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Archives for September 2018

RBI can sell USD 25 bn more to arrest rupee fall: SBI report

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should intervene in both spot and forward markets to arrest Indian rupee’s depreciation, suggested a State Bank of India (SBI) Ecowrap report on Tuesday.

As per the report, during the June 2008 to May 2009 period, when rupee depreciated by 13 per cent, the RBI sold dollars worth $43 billion, though the forex reserves at that time stood at $312 billion.

The report cited that even during 1990s, when the total forex reserve was less than $40 billion, the RBI had intervened in the market by selling 8-9 per cent of total reserve to rein in a fall in rupee.

“So, we believe in the present scenario, RBI could go up to its tolerance limit of 10 per cent (a crude proxy of the average ratio over all periods) by selling at least an additional $25 billion in the forex market,” the report said.

The apex bank is known to enter the markets via intermediaries to either sell or buy US dollars to keep the rupee in a stable orbit.

In addition, the report said that oil companies may also be asked to purchase all their USD requirements directly from the RBI through a single bank, an arrangement that was used in 2013.

“Further, oil companies may also be asked to borrow USD for import payments directly from foreign branches of Indian Banks. These funds may be borrowed for longer term instead of the very short-term funds borrowed currently,” the report said.

The report comes on a day when latest global trade protectionist measures, along with high crude oil prices, dragged the Indian rupee to a fresh low of 72.98 per US dollar.

At 5 p.m on Tuesday, the rupee closed at 72.98 per greenback from its previous close of 72.51 per dollar.

It had opened at 72.60 per US dollar at the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market and remained range bound.

However, the Indian currency’s slide commenced from 4.45 p.m onwards as it touched 72.96 breaching its previous intra-day record low of 72.91 made on September 12.

According to analysts, concerns over a rise in inflation rate, growing protectionism in global trade and an outflow of foreign funds from the country’s equity market have had an adverse impact on the Indian currency.

“After comments surfaced that Saudi Arabia is comfortable with higher crude oil prices, Brent prices jumped. At the same time, news came that China has warned of retaliation in trade,” said Anindya Banerjee, Deputy Vice President for Currency and Interest Rates with Kotak Securities.

“Both these news, triggered a sharp decline in Chinese currency and rupee. Weak rupee caused a sell-off in Nifty.”

(IANS)

Imran mulls to give citizenship to refugees’ kids born in Pakistan

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday sought the National Assembly’s advice for granting citizenship to Pakistan-born children of Afghan and Bangladeshi migrants.

Addressing a session of the country’s lower house, the prime minister said that he wants to take this decision on humanitarian grounds as refugees after living in the country for so many years they should be issued identity cards.

Khan said that granting citizenship to Pakistan-born refugees will also bring down the crime rate as the refugees, who mostly work as laborers as they are not allowed to apply for jobs in government sector, currently get much lower wages than local laborers and get inclined to criminal activities.

Supporting his argument, the prime minister said that the country’s Citizenship Act, 1951, states that every person born in Pakistan has the right to get its nationality.

Citing example of Bangladeshi refuges, Khan said that even their grandchildren were born in Pakistan, but they have not been granted citizenship yet.

Earlier, addressing a fund raising ceremony for dams, the prime minister vowed to give national identity cards and passports to Afghan and Bengali migrants.

Opposition and allies of the government raised concerns of the remarks.

However, the prime minister also said no decision has yet been taken and he invites lawmakers to hold debate and
float suggestions about giving nationality to those who born in Pakistan as the country’s law allows citizenship to those who born here.

(IANS)

Sitharaman slams Congress for asking banks to give loans to Mallya

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Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday hit out at the previous Congress-led UPA government for asking the banks to continue giving loans to fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

“One thing is clear, even after Kingfisher Airlines was closed in 2011, loans were generously being given. The RBI was issuing letters,” Sitharaman said while interacting with feamle journalists here.

She was responding to a question related to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) shifting its stance on the change in the Lookout Notice (LOC) against Mallya from “detention” to “inform”.

Slamming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for not acting against the liquor baron, Sitharaman questioned: “Why did the legal process not get going to get the money back? Is it not time for them (Congress) to come clean on it?”

The Defence Minister said that she cannot comment on the CBI changing its stance on the LOC against Mallya.

“I understand that there is a high court ruling from Kolkata on how he could or could not have been detained in India. There are several sides to it…and all of us will have to be on board before concluding whether the Lookout Notice was diluted or was it right to have it diluted,” she said.

Earlier, the CBI has clarified that the first Lookout Circular (LOC) against Mallya for his detention at airports in 2015 was changed, as there was “no sufficient ground” for his arrest.

The CBI officials later wrote to the Immigration Department to seek modification in the LOC as “Mallya was cooperating” in the probe and the agency was still collecting evidence from banks.

The first LOC against Mallya was issued on October 16, 2015. The second LOC was issued on November 24, 2015, the day Mallya returned from the United Kingdom.

The chief of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines escaped from India on March 2, 2016.

He is currently in London where a court finished hearing on India’s extradition case against him on Wednesday and is due to pronounce its verdict on December 10.

(IANS)

Sidhu hugging Pakistan Army chief was demoralising: Sitharaman

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Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa during his recent visit to the neighbouring country was “demoralising”.

“Navjot Sidhu has a lot of admirers and followers. He has been a very popular cricketer… He has his fan following. Somebody of that stature, going (to Pakistan) and then there hugging the chief of the Army…an Army about which in India we have very clear feelings,” Sitharaman said.

“It certainly has an impact on the soldiers and all the people in the (Defence) Ministry. The public response has also been similar that it demoralises,” she added.

“If it demoralises people, I wish Siddhu had avoided. I am not talking about him going (to Pakistan) but more about that singular gesture of hugging the Army chief,” Sitharaman said.

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu had been invited for the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was also a cricketer.

Sidhu also claimed to have brought up the issue of opening the route to Sikh pilgrimage site Kartarpur Saheb with the Pakistan leadership. However, Sidhu has been facing flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for meddling in a bilateral affair.

Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said on Tuesday: “Shockingly, Navjot Singh Sidhu gave the impression to everyone that it is he who has got it (Kartarpur Saheb route) opened with the Pakistan government. I wonder why he made an unannounced visit to Sushmaji’s office yesterday (Monday) when he claims he has already got the corridor opened.”

“Rightly, he was reprimanded by the External Affairs Minister for misusing his personal visit clearance and lowering reputation of India as well as causing diplomatic faux pas.

“I ask Rahul Gandhi that a Minister of your party went to an enemy nation, betrayed our people and played with the sentiments of Sikhs. Was this all done with your blessings? Will you take action against him, or are you hand in glove with him?” she added.

BJP Spokesman Sambit Patra, too, slammed Sidhu for running “parallel diplomacy”.

He said that while giving Sidhu clearance to visit Pakistan, Sushma Swaraj had cautioned him to “not be hyper” and guard against saying or doing anything that “may lower India’s reputation”.

Coming to Sidhu’s defence, Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the BJP, which Sidhu left two years back, continues to “nurture animosity” against him.

About Sidhu meeting Sushma Swaraj on Monday, Surjewala said that instead of “planting” stories about reprimanding Sidhu, the External Affairs Minister should officially say as to what transpired in the meeting.

“Instead of berating Sidhu, should not the Prime Minister be ensuring that our Sikh brothers and sisters are permitted to have ‘darshan’ of a place which is important for Sikhs (Kartarpur saheb)?

“Sidhu may have an intent but he does not have the authority to open or not open a corridor. The responsibility finally lies at the doorstep of Prime Minister and the MEA,” Surjewala said.

(IANS)

Delhi government nods several people-friendly proposals

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The Delhi government on Thursday cleared a number of proposals, including increasing financial assistance for maintenance of parks, installing CCTVs in government schools and ensuring safety of woman in public spaces.

In one of the decisions, the Cabinet meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, approved the proposal to increase financial assistance from Rs 1 lakh per acre to Rs 2 lakh per acre to parks and gardens registered with the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society, a statement released by Kejriwal’s office said.

The CM’s office said that the objective behind this step is to “enhance green cover of Delhi from 20 per cent to 25 per cent”.

In addition, it said, irrespective of the category of the colony, the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society will contribute 90 per cent of the admissible financial assistance at the rate of Rs 2 lakh per acre while the balance 10 per cent will have to be borne by the concerned RWAs or NGOs.

The Cabinet also passed a provision to provide financial assistance for installation of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to overcome the problem of water supply.

“The grant of RWAs and NGOs shall additionally include one-time financial assistance towards the cost of STP at the rate of Rs 2 lakh per acre, while the balance if any will have to be borne by the concerned RWAs or NGOs,” the statement said.

Under another project, the Delhi Government will undertake a survey of infrastructural lacunae in Delhi-NCR with a focus on woman safety.

In the wake of rising incident of child abuse in the schools of Delhi-NCR, the Cabinet also decided to install CCTVs in all the Delhi government-run schools.

The cabinet also approved a proposal of the Department of Education to empower School Management Committees (SMCs) by renaming and restructuring Vidyalaya Kalyan Samitis as SMCs.

It also approved another proposal for revision in the rates of remuneration of miscellaneous category of guest teachers.

“The department of education has proposed that the rate of daily remuneration for Miscellaneous Category guest teachers may be brought at per with Trained Graduate Teachers (with CTET qualification) guest teachers, i.e. enhanced from Rs 1,050 to Rs 1,403 per day, prospectively,” the statement said.

The proposal would be submitted for approval of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, it added.

The Cabinet further approved a Department of Social Welfare proposal to enhance the financial assistance to leprosy-affected persons from Rs 1,800 per month to Rs 3,000 per month under the Rehabilitation Centre for Leprosy-affected Persons (RCL) scheme.

“The proposal is to enhance the maintenance allowance…for 562 RCL beneficiaries with effect from September 2018,” the Chief Minister’s office said.

(IANS)

Maharashtra seeks Rs 50,000-cr for Mumbai development

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The 15th Finance Commission headed by N. K. Singh held talks with political parties, trade and industry organisations and local bodies in Maharashtra on Tuesday, while the government and political parties sought a special grant of Rs 50,000 crore for Mumbai’s development, an official said here.

On a three-day visit to the state, the commission comprises Ashok Lahiri, Shaktikanta Das, Anoop Singh and Ramesh Chand.

Leaders and delegations of several political parties expressed concern that the state has been deprived of tax devolution on the pretext that the state has the highest GSDP and successive commissions ignored the challenges of regional inequality within Maharashtra.

They demanded that since Maharashtra has maintained the population replacement rate of 1.8, it should be incentivized for the same.

Raising issues concerning Mumbai, which has been the growth magnet for the country, they discussed the resultant immigration which puts enormous stress on resources and infrastructure.

For this, the parties demanded from the Commission a special grant of Rs.50,000 crore for the city’s development as people from all states in the country live here.

They pointed out that while population is a critical indicator for devolution, due weightage should be given to “in-migration”, sought adequate revenue deficit grants and to pay attention to the farm crises and drought afflicting the state.

Various industry and agriculture groups informed the Commission about the shortage of equity and credit faced by them and requested that Goods & Services Tax (GST) on services used by the centre and state may be borne by the respective governments to spare the MSMEs of the burden of frequent taxation.

The industry groups pointed out that the competitiveness of Indian exporters would improve due to the Rupee depreciation within a range of Rs 72-73 per USD.

They added that the domino effects of insolvency and NCLT is faced by MSMEs and sought relaxation in the rules of the Insolvency Act.

Local civic bodies in the urban and rural areas raised issued of need to devolve funds to the Zilla and Taluka Panchayats, besides village Panchayats, to maintain community assets, capacity building, raising internal resources and cluster-based approach for effective delivery of services like sold waste management.

Representatives from the coastal Konkan demanded special grants for dealing with cleanliness and beautification of sea shores, arresting saline water ingression and hill regions like Panchgani sought funds to provide services to the tourist population and performance-based incentives.

(IANS)

CS assault case: BJP demands Kejriwal’s resignation

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The BJP on Tuesday demanded Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation soon after a court here issued summons to him, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 other AAP legislators as accused in an alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.

“This has happened for the first time when a Chief Minister would be present in the court as an accused. Thus, on moral grounds we demand his resignation,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Delhi unit spokesperson Harish Khurana told IANS.

He said: “We have seen former Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, who resigned on moral grounds after his name figured in a list of politicians allegedly involved in a hawala scandal in 1995.”

Attacking Kejriwal and his party leaders, Khurana said: “They had claimed that they have come to change the politics. But what they are doing?”

The BJP leader’s remarks came after a court here accepted the Delhi Police charge-sheet and asked all the 13 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to appear before the court on October 25.

The Delhi Police in August charge-sheeted Kejriwal, Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania over the alleged assault of the Chief Secretary.

They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for voluntarily causing hurt and obstructing a public servant to deter him/ her from doing duty, wrongful confinement and assault.

They have also been accused of insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy, punishment of abetment and unlawful assembly, among others.

On the other hand, the AAP has called the case a “midnight conspiracy to defame the Delhi Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and 11 MLAs in a false and laughable case”.

Chief Secretary Prakash had in February alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLAs in the presence of Kejriwal at the Chief Minister’s residence on the night of February 19 where he had been called for a late-night meeting.

The case was filed the next morning and Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal were arrested and sent to judicial custody. Later, they were released on bail.

(IANS)

Kerala Police questions bishop accused of raping nun

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The Kerala Police on Wednesday started questioning Bishop Franco Mulakkal accused of raping a nun, as a top police officer said there is no restriction on his arrest.

Ahead of the questioning, top police officers — Inspector General Vijay Sakhre, Kottayam Superintendent Harishankar and his deputy K. Subhash held a meeting at the IG office in Kochi.

“We are under no pressure. We have conducted a detailed probe which was spread across five different states. There has been no directive that the bishop should not be arrested,” said Harishankar.

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar, accompanied by his counsel and a few priests, arrived in a car earlier to the Crime Branch office near here.

The police ensured that the media could not get close to him or even take his picture.

According to the police, Tripunithura located on the outskirts of Kochi, was chosen as the venue to avoid the protests underway in Kochi over the last 12 days.

The bishop on Tuesday got a relief from the Kerala High Court which agreed to hear his anticipatory bail plea on September 25.

The court also asked the state government to file an affidavit.

A Kerala nun has accused Mulakkal of repeatedly sexually abusing her between 2014 and 2016.

An FIR was registered against the bishop and a 114-page detailed statement was taken from the nun and other inmates of the convent.

Mulakkal was questioned by the police team led by Subhash in August at his Jalandhar office.

(IANS)

Home interior startup Livspace raises Rs 500 crore in funding

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Home interior and renovation platform Livspace on Wednesday announced it has secured $70 million (nearly Rs 500 crore) in Series C funding led by TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs.

Launched in 2015, Bengaluru-based Livspace has emerged as one of the top players in the fragmented home interiors and renovation market which is expected to exceed $23 billion by 2022.

“In an industry that has traditionally struggled with scale, we have created a first-of-its-kind, design-to-installation technology platform and a marketplace model that is highly scalable. The model can inherently deliver strong unit economics,” said Livspace’s Co-founder and CEO Anuj Srivastava.

The funding is the largest Series C round raised by a vertical e-commerce company in India in the B2C segment, the company said in a statement.

“We are thrilled to have TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs with us in our journey. Their understanding of global markets and deep expertise in accelerating growth-stage companies will help us build the next edition of Livspace,” Srivastava added.

Livspace currently has presence in seven metro areas — Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida and Thane.

The company will utilise the funds to expand its operations to six more metro areas by 2019.

In August, Livspace launched operations in Hyderabad and is on track to hit over $125-135 million in annualised gross revenue by March 2019.

Before the Series C round of funding, Livspace had raised a total of $33.6 million from Jungle Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Ventures, and UC-RNT.

“To design the next one million homes — and deliver a predictable experience for this highly complex solution — technological and operational innovation will form the backbone of the company,” said Ramakant Sharma, Co-founder and COO, Livspace.

According to Niladri Mukhopadhyay, a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, this investment is in line with “our focus on backing excellent management teams that uniquely address the needs and aspirations of India’s growing middle class”.

Livspace has a network of four design centres and 15 experience apartments in the country.

(IANS)

HC rejects plea seeking formula of petrol pricing

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New Delhi The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed an application seeking direction to the Centre to disclose the formula on the basis of which daily prices of petroleum and diesel are fixed.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao refused to interfere with the government policy on fixing petrol prices.

The court was hearing an application, filed by Delhi-based designer Pooja Mahajan. Her advocate A. Maitri sought direction to call the records from the government, including oil companies to disclose the formula and furnish details on the basis of which the daily fuel prices are fixed.

The petitioner said that people were suffering irreparably because these prices were being enhanced on presumption.

Maitri said that the oil manufacturing companies were selling their old stock of petrol and diesel at enhanced prices while admittedly the said stock was purchased at a cheaper rate.

As per official claims, petrol and diesel prices are fixed on account of increase in international prices. Admittedly, international price of crude oil is fixed on barrel basis, the plea said.

The application was filed on the pending public interest litigation by the petitioner in which she has sought direction to the central government to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel as it is a policy matter which involved larger economic issues.

The court has asked the government to consider an earlier representation pending before it on price rise of petrol and diesel.

Mahajan had filed a similar plea in July but the high court had then directed the Centre to treat the PIL as a representation.

The petitioner has sought a directive to the Centre to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel in line with the Essential Commodities Act.

(IANS)

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