Xiaomi Says Legal Complaint Against US to Protect Company's Interests

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3j32lsf

WhatsApp Using Status Messages to Reassure Users of Its ‘Commitment to Privacy’

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2MF62Io

Myanmar's journey back to military rule

Myanmar's military has detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and staged a coup, a decade after relinquishing its nearly five-decade iron grip on the country. Here is a timeline of a nation that emerged from a military dictatorship, only to plunge into a trouble-filled -- and perhaps short-lived -- democracy. - 2010 - The junta holds elections in early November and the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) claims victory. The NLD and many other parties refuse to take part. Observers do not consider the poll free or fair. Less than a week after the election, Suu Kyi is released after spending 16 of the last 20 years under house arrest. - 2011 - In a surprise move, the junta relinquishes power to a quasi-civilian government under former general Thein Sein, who pursues reforms. Many basic rights are restored, including the lifting of restrictions on assembly and expression. - 2012 - The NLD wins 43 out of 45 seats in April by-elections. Suu Kyi becomes an MP. The United States and European Union begin lifting sanctions and Western businesses start flocking to the country. Sectarian violence flares in western Rakhine state, mainly aimed at the Rohingya Muslim minority. In November, Barack Obama becomes the first US president to visit Myanmar. - 2015 - The NLD wins a landslide victory in historic elections. Army chief General Min Aung Hlaing congratulates Suu Kyi and her party. - 2016 - The NLD takes power and Suu Kyi assumes the role of state counsellor -- a de facto leadership position created to sidestep constitutional provisions barring her from the presidency. - 2017 - Prominent Muslim lawyer Ko Ni, a vocal critic of the army and adviser to Suu Kyi, is assassinated in Yangon. His funeral is attended by thousands. On August 25, the military launches a ferocious crackdown in Rakhine state in retaliation against militants, sending almost 750,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. - 2018 - Two Reuters journalists are jailed, accused of breaching Myanmar's state secrets law while reporting on a Rohingya massacre. They are behind bars for more than 500 days before being released on a presidential pardon. - 2019 - Washington announces sanctions against Myanmar's army chief and three other top officers. Gambia files a lawsuit at the UN's top court, the International Court of Justice, accusing Myanmar of genocide. Suu Kyi personally leads the country's defence at the Hague. Two other cases are filed against Myanmar, including an investigation by the International Criminal Court. - 2020 - The ICJ rejects Suu Kyi's defence and orders Myanmar to take steps to prevent alleged genocide. Myanmar's weak health infrastructure is overwhelmed by the pandemic, killing more than 3,000 and infecting 140,000 by 2021. Myanmar holds its second democratic elections, but large swathes of the population in conflict-wracked ethnic areas are shut out of the process. The NLD predictably sweeps the poll. - 2021 - After weeks of alleging widespread vote irregularities -- that the government does not address -- the military arrests de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint on the morning newly elected MPs were due to take their seats in a reconvened parliament. The military declares a one-year state of emergency and appoints a former general as acting president to preserve "stability".

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3r8XFE2

Budget 2021: What India's fintech industry wants

Mumbai: The fintech industry is hoping for a favourable Union Budget 2021-22 ahead of a crucial year for India’s burgeoning digital economy, as a bulk of the country's consumers and small businesses are expected to adopt digital means to access payments and financial services for the first time. According to chief executive officers and founders of payments firms, the disruptive growth seen by the fintech ecosystem in 2020 has shored up the need for a more focused approach towards sustaining the growth and protecting customer confidence.Exemptions on procurement of point of sale terminals, GST rates for rural banking agents remitting funds among households, and subsidies to compensate for merchant discount rate (MDR) waiver are among some of the measures industry executives are keeping an eye out for.“Given the surging prominence of digital initiatives in multiple facets, further attention needs to be given in the budget, towards enhancing its application and effectiveness,” said Madhusudan Ekambaram, co-founder of industry body Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment.“The multi-pronged implications of the same could be tax and policy reforms for the startups and tech-centric firms, and a prominent support towards strengthening the digital infrastructure,” said Ekambaram, who is also the chief executive of digital lender KreditBee.On Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to present a budget that addresses the needs to bolster an economy ravaged by the pandemic. Industry experts said reforms to further the country’s financial inclusion mandate through effective use of technology could be expected from the budget.According to Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia, partner and head of fintech at corporate law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, the sector is looking to this budget to lay out the road map for recovery and growth in 2021.“There is an expectation that the government will emphasise the role of technology in accessing financial services and renew its commitment to invest in Internet infrastructure, particularly in Tier-II and Tier-III cities,” she said.Furthermore, credit support schemes for small non-bank financial companies and fintech lenders can boost support for small businesses. “The industry is also hoping for lower GST rates on financial services which will lower costs of distributing financial products,” she said. Executives also pointed out that exemptions on taxes for financial intermediaries catering to underbanked segments of the population could help reduce the cost to access digital modes and push adoption in small towns and villages.According to Dilip Modi, founder of Spice Money, a reduced goods and services tax and tax deductible at source (TDS) for banks’ business correspondents (BC) in rural areas could help reduce cost of domestic money transfers among households.India’s domestic remittance volume had plunged to multi-decade lows amid the migrant crisis during lockdown months.“The government should consider providing some GST relief on smaller transactions conducted on the BC network,” said Modi. “Further, tax benefits to the rural end-customer on digital purchases will also help boost adoption of digital financial services in the low-income groups."Another pressing concern among digital payment stakeholders including the banks is the skewed pricing regime on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) where MDR was waived in an announcement made by Sitharaman in the budget of 2019.“Financial Inclusion has been the focus for the government and there should be a push towards a digital economy for faster adoption,” said Yogendra Kashyap, CEO of rural-focused fintech firm RapiPay.“For the Tier-2/3/4 cities and the rural population to have seamless banking services at their disposal, there should be higher incentives for banking transactions through BCs so that more and more retailers offer money transfer, micro ATM and AePS services,” he added.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/36vq2nR

What could be a silver lining in this Covid Budget

People will be interested to see if the government comes out with actual borrowing figures, this time, says Sandip Sabharwal, analyst, asksandipsabharwal.com Budget has been prone to being a non-event for the markets. The expectations this time are low and the prime minister himself has talked about how we have had four mini Budgets over 2020 alluding to a slew of incremental reforms that the government has tried to put in place through the year. What could be the silver lining this time around?The allocations to capital expenditure should increase but the fact of the matter is that in terms of fiscal deficit per se, we need to look at figures. This year, the government is expected to borrow around Rs 11.5 crore which is almost 4 lakh crore more than what they did last year. With the improvement in growth, tax revenues, etc, the expected borrowing is expected to be Rs 2 lakh crore more than what it was in 2019-20. As normalcy returns, as extraordinary liquidity of the RBI gets removed, managing the borrowing programme by itself will become a challenge. Although growth revival will be strong next year, the challenge will be to borrow non-structurally so that interest rates do not go u People will be interested to know if the government comes out with the actual borrowing figures. This includes the state government borrowing, of course. That is one critical part. The second is an extra Rs 50,000-70,000 crore will be required for the vaccination programme which the government will front. I just hope that they do not come out with a cess for that. I do not think that will be taken positively at all. At a time when we need to boost revival in the consumption as well as overall basket, any new cess will not be taken positively. I would hope that they will avoid that. They do not go in for another cess. The other factors are that in terms of the disinvestment, every year they come out with a huge figure which is not met. There needs to be a serious attempt to achieve what they set out to do and that can only be done through professional management of the disinvestment process. I do not think the bureaucracy can handle that. There has been talk about some professional fund manager or a system being implemented to take care of the disinvestment process. I hope they go ahead and do that because that is the only way they will be able to get one -- maximum value, secondly achieve the targets they set out for themselves. Ex of that, the global events are much greater than an Indian budget.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/36LKt0b

India calls for upholding rule of law in Myanmar

NEW DELHI: India on Monday stated that it has noted Myanmar developments with deep concern and called for upholding rule of law and democratic process. “We have noted the developments in Myanmar with deep concern. India has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in Myanmar. We believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld. We are monitoring the situation closely,” MEA noted in a strongly-worded statement. India has huge stakes in Myanmar who was recently gifted Covishield vaccines. India shares over 1600 km long land boundary with Myanmar. It also shares a maritime boundary and has supplied submarines to Myanmar military. USA and Australia have reacted strongly to the developments asking the leaders to be freed. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the governing party were detained in a series of early morning raids, the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy said on Monday, following days of escalating tension between her civilian government and the country’s military fulled talk of a coup.Spokesman Myo Nyunt told Reuters news agency that Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders had been “taken” in the early hours of the morning.Myo Nyunt later told AFP news agency that given the situation, “we have to assume that the military is staging a coup.”Myanmar’s Parliament, where the military is given a quarter of seats -- the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) -- was due to sit in the country’s capital Naypyitaw from Monday.The NLD won November’s elections by a landslide and military may have feared that they could be marginalised. Indian Foreign Secretary and Army Chief visited Myanmar in October to widen strategic cooperation.During Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s visit to Myanmar in October, he held extensive discussions on ways to mitigate Covid-19 impact, including through vaccine development, the supply of medicines, equipment and technology and capacity building. “Myanmar is a country of special importance to us as it stands at the confluence of our ‘Neighborhood First’ and ‘Act East’ policies…We are meeting in exceptional times that have thrown up challenges but also avenues and opportunities to collaborate in divergent and multifaceted areas. India is prepared to continue to extend all possible support to Myanmar in mitigating the health and economic impact of COVID-19...With respect to the COVID vaccine, we stand committed to sharing our capabilities with our strategic partners, including Myanmar, in our collective best interest,” Shringla had said on that occasion. During the October visit, it was decided to expand security partnership through early conclusion of the Extradition Treaty, Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on Civil and Commercial matters and Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons to fight cross-border insurgency. It may be recalled that Myanmar handed over 22 insurgents to India in the middle of last year. Myanmar is India’s closest defence partner in the region. A team for the deployment of Meteorological squadrons visited Myanmar last year. India will also host Myanmar’s representative at Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region.India’s assistance to Myanmar is around $ 1.4 billion. The Sittwe Port built by India and key to Kaladan Multimodal transport project will be operationalised by the first quarter of 2021. With respect to the 69 bridges on the Trilateral Highway, India will soon be moving forward with the tendering process, it has been learnt. Trilateral Highway connects India with Thailand via Myanmar and maybe explored to connect Vietnam. Other Indo-Myanmar agreements such as Project Agreement for the establishment of modern Integrated Check Post at Tamu, MoU for the construction of 50 basic schools and the Project Agreement for the upgrading of agricultural mechanization sub-station will be signed shortly. India will also extend support for the construction of Bwaynu bridge in Myanmar. In the recent past, there has been pushback against China by Myanmar over fears of the debt trap and BRI projects had slowed down.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2MKeiXr

Is it now time for LIC to invest in startups?

New Delhi: Despite regulatory curbs, Indian startups continue to receive 85% of their funding from overseas investors. The government wants to change that.First, the government tweaked the country’s FDI policy so as to limit Chinese investments into India amid border skirmishes. Now, it has started deliberations on allowing domestic pension and insurance funds to invest in startups to give them access to stable, long-term capital, ET reported on 28 January.This, however, isn’t the first time such an idea has been mooted, but industry watchers say now is the right time for Indian institutional investors to become stakeholders in India’s startup story and set the tone for growth for the next decade.Flipping StartupsThat Indian startups are operating here but registering themselves in international hubs such as Singapore and the US for growth capital has caused alarm in the government. “Flipping”, as the practice is known in industry parlance, helps investors in these markets reduce time spent on paperwork and regulatory procedures.This issue was most recently raised by Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder of Info Edge (India) Ltd. that counts job portal Naukri.com and foodtech startup Zomato among its investee companies.“Over the last 5-7 years, I reckon, between 500-1,000 Indian companies have flipped, and we need to understand that only the best startups flip as these are wooed by overseas investors, he said in an interview with ET Now last month. “Even if 2% become as successful as Naukri and only 0.5% become as successful as Infosys, it is a future loss of about Rs 17 lakh crore as per today’s market capitalisation.” “I’m not saying ban flipping. I’m saying create conditions that flipping does not happen… Remember, with flipping, we are losing data, IP (intellectual property), and ownership as a nation,” he added.To be sure, countries such as Singapore are actively poaching Indian entrepreneurs by easing regulations and providing tax breaks, said Siddharth Pai, founding partner at venture capital firm 3one4 Capital. By not allowing domestic institutional investment in startups, India is missing out on its own growth story, he said.“If not now, then even if they try doing this two-three years down the line, we lose a generation of entrepreneurs, essentially outside the country,” said Pai, who is also the co-chair (regulatory affairs committee) at industry body Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA). “Once our flywheel starts, it will be very hard for them to actually attract people.”It was in December 2019 that the IVCA first mooted the idea of Indian pension funds investing in Indian startups—urging them to allocate 1% of their overall assets to alternate investment funds. The industry body proposed the creation of a startup fund-of-funds backed by the government to channel such investments.According to Abir Lal Dey, partner at L&L Partners, the current regulatory framework does not explicitly allow domestic pension funds and insurance firms to invest in alternative investment funds for startups.“Allowing such startup investments at the fag end of a pandemic is a welcome change for the stakeholders including the professionals. We will have to wait for the budget for more clarity in this regard,” he said.The Indian government would also need capital to support a recently announced fund-of-funds for startups, which could be the route for domestic pension funds to pump money into startups, Pai said.Speaking at the 2021 Resurgence TiEcon event in New Delhi on 29 January, Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal said private and public sector players should come together and dedicate a portion of their wealth to early-stage startups.“I believe that if all our businesspersons come together and pull their resources—maybe in an initial Rs 10,000 crore in a fund that is domestically driven and professionally managed with no role of the government—then we can really do a great service to the startup world,” he said.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3r8xRb8

Crypto bill puts industry in a state of panic

Mumbai: Cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and industry leaders are hitting the panic button as the government prepares to outlaw trade in private e-money ahead of the potential launch of India’s official digital currency.On Friday, the Centre announced that it will introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, in the ongoing budget session. It is aimed at paving the way for eventual introduction of digital money by the country’s central bank at a time when China is testing a version of its digital yuan. Industry mavens, who welcome the government’s move, remain concerned with the provision seeking to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies, while allowing certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology. “We believe these are two important and distinct subjects,” said Naveen Surya, chairman emeritus at Payments Council of India. While bringing in a central bank digital currency could be a tool for expansion of the digital payment industry, “banning of private cryptocurrency is a separate subject…”, he said.Regulation, Not Ban“It deems a look by a separate committee and should be reviewed in detail,” Surya said. The cryptocurrency industry has long been seeking regulation of the digital asset, arguing against a ban. The current bill, experts reckon, may resolve ambiguity on trade in digital money, which is currently neither banned nor legalised in India. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred regulated entities such as banks from allowing trade on crypto exchanges in 2018. However, the Supreme Court overturned this move in March 2020, removing restrictions on cryptocurrency trade through banking channels.Price DropsExchange founders said there was panic within the Indian cryptocurrency investor community following news of the bill. “The Indian crypto industry is in a panic right now, based on the price movements I see on exchanges,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, chief executive of cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin.The price of bitcoin dropped on Indian exchanges on Sunday afternoon in comparison to global counterparts. On CoindDCX, the price of one bitcoin in a 24-hour period had seen a fall of 8%, at Rs 23,96,030. On global exchange Binance, the price of a bitcoin had fallen 1.88% in the same period to $33,639, or Rs 24,52,513.“The news that the government will consider a bill is not new. However, this is not something that can be taken lightly. Efforts have been taken to keep the relevant parties informed,” Vishwanath said.Cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoins, have seen a meteoric rise in the last few months, prompting more Indian investors to purchase the asset. Bitcoin prices rose close to 15% globally in a matter of minutes on Friday after Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio.In a tweet on Saturday, Congress politician Milind Deora said, “India must develop its own digital currency. China is already testing a digital yuan to accelerate the replacement of cash. Not sure why we’re banning other cryptocurrencies though. Blockchain technology is the future. RBI must embrace not fear it.”

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3pAaPJS

'Budget will be in accordance with expectations'

New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur on Monday asserted that the budget 2021-22 will be in accordance with people's expectations and added that the government is working towards a self-reliant India and making its economy grow. "The Budget will be in accordance with people's expectations. Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas is the agenda of the Modi government. The government which functions on the mantra of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas' gave a new direction to India by announcing the Aatmanirbhar package, protecting it from the pandemic and bringing the economy back on track swiftly," Thakur told ANI. "I have full confidence the budget will fulfill the aspirations of the people. We will continue to make efforts to make India self-reliant and make our economy grow," he added. Thakur also offered prayers at his residence, ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget 2021-22 in the Parliament. All eyes are fixed on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as she is set to present Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament on Monday, at a time when India is recovering from the COVID-19 crisis. The Budget presentation will begin with a speech from Finance Minister scheduled to take place at around 11 am. The Union Cabinet will hold a meeting at 10:15 am before the presentation. This year, the Union Budget will be delivered in paperless form for the first time. The Finance Minister had launched the "Union Budget Mobile App" for hassle-free access of Budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public using the simplest form of digital convenience, according to the Finance Ministry. The App facilitates complete access to 14 Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), and Finance Bill as prescribed by the Constitution. Ahead of the Budget, Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey in Parliament on Friday. The Indian economy can contract by 7.7 per cent in the current financial year ending on March 31 and the growth could be 11 per cent in the next financial year, according to the survey.The contraction in FY21 is mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic and the visible damage caused by the subsequent countrywide lockdown to contain it.The survey unveiled two days before the Union Budget is broadly in line with forecasts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which has said it expected the country's GDP to contract by 7.5 per cent in the year ending March 31.In the quarter ending June 2020, the GDP contracted by 23.9 per cent followed by a milder contraction of 7.5 per cent in the quarter ended September 2020.The first part of the Budget Session is scheduled to continue till February 15 while the second part of the session will be held from March 8 to April 8. Rajya Sabha will function from 9 am to 2 pm and Lok Sabha from 4 pm to 9 pm with Zero Hour and Question Hour. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Saturday that the budget session will take up 38 legislative items.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3tdu0Lw

Will sweep shots by England batsmen work against Indian spinners?

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3ajjp9f

England wicketkeepers brace for low bounce on turners in India

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/39xXGeK

'Incredible' Salah ends goal drought as Liverpool beat West Ham

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2Ywny4h

'Sad' Spurs stunned as Leandro Trossard boosts Brighton

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3cq5qRO

Lleyton Hewitt tips Nick Kyrgios to 'go deep' at Australian Open

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2Lalv2S

La Liga: Messi hits goal 650 as Barcelona get revenge on Athletic

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/36tsNGo

Indian women's hockey team holds world no. 2 Argentina to 1-1 draw

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/39yHmu4

Three people left in Australian Open quarantine

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/39Aq5kr

Neymar says he wants to stay at PSG

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2MF346I

Pierre Gasly becomes sixth F1 driver to test positive for COVID-19

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2NKkAa6

5 expectations of individuals from Budget 2021

All eyes are on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as she will be presenting the Union Budget 2021 today, i.e., February 1. There is more interest and expectations this year from the budget due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and the impact it has had on various segments of the economy.For the salaried class, the year 2020 was marred with job loss, pay cuts, higher inflation and so on. That is why many are hoping for announcements that can at least help ease their tax burden. Here is a list of some of the expectations of the common man from the Union Budget 2021. Hike in tax exemption limitTop on the wish list of the salaried class is a hike in the basic exemption limit from the current level of Rs 2.5 lakh. The last time tax exemption limit was hiked was in Budget 2014-15. Though Sitharaman announced a new tax regime in last year's budget which offered lower tax rates, however, no changes were made in the tax exemption limit. By hiking the tax exemption limit, the government can incentivise people to spend more and boost consumption in the economy.Homi Mistry, Tax Partner, Deloitte India says, "The immediate expectation is to reduce the tax burden of taxpayers. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected everyone in some way or the other. Increasing the basic exemption limit will provide tax respite to individuals, increase liquidity, and give a boost to the economy."Hike in deduction allowed on health insurance premium paidThanks to the pandemic, many of us have become aware of the importance of health insurance and the role it can play in protecting our finances in case of a medical emergency. At present, income tax laws offer tax benefit on the health insurance premium paid.An individual can claim a deduction of Rs 25,000 for health insurance premium paid for self, spouse and dependant children. Additional deduction of Rs 50,000 is available for health insurance premium paid for parents. However, there is a need to hike the deduction amount available on the health insurance premium paid so that an individual can buy adequate medical coverage for their family.Surabhi Marwah, Partner-People Advisory Services, EY India says, "The limits currently prescribed (Rs 25,000 to Rs 100,000 which depend primarily on the age of the individual and the coverage of family members) under section 80D are not in-line with the likely expense that an individual may incur. It is an ask that the overall limit be increased to reflect the on-ground reality."Leave Travel Concession (LTC) Cash Voucher SchemeIn October of 2020, the government announced the LTC Cash Voucher Scheme to provide a tax benefit to individuals and also to boost consumption in the economy. The last date to avail the benefit under the scheme is March 31, 2021. As per tax experts, the government should extend the last date of the scheme as it is likely that many people would have postponed their travel plans to 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions in 2020. Further, the government should lower the minimum spending amount to make the scheme more attractive. As per scheme guidelines, following conditions must be satisfied to be eligible under the scheme:a) Spend three times of the deemed LTC fare on the goods/services attracting GST of 12% or above;b) Expenditure must be made between October 12, 2020, and March 31, 2021;c) Payment must be made via digital mode;d) Invoices must be submitted to an employer containing GST number of the vendor along with the GST amount paid.Mistry says, "Spending three times the value of LTC fare seems high. Therefore, the government may consider reducing the spending required to twice the value of LTC fare. Also, an extension of the scheme for an additional nine months, i.e., up to December 31, 2021 (till the end of the block period of 2018-2021) may be considered."Relaxation in residency criteria for NRI for FY 2020-21Due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, many non-resident Indians (NRI) have been stranded in India. As the stay of many NRIs would have exceeded the desired number of days to meet the residency conditions to remain NRI under the income tax laws, relaxation is needed. Further, rules for determining the residency conditions have been changed effective from FY 2020-21. Effective from April 1, 2020, if the total income accrued in India for an NRI exceeds Rs 15 lakh, then in such a case if he/she stays in India for up to 120 days to remain non-resident in India. On the other hand, if the total taxable income accrued in India does not exceed Rs 15 lakh, then he/she can remain non-resident for up to 182 days in India. If the stay in India exceeds the maximum limit mentioned above (depending on the income), then the individual will be classified either as a Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR) or Not Ordinarily Resident (NOR), as determined by additional residency conditions.The income tax department has provided similar relaxation for FY 2019-20 via a circular dated May 8, 2020. Mistry says, "Due to the pandemic, the government had notified exemption of certain days for determining residency for FY 2019-20 for individuals who were stranded in India on account of the lockdown and who could not travel outside India. For FY 2020-21 also, the government should issue the necessary clarification providing relief for stranded individuals on account of the pandemic."Deduction for work-from-home allowanceAs majority of employees are now working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, they have to incur expenses such as buying table, chair etc. However, no tax benefits are available on such expenses made by an employee. There is a need to provide tax benefits to such employees for the expenses made for working from home.Mistry says, "Budget 2021 should introduce measures which would provide certain tax benefits for employees. For example, a standard deduction of Rs 50,000 from gross income could be provided (over and above the existing standard deduction from salary) to allow for expenditure by employees who are working from home on ergonomic chairs/furniture, computer equipment, data cards, etc."The above mentioned are few expectations that people want from finance minister in this budget, however, as per tax experts, there are certain announcements that can be seen in the Budget 2021 to raise additional revenue. Sonu Iyer, Tax Partner and National Leader - People Advisory Services, EY India says, "The government could look at introducing a coronavirus cess or surcharge on individual tax payers - possibly only on the higher income groups. The government may also look at increasing the tax on long term capital gains from equity and property, to push up revenue."

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2MdPdVi

TaMo Q3 gives clear signs of earnings recovery

ET Intelligence Group: Tata Motors’ operating performance in the December quarter may add more conviction to the likelihood of better earnings — and a leaner balance sheet. Earnings upgrade and superior valuation of the local business after the December quarter earnings may sustain the stock’s outperformance.Tough measures by India's largest vehicle maker to contain costs and improve efficiencies have boosted the financials of the local operations and of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which contributes more than three-fourths to Tata Motors’ revenues.So, operating profit margins of JLR improved 560 basis points to 15.8 per cent in the December quarter. There are some one-off events, such as reversal of emission fines and superior product mix (higher share of Land Rover), but the trajectory of base operating margins has been consistently improving.Variable marketing and warranty expenses, which dented JLR’s margins for quite a long time, are shrinking. The Street is still apprehensive about the sustainability of decline in the VWE and warranty expenses at the current level. But if JLR can sustain the decline, operating profit margins (Ebitda) might further climb.Moderation in capex intensity has been supporting JLR’s effort to improve its cash flow and liquidity. Cash on JLR’s books improved 25 per cent on a sequential basis to 4.5 billion (Rs 45,000 crore) and net debt slipped to 2.6 billion in December 2020 compared with 3.3 billion in the previous quarter.Volumes are expected to rise 20-22 per cent in the next fiscal year and are likely to close at FY20 level following encouraging response to Defender and a couple of refresh pipelines. The market currently ascribes EV/EBITDA multiple of 2-2.3 times to JLR and superior multiples will depend upon its share in the global premium market.Back home, the domestic business is showing strong recovery and operating profit margins rose by 570 basis points to 6.8 per cent, the highest in the last seven quarters. The commercial vehicle division with a volume decline of 8 per cent has revenue growth of 21 per cent on YoY basis and passenger vehicle volume rose 86 per cent. 80618375Ebitda margins of commercial vehicles rose 580 basis points to 8 per cent and the PV business margins improved by 780 basis points to 3.8 per cent. Absolute Ebitda of the passenger division is the highest in the last decade. Even on the debt side, the local operation automotive gross debt dropped to Rs 25,413 crore in December 2020 from Rs 31,099 crore in the previous quarter.Analysts have started ascribing a valuation of Rs 20-24 per share to the domestic PV business taking the tally of the domestic business to Rs 150-160 per share, which is nearly equivalent to the value ascribed to JLR.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3j4ZajC

Five past vaccine drives & how they worked

Scientists developed vaccines less than a year after COVID-19 was identified, a reflection of remarkable progress in vaccine technology. But progress in vaccine distribution is another story.Questions that arose in vaccine rollouts decades ago are still debated today. How should local and federal authorities coordinate? Who should get vaccinated first? What should officials do about resistance in communities? Should the hardest-hit places be prioritized? Who should pay?Some answers can be found in the successes and failures of vaccine drives over the past two centuries.In 1796, once scientist Edward Jenner discovered that people infected with cowpox became immune to smallpox, doctors went from town to town in England, deliberately spreading cowpox by scratching infected material into people’s arms.The rollout worked on a local level, but how could it be distributed to people in faraway places, like in the Americas, where smallpox had devastated populations? In 1803, the Spanish government put 22 orphans on a ship to its territories in South America. The lead doctor, Francisco Xavier de Balmis, and his team injected cowpox into two of the boys, and then, once cowpox sores developed, took material from the sores and scratched it into the arms of two more boys.By the time the team arrived in the Americas, only one boy was still infected, but that was enough. Vaccine distribution in the Spanish territories was unsystematic, but eventually members of the Spanish expedition worked with local authorities to establish vaccination clinics. More than 100,000 people in Mexico received free vaccinations by 1805, according to a journal article, “The World’s First Immunization Campaign,” in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine.By the 20th century, when scientists had determined how to store and mass produce the smallpox vaccine, outbreaks had generally been contained.But an outbreak in 1947 in New York City, just before an Easter Sunday parade on a warm weekend, posed a major problem. The city’s health commissioner at the time, Israel Weinstein, called for everyone to get vaccinated, even if they had received the vaccination as children. Posters across the city warned: “Be Sure. Be Safe. Get Vaccinated!”The rollout was swift and well-orchestrated. Volunteers and professional health care providers went to schools, delivering vaccines to students. At the time, the public had strong faith in the medical community, and the modern anti-vaccination movement barely existed. In less than a month, more than 6 million New Yorkers were vaccinated, and the city ended up recording only 12 infections and two deaths.On April 12, 1955, the U.S. government licensed the first vaccine against polio, created by Dr. Jonas Salk, after scientists announced it was found to be 80% to 90% effective. The next day, The New York Times reported in a headline: “Supply to be low for time, but output will be rushed.”State and local health officials were in charge of the rollout to children, who were most at risk.Shortly after the rollout began, the program was suspended after reports that children had contracted polio in the arms where they received the vaccination, rather than the legs, which was more typical of the disease.More than 250 cases of polio were attributed to faulty vaccines, caused by a manufacturing error by one of the drugmakers involved in the effort, Cutter Laboratories, based in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The so-called Cutter Incident led to stronger regulatory requirements, and the vaccine rollout continued in the fall of 1955. The vaccine prevented thousands of cases of crippling illness, saved lives and ultimately ended the yearly threat of epidemics in the United States.“The possibility was raised today that the virus that caused the greatest world epidemic of influenza in modern history - the pandemic of 1918-19 - may have returned,” The Times reported Feb. 20, 1976.An Army private in Fort Dix, New Jersey, had died from a type of swine flu that was genetically similar to the virus that caused the deadly influenza outbreak starting in 1918. President Gerald Ford acted quickly, and Congress purchased 200 million doses of vaccines to be distributed at no cost.But the campaign got off to a difficult start, after several people died soon after receiving shots at the same clinic in Pittsburgh. Two months later, reports emerged that some vaccine recipients developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves. Vaccinations were halted.In the end, the virus was not detected outside Fort Dix, and the Army private turned out to be the only known death from the virus.The H1N1 influenza virus, which originated in Mexico, struck in spring 2009, not in typical flu season.By late summer it was clear that the virus caused fewer deaths than many seasonal flu strains and that some of the early reports from Mexico had been exaggerated. That was one of the big reasons that a lot of Americans avoided the flu vaccine when it was ready in the fall. It wasn’t just the anti-vaccination movement, though that was a factor.The H1N1 virus was tough on children and young adults and appeared to have a disproportionately high fatality rate among pregnant women. Because of these factors, the first groups to be vaccinated, after health care workers, were people with the highest risk of complications, pregnant women and children.The last group to be eligible for the vaccine were healthy people over 65, who were the least likely to contract it because they seemed to have had some resistance to it.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3pBAeTq

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi detained

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party have been detained in an early morning raid, the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy said on Monday.The move came after days of escalating tension between the civilian government and the powerful military that stirred fears of a coup in the aftermath of an election the army says was fraudulent.Spokesman Myo Nyunt told Reuters by phone that Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders had been "taken" in the early hours of the morning. "I want to tell our people not to respond rashly and I want them to act according to the law," he said, adding he also expected to be detained. Phone lines to Naypyitaw, the capital, were not reachable in the early hours of Monday.A military spokesman did not answer phone calls seeking comment. An NLD lawmaker, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said another of those detained was Han Thar Myint, a member of the party's central executive committee.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/36LiAFx

A case for better tax-policies for MSMEs

Economies across the world came to a standstill over the last one year as a result of the pandemic, and subsequent lockdowns. There is no denying that one of the worst hit businesses during these challenging times were the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), especially in India. The sector saw shuttered factories, kirana stores, retail shops, and experienced a strong decline in retail consumption. With negligible demand and scarcity of revenue, MSMEs were left with meagre prospects to sell goods and services physically. In the face of disrupted retail, e-commerce saw a splurge in online customer base and acted as a baton for the hard-hit MSMEs, aiding them to revive their sales and businesses. Many MSMEs took to digital platforms to re-establish themselves and sell their products; even gaining more traction and recognition beyond their local borders. Even with the digital surge experienced by MSMEs during the initial days of the pandemic, a number of these businesses hesitate transitioning to online marketplaces, owing to cumbersome taxation issues associated with the space. Selling products and services online is already very new to these businesses, and the added baggage of complex compliances under the GST Act have the potential to discourage them from exploring online marketplaces. There are certain regulations in the GST Act that are specifically levied on the sellers doing business on e-commerce platforms/online marketplaces. For example, the GST Act allows traders doing business for less than Rs 1.5 crore annual revenue to register for a Composition GST Scheme. The scheme significantly simplifies compliance for traders and allows them to pay tax at a fixed rate of 1%. However, when traders under the scheme move to sell on an online marketplace, they move to normal scheme and pay full rate on all transactions. This amounts to a disincentive for MSMEs to go online and reach customers at a time when many are unwilling to step out.Not only this, the introduction of a new tax scheme under the section 194-O of the income Tax Act 2020 in the Finance Act 2020 asks e-commerce operators to levy TDS at the rate of 0.75% while making payments to resident e-commerce participants. This percentage will be further increased to 1% from 1 April 2021. According to the Budget Memorandum, the scheme was introduced to widen the tax-net, however the revenue collected through the provision doesn’t have a direct impact on the treasury. The provision not only lags in serving its intended purpose, it often ends up providing lower working capital for small businesses. Indeed, if it is the intention of the government to counter tax-avoidance by recording online sales, this rate can be reduced to a minimal 0.25%. In an ideal world for MSME growth, this provision should be done away with altogether, it would not have any implication on government revenues.Tax reforms and schemes that ought to encourage trading and ease of business – including on e-commerce platforms – have seemingly complicated the processes, and can potentially discourage small and medium businesses to explore the online markets. A number of these provisions specifically targets business selling online – including mandatory GST Registration for online sellers – and creates a lack of parity in taxation for online and offline sellers. The tax policies not only make it a hard choice for MSMEs to switch to online marketplaces, but also deviates from India’s vision of having a digitally powered economy. Uneven requirements, burdensome and additional compliances, and stringent schemes that specifically demarcate different conditions for online and offline sellers discourage MSMEs to shift to online marketplace. The support provided by online marketplaces to MSMEs was significant during the pandemic. Furthermore, the duration and consequential events of the pandemic (i.e. lockdowns) have prompted a shift in consumer preference towards online marketplaces. This would underscore better opportunities for MSMEs on online-marketplaces. Thereby, within that context, the efforts of our policy-makers should look towards providing policies which encourage MSMEs to adopt online-marketplaces, if consumers now prefer it, rather than levying taxes that increase compliance burden.As part of the upcoming/on-going budget session, the Government may look towards making necessary changes to the GST Act, and allow Composite GST Traders to sell online, and rationalize the GST registration requirements for online-sellers, in-line with offline sellers. Furthermore, the TDS on e-commerce transactions, which is also failing in delivering the right-revenue impact, may also be rolled back, keeping in mind the financial constraints of MSMEs in the pandemic scenario. As the rhetoric has been, this budget holds significant importance for the COVID-struck India economy. By provision of correct policy measures, the Government can give a significant boost to the digitalization of MSME ecosystem, which can in-turn help get the Indian economy back on-track.(The author is the Former Chairman of the Competition Commission of India and Executive Director for India at the World Bank. He is founder Chairman of Competition Advisory Services, a strategic advisory firm.)

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3rd6Xip

Centre to appoint panel for farmers’ issues

NEW DELHI: Amid farmers’ resolve to continue their agitation, the Centre has decided to set up a high-powered committee to look into several farm issues, including minimum support price (MSP) based on comprehensive cost, flagged by social activist Anna Hazare.The decision to set up the committee, headed by Tomar, was hurriedly taken in order to prevent Hazare from going on his scheduled fast. Hazare had, in solidarity with the farmers agitating for the repeal of farm laws, announced his fast would begin from Saturday. He, however, late on Friday called it off after the Centre rushed minister of state for agriculture Kailash Choudhary and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis to his village Ralegan Siddhi and assured him of setting up a panel to look into his demands.Sources in the ministry said that the committee would comprise Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand, MoS agriculture Parshottam Rupala, Agri-trade law and policy expert Vijay Sardana, a progressive farmer from Haryana and Padma Shri awardee Kanwal Singh Chauhan and farmer representatives. Hazare had, earlier, written to the ministry, listing pending demands including autonomy to the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and MSP based on comprehensive cost (C2) as recommended by M S Swaminathan committee as reasons for his joining the farmers’ protests through the fast.The committee, headed by agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, will finalise its recommendations in six months even as the PM Modi during the all-party meeting on Saturday referred to the agriculture ministry’s proposals of putting the implementation of farm laws on hold for 18 months and setting up a joint committee to make progress through discussion on all demands of farmers during the period.The unions, however, rejected the proposals, saying they would not end the protests till the farm laws are repealed. Choudhary said though the Centre had already implemented various suggestions of Hazare which the latter had written about earlier, the high-powered committee would look into the pending issues in consultations with farmer representatives.“Names of farmer representatives for the panel will be finalised in consultation with Hazare,” said an official, adding one joint secretary each from the agriculture, commerce and food & consumer affairs ministries would also be in the panel.He said this committee would work separately from the Supreme Court-appointed panel which is expected to submit its report to the apex court within two months after taking views of various stakeholders including individual farmers and state government.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3cq1Vux

Mathura farm body to block Yamuna Expressway

AGRA: A day after the massive mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar, thousands of farmers from western Uttar Pradesh gathered in Mathura on Saturday to attend a similar event organised by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) to express solidarity with their counterparts protesting against the new farm laws near the Delhi borders and announced plans to block the Yamuna Expressway.Final decision to block e-way next weekAt the Mathura event, called the ‘Mahapanchayat of Khaps’ held in the district’s Bajna town, farmer leaders said that 10,000 farmers will block the expressway in the coming days to put pressure on the government to withdraw the farm laws. However, the final decision will be taken in the next mahapanchayat, scheduled for next week.Confirming this, BKU district president Raj Kumar Tomar told TOI, “We have to put pressure on the government as it’s not listening to our grievances even after 66 days of the agitation.” He said the mahapanchayat also considered the proposal put forward by Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Chaudhary that at least one member of every farmer’s family should join the ongoing protest at the Ghazipur border. However, a final decision on this, too, will be taken in the next mahapanchayat, Tomar said.The BKU leader added that all farmers were behind Rakesh Tikait.“The government should not make farmers responsible for violence in Delhi. They should punish the culprits and not target the entire farming community,” said a section of farm leaders during the mahapanchayat, adding that they have decided to “socially boycott” BJP leaders.The mahapanchayat condemned the lathicharge on the protesting farmers at the Delhi border and raised slogans in their support.In his address, Jayant Chaudhary said, “I will campaign in Mathura for a week and motivate farmers to join the ongoing protest at the Ghazipur border and Palwal.”Later, Chaudhary told TOI that a campaign to unite and further strengthen the farmers’ movement will be launched on his father Ajit Singh’s birthday on February 12 as “a tribute to his sacrifices for the farming community”.Samajwadi Party MLC Sanjay Lathar, too, attended the mahapanchayat.While the administration allowed the mahapanchayat, heavy police force was deployed in Bajna to avert any untoward incident. Additional police force was deployed on Yamuna Expressway in order to maintain smooth vehicular movement.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3teG8vI

Face it, India's tackled virus better than most

On the day of writing this, India had reported 116 deaths from Covid. In contrast, the US, with around one-fourth the population of India, reported 1,897 deaths, or 16 times the daily deaths as India. The UK, which has one-twentieth the population of India, reported 592 deaths, or 5 times the daily deaths as India. On other metrics too — new cases, active cases — the Indian curve has flattened.If and when the UK and the US achieve what we have, there will be major celebrations. Such low death rates would be seen as a victory of the government, citizens and science over the dreaded coronavirus. However, because we are India, we don’t get as much credit. We are considered poor, third-world and untrustworthy, incapable of achieving something like this on our own. Instead of learning from India’s experience, the first instinct is to doubt Indian data. We aren’t counting the cases right, we aren’t doing enough tests, we don’t classify the deaths properly — the list of doubts goes on and on. This, even as the tests have only increased, positivity rate has dropped and almost all Indian hospitals are seeing a drop in Covid admissions and fatalities. To think that the Deep Indian State is capable of fudging data at the level of every district and every state, and sustaining this façade for months is giving it way too much credit. Conspiracies require enormous co-ordination and effort and it isn’t quite how things work in India. Given that you can check corona data at every ward level, it is also impossible to fudge data, not to mention create a downwards curve that is moving in the same direction in virtually every corner of India. In terms of testing, while a case might be made for a lot of Indians not getting tested, it is also true that random testing has increased in the last few months. Domestic flyers into Maharashtra from many states for instance, have to get a Covid test done irrespective of symptoms. If there was rampant corona, we would see a spike in cases from just these flyers. It may be hard for people to accept this reality but almost all evidence points to the fact India has flattened the corona curve, while the US, UK and most of Europe still haven’t. What is even more remarkable about India’s achievement is that it has managed to do this without draconian lockdowns (apart from the two months in April-May 2020). In fact, cases have dropped even as India opened up more. Bihar elections had massive rallies. Farmer protests have meant lakhs of people in close contact. A Tamil movie ‘Master’ broke opening day records with literally millions of people watching it in theatres last week. Domestic flight passenger numbers are getting close to pre-Covid levels. Yet, none of these caused ‘super-spreader’ events. India doesn’t get to say this at the world stage very often, but India’s recovery from the corona crisis has been truly amazing. All this has happened without vaccines, which will now make the situation even better.It would do the world some good if it gave India some credit on handling the virus, and learnt something from us as well. The only countries more successful than India are authoritarian, undemocratic regimes, where one cannot even criticise the government so it is also not possible to know the true impact of their coronavirus response policies.So how did we do so well? I am no expert, but here are some plausible reasons.1) Indians have developed herd immunity. For instance, a serological survey in Delhi showed over half of Delhi’s population has Covid antibodies and, hence, probably have already had the virus.2) This also suggests that Indians have better immunity than people in Western countries. Whether it is because our kids grow up playing in mud, or we eat some special herbs and spices, or we eat street food or we get more sun or we have lesser obesity rates is something the experts have to figure out.Other reasons might include3) A natural instinct amongst Indians to stay safe, knowing that they have nobody coming to their rescue if they do get the disease and4) The initial strict lockdown creating a huge awareness about the disease, making people take precautions seriously. Of course, some reasons may well remain unknown and it might just be a blessing from God that we didn’t see the kind of mayhem seen in the West.Covid is, of course, far from over. It is important we stay cautious until the vaccination drive is done. However, it is about time the world acknowledged what India has achieved, which is dramatically lowering the impact of Covid on 1.4 billion people, or one sixth of humanity. It is also time we pat ourselves on our back for being strong enough to fight the virus, and continue to keep wearing that face mask a little while longer. Well done, Indians!

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3cqIlyv

I would quarantine again for the Olympics, says Naomi Osaka

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3r1NUqU

Vijay Hazare: Iyer, Shaw among 100 players selected by MCA for camp

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2MD1276

Airtel vs Vi: Who Has the Best Rs. 129 Prepaid Pack?

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2MGdgMp

The Family Man, Pitta Kathalu, and More: February Guide to Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2McZWiK

Netflix February 2021 Releases: To All the Boys 3, The Girl on the Train, and More

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3pAiqrP

Ronaldo doesn't always have to score for Juventus: Pirlo

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3teCMZE

MCA to gift Sunil Gavaskar his permanent box at Wankhede Stadium on March 9

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3j3mgHh

Important to rotate players and have short-term goals: Jos Buttler

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2Mj0uUa

Most Australian Open participants clear quarantine

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2NUBpzv

Lukaku fires double as Inter Milan thrash Benevento 4-0

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3j1PC97

We'll never ask for athletes to be vaccinated first: Italian Oly Committee

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2NMG3zf

How To Remove MIUI 12 Bloatware Without Root

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/36pmWSw

Cheapest Data Plans From Jio, Airtel, Vi; Starting From Rs. 11

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3pDttAC

BCCI to host IPL 2021 at home

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/2MAJ19w

Will Kuldeep Yadav get a go at Chepauk?

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3pFRh6Y

Moeen Ali aims to make up for lost time after virus bout

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3j49sR9

Manchester United held in stalemate at Arsenal

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3j0iwXj

Juventus see off Sampdoria to climb to third in the table

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/39yF12d

How to Change Your Airtel Digital TV Package

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3qYMXzQ

Archer, Burns, Stokes begin training as visitors clear 2nd COVID-19 test

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/39w7OEH

United's Lingard joins West Ham United on loan for rest of the season

via Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Live Match Scores & Sports News Headlines, Results & more https://ift.tt/3ag8X2q

Apple TV+ Plans Miniseries on WeWork Rise and Fall With Jared Leto as Co-Founder Adam Neumann

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2Ml5pnr

Facebook to Develop ‘Topic Exclusion Controls’ for Advertisers to Tackle Harmful Content

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2ME5UZP

US Lobby Group Urges India Not to Tighten Foreign Investment Rules for E-Commerce

via Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2L1hmOy

2 militants trapped during encounter in Pulwama

Two militants, who were trapped during an encounter with security forces, laid down their arms before the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Saturday, officials said. The security forces had launched a cordon-and-search operation at Lelhaar in the Kakapora area of the district on Friday night following information about the presence of militants there, the officials said. They said the search operation turned into an encounter after the hiding militants opened firing. After a night-long lull in the firing, the two militants surrendered before the security forces along with their two AK rifles, the officials said. The two ultras were identified as Akeel Ahmad Lone and Rouf Ul Islam. Lone had sustained splinter injuries in his right foot and was taken to the police hospital here for treatment, they added.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3aw0HeX

Don’t let fear decide your financial path

We scrambled to get Rs 20,000 invested in time to claim the tax benefit. This wasn’t too long ago. In the 1990s. When our salaries were modest; and fears for the future ran high. End January was still the deadline for employers to get our investment information. Tax refunds took ages to come. Some fears are so overdone and that is a shame.As young earners raising two children and caring for the extended family on both sides, the husband and I saw ourselves like horses that must run tirelessly. We were in our 30s. We denied ourselves many simple joys; could not come around to making any decisions of luxury for ourselves; kept long work hours and pushed ourselves for getting better; and saved as if tomorrow held unknown setbacks. When we hit the 40s we began to breathe as earnings got better. By the time we were in the 50s we knew we had done enough and a little more with our profession, savings and investments. Now as we nudge the 60s, we are asking ourselves, if we could redo it, what would we do differently?First, we will drop the fear. Everything works out just fine. There is no need to worry about the future. The future holds beautiful opportunities we don’t know or can dream of. The unknown means unknown nice things too. Keep going and don’t let fear drive you to too much caution with money. Or too much conservativeness to spending.Second, we will not beat ourselves about not being able to save early. In the first 10 years of work life, people like us who had extended families to also care for, could not save enough. That is just fine. No harm.There comes a time when expenses drop and incomes rise and you still are earning and saving and making up for that late start. Third, we will apportion money for indulgence and for saving, treating both as equally important. Once a monthly treat of an evening out seemed like luxury then. Now people routinely order in three work day dinners and go out with friends every weekend. Our frugality seems so overdone. We would be kinder to ourselves.If we were to do the same again, we would be more optimistic and relaxed. What did we do right and feel proud about?First, we focussed on our work and grabbed every opportunity to learn and grow. No one could have predicted the changes that India went through when we joined the workforce in the mid 1980s. We were fortunate. We also grasped what came up with open arms and gave it our best shot. If one can reach the peak of one’s professional career by the time one is in the 50s there is enough to spend, save, and give. There are really no fears about income if work ethic is right.Second, we lived a life without debt. Borrowing was a source of great discomfort to both of us. We risk being called super conservative and unwilling to use leverage, but we dislike debt. We repaid our home loan in five years even if it did not make financial sense. Sometimes one must just do what one is comfortable with. Even if it is not mathematically the right thing to do.Third, we made giving a habit. From the first income we earned, we ensured that what we had was shared and that it helped those less privileged than us. We also learned a valuable lesson about giving along the way.True giving is not felt by the giver or the receiver. It happens as if it is the right thing to do and the most natural way to do things. Integrating others into your life is how this can happen. We learned that emphathy for people around us enables us to support them seamlessly.What would we tell our children, if they asked for lessons about money from us?First, do not treat money too lightly and do not treat it too seriously either. Money and wealth bring you the security and confidence to make choices that make the world a better place. You extend your vision beyond the basics for yourself and your family. Use money as that provider of comfort, choice and security. Don’t see it as an end goal. Being moneyed allows you to be a master of your time, your life and your work. Seek money and wealth for that freedom.Second, there is more to living than money alone. Life’s little joys come from the innumerable experiences that invariably involves others. Being empathetic, caring and inclusive matter much more than being wealthy alone. Make sure you bring little joys into your life and in the lives of people around you. Make the effort to make little experiences matter to yourself and others. Buy that box of ice cream on your way home, even if it meant standing in line for longer than you wished. Don’t let tiny discomforts come in the way of living life with joy.Third, invest in equity—through stocks and funds. With the power of participation in the best businesses that others are running, your money grows significantly. You focus on your work and your earnings and savings. Your money accumulates and appreciates in the background powered by the work so many others are putting in to excel, to win, to amaze and to add value. Equity investing is your key to growing your wealth. Do not let money lie idle.As we both contemplate the 60s in our lives we realise that money, time and energy aren’t available together in any stage of one’s life. When we were young and had all the energy to trek the world, we had jobs and family to devote time and energy to. In the middle age when money was relatively easy to allocate and energy still high, the demands of our profession meant we had no time to allocate. Now we have the time and the money, but the bones are weaker than before. We still hope to trek the mountains and walk the beaches, we hope.As we lie here at the hills on a dark night amazed at the million stars and unable to sleep under such beauty, we tell one another that the best things in life are still free and available in abundance. No money needed to enjoy them. None.(The author is chairperson, Centre for Investment Education and Learning.)

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2YvFvQx

'Equities will continue to be rewarding'

The financial year 2021-22 is likely to witness strong economic growth and long-term investors who can ignore market movements would benefit, Ravi Menon, CEO, HSBC Global Asset Management, India tells ET Wealth.What is your assessment of the current market scenario and economic recovery?The dichotomy between market indices touching new highs and current GDP numbers can be baffling. But if one were to look at the forecasted GDP numbers, may be not so. The marketplace is forecasting rising earnings. Skeptics may say analyst’s early numbers are invariably moderated downwards. They are right. But in the current year, earnings have surprised on the upside. Let me quote Aswath Damodaran who said: “Markets are not a reflector but a predictor of economic activity”. The quick recovery in equity markets has led some to believe that the market ignored the crisis, but that is not true. An economist opined that large listed Indian companies have little or no operating leverage. At the first sign of crisis they were able to cut costs significantly and boost profitability. Increasing demand, rising liquidity, strong offshore flows and a weakening dollar have led to a very sharp increase in our markets. The pandemic has accelerated the theme of dominant companies becoming even bigger—given their advantages of scale, cost and balance sheet—which is getting rewarded in market cap. We reckon that 2021-22 will be a strong year for economic growth.Most valuation metrics suggest markets are highly overvalued. But are low interest rates, abundance of liquidity challenging conventional wisdom on valuations?While the equity markets are trading at higher than historical averages on conventional valuation metrics, strong global liquidity and a low cost of capital environment in India as well as globally, place equity as a relatively better asset class in the near to medium term. Low cost of capital is a driver on both supply and demand side for companies, while for investors a lower discount rate means a higher real rate of return from equities compared to other asset classes. If the cost of capital were to remain low for a sustained period of time, then the current multiples are sustainable and the equity returns would be in line with earnings growth.Interest rates are unlikely to move up. There has also been a lot of discussion on current one year forward PE levels compared to historic averages. On an absolute basis, it is no doubt trading higher than historic averages. There is no denying that and it is a cause to exercise some restraint. This restraint will be specific to individual risk appetite.What is the best way for investors to approach a runaway market like this?It will depend on their risk appetite and return expectations. For an investor who has saved for retirement and is approaching that stage, it would be prudent to book regular profits. For a long-term investor, market movements are of less significance as it is the compounding factor that drives returns in the long run. India’s growing middle class and expanding working age population is expected to drive the consumption demand and this is a multi-year story with long legs. India is one of the fastest growing large economies and its incremental contribution to world GDP would remain high. This would eventually reflect in the market cap parameters too. The ingredients are all in place – stable democracy, structural policy reforms and Indian equities are expected to continue to be a rewarding place for investors who are willing to stay invested.Will value get its time under the sun finally?Growth stocks do not work if there is no value in them and value stocks do not work if there is no growth in them. During the past decade or so, Indian equity markets have been rewarding growth, while value has taken a backseat. As we are a growing economy, investors are willing to pay a premium for growth. But value stocks which are part of a growing industry, regaining its mojo due to company specific factors, can still outperform. But we cannot generalise. It will be better to be selective while evaluating value stocks and we expect growth to outperform.How are you positioning equity funds for the next few years? Which sectors or themes are you betting on?Our investment philosophy is to invest in dominant scalable businesses, available at reasonable valuations. Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the trend of profit pool consolidating with the dominant players in respective sectors/industries. We believe that will accelerate as the current disruption has a higher magnitude as well as it encompasses more sectors. The disruption will pave way for interesting themes. One is that of accelerated digital adoption by consumers as well as enterprises. We see telecom, internet economy, ecommerce, technology vendors, etc. benefitting from this disruption. Another long term theme is of diversification of the global supply chain due to ‘China + 1’ strategy which could be adopted by corporates as well as economies and India could benefit. We would position our portfolios to benefit out of these themes in the medium to long term. In the short to medium term, we would be focusing on earnings growth surprises.Is interest rate down-cycle on its last leg? What should one expect from debt funds?Interest rate moves in a cycle but we think terming it as on the last leg is a bit preemptive. While the central bank has done a lot in terms of supporting the market, the space for further action is perhaps constrained.While short-end funds tend to do well with respect to consistency and volatility, their ability to generate return in a falling interest rate regime is limited. Similarly, while long duration strategy tends to be higher in terms of volatility, their ability to generate capital gains is much higher when interest rate is moving down. The preference of allocation comes from individual’s risk and return appetite.The disruption will pave way for interesting themes. One is that of accelerated digital adoption by consumers as well as enterprises. We see telecom, internet economy, ecommerce, technology vendors, etc. benefitting from this disruption. Another long term theme is of diversification of the global supply chain due to ‘China + 1’ strategy which could be adopted by corporates as well as economies and India could benefit. We would position our portfolios to benefit out of these themes in the medium to long term. In the short to medium term, we would be focusing on earnings growth surprises. Is interest rate down-cycle on its last leg? What should one expect from debt funds?Interest rate moves in a cycle but we think terming it as on the last leg is a bit preemptive. While the central bank has done a lot in terms of supporting the market, the space for further action is perhaps constrained. While short-end funds tend to do well with respect to consistency and volatility, their ability to generate return in a falling interest rate regime is limited. Similarly, while long duration strategy tends to be higher in terms of volatility, their ability to generate capital gains is much higher when interest rate is moving down. The preference of allocation comes from individual’s risk and return appetite.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3qLSFF4

Inside the verification badge scam on Instagram

In the aspirational world of social media, blue ticks are a coveted status symbol. Now, they can be bought, for a price.Blue ticks are what users see next to a verified social media account — on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, for instance. These social media firms pin blue ticks on users only if they are authentic, if their account is active, and if they are notable. Think Amitabh Bachchan, you will get the picture. Now, blue ticks are being sold on private marketplaces. Individuals and agencies are offering social media verification services for a fee — from Rs 30,000 to Rs 1 lakh in India and many times higher for users in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.Their promise to users: help get a verified badge next to their social media accounts. These agencies and individuals operate in stealth mode, often listing their services on communities that do not always pop up by doing a basic Google search.An ET investigation found sites like mpsocial.com, blackhatworld.com and swapd.co had posts from users offering verification services for a hefty fee. Several digital marketing agencies are said to be providing this service, too, without making any noise about it. 80593243 80593244Meanwhile, a local marketing agency, Fametick Media, openly brags about providing “technical support” for users in getting a verification badge, on its Facebook and Instagram page. 80593248Industry experts estimate that these individuals and agencies could be getting at least 1 million annual queries for buying a blue tick, potentially pegging the size of the fake verification industry at Rs 3,000 crore in India alone.With micro-blogging platform Twitter recently unveiling plans to resume its verification process which it had paused in 2017, these numbers are likely to go up, the experts said.How do the manipulators operate? While listing the three broad parameters — authentic, active, notable — that most social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram use to give out a blue tick, they also specify that it should be a highly searched account or featured in multiple news sources.It is the “notable” feature that the manipulators primarily use to their advantage.They beef up a user’s follower count and engagement numbers using social media automation tools like jarvee.com which help in buying multiple bot accounts to follow a user, among other things. Next, they help publish sponsored posts for the user across a bunch of online and offline publications. Users then disingenuously flaunt this branded content as actual press coverage, which these platforms seem to have missed while screening a verification request.During its investigation, ET spotted several verified accounts on Instagram where these blue- ticked users bragged about being featured in well-known publications on their profiles and posted screenshots of the coverage even though they were clearly sponsored posts.Two such users — @devenbapna and @manpreet_singhg — made changes to their bio within 12 hours of ET reaching out to them, inquiring about their blue ticks. While @devenbapna removed a few publication names from his bio, @manpreet_singhg removed the mention of it altogether both from his bio and feed. 80593253 80593260In less than 24 hours of ET sharing examples of such accounts with Instagram, the photo- and video-sharing platform removed the verified badges of two suspicious accounts — @ambergandotra and @amel_elezovic — that were flagged. 80593262 80593264“We will take action against those accounts that violate our community guidelines, as and when reported,” a Facebook company spokesperson told ET. "Additionally, we’d like to reiterate that we will never request payment for verification or reach out to ask you to confirm your verification."For this reason, Akram Tariq Khan has refrained from obtaining a blue tick via inauthentic means. "It puts you at risk of losing your verification at any point in time," says Khan, co-founder of UAE-based apparel company, YourLibaas. "Given how we are seriously pursuing business, it would have been counterproductive," he adds. Khan had gone down this rabbit hole out of sheer curiosity recently.Speaking of rabbit holes, we discovered @amel_elezovic’s page while going through one of @ambergandotra’s recent posts which had comments from a lot of verified accounts that seemed equally suspicious. @ambergandotra had over 213,000 followers for 136 posts whereas @amel_elezovic had over 45,000 followers with a grand total of two posts on that account.Soon, a pattern started to emerge among most of these undeservedly verified accounts. Thousands of followers, but very few posts. They all had an Instagram Story about their press coverage pinned on their profiles. Their posts attracted comments from a lot of blue-tick accounts that, on digging deeper, turned out to be dubious too.One blue tick, many interpretationsThe verification feature on Facebook and Instagram is for brands, organisations and public figures who the tech platforms “know to be at risk of impersonation or consider to be in the public interest”.The verified badge on Twitter merely lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic, a Twitter spokesperson says.However, most users see a blue tick as a status symbol, says Sneha Mehta, community manager at social media management company Crowdfire.“A lot of new talent that enters the creator ecosystem enquires about getting a blue tick because they think it’ll instantly help them stand out among a horde of creators,” says Neel Gogia, co-founder of influencer marketing agency IPLIX Media.To an uninitiated user, a verified badge conveys that the platform is endorsing them, that this person knows their stuff, says Prashant Puri, CEO of digital marketing agency AdLift.For Abhinandan Shah from Pune, a blue tick is an indication that the account is not spam. "There is a tacit expectation that blue tick accounts will not engage back, as they have a huge following. There is often also a moment of pride when someone verified follows you," says the tech professional at a leading financial services company.Delhi-based Vishakha Goswami feels verified accounts tend to behave responsibly. "There is no or less threat of virtual crime with them," says the independent communications consultant.Creating a trust deficitIn the wrong hands, however, this blue tick, gained fraudulently, can be grossly misused.Imagine someone doling out financial or medical advice or spreading political propaganda through an undeservedly verified account.“I vividly remember how this impacted Twitter during the crypto rally of 2017,” says Hugo Amsellem, Paris-based founder of social media management company Atitlan, referring to blue-tick accounts promoting misleading information related to cryptocurrency.Further, verified accounts on Twitter shared more content from deceptive websites than ever in 2020, recent research from The German Marshall Fund of the United States, published by international tech-focused publication Axios, showed.The workaroundExperts urge platforms to inculcate AI-enabled and human-backed review processes.On its part, “Twitter plans to use both automated and human review processes to ensure that it is reviewing applications thoughtfully and in a timely manner." But monitoring the credibility of every account will require multiple layers of checks, especially in today’s age of misinformation. Many reckon only enforcing better guidelines can drain the swamp.Gogia of IPLIX suggests press coverage should no longer be a metric to determine someone’s verification worthiness. “That’s what has given rise to this underground industry in the first place because people struggle to get published,” he says, adding that verification should be decided on the merit of the user content.“It should be as simple as a KYC.”

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/39vugO6

Facebook is hated — and rich

Come a little closer to your screen. That’s it. I want to tell you a secret: Facebook is the best money machine on the internet, and it’s not a close call.*Facebook may be an indefensible company that normalizes invasive tracking of people for dollars. It’s a place where extremists have ricocheted hate around the world. It may be melting our brains. And it’s being sued or prodded by so many governments that I have lost count. You might hate it. I might hate it? But I almost can’t believe how many of us rely on Facebook, and how stupidly successful it is.The company said Wednesday that its sales — nearly all of which come from the ads it sells on Facebook, on Instagram and its other apps — reached nearly $86 billion in 2020 and are growing rapidly. Each day, 2.6 billion people use at least one of Facebook’s apps, and the user numbers are rising.This is a company that is embroiled in a different scandal each week and that people say they dislike, yet its products are used by billions of people, and businesses spent like crazy on ads during a pandemic to reach them.And the really wild thing is that Facebook’s products cost the company almost nothing to make. The Instagram selfie of you being vaccinated, the post from Mom about a fundraiser, and your Facebook parenting group — those are the company’s products, and most of us are making them for free. It means that Facebook is very profitable.I’ve been writing about corporate finances for a long time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this combination of popularity, fast-growing sales, fat profits — and complete revulsion. “The gap between Facebook’s public reputation and its financial success has never been greater,” Kurt Wagner of Bloomberg wrote this past week.Historians, tell me if there’s a comparable company that was so reviled and yet so widely used and successful. (If you say the Gilded Age trusts like Standard Oil, I’d argue they make the point for Facebook’s critics who want the company broken up like the trusts of a century ago.)Near the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, my colleagues wrote that strong companies like America’s technology superpowers would most likely become even stronger in this crisis. But as corporations’ 2020 financial returns roll in, it’s clear that we underestimated just how much the rich would get richer.Apple, Netflix, Microsoft and other tech powers are making products that people and businesses are relying on to make it through a pandemic. And they are raking in money hand over fist.I’m not sure how to feel about this. Yes, I’m grateful that companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google and others are helping us work, go to school, shop, and stay entertained and connected at a time like this. But it’s also hard to ignore the disconnect between their mountains of money and the shaky condition of most major economies in 2020 and the battered finances of many families.This is not a novel reflection about the gap between the haves and the have-nots in this pandemic. I’m just left again unsure how to answer an essential question: Is what’s good for Big Tech good for all of us?*(OK, fine. Google search is perhaps the internet’s very best money machine. Feel free to argue with me!)Being informed(-ish) isn’t good enoughThursday was Data Privacy Day. This fake holiday has become an opportunity for Facebook to remind people to review their privacy settings. It’s also an opportunity for me to remind you that this is a charade.These nudges from Facebook as well as Apple's data privacy labels and a California privacy law all reveal a fundamental flaw in how our data is treated in the United States.The mission is to inform us of what data companies are collecting on us and give us (some) measure of choice. But I don’t want being informed to be the final goal.The focus on making data collection transparent(-ish) is why we have long privacy policies that give a choice between agreeing to anything a company wants to do and not using the service.It’s why technology executives tout our ability to delete voice recordings from inside our homes — but don’t stop the data from being collected in the first place. It’s why an app used to open and close a garage door also collects information to target users with internet ads. (Yes, really.)Washington Post columnist Geoffrey Fowler has written that we should reframe data privacy around a simple question: Why is so much of our information being collected in the first place?The answer is, because companies can. When every company from Facebook to a maker of garage door openers is racing to collect as much data as possible, we can’t really opt out — unless we want to cut ourselves off from 21st-century life.So if Facebook reminds you to look at its 40,000 privacy settings, go for it. But I suggest you also remember Fowler’s question: Why is so much information being collected at all?

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3j2wWG4

From aide to nemesis: Hari Nada’s great escape

TOKYO: It was the fall of 2018, and Hari Nada, a high-powered Nissan executive, was afraid he might be headed to jail.Japanese prosecutors, Nada wrote in a note, were “seriously considering a criminal charge” against him as part of an investigation that would soon lead to the indictment of Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s larger-than-life leader.Nada had been instrumental in carrying out the financial maneuvers under investigation. He had also been instrumental in taking evidence of those maneuvers to the authorities in a secret effort to oust Ghosn.Now, Nada worried he would be ensnared in his own trap. His best defense, he wrote in the note summarizing the investigation’s status, was arguing that his cooperation had earned him legal immunity.The gambit worked. Nada struck a plea deal, escaping prosecution for his role in one of the biggest corporate scandals in years. He remains an influential executive at Nissan, surviving a shake-up that destroyed other top executives’ careers and rocked a globe-spanning auto alliance.Nada has endured thanks in part to ruthless corporate knife-fighting skills that allowed him to deftly transform from trusted Ghosn adviser to nemesis. He was also protected by high-ranking Nissan allies, according to almost 1,000 pages of internal corporate documents reviewed by The New York Times.The documents, as well as interviews with people familiar with the episodes they describe, detail both the deep conflicts of interest posed by Nada’s role in the investigation and the extensive efforts by him and his allies to shield him from the consequences.Those allies protected him despite warnings from at least 10 employees and external advisers that his actions could undermine the civil and criminal cases against Ghosn and harm Nissan’s reputation.The company declined to answer a list of questions from The Times or to make Nada available for comment.The Ghosn case exposed deep failings in Nissan’s management and corporate culture, issues for which it has blamed its ousted leader. But Nada’s enduring presence shows that the problems extended well beyond Ghosn.Nada is the star witness in a criminal trial against Nissan and Greg Kelly, Ghosn’s second in command and Nada’s onetime mentor. They are being tried on charges related to helping arrange undisclosed compensation for Ghosn.Kelly’s trial began nine months after Ghosn’s dramatic escape from what he called Japan’s rigged justice system. Ghosn asserts that Nissan executives, including Nada, colluded with Japanese officials to oust him because they feared he would merge the company with its longtime partner Renault, the French automaker.Kelly, who denies wrongdoing, has said legal advice from Nissan and its external lawyers, primarily conveyed to him by Nada, guided his actions.The two men are now facing each other in a Tokyo court. While Kelly struggles to save himself from the justice system, Nada is a free man, backed by the might of one of the jewels of Japanese industry.Caught in the MiddleGhosn was the world’s biggest auto titan, emperor of Nissan’s and Renault’s mighty alliance. But he wasn’t the highest paid.The matter weighed on him. In 2010, Kelly instructed Nada to begin the first of a series of secret plans intended to increase Ghosn’s benefits and compensation, according to court testimony and internal Nissan documents.Executive compensation was a perilous political issue in France, Nada testified this month, and if Ghosn’s true compensation were revealed, the French government — as a major Renault shareholder — would have pushed the company to fire him.Nada, 56, had joined Nissan as a junior legal counsel in 1990 and was fiercely loyal to the company. By 2010 he had become a senior manager.He kept his work for Ghosn secret, he wrote in a draft statement to prosecutors reviewed by The Times, in part because Kelly convinced him that his boss, in his position as the head of the alliance, was a critical bulwark against the French government’s ambition for Renault to absorb Nissan, its junior partner.For eight years, Nada worked “proactively and creatively” to realize Kelly’s instructions, he told the court, making arrangements to purchase homes across the globe for Ghosn’s personal use and to disguise the extent of his pay.His career advanced apace. By the spring of 2018, when the investigation into Ghosn began to coalesce, Nada wielded enormous power, controlling Nissan’s legal, compliance, security and communications departments, among others. He was a top adviser to Hiroto Saikawa, then its chief executive, and to Ghosn.For years, Nada had fended off questions from both internal and external auditors about his work for Ghosn, according to the documents. But in 2018, a Nissan whistleblower complained about travel expenses for Ghosn’s family to a company auditor, Hidetoshi Imazu. The issue, Imazu later told Nissan lawyers, spurred him to dig into Ghosn’s affairs, including one of the secretive companies Nada had set up to acquire properties.The scrutiny came at a delicate moment: The French government was increasing pressure on Ghosn for a merger, which many Nissan executives opposed.Ghosn, Kelly and Nada had discussed a Nissan-Renault merger since at least 2012, Nada said in court this month, contemplating a structure that would put Ghosn at the head of a corporate chimera and trigger a big payout for the executive. But the project had been repeatedly put off. Now, Ghosn was ready to act, Kelly informed Nada.Nada had privately disdained Renault and worried that he would lose power in the alliance as others were promoted past him, according to people familiar with the matter. Nissan executives saw him as crucial to undermining a deal, the people said.One of them, Hitoshi Kawaguchi, asked Japan’s Trade Ministry to intervene, internal emails show. Nissan executives believed the ministry opposed a merger because it would cede control of a major Japanese company to a foreign government.The ministry advised Kawaguchi to contact Tokyo prosecutors, according to one Nissan memo.Contacted by Imazu, the company auditor, prosecutors said they wanted more evidence against Ghosn before taking action. They advised him to begin a secret investigation with Kawaguchi and Nada, he later told Nissan lawyers.Nada named it Kali-10 — an allusion to the Hindu goddess.At Nada’s recommendation, Imazu retained Nissan’s American law firm, Latham & Watkins, to conduct it.The choice was fraught. For years, the firm had provided the automaker with advice on topics it was now being asked to investigate. Between 2012 and the summer of 2018, the firm had exchanged hundreds of emails with Nada regarding Nissan executives’ compensation and other issues, according to an early draft of the Kali-10 report. He had then conveyed its advice to Kelly and others.In response to questions from The Times, the firm said that it could not comment on specific communications but that it “had no conflict of interest because its sole client was always Nissan, and Latham regularly discussed the engagement with Nissan executives, who agreed to continue.”“Latham disagrees with any suggestion that the internal investigation was biased,” the firm added, saying that its findings were consistent with those reached by American and Japanese authorities.When he first envisioned the investigation, Nada testified, he had imagined that prosecutors would become involved only if Ghosn refused to resign after being confronted with its results.But Imazu had brought the authorities in earlier than expected, Nada said, putting him in a predicament. “Nectarine” — Nada’s code name for himself — “was warned to cooperate fully or face the certain risk of criminal prosecution,” he said in the notes he wrote before Ghosn’s arrest.In mid-July, Nada instructed his personal lawyer, Akihide Kumada, to contact the prosecutors about cooperation, Nada told the court, adding that he had feared his work for Ghosn would be “mischaracterized.”In September 2018, Imazu provided Japanese prosecutors with the initial Kali-10 report. They soon informed Nissan’s chief executive they would move against Ghosn.As Nissan braced for the arrest, Nada’s web of conflicts began raising alarms.In mid-October 2018, a month before Ghosn’s detention, Takeshi Oki, a legal adviser for Nissan, emailed Latham & Watkins to say that Nada was likely to be “deemed as an accomplice” to Ghosn and should step down from the legal and audit departments.Michael Yoshii, a Latham & Watkins partner, forwarded a translation of the email to Nada. Days later, Oki was removed by the company’s chief executive at the time, who replaced him with a lawyer recommended by Kumada, according to an internal memo. The reasons for the decision are unclear, but some Nissan lawyers believed that Oki’s concerns were the trigger, according to people familiar with their thinking.By the end of October, Nada had struck a plea deal. Kumada and Latham & Watkins had helped, the Nissan documents show.Working with prosecutors, Nada arranged a corporate jet to ferry Kelly from the United States to Japan for a Nissan board meeting, promising that Kelly would return in time for a scheduled back surgery.Prosecutors detained Ghosn and Kelly shortly after they arrived in Japan on Nov. 19. Nada continued working on the investigation behind the scenes, according to Nissan’s internal documents.Nada’s role in the investigation soon raised Renault’s hackles. In January 2019, Nissan received a letter — previously reported by The Financial Times — from the automaker’s legal counsel complaining that his involvement made the inquiry appear “more like a political campaign than a neutral fact-gathering exercise.”Seeking to defuse the situation, Nissan hired another law firm to review the investigation’s conclusions. It also drafted documents aimed at erecting a firewall between the inquiry and people with direct involvement in the events that precipitated it, including Nada.A Persistent PresenceNada remained atop the investigation until April 2019, when Nissan removed him from the inquiry’s chain of command, according to its submission to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.But he continued influencing Nissan’s approach to the Ghosn case. In August, the documents show, Nada participated in discussions about Nissan’s efforts to bring criminal charges — never realized — against Ghosn and his family in Brazil.Echoing Oki’s October recommendation, one of Nissan’s criminal defense lawyers urged the company to remove Nada’s remaining responsibilities.Nissan’s failure to punish Nada was “not good,” he said, according to a meeting memo.That summer, Nada’s involvement in Kali-10 raised new concerns among Nissan’s legal and compliance teams as prosecutors shared their evidence with the defense teams for Ghosn and Kelly.In an email to Nissan lawyers, an adviser suggested asking prosecutors to withhold documents about Nada’s involvement in Kali-10, arguing that the men’s defense teams would use them to assert that the investigation was a conspiracy.Yoshii, the Latham & Watkins partner, sent an email to Nissan’s legal team nominating 10 “bad documents,” almost all related to Nada’s role in the inquiry.The documents — forwarded by Yoshii — included Nada’s note summarizing the investigation, comments by Latham & Watkins on his witness statement and the October email to the firm from Oki, Nissan’s former criminal adviser, recommending that Nada step down.Around this time, Christina Murray, Nissan’s global compliance chief, was working on a project to identify and punish people suspected of involvement in additional wrongdoing by Ghosn and others. A draft of the report, reviewed by The Times, listed multiple, serious violations of corporate rules by Nada.In late August, Murray met with Yasuhiro Yamauchi, then the company’s chief operating officer, to discuss next steps for the project. “Hari told him it was not necessary,” she wrote of the inquiry in an internal email.Within days, she received an email from the head of Nissan’s audit committee, Motoo Nagai, removing her from investigations related to Nada. Her investigation was subsequently “suspended,” according to a briefing prepared for Nissan executives.On Sept. 9, Murray resigned. Shortly after, Ravinder Passi, Nissan’s global legal counsel, was removed from matters involving the investigation, a decision that followed his repeated attempts to raise concerns about Nada with Nissan’s directors.In a previous statement, Nissan said that Passi was removed because of unspecified conflicts of interest. Nissan lawyers, according to people familiar with their thinking, believed the decision was related to his concerns about Nada’s role in the investigation. The change was announced in an email from Nada to the legal department.The following week, reports in The Times and elsewhere, detailed some of Nada’s conflicts of interest. Nissan removed him from the head of the legal and security departments, giving him the title “senior adviser overseeing special projects.”At the time, Nissan said it had “found no evidence of inappropriate involvement by Nada in the internal investigation into executive misconduct.”Kathryn Carlile, who had spent years working as Nada’s assistant, took over Passi’s responsibilities for the Ghosn investigation. She herself had worked, at Nada’s direction, on some matters covered by the Kali-10 investigation, according to the documents.Nissan declined to make Nagai or Carlile available for comment.On Nov. 11, Nissan fired Passi. In a statement to The Times, Passi said that he was pursuing two legal actions against the company in Britain, where he now resides, for wrongful termination and “retaliatory actions” taken in response to his attempts to draw attention to problems at the company.Nada still occupies an office on the executive floor of the company’s headquarters in Yokohama.8023711579935596

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2MgpN9m