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, till th

  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 cases a

  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 ban

  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 its

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 Labour

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.