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12 July 2019 BUSINESS www.theasianindependent.co.uk Pakistan imported medicines worth Rs 136 cr from India in 2019 Islamabad : Pakistan imported medicines and vaccines worth (Pakistani) Rs 136,99,87,000 from India in 2019, its Health Ministry has said. Express News reported that the imported medicines included life-saving drugs, tablets, syrups and vaccines. According to figures announced by the Pakistan Health Ministry in Senate on Friday, the country imported drugs and vaccines worth (Pakistani) Rs 15,43,17,000 in January; Rs 22,32,47,000 in February; Rs 19,37,37,000 in March; Rs 11,10,42,000 in April; Rs 18,96,47,000 in May and Rs 4,89,12,000 from India. Demanding that the senate be informed about which medicines and vaccines were being imported from India, Senator Abdul Rehman Malik said the government must curb the shortage of snake venom serum and rabies vaccines in Pakistan by making it mandatory for local manufacturers to produce these vaccines in addition to expensive medical products. "It's a pity that medicines are being imported from India and China when Pakistan is self-sufficient in medical raw material. Vaccines made here would be much more affordable," he added. Allahabad Bank defrauded of Rs 17,775 cr by Bhushan Power & Steel Mumbai : After Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank on Saturday said that it has been defrauded by Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd (BPSL) to the tune of Rs 1,774.82 crore. The bank said in a regulatory filing that "on the basis of forensic audit investigation findings and CBI filing FIR, on suo moto basis, against the Company and its Directors, alleging diversion of funds from banking system by the has been observed that the company has misappropriated bank funds, manipulated books of accounts to raise funds from consortium lender banks. At present, the case is at the NCLT which is in advance stage and the Bank expects good recovery in the account," the bank added. The Allahabad Bank fraud has come to light within a week of another public sector bank reporting that it has been cheated by Bhushan Power. Bank's borrower namely Last week, Punjab Nation Bank Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd Bank to the Reserve Bank of sions amounting to Rs 900.20 reported another fraud worth (BPSL), a fraud of Rs 1,774.82 India". The state-run bank said crore against the exposure of Rs 3,805.15 crore by Bhushan core has been reported by the that it has already made provi- Allahabad Bank in BPSL. "It Power & Steel Ltd to the RBI. Trump decides not to impose quotas on uranium imports Washington, US President Donald Trump announced that he would not impose quotas on uranium imports despite Department of Commerce’s findings that foreign uranium poses a threat to national security. “At this time, I do not concur with the Secretary’s finding that uranium imports threaten to impair the national security of the US as defined under section 232 of the Act,” Trump said in a presidential memorandum released late Friday, referring to the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the Xinhua news agency reported. The announcement marked a division from the previous position of the US President, who has slapped tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products and threatened to levy auto tariffs citing Section 232 investigation. “Although I agree that the Secretary’s findings raise significant concerns regarding the impact of uranium imports on the national security with respect to domestic mining, I find that a fuller analysis of national security considerations with respect to the entire nuclear fuel supply chain is necessary at this time,” Trump said. The US currently imports approximately 93 per cent of its commercial uranium, compared to 85.8 per cent in 2009. According to data from the US Energy Information Administration, the majority of imported uranium comes from Canada, Australia, Russia and Kazakhstan. In its report submitted to the President in April, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said foreign state-owned companies “distorted global prices” and made it more difficult for domestic mines to compete. Trump demanded that a working group develop recommendations for reviving and expanding domestic nuclear fuel production within 90 days. The Trump administration has repeatedly invoked the previously seldom-used Section 232, drawing strong opposition from domestic and international business community. The investigation in foreign uranium is not initiated by the Trump administration by itself, but was requested by two US uranium mining companies, Ur- Energy Inc. and Energy Fuels Inc. American nuclear power plants, however, opposed restricting the imports of uranium, fearing that they would face a higher cost if quotas went into effect, especially when their market share has already been encroached by shale gas and wind energy companies. Some viewed the petition for Section 232 investigation as protectionist, saying that it is merely aimed at saving an industry that has been struggling over the past few years. IGE says Gangwal limited his financial risks in IndiGo New Delhi : InterGlobe Enterprises (IGE), a promoter of IndiGo, said on Sunday that Rakesh Gangwal has always limited his financial risk in the airline and also alleged that he pushed for selling the business at difficult times. In a bid to counter co-promoter Gangwal's recent allegations of "collapsing" corporate governance in the company, IGE, which is owned by Rahul Bhatia, has so far issued three statements in the past week. "Rahul Bhatia invited Gangwal, an industry professional, to join as an investor as the two had known each other for a long time. The understanding with Gangwal was that the IGE Group and Gangwal would hold just about equal equity. Gangwal wanted to limit his financial risk to no more than Rs 15 crore," IGE said in a statement isued on Sunday. "The IGE Group would have invested more equity, but given that Gangwal did not have the appetite to invest more, IndiGo's paid up equity capital was pegged at Rs 30 crore, the minimum required by regulations. Rakesh Gangwal Group (the RG Group) -- described as investor in the shareholders agreement -- acquired from IGE 149,950 equity shares (which represented about 50 per cent of the equity) at par value in May 2016," the statement said. It further said that during the intitial phase of IndiGo in 2005 when conversation with Airbus for acquisition of aircraft was underway and Airbus wanted both IGE and Gangwal to give a joint undertaking of support to IndiGo, IGE and Gangwal undertook to invest in IndiGo an amount of "not less than" $50 million (which then converted to about Rs 200 crore). They further undertook to maintain that investment until the delivery of the last aircraft, the statement said. "Gangwal was not going to take any further financial risk or obligation, IGE singly (though the undertaking to Airbus was joint) took the obligation to further invest up to Rs 110 crore in IndiGo, so that, taken together with the then existing investment of Rs 99 crore, the conditions placed by Airbus could be met." It further said: "Even more significantly, during the turbulent period of a fledgling airline, it was left to the IGE Group, as a responsible founder, to fend for IndiGo. Gangwal was missing in action at that time and there were stages where he wanted to derisk and pushed for the business to be sold." IGE said that even as the aggregate financial exposure of IGE, Kapil Bhatia and Rahul Bhatia was well over Rs 1,100 crore owing to the bank guarantees and personal loans they forwarded to the airline, Gangwal was in safe harbour with an equity exposure of less than Rs 15 crore, with no personal loans or guarantees or any other financial obligations for IndiGo. "This was a risk ratio of almost 80:1 between the IGE Group and Gangwal. The personal guarantees of Kapil Bhatia and Rahul Bhatia continued to be in force until the end of financial year 2012 as by that time IndiGo had an adequate balance sheet to support itself," the statement said. In its previous statement, IGE had said that Gangwal's allegations about lack of corporate governance were "much ado about nothing".
www.theasianindependent.co.uk HEALTH July 2019 13 Number of older Indians to grow, younger to slow by 2035 NEW DELHI: India's population is likely to grow by 26 per cent in 2036 from the last census year of 2011 and the percentage of population above 60 years of age will almost double while there will be a decline in the number in the younger age groups, according to the initial findings of the government's technical group on population projections. Findings of the technical group, constituted by the National Commission on Population, were shared in Parliament recently in reply to a question. "This is the initial draft with initial projections. When all the figures are gathered, another draft shall be prepared. Committees are working on it," a senior officer from the committee, which met in May, told IANS. The meeting was chaired by Vivek Joshi, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, and inaugurated by Manoj Jhalani, Additional Secretary and mission director National Health Mission. According to the findings, India's population will grow from 1,211 million in 2011 to 1,536 million in 2035, a jump of 26.8 per cent. Another set of findings said the percentage of population in the age group of above 60 will grow from 8.6 to 15.4 per cent. The percentage of population in the age group of 25-29 years will come down from 19.0 to 15.0 per cent. The sharpest fall will be in the percentage of population below 15 years from 30.9 to 17 per cent. The percentage of population in productive age group of 15 to 59 years will increase marginally from 60.5 to 66.7. The total fertility rate of 2.4 in 2011-15 will come down to 1.65 in 2031-35. The infant mortality rate is also expected to come down from 43 in 2011-15 to 30. The crude birth rate is predicted to come down to 12.0 from 19.8. The urban population is projected to grow by 25 per cent. More breastfeeding could save the world $1 billion every day Kuala Lumpur : Not enough breastfeeding costs the global economy almost $1 billion each day due to lost productivity and healthcare costs, researchers said on Friday, as health experts urged more support for nursing mothers. A new website developed by researchers in Canada and Asia showed that the world could have saved $341 billion each year if mothers breastfeed their children for longer, helping prevent early deaths and various diseases. Known as the "Cost of Not Breastfeeding", the online tool used data from a six-year study supported by the U.S.-based maternal and child nutrition initiative, Alive & Thrive. "It is a human right, it saves lives and improves the prosperity of economies," Canada-based health economics expert Dylan Walters said about the importance of breastfeeding.Walters, who led the study of more than 100 countries, said the website was the first of its kind and aimed to help policymakers to measure economic losses in individual countries when they do not support breastfeeding.The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that babies be breastfed exclusively at least their first six months, then have a diet of breast milk and other food until they are two years old. Breastfeeding can help prevent diarrhea and pneumonia, two major causes of infant death, and protect mothers against ovarian and breast cancer, according to the U.N. agency. But only 40% of infants under the age of six months are exclusively breastfed globally, while 820,000 child deaths could be avoided each year if the recommendation is followed, it said. Obstacles to breastfeeding range from a lack of facilities and break times at places of work, aggressive marketing of baby formula, and harassment or stigma if women nurse in public. Ahead of the World Breastfeeding Week from August 1, researchers said they hoped more nations would now implement policies promoting breastfeeding, push employers to provide more support, and clamp down on baby-formula marketing. "Economic evidence resonates well with policymakers. Not investing in breastfeeding has a cost," Alive & Thrive's Southeast Asia director Roger Mathisen told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Hanoi. "This tool is really making the argument that it is a good investment to expand policies such as paid maternity leave," he said, adding that it would help keep women in the workforce and boost the country's economy. A U.N.-backed study in 2017 found that no country does enough to help mothers breastfeed their babies for the recommended six months, despite the potential economic benefits. ‘Sugary drinks linked to increased cancer risk’ London : Higher consumption of sugary drinks may be associated with an increased risk of cancer, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The findings add to a growing body of evidence indicating that limiting sugary drink consumption, together with taxation and marketing restrictions, might contribute to a reduction in cancer cases. The consumption of sugary drinks has increased worldwide during the last few decades and is convincingly associated with the risk of obesity, which in turn is recognised as a strong risk factor for many cancers, said researchers, including those from the University of Paris 13 in France. However, research on sugary drinks and the risk of cancer is still limited. Researchers set out to assess the associations between the consumption of sugary drinks (sugar sweetened beverages and 100 per cent fruit juices), artificially sweetened (diet) beverages, and risk of overall cancer, as well as breast, prostate, and bowel (colorectal) cancers. The findings are based on 101,257 healthy French adults (21 per cent men; 79 per cent women) with an average age of 42 years. Participants completed at least two 24-hour online validated dietary questionnaires, designed to measure usual intake of 3,300 different food and beverage items and were followed up for a maximum of nine years. Daily consumption of sugary drinks and artificially sweetened (diet) beverages were calculated and first cases of cancer reported by participants were validated by medical records and linked with health insurance national databases. Average daily consumption of sugary drinks was greater in men than in women. During follow-up 2,193 first cases of cancer were diagnosed and validated (693 breast cancers, 291 prostate cancers, and 166 colorectal cancers). Average age at cancer diagnosis was 59 years. The results show that a 100 millilitre per day increase in the consumption of sugary drinks was associated with an 18 per cent increased risk of overall cancer and a 22 per cent increased risk of breast cancer. When the group of sugary drinks was split into fruit juices and other sugary drinks, the consumption of both beverage types was associated with a higher risk of overall cancer. No association was found for prostate and colorectal cancers, but numbers of cases were more limited for these cancer locations, researchers said. The consumption of artificially sweetened (diet) beverages was not associated with a risk of cancer, but the researchers warn that caution is needed in interpreting this finding owing to a relatively low consumption level in this sample. Possible explanations for these results include the effect of the sugar contained in sugary drinks on visceral fat (stored around vital organs such as the liver and pancreas), blood sugar levels, and inflammatory markers, all of which are linked to increased cancer risk. Other chemical compounds, such as additives in some sodas might also play a role, they said. This is an observational study, so can't establish cause, and the researchers said they cannot rule out some misclassification of beverages or guarantee detection of every new cancer case. The study sample was large and they were able to adjust for a wide range of potentially influential factors. The results were also largely unchanged after further testing, suggesting that the findings withstand scrutiny.
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