Archives for 2018

Syria’s air defences intercept suspected Israeli missiles

 Syrian air defences responded on Thursday evening to a suspected Israeli missile attack on military targets in southern Syria, media reported.

State TV reported that Syrian air force fired anti-air missiles in response to the strike, adding that all enemy targets were destroyed and that the foreign attack failed to achieve its intended goals, reports Xinhua news agency.

It said the attack took place over the town of Kisweh in the southern countryside of the Syrian capital Damascus.

While the official Syrian media outlets hinted that Israel is behind the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group based in Britain, explicitly stated that Israel carried out the attack in the southern and southwestern countryside of Damascus near the administrative border with the southern province of Quneitra.

The watchdog said the Syrian air defences were firing a number of missiles to intercept the Israeli missiles.

Meanwhile, the pro-government Sham FM radio said two explosions were heard in the vicinity of the town of Al-Dimass in the western countryside of Damascus in tandem with the missile attack in southern Damascus.

Israel has repeatedly targeted military positions in Syria, including Kisweh.

If Israel is proved to be behind the attack, it would be the its first attack on Syrian targets since September, when it attacked military sites in Syria and led to the downing of a Russian surveillance aircraft by missiles mistakenly fired by Syrian air force in response to the Israeli attack.

After the September attack, during which 15 Russian servicemen were killed, Russia and the Syrian government blamed Israel for the crash, and Moscow was quick to equip Damascus with the advanced S-300 air defence system.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Xinhua in September that the arrival of Russia’s S-300 to Syria would push Israel to reconsider before striking Syria again.

Israeli usually claims that its strikes target Iranian positions or weapons in Syria that could end up in the hands of the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

IANS

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) employees union would go on an indefinite strike from December 3 over non-issuance of the third pay revision.

In a letter to Union Communications Minister Manoj Sinha on November 28 (Wednesday), the union sought a level-playing field for the company in comparison to other players in the telecom sector.

“Thousands of workers (Non-Executives and Executives of BSNL) are retiring every month. Naturally, issues of their third pay revision are still pending despite clear commitment given to them in that regard and that has created serious resentment among them,” said the letter.

It further said: “They are expecting at least 15 per cent enhancement/fitment in pay and payment of pension contribution by BSNL and revision of pension to BSNL retirees with effect from 01.01.2017, as made available to a number of public sector employees and officers.”

The employee’s union also sought the allotment of 4G spectrum to BSNL.

Further, the Centre of Indian Trade Union in a statement released in support of the demands said that the allotment of 4G spectrum to BSNL “is being deliberately delayed by the government to allow advantage to private telecom operators at the cost of BSNL.”

IANS

 In the midst of a government-Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tussle over utilisation of capital reserves of the central bank, former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian strongly supports the government’s view, saying the RBI is holding excess capital between Rs 4.5 and Rs 7 lakh crore which should be used to recapitalise the banks.

However, he adds that deploying capital is a decision for the RBI to take which it must do “voluntarily and proactively without even the whiff of interference from outside”.

Subramanian says he realises that in making this suggestion he is up against all the eminent current and former RBI officials, who argue that the RBI actually needs all the capital it has, but they are wrong.

“These officials command the respect of the public, and for good reasons. I think they are wrong. As Margaret Thatcher used to say, ‘One man and the Truth is a majority’,” the noted economist says in his upcoming book “Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi-Jaitley Economy”, published by Penguin.

“It is almost certainly the case that more money will be needed to make banks healthy… It is possible that the government will need to provide anywhere between Rs 3-5 lakh crore — in addition to the amounts already spent — to restore the fundamentally viable public sector banks to health,” Subramanian says.

He adds that there is only one public-sector entity — RBI — that has a strong enough balance sheet to deploy this magnitude of resources.

“Conservative estimates (as well as cross-country comparisons) based on our internal analysis suggest that if the RBI were to adopt the practices of most major central banks around the world in deciding how much capital is necessary, it would find that it has about Rs 3-4 lakh crore of excess government capital, some of which it could deploy for the clean-up,” he says.

Subramanian adds that RBI is an outlier among major central banks, holding about 28 per cent in capital, which is the fifth-largest amongst all major central banks, with two of the four above India in this ranking being oil exporters, which are special cases being highly vulnerable to the swings in the price of petroleum.

He says the RBI calculates risk based on a sample that almost no other central bank does and has set for itself a risk tolerance that is “ultra, ultra conservative, almost bordering on paranoia”.

“Whereas other central banks want to cushion against events with one per cent probability of occurring, the RBI wants to cushion against events that can occur with .001 per cent probability.”

“…Prima facie, then, it seems that the RBI is holding too much capital… Our estimate is that the RBI is holding excess capital between Rs 4.5-7 lakh crore… This excess capital should be redeployed, shifted from where it is not needed and put instead where it is needed urgently, namely, in public-sector banks,” he says.

However, he warns that any redeployment of RBI capital must be seen not as a government demand but as a voluntary commitment of the RBI for the greater good, and should be done only after extensive consultation.

“If there is one strong balance sheet and one weak, there is no good reason the former should not come to the rescue of the latter. We build up strength in balance sheets not for strength’s sake but to use that strength. Savings are meant for rainy days and when rainy days come, savings should be run down.

“During and after the global financial crisis, major central banks across the world have lent the heft of their balance sheets to pull economies out of dire economic circumstances,” the former CEA says.

He adds the legitimacy of central banks is enhanced when they take actions to address serious problems. “When reputations and strong balance sheets are put on the frontline in service of the economy, these assets, far from getting depleted, are actually replenished.”

IANS

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Thursday inaugurated the 21st edition of Karnataka State’s flagship Information Technology and Biotechnology event, ‘Bengaluru Tech Summit’.

Addressing the press persons after inaugurating the three-day event Kumaraswamy said that this tech summit is a unique platform provided by the Karnataka government for deliberating on innovation and its impact on the industry.

When it comes to Foreign Direct Investment and employability Karnataka stands first. The IT, BT and related sectors in Bengaluru alone have provided employment to over 3 million,  he informed.

PTI