21 January 2016

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Precious Kashmir Controlling by owning Media is a strong force today. A phenomenon that has identified ways to get things done the way they are expected (by a few players) to be done. The ownership of media becomes all the more important since owning it means that you have control over how things are perceived, how people, policies, happenings, events, and changes etc. are described and finally whether they ought to be accepted or rejected by those who matter. Statistically speaking, until 2011, over 82,000 publications were registered with the Registrar of Newspapers. Even though in India, news on radio is still a monopoly of the government, there are more than 250 FM (frequency modulation) radio stations in the country. Nearly 800 television channels have been allowed uplink or downlink by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Among these, over 300 claim to broadcast ‘news and current affairs’. Not to mention the endless list of websites and social media that adds a lot to the above numbers. How many channels out of those 300 ‘news and current affairs’ are we acquainted with? The channels that hit the chord may include IBN7, NDTV, TIMESNOW, ZEE NEWS, and ABP NEWS etc. The rest of the smaller players are either pushed into oblivion or are taken over by some major game changers. This phenomenon is called Oligopoly. Media oligopoly is a reality in today’s world. An oligopoly is when a few firms dominate a market. The process of oligopoly starts with buying out all the small scale companies. This ensures strengthening of the large players in the market. The competition is eliminated with buyouts and forced outs (lacking resources or finances). Hence the remaining parties tend to dominate the entire media market and create an oligopoly of media. The global media oligopoly includes large conglomerates like Viacom, CBS Corporation, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and News Corp, Bertelsmann AG, Sony, Comcast, Vivendi, Televisa, The Walt Disney Company, Hearst Corporation, Organizações Globo and Lagardère Group. As of 2012, The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the US, with News Corporation, Time Warner and Viacom ranking second, third and fourth respectively. Internationally, Google is a major player in this Oligopoly. It has spent more than $28 billion on a whopping 173 companies since 2001. That's more than one company per month. Some of the companies it bought are YouTube, Android, AdMob, Motorola Mobility, Makani Power, Channel Intelligence, and 166 more. Google’s dominance does not end in the online search and advertising world only; its research projects include creating a neural network, developing an energy kite that generates more energy at lower cost than conventional wind systems (Makani Power), and a lot others that will surprise us. The point of saying all this is that any media exposure today is not void of its own agendas. So as a thinking audience, blindly accepting any happening around the world would not be a smart choice. T Edit Srinagar,Thursday 21.01.2016 4 Philippines delicately wedged between US and China Richard Javad Heydarian he past few days have been abuzz with coverage of China’s wild economic swings, as volatility in its financial markets, coupled with structural slowdown, chip away at the country’s long-held image of prosperity. No less than George Soros, a global icon known for his prescient economic forecasts, has warned about the prospects of another global economic crisis on the heels of a whimpering China. For some countries, however, it is China’s growing territorial assertiveness in adjacent waters that is of grave concern. Undeterred by its anaemic economy and successive stock market meltdowns, China kicked off the year with a bang by conducting multiple test flights to bitterly contested islands in the South China Sea. Having constructed a gigantic airstrip on an artificially created island (Fiery Cross), China showed little reticence with displaying its growing ability to dominate the skies above arguably the world’s most important international waterway. Alarmed by China’s territorial assertiveness, the Philippines has once again opened up its most prized military base to US troops. Smaller neighbouring countries have desperately welcomed growing US military footprint in the region in order to stave off a revanchist China, which is gradually reconfiguring the Asian maritime seascape in its own image. A history of dependence For much of its modern history, the Philippines has lived in the shadow of its former colonial master, the United States. Though the Southeast Asian nation gained formal independence in the mid-20th century, it effectively outsourced its national security to Washington throughout the Cold War decades. A series of landmark agreements, particularly the Military Assistance Pact (1947), the Military Bases Agreement (1947), and the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) of 1951, undergirded the Philippines’ acute dependence on the superpower. The former US colony served as a critical forward deployment base against the Communist threat in East Asia. The eventual collapse of the Soviet Union ... unleashed a patriotic euphoria in the Philippines, which precipitated the ejection of US bases from the country shortly after. The Philippines, which hosted America’s largest overseas military bases in Subic and Clark, effectively acted as Washington’s unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific. In particular, the former US colony served as a critical forward deployment base against the Communist threat in East Asia. The eventual collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), however, unleashed a patriotic euphoria in the Philippines, which precipitated the ejection of US bases from the country shortly after. Constitutionally, the Philippines was barred from hosting permanent US troops on its oil. The Philippines was by now intent on becoming more self-reliant, abandoning its explicitly pro-US foreign policy throughout the Cold War days. It didn’t take long, however, before the Philippines realised that it was dangerously unprepared for full independence. The China threat Shortly after the exit of US bases, China occupied the Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef, triggering a diplomatic crisis between the two neighbours. In response, the Philippines re-invited US soldiers under a Visiting Forces Agreement, which oversaw expanding joint military exercises between the two allies. But US troops were barred from (i) engaging in direct combat operations and (ii) establishing permanent bases in the Philippines. The South China Sea disputes are nothing new, dating back to the Cold War years when China squared up to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries for mastery of disputed islands, resources, and waters in the area. But in the past few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of maritime spats, with China flexing its muscles at the expense of weaker claimant states such as the Philippines, which lost the Scarborough Shoal to its giant neighbour in 2012. In the past two years alone, China has engaged in a construction frenzy on disputed land features across the Spratly chain of islands, artificially transforming rocks, atolls and shoals into gigantic islands, which now host advanced dual-purpose facilities. Hopelessly outgunned by China, which has rapidly developed both its conventional and asymmetrical military capabilities, the Philippines has tried to solicit greater US military assistance in the form of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which was signed hours before US President Barack Obama’s visit to Manila in 2014. A group of patriotic and progressive groups, however, immediately challenged the new security agreement at the Philippine Supreme Court. They contend that the EDCA is a violation of Philippine sovereignty, will lead to more abuses by US soldiers against Filipino citizens, and necessitates the concurrence of the Philippine Senate, which bitterly resented being bypassed by the Benigno Aquino administration. Not Game-Changer After almost a year of deliberations, the country’s highest court ruled that the bilateral security agreement was consistent with Philippine constitution and, as an Executive Agreement, doesn’t necessitate Senate ratification. It was arguably a decision that was both populist and born out of an acute sense of urgency. The vast majority of Filipinos (92 percent) have a favourable view of the US, the highest among any nation, so they are expected to warmly welcome the prospect of growing US military presence in the country. Both the ruling establishment and majority of Filipinos are also deeply worried about China’s growing assertiveness in Philippine-claimed waters. Printer, Publisher, Owner : Afaq Ahmad Bhat Editor: Afaq Ahmad Bhat Legal Advisor: Hakim Sami Yaqoob (Advocate) Published From: Rajbagh Opposite Radio Colony Srinagar J&K Printed At: Alsafa Printing Press Hazuri Bagh Srinagar RNI No: JKENG/2013/55310 Cell No: 9419081703 Other Opinion Game, set and money World tennis finds itself in the throes of a major scandal with investigators’ revelations of a long-running match-fixing malaise exposed by the media, which timed the report for the start of the year’s first grand slam event. Much the same can be said about virtually any other modern sport because as yet no one has found a way to satisfy human greed. But very few sports make genuine attempts to get to the bottom of the matter, weed out the bad elements and contain the image damage, with the exception of soccer which is extremely serious about corruption, among players and referees at least. When the world’s top player of the contemporary game says he had been offered money to throw a match, the game must sit up and take notice. Safeguards like the integrity unit must be cranked to investigate thoroughly every rumour because the toxic canker of corruption is never far from ruining sport. When it is being said by private investigators that 16 players, including winners of grand slam titles and ranked in the world’s top 50, are involved in suspicious activity, and that many of them are actually playing the current Australian Open, there must be some fire behind all the smoke. It is too often the case that sports administrators prefer denial mode, hoping the whispers will go away; only sustained damage to the game’s credibility wakes them up. What greater hypocrisy can there be than allowing betting firms to sponsor international tournaments in soccer, tennis and cricket? This nexus between sport and the betting market must go if sport is serious about cleaning up the stables. Email: preciouskashmir@gmail.com Website: www.preciouskashmir.com How to keep start-ups standing Sanjeev Ahluwalia Startups are nimble problem solvers and disrupters. But babus have a deep aversion to be fingered by audit. Only an explicit budgetary direction to engage tangibly with startups can nudge departmental secretaries to risk public money. Being workaholics and 24x7 people, Team Modi must be avid coffee drinkers, with a yen for espresso. For the uninitiated, espresso is the end product of forcing boiling water through ground coffee, thereby concentrating the caffeine content and enhancing the “kick”. India’s “espresso” moment happened last Saturday in New Delhi with the grand inauguration of “Start Up Stand Up”, the new campaign with the unfortunate acronym SUSU. This new mission focuses government resources and effort around the creation of new entrepreneurs. Established businessmen were not welcome to join the party at Vigyan Bhawan. And some confusion prevailed whether startups in the old economy space were on the guest list, or it was restricted to the “new economy” subset of IT-enabled startups. But the crowd of young “been there and wannabe” entrepreneurs were not quibbling about such nit-picky issues. They were there to bond, stamp their feet and whistle their approval at being noticed and included in the national mainstream. The presence of the founders of Uber, WeWork and Softbank was icing on the cake, which undoubtedly was an extended opportunity for “selfies” with Prime Minister Modi. Expectedly, older inhabitants of this charmed business space were not impressed by the ground swell of support from the young. They spent their time warning against the danger of expecting too much from this space, which is already clogged. Apparently of the 500 e-commerce startups launched in India, only 10 survive — a survival rate of 2 per cent. Internationally, the survival rate for startups is better at 40 per cent. But India’s burgeoning, literate, young “wannabe” entrepreneurs would have no truck with such pessimism. They pushed and shoved and cheered their way into the frisson of excitement which Team Modi had carefully generated for the event. Hope sprung eternal in every ones’ heart as Prime Minister Modi stoked the embers of youth entrepreneurship. So how long will the “espresso moment” last? Adrenalin has a self-regulating mechanism for ramping down. The Prime Minister’s gesture is a welcome beginning to look beyond the “big men in suits” for business solutions. Mr Modi is right when he looks to the young and the intrepid to take risks, follow their dreams and escape the golden handcuffs of contracted servitude. If we want to scale up jobs and disperse commercial opportunities across the country,facilitating small startups is likely to give the biggest bang for the public buck. India is not short of business enterprises. We have 1.4 million registered companies though 30 per cent are closed, being liquidated or not functional. In comparison, our workforce is around 700 million. Just one working company per 700 workers is way too low. Even worse,75 per cent of the operational companies have an authorised capital of less than Rs 25 lakh ($38,000) and one-third have less than Rs 1 lakh ($1,500). This illustrates their limited potential for adding to gross employment. It also explains why only 1.5 per cent of the workforce is in formal, private employment, with the government providing jobs for another 2 per cent. Incentivising new entrepreneurs makes sense. The Prime Minister announced a package of goodies to induce those present to just go and do it — tax breaks; venture capital; easier entry and exit processes and innovation hubs. These are the basics for any industry to grow. But startups need more. By definition, a successful startup is small but poised for explosive growth company. This is what attracts investors to accept the higher risk in anticipation of the huge rewards from added volumes and scale. The government is best placed to help in adding scale. However, care must be taken that government finance does not dilute the financial discipline which private finance imposes. One option is for the finance minister to encourage ministries to spend a small proportion of their purchase budgets for this purpose. The Union government has a residual budget of around of Rs 7 lakh crore ($100 billion), after accounting for salaries and pensions, overheads, interest payments and transfers to state governments. Even a 1 per cent allocation for buy-back arrangements with startups translates into performance-dependent support of Rs 7,000 crore ($1 billion) annually. This amount could usefully provide a revenue cushion to around 500 startups. The Prime Minister proposed to provide Rs 2,000 crore ($300 million) annually as a public grant for institutional finance and a guarantee of around Rs 400 crore ($60 million) to de-risk venture capital. Letting actual user departments contract directly with startups using their individual budgets is preferable. First, encouraging government departments to work with startups has the hope that some of the private sector mojo will rub-off on them. Indeed, government officials who participated in the inaugural function seemed a far cry from the stodgy, grumps that “babus” are presumed to be. Second, organically linking actual government users with startup founders bridges the chasm between small business and government. Startups are nimble problem solvers and disrupters. They can be used beneficially to enhance the effectiveness of public spending. But babus have a deep aversion to be fingered by audit. Only an explicit budgetary direction to engage tangibly with startups can nudge departmental secretaries to risk public money.Third, it makes sense to de-concentrate the mandate for growing startups across the entire government architecture. Embedding this objective into central schemes further extends this mission to the state governments which manage these schemes. Lastly, government should focus on encouraging startups in enhancing the rule of law, social protection, human development and agriculture. Commerce and industry are already well serviced by established mentors and private venture capital funds. Last Saturday’s fever in Vigyan Bhawan was just the froth at the top of a cup of espresso. Keeping the adrenalin going will take far more grounded effort to keep those who stood up from sitting down again. The writer is adviser, Observer Research Foundation >>>>>>>>> Please send your articles and letters on preciouskashmir@gmail.com >>>>>>>>>
PRECIOUS KASHMIR Sensex Nifty Gold Business/ International Thursday 5 www.preciouskashmir.com 21.01.2016 Silver Dollar J&K Bank Yes Bank SBI ICICI Bank HDFC Bank 417.80 125.80 227.00 114.00 0.31 1.90 35.00 9.30 4.35 17.50 24062.04 7309.30 26,284.00 34,542.00 67.95 66.70 646.25 173.65 224.40 1,018.30 Sensex ends 418 points lower at 24062 Mumbai, Jan 20: Markets ended at fresh 52-week closing lows on Wednesday after slump in crude oil prices and weak growth from China renewed fears of a global growth slowdown. The S&P BSE Sensex ended down 418 points at 24,062 and the Nifty50 closed 126 points lower at 7,309. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended down 2% each. Market breadth ended negative with 2,085 losers and 589 gainers on the BSE. “Markets continue to remain under the overhang of a severe sell-off in global equities and where any sense of a bottom would only be realised when there is stability in the Chinese markets. Our current earnings season does not leave much scope for taking contrarian bets as positive surprises are likely to be few and far between. What’s made it worse for the broader market (mid-caps, small-caps) is the probable exit of the retail investor after nearly 14 months of support. Further, with the IMF downgrading its global GDP growth forecast for 2016 to 3.4% and keeping China well below 7% and with oil still fighting shy of a bottom global cues remain uncertain,” said Tirthankar Patnaik, India Strategist at Mizuho Bank. Meanwhile, the Indian rupee touched a 28-month low and was trading at 68.04 to the dollar in intra-day trade after falling global crude oil prices sparked off global growth concerns. Crude oil prices fell further on concerns of oversupplies while resumption of exports from Iran also weighed on sentiment. Nymex crude futures were trading below $28 a barrel while Brent crude futures were trading tad above $28 a barrel. SECTORS & STOCKS All sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE Metal index was the top loser down 3% tracking weakness in China followed by Bankex, Capital Goods, Power and Realty indices among others. Of the 30 Sensex stocks only Bajaj Auto, Wipro and Hero MotoCorp ended with marginal gains. Index heavweight Reliance Industries which had gained in the run-up Oil prices fall further; US crude slumps below $28 Singapore, Jan 20: Crude futures slumped again in early Asian trade on Wednesday, with U.S. oil falling to its lowest since September 2003 below $28 a barrel on worries over a global supply glut. That came as the International Energy Agency, which advises industrialised countries on energy policy, warned on Tuesday that oil markets could “drown in oversupply”. U.S. crude futures were trading down 46 cents at $28.00 a barrel at 0136 GMT, after dropping to $27.92 earlier in the session – a new low since September 2003. The contract settled down 96 cents, or 3.26 percent, the session before. Brent futures dropped 19 cents to $28.57 a barrel after settling up 21 cents, or 0.7 per cent, in the previous session. They were hovering close to a 12-year low. “Oil prices are at a level where OPEC countries are all struggling. They are selling oil for cashflow not for profit,” said Jonathan Barratt, chief investment financial officer at Sydney’s Ayers Alliance. “U.S. producers are holding out, but I think they’re bleeding as well,” he said. “Looking at current prices, oil producers will engineer something to push prices higher.” U.S. commercial crude oil and gasoline stocks were forecast to have risen by 3 million to 485.6 million barrels last week, a preliminary Reuters survey taken ahead of weekly inventory data, showed on Tuesday. Stocks data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) is due out later on Wednesday, while official figures from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be released on Thursday, a day later due to a public holiday. Ample storage space for crude around the world, including 230 million barrels of new storage to be completed this year, will help prevent further sharp price falls but will weigh against significant price rises, according to analysts and industry watchers. Global financial markets seem to be overreacting to falling oil prices and the risk of a sharp downturn in China’s economy, Maurice Obstfeld, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist said on Tuesday. “The oil price puts stresses on oil exporters … but there is a silver lining for consumers worldwide, so it’s not an unmitigated negative.” to its third quarter earnings witnessed profit taking despite robust third quarter earnings. The stock ended down 3.8% contributing the most to the market decline. Banks which are a proxy to the economy continued to witness selling pressure. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI ended down 1.8%-5.1% each. Axis Bank ended down 1% ahead of its results later today. PNB, Bank of Baroda ended down 3.2-5.8% each. L&T recovered from its day’s low to JK Bank vigorous on CSR initiatives in Jammu Chairman lays foundation at “Balgran” Jammu, Jan 20: Continuing with its Corporate Social Responsibility programme to reach out to organisations working for the welfare of poor and neglected in the state, J&K Bank today inaugurated the construction of a dormitory for girls at BAL- GRAN, Charitable Home for destitute/children at Chhani Rama. The Bank’s Chairman and CEO Mushtaq Ahmad laid the foundation stone for the dormitory, to be built exclusively for girls, amid appreciation and applause from a gathering of socially conscious citizens of state in a simple yet impressive function. Executive President Abdul Rauf Bhat, Zonal Head Jammu (Central) Arvind Gupta, Vice- end down 0.9%. The company today announced that the heavy civil infrastructure business along with its joint venture partner, Daewoo E&C of South Korea, has won a major order worth Rs 3,115 crore from the Bihar State Road Development Corporation. Other Sensex losers include, Tata Motors, Infosys, ITC, HDFC and Adani Ports among others. Among other shares, Aditya Birla Nuvo ended down at Rs 883 after the stock turned today ex-scheme of arrangement today. In May last year, Aditya Birla Nuvo announced merger of all its branded apparel businesses into one entity, Pantaloons Fashion & Retail now known as Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail. Under the scheme of arrangement, the apparel businesses of group holding company Aditya Birla Nuvo (ABNL) and of another group firm Madura Garments Lifestyle Retail would be demerged into listed firm Pantaloons Fashion & Retail (PFRL). BASF ended down 4.3%, after hitting its 52-week low, as the specialty chemicals reported a higher net loss of Rs 106 China offers support for Yemen govt as Xi Jinping visits Saudi Arabia Beijing, Jan 20: China has signalled its support for Yemen`s government, which is fighting an Iran-allied militia, on the first day of a visit to Saudi Arabia by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will also be heading to Tehran later in the week. A Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign last year against the Iranian-allied Shi`ite Houthi movement in Yemen, which has seized the capital, Sanaa. The government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is now based in the southern city of Aden. Riyadh sees the Houthis as a proxy for bitter regional rival Iran to expand its influence in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation. The Houthis deny this and say they are waging a revolution against a corrupt government and Gulf Arab powers beholden to the West. A growing diplomatic dispute between Riyadh and Tehran, triggered by mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia`s execution of a prominent Shi`ite cleric, has damaged the outlook for any resolution to the conflict in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and China said in a statement on Wednesday that the two countries affirmed their support for the unity, independence and sovereignty of Yemen. The statement was released by China`s Foreign Ministry after Xi met Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz in Riyadh on Tuesday. All social, religious and political groups in Yemen should maintain their national solidarity and avoid Kurds destroyed ‘thousands’ of Arab homes in Iraq Baghdad, Jan 20: Kurdish forces have destroyed thousands of homes in northern Iraq in an apparent attempt to uproot Arab communities, Amnesty International said Wednesday. The rights group said the destruction took place after Kurdish forces captured areas from ISIS, which overran swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014. Destruction and theft of property has been a frequent occurence in the war against ISIS, angering residents whose support security forces may need to hold recaptured areas. “Peshmerga forces from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Kurdish militias in northern Iraq have bulldozed, blown up and burned down thousands of homes communities in revenge for their perceived support” of ISIS, Amnesty said in a statement. The autonomous Kurdish region’s “forces appear to be spearheading a concerted campaign to forcibly displace Arab communities,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s senior crisis response adviser, said in the statement. “The forced displacement of civilians and the deliberate destruction of homes and property without military justification may amount to war crimes,” Rovera said. Arab civilians who fled fighting have also been barred from returning home. Amnesty documented evidence of “forced displacement and large-scale destruction of homes” by Kurdish forces in three provinces: Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala. The London-based rights watchdog published a similar report about Kurdish forces in neighboring Syria in October, accusing the “autonomous administration” led by Syrian Kurds of war crimes. any decisions that may cause social disruption and chaos, it said. “Both sides stressed support for the legitimate regime of Yemen,” the statement said. Xi is expected in Iran later in the week, with a further stop in Egypt after he leaves Saudi Arabia. Asked whether China was siding with Saudi Arabia over Yemen and whether that could risk upsetting Iran, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had always acted in the interests of the Beijing, Jan 20: The European Union`s ambassador to China said Wednesday it had “grave concerns” over Beijing`s detentions of EU citizens, hours after state media broadcast the purported confession of a Swedish activist held by authorities. Peter Dahlin, who worked for the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, disappeared earlier this month as he prepared to board a flight to Thailand, and appears to have been caught up in a crackdown on human rights lawyers. State broadcaster China Central Television, showed a video of him confessing that he had “violated Chinese law through my activities here”. In stilted tones, he declared: “I have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. I apologise sincerely for this.” Yemeni people and maintaining peace in the Middle East, and had promoted peace talks. “(We) hope clashes in Yemen can come to an end as soon as possible and there can be reconciliation so the country can return to stability,” Hong told a daily news briefing. China relies on the region for oil but has tended to leave Middle Eastern diplomacy to the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France and Russia. However, China has been trying to get more involved, especially in Syria, and recently hosted its foreign minister and opposition officials. China and Saudi Arabia expressed deep concern about Syria and renewed a call for a peaceful political settlement as soon as possible. A Chinese president has not visited Saudi Arabia since 2009, when Hu Jintao went. Jiang Zemin was the last Chinese president to visit Iran, in 2002. Ankara, Jan 20: US President Barack Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan pledged continued cooperation in the fight against militants, including ISIS and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the White House and Turkish presidential sources said. During his phone call to Erdogan, Obama offered his condolences for last week’s bombing in Istanbul, when 10 German tourists were killed in a suicide attack blamed on ISIS, the White House and Turkish presidential sources said. Obama also condemned a recent string of attacks by the PKK against Turkish security forces, and he stressed the need for deescalation, the White House said in a statement. The two leaders said the fight against terrorism would be among a number of topics on the agenda Dahlin`s group has said it offered training to human rights lawyers who have tried to use China`s tightly-controlled judiciary to redress apparent government abuses. “I have no complaints to make,” the Swede was shown saying. “I think my treatment has been fair.” Two purported Chinese colleagues of Dahlin were also shown declaring their guilt. In China high-profile criminal suspects are regularly paraded on television apparently confessing to their actions, in what rights lawyers say is a violation of criminal procedure. It is rare for China to accuse foreigners of national security offences, which can carry heavy penalties, although some have been accused of spying. crore for the third quarter ended December 2015 (Q3FY16) as against loss of Rs 40 crore in the same quarter last year. GLOBAL MARKETS Asian stocks retreated after gaining in the previous session as further slide in global crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiment. US crude futures fell below $28 per barrel while Brent crude was trading below $29 a barrel.Chinese stocks which had surged over 3% in the previous session was trading with marginal losses. Among other markets in the region, Nikkei was down 2.2%, Hang Seng eased 3% while Straits Times was down nearly 2%. European shares also witnessed a sell-off tracking the sharp slide in global crude oil prices and concerns over global economy. Major stock indices like the DAX, CAC-40 and FTSE were down over 2.8%-3.5% each. NIIT ended up 4% in an otherwise weak market after the company today reported 12% Year-on-Year (YoY) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 13.7 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2015 (Q3FY16). President Shujaat Hussain Andrabi and other officers of the bank along with entire BALGRAN management team were present on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion Chairman said, “Making the economic development of J&K more and more inclusive in its scope and substance has been the purpose of our Bank throughout its remarkable journey for more than seven decades now.” “As conscious corporate citizen, we follow this philosophy of inclusion in our CSR programme also whereby we extend our helping hand to all the organisations that focus on bringing the individuals and groups at the margins of society to its secure and dignified core. And in this scheme of things our daughters deserve the best we can offer.” While visiting the entire ‘home’ which houses the school for children also, Chairman announced the establishment of 3 smart classes for 8th, 9th and 10th classes besides face-lifting. He also committed to develop the school ground for children’s sports. He promised to supervise the entire thing personally and see it completed by the end of this financial year. The Chairman said, “I feel privileged to be at this function today and I wish all these wonderful children here at BALGRAN a bright and better future ahead. I hope the smart classes would keep them updated on the information and knowledge front while as the sports ground would help them build other capacities important for their personality development.” “It is a small step towards creating a better and secure social milieu for all of our own children”, he added. Obama, Erdogan vow cooperation against terror when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visits Turkey on Saturday. NATO member Turkey, a member of the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), has increasingly become a target for the militants. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed ISIS for the bombing on Jan. 12 in Istanbul’s historic heart. The suicide bomber is thought to have crossed recently from Syria. ISIS is also believed to be behind other attacks last year in Turkey, including EU has ‘grave concerns’ on China’s detention of Europeans The EU was “deeply concerned” about cases such as Dahlin`s, the grouping`s ambassador to China Hans-Dietmar Schweisgut told reporters. “We do hope it`s not representing the new normal yet, but we do see an extremely worrying trend,” he said. Dahlin`s case came after two Hong Kong booksellers with European citizenship vanished -- one from the former British colony and the other from Thailand -- to re-emerge in China, raising fears of Chinese authorities operating internationally. Lee Bo, who has a British passport, and Swede Gui Minhai were both born in China and were rumoured to be preparing a tell-all book about the love life of Chinese President Xi Jinping. NIIT Q3 net proft at Rs 13.7 crore Mumbai, Jan 20: Education company NIIT Limited posted net profit of Rs 13.7 crore for quarter ended December 31, 2015 compared to Rs 1.8 crore posted in same quarter previous fiscal. The net revenue at Rs 262.3 crore, up 6 per cent year-on-year. In a press statement, the company said that they have expanded Europe operations and that they have commissioned new facilities in Norway & Ireland. Rahul Patwardhan, chief executive officer, NIIT Limited said: “Global corporate training outsourcing is growing steadily. While we further strengthened our Corporate Learning Business operations in US and Europe during the quarter, NIIT is now positioned to leverage emerging corporate learning group (CLG) opportunities back home in India, as we perceive a huge potential for industryaligned, globally benchmarked corporate learning solutions from leading corporates in the country.” CLG which offers Managed Training Services (MTS) to market-leading companies in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, recorded net revenues of Rs 158.6 crore during the quarter, up 17 per cent over same period of the previous year. It added one new MTS customer in Q3, taking the total number of customers to 27, with a Revenue Visibility of $195 million for CLG. Further, strengthening operations in key international markets including Europe and North America, NIIT announced the establishment of a new facility in Bergen, Norway to expand nearshore multi-lingual delivery capability and further invest in the rapid growth of its business in Europe. NIIT now has three established centers in Europe - Dublin, Bergen, and London with a diverse mix of pan-European staff from the UK, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Romania, and Germany. one in the capital Ankara in which more than 100 people were killed. Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast is currently engulfed in the worst violence since the 1990s after the collapse last July of a two-year-long ceasefire with PKK militants. Last week the PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union as well as by Turkey, attacked a police station in a Diyarbakir district with a truck bomb, killing six people including a baby and two toddlers. Japan approves $350 mn for Syrian, Iraqi refugees Tokyo, Jan 20: Japan`s Parliament on Wednesday approved $350 million in humanitarian aid and other support for refugees fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq. The fresh round of aid comes in addition to $810 million to assist refugees inside and outside Syria and Iraq, which was announced last year. The $350 million was included in a supplementary budget bill for the current fiscal year ending March that lawmakers approved, a parliamentary spokeswoman and a foreign ministry official said.
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