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Trying to bring back Maggi by end of this year: Nestle India

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MAGGI

New Delhi: Bolstered by the Bombay High Court order overturning ban on Maggi, Nestle India plans to bring back the popular instant noodles back in the market by end of this year subject to certain clearances.

The company, which has taken a hit of Rs 450 crore, including destroying over 30,000 tonnes of the instant noodles since June when it was banned because of alleged excessive lead content, says it will continue with the existing formula of the product and not change the ingredients.

“We will try and target something that is better than that. My desire is to do it before that but let’s see,” Nestle India Managing Director Suresh Narayanan told PTI in an interaction when asked whether Maggi noodles could be back in the market by start of the next year.

He said as per court directives, this quarter it would go in for testing of Maggi samples at three independent laboratories in Punjab, Hyderabad and Jaipur which are accredited with National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

“By the time we get everything done (all clearances), it will be middle of September. I can tell you this quarter no, unlikely. Subsequent quarter, we will try (to bring back Maggi),” Narayanan said.

He said the company has to test the Maggi samples within six weeks and after that it would start manufacturing and then the noodles would be tested again.

Asked whether the recent problems would make the company change ingredients of the instant noodles, Narayanan replied in the negative saying “what has worked for 30 years” must work in future too, although the company would continue to work on innovation and add more variants in future.

Acknowledging that the ban has ‘dented’ the company, Narayanan said the company has to win back consumer confidence and will “spend aggressively” on rebuilding the brand from a “zero” level through customer engagement activities and advertisements.

When asked if the company would consider seeking damages from food regulators on the back of Bombay High Court judgement, Narayanan remained non-committal said the company’s focus would be to bring back Maggi as soon as possible, look ahead and move on while working together with authorities. The Consumer Affairs Ministry has filed a class action suit against Nestle India seeking about Rs 640 crore in damages for alleged unfair trade practices, false labeling and misleading advertisements.

It was for the first time that the ministry dragged a company to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) using a provision in the nearly three-decade-old Consumer Protection Act.

Narayanan said the company was confident of defending itself as it has done in the Bombay High Court, which lifted the ban imposed by food regulators on Maggi noodles while ordering a fresh test of samples in three independent laboratories across India.

Nestle India had reported a standalone loss of Rs 64.40 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, its first quarterly loss in over three decades. It had posted a net profit of Rs 287.86 crore during the April-June quarter of FY 2014-15.

On questions raised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) that why did Nestle destroy Maggi if it was safe and not export it, he said: “There was some confusion in the mind of consumers. We took a call that consumer trust is most important for us, we will withdraw everything. Once you withdraw what do you do do? Either you change the packaging and put it back in the market or you destroy it.”

He said a lot of consumers at some stage had started asking the question about monosodium glutamate (MSG) as to whether it is an added chemical or does it occur naturally.

“We explained that glutamic acid naturally exists in a lot of food products. We don’t add it as a chemical or additive,” he said. The company had removed ‘no added MSG’ label from its packs when the controversy broke out in June.

On allegations of difference in Maggi’s export and domestic consumption quality, Narayanan said: “Difference in exported product and Indian product is only of packaging. It is very difficult to export (Maggi meant for consumption in India) as the packaging is different in every country.”

Narayanan had earlier stated that Nestle India would consider introducing new products, including those under the Maggi brand, while looking to drive growth of other categories with increased advertising spending, as it looks to overcome the setback from the ban on its flagship instant noodles.

In June, the FSSAI had banned Maggi noodles saying it was “unsafe and hazardous” for consumption after finding lead levels beyond permissible limits. The company had withdrawn the instant noodles from the market.

(PTI)

DRDO ties up with Ramdev to market supplements, food products

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DRDO-Ramdev

Leh: India’s premier defence research organisation DRDO has now roped in yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda Limited to manufacture and market in the country and abroad some herbal supplements and food products developed by it.

DRDO today entered into licensing agreements with Ramdev’s company for transfer of Seabuckthorn technology based products developed by Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR).

The technology has been transferred under the DRDO FICCI ATAC (Accelerated Technology Assessment & Commercialisation) programme that has been established to identify spin-off technologies for commercial markets within India and abroad, with a special focus on social benefit technologies, an official statement said.

DIHAR, a frontier laboratory of DRDO which is located in Leh with detachments in the strategic Siachen sector has pioneered cold arid-agro animal technologies for augmenting local availability of fresh food in the region.

The laboratory, through its translational laboratory to land approach, develops technologies for fresh food cultivation, poultry, goat and dairy farming and green house cultivation which are disseminated to the local farmers.

Speaking on the occasion, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said seabuckthorn is a unique product. “Apart from what has been commercialised, there are many more applications which Patanjali Ayurveda could explore to exploit the full potential of Seabuckthorn,” he said.

Parrikar wanted Patanjali Ayurveda to bring many more health products to exploit the full potential of the technologies beyond what DIHAR has found out.

He added that DRDO in collaboration with FICCI under DRDO FICCI ATAC programme is striving to commercialise more and more spin off technologies for the benefit of society at large.

DRDO Chief S Cristopher mentioned that DIHAR has been relentlessly working for development of products which in addition to their usefulness for Armed Forces has tremendous commercial potential in India and abroad.

“The benefits of the research done by DIHAR will help the local population to derive the economic benefits,” he said.

While giving an overview, Bhuvnesh Kumar, Director, DIHAR said that the farmers adopt the technologies developed by his scientists and sell their produce to the army.

“This unique approach not only results in local availability of fresh food but also results in socio-economic development of Ladakh and stronger civil-military cooperation in this strategically important region,” the statement quoted him as saying.

(PTI)

Sensex crashes over 1,200 points; investors lose over Rs 3 lakh cr

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Sensex

Mumbai: In a stock market bloodbath, benchmark Sensex today crashed over 1,200 points — biggest in over seven years — amid a global rout, while more than Rs 3 lakh crore got wiped out of the investors’ wealth.

The BSE 30-share index was trading 1,205.7 points down at 26,160.37, while the broader Nifty index of NSE was down 353.35 points at 7,946.60.

The overall investors’ wealth, measured in terms of total valuation of all listed stocks, was also down nearly Rs 3.5 lakh crore as it crashed below Rs 100-lakh crore mark and stood at Rs 97,64,237 crore in early afternoon trade.

The loss suffered by the 10 biggest companies in terms of market capitalisation was itself close to Rs 2 lakh crore.

This is the biggest crash in seven and a half years and the third biggest ever for the BSE benchmark index.

Interestingly, eight out of the top-10 intra-day falls took place in the year 2008. Today’s fall is biggest since January 21, 2008 when the Sensex crashed by 2,062.2 points.

The market was witnessing all-round heavy selling across realty, power, oil&gas, bankex, auto, metal, capital goods and IT sectors.

The 50-unit Nifty fell below the psychological 8,000-mark, while Sensex was seen moving close to 26,000.

(PTI)

India has proof of Dawood Ibrahim living in Pakistan: Report

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dawood

New Delhi: The Indian Intelligence Agencies have found proof that India’s most wanted terrorist, Dawood Ibrahim is still residing in Pakistan.

The media reports that Intelligence agencies have found a telephone bill registered in the name of Mehjabeen Shaikh, wife of Dawood and that the family has been residing in Karachi’s Clifton Road. The Pakistan government however has been repeatedly rejecting reports that Dawood is taking shelter in the country. A recent picture of the 59-year-old terrorist too has been published.

The issue will be raised during the NSA talks, which are scheduled to be held on Sunday as to determine Pakistan’s role in sheltering a terrorist wanted by India in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts that killed 257 people.

A red corner notice has been issued against Dawood.

(Agencies)

Deadly blast hits Afghan capital Kabul

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At least three people killed and 18 wounded in blast near US embassy and ISAF headquarters.

Kabul

by Al Jazeera

An explosion in the diplomatic district of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul has killed three people and wounded 18, according to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health.

The blast took place near the US embassy and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters, witnesses said.

There was no immediate confirmation of what caused the blast on Saturday afternoon, but Afghan users on Twitter said alarms could be heard ringing in the area.

There have been a number of attacks in the city within the past month.

At least four people were killed at Kabul airport on August 10 and dozens of civilians were killed in multiple suicide attacks a week earlier.

NSA talks must focus only on terror, Sushma Swaraj tells Pakistan

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sushma-swaraj

New Delhi: The talks between the national security advisers of India and Pakistan must focus only on terrorism, said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today.

The minister quoted the Ufa statement and said the talks between the two NSAs had to be only on terrorism.

“Keeping in mind the spirit of Ufa, don’t make Hurriyat a third party to the talks, and don’t expand the subject of talks beyond terrorism,” the minister said.

“Come and talk on terror, you are welcome,” she added.

Pakistan’s NSA Sartaj Aziz is to meet Indian NSA Ajit Doval for talks on Aug 23-24.

Sushma Swaraj said that the talks would be held only on the issue of terrorism and not Kashmir, as decided in Ufa, Russia.

(Agencies)

Thousands stuck in limbo at Macedonia border bottleneck

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Rain-soaked refugees brave elements in no man’s land as Macedonian police continue to block border crossing from Greece.

A Syrian refugee woman cries on her husbands arms as they wait to cross into Macedonia at the Greek-Macedonian border [Reuters]

A Syrian refugee woman cries on her husbands arms as they wait to cross into Macedonia at the Greek-Macedonian border [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Thousands of rain-soaked refugees remain trapped in a no man’s land between Greece and Macedonia as Macedonian police continue to block the frontier, preventing them from heading north to other nations within the European Union.

Police let small groups of families with children cross the border overnight on Friday by walking to a railway station in the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, where most take trains to the border with Serbia before heading towards EU-member Hungary.

Those who could not cross, including many women and children, spent the rainy and chilly night in the open, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Idomeni on the Greek side of the border, said people were continuing to arrive at the border crossing, where a “bottleneck” had formed on Saturday morning.

“This is now a bottleneck of people, there are hundreds, thousands even, and they’ll keep coming throughout the day,” he said.

Our correspondent said large numbers of Syrians had moved back from the point of crossing to separate themselves from other nationalities.

“They want to separate themselves from the other nationalities; the Pakistanis, the Afghans, the Iraqis…what they say is that all these other nationalities claim to be Syrians as well, because it is the Syrians who have the most valid claim to asylum.

“They are refugees, they are fleeing civil war. Many of the others, they say, are economic migrants.”

Violent clashes

Police fired stun grenades and clashed with the migrants who tried to rush over the border on Friday, a day after Macedonia’s government declared a state of emergency on the frontier to deal with the issue.

Ivo Kotevsky, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told Al Jazeera that the officers had not used violence against the refugees but had been forced to take measures to protect themselves and the border.

Kotevsky said Macedonia was trying to do its best in protecting the refugees, who had been “practically expelled from Greece”.

The refugees hope that by crossing to Macedonia they would be able to take trains through Serbia to Hungary, an EU member, which has begun erecting a fence to try to keep the distraught refugees out.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) urged the Macedonian government to do more, saying it should allocate a site to accommodate people fleeing war.

UNHCR spokesman Petros Mastakas told Al Jazeera that the refugees included “hundreds of vulnerable persons, children, babies and those with extreme vulnerabilities including medical needs.

“Most of them stay rough in the open air,” he said.

Sri Lanka bowled out for 306 in reply to India’s 393

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Sri-Lanka

Colombo: Hosts Sri Lanka were bowled out for 306 runs in their first innings against India in the post-tea session of the third day in the second cricket Test at the P. Sara Oval ground here on Saturday.

They thus conceded a lead of 87 runs to the visitors who scored 393 in their first innings.

Sri Lanka were at 298/7 at tea. Middle-order bat Jehan Mubarak (22), tail-enders Rangana Herath (1) and Tharindu Kaushal (6) were the last three wickets that fell.

For India leg-spinner Amit Mishra pocketed figures of 4-43, while fast bowler Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin picked two wickets each.

(IANS)

Separatist leader Shabir Shah detained at Delhi airport

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Shabir-Shah

New Delhi: In a new twist ahead of Indo-Pak NSA-level talks, Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah, was today detained on arrival at the Delhi airport and will not be allowed to meet Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz here tomorrow.

As soon as he deplaned, central security agencies along with Delhi Police asked him about the place where he would be staying in Delhi and later drove him there.

The separatist leaders were told that “restrictions have been imposed on their movement in the national capital” ahead of talks between Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, official sources said.

Shah along with two other separatist leaders Mohammed Abdullah Tari and Zamir Ahmed Sheikh will stay in a south Delhi guest house and the trio will remain confined to that place only.

His associate Zamir told PTI that they were being taken to the guest house which they had booked and the officers politely told Shah that the team was free to go back to Srinagar.

While leaving Srinagar, Shah had said the he would like to meet Aziz. “Today we are going to ask the people of India whether former Indian Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, their leader L K Advani or Manmohan Singh were wrong. During their tenure, they never blocked us from meeting Pakistani officials when they came to India…

“Kashmir is an important issue…Pakistan’s stand is clear. They are saying that they will come for talks and present whatever they want to say. India can also put forward its argument but Kashmir issue must be included,” he insisted.

Shah, who parted ways with moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference last year and formed a separate unit, was yesterday placed under house arrest and not allowed to go for Friday prayers.

The top separatist leaders have received an invite from Pakistan High Commission in Delhi for a reception being hosted for Aziz, who is scheduled to arrive in Delhi tomorrow afternoon to hold talks with Doval on Monday.

The Pakistan High Commission’s invitation to hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other separatist leaders to meet Aziz has upset New Delhi but Pakistan has stuck to the line that such meetings were “routine”.

(Agencies)

Polling underway in BBMP polls; Only 11% voters turn up till noon

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BBMP poll

Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) election, to elect a new council of corporators to govern the City for the next five years, is underway.

According to media reports, only 11% of voters have turned up to cast their vote till noon. Around 7,33,645 denizens have cast their vote so far, as per reports.

Till 9:30 am, only 4.5 percent of voters had turned up for casting their vote.

Voting has been delayed at several wards due to malfunctioning of the EVMs. The polling, which started at 7 am, will go on till 5 pm today.

As many as 197 corporators of the total 198 to represent that many wards, need to be elected. A BJP nominee has already been declared elected unopposed from Hongasandra ward. There are 1,120 contestants in the fray. In all, 17 parties have fielded 721 candidates and the remaining 399 are contesting as Independents.

It is to be seen whether the citizens will come out and vote in large numbers in this election. Voter turnout in the last election held in 2010 was just 44 per cent. The total electorate is 73.88 lakh.

The Congress party, which is holding the reins of the State had fielded candidates in all the wards. However, nomination of one of the candidates was rejected helping the BJP to win unopposed. The BJP, which was in power in the BBMP council for the last five years, have fielded candidates for all the wards. The JD(S) has not fielded candidates for 10 wards.

Electronic voting machines will be in use. Voters should be enrolled in the electoral rolls and produce any of the 22 government-issued cards at polling booths as identity proof to vote. Voter identity cards, known as EPIC, is not mandatory.

BBMP officials on poll duty and political parties have distributed voter slip indicating the polling booth of the individual voter in each ward.
Even those who have not received the slip may vote, provided they produce the government approved ID cards.

The indelible ink mark, also known as voter’s ink, will be marked on the left thumb.

If repolling is necessitated, it would be held on August 24 from 7 am to 5 pm. The counting of votes would be from 8 am on August 25.

Post 1990, the party in power in the state, had held the reins of administration in the Palike as well. It remains to be seen whether the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government would create history again. So far the Palike has not seen coalition governance. For Siddaramaiah, the stakes are high in these elections. He has been fighting to shed his ‘anti-Bengaluru’ image. He had become the face and voice of the party during the campaign.

In case of the BJP, MLA R Ashoka played a key role in selection of candidates. Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy was the lone key campaigner for the JD(S).

(Agencies)

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