The BJP-Congress spat over bad loans of banks continued on Friday with former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram blaming the government’s “heavy-handed” approach to the NPA problem for the sharp decline in export credit.

He said despite government’s claims of taking steps to boost exports, the export credit had declined sharply to Rs 22,300 crore in June from Rs 39,000 crore in the same month in 2017.

“Export credit declined from Rs 39,000 crore in June 2017 to Rs 22,300 crore in June 2018. Yet government claims that it is taking steps to boost exports,” Chidambaram tweeted.

“Thanks to the NDA government’s heavy-handed approach to the NPA problem, banks have no money to lend and bankers have no mind to lend,” he added.

“In a climate of suspicion and vendetta, the only thing a banker looks forward to is the date of retirement.”

A day after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley blamed the UPA government in his blog for the non-performing assets (NPA) crisis, Chidambaram said for the Bharatiya Janata Party government, every problem was due to the Congress “legacy”.

“For the BJP government, its bloggers and bhakths, every problem is a ‘legacy’ issue. Wish to remind them that lifting 27.1 crore people out of poverty is also a ‘legacy’ issue,” the Congress leader said.

Referring to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), he said that 27.1 crore people in India were lifted out of poverty in the 10 years between 2005-06 and 2015-16.

“Of those 10 years, the UPA was in the government for eight years.”

Chidambaram’s remarks came a day after Jaitley said all bad loans were given prior to 2014 when the United Progressive Alliance government was in power and that it took no effective steps to recover or reduce the NPAs.

(IANS)

Breaking the ice in ties, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will meet her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session that begins later this month — the first such high-level interaction between the neighbours after three years.

“I can confirm that on the request from the Pakistani side a meeting between the two foreign ministers will take place on the sidelines of the UNGA at a mutually convenient date and time.

“We have just agreed to the meeting. The Permanent Missions of both India and Pakistan will together work out the details. Till then, what will be discussed in the meeting, we will have to wait till the meeting takes place,” External Affairs Ministry (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the weekly media briefing here.

Replying to questions, Kumar suggested that the coming meeting was not resumption of the dialogue process.

This follows a letter written by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking resumption of dialogue and suggesting a meeting between the two foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UNGA, and a letter written by Qureshi to Sushma Swaraj.

When pressed further, Kumar said this is just a meeting and there is nothing much to be read into this at this stage.

Kumar also revealed that India has confirmed that it would attend a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) foreign ministers.

“The existing policy on the Saarc process will continue. I don’t think there is any change in it,” said the MEA spokesperson.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had met the then Pakistan’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad in 2015 and two decided to resume the comprehensive dialogue process.

This was followed by an unscheduled visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lahore on the Christmas Day. But the bilateral ties took a severe beating after the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase on January 2, 2016.

Asked whether the foreign ministers meeting in New York is the beginning of a dialogue process, he merely repeated that they requested for a meeting and we have not discussed details.

On reports of brutality on a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan who was killed in firing from the Pakistani side, he said it was a barbaric incident and the BSF has written a strong communication to its counterparts in Pakistan.

“It is a serious issue and we will take it up Pakistan.”

(IANS)

India successfully test fired the surface-to-surface short-range tactical ballistic missile Prahaar from the Odisha coast amid a heavy downpour on Thursday.

The missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was test fired from launching complex-III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Balasore at about 1.35 p.m.

The missile was launched from a road-mobile launcher, defence sources said.

The Prahaar missile has a strike range of 150 km. Fuelled by solid propellant, it is about 7.32 meters long and its diameter is 420 mm. Its launch weight is about 1.28 tonne and it can carry a payload of 200 kg.

Prior to the launch of the missile, people from hamlets in close proximity of ITR were shifted to temporary shelters.

(IANS)

San Francisco, (IANS) Google is expanding its advanced location tracking feature for Android called “Emergency Location Service (ELS)” to the US.

Launched in 2016 and is currently available in 14 countries (excluding India), ELS provides accurate locations both indoors and outdoors by using a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile networks and sensors.

“Google is deploying ELS in the US, including the Virgin Islands, in partnership with emergency technology company RapidSOS and wireless service providers T-Mobile and West,” Jen Chai, Product Manager, Android, Google wrote in a blog-post late on Wednesday.

“Wireless providers like T-Mobile have existing ways to share emergency locations with emergency centers, but this integration with ELS will help deliver higher accuracy locations faster than before,” Chai wrote.

Since the launch of ELS around the world, the most observed impact of the feature has been in critical, emergency situations by shortening emergency response times.

“You don’t need to install a separate app, update your OS, or have special hardware to benefit from more accurate location. The location is computed on the device and delivered directly to emergency providers only when you explicitly call an emergency number,” Chai added.

The location tracking service is compatible with Android version 4.0 and above.

[ians]

At least 30 passengers on a Jet Airways Mumbai-Jaipur flight suffered ear and nose bleeding due to low cabin pressure during the ascent here on Thursday, an official said.

The flight 9W-697 with 166 passengers and five crew, was forced to return back to Mumbai shortly after take-off, said a Jet Airways spokesperson.

Several passengers complained of severe headaches and at least 30 reported bleeding from nose and ears and were immediately administered first-aid by a team of doctors at the airport.

Airline sources said that the incident may have happened after the crew reportedly missed activating what is called a ‘bleed switch’ before take-off, leading to the disturbance in the cabin pressure with oxygen masks getting deployed.

The Jet Airways said it has taken the concerned crew off-duty pending a probe into the incident. An investigation by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was also launched.

(IANS)

The government has appointed Managing Directors and Chief Executives of 10 public sector banks (PSBs) including the Indian Bank and the Syndicate Bank, said an official on Wednesday.

According to the Department of Personnel and Training, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the 10 appointments following proposals from the Department of Financial Services, under the Union Ministry of Finance.

Among those appointed are Padmaja Chundru, Deputy Managing Director, State Bank of India, as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer in the Indian Bank, while another Deputy MD of SBI Mrutyunjay Mahapatra has been appointed as MD and CEO of the Syndicate Bank.

As per an information note issued on Wednesday, SBI Deputy MD Pallav Mohapatra has been appointed as MD and CEO of the Central Bank of India.

“Necessary communication in this regard has been sent to the Department of Financial Services,” the note read.

(IANS)

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)

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)

The State government, on Monday, September 17, lowered the price of petrol and diesel by Rs. 2. Three other states, namely Rajasthan, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, have already cut state taxes on fuel.

The CMO sources have said that on Sunday, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had a meeting arranged with the Finance department to lower the fuel price by a decrease in the tax rates.

CM HDK has passed an order to the Finance department to find solutions in accumulating resources and taxes, which needs to be submitted by September 17.

On the same grounds, in the state budget that was announced on July 5, HDK had raised the tax percentage on petrol from 30 to 32 per cent and on diesel from 19 to 21 per cent. By this, the petrol rates were increased by Rs. 1.14 and diesel Rs. 1.12.

Two days ago, CM Kumaraswamy had a meet with the Excise, Transport, Mining and Geology, and Registration and Stamps departments to inspect on the developments. Each department has exceeded the goals set by the government in terms of tax collection. The Finance department has said that the treasury of the state government is stable and there should not be any shortcomings in farmers loan waive off as well as other government initiatives.

The department also said that this had become the reason for the CM to lower the taxation on the fuel price.

The CM had hinted at lowering the tax rates during his visit to Delhi recently.

Recently, petrol and diesel rates reached the mark of Rs. 84 and Rs. 73 respectively. The rates saw a sharp increase in spite of the ‘Bharath Bandh’ called by the Congress-led opposition.

(PTI)

Automation arrived long back in India and the country is now driving Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies globally — even ahead of the US and Japan — a new study said on Tuesday.

According to “Augmented Human Enterprise” — an academic study conducted by Goldsmiths (University of London) and enterprise software provider Automation Anywhere — 71 per cent of Indian respondents said their employees used RPA and AI-based augmentation to its full potential — the highest proportion for any of the four markets surveyed.

While 66 per cent Indians said that they are empowered to take risks, 77 per cent said that their organisation prioritised employee development.

India also outscored other markets on employee engagement and (with an impressive 84 per cent) on employee listening.

“Think of the human body breathing. It’s a complex and critical mechanism but automated so our brains are freed to power everything else we do. I think for many organisations, all they can do is ‘breathe.’ It’s so important, it’s all the employees can focus on,” said Mihir Shukla, CEO at Automation Anywhere.

When that breathing is automated within the organisation, then employees can focus on so many creative and strategic issues and opportunities.

“It’s perhaps why this unique research shows that augmented organisations outperform non-augmented enterprises and have more ‘human’ workplaces,” Shukla added.

For the study, the research team surveyed senior business leaders from major enterprises in India, the UK, the US and Japan.

The team also interviewed leading automation and AI subject-matter experts, including technologists, CEOs, scientists and engineers.

They found that in global augmented workplaces, workers are 38 per cent more engaged than those in non-augmented workplaces.

Nearly 70 per cent of respondents said augmentation had improved the well being of their team while 80 per cent of those using AI and 78 per cent using RPA said it frees employees from repetitive work.

“While the hyped potential of AI generates endless headlines, technologies such as RPA are quietly being rolled out in many of the most productive companies around the world — humans and bots are already working alongside each other across the globe and in every sector,” informed Dr Chris Brauer, Director of Innovation in the Institute of Management Studies (IMS) at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The team highlighted that automation must be used to enhance employee skills and complement their working styles to derive the maximum benefit.

“India leads the way in reaping the benefits of augmentation, with 86 per cent of the respondents saying that automation has increased employee productivity,” said the study.

(IANS)