Ladakh: Civilian traffic, phone network suspended

Srinagar: The Srinagar-Leh highway was closed for civilian movement on Monday following fresh tensions between India and China in eastern Ladakh. Civilian traffic resumed later in the evening to facilitate those stranded in Sonamarg, Ganderbal and Srinagar to reach their destination. Officials in Srinagar said that an Army convoy comprising around 300 vehicles were on the highway from Sonamarg, a hill station in Kashmir on the highway connecting Kashmir with Kargil. Mobile network has been suspended in the eastern Ladakh since Sunday afternoon, when heavy movement of troops was first reported from Leh towards Chushul and Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley, the major hotspots in the region. “The situation is not normal on the border. We are hearing that clashes have been going on around Black Top mountain in Gurung Hali of Chushul area for some days now. We are hearing that our troops have been injured,” said a resident of Durbuk in eastern Ladakh. The area where fresh tensions was reported was captured by the Chinese army during 1962 war.Another former legislator from Ladakh said that fresh Chinese aggression was also reported from Pangong Tso in the past week. “Locals in the villages near Pangong Tso inform that the Chinese troops have come up to Finger two area and provoked the Indian Army,” he said.In Leh city, where most local politicians are busy with the upcoming council elections, locals reported heavy movement of Army vehicles towards bases in Karu and Durbuk. “We have been told that fresh contingents of the Army are being transported towards Ladakh from Kashmir and other states as well,” said an officer in Srinagar.

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China’s exports surging despite tariffs, corona

By Keith BradsherZHONGSHAN: This was supposed to be the year that China’s export machine began to stall. President Donald Trump had imposed broad tariffs on Chinese goods. Countries like Japan and France pushed companies to shift production from China. The pandemic had crippled China’s factories by the end of January.Instead, China Inc. has come roaring back.After reopening in late February and early March, China’s factories began an export blitz that is still gaining steam. Exports soared in July to their second-highest level ever, nearly matching the record-setting Christmas rush last December. The country has grabbed a much larger share of global markets this summer from other manufacturing nations, entrenching a dominance in trade that could last long after the world begins to recover from the pandemic.China is showing its export machine cannot be stopped — not by the coronavirus and not by the Trump administration. Its resilience lies not only in the country’s low-cost, skilled labor and efficient infrastructure but also in a state-controlled banking system that has been offering small and large businesses extra loans to cope with the pandemic.The pandemic has also found China better placed than other exporting nations. It is making what the world’s hospitals and housebound families need right now: personal protection gear, home improvement products and lots of consumer electronics.At the same time, demand has withered for many big-ticket items exported by the United States and Europe, like Boeing and Airbus jets. And with most economies except China’s now mired in recessions, demand has also faltered for the commodities that most developing countries export, particularly oil.Families all over the world are sprucing up the homes they are now stuck inside. They have been buying everything from computer screens and stereo systems to power tools and home saunas — many of which are made in China.Hongyuan Furniture in the southern city of Guangzhou has hired 50 extra workers after export orders for its home saunas more than doubled this year. A short drive farther south in Zhongshan, Star Rapid has stayed profitable, making robot casings and quickly producing high-tech models — a process known as rapid prototyping. And a few miles to the west, Trueanalog has ruled out moving production of its top-end stereo speakers to the United States, its main market, or to Vietnam, where wages can be even lower.At Trueanalog, rows of workers at long, green tables under fluorescent lights meticulously assemble audio speakers for professional recording studios in the United States. China dominates the world’s production of the components that go into the speakers they are putting together — whether magnets, paper cones or rubber foam.“China has the largest supply chain of the parts you need to make a speaker, and China has the most stable, affordable labor force,” said Philip Richardson, the American owner of Trueanalog.Star Rapid, the prototype maker, has benefited from Chinese loans. Within days of the start of the pandemic, the state-controlled Bank of China called Gordon Styles, the company’s British chief executive and owner, and strongly urged him to take a $1.4 million corporate loan at low interest, which he did even though the company was still profitable. Chinese authorities also granted the company a rapid-fire series of partial rebates on taxes and government-mandated benefit costs that together exceeded 3% of the company’s sales.“They wanted to make sure the good companies, as they measure that, don’t fail for lack of a bit of cash,” he said.The strength of China’s export machine complicates the Trump administration’s push to reduce the trade deficit — the gap between what the United States exports and what it imports. Trump points to the deficit as proof that unfair practices by China have been hurting the United States, and he has campaigned on promises to get tough on China.In January, China promised big increases in its imports from the United States as part of an agreement aimed at ending a protracted and increasingly bruising economic war. But actual purchases have lagged.The agreement left in place most of Trump’s new tariffs, mainly at 25%. Yet those tariffs do not seem to deter many Americans from buying Chinese products, in part because the tariffs are only collected on the wholesale value of products when they reach America’s shores.Hongyuan says it has not yet encountered any new competition from home sauna manufacturers based elsewhere despite facing 25% American tariffs for the past two years. Hongyuan also has access to dozens of suppliers within an hour’s drive that compete vigorously to produce inexpensive glass doors and hinges at the lowest cost.So Hongyuan can afford to import lumber across the Pacific from Canada, saw the wood and polish it and assemble it into home saunas, and then ship the saunas in kits back across the Pacific all for less than it costs to make saunas in the United States. Considerable hand labor is still involved, although Chinese-made automatic saws now take the lumber in one end and put out boards of various shapes and dimensions.“Even with the 25% tariff, the manufacturers in China still have lower costs,” said Rachel Wang, the company’s export manager.Such a cost advantage has helped drive China’s share of world exports to nearly 20% in the April to June quarter this year, up from 12.8% in 2018 and 13.1% last year, said Rajiv Biswas, chief Asia economist at IHS Markit, a global data and consulting firm.Part of that increase is temporary. Some factories elsewhere closed temporarily during the spring because of coronavirus lockdowns or supply chain disruptions linked to the pandemic. China’s own share of global exports dipped somewhat in the January to March quarter, to 11%, as it was battling the virus.But China now appears strong in exports across many sectors, even as the cost of its imports is likely to stay low for months to come. China’s trade surplus — when the value of its exports exceeds that of its imports — has ballooned this summer, especially in July.China’s exports have been helped by the country’s currency, which has remained mysteriously weak even as the economy has emerged from the pandemic with growth stronger than in practically any other nation.China’s currency, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, has strengthened only slightly against the dollar in recent months. It has also weakened 6% against the euro since the start of May, even though Europe faces a severe recession.Foreign economists suspect the Chinese government has used its tight control of the country’s financial system to keep the yuan weak. Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the most likely explanation for the currency’s performance this summer was that state-owned or state-controlled Chinese banks and other financial institutions were shifting some of their immense assets, selling vast sums of yuan and buying dollars or euros to prop up those currencies.The People’s Bank of China has said, including in a statement last week, that it is not manipulating the yuan but has also said it is committed to maintaining a mostly stable value for the currency.China’s advantages go beyond a weak currency, however. China has built a 700-city bullet train network in a decade. It also has an abundance of labor, a culture of long working hours and tightly restricted unions. Manufacturers are not as encumbered by environmental laws against pollution as in many other countries.Robert Gwynne, a shoe manufacturing and exports specialist in Guangdong, said reviving competitiveness in the United States and elsewhere to compete with China would not be quick or easy.“To get it back,” he said, “you’re looking at 20 to 30 years, depending on what business you’re in.”To be sure, China’s dominance of global manufacturing could be hurt by geopolitical shifts, such as if other countries demand that companies move part of their supply chains elsewhere. The United States and Japan have begun to do so. European governments like France’s have started to move in the same direction, particularly for medical supplies. Large companies with the capacity to set up entirely new supply chains elsewhere, like Foxconn of Taiwan and Apple, are exploring alternatives.But the pandemic, which has grounded many flights and slowed logistics, has shielded China at least temporarily from attempts to move factories to other countries. Many multinationals have cut back on investment as global demand has slowed and so have little money to set up new operations elsewhere.“In the middle of a global recession, companies are not going to divest unless trade barriers force them,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China. “Companies would rather close facilities than open up new ones.”

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Indus-Infratel to go ahead with merger; Voda-Idea to sell 11.15% Indus stake for Rs 4,000 crore

Kolkata: Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) has decided to cash out by selling its 11.15 per cent stake in Indus Towers for roughly Rs 4,000 crore even as Bharti Infratel decided to go ahead with the closure of its mega towers merger with Indus.Bharti Infratel said the likely ownership structure of the merged towers entity is based on “cash consideration chosen by VIL for its 11.15 per cent shareholding in Indus -- based on an agreed formula – and on today’s calculation, the cash consideration comes to approximately Rs 4,000 crore”.“The board of directors in its meeting on August 31 took note of the status of scheme of arrangement between Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel and related agreements…after deliberations, the board has decided to authorise the chairman to proceed with the scheme and to comply with other procedural requirements for completion of the merger, including approaching the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to make the scheme effective subject to certain procedural condition precedents,” Bharti Infratel said in a pre-market hours exchange filing on Tuesday.Further, the tower arm of Bharti Airtel added that to secure the payment obligation of VIL under the master service agreements (MSAs), “VIL and UK’s Vodafone Group Plc have entered into certain security arrangements with the company for the benefit of the merged company”.This, it said, “includes a combination of a security deposit by VIL, security via pledge of a certain number of shares of the merged company out of those issued to Vodafone Plc (as part of the Scheme) and a corporate guarantee by Vodafone Plc, which can get triggered in certain situations and events”.These security arrangements, Bharti Infratel added, remain “subject to all applicable regulatory approvals and any approval of Vodafone Plc’s lenders”. The security arrangement will provide the merged tower company a payment cover of over one year for the operational payments due from VIL.Company officials told ET that the earlier merger ratio (1,565 shares of Bharti Infratel for every 1 Indus share) has changed to 1519 shares of Bharti Infratel for every 1 Indus share). Basis this, Vodafone Plc and Bharti Airtel will own 28.2 per cent and roughly 36.7 per cent in the merged towers entity respectively. Providence Equity Partners, which decided not to exit, will hold 3.2 per cent in the combined entity. The public holding will be 31.9 per cent.VIL’s decision to cash out of Indus came just a few hours before the Supreme Court is slated to give the final verdict in the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case on Tuesday. The nation’s top court had reserved its order on the period over which such AGR payment could be made, and under what conditions, having underlined that no reassessment of the telecom department’s AGR demand would be allowed. Telcos have sought 15 years to clear their AGR dues, but the SC has said they need to make some upfront payments to avail of a deferred payment mechanism. Bharti Infratel added that the merger scheme shall become effective on the date on which certified copy of the order of NCLT is filed with the Registrar of Companies. The effective date, it added, would be communicated to the stock exchanges for further public dissemination as and when the scheme becomes effective.“While the parties have agreed to proceed to take appropriate steps to progress the approvals for the merger, the completion of the transaction shall be subject to receipt of all such approvals,” Bharti Infratel said in its exchange filing.

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After Jio juggernaut, Reliance Future-proofs retail arm to woo potential investors

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries' $3.38 billion deal to acquire Future Group's retail business pitches the conglomerate as an even more formidable force in India, making its retail arm more attractive to the potential investors it seeks to woo. The oil-to-telecoms group controlled by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, announced late on Saturday that it will acquire Future Group's retail and wholesale business as well as its logistics and warehousing operations. The acquisition of Future Group's 2,000 retail stores and Big Bazaar grocery chain will help Reliance, which sells everything from groceries to electronics through 11,000-plus stores, to broaden its extensive reach across the country. But with Ambani set to sell stakes in Reliance Retail, the Future-Reliance deal makes it an even more attractive proposition for investors in a market that Boston Consulting Group expects to grow to $1.3 trillion by 2025. "With this deal, Reliance's dominance in the Indian market increases further and the valuation that Reliance Retail will now command will be even more," said Arvind Singhal, chairman of retail consultancy Technopak Advisors. Reliance, which has raised a little more than $20 billion from global investors including Facebook Inc by selling stakes in its Jio Platforms digital business, has said it aims to attract investors in Reliance Retail over the next few quarters. "We've received strong interest from strategic and financial investors in Reliance Retail," Ambani told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in July. The acquisition will also help Reliance to extend its lead over its competitors, Singhal added. FINANCIAL MUSCLEMumbai-based Reliance is well known for its ability to win over customers with financial muscle and its breadth of offerings. Shares in its rivals reflected as much on Monday. Avenue Supermarts, which runs popular grocery chain DMart, fell as much as 5.4% while Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail closed 2.6% down and V-Mart Retail lost 4.4%. Shares in Reliance rose in early trade but closed 1.7% down, in line with the broader market as a fresh border flare-up between India and China outweighed initial optimism from a further opening of the economy after coronavirus lockdowns. JioMart, the new Reliance e-commerce venture that offers free express delivery from neighbourhood stores, will also gain a leg-up from the Future Group deal thanks to a wider wholesale supplier base. JioMart delivers groceries, apparel and electronics in more than 200 cities, challenging established online retailers such as Amazon's India unit and Walmart's Flipkart. "Reliance has essentially removed one competitor from the market and added Future's loyal customer base to its own portfolio," said Harminder Sahni, founder of retail consultancy Wazir Advisors. "It's a very serious challenge not just for Flipkart or Amazon, but for the likes of DMart, too."

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How RIL discretly blocked rival Amazon out in Future retail biz

New Delhi/Mumbai: By proposing to acquire the retail assets of Future Group (and not Future companies), the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) has ensured that rival Amazon does not become its shareholder. Amazon is a significant shareholder (49%) in a Future Group company, which owns about 10% stake in Future Retail, the largest outfit within the group in terms of turnover and which operates more than 1,000 stores under Big Bazaar, Fbb, Foodhall and Easyday Club brands. According to the contours of the deal between Future Group and RIL, the former will merge 19 retail and its related back-end infrastructure companies, including Future Retail, into Future Enterprises. This company will then transfer the retail and supply chain businesses to two separate arms of RIL. Had the deal involved the merger of Future Enterprises (excluding non-retail assets) with the arms of RIL, then Amazon would have got a stake in the two outfits. But with the proposed deal structure where RIL acquires Future Group’s retail assets and not its companies, the former has ensured that competitor Amazon is not its shareholder, said Bank of America Securities in a research report. The Future transaction solidifies RIL’s dominance in India’s organised market, which is estimated to be worth $1.3 trillion by 2025 from $700 billion in 2019, according to a February study by Boston Consulting Group and the Retailers’ Association India. It also creates a large entry barrier by removing a sizeable player from the sector that competitors could have acquired to scale up, said a JP Morgan note. Amazon reportedly had plans to increase its stake in Future Retail to 49%, but the deal didn’t materialise. The US e-commerce giant is currently the authorised online sales partner for Future Retail, but the future of this alliance after the deal with RIL couldn’t be ascertained. Both RIL and Future Group haven’t made any comment on what would happen to Future Retail’s existing partnership with Amazon. In the new scheme of things, Amazon will have shares of Future Enterprises after the merger of Future Retail with the latter. Future Retail shareholders, according to the terms of the deal, will receive 101 shares with a face value of Rs 2 each of Future Enterprises for every 10 shares of Rs 2 each held. After the retail assets are transferred to RIL, Future Enterprises will have interests in food and fashion product manufacturing, an insurance joint venture with Generali and textile partnership with NTC Mills. In this entity, RIL will invest Rs 1,600 crore by way of preferential shares and warrants convertible into equity, to acquire a 13% interest. In a presentation released to the stock exchanges, Future Enterprises said that on the manufacturing businesses that would remain in the company there would be added volumes now from RIL’s retail stores and would also gain from JioMart’s digital platform. However, the company makes no mention of Amazon in the presentation.

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Supreme Court verdict on AGR dues timeline likely today

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court is expected to pronounce a crucial verdict today (Tuesday) on the payment timelines of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of over Rs 1.6 lakh crore, a ruling which could decide the fate of Vodafone Idea. The government has sought a 20-year time frame for telcos to pay back their balance AGR dues, while the two most affected telcos- Vodafone Idea (over Rs 50,400 crore balance dues) and Bharti Airtel (nearly Rs 26,000 crore balance) have sought 15 years. Vodafone Idea has warned it would be forced to shut shop if made to pay its dues at one go.As per the cause list, a three-judge bench led by Justice Arun Mishra, and comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah will also take a call on two other issues - on whether spectrum – or the right to use it – can be transferred under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and whether past AGR dues of bankrupt telcos such as Reliance Communications (nearly Rs 26,000 crore), Aircel (nearly Rs 14,000 crore) and Videocon (Rs 1400 crore) should be paid by companies such as Reliance Jio and Airtel, who have been using the spectrum of the ailing telcos through either spectrum sharing or trading contracts.The main AGR verdict is expected to end a 16-year plus court battle between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and operators. The verdict comes in just before Justice Mishra demits office on September 3. In an October 2019 verdict, the same bench had backed DoT's stance, widening the definition of AGR to include non-core items. This left several telcos - many of whom had exited or merged into surviving carriers - facing AGR dues of over Rs 1.6 lakh crore, including license fees, spectrum usage charges, interest and penalties.While VIL has so far paid Rs 7854 crore, Airtel has paid over Rs 18,000 crore. Reliance Jio which started operations in 2016 has been least affected by the AGR case and has cleared its dues of Rs 195 crore. Besides the staggered payment timeline , Tuesday's order will also seal the fate of insolvencies of Reliance Communications (RCom ) and Aircel who have found buyers for their most important aspect-spectrum, but DoT has refused to give its nod unless AGR dues are cleared.

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Xiaomi seeing ‘very strong’ rebound post lockdown: Manu Jain

NEW DELHI: India’s smartphone market has rebounded “very strongly” after the lockdown ended, mainly driven by pent-up demand and demand associated with online education, among others, according to Manu Jain, India managing director at market leader Xiaomi.In an interview with ET, Jain said that production though hasn’t reached its previous levels, and the company is still importing small quantities of phones from abroad.“Eventually, the aim is to again go back to the same level as earlier, maybe even to a higher level. Of course, we keep facing challenges because sometime in some factory, there will be some Covid-19 patient and then we need to shut down the line, sanitize. But despite all of those, things have scaled up significantly,” Jain said.Even as the pandemic has disrupted and delayed the handset maker’s offline plans, Jain said that the channel will contribute 50% of overall sales by the end of this year.“Because of Covid-19, a lot of clients got disrupted. And now, hopefully very soon, 50% of our business should come from offline...We are ensuring that offline business grows and are giving tools like Mi commerce to drive the growth,” Jain said, adding that conversion rate in offline retail has increased significantly for the company.

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Pranab Mukherjee Last Rites : पूर्व राष्ट्रपति प्रणब मुखर्जी का अंतिम संस्कार आज, जानें कब और कहां

देश के पूर्व राष्ट्रपति प्रणब मुखर्जी का आज अंतिम संस्कार किया जाएगा। मीडिया रिपोर्ट्स के मुताबिक मंगलवार दोपहर करीब दो बजे दिल्ली के लोधी रोड श्मशान घाट में पूर्व राष्ट्रपति को अंतिम विदाई दी जाएगी।

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Petrol Diesel Price: आज पेट्रोल के दाम में कुछ पैसों का इजाफा, जानें कीमत

सरकारी तेल कंपनियों की ओर से आज पेट्रोल और डीजल की कीमत में कोई बढ़ोतरी नहीं की गई है।

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दुनिया में मृतकों का आंकड़ा 8.50 लाख पार, ऑस्ट्रेलिया के विक्टोरिया में 24 घंटे में 41 संक्रमितों की मौत

दुनिया में कोरोना से मरने वालों की संख्या सोमवार को 8.50 लाख का आंकड़ा पार कर गई, जबकि संक्रमितों की संख्या भी 2.54 करोड़ से ज्यादा हो चुकी है। महामारी की चपेट में आए 1.77 करोड़ लोग ठीक भी हुए हैं।

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Pranab Mukherjee On Emergency, His RSS Speech, Indira Gandhi, PM Modi

Exclusive excerpt from 'Defining India: Through Their Eyes' by Sonia Singh

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Govt debate: Can social media censor content?

New Delhi: Officials have begun preliminary discussions on whether India should have its own guidelines on content moderation by internet and social media companies, top officials told ET. The deliberations, especially with regard to moderation of hate speech, have been sparked by the government’s concerns over the arbitrary methods employed by social media platforms despite them enjoying the benefit of safe harbour as intermediaries, said the officials.Currently, social media platforms — including Facebook and Twitter — employ their own guidelines to moderate content in India, and follow the global standards set out by their parent companies.“Who has given them the power to decide what is hate speech or not? This can’t be arbitrary. One the one hand, they enjoy safe harbour, and on the other hand, they censor (content),” an official told ET.‘Lack of Transparency’India provides immunity, or safe harbour, to intermediaries under Section 79(2) of the I-T Act on the condition that the platforms do not modify the content in any form.India is concerned about the lack of transparency around the moderation practices followed by social media platforms, the official said. This is stoking debate over whether internet giants such as Facebook, Google or Twitter should be allowed the power to self-censor, or moderate, user-generated content on their platforms.77862634“There is a need for standard rules for everyone,” said another official.Pointing to Facebook’s community guidelines that are global in nature, the senior official said the social media giant also has India-specific rules on what it terms “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”, or spam.Under these rules, Facebook had removed posts associated with both the BJP and Congress in April 2019. The official termed these guidelines as “vague”.“Whether something comes under hate speech has to be defined by a consistent policy and has to have neutrality of ideology,” the official said.TWITTER POSTReferring to another incident, where Twitter — in its curated news feed section — termed the proposed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya as “controversial” on the day of bhumi pujan by the Prime Minister, the official said the post was removed after the ministry of electronics & IT contacted Twitter.“Who is Twitter to add the adjective ‘controversial’ to mandir? How can they do editorial modification when they are just an intermediary? They are not supposed to have an editorial line, unlike newspapers, which are governed by laws,” the official said.Facebook and Twitter declined to comment on these developments.A recent article in the Wall Street Journal alleged that Facebook had shown favouritism to the ruling BJP by not acting on hate speech posts by its leaders. Similarly, last year, a controversy erupted when Anurag Thakur, the then chairperson of the parliamentary panel on IT, summoned Twitter and Facebook over allegations that the platforms were trying to curb free speech of individuals subscribing to non-Left ideology.As a political slugfest continues over the WSJ article, BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya told ET last week that in the run-up to the 2019 general elections, Facebook had unilaterally struck off over 700 pages without assigning “any reason”.“This debate around hate speech is skewed because what constitutes hate speech or otherwise will be determined by India’s rules and regulations and constitutional frameworks, not by community standards of a particular social media platform. It also needs to apply uniformly,” Malviya had said.Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order diluting the immunity enjoyed by social media companies after Twitter started flagging his tweets with a fact check warning.However, Indian officials said they are aware that taking away content moderation powers from social media companies will not be easy as these platforms also remove content pertaining to pornography and terrorism, which can create havoc if left unattended. “The platforms will then not do their due diligence when it comes to such content and that will be a problem. Also, it will become a challenge to regulate venomous content from across the borders. So, this is a complicated issue,” an official said.

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Pranab Mukherjee: The parallel protagonist

NEW DELHI: Pranab Mukherjee was a custom-made multipurpose political vehicle. Most hard-boiled politicians in Congress were in awe of Mukherjee, groomed by Indira Gandhi from 1971 till her death, who became a rare strategic device of Congress in the 1990s till he became President in 2012. His skills elicited respect from leaders of the ruling BJP and parties across the political aisle but kept 10 Janpath in perpetual unease.The varied talents of Mukherjee, 84, who passed away on Monday, were well demonstrated during his career spanning over six decades. He was a cerebral politician with an astute institutional understanding and a grip on working the government, key ministries, Parliament, Constitution and the political system.His clinical grasp of the intricate functioning of Congress, active participation in its never-ending clashes of ideas and personalities and conspiracies, helped him emerge as a natural coalition manager and a flourishing survivor in the slippery inner corridors.Having thrived in the heydays of one-party rule, Mukherjee’s shift from being the chief theorist of Congress’ 1998 Panchmari Declaration — “coalition politics is a passing phase and we will come back again” — to post-2003 ‘Shimla Sankalp’ to emerge as chief coalition counsellor in UPA bore testimony to his ‘khiladi’ record. Yet, the veteran was thrilled as a teenager on his first date when he finally shed the Rajya Sabha tag and won his first Lok Sabha election in 2004 from West Bengal’s Jangipur.A short temper, a phenomenal memory and an automated ‘namaskar’ were all features of Brand Mukherjee. He had no pretensions of an angel but embraced the exhilaration and ignominy of power politics with aplomb. Mukherjee was among the pioneers who laid the road linking Political Delhi with Corporate Mumbai. Yet, the perennially demanding reforms gallery loathed Finance Minister Mukherjee’s middle path. He, in turn, delivered a parting shot in his swansong budget of 2012 with ‘retrospective tax’. Later, he rubbed it in with a query: “Despite the angst that my proposal generated, I wonder why every succeeding FM in the past five years maintained the same stance.”The dyed-in-the-wool Cong-ressman and unabashed ‘Indiraite’ remained embedded in India’s pluralist, secular and democratic moorings but abhorred politics of exclusion, secular exhibitionism and the one-way street on communal sensitivity. The saffron gallery stirred with excitement and his ex-colleagues teetered nervously when the high priest of Congress visited the RSS headquarters on its invitation after retiring from his presidency. Once he came out of the ‘Nagpur vyuh’ after delivering a speech underlining his unwavering and long-cherished ideals, a relieved AICC held a late-evening news conference to hail him “for turning the mirror on the RSS”, though some still rue his visit.Mukherjee joined Congress via Bangla Congress in 1970 and scaled heights before he was 50 when Indira Gandhi even made him her virtual No. 2 in the Union Cabinet, superseding veterans including PV Narasimha Rao and R Venkataraman, who later became PM and President, respectively. His status in the last Indira Cabinet became a burden on Mukherjee after her assassination. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi dropped him from the Cabinet, CWC, Congress Parliamentary Board and expelled him from the party after his Doon School advisors, especially Arun Nehru, injected suspicion in the politically raw PM that Mukherjee had prime ministerial ambitions and was plotting against him. 77862599As Rajiv Gandhi’s regime started sinking following the Bofors row and his favourites crossed over to the opposition, he brought back Mukherjee (and RK Dhawan) into Congress. “Many things said about them, I found, were not true,” Rajiv Gandhi said in an interview. “All I can say is that he (Gandhi) made mistakes and so did I. He let others influence him and listened to their calumnies against me. I let my frustration overtake my patience,” wrote Mukherjee in his memoirs.Perhaps due to that uneasy past, Sonia Gandhi’s leadership was never fully at ease with Mukherjee. Ironically, it was Mukherjee who helped CWC innovatively interpret aclause in the Congress constitution to sack Sitaram Kesri and make Sonia Gandhi the party president overnight.Though he was not part of her coterie, Mukherjee in no time became indispensable to the UPA regime by leveraging his multi-tasking skills.Sonia Gandhi denied Mukherjee the prime ministership twice, the second time in 2004, when as party president she nominated technocrat-turned politician Manmohan Singh as PM. Thirteen years earlier, as Rajiv Gandhi’s widow, she proposed the ‘safer’ Shankar Dayal Sharma, and when he declined, PV Narasimha Rao as PM, over Mukherjee and challenger Sharad Pawar. Mukherjee recorded his sense of denial in his memoirs.Narrating his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad, after she turned down the PM post, Mukherjee’s memoirs said: “She (Sonia) told me she did not want to be the reason for a sharp division in society because of her elevation to the post of the prime minister… Finally, it was left to her to choose the PM… Within the Congress, the consensus was that incumbent must be a political leader with experience in party affairs, administration… she (Sonia) named Dr Manmohan Singh as her choice and he accepted.The prevalent expectation was that I would be the next choice for Prime Minister after Sonia Gandhi declined. This expectation was possibly based on the fact I had extensive experience in government, while Singh’s vast experience was as a civil servant with five years as a reformist finance minister.”Five years later, when PM Singh underwent a heart surgery ahead of 2009 LS polls, the Congress leadership did not appoint an acting PM but made sure Mukherjee, though senior-most, shared Singh’s duties with colleague AK Antony. Manmohan Singh publicly said after his 10-year stint: “In 2004, Soniaji chose me to be the Prime Minister.Pranabji was the most distinguished colleague that I had. He had every reason to feel a grievance, that he was better qualified than I was to become the PM. But, he also knew I had no choice in the matter.” Mukherjee was also denied the Congress presidentship once. In his memoir, Mukherjee hinted at an undisclosed pressure on his friend Rao to not (initially) include him in the Union Cabinet in 1991 and in choosing Kesri as party chief when Rao quit in 1996. Mukherjee was also denied the post of President of India in 2007. He recorded in detail how Sonia Gandhi told him he could not be spared of his crucial role in the UPA government ahead of the 2007 and 2012 presidential polls, but his determination prevailed the second time.Mukherjee eventually levelled the scale on his terms after becoming the much-applauded sheet anchor of the UPA regimes. He deftly planned and executed his entry into Rashtrapati Bhavan by making his candidature a fait accompli for the Congress leadership. He capped his career with a Bharat Ratna, conferred by a government opposed to his ‘ism’ but felt obliged by his presidential guidance which also relished the fact the medal would bruise a certain ego.The way he made himself indispensable to Sonia Gandhi, flourished in the UPA and finally walked away with the best possible medals without her patronage makes him the ‘parallel protagonist’ of Congress. The fact Mukherjee left on his terms, while Sonia’s original loyalists ML Fotedar, Arjun Singh and Natwar Singh were humiliated and abandoned serves as a warning on perils of blind loyalty to the current crop of Congressmen. As tension grows in Congress — amid deepening unease between seniors and Team Rahul-Priyanka, unabated political and organisational drift in leadership and the Gandhi family name losing electoral sheen — the Mukherjee template may come in handy for at least some of the leaders.

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Focus must be on preventing deaths: Experts

NEW DELHI: Three Indian medical associations have said that creating containment zones and aggressive testing for Covid-19 offers little advantage in large cities where the infection has already spread wide. The focus should instead be on preventing deaths from Covid-19, they have suggested in a joint statement to the prime minister.“While being optimistic, the prevention and control strategy should also prepare for the worst. It must assume that an effective vaccine would not be available in the near future. We must avoid false sense of hope that this panacea is just around the corner,” said the statement issued by the Indian Public Health Association, the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and the Indian Association of Epidemiologists.ET has reviewed a copy of the statement, in which experts from these associations said the pandemic is a public health problem and should be dealt with “empathy and meaningful community engagement”. “We strongly and unequivocally advocate for a public health approach for the novel coronavirus pandemic control, with the maximum possible good being done for the largest possible numbers,” they said.The experts recommend doing away with the practice of stamping and barricading the houses of those who test positive. “It is creating fear in society. This practice should be abandoned immediately,” they said. 77862629The signatories of the statement include former advisors to the health ministry, current and former professors of All India Institute for Medical Sciences, Benaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, among others.The experts find no rationale for quarantining of inter-state travellers. “This should be stopped immediately. Citizen-friendly measures like following home quarantine/isolation, which has been an effective strategy in many cities/states should be followed,” they said.The committee has recommended that lockdowns as a strategy should be discontinued and only cluster restrictions of short durations should be imposed. “Cluster restrictions should be considered only in areas with no community transmission. Even cluster restrictions should be imposed after weighing the impact of the same on the livelihood of the target population,” it said.

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Covid cases rising due to aggressive testing: Vardhan

New Delhi: Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has attributed the record daily spike in new Covid-19 cases in India to “aggressive testing” and “casual attitude” of the people.He also said that the record increase in cases in the week ended August 30 can not be linked to the unlocking process. “The main reason for increase in cases is the aggressive testing and tracing mechanism we are employing,” Harsh Vardhan told ET. “We are not worried about the increase as long as the diagnosis is done in time and our mortality rate remains low.” The health minister, however, took a grim view of what he termed as “casual attitude” of the people. “The carelessness of the people is evident right now. They are crowding market places and not taking the basic precaution of wearing a mask. This cannot be emphasised enough that even if our recoveries are rapidly increasing and mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world, people cannot have this lackadaisical attitude,” the health minister said. India reported a record 80,000 plus fresh cases on Sunday — a dubious world record for becoming the first country to cross 80,000-mark in a single day. The health minister, however, said that the government could not keep the country locked down. “Economic revival and fight against Covid need to go hand-in-hand. Just as we took a bold decision in implementing a timely lockdown, we need to show the similar boldness in opening up,” he said.As per the health minister, Covid-19 cases should plateau out in India by Diwali. “Every virus follows a pattern, a trajectory. I feel that cases would plateau out in a month or two by Diwali. Gradually, it (Covid-19) will become endemic,” Harsh Vardhan said. The ministry is seeing the festival time as a challenge in the fight against Covid-19. “It will be a challenging time as people would need to exercise restraint. We are in the process of framing standard operating procedures (SoPs) for this,” he said. India’s race for developing a Covid-19 vaccine may yield results by the end of this year, Harsh Vardhan said. “There are three vaccines, which are in different stages of clinical trial. Oxford vaccine is being produced by Serum Institute while it is being tested. We hope to have this vaccine in the market by early 2021. We will prioritise who gets the vaccine. Initially, it will be administered to healthcare workers, senior citizens, children and people with co-morbidities,” the health minister said.

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Jubilant seeks nod for Remdesivir tablet

NEW DELHI: Noida-based Jubilant Life Sciences plans to launch remdesivir in a tablet form. The antiviral drug, which is being used to treat Covid-19 patients, is currently administered intravenously.The pharmaceutical company has sought permission of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to launch remdesivir in a tablet form. In a meeting held on August 25, the company had presented its proposal to the DCGI.The company has given bioavailability protocol to the subject expert committee (SEC), which has been set up to evaluate proposals related to Covid-19, according to the minutes of the meeting, a copy of which was seen by ET.According to the proposal, the company is exploring the possibility of launching 20 mg sublingual tablets. Sublingual administration involves placing a drug under the tongue so that it gets dissolved and absorbed into the blood through the tissues.The SEC, which functions under DCGI, asked for more clarity from the company on the proposal. “The firm presented their proposal along with bioavailability protocol before the committee. After detailed deliberation, the committee recommended that the firm should submit clear justification for use of the drug through sublingual route supported by evidence/literature including animal pharmacokinetic (PK) data generated with the drug through sublingual route,” said the minutes of the meeting.“The matter will be taken up again, once the company submits its response,” said a senior official, who did not wish to be identified.The company refused to comment on the development.

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Small borrowers may get principal payment relief as part of one-time restructuring of loans

MUMBAI: Banks and shadow lenders may offer a six-month moratorium on principal repayments for retail and MSME borrowers as part of the one-time restructuring of loans that the central bank recently allowed, said people with knowledge of the matter. Customers seeking a debt revamp will be asked to make regular interest payments, while the principal will be restructured or the tenor extended, depending upon repayment ability. “The intention is to restructure loans for only those borrowers who really need restructuring, but in no way do we want to be in a situation that they are not paying interest,” said a senior executive at a state-run bank. “We want small-value borrowers in retail and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) segment to keep paying, so there will be a moratorium on principal payments.”The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced relief to help borrowers hit by the pandemic. A six-month moratorium on loan repayments ended August 31.The chief of a mid-sized nonbanking finance company (NBFC) said the term of the loan could be increased to offer relief.“Tenor to repay principal debt would be expanded, but since we are coming out of a six-month moratorium, we can’t have a policy that allows further leeway in interest payments,” he said. “We are also looking to club interest accumulated during the moratorium as part of principal debt.”According to a report by India Ratings, at least Rs 2.1 lakh crore (1.9% of banking credit) of retail loans that could turn into nonperforming assets may undergo restructuring. Overall, about Rs 8.4 lakh crore of total bank credit could be restructured, it said.77862709

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Don't Throw Away Onion Peels; Here Are 5 Ways You Can Use Them In Your Foods

Onion Skin Uses: If some past researches are to be believed, onion peels are actually more nutritional that the onion itself!

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Staggered Seating, Face Masks As NEET, JEE Exams Start Today: 10 Facts

Despite widespread opposition from students, activists and the governments of several non-BJP ruled states, JEE (Main) and NEET (UG) exams for admission to IITs and medical courses will be held...

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Realme V3 Launch Tipped for Tomorrow, Could Be Company's Cheapest 5G Phone

Realme V3 may launch alongside the Realme X7 and Realme X7 Pro smartphones in China tomorrow, September 1, according to an online report. It says that the third phone, allegedly called Realme V3,...

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Funeral of Pranab Mukherjee to be held today

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Remembering Pranab Mukherjee: A man for all seasons and a statesman

By AK AntonyThe sad demise of Pranab Mukherjee is a great loss to the nation. I had a very close personal relationship with him for 50 years. When I first met him along with Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, he spared nearly an hour for us. What struck me most was his razor-sharp memory. I told Dasmunsi after the meeting that Pranab Da was a rare genius and a big asset to the Congress.Another quality I found in him was the transparency in personal relationships and his contacts. He maintained very cordial relationships with leaders of all parties, shared transparent relations with most business leaders and had close association with many cultural and social leaders. Mukherjee was a man for all seasons and a statesman too.His ability to find solutions to crises was commendable. From Indira Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi, all Congress leaders used his services to sort out issues. He held almost all important portfolios in the Union Cabinet. He was one of the successful finance ministers. When he took over the ministry, our financial situation was precarious, but he was able to stabilise the economy. He also helped the UPA governments in implementing many welfare programmes.I succeeded Pranab Da as the defence minister. He took the initiative to improve India’s ties with the US and played an instrumental role in the Indo-US defence framework agreement. Even while improving our relations with the US, he maintained India’s cordial relations with Russia and tried to improve ties with China, while focusing on our defence infrastructure in the northeast. Mukherjee was the external affairs minister when the terror attack took place in Mumbai. The sentiment across the country was that we should take military action against Pakistan. Some people even suggested there should be a surgical strike against Pakistan. However, PM Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee gave the advice to the government that military action was not the first option. Mukherjee argued that we should isolate Pakistan in the international fora through diplomacy. As a result, Pakistan was isolated with all major countries supporting India and condemning Pakistan. Even the Organisation of Islamic Countries criticised Pakistan.Mukherjee was UPA government’s main crisis manager. He headed almost all cabinet sub committees and empowered committees. He was the main source of finding solutions to all kinds of problems. During the negotiations on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, he helped the government win over the support of many non-UPA parties.He was leader of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for many years. Whenever he got up to speak, the House listened in rapt attention. Even while he remained busy as a national leader, Mukherjee was a proud Bengali who admired Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. He was particular about visiting his ancestral house to perform puja as head priest during Durga Puja.After he became President, Mukherjee publicly advised the government and the country, while remaining within constitutional limits, when the nation headed towards communal polarisation and chaos after incidents of lynching. He asked the government to protect constitutional values and told the government and the people that India belonged to everybody, diversity was our strength and if diversity was overlooked India would plunge into chaos. Mukherjee’s departure is a great loss, especially when the country faces threats from Pakistan and China at the border and a deep economic crisis. (The author is former defence minister and a senior Congress leader )

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Covid: Goa's borders open for all, says CM

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भारत की पहली महिला हृदयरोग विशेषज्ञ डॉ. पद्मावती का निधन, कोरोना से थीं संक्रमित

महान हृदय रोग विशेषज्ञ ने अपने आखिरी दिनों तक एक सक्रिय और स्वस्थ जीवन जिया। 2015 के अंत तक वे दिन में 12 घंटे, सप्ताह में पांच दिन एनएचआई में काम कर रही थीं।

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TikTok US Sale Could Need Beijing Nod After China's New Export Controls

China's new rules around tech exports mean ByteDance's sale of TikTok's US operations could need Beijing's approval, a Chinese trade expert told state media, a requirement that would complicate the...

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States explore ways to house migrants better

NEW DELHI: States have started working on new industrial policies with detailed plans for labour welfare, particularly with regard to housing of migrant workers in industrial clusters, in line with an advisory from the Centre.Gujarat’s new industrial policy launched on Saturday talks about dormitory housing for migrant workers near industrial zones under state and central urban housing schemes, while some others including Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are working on similar policies, people aware of the development told ET. Making provision for dormitories for labourers in industry clusters is in line with the central government's housing policy, said M K Das, additional chief secretary, industries and mines, in Gujarat. “It is necessary to provide a strong enabling ecosystem which will support in increasing the productivity and quality,” he told ET. “This scheme will be encouraged by inclusion of this facility under common infrastructure to extend financial assistance.”As per the new industrial policy, special incentives will be provided to associations to construct such dormitory housing in industrial clusters. “It will be encouraged by inclusion of this facility under common infrastructure to extend financial assistance,” the new policy said. “However. such association shall have to first avail incentives available under different schemes of state government or central government.”Nearly three million migrant workers had left Gujarat during the first two phases of Covid-19 lockdown. Many such workers have started returning as industrial activities are picking up.The Centre had in the first week of August written to all states, specifically asking them to include labour welfare measures in their investments and industrial policies, or at least have a plan in place, labour ministry officials told ET. The 18-point advisory detailed steps to provide “improved living conditions to workers coming back from states” by ensuring “decent working conditions, occupational safety and social security benefits”.The advisory also detailed steps states have to take to conduct a vulnerability mapping of migrant workers and enrol the names of workers and their families in the Centre's flagship health and housing schemes. States were asked to specifically send a list of those migrant workers who are not registered in any of the government's welfare schemes to the labour commissioner, and follow up their enrolment process. The government has asked "both the origin and destination states" of migrant workers to ensure the enrolment of eligible migrant workers in Ayushman Bharat scheme and insurance schemes provided by the Centre. It has also asked states to “encourage employers to follow all laws when dealing with the workers, particularly with regard to their wages, living conditions and safety”.Earlier, at least 10 states had relaxed labour laws, drawing criticism from many labour experts.Gaurav Gupta, Karnataka Principal Secretary, Commerce & Industries Department said the State has already started thinking about possible ways to explore housing options for migrant workers in the State. "At the request of the major companies employing large number of workers, we are working on a sustainable solution. Some builders working in the area of affordable housing have agreed and are now actively working at workers' housing, and we are have interacting with both buyers and sellers to make it possible."KR Shyam Sunder, professor of human resources at business school XLRI Jamshedpur, said states must think beyond symbolism and have a perceptive law in place that looks at all aspects of migration.“State governments are being told to introduce labour flexibility measures but there is no national policy on migration,” he said. “The national commission on rural labour in 1992 had hinted at the formulation of a national policy on migrant workers, but there has been no work on that. That should be in consonance with the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions.”Sunder said existing laws provide for housing for inter-state migrant workers.

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Defying trade tensions, Chinese buyers snap up Indian steel

NEW DELHI | BEIJING: India's steel exports more than doubled between April and July to hit their highest level in at least six years, boosted by a surge of Chinese buying in defiance of tensions between Beijing and New Delhi.Traders said reduced prices had driven the purchases as Indian sellers sought to get rid of a surplus generated by the impact of COVID-19 on domestic demand and generate much-needed income.It was unclear whether the sales broke any trade rules, but the China Iron and Steel Association said in a statement it was monitoring them.Leading Indian steel companies Tata Steel Ltd and JSW Steel Ltd were among Indian companies that sold a total of 4.64 million tonnes of finished and semi-finished steel products on the world market between April and July.That compared with 1.93 million tonnes shipped in the same period a year earlier, government data analysed by Reuters showed.Of the 4.64 million tonnes, Vietnam and China bought 1.37 and 1.3 million tonnes of steel respectively. The Chinese purchases are by far the largest since data was first collated in the current form beginning with the fiscal year April 2015-March 2016.Neither Tata, JSW nor India's federal ministries of steel and commerce responded to emails seeking comment.Vietnam has been a regular buyer of Indian steel, but China's emergence as a leading buyer, replacing New Delhi's traditional markets, such as Italy and Belgium, is more surprising.An already uneasy relationship between New Delhi and Beijing, became severely strained after violent border clashes in June, when 20 Indian soldiers were killed at the disputed Himalayan border.New Delhi afterwards tightened rules to restrict Chinese investment in India and initiated measures to curb its trade with Beijing.RHETORIC VERSUS MARKET REALITYThe politics is at odds with market realities.Although China, the world's leading steelmaker produces vast quantities, it needs imports as it ramps up infrastructure spending.Two industry sources, asking not to be named because they are not authorised to talk to the media, said major Indian steelmakers offered a discount of at least $50 a tonne, selling hot-rolled coils and billets to China at $430-$450 per tonne against the $500 offered by most Chinese producers.Hot-rolled coils, a flat steel product, are mostly used to make pipes, automobile parts, engineering and military equipment.The China Iron and Steel Association official told Reuters it was paying particular attention to the imports of hot-rolled coils.During the first four months of the 2020-21 fiscal year, China and Vietnam together bought close to 80% of India's total hot-rolled coils exports, the data showed, while the product constituted more than 70% of India's steel exports.Ji Renjie, a general manager at China's Ningbo Henghou Group said the company in May bought 30,000 tonnes of hot-rolled coils from India for July shipment and expected to take delivery of another cargo of a similar size in October."I mainly do iron ore trades and just bought several cargoes of hot-rolled coils this year due to rosy profit margins," Ji told ReutersAM/NS India, the joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel, in an email also said China had been a big buyer, accounting for 35% of the approximately 0.5 million tonnes of hot-rolled coils it shipped between April and July.

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Electronic gadgets, appliances for study and work from home may light up festive online sales

Bengaluru: Brands selling smartphones, appliances and electronic accessories are among those gearing up for a strong spike in online sales during the upcoming festive season, according to company executives, analysts and sellers who estimate an increase of nearly 30 per cent over last year’s sales. New product launches and an almost two-fold increase in the number of online shoppers — triggered by the pandemic — will drive this trend, the people cited above told ET.New models of smartphones, work-from-home and study-from-home enablers are expected to drive sales, while apparel and fashion sales will still remain a little weak, according to executives at online marketplaces. Focus on Small TownsProviding affordable merchandise and catering to the rising number of customers in small towns will be the focus of these ecommerce platforms.At the start of the lockdown, “brands were unclear about online demand, but (after) the Independence Day sale, everyone has figured out that there is going to be a definite surge in orders,” said Aman Gupta, cofounder of electronics accessories brand boAt. 77842920Top marketplaces Amazon and Flipkart recorded sales of Rs 5,600-6,000 crore combined during their Prime Day and Big Savings Days events in August, even as India battled economic disruption caused by the lockdowns to stem the spread of Covid-19.Typically, online marketplaces record heightened sales during the festive period stretching from Dussehra in October till about Christmas. Flipkart’s annual shopping festival The Big Billion Day is held around the same time as Amazon’s Great Indian Festival sale in October. Last year, the two mega etailers recorded about $3.5-3.7 billion in sales in the highest-selling six days, a rise of 33 per cent over 2018. In the overall 2019 festive sale period, these platforms clocked $4.8 billion in sales.NEW ENTRANTSBut this year, the boost in online commerce is expected to come from new entrants—online-only brands and from traditional offline retailers migrating to ecommerce platforms—as well as local shops. For instance, Goldmedal Electricals, founded in 1979, which sells through traditional retail, said it will explore online marketplaces to sell a greater range of its products this year.“This festive season, our focus will be on enabling sellers to accelerate their growth and to help them get back on their feet,” a spokesperson for Amazon India said.Flipkart, on the other hand, views its Big Billion Day sale as a platform to “enable lakhs of sellers, small and medium businesses, artisans and women-owned businesses access the national market,” a company representative said.Brands reckon the back-end supply chain management and timely demand forecasting will be critical to success this year.Bharat Kalia, cofounder of appliance brand Lifelong Online, is expecting a three-fold increase in sales compared to the last festive season boosted by the launch of new categories like sports and fitness.Analysts said smartphones will continue to be the top category to watch out for with the share of online sale of smartphones at 45 per cent in the second quarter of the financial year. “We don’t see offline demand for smartphones recovering until the second half of next year, given that the cases of Covid are continuing to rise,” said Neil Shah, Vice President of Research at Counterpoint.Home, appliance, sports, fitness and health are categories that will also record a spike in sales while the outlook for fashion remains unclear. “If weddings and occasions start resuming, then fashion will get a bump, otherwise it will continue to be weak,” said a founder of a top fashion brand.RAMPING UP SUPPLY CHAINMeanwhile, online marketplaces have started ramping up their logistics capabilities.Snapdeal has expanded its logistics network by opening eight new centres at manufacturing hubs in areas like Rajkot, Agra, Mathura and Mumbai. This takes the total count to 23 centres across the country. “This ensures faster pickup from the sellers...and has become all the more important due to Covid-19 related restrictions,” a Snapdeal spokesperson said.For platforms like Snapdeal and Paytm Mall, which don't compete on high-value smartphone sales, growth is likely to be driven by local selection. “..we believe that categories including home electronics, work-from-home essentials, athleisure wear, and home and kitchen products will do well,” said Abhishek Rajan, COO, Paytm Mall.As more value conscious shoppers from smaller towns congregate on online platforms, average order values have dropped by as much as 25-30 per cent experts said. “These new buyers are value conscious and are not going to spend the same kind of money as experienced buyers until they reach a certain trust level,” said Ankur Pahwa, Partner at EY.

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Rupee betters rank among Asian peers on dollar flows

MUMBAI: The rupee stood out among its Asian peers last week, and it owes its sterling rise in part to the $2 billion L&T-Schneider deal. The Reserve Bank of India, too, didn’t surprisingly intervene, underscoring its intent to allow the local unit to find its value in the face of recent inflows of dollars. The rupee gained about 2% in the past five trading sessions, and that has definitely lessened the damage previously done. In the calendar year to date, the rupee ranks third from the bottom in the continent, having lost 2.76%. “We may see further strength in the rupee in the near term as capital flows return to the emerging markets,” said B Prasanna, group head of global markets sales, trading, and research, ICICI Bank. “The dollar remains defensive after the US Fed announced its average inflation targeting framework.” Over the past one week, foreign portfolio investors invested a net of Rs 6,589 crore, show provisional data from ETIG. L&T is said to have received money from Schneider Electric, which bought the electrical and automation businesses of the Indian conglomerate. L&T did not comment. The sharp surge in the rupee’s value during the past week has led to a breakout in the 74.50-76.50 trading range, dealers said. The US Federal Reserve shifted its focus to tackling joblessness and boosting growth, scotching speculation that the accommodative rates will go away anytime soon. Since August 24, the US Dollar Index, which measures the unit against select other major currencies, dropped about 100 basis points to 92.30. “Significant central bank intervention, amid a bout of corporate/investment inflows, was factored in” said K N Dey, founder – United Financial, a forex firm. “But the central bank departed from its predictable stance observed in the past few months.” Mint Road has otherwise been buying dollars through state-owned banks, boosting India’s forex reserves to a record $538 billion. “The rupee is likely to strengthen in the next few weeks amid overseas inflows that will have a much higher impact without any RBI intervention,” said Kunal Sodhani, AVP – global trading centre at Shinhan Bank (India). “The local unit may rise up to 1.2 percent this week from the current level.” It closed at 73.39/$ Friday versus 73.82 a day earlier. “Volatility in the currency market has gone up last week,” Dey said.

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Bank index likely to outperform Nifty, test 26,300 soon

Mumbai: The spot Bank Nifty, which has risen 9.5 per cent in four sessions through 24,524 on Friday, could next test the 26,311.30 level, the 61.8 per cent retracement of the correction from the record high of 32,613 in December through the low of 16,116 in March. Any dips will be a buying opportunity, said analysts.Consistently lagging the Nifty, which has bounced back over 50 per cent from its March low of 7,511, the banking index is now trying to “catch up”, says Rohit Srivastava, founder, IndiaCharts. For much of the past weeks, the Bank Nifty tried unsuccessfully to surpass the 38.2 per cent Fibonacci retracement of 22,418. “Finally, it broke out of that on August 24 and is in a momentum of its own,” said Srivastava.“The index could outperform the Nifty for now and test the 26,300 mark over the next few sessions,” said Rajesh Palviya of Axis Securities.Indeed, the September 24 expiry Bank Nifty options show the value of the 24,500 straddle -call and put- at 26,300. FIIs have invested 46,602 crore so far in August, the highest since October 2010. They are also over 70,000 contracts net long in Nifty and Bank Nifty futures.The put-call ratio of the September 3 expiry Bank Nifty options rose to 1.58 Friday from 1.13 a day earlier, a bullish sign.

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आगरा में एक ही परिवार के तीन लोगों की हत्या, घर में मिले तीनों के शव

आगरा में सोमवार की सुबह एक ही परिवार के तीन लोगों की हत्या से सनसनी फैल गई है। घटना एत्माद्दौला के नगला किशनलाल इलाके की है।

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Hope For "Very Significant Control" Over Covid By Diwali: Health Minister

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday expressed hope that we should have "very significant control" over COVID-19 by Diwali.

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Anil Baijal Gives Permission To Conduct JEE, NEET Exams In Delhi: Report

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has permitted holding of JEE and NEET exams in the city, despite objections raised by the Delhi government citing student safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic,...

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Shah flags delay in graft probes against MHA staff

NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah has flagged the delay in investigations against MHA employees facing graft charges and inquiries by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Shah, who is currently recovering from the coronavirus infection at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), is learnt to be attending work and issuing directions from the hospital.In a recent communication issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs’ vigilance branch, it was “observed by the home minister that the prescribed schedule of time limits in conducting investigations and departmental inquiries is not being followed by the departments, divisions as per the instructions issued by CVC”. The CVC is a top anti-corruption watchdog, monitoring all vigilance activities under the central government.Officials said Shah’s directives came following a large number of pending complaints not only against MHA officials but from 25 other departments under the home minister, including the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), National Investigation Agency (NIA), Registrar General of India (RGI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), among others.According to the CVC guidelines, any departmental investigations or internal probe should be conducted within one to six months depending upon the nature of allegations and prima-facie offence. The cases under the scanner include corruption allegations against a superintendent of police (SP) of the federal anti-terror agency. He, along with others, were suspended last year for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore bribe from a Delhi-based businessman, for not naming him in a terror funding case involving Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Another instance relates to a CBI probe against an IRS officer who was incharge of the Custodian of Enemy Property (CEP) in Mumbai, officials added.The CVC, in its report, further raised the delay in granting prosecution sanction against officials named by the CBI in the corruption cases. Under section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, previous sanction from the Union is necessary for prosecution. The sanction in some cases has been pending beyond four months, as per the CVC.Meanwhile, in a statement on Saturday, AIIMS authorities said: “Amit Shah, union home minister, has recovered and is likely to be discharged in a short time.”

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Trai works to rejig licensing regime to promote investments and innovation

New Delhi: India’s telecom regulator is aggressively working on reforming the licensing regime and would soon release a consultation paper to base its views on promoting innovation and attracting new investments, as a part of ease of doing business in the sector.“Currently, we are working on reforming the licensing and regulatory regime to catalyse investments and innovation and promote ease of doing business. For this, the consultation paper will be released shortly,” Ram Sewak Sharma, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), told ET.The sector watchdog has previously recommended a slew of measures to DoT such as the reduction in levies, and the upcoming initiative is aimed to further improve the industry’s health in line with the national policy unveiled in 2018.Trai had earlier presented its views to the department on rationalisation of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), reduction of license fee, spectrum usage charge (SUC) and Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) contribution, and flexible payment options for auctioned spectrum. “The authority through its letters has reiterated that DoT may favourably consider those recommendations as they would help minimise financial stress of telecom companies,” the top official said.In January 2015, the regulator had recommended that the component of the USO levy should be reduced from the present 5% to 3% of the AGR. With this reduction, the applicable uniform rate of licence fee would become 6%, from the present 8% of AGR, according to Trai, while the 3% of license fee (LF) that directly accrues to the government would not change.

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Reliance Retail to bear Rs 19,000 crore of Future Group's debt and liabilities

Kolkata: Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, will take over more than Rs 19,000 crore of debt and liabilities owed by Future Group’s retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units until March 31, 2020, as part of its acquisition, said two senior executives aware of the deal. Future Group founder and chief executive Kishore Biyani will have to pay the remaining dues from April 1 until the assets are transferred following regulatory approvals. RRVL is acquiring the Future assets.The Biyani family also has to service personal debt incurred by pledging almost all of the promoter shareholding in the group. If Biyani is not able to pay outstanding debt and liabilities for these businesses at a company level, Reliance will take over that portion too but the Future Group founder will then receive a lower payout as total value of the transaction will not exceed Rs 24,713 crore, executives said.Reliance and Future Group didn’t respond to queries.Biyani likely to be Able to PayThe executives said Reliance expects Biyani will be able to clear the outstanding portion as he will receive money from this transaction and cash flow from other businesses such as insurance. Besides, he will continue running the retail business until the deal is cleared. Biyani will also undertake manufacturing of apparel and consumer goods for Reliance, providing positive cash flow. They said liabilities from April 1 will not be much since all large vendors and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies have already stopped supplies to Future Group due to high outstanding dues, while banks have frozen lending.77842775If Biyani is able to pay a portion of the debt and liabilities incurred until March 31, he will receive a higher payout, they said. Future Group has debt of around Rs 13,000 crore.Reliance will soon meet the banks and parties involved — which include several top FMCG companies, realtors, mall operators and other vendors and distributors — to clear payments of a few hundred crore rupees that Future Group owes.“The deal agreement clearly specifies how much debt and liabilities Future Group companies have and to whom till March 31, which is the referral date,” said a senior executive. “Reliance will honour everything till that date and Biyani has to settle thereafter. If he fails, Reliance will do it, but then Biyani’s payout will be lower. In no case will the total payout be more than Rs 24,713 crore.”Reliance on Saturday announced the takeover of Future Group’s retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses as a going concern on a slump sale basis for Rs 24,713 crore in an all-cash deal – one of the largest transactions in organised retail in India. Future Group said the assets and liabilities of retail and wholesale business would be sold to Reliance for Rs 5,628 crore, and the logistics and warehousing business for Rs 25 crore.The deal will help Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-consumer business control more than a third of India’s organised retail market. Reliance will also acquire a minority stake in the remaining business of Future Group. RRVL undertakes the consumer supply chain and retail businesses of the group through its subsidiaries. RRVL reported consolidated turnover of Rs 1.62 lakh crore and net profit of Rs 5,448 for the year ended March 31.

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From a buzz to biz lever: How new technology is becoming central in a post-Covid world

Industry 4.0, robotics, artificial intelligence — all were thought of more as buzzwords than necessary business interventions until recently. But the coronavirus pandemic has forced us to reconsider not just how we consume things but also how we produce them. The Economic Times got together the leaders of four companies at the forefront of the adoption of automation and artificial intelligence in manufacturing. Fast-changing business realities are forcing manufacturers to innovate and rethink age-old conventions, they said at The Economic Times-Back to Business Dialogues - Automating Business, Accelerating Growth: Increased role and impact of automation in manufacturing. The session’s moderator, Daisy Chittilapilly, set the tone for the conversation around the fourth industrial revolution and Covid-19 by quoting Lenin: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Excerpts:DAISY CHITTILAPILLY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICE, CISCO INDIA & SAARCWhat are some of the new behaviours, habits and rules that are shaping your industry today and will have a long-lasting impact on the manufacturing industry in the country post-pandemic?SANJEEV SHARMA, MD, ABB INDIA Our ability to adapt and to be able to serve our customers with the kind of restrictions these circumstances have put on us has increased. And, for us, the ability to service customers remotely with the expertise they used to get at their plant is one of the crucial factors. And that’s where we are seeing quite a strong shift in behaviour, both on the customer side in accepting it and in our abilities to deliver it.SUNIL MATHUR, MD, SIEMENS INDIA We are in an environment that is getting more and more volatile every day. At the same time, customers are becoming even more demanding. The challenge that most manufacturing companies are facing is how to balance these two.As you move towards meeting the demands of the customers, you are tending towards trying to figure out how to manufacture a batch size of 1. On the other hand, it has become painfully obvious during Covid-19 times that you need to be watching your costs and capex and be able to adapt very quickly.All that put together, I think this is exactly the right time to be discussing how automation and digitalisation can provide these benefits of greater efficiencies, greater cost competitiveness, productivity and shorter time to market.PAWAN GOENKA, MD, MAHINDRA & MAHINDRAAnytime there is a crisis, all organisations and customers go through a behaviour change. But if I go back to the last 3-4 crises, the changes reverted to what it used to be before, after some time. I think that’s a big difference this time — the changes are here to stay. And the reason is that we have realised that it is all for the better. Coming to the consumers, there is going to be the digitalisation of everything, whatever we do. Touchless selling is going to be the big thing where customers want everything sitting at home — not just for convenience but for safety and for maintaining social distancing. How we sell things will go through a complete overhaul. For example, with cars, the need for physical dealerships, salespeople or test drives — all of that will go through a change.The impact of that on business will be that the way we do planning, going all the way back to the tier-III supplier, would be a lot more efficient. Since everything is digital, a lot more artificial intelligence (AI) can come in and we’ll be able to predict demand much more precisely. Therefore, the whole supply chain will get compressed. The kind of inventories we carry today, which in the auto industry from end-toend would be about two months, could come down to one month. If the inventory is half, you are taking out a lot of working capital, space requirement, and a lot of loading-unloading that happens.Automation is going to benefit the most out of this whole thing because of the need for social distancing at our plants. Automotive plants are never designed for social distancing. How do we maintain distancing there? By replacing a human with a robot in some places. And that’s the reason automation will become a lot faster than the normal speed at which it was going to grow.CHITTILAPILLY: When you talk to clients, are there any new points and considerations with regards to the automation conversation?MILAN SHETH, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, IMEA REGION, AUTOMATION ANYWHEREWe always assume that the physical goods which get delivered have to be coupled with a physical process. One fundamental shift that we see across customers is that digital solutions are now being thought first and then where physical touchpoints are needed is thought later. At least in the services industry that shift has happened. They are talking about whether to keep branch offices and distribution offices.Probably the manufacturing industry will take a while to follow. There is also the thought process to bring automation to improve productivity in the entire cycle and not just the manufacturing process. For example, a shipment reaching from port to the factory involves three days of processing time at the port, two-days of trucking and then some time for offloading. While automating these processes doesn’t add to manufacturing productivity, it helps in reaching faster to the customer.And finally, the conversation on technology is no longer a CTO/CDO-only domain. People involved in operations and the business leaders now have a strong view about this.CHITTILAPILLY: If automation is a subset of Industry 4.0, how easy is it to embrace the fourth industrial revolution and how ready are we?GOENKA: We first need to take a step back and define what is industry 4.0. Many people think that it simply means automation, which is not true. Industry 4.0 is to put the end consumer at the centre of everything. The roadblock is that the competitive advantage of being an industry 4.0-enabled company is not so easily seen yet. The moment a company sees this, they will work on achieving it.There is also a perceived sense of it not being affordable. The costs that it (industry 4.0 implementation) saves are sometimes unseen costs, it doesn’t go into the cost of supplying a product. 77842601CHITTILAPILLY: Where do you see the adoption of AI/ML for automation in the manufacturing space?SHARMA: We have about 8,000 robots globally working at customer locations. We are connected with them online and we monitor them out of the India centre. This equipment is giving us a lot of data and so we are able to analyse what kind of issues can come in different equipment. By using AI and ML routines on top of the data that we have gathered for the last 5-6 years, we are able to predict certain reliability issues for the customers. We can predict when they need to plan routine maintenance or maybe do a small intervention so that there is no outage and the availability of the production line is higher. That is one example.CHITTILAPILLY: Are the talks on industry 4.0 and automation equally applicable to small and medium businesses?MATHUR: If anything, it is even more applicable to small and medium businesses. Everyone is talking about how industry 4.0 takes a lot of capex and how it is very complicated. We decided to do an experiment. We have a factory in Mumbai where we were manufacturing 80 variants of conductors. We needed to do many more, but there just wasn’t a business case for it as an additional business line was needed to put in and it needed a lot of capex. We instead decided to implement automation into the process. We went from doing 80 variants on three lines to 180 variants on one line. Production time went from 21 seconds down to 9 seconds and a lot of space was saved too. We used the same labour to produce three times as much. That is the real benefit for small and medium enterprises who don’t have the money to expand.SHETH: It is unfortunate that only larger industries are where technology and digital changes are being adopted. One of the reasons other than capital is also the talent. The talent pool in an SMB (small and medium business) is either focused on revenues or operations. Where the digital or technology element occurs, there is a talent gap. In Germany’s SMB ecosystem, there are a variety of cloud-based service providers for SMBs to consume. Unfortunately, today we don’t have a similar ecosystem in India.CHITTILAPILLY: If you were to go back a year, would automation help you to deal with Covid-19 better than it is being dealt with now?GOENKA: I would probably say that if I had known Covid-19 is coming, I don’t think we would have done anything much differently. Because we were already on a path of automation. In some sense, we are lucky that Covid-19 didn’t happen two years ago. The kind of digital tools available today are a lot more and a lot better than they were two years ago. I think we did very well as a country. The way the Government of India has digitised is mind-boggling.CHITTILAPILLY: We are challenged by an economic downturn. Do you think automation has a role to play in addressing cost as an outcome?SHARMA: Most of the time, automation leads to a reduction in cost, but not all the time. That is why it is very important that when you deploy automation as a process or a plan, you should be very clear what kind of return you will be expecting out of that investment. If you keep customers as the centricity of the organisation, automation makes a lot of sense.You make the processes more predictable, repeatable and measurable so by the time you finish producing the product, you have not only manufactured it within the assured standards, but you also have captured the data about it. In case an issue props up, you can do the root cause analysis and overwrite it with customer experience.

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मोदी सरकार को घेरने की तैयारी, राहुल गांधी आज देश की अर्थव्यवस्था को लेकर जारी करेंगे वीडियो

राहुल गांधी 31 अगस्त को देश की अर्थव्यवस्था के मुद्दे पर वीडियो जारी कर मोदी सरकार को घेरने की तैयारी कर ली है। 

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Petrol Diesel Price: पेट्रोल और डीजल के दाम में आज कोई बदलाव नहीं, जानें कितनी है कीमत

सरकारी तेल कंपनियों की ओर से आज पेट्रोल और डीजल की कीमत में कोई बढ़ोतरी नहीं की गई है।

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रिया चक्रवर्ती से आज फिर पूछताछ करेगी सीबीआई, गौरव आर्या का भी होगा सवालों से सामना

रिया चक्रवर्ती से अबतक सीबीआई करीब 26 घंटे पूछताछ कर चुकी है।

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खालिस्तान जिंदाबाद फोर्स के आरोपियों से पूछताछ, मददगार की तलाश में जुटी पुलिस

खालिस्तान जिंदाबाद फोर्स के संदिग्ध सदस्य इंद्रजीत सिंह व जसपाल को दिल्ली में कई जगह खालिस्तान फोर्स के झंडे फहराने थे।

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GDP data coming today. India may face worst

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Covid: U'khand BJP office closed till Sept 2

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होटल में मिले कमरे से खुश नहीं थे सुरेश रैना, धोनी से विवाद के बाद IPL छोड़ लौटे भारत!

कोरोना वायरस की वजह से इस बार आईपीएल यूएई में 19 सितंबर से खेला जाएगा। सभी आठ टीमें यूएई पहुंच चुकी हैं और वहां के नियम के अनुसार छह दिनों तक क्वारंटीन रहने के बाद तैयारियों में लग गई हैं।

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प्रशांत भूषण के खिलाफ अवमानना मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट में फैसला आज

वरिष्ठ अधिवक्ता प्रशांत भूषण के खिलाफ अवमानना मामले सुप्रीम कोर्ट 31 अगस्त यानी सोमवार को अपना फैसला सुनाएगा।

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झारखंड सरकार ने भाजपा सांसद साक्षी महाराज को होम क्वारंटीन करने के 24 घंटे में ही कर दिया रिहा

झारखंड सरकार ने भाजपा सांसद साक्षी महाराज को होम क्वारंटीन करने के 24 घंटे के भीतर ही रविवार को रिहा कर दिया।

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India Passes 35 Lakh Coronavirus Cases, Sees New Global Record

A record surge of 78,761 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours took India's Covid tally past 35 lakh, the Union Health Ministry said this morning. This is the highest single-day jump in Covid...

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Genelia Says She Tested Coronavirus+ Three Weeks Ago, Is Negative Now

In her statement, Genelia D'Souza also wrote about "the only way to fight this monster"

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PM Modi recalls sacrifice of Imam Hussain

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to Imam Hussain on Sunday to mark Muharram, saying nothing was more important to him than the values of truth and justice.Imam Hussain's emphasis on equality as well as fairness is noteworthy and gives strength to many, the prime minister said. "We recall the sacrifice of Imam Hussain (AS). For him, there was nothing more important than the values of truth and justice. His emphasis on equality as well as fairness are noteworthy and give strength to many," Modi said in a tweet.

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Measles vaccine holding back India’s immunisation

The poor coverage of measles vaccination and later doses of basic vaccines like those for polio, diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) are pulling down the proportion of fully immunised children. This indicates a poor mechanism to track children already registered in the immunisation system despite a Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) being in place since 2009.A recently released NSO report on health for 2017-18 shows that from over 94 per cent coverage for the BCG vaccine given at birth, coverage fell to just 67 per cent for the measles vaccine, given between 9-12 months, the poorest coverage among all basic vaccines needed for a child to be counted as being fully immunised.Similarly, from 94 per cent coverage of the oral polio vaccine’s (OPV) birth dose, the coverage went down with every subsequent dose to reach 80 per cent by the third dose. The DPT vaccine coverage went from 91 per cent coverage for the first shot given at six weeks to 78 per cent by the third shot at 14 weeks. This meant that India’s proportion of fully immunised children remained at around 60 per cent in 2017-18, not much different from the National Family Health survey of 2015-16, which found it to be around 62 per cent.While this was a huge improvement from just 44 per cent in 2005-06, the budget allocated for immunisation has also jumped from Rs 473 crore in 2005-06 to approximately Rs 2,000 crore allocated for the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) excluding shared costs such as staff salary, establishments etc.India’s immunisation coverage has remained low relative to its neighbours. In Sri Lanka 99 per cent of children are fully immunised. In Bangladesh, the coverage for DPT-3 was 98 per cent and for measles was 93 per cent in 2018, according to the World Health Report 2020. In Nepal, the coverage for the third shot of DPT was 91 per cent and that for measles was 69 per cent.A child is considered to be fully immunised if she has received BCG, three doses of OPV, three shots of DPT vaccine and the measles vaccine. All these, if delivered on schedule, are within the child’s first year, with measles being the last. There are booster shots and vaccines for other diseases, but they do not count for considering a child fully immunised.The central government’s Mission Indradhanush launched in December 2014 set the goal of ensuring full immunization for children up to two years of age and pregnant women. The govt identified 201 high focus districts across 28 states that had the highest number of partially immunized and unimmunized children. The government said the increase in full immunization coverage was just one percentage point per year earlier, but had increased to 6.7 percentage points per year through the first two phases of Mission Indradhanush.A 2017 district-level study on routine immunization in Haryana led by Dr Shankar Prinja of the community medicine department in PGIMER, Chandigarh noted that the challenge of decreasing dropouts and enrolling the ones with no immunization at all had become ever more daunting as the country added a pool of 12.5 million partially immunized children each year. According to the NSO survey 3 per cent of children received no immunisation at all. Considering that the survey was looking at children under six, even 3 per cent would amount to millions of children. This proportion was as high as 7-8 per cent in some states.“Initially, Mission Indradhanush went off very well with an 18 per cent increase in coverage in 190 districts. But states insisting on doing it in all districts instead of focusing on identified laggard districts has diluted its impact over time. As fatigue sets in, the mission becomes routine and that means children who were to be covered under routine immunisation get covered under the mission instead of the mission being to mop up children missed by routine immunisation,” explained Dr Anish Sinha of the Indian Institute of Public Health in Gandhinagar adding that this was happening because the routine immunisation system had not been adequately strengthened.“The weakest link in the routine system are the health workers who are paid very poorly. A very motivated ASHA gets Rs 4,000 per month at best, including all incentives. It’s almost impossible to find anyone for that salary in urban areas where even a domestic help gets almost double that. Even in rural areas this is too little,” said Dr Sinha.The mother and child tracking system and various other tech platforms and mobile-based applications launched to track data have been unsuccessful. Public health researchers point out that any technology is only as good as the people operating it and the data entered into it and thus it all boils down to the health workers expected to enter the data.

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G23 question won’t go away: Will Cong introspect?

Less than a week after the Congress working committee squelched an incipient mutiny by 23 leaders, all dyed-in-the-wool Congressmen, things are taking a familiar turn. The dynasty has struck back with alacrity, giving loyalists new party positions to shore up its defences while cornering dissenters who wrote to Sonia Gandhi demanding a “full-time and active” leadership to lead the Congress out of its current doldrums An unusual turn of events that saw the signatories — many with long careers in the party organisation and government and, by no means, natural rebels — call for change is being reduced to a discussion about their personal agendas and private angst. But while the G23 might have their reasons — no rebellion is motivated by unalloyed altruism — there is no getting away from the central question they pose: Is the Congress ready for an “honest introspection” to analyse reasons for its decline?Even if the revolt loses steam, it will not bury the issues raised by the letter such as the need for internal democracy and urgent corrective measures if Congress has any hope of matching Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. The letter does not name names, but the reference to parliamentary party meetings being reduced to “a customary address by the CPP leader and obituaries” and CWC failing to mobilise public opinion is as plain as it gets.For some time now, there has been an agitated buzz in the party over the unwillingness on part of Congress’s first family to consider the need for course correction. Rather than collective brainstorming, the party’s functioning has become more remote. There seems to be no recollection of “chintan shivirs” held in Pachmarhi (1998), Shimla (2003) and Jaipur (2013) or even the “Narora-type sessions” when the late P V Narasimha Rao was PM. The party has lurched along, occasionally buoyed when a BJP state government falls to incumbency or an unanticipated bonus like the Shiv Sena revolt. Meanwhile, it lost Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh governments and just about saved Rajasthan.The G23 letter should not be a surprise for Congress brass. Resentment has been rising over Rahul Gandhi’s decision not to be party president and yet direct Congress’s stance on every major issue through tweets, videos and key appointments of functionaries seen as lightweights. Leaders and legislators are leaving the Congress. An unequal power sharing in Madhya Pradesh saw Jyotiraditya Scindia scupper the government and the disenchantment of younger leaders once close to Rahul Gandhi should provide some food for thought.Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, has been of the view that seniors lacked the stomach to take up cudgels against the Modi government while he levelled allegations of graft in the Rafale deal and asked questions about who “benefitted” from the Pulwama attack. Scores of 44 and 52 in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections have failed to convince the Gandhi scion that harsh, personalised attacks on Modi might actually be counter-productive. He continues in the same vein, accusing Modi of “cowardice” in allowing China to “grab land.” This may also tell why any call for self-analysis is likely to be non-starter.So far Congress, and this includes some of the letter writers, has often taken a supercilious view of Modi and BJP, viewing them as unwashed interlopers. This view strikes a chord with those unwilling or incapable of acknowledging the success of Modi and home minister Amit Shah in “mainstreaming” the right wing. The two-third vote in Rajya Sabha and an even bigger 351-72 vote in Lok Sabha to nullify Article 370 and the political acceptance of the Ayodhya judgment should be sufficient evidence that wooing the already converted may not be enough.The letter delivered to Sonia Gandhi on August 7 points out that youth have gone with Modi and Congress’s appeal among new voters is declining. It refers to the party having lost 1.23 crore of the close to 12 crore votes it polled in 2009 to win 206 Lok Sabha seats. The gap between BJP and Congress has grown, and it is clear that Modi is a formidable opponent in national elections.The late V N Gadgil, a well-respected Congress spokesperson, had a tale to tell of how post the 1989 Lok Sabha defeat, a leader told Rajiv Gandhi at a party meeting: “If your advisors misled you, sack them! If your computers are at fault, sell them (at an Old Delhi junk market)!” Sometimes even venting emotions can help, a lesson Rajiv’s legatees may need to re-learn.

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Delay in key infrastructure project irks Centre

New Delhi: From land issues, pending arbitrations and demands of villagers to sluggish work by state authorities, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has flagged issues, which have hampered work on the Rs 81,000 crore dedicated freight corridor, in letters to nine chief ministers urging them to intervene and told them that the prime minister was "monitoring the project closely". Following concerns raised by the PMO, Goyal in letters to the chief ministers of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Jharkhand has highlighted how the dedicated freight corridor has been facing "long-pending issues" which have remained "unresolved". The two dedicated freight corridors which are currently under construction -- the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal -- had December 2021 as their completion date which has now been pushed back by six months to June 2022, according to a statement from the Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav who said that the delay was because of the disruption of work due to the coronavirus pandemic. The minister has specially urged the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's personal intervention to resolve the bottlenecks in his state as over 1,000 km of the DFC passes through it. "The prime minister has been monitoring the progress of the project closely. Over 1,000 km length of DFC passes through the state of Uttar Pradesh... However, certain issues relating to land acquisition and ROB construction still persist, which need to be resolved urgently for ensuring commissioning of the project work within targeted time. "You may kindly appreciate that bottlenecks, even in a few stretches in this type of liner project, will stall the commissioning of the entire project," Goyal said in his letter. He has listed a slew of problems facing the Railways -- pending road over bridges (ROB), hindrances in physical possession of land in areas like Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Saharanpur among others due to agitation, arbitration cases, demand for compensation and jobs by villagers, undue demand of lease rent by the Uttar Pradesh forest department and protests by villages over building of ROB in Mirzapur district. In the letters, Goyal has listed all the issues that are being faced by the Railways in specific areas in the states. In West Bengal and Jharkhand, the minister has raised issues of delay in disbursal of awards, arbitration and mutation. "Out of total length of 1,839 km of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, 203 km (Gomoh-Dankuni) is passing through the state of West Bengal and likely to attract major investment being planned under PPP model. The foremost criterion for initiating bidding for this project is to acquire at least 90 per cent land with mutation. As such, success of this project in your state depends upon early availability of land. "However, delay in disbursal of awards, pending arbitration, mutations and hindrances in possession of land etc. in various districts has adversely affected project work... You will appreciate that removal of these hindrances are essential to ensure commencement of project work," Goyal wrote in his letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In his letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Goyal said that the state was a major beneficiary of the project, as 236 km of Eastern DFC is passing through the districts of Gaya, Aurangabad, Kaimur and Rohtas and likely to attract major investment in your state. He said that land acquisition in certain stretches is held up for long due to delay in disbursal of awards, pending arbitration, mutations and hindrances in possession of land which "adversely affected the project work". The minister has highlighted two major issues in almost all the states -- land acquisition and delay by the local governments in building land approaches and road over bridges (ROB). In his letter to the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Goyal highlighted how out of the total of 1,504 km of the WDFC, 565 km is in the state. Out of the 60 ROBs that were to be constructed, 32 were to be built by the state, however, only 2 have been built and the progress of the other 20 are slow. Land acquisition for the approaches for 46 out of the 60 ROBs are also pending, he said. Similarly in states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Punjab, delay in land acquisition for ROBs by the state governments have delayed the project. Railways will also hold a review with state government officials of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra on September 1. DFCCIL has been tasked with developing Indian Railways' quadrilateral linking the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah, commonly known as the Golden Quadrilateral. The overall cost is pegged at Rs 81,459 crore. In the first phase the organisation is constructing the Western DFC (1,504 route km) and Eastern DFC (1,856 route km) spanning a total length of 3,360 route km. These corridors were targeted to be completed in phases by December 2021. DFCCIL had completed a total of 500 km till January.

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