very soon, says Donald Trump after meeting with PM Modi

US president says it will be great if PMs of India and Pakistan can ‘work out something on Kashmir’

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday promised a trade deal with India “very soon”, and a larger deal down the line. Asked if any trade deal was expected between the two countries, Trumap, after his bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, told reporters: “We are doing very well…I think very soon we will have a trade deal. We will have a larger deal later on.”

Narendra Modi said, “As far as trade (between India and the US) is concerned, I’m happy that our Petronet has signed an MoU of $2.5-billion investment in the energy sector.” After the meeting, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was in New York for discussions on a trade deal. “He has been having discussions with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and significant progress has been made on a number of issues. The two leaders were optimistic of us reaching a trade agreement in the near future,” Gokhale said.

Modi and Trump’s bilateral meeting, and the US president’s comments on a trade deal between the two countries, came on a day when Trump warned China for its trade practices. He also slammed the World Trade Organization (WTO) for allegedly allowing China to get preferential treatment despite the size of its economy, saying the institution needed reforms. In his speech before the UN, Trump made a fresh attack against the global order, saying that “globalists” would not triumph. “The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots,” he said….

A Rs 1.45 trillion tax cut may undermine rate reductions in India

While the central bank has cut rates four times this year, banks have been reluctant to fully pass on Asia’s most aggressive easing amid a surge in bad loans

India’s $20 billion tax-cut boost may have an unintended effect of keeping borrowing costs high. The premium of 10-year yields over the central bank’s policy rate widened to the most since April after the surprise stimulus announced Friday raised fears the government will miss its budget deficit targets. Traders say the spread offers lenders little incentive to pass on past interest rate cuts to customers.

“Why would a bank take credit risk when they can simply borrow from the Reserve Bank of India and invest in a government bond and just sit on it,” said Vijay Sharma, executive vice president for fixed-income at PNB Gilts Ltd. in New Delhi.

While the central bank has cut rates four times this year, banks have been reluctant to fully pass on Asia’s most aggressive easing amid a surge in bad loans. The widening spread reflects worries about the government adding to its record borrowing after the major booster.

“A high term premia, together with wider credit spreads, would mean that interest rates for end-borrowers will remain high despite steep rate cuts of 110 basis points announced this year,” Neelkanth Mishra, India strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG, told BloombergQuint….

Google Assistant will listen to your conversations again, but ask first

Alphabet’s Google paused all human review of assistant audio in July after a Dutch contractor leaked some clips to a journalist, who was then able to identify specific people on the recordings

Google workers will listen to audio snippets of people speaking to its digital voice assistant to help improve the product’s quality — if users give the company permission to do so.

Alphabet’s Google paused all human review of assistant audio in July after a Dutch contractor leaked some clips to a journalist, who was then able to identify specific people on the recordings. On Monday, Google said it’s bringing back human reviewers, but adding a new set of precautions to protect customers’ privacy.

Google and other companies like Amazon.com use human transcription to check machine translators and make them smarter. The practice is widespread, but has made some users nervous that giant corporations are monitoring them. The companies maintain that audio snippets aren’t linked to personally identifiable information.

Under the new Google policy, the company will tell users that their audio may be listened to if they opt in to a feature that also improves audio quality, Nino Tasca, a senior product manager on Google’s Assistant team, said in a blog post. The company also is trying to more accurately recognize audio that was captured accidentally. Usually, the assistant only listens when a person says, “Hey, Google,” but occasionally the computer might misinterpret something else as that “wake word” and begin listening when the customer isn’t aware…

Read More: Business Standard

A Rs 1.45 trillion tax cut may undermine rate reductions in India

While the central bank has cut rates four times this year, banks have been reluctant to fully pass on Asia’s most aggressive easing amid a surge in bad loans

India’s $20 billion tax-cut boost may have an unintended effect of keeping borrowing costs high. The premium of 10-year yields over the central bank’s policy rate widened to the most since April after the surprise stimulus announced Friday raised fears the government will miss its budget deficit targets. Traders say the spread offers lenders little incentive to pass on past interest rate cuts to customers.

“Why would a bank take credit risk when they can simply borrow from the Reserve Bank of India and invest in a government bond and just sit on it,” said Vijay Sharma, executive vice president for fixed-income at PNB Gilts Ltd. in New Delhi.

While the central bank has cut rates four times this year, banks have been reluctant to fully pass on Asia’s most aggressive easing amid a surge in bad loans. The widening spread reflects worries about the government adding to its record borrowing after the major booster.

“A high term premia, together with wider credit spreads, would mean that interest rates for end-borrowers will remain high despite steep rate cuts of 110 basis points announced this year,” Neelkanth Mishra, India strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG, told BloombergQuint….

Protesters in Hong Kong trample a Chinese flag, set street fires

Some put a Chinese flag on the floor and took turns running over it, before defacing it and putting it in a dumpster outside, which they then pushed into a nearby river

Protesters in Hong Kong have trampled a Chinese flag, vandalized a subway station and set a fire across a wide street, as pro-democracy demonstrations took a violent turn once again.

Sunday’s action began peacefully, as protesters filled a shopping mall and, in a new twist, folded paper “origami” cranes that they tied onto a large rigging that they assembled in the mall in the Shatin district.

Some put a Chinese flag on the floor and took turns running over it, before defacing it and putting it in a dumpster outside, which they then pushed into a nearby river. Police used tear gas as they tried to advance on the protesters. Hong Kong protests, now in their fourth month, have often descended into violence late in the day and at night.

Transit authorities closed the two intermediate stations on the airport express train to guard against a possible disruption of transportation to the transportation hub. Separately an afternoon protest has been called at a shopping mall in the outlying Shatin district…

Top 1,000 listed firms may see tax savings of Rs 37k cr on tax cut: Crisil

The drop in tax rate would now bring India at par with most Asian economies, the report added

CRISIL Research on Sunday said top 1,000 listed companies could see tax savings of Rs 37,000 crore on account of the corporate tax cut.

“Over the past few days, a slew of measures have been introduced to address the slowdown in the Indian economy. Friday’s announcement, however, is the most material…Our analysis indicates these 1,000 companies could see tax savings of Rs 37,000 crore, or nearly a fourth of the total savings anticipated by the government,” it said in a statement.

The drop in tax rate would now bring India at par with most Asian economies, it added. “CRISIL Research’s analysis of nearly 1,000 companies — spread across 80+ sectors such that they cover more than 70 per cent of NSE’s market capitalisation — indicates that effective tax rates had risen over the past 5 years,” it said. These companies, including oil & gas and financial services, account for nearly a third of the tax paid by India Inc…

Houston: Modi endorses Trump to Indian Americans ahead of 2020 US Prez race

Indians form about a fifth of 20 million Asian Americans and are often more educated and earn more than other immigrant groups

International News: President Donald Trump received the endorsement of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they shared a stage in Houston, walking hand in hand in a rock-star-like show to address more than 50,000 Indian Americans — an influential voter base.

Modi said Trump told him the first time they met that India has a “true friend” in the White House, and the U.S. leader’s presence at the Texas event is proof of that. He also praised Trump on his efforts to drive the US economy and taking ties between the two nations to a new level.

“I admire him for something more: his sense of leadership,” Modi told the gathering at the home of the National Football League’s Houston Texans — branded as “Howdy Modi!” In his speech, he echoed Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, saying that “he has already made the American economy strong again.”

Indians form about a fifth of 20 million Asian Americans and are often more educated and earn more than other immigrant groups, the Washington-based Pew Research Center found. About 65% of Indian Americans were Democrats or leaned toward the Democrats, according to a 2014 Pew Research paper. That didn’t stop the Republican president from getting loud cheers in the arena, especially when he addressed issues such as security….

FM Sitharaman rules out any immediate plan for expenditure reduction

No change in fiscal deficit target for now, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said she hoped steep cuts in corporation tax rates would increase compliance, prompting her to stick to the fiscal deficit target for now. “A call will be taken at the RE (Revised Estimates) stage,” Sitharaman told mediapersons, two days after she announced big-bang tax reductions for companies.

The cuts would cost the exchequer Rs 1.45 trillion a year. She ruled out any expenditure cuts as of now, saying that her ministry was asking for a quick release of money by departments and ministries.

Even as bond yields went up after the announcement on Friday, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she had not taken a decision on revising the borrowing limit for the second half of 2019-20. She has also not considered going for foreign currency-denominated borrowings. The government has budgeted for Rs 7.1 trillion as gross borrowing in this fiscal year. Of this, Rs 4.4 trillion, or about 62 per cent of the total, is being borrowed in the first half.

Gross borrowings are almost equal to the Centre’s fiscal deficit in absolute terms. In proportion to GDP, the fiscal deficit is pegged at 3.3 per cent for FY20. The deficit has touched almost 78 per cent of the Budget Estimates in just four months of the year. Even before the cuts, direct taxes grew at a muted 5 per cent till about the middle of September, increasing the required growth rate to 27 per cent in the remaining part of the year from around 17 per cent assessed in the budgetary estimates…

178-yr-old company, Thomas Cook files for bankruptcy as bailout talks fail

In the space of little more than a year, Thomas Cook’s business outlook degenerated from concern about the sales impact of a freak north European heatwave to a full-on fight for survival

Thomas Cook Group Plc, the 178-year travel company that became one of the U.K.’s best-known brands, has collapsed under a pile of debt, leaving tens of thousands of British tourists stranded across Europe.

The company filed for administration early Monday at the High Court in London after talks to raise additional funding failed, Thomas Cook said in a statement. AlixPartners LLP was named an adviser and will work with the country’s Civil Aviation Authority to get holidaymakers back home over the next two weeks. The government called it the “largest repatriation in peacetime history.”“Although a deal had been largely agreed, an additional facility requested in the last few days of negotiations presented a challenge that ultimately proved insurmountable,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Fankhauser said.

The filing caps months of negotiations with investors led by China’s Fosun Tourism Group, which proposed a $1.1 billion bailout in exchange for control of the company’s tour operations and a minority stake in its airline. The plan also involved swapping debt for equity and the issue of new shares.

Formerly a member of Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 Index, Thomas Cook is a high-profile victim of the malaise affecting the European holiday market. For decades, tour operators such Thomas Cook and Germany’s TUI AG thrived by offering package holidays to sun-starved Europeans. But the rise of discount airlines and…

All’s well in India, says PM at ‘Howdy Modi’ rally; Trump hints about visit

Modi spoke of his govt’s decision to scrap the provisions of Article 370, and received sustained applause, and asked the audience to give a standing ovation to all members of the of Parliament

“All’s well in India,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told an estimated 50,000 members of the Indian diaspora in Houston on Sunday at an event titled Howdy Modi and days after his government slashed corporate tax to address concerns of an economic slowdown.

The PM concluded his rousing speech by inviting US President Donald Trump, along with his family, to visit India soon, and the two leaders with their hands clasped, took a round of the stadium waving at the crowd in a gesture to convey the strength of their friendship to which both had alluded to in their respective speeches.

Earlier, addressing the Indian diaspora at the NRG Stadium in Houston, the US President hinted at visiting India as early as October, while Modi seemed to endorse his support for Trump’s re-election next year, and suggesting to the Indian-American community to do the same, by declaring “abki baar Trump sarkaar”.

During his speech, the US President received loud cheers when he said India and the US were united in their fight against “radical Islamic terrorism”, which is likely to be interpreted as a message to Pakistan. Modi spoke of his government’s decision to scrap the provisions of Article 370, and received sustained applause, and asked the audience to give a standing ovation to all members of the two Houses of Parliament….

Read More : Howdy Modi

Bank employee unions to protest against merger, go on strike on October 22

All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) said they proposed to go on strike from 6 a.m. on October 22 to 6 a.m. on October 23

Two major unions in the banking sector on Thursday announced that they would go on a one-day strike on October 22 protesting against the merger of government-owned banks.

All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) said they proposed to go on strike from 6 a.m. on October 22 to 6 a.m. on October 23. The demands listed out by the two unions are: stop merger of banks, stop banking sector reforms, recover bad loans and take stringent action on defaulters, not penalising the customers with penal charges, stop attack on job security and recruit adequate people.

C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA said that around 3.5 lakh employees are expected to join the strike on that day. There are around 8.5 lakh bank employees across public, private, foreign and co-operative banks in the country. The co-operative bank employees are not part of the announced strike.

The unions will also engage in various agitation programmes including display of posters before all bank branches, black badge wearing, demonstration in all centres, Dharna in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mangalore apart from the strike on October 22…

Cash may be king in India, but Google is prince of mobile payments

The company has one of its fastest-growing hits ever with Google Pay, a two-year-old app that millions of consumers are using to spend and transfer tens of billions of dollars

The leading player in the battle for mobile payments in India isn’t either of China’s pioneers, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. orTencent Holdings Ltd. It isn’t Apple Inc, Visa Inc or even PayPal Holdings Inc.

It’s Google.

The Alphabet Inc unit has for years tried to diversify its revenues beyond advertising by pushing into new fields like cloud computing and hardware. While its profits remain healthy, it needs new ways to make money as the specter of regulation looms at home and around the globe. Its booming new business in the world’s largest untapped digital market could be the engine of expansion that it has been looking for.

In India today, the company has one of its fastest-growing hits ever with Google Pay, a two-year-old app that millions of consumers are using to spend and transfer tens of billions of dollars. Resembling a chat app and available in local languages, Google Pay was the most downloaded financial technology app world-wide last year, according to SensorTower, a research and marketing firm for the app industry.

Indian consumers use it to buy train tickets, pay bills and even to purchase lunchtime meals from street vendors. Tiny mom-and-pop shops around the country now display a logo with a large “G” and Google’s blue, red, yellow and green colors, signaling that merchants accept payments via the app, which is free for all to use.

Amit Shah panel sets the ball rolling on sale of debt-laden Air India

Officials aware of the deliberations in a meeting of AISAM on Thursday said the agenda was to seek a formal political approval for the re-initiation of the privatisation process

A group of ministers, led by Home Minister Amit Shah, on Thursday set the ball rolling on disinvestment of state-owned Air India. This is the second attempt of the Modi government to sell Air India after a previous attempt failed to generate any interest.

Officials aware of the deliberations in a meeting of AISAM on Thursday said the agenda was to seek a formal political approval for the re-initiation of the privatisation process. “It was a very productive meeting. We are going to take all the decisions in a defined period of time. The Air India divestment process is underway,” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

“The issue of debt and the expression of interest (EoI) will be taken up in the next meeting of AISAM,” the official quoted earlier said. The Committee of Secretaries has proposed that the government fully quit the carrier as a 24 per cent holding of the government was one of the major reasons cited by transaction advisor EY on why bidders stayed away. The government has agreed to exit the airline completely by selling off 95 per cent stake in the carrier, retaining five per cent for ESOP of permanent employees.

The government has thoroughly analysed the failed sale process of last year and is making changes in the privatisation process accordingly, the official quoted above said. “EY highlighted that the government holding a 24 per cent stake had scared away many potential suitors. Hence, the decision to sell 95 per cent has been taken,” the official said…

No stressed asset of MSME to be declared NPA till Mar 31, 2020: Sitharaman

State-owned lenders will hold meetings with Non-Banking Financing Companies–or shadow banks–and new retail customers in 200 districts till September 29 to explore giving credit

State-owned banks will not declare stressed assets of MSMEs as non-performing assets (NPAs) till March 31, 2020, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, listing more measures to lift up the economy by ensuring credit. State-owned lenders will hold meetings with Non-Banking Financial Companies–or shadow banks–and new retail customers in 200 districts till September 29 to explore giving credit, she said at a press conference in Delhi.

Nirmala Sitharaman was speaking after holding a review meeting with public sector banks (PSBs) to discuss various issues, including follow up on transmission of monetary policy rates. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had earlier this month made it mandatory for banks to link all their fresh retail loans to an external benchmark effective October 1 and the central bank’s repo rate being one such benchmark. Following the move, banks such as Punjab National Bank and Allahabad Bank announced linking their retail loans with the RBI’s repo rate.

Sitharaman said the RBI had also issued a circular that provides for stressed loan accounts of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) not being declared non-performing assets (NPAs). She said banks have been asked to follow that circular…

Loan ‘melas’ are back: PSBs to hold credit meets in 400 districts, says FM

Stressed MSME assets will not be labelled NPAs till March 31, 2020

Public-sector banks (PSBs) will hold public meetings with borrowers for distributing loans in 400 districts of the country to boost demand ahead of the festive season, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday.

In this, the banks will take help from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government will be following the footsteps of its predecessor, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which had introduced the concept of “loan mela” to boost credit by directing banks to lend to people through public meetings.

Further, the government has told PSBs not to declare stressed assets of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) non-performing assets (NPAs) till March 31 next year. This will come as a major boost to the sector with its 65 million firms employing around 120 million workers — the biggest job creation after the agriculture sector. The government is also considering a special dispensation for the farm and MSME sectors

Attack on Saudi oil site was an Iranian ‘act of war’, says Pompeo

Iran, which has denied involvement in the attack, warned the US it will retaliate immediately if it is targeted

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil installations an “act of war” against the kingdom by Iran, as the Saudis displayed missile and drone wreckage and cited other evidence they said shows the raid was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran.” Iran, which has denied involvement in the attack, warned the US it will retaliate immediately if it is targeted. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he is moving to increase financial sanctions on Tehran over the attack.

At a news conference, Saudi military spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said the attack Saturday that did heavy damage to the heart of the Saudi oil industry was “launched from the north and was unquestionably sponsored by Iran.” Yemen lies to the south of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq to the north. Al-Malki stopped short of accusing Iran of actually firing the weapons itself or launching them from Iranian territory.

Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in response to the yearslong Saudi-led war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of people. At the news conference, the Saudis displayed broken and burned drones and pieces of a cruise missile that Al-Malki identified as Iranian weapons collected after the attack. He also played surveillance video that he said showed a drone coming in from the north.

Eighteen drones and seven cruise missiles were launched in the assault, Al-Malki said, with three missiles failing to make their targets. He said the cruise missiles had a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles), meaning they could not have been fired from inside Yemen. “This is the kind of weapon the Iranian regime and the Iranian IRGC are using against the civilian object and facilities infrastructure,” Al-Malki said, using an acronym for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard...

Trump names hostage envoy O’Brien as NSA amid rising tensions with Iran

The announcement of O’Brien’s selection on Wednesday comes a week after Trump ousted John Bolton from the post, citing policy disagreements

President Donald Trump named Robert O’Brien, his chief hostage negotiator and an established figure in Republican policy circles, as his new national security adviser. O’Brien, the fourth person in two years to hold the job, becomes the administration’s point person on national security amid rising tensions with Iran following the weekend attack on Saudi oil installations and fresh uncertainty in Afghanistan after the halt in peace talks with the Taliban. The announcement of O’Brien’s selection on Wednesday comes a week after Trump ousted John Bolton from the post, citing policy disagreements.

O’Brien, who made headlines in July when he was dispatched to Sweden to monitor the assault trial of American rapper A$AP Rocky, was among five candidates Trump said Tuesday were under consideration. “He’s worked with me for quite awhile now on hostages, and we have a tremendous track record on hostages,” Donald Trump said Wednesday on a tarmac in Los Angeles, hours after revealing the pick on Twitter. “Robert has been fantastic. We know each other well.” O’Brien, standing alongside Trump, said it was a “privilege” to be picked.

“We’ve had tremendous foreign policy successes under President Trump’s leadership. I expect those to continue. We’ve got a number of challenges,” he added. O’Brien said the administration’s focus will continue to be on keeping the U.S. safe and rebuilding the military. He said he would advise Trump privately on the situation in Saudi Arabia.

PM Modi may sign trade deal during upcoming US visit to resolve issues

Modi will be visiting Houston, Texas, and New York as part of a six-day trip from September 21 to 27

Latest News: A mutually acceptable “trade package” is expected to be signed between India and the United States (US) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming trip to the US later this week. Modi will be visiting Houston, Texas, and New York as part of a six-day trip from September 21 to 27. Apart from a planned address to the United Nations, a resolution to pending trade issues is expected to be the high point in foreign policy goals, senior officials said.

The package has been in the works for more than a year and trade officials have met as many as six times to try and hammer out a deal that provides an amicable solution to grouses from both sides. India is considering the dismantling of its current price cap regime for coronary stents with a trade margin policy. It may also allow lower duties on import of certain information and communication technologies products such as high-end mobile phone and smart watches from the US that may make iPhone productscheaper in the country, commerce department officials said.

In return, the US would step back from its aggressive posturing on “reciprocal taxes” on Indian goods. Trump has repeatedly accused India of being a “high tariff nation”, referring to duties placed on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. “While the US would fall foul of the World Trade Organization norms if it imposes a ‘reciprocal tax’ against India, it would undo all the discussions so far. We would have to protect our exporters,” a senior official added. Also, since some of the proposals have met with significant opposition from the domestic industry, any possibility of reciprocal taxes on India would stop trade talks, another official added...

Modi, Trump set to meet twice in less than a week this month: Indian envoy

The Indian ambassador to US asserted that the strategic relationship between two countries has the potential to become the ‘defining partnership’ within this century

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump are scheduled to meet twice in less than a week this month, India’s top envoy to America has said, asserting that the India-US strategic relationship has the potential to become the “defining partnership” within this century.

Since his re-election in May this year, Prime Minister Modi has met President Trump twice. The previous two meetings of the two leaders were on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Japan and G-7 Summit in France this summer. And later this week when Modi arrives in the US, they “are scheduled to meet twice more”, India’s ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla told a Washington audience on Wednesday.

So, they would have “four meetings in the span of a few months,” Shringla said during the ‘India on the Hill: Charting a Future for Indo-US Relations’ event jointly organised by two think tanks The Heritage Foundation from the US and Observer Research Foundation (ORF) from India. Modi is scheduled to arrive in Houston on Saturday. A day later, Trump would join him in addressing the mega “Howdy Modi” rally to be attended by more than 50,000 Indian-Americans...

CG Power case: Look out circular issued against ex-chairman Gautam Thapar

The case could be referred to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) if the preliminary inspection report points to a fraud and gaping holes in the books of the firm

The government has issued a look-out circular against Gautam Thapar, the ousted chairman of fraud-hit CG Power and Industrial Solutions, said senior official.

“We are looking at the gaps in the company’s books. The circular has been issued as a pre-emptive measure,” the senior official added. The circular has been issued at the behest of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), which is currently inspecting the books of the company. The case could be referred to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) if the preliminary inspection report points to a fraud and gaping holes in the books of the firm.

A month ago, the company was hit by an accounting scandal and the liabilities of the group were found understated by over Rs 1,600 crore for 2017-18. “Funds diverted from CG Power were fraudulently transferred to its promoter company Avantha Holdings and entities related/connected with the company, Avantha International, Acton, Ballarpur International, Mirabelle and Solaris, without knowledge of the company and without any approval from its board,” the report of the risk and audit committee said.

The regional director’s (RD’s) office of the MCA – western region – is conducting the inspection and is likely to submit its report soon. The RD’s office has questioned more than 20 persons in connection with the matter so far. Resignation of the company’s auditor had triggered an MCA inquiry into CG Power and Industrial Solutions..

Saudi’s inability to stop oil attack exposes gaps even with top US defences

The Saudis clearly were not prepared for this assault, which was unusual in its execution and unprecedented in its targeting

Saudi Arabia spent billions to protect a kingdom built on oil but could not stop the suspected Iranian drone and missile attack, exposing gaps that even America’s most advanced weaponry failed to fill. In addition to deciding whether that firepower should be turned on Iran in retaliation, the Saudis and their American allies must now figure out how to prevent a repeat of last weekend’s attack – or worse, such as an assault on the Saudis’ export facilities in the Persian Gulf or any of the desalination plants that supply drinking water.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked Wednesday on his way to Saudi Arabia how it was possible that the kingdom could have dropped its guard, failing to stop any of the low-flying cruise missiles or armed drones that struck the Abqaiq oil processing center – the largest of its kind in the world – and the Khurais oil field. Even the best air defences sometimes fail, he replied.

“We want to make sure that infrastructure and resources are put in place such that attacks like this would be less successful than this one appears to have been.” Easier said than done. “This is an attack of a scale we’ve just not seen before,” Pompeo said. He called the strike “an act of war” but not say what military response might follow…

India expects to gain control over Pak occupied Kashmir one day: Jaishankar

No need to “worry” beyond a point about what people will say on Kashmir, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

It was a day of contrasting, even disputed, narratives on Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing a public rally in Gujarat’s Kevadiya, Prime Minister Narenda Modi said the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel inspired his government’s recent decisions on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

In the national capital, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is a part of India and New Delhi expects to have physical jurisdiction over it one day. In response to Pakistan’s attempts at trying to internationalise the issue, the minister said there was no need to “worry” beyond a point about what people will say on Kashmir.

However, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, a four-time legislator of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir assembly, disagreed with the government’s claims that normalcy had returned to Kashmir. Tarigami is the first politician of a mainstream political party in Kashmir to visit Delhi since the Centre imposed restrictions in the region in the first week of August. The Supreme Court had allowed him to travel to Delhi for medical treatment.

“Where is the normalcy? The clampdown is now 40-days old. Schools have remained shut, so have the shops. Internet is blocked, telephones still not functional. The government says not one person has died. Yes, true but nobody dies in a jail. We are dying slowly every day. We are feeling suffocated,” he said..

As companies struggle to get going, is Vietnam throwing away trade war win?

More and more businesses are complaining about congested ports and roads, rocketing costs for land and labor, and regulations that aren’t being loosened fast enough

Vietnam is finding it’s hard to win a trade war even when businesses are trying to hand you victories. The Southeast Asian growth engine has a young and growing middle class, a horde of free-trade agreements, and a booming manufacturing industry. Businesses from Alphabet Inc’s Google to Crate & Barrel Holdings Inc. are lining up to invest in the country as supply chains migrate from neighboring China, which served as the world’s factory for the better part of two decades.

But Vietnam is starting to see expectations outrun reality. More and more businesses are complaining about congested ports and roads, rocketing costs for land and labor, and regulations that aren’t being loosened fast enough. Tapestry Inc, owner of the Coach and Kate Spade brands, has lamented insufficient infrastructure investment that’s left some containers stalled on the waters. Eclat Textile Co, a supplier to Nike Inc, says it needs to diversify beyond Vietnam, including to cheaper locations.

If Vietnam isn’t able to fast-track progress in closing its infrastructure gap, it risks losing its “mini-China” status that has drawn so many of Bain & Co.’s toy-supplier clients there since 2015, said Gerry Mattios, Bain’s Singapore-based vice president. Costs could outweigh the benefits, sending producers to the likes of Sri Lanka or Cambodia, he said..

Here’s why Japan boasts the world’s most powerful force of retail traders

About 85 per cent of traders are men, mostly in their 30s, 40s and 50s, according to estimates from Gaitame

Popular tales of “Mrs Watanabe” — the canny Tokyo housewife who dabbles in currency trading in between school runs and shopping — barely begin to tell the story of Japan’s retail traders in the foreign exchange market.

With almost 800,000 active forex accounts, Japan boasts the world’s most powerful force of retail traders. It has doubled in size in little more than a decade and spurred some of the most dramatic price moves of recent times, including the January “flash crash” that hammered the dollar and sent the yen soaring.

Contrary to the enchanting notion of “Mrs Watanabe,” most of the traders are middle-age men, who’ve been driven into the market by years of ultra-low interest rates. They toil in offices by day and trudge home to moonlight in foreign exchange, hoping to build a family nest egg in a country where banks pay savers next to nothing.

“A lot of individual investors don’t realize that they’re doing something extraordinary,” says Yasushi Takagi, a 44-year-old financial writer who started forex trading in his early 30s to supplement his earnings. “They bet heavily on high-yielding currencies like the Turkish lira, the Mexican peso and the South African rand, while many players outside of Japan wouldn’t touch them.”

World ‘losing the race’ to avert climate disaster, warns UN chief Guterres

Guterres said he was heartened by growing societal awareness, which meant that hope was not yet lost

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday the world was “losing the race” to avert climate disaster, but that greenhouse gas reduction targets were not out of reach yet. He was speaking during an interview with the Covering Climate Now coalition of media, which includes AFP, days before a UN youth climate summit that will be followed by a meeting with world leaders, where he will urge countries to raise their commitments set under the Paris agreement.

The landmark accord saw countries pledge to limit the long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and if possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius. “What I want is to have the whole of society putting pressure on governments to make governments understand they need to run faster, because we are losing the race,” he said, adding: “What the science tells us today is that these targets are still reachable.”

Guterres said that inaction by some key countries, including the US, could be at least partly offset by action at the sub-national level, for example in the carbon neutral pledges made by the states of California and New York. “I think one of the best things of the US society is the fact that it is a federal country… that decisions are decentralized, so I will be always very strongly in favor of keeping decisions on climate change as decentralized as possible,” he said…

Read Source: Climate Change

Sebi bans Gautam Thapar, three others from markets over CG Power fraud

Sebi restrained three entities belonging to Thapar-led Avantha Group from diverting their money or disposing of their assets

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday debarred Gautam Thapar, the ousted chairman of fraud-hit CG Power and Industrial Solutions, from accessing the capital market for a number of alleged irregularities, including diversion of money.

The market regulator also barred the chief financial officer (CFO) and two directors of the company for their involvement in dubious transactions. Further, Sebi restrained three entities belonging to Gautam Thapar-led Avantha Group from diverting their money or disposing of their assets. It has also directed CG Power to take necessary steps to recover the amount due to it and take legal action to safeguard the interests of investors.

The Sebi order comes nearly a month after the CG Power board said the company had been hit by an accounting scandal and the liabilities of the group had been understated by over Rs 1,600 crore for 2017-18. Sebi said Thapar-promoted and -related entities owed Rs 1,723.19 crore as receivables to the company, while connected parties owed another Rs 462.74 crore…

Not a good idea to break up biggest US tech companies, says Bill Gates

Microsoft is one of the few big U.S. technology companies not under regulatory scrutiny in Washington

Bill Gates, who knows a thing or two about antitrust investigations, doesn’t think it’s a good idea to break up the biggest U.S. tech companies as some politicians have suggested.

The Microsoft Corp. co-founder and former chief executive officer battled the Justice Department for years in the late 1990s in a bruising antitrust case. At issue was the software giant’s bundling of its Internet Explorer browser to Windows as a way to maintain its dominance in PC operating systems. Ultimately Microsoft remained intact.

Two decades later, Microsoft is one of the few big U.S. technology companies not under regulatory scrutiny in Washington. The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and a congressional committee are all scrutinizing so-called Big Tech — companies from Alphabet Inc.‘s Google to Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. — that Washington has concluded have gotten too big and too powerful. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a presidential candidate, has made a forceful and detailed plan about how she would go about breaking them up.

Gates disagrees. “You have to really think; is that the best thing?” Gates said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “If there’s a way the company’s behaving that you want to get rid of, then, you should just say, ‘Okay, that’s a banned behavior.’ But splitting the company in two, and having two people doing the bad thing– that doesn’t seem like a solution.”