India Narrative

  It is that time of the year again—when the weather is pleasant but the city is polluted. Air quality has shown a massive decline as farmers in Delhi’s neighboring states burn rice stalks after harvest. Increasing pollution also brings along action and a change in government policies. As these come at the last minute, many do not resonate either with ground realities or with public interest. In the last fortnight, India’s capital city was treated to a bizarre act of plantation and a proposed policy change that set off a fiery debate. First the action—the Delhi forest department decided to plant saplings in the Central Ridge. To set this benign task in motion, it cleared off the existing greenery by using earth-moving equipment and then planted the saplings. In simple words, the department decided to clear a forest in order to grow a forest. The area looks perceptibly less green. The new plants, if they survive, will need at least two to three years of care and protection. And, til...

  To further improve the state’s investment climate and generate employment, the Punjab Cabinet on Sunday approved the conversion of the Factories (Punjab Amendment) Ordinance 2020 into a Bill to be tabled for enactment of law in the Vidhan Sabha on Monday. The approval came during a virtual meeting of the Council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The Bill provides for changing the existing threshold limit for small units. The change has been necessitated by the increase in manufacturing activity by small units in the state, and is aimed at promoting small manufacturing units. This would help create more employment opportunities for workers, according to an official spokesperson. Further, in view of the absence of any provision in the existing law for compounding of offences for violations found at the time of inspection of factories by an Inspector, the Bill will also incorporate Section 106-B in the proposed Act. This will facilitate faster settlement of cas...

  Non-performing assets (NPA) of a bank weakens the monetary policy transmission and loan growth rate, said a recent working paper prepared by the staff members of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The paper titled, ‘Bank Capital and Monetary Policy Transmission in India’ shows the requirement of bank capital regulation in India. The study finds evidence on the existence of the bank capital channel of monetary policy transmission for India. It said that that there is a positive association between bank equity and credit growth. “This finding calls for the need for countercyclical capital buffer for the Indian banks to protect their balance sheet against losses from changes in economic conditions during the recessionary phase,” it said. The paper mentioned that the views expressed are those of authors and not that of RBI. The study revealed that banks with higher Capital-to-Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio (CRAR) face a lower cost of funds. The pro-cyclical nature of leverage shows that...

  A senior UN official has claimed that Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has maintained close ties with the Afghan Taliban despite the latters assurance to the US to cut ties with the group. “Senior figures remain in Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of armed operatives,” TOLO News reported on Saturday citing Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the US monitoring team for IS, Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as saying at a webinar. According to Fitton-Brown, the Taliban consulted the Al Qaeda on a regular basis during the peace negotiations with the US. But in a message to TOLO News, the Taliban rejected the UN official’s claims, saying certain intelligence groups were trying to disrupt peace in Afghanistan. Under the US-Taliban peace agreement signed between the two in Doha on February 29, the Taliban committed to halt all kinds of ties with terrorist organisations including Al Qaeda.

Taiwan has launched its “new southbound policy,” which is looking at setting up large scale production bases in India, in tune with a surge in the New Delhi-Taipei engagement. India and Taiwan, a global hi-tech heavyweight, are rediscovering each other after China threatened the two with war.  India’s tighter ideological bonds with fellow democracies and its sharper strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific region, following the Covid-19 pandemic, is adding fresh ballast to growing New Delhi-Taipei ties. With the government’s New Southbound Policy, India is a good place for Taiwanese businesses to build production bases, given its democracy, ample human resources and strategically important location, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister Tien Chung-kwang said on Friday as quoted by Taipei Times. Resentment over China has been rising in India, not just because of a decades-long border conflict, but also because of China’s aggressive expansion in South Asia, its bullying of other countries and...

The Central government’s ambitious ‘ Aatmanirbhar Bharat ’ (self-reliant) programme faces a major hurdle in the form of non-cooperation from banks in granting loans for small manufacturing units under the flagship scheme Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP). The Khadi and Village Industries Commission, the implementing agency, has received a flurry of such complaints from prospective entrepreneurs alleging inaction or non-cooperation from banks on their loan applications. Following the complaints, KVIC Chairman Vinai Saxena has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying “such apathy by the banks could derail Centre’s efforts to create sustainable employment in the country”. Saxena’s comments came after Sunaina Mathur, Proprietor of Shiva Udyog in Jaipur, Rajasthan, wrote to him on October 7 highlighting the apathy of bank officials in providing short term working capital loan of Rs 50 lakh to her unit despite of a confirmed order from the government with a gu...

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern on her resounding victory for a second term in office. “My heartiest congratulations to the PM of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, on her resounding victory. Recall our last meet a year ago and look forward to working together for taking India-New Zealand relationship to a higher level,” Modi said in a tweet. Ardern has served as the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party since 2017. New Zealand voted to award Ardern a second term in office on Saturday. Ardern’s liberal Labour Party won a historic mandate by securing 49 per cent of the vote in comparison to the 27 per cent bagged by its primary challenger, the conservative National Party. In fact, this is the first time since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago that a single party (Labour) won an outright majority of seats in Parliament. Ardern was voted to the top job in 2017 when her La...

Within six to seven months, India has become a major manufacturer of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and even started catering to the global demand, a report said and suggested that India holds the potential to become a global hub for PPE kits. The report by the Institute of Competitiveness points out that though India has achieved self-sufficiency in terms of localised manufacturers and production of PPE coveralls, PPE fabric and seam tapes, it still relied on imports for procuring a critical component like seam-sealing equipment. In order to have complete control over the end-to-end manufacturing value chains for essential medical supplies and to become a fully capable manufacturer of highest quality PPE kits and other essential medical supplies, India needs to indigenise the production of critical equipment and machineries for essential medical supplies as well, it said. The report, however, noted that there is still room for improvement in terms of quality, and research a...

The Reserve Bank of India ’s framework for loan recast or stress resolution for the Covid-19 related stress which allows banks to restructure loans of real estate companies at the project level comes as a major relief for developers who have been hit amid the pandemic and their specific projects have come to a halt due to liquidity crunch. According to Anuj Puri, Chairman of Anarock Property Consultants, the RBI’s move to permit banks for restructuring of loans of real estate companies at the project level rather than the entity level is “indeed a good move”. “It will help restart projects which have been stuck due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Both buyers and developers will stand to gain when stuck projects will eventually see the light of the day,” he said. He noted that from a buyers’ standpoint, they will no longer have to wait for an indefinite period for their homes. As for developers, they will get the requisite liquidity to eventually complete their projects. Overall...

  The Air Quality Index (AQI) of Dhaka, one of the most polluted cities in the world, was on Sunday ranked as the worst in the world. In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five pollutants: Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone, The Daily Star newspaper reported. At 10,24 a.m. on Sunday, Dhaka had an AQI reading of 188 and the air was classified as “unhealthy”. Pakistan’s Lahore and India’s New Delhi occupied the second and third spots on the list with scores of 178 and 176 respectively. The AQI, an index for reporting the daily air quality, informs people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is and what associated health effects might be a concern for them. According to an IQAir AirVisual report, Bangladesh topped the list of the world’s most polluted countries in 2019 for PM2.5 exposure.

US President Donald Trump has wished Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris “the best” and hoped that she was “in good shape” after an aide and a flight crew member involved in his rival Joe Bidens presidential campaign tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the media reported. The President made the remarks while addressing supporters at re-election rally in Muskegon, Michigan, on Saturday evening, The Hill news website reported. “I hope she’s in good shape, because a number of people in her group have caught Covid-19, so we all wish her best. “Do we all wish her best? Yes, we do. We hope she’s doing well,” he added. Following the positive cases, Harris had suspended her campaign travel as a precaution. The California Senator and her husband underwent Covid-19 tests and the couple was declared negative. In an announcement on Saturday, the Biden campaign announced that Harris will return to the campaign trail on Monday with trips planned to Orlando and Jacksonville, Fl...

  One fine April morning, during the lockdown, I was awakened by cheerful, mellifluous calls. When I came out of my room, I saw a red-whiskered bulbul perched on a tree outside my house trying to woo a female nearby. After some time, I saw them indulging in theatrics together. He was a slim, lissome bird, a little smaller than a mynah, umber brown above, off-white below, with red tufts on white cheeks matched with a red bottom. He sports a jaunty, forward pointing crest and has a ‘chinstrap’ which seems to hold it in place and which makes him look like a cheerful guardsman. This was the red-whiskered bulbul. It’s quite common elsewhere too, along with its cousin, the red vented bulbul. This cute guy gets his name from the red ‘cheeks’ that are prominent on the face, and the red vent. After few days, I saw another pair but this was different. This pair of red-vented bulbuls was happily nibbling at small berries. In contrast to the red-whiskered bulbul, the red-vented bulbul ha...

  Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested the former managing director (MD) of Pakistan Interna­t­ional Air­lines (PIA) on charges of “illegal” hiring, officials said. On Saturday, the FIA’s Corporate Cri­me Circle, Karachi arrested former PIA MD Aijaz Haroon and also former Human Resource director Moham­mad Haneef Pathan, Dawn news reported. In a statement, FIA Deputy Director Abdur Rauf Shaikh said the agency had registered an FIR against the two on charges of the illegal appointment of Salim Sayani, a Pakistani-American, as Deputy Managing Director in 2009 in “clear violation of PIA HR rules”. The FIA officer said that Sayani, who is also been booked in the casem had been appointed on a monthly salary of $20,000 along with other perks and privileges that caused huge loss to the national exchequer. Sharing details of the perks and privileges, the officer said apart from the salary in US dollars, he was allowed to stay at a five-star hotel for three months and ...

  India successfully test fires Brahmos supersonic cruise missile from Indian Navy’s stealth destroyer on Sunday. “Brahmos, the supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired today on 18th October 2020 from Indian Navy’s indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai, hitting a target in the Arabian Sea,” the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said in a statement. The missile hit the target successfully with pin-point accuracy after performing high-level and extremely complex manoeuvres. Brahmos as ‘prime strike weapon’ will ensure the warship’s invincibility by engaging naval surface targets at long ranges, thus making the destroyer another lethal platform of Indian Navy. The highly versatile Brahmos has been jointly designed, developed and produced by India and Russia. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO, BrahMos and Indian Navy for the successful launch. Chairman DRDO G. Satheesh Reddy, congratulated the scientists and all personnel of D...

  This week Delhi-NCR saw the reopening of the cinema after a long gap of seven months due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Although the first day witnessed a lean audience, the theatre management and staff were happy to get back on the job. As no new major Bollywood release is expected until the halls across the country get open, this is an opportunity for small-budget movies and local movies. So, theatre owners are also screening films as per the demands of local audiences. In Kolkata, for instance, Ebha Golpo Hok, a Bengali movie, was released this weekend. Similarly in Delhi, the Remo awards 2019 winner movie,  The pickup Artist , was released in a few selected theatres. Simran Sethi (Photo: Indianarrative.com/Deexa Khanduri) IndiaNarrative.com visited PVR Vikaspuri where we saw a newly married couple and students others among the first to visit the cinema hall on the day of reopening. Simran Sethi, a widow in her mid-fifties, told IndiaNarrative.com after watching the...

An assistant sub-inspector of central reserve police force (CRPF) was injured on Sunday in a grenade attack by militant in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Police said militants hurled the grenade at the CRPF posse in Tral town. “An assistant sub-inspector of CRPF was injured in the grenade attack. He has been shifted to hospital for treatment. The area has been cordoned off for searches,” police said.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut to mark the first anniversary of the protests against the Lebanese government and the current ruling class. On Saturday, the participants waved the Lebanese flag and chanted slogans against the ruling political class which, according to the demonstrators, adopted policies that led to the economic collapse and an alarming public debt of over $90 billion, reports Xinhua news agency. The protesters demanded the overhaul of the country’s entire political system and the formation of an independent government capable of implementing structural reforms to save the country from further deterioration. Lebanon is going through its worst economic and financial crisis in its history. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic and the August 4 Port of Beirut explosions have exacerbated the economic situation, driving thousands of companies out of business while leaving thousands of people unemployed. Figures released by the World Bank showed that over...

Strong foreign fund inflows for domestic equity as well as bond markets are expected to strengthen the Indian rupee in the short run. “Rupee has been in a tight range lately. In the previous week, the RBI bought US dollars worth approximately $6 billon to stem the rupee’s appreciation,” Sajal Gupta, Head, Forex and Rates, Edelweiss Securities, told IANS. “It is a matter of time that RBI’s interventions weaken to allow rupee appreciation,” he added. Gupta expects rupee to range between 73 and 73.50 with a risk of appreciation. However, the upcoming US elections along with likely Brexit talks and heightened lockdown measures in Europe might dampen sentiments. “With event risks like Brexit and US elections on the horizon, volatility is going to be on the cards,” said Rahul Gupta, Head of Research-Currency, at Emkay Global Financial Services. “The USDINR ATM volatility has already shifted close to 7 per cent from the 6 per cent observed last month. Also, the negative risk sentiments are us...

The beheading of a teacher in Paris by a jihadist is the nth reminder to the entire Muslim community that there is an urgent need for them to introspect and attune their faith to the imperatives of modernism. Also, it is a warning to the intellectual class that their phony doctrines of multiculturalism and Islamophobia are doing more harm than good to Muslim society in particular and human civilization in general. “The victim is said to have shown controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his pupils. The attacker was shot dead by police,”  BBC reported  . “The knife-wielding attacker was shot as officers tried to arrest him in the aftermath of the attack. Police have not released any personal details about him, although French media report he was an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin who was born in Moscow,” the report said. French President Emmanuel Macron has correctly and categorically termed the decapitation “Islamist terrorist attack.” He said, “One of our fellow ...

Amid rising reports of sexual and brutal offences against women everyday, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to further ramp up efforts to ensure their safety and security with the creation of a special women police unit that will be operational round the clock. The new women patrolling force called ‘Pink-Patrol’ is a part of the Mission Shakti campaign launched to mark the beginning of Navratri. Approximately 250 women police personnel have been deployed in the ‘Pink Patrol’ after going through a rigorous training. The Yogi Adityanath government is looking forward to set up the ‘Pink Patrol’ Scheme in other districts of Uttar Pradesh namely Kanpur, Agra, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Meerut, Noida, Ghaziabad and Moradabad. In the first phase of this program, around 100 Scooty and 10 SUV’s have been put into service in the State. The ‘Pink- Patrol’ is designed to take immediate action on the cases of molestation and crime against women. Under the Safe City plan the ‘Pink Patro...