December 2018

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20 December 2018 TECH www.theasianindependent.co.uk US dollar falls on economic growth fears New York, The US dollar slid in late trading on Tuesday as an inverted US Treasury yield curve sparked general concerns about a slowdown in US economic growth. In late New York trading, the euro was down to $1.1341 from $1.1342 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to $1.2717 from $1.2726 in the previous session, Xinhua news agency reported. The Australian dollar was down to $0.7337 from $0.7348. The US dollar bought 112.81 Japanese yen, lower than 113.68 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar decreased to 0.9974 Swiss franc from 0.9988 Swiss franc, and it was up to 1.3247 Canadian dollars from 1.3210 Canadian dollars. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.07 per cent to 96.9680. Over the past five decades, an inversion of yield spread between the two-year and 10-year notes appeared ahead of every recession in the US. Analysts cautioned that the latest inversion between short-dated and long-dated bonds signalled market expectations that US economic growth will slow down. The recent broad sell-offs in the stock markets have prompted some investors to turn to the comparatively less risky US Treasury bonds and also increased demands for the greenback as a safe-haven currency because of its high liquidity. However, analysts said as traders grew worried about sagging US growth, longer-dated Treasury bond yields have been sharply weighed down. Equity indices end lower as RBI’s policy fails to cheer investors Mumbai, Broadly negative global cues as well as disappointment over the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy announcement dragged the key Indian equity indices to end in the red for the second straight day on Wednesday. According to market observers, caution over initial signs on re-emergence of trade tension between the US and China subdued the Asian markets and subsequently impacted the domestic indices. Even the disappointment over the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to maintain its stance of “calibrated tightening” unchanged had its impact on the investor sentiments. In addition, the RBI’s monetary policy committee (MPC) kept its key lending rate for commercial banks unchanged at 6.5 per cent for the second time in succession. However, RBI’s announcement to continue its liquidity infusion measures including OMOs (open market operations) arrested the sharp decline in the equity market. Till now, RBI has injected durable liquidity through open market operation purchases to the tune of Rs 1.36 trillion in the current financial year. “The pace of our OMOs has stepped up with the injection of slightly over Rs 1 trillion in the last three months. Second, the RBI has also provided liberal infusion of liquidity through term repos in addition to the usual provision via the LAF…,” RBI Deputy Governor Viral V. Acharya said at the post-MPC meeting press conference. “Based on our assessment of durable liquidity needs going forward, we have already announced an OMO purchase program of Rs 40,000 crore for December. We expect that this increased frequency and quantum of OMO purchases may be required until end of March.” Index-wise, the S&P BSE Sensex lost close to 250 points, while the NSE Nifty50 settled at 10,784.95 points. All sectoral indices on BSE ended in the red led by metal, auto and healthcare stocks. Interest sensitive banking stocks traded 1 per cent lower on the BSE. However, the Nifty IT index saw a recovery as it was the only sectoral index ending in green with marginal gains. The Sensex settled lower 0.69 per cent, or 249.90 points, at 35,884.41, from its previous close of 36,134.31. It touched an intra-day high of 36,048.65 and a low of 35,777.81. Oil prices slide as Trump urges OPEC not to cut supply New York, Oil prices have extended losses as US President Donald Trump once again tried to dampen OPEC’s efforts to tackle falling oil prices amid market expectations on further output cut. “Hopefully OPEC will be keeping oil flows as is, not restricted. The World does not want to see, or need, higher oil prices!” Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery decreased $0.36 to settle at $52.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery decreased $0.52 to close at $61.56 Kohima, Union Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons on Wednesday said the Central government has initiated many new programmes and schemes for the development of tourism in the northeastern states. Speaking at the Hornbill Festival, the Festival of all Festivals in Nagaland, Alphons pointed out that the Central government has given Rs 1,351 crore for the northeastern states to develop the tourism industry. “Nagaland alone is getting Rs 197 crore for two (tourism) projects,” he said. “For Nagaland and entire northeast, tourism is a future. I don’t really think there is any place under the sun which is more beautiful than northeast India, particularly Nagaland,” dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. The remarks came just a day prior US stocks tumble amid worries over possible economic slowdown New York, US stocks plunged on Tuesday with all three major indices erasing more than 3 per cent, amid worries over inverted yield curve signalling a possible economic slowdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 799.36 points, or 3.10 per cent, to 25,027.07. The S&P 500 decreased 90.31 points, or 3.24 per cent, to 2,700.06, Xinhua reported. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 283.09 points, or 3.80 per cent, to 7,158.43. The US three-year treasury note yield stood at 2.805 percent, higher than the five-year note on Tuesday. The inverted yield curve caught investors’ attention because historical statistics showed that when short-term yields trade above longer-term rates a recession could follow. Fears of a possible economic slowdown were also spurred by weakerthan-expected quarterly guidance from Toll Brothers. The US leading builder reported its first fall in quarterly orders in more than four years, hit by rising interest rates and higher home prices. The company’s results are the latest evidence of slowing housing demand, after years of steady recovery following the housing crash a decade ago. The US Census data showed new home sales have declined for 11 straight months. On sectors, financials and industrials led the slide, declining 4.40 per cent and 4.35 per cent respectively. Apple shares fell 4.40 per cent in intraday trading after HSBC downgraded the stock, citing too much dependence on a single product and slowing emerging markets economies. HSBC downgraded Apple to hold from buy and cut its 12-month price target to $200 from $205. Among other Dow components that plunged were Caterpillar, Boeing and Intel which declined 6.93 per cent, 4.85 per cent and 4.75 per cent respectively. Alphons said. Noting that Nagaland represents everything wonderful about the country, the Tourism Minister said, “The colour, music, dance, textile and food, it’s such an amazing place. The hyper active Chief Minister (Neiphiu Rio), who is everywhere, is leading Mumbai, In its penultimate monetary policy review of the current fiscal, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday kept its key lending rate for commercial banks unchanged at 6.5 per cent for the second time in succession. Consequently, the central bank’s reverse repo rate has been maintained at 6.25 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the bank rate at 6.75 per cent. The RBI’s monetary policy committee (MPC) also made no changes to its stance of “calibrated tightening” adopted in the last policy review conducted in October. The decision on keeping the policy rate unchanged was taken unanimously by the six-member MPC headed by RBI Governor Urjit R. Patel. However, Ravindra H. Dholakia voted to change the stance to neutral. According to the RBI, even as this state into an amazing state of prosperity.” He narrated his conversation with the Union Minister of Civil Aviation regarding helicopter services from Guwahati to Dimapur to Kohima and to Imphal and from Imphal back to Dimapur, where to OPEC’s meeting in Vienna, piling pressure on the Saudi-led cartel, Russia and other nonmember nations over potential global oil policy-making. Moscow has shown willingness to cooperate with OPEC to cut oil production. Russia’s oil giant Lukoil said it’s ready to cut production if the upcoming meeting results in a deal to prop up prices, the company’s CEO Vagit Alekperov told reporters, according to TASS news agency. Yet he said such a reduction could be done “only gradually,” due to the adverse weather conditions in Western Siberia. “The reduction should be smooth, just like last year,” Alekperov was quoted as saying. RBI keeps policy rate intact; stance unchanged inflation projections have been revised downwards significantly and some of the risks pointed out in the last resolution have been mitigated, especially of crude oil prices, several uncertainties still cloud the inflation outlook. “The MPC noted that the benign outlook for headline inflation is driven mainly by the unexpected softening of food inflation and collapse in oil prices in a relatively short period of time,” Patel said at the post-meeting press conference. “Excluding food items, inflation has remained sticky and elevated, and the output gap remains virtually closed.” As per the review statement, based on an overall assessment, GDP growth for 2018-19 has been projected at 7.4 per cent (7.2-7.3 per cent in H2) as in the October policy, and for H1:2019-20 at 7.5 per cent, “with risks somewhat to the downside”. Centre initiates new schemes for tourism development in NE states : Alphons the Minister agreed to his request. “I come from Kerala which is known as ‘God’s own land’ but I think this is ‘God’s own paradise’,” Alphons said. Highlighting the projects undertaken for the poor under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said: “We are on a huge path of progress. Tourism industry in India provides employment to 84 million people, and India generates $234 billion from tourism, contributing 7 per cent of the GDP.” Expressing his happiness on the growth of tourism within the last four and a half years and the potential of tourism, Alphons said: “we have amazing people here, smiling all the time, and who are the epitome of hospitality.”
www.theasianindependent.co.uk Smile Train India to bring smile on Himachal children's faces Shimla : Finally, children born with clefts in Himachal Pradesh have a fair reason to smile! Smile Train India, a non-government organisation, the National Health Mission and the state Directorate of Health and Family Welfare have signed a memorandum of understanding to enable free surgeries for children with congenital cleft lip and palate. Through this three-year partnership, the patients for the surgeries will be identified through a programme named the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram. Smile Train will support free surgeries and post-operative care for the children, a government spokesperson told IANS. Since 2000, Smile Train has supported more than 1,700 cleft repair surgeries, free of cost, in Himachal Pradesh. This new partnership looks at intensifying outreach so that more children born with clefts can benefit from the free surgeries and get a chance to lead a normal life. While signing the memorandum of understanding, Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Mission Director Manmohan Sharma said this partnership will help children with untreated cleft access free treatment in a timely manner through Smile Train India's partner hospitals. Renu Mehta, Area Director with Strategic Projects in South Asia in Smile Train said: "We are thankful to the state government for their support in spreading awareness about clefts and the treatment available." "With the support of the state, we are sure that we will be able to reach out to children born with clefts from remote areas, who do not have access to quality cleft treatment or surgery," she added. WORLD UK government calls for reducing tablets taken by older people London, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Saturday called for a drive to reduce the number of tablets and pills taken by older people after a survey found nearly half of over 75- year-olds were taking five or more medicines, with the percentage rising as people get older. The review will look at patients most at risk of suffering from adverse effects from overprescribing of tablets and pills, Xinhua news agency reported. Spending on medicines by the National Health Service (NHS) in England has grown from $16.55 billion in 2010-2011 to over $23 billion in 2017-2018, an average growth of around 5 per cent. It now means 1.1 billion prescriptions for medicines are dispensed every year by family doctors, known as GPs. The review into medicine use will be led by Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Dr Keith Ridge. He will look at addressing “problematic polypharmacy” where patients take multiple medicines unnecessarily, the report said. Ridge said recent successes by NHS England to reduce unnecessary antibiotics and medicines in care homes and family doctor surgeries, known as polypharmacy, are beginning to end overmedication for people with learning disabilities, showing what can be done on what is an important topic. The review will consider individual circumstances where patients may be most at risk of suffering from adverse effects from overprescribing. The overprescribing of medicines can be dangerous for older people who often take a cocktail of different medicines to manage complex health conditions, said health officials. They may suffer side effects of their medicine regimes that lead to them falling and being admitted to hospital. Some patients remain for years on repeat prescriptions which roll over without ever being reviewed by doctors. The British Health Secretary said: “Poorly managed prescribing can lead to serious issues for patients such as increased admissions to hospital or antibiotic resistance. “As we invest an extra 20.5 billion pounds ($26.1 billion) a year into our NHS we want to empower doctors and pharmacists to use the data available to ensure patients get the medicines they need and stop taking those that no longer benefit them.” The survey will also look at the role of digital technologies in reducing overprescribing as well as increasing other forms of care, including social prescribing. December 2018 21 Debina, Gurmeet to represent India at world summit Mumbai : Star couple Debina Bonnerjee and Gurmeet Choudhary will represent India at a world summit to be held in Instanbul, Turkey later this month. Debina, an actress and a lifestyle blogger, will attend the INFLOW Global Summit 2018, which will begin from December 17. The summit will bring together social media content creators, opinion leaders and sector professionals with brands in various sectors for informative and fun activities. Debina started blogging under the name 'Debina Decodes' last year. "It is exciting to be amidst talented people from various field across the globe. I started blogging out of passion as I always loved to document interesting food and places," Debina said in a statement. "Since Gurmeet and I travel together, most of my travel blogs are with him. So, the summit team extended an invite to Gurmeet as well as two is always better than one and also beneficial for them to reach a bigger audience," she added. India- East Midlands Business relations on the rise ‘India Derby Business’ meeting was hosted by the Derby City Council on 27th November 2018. Consul General, Aman Puri shared his insights besides giving an update on Indian economy stating, ‘though Indian economy is highly competitive, it provides an enormous opportunity for British businesses for growth, and returns in the long term’ The meeting was focussed on identifying the successful examples which could be used further by Derby City Council to influence policy, investment and drive economic growth between India and UK. Cllr. Baggy Shanker of Derby City Council, moderated the meeting and discussed how the various sectors in Derby can benefit from the huge pool of available resources in India, the fastest growing major economy of the world. Leader of Derby City Council Cllr. Chris Poulter expressed great satisfaction that the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Derby City Council and East Midlands Chamber of Commerce with Indian Chamber of Commerce – Kolkata in January 2018, has resulted in 9 businesses, based in and around Derby, to form business links with their counter parts in Kolkata. Subsequently, Consul General, Aman Puri toured the facilities of ‘Rolls Royce – Aerospace Centre’ in Derby where Mr Paul Harris, Director of Economic Development gave an overview of the economic impact of Rolls Royce on the aerospace industry, and the larger economy. He also highlighted the Company’s Indian footprint including work which Rolls Royce is currently doing in reaching out to a targeted 6 million kids, to kindle their interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) courses. In order to reach that overall goal, Rolls Royce have taken formed partnerships with NGO’s & institutions in India where 30,000 students have been covered in the programme. Dr Puri also visited the facilities of ‘Bombardier’– a world leading manufacturer of trains. Mr Will Tanner, Director Public Relations and Public Affairs, Bombardier UK, gave an insightful tour of the train manufacturing giant, and also presented interesting facts on Bombardier & the relationship with Delhi Metro. He also highlighted the manufacturing taking place in India for export to Queensland, Australia supporting the ‘Make in India’ initiative. The day ended with a visit to ‘Pattonair’ – leading global aerospace and defence supply chain service provider, where Mr Mark Ness, Commercial Director focussed on Pattonair’s working relations with India and how Pattonair is in the process of setting up their first supply centre in Bangalore. He also shared their plans to have India as a base to supply to other economies. He mentioned the support provided by the ‘Access India Programme’, for Pattonair to establish their footprint in India. To conclude, Consul General, Aman Puri lauded the efforts of Cllr. Baggy Shanker for organising such a fruitful visit. Consul General also expressed hope that a major ‘ Aerospace Conference’ could be hosted at Derby in the middle of 2019, which will further strengthen India and East Midlands business relationship. Midlands Engine had supported a Trade Mission to India in October, 2018, during which Secretary of State Rt. Hon. James Brokenshire was accompanied by Mayor Andy Street, and Sir John Peace, Chairman of Midlands Engine. Consulate will be supporting the next Midands Trade Mission to India, and will encourage British Small and Medium Enterprises from East Midlands to join in large numbers to explore first hand, the amazing opportunities available in India. CBI books Delhi firm, its directors for Rs 10,000 crore fraud New Delhi, The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against a Delhi-based chit fund company and its directors for cheating lakhs of investors to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore by promising to double their investment in a year. The CBI booked Karol Bagh-based firm tviexpress.com and its promoters and directors Tarun Trikha, Varun Trikha, Veena Trikha, Sikha Trikha, Shakti Sharad, Anoop Kumar and Kabita Ganguly under charges of cheating, forgery and violation of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) guidelines. It was alleged that the firm was engaged in the business of share trading, commodities trading, holiday package booking and airticketing without any legal sanction or approval required under law. “The firm and its functionaries have been accused of collecting money in the name of Pacific Royal Airlines. They siphoned and misappropriated more than Rs 10,000 crore of investors’ funds by inducing them to invest in their schemes by offering double returns on their investments within a year. But these promised returns were never paid back,” the investors’ complaint alleged. “The accused had created a software through which it was promised that investors can redeem their investments, but it never worked.” The CBI’s move comes after the Supreme Court’s May 9, 2014 order to probe all chit fund companies. The case was earlier being probed by the West Bengal Police.
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December 2018

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