Morning Brief: Modi-Putin Vow To Boost Economic Ties; Congress To Get Karnataka Speaker’s Post; SC Fines Internet Giants

Good morning, dear reader! Here’s your morning news and views brief for today.

Modi-Putin Vow To Work Towards A Multipolar World, Boost Economic Cooperation

India and Russia on Monday pledged to work towards a strong multipolar world during a day-long informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. They also decided to step up economic cooperation and intensify consultation. Both leaders agreed to institute a strategic economic dialogue between NITI Aayog of India and Russia’s ministry of economic development to identify greater synergy in trade and investment. The leaders also reiterated the significance of longstanding partnership in the military, security and nuclear energy fields and welcomed the ongoing cooperation in these areas. Putin and Modi had “very intense” discussions on bilateral and global issues that would provide the guidelines for the development of strategic ties, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Congress To Get Karnataka Speaker’s Post

The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) on Monday moved a step ahead in resolving differences over power-sharing, with chief minister-designate H D Kumaraswamy agreeing to leave the crucial Speaker's post for the grand old party. The issue of the Speaker's post was discussed during Kumaraswamy's meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. "The Speaker will be from the Congress," AICC general secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal said. The Congress announced that both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi would be attending the oath-taking ceremony on Wednesday. In a whirlwind visit to the national capital, Kumaraswamy also met Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and made a phone call to Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury to invite them for the oath-taking ceremony. Both the leaders have agreed to attend.

Rating Agency Icra Sees India’s Growth At 7.4 Per Cent

Rating agency Icra Limited expects gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the fourth quarter of the fiscal 2017-18 at 7.4 per cent, thanks to good rabi crop harvest and improved corporate earnings, up from 7.2 per cent in the third quarter. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is scheduled to come out with GDP estimate for the March 2018 quarter and provisional annual estimates for the year 2017-18 on 31 May. “The domestic GDP growth rate is expected to improve to 7.4 per cent in Q4 FY2018 from 7.2 per cent in Q3 FY2018, exceeding the implicit forecast of 7.1 per cent embedded in the CSO’s Second Advance Estimate of National Income for 2017-18,” Icra said. According to rating agency, the growth of the Indian gross value added (GVA) at basic prices in year-on-year terms is likely to record a considerable recovery to 7.3 per cent in Q4 FY2018 from 6.7 per cent in Q3 FY2018, thereby rebounding above 7 per cent after a gap of five quarters. This revival in the fourth quarter, relative to the previous three months, is expected to be broad-based, supported by an uptick in industry, agriculture, forestry and fishing, and services, it said.

SC Slaps Rs 1 Lakh Fine On Internet Giants Over Sex Abuse Videos

The Supreme Court of India has slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on internet giants Yahoo, Facebook Ireland, Facebook India, Google India, Google Inc, Microsoft and WhatsApp for failing to file their replies on steps taken by them to block videos of sexual offences on social networking sites. A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit noted that despite its specific order they have not filed any document to inform it about the progress made. “None of these entities has filed anything to show us the progress nor any of these entities is ready with any response pursuant to our aforesaid order,” the bench said. The top court directed them to file an affidavit before 15 June spelling out measures taken by them to curb such videos and asked its registry to keep the amount in a fixed deposit for a short term.

‘Black Panther’ To Fight Bastar Maoists: Rajnath Singh

A special force named 'Black Panther' will be deployed in Bastar in the next few weeks for conducting operations against Maoist rebels. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that the Chhattisgarh police has set up the special force on the lines of Telangana’s ‘Greyhound’ battalions to counter Maoist rebels in their core area of Bastar. The Home Minister also expressed confidence that the Black Panther force will be able to uproot Maoism from Chhattisgarh’s Bastar. Special Director General (Anti-Naxal Operations) D M Awasthi said that the special force will be deployed in Bastar in the next few weeks for conducting operations. “The training of about 200 best personnel selected by the state police is going on,” Awasthi said. The Union Minister said there are 52 battalions of central armed forces deployed in Chhattisgarh and more forces will be deployed in insurgency hit Bastar. Singh said that steps are being taken by the government to track the funding and assets of Maoist leaders.

Indian Railways Invites Ideas To Boost Non-Fare Revenue

In a new policy move, Indian Railways has opened its doors to any idea or concept from the public that promises generation of non-fare revenue. The laboratories of the ideas would be its 68 divisions and the stations in them at zonal railways and anyone can walk in with an idea. “We are looking for genuine ideas to increase the share of non-fare revenue. We are not looking for casual advice,” said a senior Railway Ministry official. This comes in the backdrop of three years of the national transporter’s struggle to make its various non-fare revenue projects a success. Rail Display Network, putting up screens across stations in sync with the internet to display ads; en masse tendering out of outdoor publicity spaces to big players; encashing on on-board entertainment are all ideas the Railways has been toying with without making much headway. The Railways has been missing its own budget targets on non-fare revenue. In 2017-18, as opposed to a target of Rs 14,000 crore, it earned only around Rs 8,000 crore.

Tamil Separatists Are Regrouping Abroad, Warns Sri Lankan President

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has warned that Tamil extremists were regrouping abroad to revive their demand to divide the island nation nine years after the end of its decades-long ethnic war. “We have defeated terrorism of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), but we have not been able to defeat their ideology,” Sirisena said. At a ceremony to mark the ninth anniversary of the end of the war, Sirisena said Tamil extremists abroad were still hoping to establish an independent homeland in Sri Lanka. His latest remarks came a week after Sri Lanka’s army chief announced forming a special unit to defend itself against allegations of grave rights abuses during the final stages of the ethnic war. “They are very active abroad. They protested when I visited London last month,” Sirisena said, referring to his participation at the Commonwealth summit.

New UAE Visa Plan To Benefit Indians

At a time when major developed countries like United States are putting up barriers in visas and immigration policy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a slew of radical changes, including 10-year visas for specialists working in medicine, science, research and technical fields. If these policies are implemented, Indians and Indian businesses will be key beneficiaries. At 2.8 million individuals, Indians are the largest expatriate community in the UAE. According to the new rules, the UAE will also offer visas of up to 10-years for the families of specialists working in medicine, science, research and technical fields. Many Indian doctors and engineers would become a beneficiary of this move. The new rules will also let foreign investors establishing a business or putting money in the country secure a visa of up to 10 years. This is expected to benefit many Indian businesses and entrepreneurs, who may be facing challenges currently in the UAE and other parts of the world.

MUST READ OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

The Impact Of Rising Oil Prices On Indian Economy: Higher crude oil prices will adversely impact the twin deficits of current account and fiscal, which will have spillover effects on monetary policy, consumption and investment.

The Invisible Majority: Women form 80 per cent of urban migrants, but public policy is blind to their concerns.

The Global Economy’s Rising Debt Problem: As long as developing countries, including India and China, tie their currencies to the dollar in a hard or soft peg, and as long as borrowers from these countries are tempted to engage in their own version of ‘carry trade’, spillover risks will remain.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

Church’s Curb On Thanjavur Temple Ritual Indicates The Shape Of Things To Come: Aggression against temples is starting to become visible and violent in Tami Nadu, and unless Hindus reinvent and reorganise themselves as a political majority, their survival decreases with every passing day.

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