China's kids get schooled in 'Xi Jinping thought'

Chinese pupils returned to school Wednesday with new textbooks peppered with "Xi Jinping thought", as the Communist Party aims to extend his personality cult to children as young as seven and rear a new generation of patriots.The education ministry has said it will incorporate Xi's vaguely defined political ideology into the national curriculum, from primary schools to graduate programmes, at the start of the new school year on Wednesday.Primary school teachers must "plant the seeds of loving the party, the country and socialism in young hearts", according to a government notice on the new curriculum.The new school books are decorated with the president's pithy quotes and images of his smiling face, with elementary school students served up chapters on the achievements of Chinese civilisation and the Communist Party's role in poverty alleviation and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.Lessons are interspersed with quotes from Xi on patriotism and duty, as well as anecdotes of his meetings with ordinary citizens."Grandpa Xi Jinping is very busy with work, but no matter how busy he is, he still joins our activities and cares about our growth," one textbook says.Xi's thought, which encompasses 14 principles including "absolute Party leadership" over the military and "improving living standards through development".It was enshrined in the constitution during a 2018 legislative meeting that abolished term limits and paved the way for him to rule indefinitely.The principles are now cited regularly by officials in wildly varying contexts from fighting Covid-19 to literature and art, and universities have opened institutes dedicated to Xi's thought.The push to indoctrinate children with his political thinking brings Xi's ideology to its youngest audience yet.It comes as the Party conducts a wider campaign to fight what it considers corrupting influences on the youth, from video games to celebrities and foreign educational tools.Textbooks for older children delve into more complex topics such as the country's aerospace industry and the path to becoming a "modern socialist great power".Several parents privately expressed discomfort about the curriculum but declined to be interviewed by AFP, fearing they would get in trouble for speaking to foreign media.But the policy has been met with subtle pushback by anonymous internet commenters."Brainwashing starts from childhood," one user of the Weibo social media platform wrote."Can we refuse this?" asked another.Wang Fei-Ling, a professor of international affairs at Georgia Tech, said the textbooks were an example of the Communist Party's effort to "bet on a cult of personality in a Mao-like strong leader.""However, given what has happened in the Chinese society over the past four decades, I think many parents may not like it very much and many students may find it boring -- but few would or could protest it publicly," Wang added."Most are likely to simply not take it very seriously."While China has long given schoolchildren patriotism and political education, the new curriculum is "about promoting the cult of Xi as much as about instilling a greater sense of nationalism," China researcher Adam Ni told AFP.

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Financials helped Nifty touch 17,000: Khemka

In the last 18-24 months, the midcaps were outperforming now. In the last one, one and a month, interest in largecaps have helped the index move past 17,000, says Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, MOFSL. What a rally we have seen as the Nifty surged from 16,000 to 17,000. What is on your radar as we try and move to 18,000?Yes, it has been a historical day for Indian markets. Nobody would have expected Nifty to touch 17,000 so fast when we touched 16,000 sometime back. Given that we are staring at the third wave of pandemic. Developed countries including US, Europe, UK are struggling with rising Covid cases. In India also, recent numbers have been rising but yes, the overall macro numbers have been quite supportive of the recovery in the macro economic growth. That is the case with global markets as well. With the US economy being on a strong footing, the US Fed said they would be looking at a calibrated taper. That kind of calmed the global nerves and liquidity flows continued afresh, entering largecaps again. In the last 18-24 months, the midcaps were outperforming now. In the last one, one and a month, interest in largecaps have helped the index move past 17,000. We had seen Nifty consolidating at below 16,000 for almost two and a half months but once it crossed there, we saw a lot of largecaps participating. In the last few days, banking stocks which contribute almost 40% of the index and were underperforming for a long time, have started participating again, So financials, especially banks have been a key pillar to the index touching 17,000 levels.

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What will push this roaring bull market forward?

Banks and other financial institutions have started performing. Banks make 30% of the index and when they perform, we see this kind of euphoria, says Daljeet Singh Kohli, CIO, Stockaxis.com. What are you making of this roaring bull market? What can stall it and what is going to push it forward?There is nothing to worry about as of now. The market has been able to conquer a lot of the fears which we felt in the beginning of August. These sectors can take the market forward. a)The BFSI sector has not performed from January till July. This is probably the time for them to catch up and one of them has already done it. b)The FMCG sector has also done a very smart rebound. Banks have been the laggards, have started performing and are not waiting for Fed action to pan out and the final result of tapering. Fed chairman Powell has not yet given any specific timeline for tapering and the market has moved very fast. Banks and other financial institutions have started performing. Banks make 30% of the index and when they perform, we see this kind of euphoria. In September, the banks still have to catch up some more and therefore we will see a big move in banks like we have already seen in HDFC Bank. So, there is a big potential from the BFSI segment. Reliance is also picking up. Reliance again has news flow on plans to acquire solar energy company and other things. For the past several months, Reliance did not perform. It has also started performing now. As 10% of the index is one stock and that is performing, 30% banking is performing, obviously we are seeing high levels on frontlines. On the portfolio side, one may not be as gung-ho but the portfolio has not moved as much. But for September, we have started to reduce exposure on midcap IT and increase on Reliance. Why are markets not revisiting media stocks?Media still lacks that clarity on the subscription numbers and advertisement revenue. Also there are not many media stocks available. Zee is available but there are a lot of issues regarding the promoters and what they have done in the past. In the other stocks, people are still wanting to see what is the trajectory on the advertising part because when we speak to the managements of various companies, the place they want to cut down on expenses is advertisement. Now everybody talks about saving your money. Earlier, it used to be travel and employees. Now travel is already cut down, employees cannot be cut much. So the third place where they can reduce spending is spending on advertisements. That trajectory is still not clear. Also, it makes sense because we are still in that mode of a lot of lockdowns everywhere. Companies are also waiting for the economy to fully open before spending on advertisements. It will take some more time for these companies to perform and therefore there is not much of visibility on the numbers. Hence media is still not a preferred sector for most of the people. What explains the move in Bajaj Finance from Rs 5,000 to 7,500 in such a short time? NBFCs have suffered, new tech lenders like HDFC Bank and Kotak are going through time wise correction but Bajaj Finance has gone up like a rocket. What are we missing here?Sometimes it is not that we are missing something or somebody is smarter, it is just that somebody has made that leap of faith. I have been tracking Bajaj Finance since 2011. At that time, it was Rs 10. It went straight up to Rs 800. That was my first recommendation and it was a 52-week high at that time. Since then, we always had that feeling that we will come back and probably downgrade the stock because it is becoming costlier. It became six times book value and now it is nine times book value, an all-time high. Every time but when you come back, you actually feel that they are doing much better and they are doing things in the right direction. They are much ahead of time and they have done many things which are right in what was required for that business to do. We are talking these days of fintechs and so many companies have now come up. But all these things, Bajaj Finance have already been doing. They have been doing it in a much better way. I guess, that is what is driving this stock price continuously. Also, they have not been reckless. During times of pandemic, they were very conservative. Now they have improved and the latest trigger is from the three apps which are likely to come up in October. And then the AMC business is coming. So there are a few triggers which are playing. Also, it is more to do with valuation. If you want to give valuation of 100 times to any new fintech player, why can’t the same valuation come to this company because here is a traffic that is playing out. Also, there’s the fear of missing out (FOMO). But they did give a profit warning last quarter when retail NPAs went higher. How come markets are not recognising that? They did give a warning that AUM growth will slow down. So if the normal business is slowing down, why is the market not getting worried?The fact they acknowledged it gives them a better place in the eyes of the investors. They have acknowledged the problem areas and once you acknowledge then obviously you will take steps to improve on that. This is a management which has a lot of credibility.

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Mirae Asset offers new route to US bluechips

Investors looking for core international equity allocation can consider the passive new fund offer (NFO) of Mirae Asset S&P 500 Top 50 ETF or its Fund of Fund (FoF). Given the sharp run-up in equities and the rich valuations, investors could stagger their investments through a systematic investment plan (SIP) over the next one year.The S&P 500 Top 50 consists of the 50 largest companies making up the S&P 500 index, giving investors exposure to bluechip companies in the US along with sectoral and currency diversification.At each annual reconstitution, the top 50 companies in the S&P 500, based on free-float market capitalisation, are selected for index inclusion. The NFO is currently open and closes on September 14 and the minimum investment size is ₹5,000. There is an exit load of 0.5% for redemptions within three months.The fund house is also launching an FoF investing in units of the ETF, which will help investors who do not wish to use the exchange route to investing. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon and Facebook are amongst the top five holdings of the fund and the top three sectors are information technology (38.5%), communication services (18.4%) and consumer discretionary (13.5%). The ETF has an expense ratio of 37 basis points, while the FoF has an expense ratio of 62 basis points for the direct plan and 105 basis points for the regular plan.Financial planners believe investors must geographically diversify their equity mutual fund portfolios and doing it passively is one of the better ways. “It is well known that it is extremely difficult to generate alpha in the West. Hence, investors are better off taking exposure through this passive route to the top 50 companies,” said Nirav Karkera, head of research, Fisdom.A note by Mirae Asset MF shows that S&P 500 Top 50 Index has historically outperformed S&P 500 Index. Over a 10-year period, in rupee terms, the S&P 500 Index has returned an annualised 21.5% as against the S&P 500 Top 50 return of 22.6%. The S&P 500 Top 50 Index has outperformed S&P 500 Index in 7 out of 11 calendar years. “The companies in the portfolio are universal brands, giving investors an opportunity to participate in global trade,” said Vaibhav Porwal, co-founder, Dezerv.in, a wealth management company. Vaibhav recommends 15-20% of the equity portfolio should be allocated to international funds, of which about one-third can be allocated to this fund.

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Joe Root urges England to be 'ruthless' against India

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Time for second thoughts on Indian team combination?

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China and Russia team up at UNSC over Afghan issue

China, which along with Russia abstained from voting on the UN Security Council Afghanistan resolution on Monday, made it clear in its explanation to the 15-member body that it had “huge doubts about the necessity and urgency of adopting this resolution and the balance of its content”.Also, China told the Council that it was necessary for the international community to “engage with the Taliban, and actively provide them with guidance”. Russia went a step further to highlight the “negative impact of evacuation of highly skilled, qualified Afghan personnel” on Afghanistan’s “socio-economic situation”.ET has learnt that China also wanted the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a radical Uighyur outfit active in Xinjiang, named in the resolution alongside the ISIL, whose affiliate has claimed responsibility for the Kabul airport attack.The US, which along with the UK and France had circulated a draft UNSC resolution seeking to hold the Taliban accountable to its commitments against terror outfits, had last November delisted ETIM from the State Department terror designation list. An incensed China has been asking the US to put it back on its list, but Washington has aired doubts over the group’s potency and existence, while expressing larger concern on the allegations of human right violations by the Chinese government against the Uighurs.85814198“China has participated constructively in the consultations and put forward important and reasonable amendments together with Russia. Unfortunately, our amendments have not been fully adopted,” the Chinese side is believed to have told the Council, adding that there must not be “double standard” or “selective approach” on countering terror.The details of the amendments were articulated specifically in the Russian explanation of vote, once again baring the level of close coordination between Beijing and Moscow at the UNSC. The Russian side specified three issues it wanted in the resolution.First, it pointed out that the sponsors of the resolution refused to mention ISIL and ETIM in part on counterterrorism. “We interpret it as unwillingness to recognize the obvious and an inclination to divide terrorists into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’.”Second, Russia wanted the resolution to reflect the “unacceptability and negative impact” of evacuation of highly skilled and qualified Afghan personnel. But the basic text of the resolution was premised on getting Taliban to allow Afghans with valid travel documents to leave the country.Third, Russia had suggested that the resolution state the “adverse effects” of freezing of Afghan financial assets, which boils down to granting Taliban access to funds and resources.Both China and Russia alleged the western powers were trying to shift the blame. As the Chinese side said before the Council: “They cannot claim to care about Afghan people’s welfare, while imposing unilateral sanctions, or claim to support Afghanistan’s acceleration of economic and social development, while seizing and freezing Afghanistan’s overseas assets. They have left behind in the country huge catastrophe they have created but shifted the responsibility to Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and the Security Council.”China also brought up the issue of civilian casualties in the retaliatory attacks by the US following the Kabul airport bombing. It asked the US to stop “indiscriminately bombing the civilian populated areas in Afghanistan”. Despite these differences, China and Russia as permanent UNSC members did not veto the resolution, probably because the reference to UN entities in 1267 automatically included ETIM, though the specific purpose of getting the US to equate it with ISIL could not be achieved.

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Rain causes massive waterlogging in Maha's Jalgaon

The torrential rain in the parts of Maharashtra has affected the normal life of the people on Wednesday and led flood-like situation in Jalgaon district where houses and roads are submerged.The torrential rains caused extensive waterlogging in Jalgaon and houses and roads were submerged in several areas of the district. Various areas were submerged in Jalgaon, bringing the city life to a still, while several vehicles were stuck under debris flow caused by heavy rainfall.Earlier, due to the torrential rains, one person has been killed, one seriously injured and it is being estimated that about 10-15 people have been washed away in the floods that have engulfed villages in Chalisgaon, Jalgaon district on Tuesday.The administration estimates that around 700-800 animals have died due to the floods.Due to the night rain on Tuesday, Kannad, Chalisgaon district. Jalgaon Ghat has collapsed and cracks have come in many places, said Bhagwat Patil, Traffic Incharge.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had on August 28 said that "Maharashtra is very likely to experience an active rainfall spell during the next 4-5 days"."The formation of a low-pressure area over Northwest adjoining West-central Bay of Bengal off south Odisha-north Andhra Pradesh coasts, its likely west northwestwards movement and other associated synoptic features, Maharashtra is very likely to experience an active rainfall spell during next 4-5 days. Enhanced rainfall activity is expected over the region with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places," the IMD had stated.

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'Repo rate hikes will have to wait until next year'

IDFC mutual fund earned the respect of debt investors by the way they handled the situation after the crisis in the debt market. Shivani Bazaz of ET Mutual Fund spoke to Suyash Chaudhary, head - fixed income at IDFC AMC, to find out how the fund house managed to win the trust of investors. Edited Interview.IDFC Mutual Fund gained huge respect among debt investors lately in the backdrop of the past troubles faced by the industry. What has been your experience?Our long-standing view has been that the risk profile of mass market investment products has to be consistent with the stage of evolution of the financial market ecosystem. On the one hand, this speaks to the liquidity in various classes of instruments in the secondary market. On the other, it has to do with the general level of appreciation amongst investors of various types of investment risks. Looked at this way one can argue that while the Indian ecosystem has come a long way especially over the past decade or so in terms of its development, there is nevertheless a time-frame that needs to be taken for the evolution. This can be expedited but not rushed. For example, the secondary market for lower- rated credits remains quite illiquid for the most part and offers inefficient price discovery. Even with all their liquidity planning and maturity laddering, open ended mutual funds may have to sometimes sell significant parts of what they hold over relatively short periods of time. Hence, liquidity in investments has to be of paramount importance. Also, from stand point of investors who may only over the past few years have started to diversify away from fixed deposits, mutual funds must be able to offer simple to understand and clearly defined products that take measured amount of risks. These considerations have driven our approach to fixed income over the years and form an integral part of our fund philosophy. Fortunately, they have served us well to navigate the significant volatility faced in markets over the past few years. Everyone talks about safety and liquidity, and you also talk about them. What is the difference in your approach?It’s always difficult to comment on what others do since one then speaks with imperfect information at hand. For that reason, let me restrict my observations only to what we do. We think about and communicate our fixed income funds in three buckets: liquidity, core, and satellite. From an investor’s standpoint this derives from how we think asset allocation within fixed income should be run. From our perspective, it helps clarify the construction of risk profiles for our various funds. Liquidity bucket is for your cash management needs, core bucket funds carry constrained amounts of duration and credit risks and are likely suitable for the majority of a conservative investor’s fixed income allocations, and satellite funds take higher credit and / or duration risks. Have you taken any special measures to ensure safety of investments?Within our overall philosophy as detailed above, we run a rigorous investment process to the best of our abilities. Under the process, and within our overarching framework, we continually evaluate our level of risk taking within the current and evolving macro- economic and credit environment. As an example, even though the macro-environment has stabilized substantially, credit spreads have fallen significantly generally speaking and this needs to be considered in investment decision making at the current juncture.Bond market is eagerly watching the RBI for cues on liquidity and rate cuts. What is your reading of the situation?The RBI has done a phenomenal job of containing financial market risks and economic growth deterioration as a consequence of the pandemic. It has done this through emphatic action and clearly defined communication and has been bold and clear headed to navigate through interpretational issues that have sprung up from time to time without causing analytical uncertainties for the market. At this point, foremost on the market’s mind is the framework for normalization of policy that the central bank may potentially take as it starts dialing back on the level of policy accommodation. First steps may already have been taken, though more towards process rather than policy normalization so far. Thus ad hoc bond market interventions have been reduced and the quantum of variable rate reverse repo (VRRR) auctions is being raised. Next steps could very well be further increase in VRRR followed by eventual normalization of the policy corridor through gradual hikes in the reverse repo rate. Repo rate hikes will have to wait until well into the next year.Do you expect any rate cuts this calendar year/ financial year? Where do you see the benchmark 10-year yield?Market is now looking for a gradual process of policy normalization rather than further easing. This is consistent with the underlying economic trends and global developments. As this process commences it is logical to expect the yield curve to lose some of the steepness that is present currently. At the same time, the long duration portion of the curve (say 10 year and beyond) will have to account for the larger than usual annual bond supply likely for the next few years at least. Given the interplay of these factors, for the foreseeable future we would still expect the curve to be steep relative to recent few years’ history, but not as steep as it is currently. Our preference for the most part is for intermediate maturity points (3 – 6) years where the carry on offer adjusted for duration risk taken seems to be the most optimal. You advise investors to choose schemes based on their investment horizon. Should investors play it safe and stick to short-term funds?To refer back to our liquidity-core-satellite bucket approach, most conservative fixed income investors should have predominant exposure to funds that run constrained amount of duration and credit risks. The relative weightage to core and satellite can be tweaked on the margin depending upon one’s view of things but extreme tactical shifts should be avoided, since this then voids the utility of an asset allocation framework. Having said that, yield curves are very steep in this cycle and while capital gains are extremely unlikely, the starting steepness of the curve should cushion somewhat against gradual rises in yields over the time ahead. This favors intermediate maturity points such as those run by short term funds. What is your advice to investors in long-term bond funds?Long-term bond funds (including active duration funds with a mandate to run longer durations) by definition belong to the satellite bucket since they are exposed to higher duration risk. So, investors should accordingly be mindful of how much exposure is being taken to such products. Measured allocation consistent with one’s underlying risk appetite will also allow for longer investment horizons since investor sensitivity to short term volatility will be accordingly lower. This is important as many times investor experiences in such funds tends to be suboptimal despite robust long run performance of the fund simply because investor participation gets reactively cut short in times of volatility.

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Netflix India September 2021 Releases: Money Heist, Kota Factory, Sex Education, and More

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F9, Money Heist, Kota Factory, and More: September Guide to Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Prime Video

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Tokyo Paralympics LIVE: Avani, Sidhartha, Deepak fail to qualify for R3 Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 final

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Why Virat Kohli's form holds the key to India's fortunes

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'MNCs, Indian cos to collaborate with rivals by 2025'

Multinational companies as well as Indian firms across sectors, including retail, manufacturing, insurance and healthcare, will collaborate with rivals by 2025, a study by the TCS Thought Leadership Institute showed.The institute conducted a survey of 1,200 CEOs and senior executives across North America, UK, Europe, APAC and Latin America.Out of the surveyed firms, the study identified some as ‘Leaders,’ or firms that reported higher-than-average gains in revenue (over 65%) and net profit (over 73%) in their industries between 2015 and 2019.These companies constituted up to 29% of the survey.The study also identified firms that are ‘Followers’ which had higher-than-average decreases in revenue (-15%) and net profit (-36%) in their industry between 2015 and 2019.‘Leaders’ are more willing to collaborate with competitors, according to the ‘Where, How and What Leaders Will Compete with in the New Decade: Findings from the TCS 2021 Global Leadership Study.’“Clearly, most “Leaders” realize they must collaborate extensively with competitors to be key players in digital ecosystems. Lower performers still regard competitors as enemies to avoid. “Leaders” also anticipate that more of their revenue will come from purely digital offerings compared to “Followers,” it said.Krishnan Ramanujam, president and head of business and technology at TCS, said, “There are many other industries in which we see competitors collaborating, either for market access, or for better economies of scale, whatever may be the reason, we see this happening across the board.”While fewer than half of the Indian companies surveyed said they would collaborate with competitors, a third (34%) said they plan to increase collaboration by 2025 and 10% respondents said they will decrease it.Ramanujam said that there were two broad trends reflected in the survey – servitization and business-to-business (B2B) companies increasingly catering to their consumers directly.Servitization is a shift from a company selling just products to selling their product as-a-service. “One is B2B companies coming up with ‘As-a-Service’ offerings. A trend that also suits their end customers because nobody wants to spend on capex. They want to do things in a small way, deliver proof of value, and then go on to increase their investments and so on. The second thing that we also see is that many B2B companies now want to get into B2C or direct to consumers,” he said.Indian companies also believe learning/upskilling/reskilling will be the most important characteristic of corporate culture by 2025, the study said.The study also showed that despite growth in digital opportunities that business leaders expect through 2025, most are “underestimating the amount of innovation they will need to compete this decade.”

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India’s macroeconomic fundamentals strong: CEA

Chief economic advisor KV Subramanian has said the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong and the tapering of monetary stimulus by the US Federal Reserve should not be a concern.“When macro fundamentals of a country are not very inspiring, that’s when the impact (of tapering) is felt much more. Fact that economic fundamentals – current account deficit, inflation, forex reserves and all other metrics – are very strong and I absolutely do not see it as that much of a concern,” Subramanian told media persons on Tuesday. He said fundamentals were strong because of the several reform measures undertaken by the government. “We have to understand that international investors look at macroeconomic fundamentals. Data in terms of macroeconomic fundamentals now vis-à-vis at the time of global financial crisis are strong,” Subramanian said, adding that the country is all set for robust growth on the back of structural reforms, government’s capex push and rapid vaccination. US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell indicated at the recent Jackson Hole Policy Forum that it may start scaling back the Fed’s $120 billion-per-month bond buying programme, rolled out last year in response to the Covid-19 crisis, this year. “Whenever the tapering happens, India should be in a good position to face it,” said the CEA. The CEA said investment-led growth had been enabled through policy push through the several reform measures announced over the past year and a half and capex push.

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Vedanta contract for Raj Oilfield extended

The government has extended Vedanta's contract for the prolific Rajasthan oilfield by a further three months, and not by 10 years that the company has been seeking, pending settlement of a dispute over $520 million cost recovery. The original 25-year production sharing contract for the Barmer block in Rajasthan ended in May last year and the government has since extended the contract several times by a few months. The latest extension would last until November, according to people familiar with the matter. The block, which started producing in 2009 and contributes about a fifth of the country’s total oil output, is controlled by mining magnate Anil Agarwal. A key hurdle for a regular 10-year extension has been Cairn’s refusal to pay up $520 million in additional profit petroleum to the government. Cairn has to clear all dues before the government agrees to a regular extension. Cairn launched an arbitration proceeding last year to challenge the government demand for additional profit petroleum. It was followed by the government approaching the Delhi High Court in September to secure its money. A final resolution is awaited. The government demand was triggered after an audit flagged discrepancy in cost recovery claims by Vedanta in 2016-17 with respect to the Barmer block. Lower cost recovery by Vedanta can boost the government share in profit petroleum. Cairn has also run into a dispute with state-run ONGC, a 30% partner in Barmer, over investments made in the block.Meanwhile, Vedanta’s oil and gas production has fallen to 165,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboepd) in the first quarter of the current fiscal year from 187,000 boepd in the same period in 2017-18.

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UK says 'ready' to launch strikes against ISIS-K

The UK has said that it is "ready" to launch strikes at the ISIS-K terror network in Afghanistan after the Pentagon revealed that there are at least 2,000 fighters of the outfit in the war-torn country.The Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, dubbed Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, had claimed responsibility for the deadly twin blasts at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in which 169 Afghans and 13 American soldiers were killed on Thursday.Britain's Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, told The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Monday that the UK could be involved in strikes against ISIS-K.He was speaking after the UK and the US troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.“The UK stands united with our coalition partners in mourning those killed by Daesh's (ISIS) horrific attack at Kabul airport and in our unwavering collective resolve to combat Daesh networks by all means available, wherever they operate."If there's an opportunity for us to contribute, I am in no doubt that we will be ready to. That will be anywhere where violent extremism raises its head and is a direct or indirect threat to the UK and our allies. Afghanistan is probably one of the most inaccessible parts of the world, and we're able to operate there," said Wigston.According to the newspaper, the UK government officials have reportedly examined logistics for air strikes, raising questions about where Royal Air Force (RAF) jets would be based, how they would refuel and how targets would be identified on the ground.“Ultimately what this boils down to is that we've got to be able to play a global role in the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh (ISIS), whether it's strike, or whether it's moving troops or equipment into a particular country, at scale and at speed," Wigston said.When UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was on Tuesday asked to reflect on the comments, he said while he would not go into “operational details", the UK retains the right to exercise "self-defence" and that must include “in relation to terrorist groups operating from abroad”.Raab is among the signatories of a joint statement issued by the US-led coalition that previously targeted ISIS in Syria and Iraq, vowing to "draw on all elements of national power – military, intelligence, diplomatic, economic, law enforcement" to crush the terror group.The minister said the UK needs to face the "new reality" in Afghanistan and work with other nations to exercise a "moderating influence" on the Taliban and hold it to its pledge of safe passage for those who want to leave.He said over 5,000 UK nationals were among more than 17,000 people evacuated by the UK from Afghanistan and that UK nationals still there were in the “low hundreds”.Raab also reiterated that the UK government does not recognise some claims that the UK asked for a gate at Kabul airport to be left open to assist its evacuations hours before last week's suicide bombing – despite US military leaders wanting to close it to minimise the risk."We did everything we could once we were alerted to the threat before the explosion took place to mitigate the risk," Raab told the BBC.In a draft resolution adopted on Monday evening under India's presidency, the United Nations Security Council urged the Taliban to let people leave the country, and not to allow it to become a base for terrorism.The resolution, drafted by the UK and France, was passed with 13 votes in favour and two abstentions -- China and Russia.The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US' complete troop withdrawal on August 31 after a costly two-decade war. This forced Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country to the UAE.The Taliban insurgents stormed across Afghanistan and captured all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the US and its allies melted away.Thousands of Afghan nationals and foreigners have fled the country to escape the new Taliban regime and to seek asylum in different nations, including the US and many European nations, resulting in total chaos and deaths.

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Jio, Airtel take co-branding route to attract users

India’s top two telcos Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have unleashed smart marketing moves to grab higher paying mobile broadband users from struggling Vodafone Idea (Vi) even as the latter continues to cede market share to its stronger rivals.Airtel is relaunching an earlier co-branding pact with PepsiCo India, under which prepaid users will get up to 2GB of complimentary 4G data on purchase of Lay’s, Kurkure, UncleChipps and Doritos snack packs. The Airtel-PepsiCo gameplan is to leverage the sharp surge in mobile broadband consumption and snacking volumes to boost revenues.Reliance Jio, in turn, launched a clutch of prepaid plans— starting at Rs 499— that offer complimentary subscription to entire Disney+ Hotstar content library. Besides a year’s subscription to Disney+ Hotstar, Jio’s new plans come bundled with unlimited voice, data, SMS, Jio Apps and other benefits. Jio’s offers come on the back of Disney+ Hotstar recently revising India offerings.

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Crypto gains currency again as banks ease curbs

Indian banks are again allowing purchase of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through their channels, easing curbs that they had imposed on such services.The change in stance happened after the Reserve Bank of India told banks that they no longer can use the regulator’s 2018 circular prohibiting dealings in virtual currencies, as the direction has been struck down by the Supreme Court, said people in the know.Banks have also reopened accounts with crypto exchanges after conducting due-diligence, in absence of any specific regulation. This comes at a time when Indians are flocking back to cryptocurrencies.A quick check of a few cryptocurrency platforms shows that lenders such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are allowing transactions in these virtual currencies through the UPI platform. These banks didn’t respond till press time Tuesday to emails seeking comment.Widely used crypto exchange WazirX has listed the net banking facilities of Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI, IDFC First Bank, Federal Bank and Deutsche Bank to make payments for crypto purchases.According to crypto exchanges, more banks are now warming up to them and several channels are available for customers to buy crypto assets.“It is abundantly clear that now banks are more open to providing services to crypto exchanges. As India moves towards a more transparent regulatory framework for crypto assets, we will see more banks joining the party,” said Shivam Thakral, chief executive of BuyUcoin, a cryptocurrency exchange. BuyUcoin is dealing with Central Bank of India, Lakshmi Vilas Bank and Yes Bank, he said.“We offer multiple payment modes for Indian investors, such as UPI, Paytm UPI, IMPS, NEFT and RTGS. We also allow users to buy/sell cryptocurrency using their credit/debit cards but we see most of these transactions getting declined by the credit/debit card providers,” said Jay Hao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange OKEx.com.A senior executive at a large bank said his bank had not opened its net banking or debit card channels to buy cryptos, but customers were using UPI channels which were outside the control of banks.“Banks have no control on UPI channels which could be used to make different sorts of payments, though we are yet to resume the full suite of payment services to buy cryptocurrencies,” said the executive.“We were not allowing any transaction up until recently, and that is still our official stance. But it’s difficult to monitor so many transactions and some do get through,” another banker said.Still, this is in contrast with the scenario a few months ago when users could only use the MobiKwik wallet or a crypto exchange's peer-to-peer platform to buy cryptos.Meanwhile, some crypto platforms have started introducing new ways to attract customers.

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Big Oil wants you to worry about carbon footprint

Everybody's going carbon neutral these days, from the big boys - Amazon, Microsoft, Unilever, Starbucks, JetBlue - to your favorite outdoor brand, even ski resorts. Probably your neighborhood coffee roaster, too.What's not to like? Becoming carbon neutral means cutting greenhouse gas emissions as much as you can, then offsetting what you can't avoid with measures like tree planting. Seems admirable.Well, not exactly. Carbon neutrality doesn't achieve any sort of systemic change. A coal-powered business could be entirely carbon neutral as long as it stops some landfill gas in Malaysia from entering the atmosphere equal to the emissions it's still releasing. American fossil fuel dependence would remain intact, and planet-warming emissions would continue to rise. The only way to fix that is through politics, policymakers and legislation. But distressingly, most businesses don't want to play in that arena.Instead, they're doing exactly what the fossil fuel industry wants: staying in their lane, accepting some blame for a global problem and maintaining the dominance of fossil fuels. They're well intentioned, sure, but also clueless, even complicit.Imagine if businesses put as much effort into climate lobbying as climate neutrality. Corporations wield tremendous influence over the political system. But on climate, most corporations have decided to sit this one out. Notably, the five biggest tech corporations - Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet and Amazon - spend only 4 percent of their lobbying dollars on climate, according to Influence Map.As a result, they avoid the chance to put in place systemic solutions in favor of carbon neutral navel gazing. Large corporations will protest, saying that they are lobbying on climate. But they are typically working both sides of the aisle. And their political contributions are mostly going in the wrong direction. Bloomberg Green examined political donations by more than 100 major American corporations and found last year that they were "throwing their support behind lawmakers who routinely stall climate legislation.,Climate never ascends to the level of mission-critical issues like trade policy and taxation. Sure, there are exceptions: Salesforce recently said it would intensify its focus on climate lobbying. And Patagonia has always been aggressive, along with Ben and Jerry's. But they are anomalies, led or inspired by charismatic founders.How did it come to this? The story of how what's considered the best approach to corporate sustainability became complicity with the very industry responsible for climate change starts with the famous "Crying Indian, commercial of the 1970s. The ad, in which an actor portraying a Native American is devastated by the sight of rampant pollution, created several generations of dutiful litter-picker-uppers. (Guilty!) But it wasn't so benign. It was, in fact, masterly propaganda from the beverage and container industries, designed to place responsibility for the trash problem on American consumers, not manufacturers.The approach was so good that the fossil fuel industry adopted the very same strategy.In 2004, BP hired the public relations firm Ogilvy & Mather to improve its image, in part by conveying the message that consumers of oil and natural gas bear the responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions, not the producers of the oil and gas they use. The result was BP's ingenious carbon footprint calculator, which allows individuals to calculate the carbon emissions that result from their activities. It's "about helping you to go carbon neutral - reducing and offsetting your carbon footprint,, BP says on its "target neutral, website.Nor was BP alone among the big oil companies communicating this message. A study by Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran at Harvard published in May in the journal One Earth found that since 1972, ExxonMobil has consistently used "rhetoric aimed at shifting responsibility for climate change away from itself and onto consumers.,Yes, those consumers want the hot showers, warm homes and cold beer that coal, oil and gas provide. But they did not insist on the burning of fossil fuels for those amenities. Now there are other ways to produce energy, and responsibility to tap those renewable resources lies with the world's energy companies.Today, almost 20 years after BP's carbon calculator went live, cutting a firm's carbon footprint is still the gold standard of corporate climate action. The phrase is firmly lodged in the environmental lexicon.The idea of offsetting one's carbon footprint by reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in one place to make up for emissions elsewhere has grown into an enormous industry. Businesses often do this by buying carbon credits to offset emissions they can't or won't reduce. The consulting firm McKinsey estimates that "the market for carbon credits could be worth upward of $50 billion in 2030.,Many of these offsets underwrite worthwhile projects - protecting virgin expanses in some of the world's last great forests, as in the Amazon, or the deployment of solar power. But according to an analysis by the private-sector Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, fewer than five percent of offsets in 2020 removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.Which, of course, is what we desperately need to be doing.A giant, systemic problem like climate needs to be addressed like other huge environmental challenges the world has successfully taken on - reducing ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide, for example, and sharply cutting back on smog and water pollution in the United States. Imagine if, in response to the expansion of the ozone hole, businesses and governments had said, "We'll just hope businesses do the right thing., Instead, international policymakers created the Montreal Protocol, which set standards that phased out ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbon use worldwide.We need more of that approach - citizens, businesses and governments working together to address this crisis. It might result in policy solutions like government regulation, effective carbon taxes, national standards for renewable energy and electrification, the elimination of legacy subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, strict auto emission standards and new national building codes. All of these approaches threaten fossil fuel's business model and, not coincidentally, would help to slow the warming of the planet.What do fossil fuel companies prefer? They like consumers and corporations to do anything and everything as long as they stay out of the companies' way and avoid doing anything that could actually make a difference.Tragically, the overwhelming majority of American businesses are on a path of complicity. Their climate strategy avoids conflict and generates great P.R. Unfortunately, it also allows fossil fuel interests to monetize their remaining assets unhindered, ensuring catastrophe for all.How carbon neutral is that?

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ECIR an internal doc, not shared with accused: ED

The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), an Enforcement Directorate document which is widely seen as similar to the police first information report, is “just a name” given to an internal document only “for the purpose of identification” of a case, the federal agency has told the Delhi High Court.The ED that probes money-laundering cases said “nothing emanates from an ECIR” and that it was “not a prerequisite” for starting investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.The agency said this in a recent response to a petition filed by Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar, challenging his arrest by the agency in a money laundering case on August 3. Thapar has sought a copy of the ECIR lodged against him.The ECIR need not be shared with any accused, the ED argued, while saying also that it was “not a complaint” but just “a number given to an internal document” for identification.The ECIR is a document meant for “identification of a particular case and for departmental convenience” and is “purely an internal document”, it said in the response, which ET has seen.

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Victorious Taliban focus on governing after US exit

The Taliban revelled in their victory after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, reiterating their pledge Tuesday to bring peace and security to the country after decades of war. Their anxious citizens, meanwhile, are waiting to see what the new order looks like. Having humbled the world's most powerful military, the Taliban now face the challenge of governing a nation of 38 million people that relies heavily on international aid, and imposing some form of Islamic rule on a population that is far more educated and cosmopolitan than it was when the group last governed Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Thousands who had worked with the US and its allies, as well as up to 200 Americans, remained in the country after the massive airlift ended with the last US soldiers flying out of Kabul international airport just before midnight Monday. Hours later, turbaned Taliban leaders flanked by fighters from the group's elite Badri unit toured the abandoned airport and posed for photos. "Afghanistan is finally free," Hekmatullah Wasiq, a top Taliban official, told The Associated Press on the tarmac. "Everything is peaceful. Everything is safe." He urged people to return to work and reiterated the Taliban's offer of amnesty to all Afghans who had fought against the group over the last 20 years. "People have to be patient," he said. "Slowly we will get everything back to normal. It will take time." A long-running economic crisis has worsened since the Taliban's rapid takeover of the country in mid-August, with people crowding banks to maximize their daily withdrawal limit of about USD 200. Civil servants haven't been paid in months and the local currency is losing value. Most of Afghanistan's foreign reserves are held abroad and currently frozen. "We keep coming to work but we are not getting paid," said Abdul Maqsood, a traffic police officer on duty near the airport. He said he hasn't received his salary in four months. A major drought threatens the food supply, and thousands who fled during the Taliban's lightning advance remain in squalid camps. "Afghanistan is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe," said Ramiz Alakbarov, the local UN humanitarian coordinator. He said USD 1.3 billion is needed for aid efforts, only 39% of which has been received. The challenges the Taliban face in reviving the economy could give Western nations leverage as they push the group to fulfill a pledge to allow free travel, form an inclusive government and guarantee women's rights. The Taliban say they want to have good relations with other countries, including the United States. There are few signs of the draconian restrictions the Taliban imposed last time they were in power. Schools have reopened to boys and girls, though Taliban officials have said they will study separately. Women are out on the streets wearing Islamic headscarves - as they always have - rather than the all-encompassing burqa the Taliban required in the past. "I am not afraid of the Taliban," said Masooda, a fifth-grader, as she headed to school on Tuesday. When the Taliban last ruled the country, from 1996 to 2001, they banned television, music and even photography, but there's no sign of that yet. TV stations are still operating normally and the Taliban fighters themselves can be seen taking selfies around Kabul. On Tuesday, the sound of dance music trickled out of an upscale wedding hall in Kabul, where a celebration was in full swing inside. Shadab Azimi, the 26-year-old manager, said at least seven wedding parties had been held since the Taliban takeover, with festivities moved to daytime because of security concerns. He said the Taliban have yet to announce any restrictions on music, but that wedding singers have cancelled out of caution, forcing him to use tapes. Azimi said a Taliban patrol stops by a couple times a day, but only to ask if he needs help with security. Unlike the now-disbanded police of the toppled, Western-backed government, the Taliban don't ask for bribes, he said. "Former officials, including police officers, were always asking us for money and forcing us to host their friends for lunches and dinners," he said. "This is one of the positive points of the Taliban." Abdul Waseeq, 25, runs a women's clothing shop in downtown Kabul selling Western-style jeans and jackets. The Taliban have left him alone, but his clientele seems to have vanished and he's concerned about the banking crisis. "Most of our customers who were buying these kinds of clothes are gone, evacuated from Kabul," he said. For now, the Taliban appear to be less interested in imposing restrictions on daily life than on getting the country running again, a task that could prove challenging to fighters who have spent most of their lives waging an insurgency in the countryside. They are expected to focus on the Kabul airport, where scenes of desperation and horror played out for weeks as tens of thousands fled in a massive US-led airlift. Early Tuesday, the airport was littered with artifacts of the withdrawal. Inside the terminal were scattered piles of clothes, luggage and documents. Several CH-46 helicopters used by American forces were parked in a hangar. The US military says it disabled 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft before leaving. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a "technical team" would survey the airport and try to restore normal operations, potentially requesting help from Qatar or Turkey, which have been involved in negotiations on running the airport going forward. The Taliban have said they will allow people with legal documents to travel freely, but it remains to be seen whether any commercial airlines will be willing to offer service. "I hope you will be very cautious in dealing with the nation," Mujahid said in a speech at the airport, addressing the Taliban fighters gathered there. "Our nation has suffered war and invasion, and the people do not have more tolerance." At the end of his remarks, the fighters shouted: "God is greatest!" Despite billions of dollars in Western aid over the past two decades, more than half of Afghans survive on less than a dollar a day. For the poorest, the change from one ruling system to another hardly matters in their daily struggle to survive. Sal Mohammad, 25, collects scrap metal and sells it to support his wife and 2-year-old daughter. On a good day, he makes about $5. "I don't feel that anything has changed in my life since the Taliban took over Kabul," he said. "I don't care about any of them, neither the Taliban, nor the government, nor the U.S. I would like peace in my country, nothing more."

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Afghanistan's arc from 9/11 to today

The sun had just begun to rise over the Hindu Kush Mountains when the Taliban disappeared from Kabul, the battered capital of Afghanistan. The bodies of foreign Arabs who had stayed behind were mutilated and bloodied. They had been found and killed by advancing Afghans of another faction who were brought to the city by a blistering U.S.-led campaign that drove the Taliban from power. America was still reeling from the horrific terrorist attacks of two months earlier, when planes flown by al-Qaida terrorists crashed into three iconic buildings and a Pennsylvania field, killing nearly 3,000 people. The perpetrators and their leader, Osama bin Laden, were somewhere in Afghanistan, sheltered by the Taliban. The mission: Find him. Bring him to justice. Right then, Afghanistan - two decades of disorder behind it, two decades more just ahead - was suspended in an in-between moment. Nothing was certain, but much seemed possible. Against that backdrop, Afghans understood the mission against bin Laden to mean a chance to secure their future - a future as murky on that day as it is today. In those post-2001 months and years, they believed in the power of "the foreigners." From hundreds of years ago right up to the jumbled chaos of recent weeks as the United States pulled out of its air base and then the capital, the word "foreigner" has meant many things in the Afghan context, from invaders to would-be colonizers. But in November 2001, it meant hope. "I found the people relieved fresh and full on energy to start anew," says Torek Farhadi, who joined scores of educated and trained Afghan expatriates who returned to their homeland in 2002 after the Taliban were gone. He spoke from Geneva as he watched the Taliban's return to power last month. The arrival of the U.S.-led coalition weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks ended a repressive, religiously radical regime that had more in common with the sixth century than the 21st. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive one-eyed leader of the Taliban, had brought the village to the city. The strict edicts he taught at his one-room mud madrassa, or religious school, became law. Girls were denied education. Women were confined to their homes or, when in public, inside the all-encompassing burqa. Men were told to wear beards. Television was banned, as was all music but religious chants. When the Taliban fled and the new, post 9/11 leader, Hamid Karzai, entered the sprawling presidential palace, he discovered the Taliban had left their mark. Wall-to-wall hand-painted miniature murals had been defaced; Taliban who believed images of living things were a crime against Islam went to every tiny bird and blotted out its face with a black marker. The running of the country was handed to Washington's Afghan allies, many of whom had destroyed Kabul with their bitter feuding when they last ruled. Under their corruption, the country devolved into a collection of fiefdoms that enriched local warlords and led to the Taliban's rise. The Afghan military that would collapse in the wake of Taliban advances in 2021 began existence with its recruits often more loyal to a warlord than the army itself. Training was barely eight weeks for new, generally uneducated men. Building the Afghan army was often likened to repairing an aircraft midflight. So across Afghanistan, quickly and understandably, it started: The defeated Taliban began to re-emerge. And it kept getting worse. By 2012, just two years before the U.S. and NATO handed over the operational end of the war to Afghanistan's government, the Afghan army was barely competent and filled with fighters angry at what they considered poor treatment by their foreign trainers. The return last month of the Taliban has created widespread fear among young people in Afghanistan's cities - places where urban girls wearing headscarves have felt free to mingle in coffee shops and on the street. Young men wearing Western dress who dream of even greater freedoms have been part of the airport chaos that greeted the start of evacuation flights. A country of 36 million, Afghanistan is filled with conservative people, many of whom live in the countryside. But even they do not adhere to the strict interpretation of Islam that the Taliban imposed when last they ruled. The Taliban leaders, many of whom are linked to the previous regime, including the movement's co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, promise a different Taliban this time. Once camera shy and reclusive, many have made regular appearances on the diplomatic stage. And while the Taliban's original rule was marked by relentless repression that denied women a public space, they now say women can work, attend school and participate in public life. Yet even as the world watched in shock at the quick demise of the Afghan army and government over the past weeks, the signs of Afghanistan's post-9/11 decay had long been evident. Twenty years and billions of dollars in investment after 9/11, Afghanistan was considered one of the worst places in the world to be a woman in 2020 and in 2019, according to the Georgetown Institute for Women Peace and Security. In 2018, in a Gallup poll offered a scale of one to 10 to determine how respondents judged their chances for a better future five years down the road, Afghans averaged 2.3. Gallup called it a "new low for any country in any year." In the first years after 9/11, U.S. money arrived in Kabul in suitcases. There were no working banks at the time - and no oversight of the billions pouring into the country. Most of it passed through the hands of U.S.-allied warlords whose corruption had led to the Taliban's rise in the 1990s. American generals were often used by their Afghan allies to exact revenge. Mohabullah, an Afghan who had left the Taliban to return home to the central province of Ghazni, once laughed as he recounted how easily fooled the Americans were by their Afghan partners. He recalled how a gas station owner was turned in to U.S. forces as a Taliban - to settle a feud. American forces often unwittingly found themselves enmeshed in such local rivalries during those early months and years when they were utterly dependent on their warlord allies. In 2002, one U.S. general had to rely entirely on former warlords for information about prominent al-Qaida figures who were on the move. For those who have watched Afghanistan for years, the scenes of throngs of mostly young men hanging from departing aircraft at Kabul's airport in recent days seemed an indictment of the two decades of efforts and the billions of dollars spent. For many of those men, the desperation to depart was less about fear for their life - and more about finding a new one. And, say some Afghans, no wonder.

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US Open: Murray 'lost respect' for Tsitsipas over delay 'nonsense'

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Diversify to grab digital opportunities: Analyst

However, despite the consolidation, pricing has remained elusive and one thing that is important from an overall sector perspective is that most of the companies have recognised that for profitability to improve, pricing needs to go up, says Shibani Sircar Kurian, Senior EVP, Fund Manager & Head -Equity research, Kotak Mahindra AMC. As far as telecom space goes, India wants to be free from 2G and be ready for 5G but as of now, we only talk about telecom with respect to three stocks including Vodafone-Idea. Some say India with its massive digital opportunity, cannot possibly have only two stocks to play on this story.If you talk about the larger digital opportunity, it is not just two stocks. there is a larger opportunity across sectors to play the digital theme. However, just coming back to the telecom question first, when we look at telecom, telecom has been a sector where we have seen consolidation. However, despite the consolidation, pricing has remained elusive and one thing that is important from an overall sector perspective is that most of the companies have recognised that for profitability to improve, pricing needs to go up. So we are clearly waiting for a scenario where we will start seeing improvement in ARPUs, which in turn will drive profitability. We are waiting to see what happens with the third player in terms of outcome and that also will be a key determinant in terms of outcome on the pricing and what the other two players do. This is a sector which is poised to see improvement from an overall profitability perspective. Obviously, this sector has seen significant consolidation and that is something which is hopefully likely to translate into better pricing power going forward. In the near term, over the last year -and-a-half, because of Covid related situations we have seen a delay in terms of price increases. But at the margin, most of the players seem to be suggesting that profitability is likely to be the key that the management of these companies would be looking for. From a digital perspective, there are many more opportunities and not just telecom. Whether you look at emerging opportunities in the financial services space, fintech space or even in the IT services space, there is a larger theme that is playing through where digital is concerned and over the years to come, we will see a lot more players emerging in this space where we will be able to play the digital opportunity. Covid has accelerated the digital transformation story across the board. Companies worldwide have realised that they have to bring forward their digital transformation journey and that has benefitted IT services in a big way. Even in financial services, banks and other financial services players are focussing on digital and digital is a theme that is emerging and is likely to be a key differentiator among players going forward as well.

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Lokapriya on why it is time to buy Bharti Airtel

In the Indian perspective, all the exporters -- be it chemicals, textiles, IT and pharma will continue to benefit from exporting to the US and the developed world, says Chakri Lokapriya, CIO & MD, TCG AMC. Where do you think Bharti Airtel is headed and what do you make of the commentary now for Bharti?Bharti is clearly doing the right things at this point. The rights issue as Mr Mittal pointed out, followed the footsteps of what Reliance did with its right issue very successfully, very prudently in terms of having a time flow for the monies to come into the company. So the company is coming in tranches, the initial tranche will be at like a 10% discount and that it gives more than sufficient reason to invest into the stock price now. Second, I recently met with one of the largest global tech CEOs. The growth runway that is going to come in the next two or three years is quite mind boggling. 5G rollout is a very key point of that as enterprises move to the Cloud, companies increase their adoption from private to public Cloud and the underlying backbone for all that is a telecom network. So, it turns out to be a two horse race. If Vodafone pulls out of the race in a meaningful way, Bharti should then have the capital to acquire customers and roll out its network. So raising capital is a good idea. Telecom tariffs in India are the cheapest in the world. So, it is time for ARPUs to move up and those will trend up. Thirdly, technology rollout itself with digital adoption will take Bharti stock higher. It is a good stock to buy from a positional perspective right now. After the Jackson Hole Symposium, we are seeing the rupee strengthening versus the dollar. If that theme continues to pan out, won’t market participants have to reconsider export oriented stocks, the defensives -- IT and pharma or it is not at risk at all?There is no risk at all. USA in a sense said inflation target is going to be 2% and the target unemployment rate is 5% historically. They do not want the unemployment rate to go below that because it creates inflation. In the Indian perspective, all the exporters -- be it chemicals, textiles, IT and pharma will continue to benefit from exporting to the US and the developed world. Yes they can pause given that we had a good rally in IT in the last week but there is huge IT demand and also demand across the board. So, chemical companies will also gain. I would not really say that IT and pharma will not benefit, they will benefit but some of the chemical stocks like Deepak Nitrite, SRF, which corrected last week will again rebound because the fundamentals are intact.

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Ola IPO to hit the street early 2022

Ride-hailing aggregator Ola is exploring a public offer early next year, aiming to raise at least $1.5-2 billion, valuing the Bengaluru-based unicorn at $12-14 billion. That will put it in the band of big-ticket tech IPOs that are looking to take advantage of a liquidity driven market rally.The proposed listing of Ola, which counts SoftBank, Tiger Global Management and Tencent as some of its key investors, will raise half the capital through a primary issuance while the rest will be through an offer for sale (OFS) from some early backers, people with knowledge of the matter told ET.Investment banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup and JP Morgan are understood to be working with the company on filing preliminary documents with the market regulator in the next two months."There could be a few more banks as the issue is likely to be above $1.5 billion. Final mandates are expected this week itself," said one of the persons cited above.Earlier last month, Warburg Pincus and Temasek Holdings along with two others, invested $500 million in Ola in what could be termed a pre-IPO round.Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal did not respond to queries sent Sunday. The banks cited were not immediately available for comment."Whatever said and done, Ola's valuation would be a challenge. Many funds have lowered valuations during the previous year as the Covid pandemic and the subsequent lockdown hampered the travel cab market. Although it's recovering, it will take time to get stabilised," said one of the persons cited.In November, US investors T Rowe Price and Vanguard had lowered their valuations of Indian unicorns including Ola due to the disruption created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Amazon seeks to block Reliance-Future deal at Sebi

Amazon has written to India’s market regulator seeking the withdrawal of its conditional approval to the proposed buyout of retail assets of the Future Group by Reliance Industries, as the American online retail giant intensifies its efforts to stall the highly contested deal. In a letter to Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) on August 17, the Jeff Bezos-led company cited a recent order by the Supreme Court of India upholding the ruling by an international arbitration court in Singapore that had stayed the Future-RIL deal in October 2020.ET has reviewed a copy of Amazon’s letter addressed to Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi."In light of the directions contained in the enforcement judgment, and the EA (emergency arbitration) Order whose validity has been affirmed by the honourable Supreme Court, Amazon requests you to take all such action as is necessary to comply with the Supreme Court Judgment, and to further ensure that no communications subsist or emanate which are at variance with the Supreme Court Judgment," the US-based etailer said in its note to Sebi.“Accordingly, we request your good offices to direct the Indian Stock Exchanges to withdraw the Observation Letters with immediate effect,” the letter stated.The apex court’s order on August 6 had dealt a major blow to the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, which has maintained that the ruling by a Singapore court was not valid in India. Last year, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) through an emergency arbitration (EA) order had stayed the Future-RIL deal in response to a petition from Amazon, which has mounted a concerted fight to stall RIL’s rising dominance in India’s burgeoning organised retail market.Amazon India and Future Group declined to comment on the matter.Fight For DominanceThe legal joust deepened further last week, when the Future Group filed a separate case against Amazon in the Supreme Court, seeking the clearance of its deal with RIL. Sebi, which had given a conditional nod to the proposed Rs 24,713 crore buyout of Future’s retail assets by India’s biggest conglomerate in January, had stated that a final go-ahead would be subject to the outcome of court proceedings in Indian courts. It had also told the Future Group to disclose its ongoing disputes from the stock exchanges while seeking approval on the deal.Separately, the country’s competition watchdog had cleared the buyout proposal in November 2020.In response, Amazon had written to antitrust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) as well as Sebi asking that no clearance should be given to the proposed deal as the matter is disputed and pointing out that the arbitration court in Singapore had stayed the deal. CCI's clearance for the deal had been granted in November 2020 while Sebi’s conditional nod came later in January 2021.Retail ForayIn August 2020, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), a subsidiary of RIL, announced that it had agreed to buy Future Group's retail businesses across apparel, lifestyle, and grocery segments to bolster its presence in the Indian retail market. The deal also included the purchase of Future Group’s wholesale and supply chain business.As part of the buyout, RRVL said it would take over the Future Group's existing debt, liabilities, and retail stores across formats like Big Bazaar and Easyday. The ambitious proposal was aimed at enabling RIL's new commerce venture JioMart to leverage the Future Group's retail assets and also deliver grocery and other essentials to online consumers.Increasingly, online commerce platforms have been looking to access offline retail points to smoothen supply chain related issues.Disputed DealHowever, Amazon objected to the proposed deal citing prior commitments made by the Future Group to the American major, with the origin of the dispute going back to Amazon’s investment of Rs 1,431 crore in Future Coupons, which held about 10% stake in the flagship Future Retail, in August 2019.As a part of that deal, Future Group promoter Biyani had also entered into a restriction on transfer of shares to specified persons and right of first offer of shares (ROFO) to Amazon as well, according to regulatory filings made by Future Retail at that time.This list of "specified persons" included Reliance Industries, according to sources aware of the matter. The deal also provided Amazon with the right to acquire the entire or part of the shares of promoters of Future Retail after three years of the deal and before 10 years, in "certain circumstances" and subject to the law. Following the announcement of the Future-RIL deal in August 2020, Amazon sent a legal notice to the Future Group in October and since then both parties have been fighting over the deal in Indian courts as well as at SIAC.

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Blinken says Taliban have to earn legitimacy

The Taliban have to earn international legitimacy and support, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.He said the group can do this by meeting its commitments and obligations.“The Taliban seek international legitimacy and support. Our message is: any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned,” Blinken said in an address to the nation hours after the US concluded its mission to Afghanistan early Tuesday.“The Taliban can do that by meeting commitments and obligations – on freedom of travel; respecting the basic rights of the Afghan people, including women and minorities; upholding its commitments on counterterrorism; not carrying out reprisal violence against those who choose to stay in Afghanistan; and forming an inclusive government that can meet the needs and reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people,” he said.Blinken said the US engaged with the Taliban during the past few weeks for evacuation operations.“Going forward, any engagement with a Taliban-led government in Kabul will be driven by one thing only: our vital national interests.”“If we can work with a new Afghan government in a way that helps secure those interests – including the safe return of Mark Frerichs, a US citizen who has been held hostage in the region since early last year – and in a way that brings greater stability to the country and region and protects the gains of the past two decades, we will do it,” he added.“But we will not do it on the basis of trust or faith. Every step we take will be based not on what a Taliban-led government says, but what it does to live up to its commitments,” Blinken said.He said the US will continue its humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.“We believe we can accomplish far more – and exert far greater leverage – when we work in coordination with our allies and partners. Over the last two weeks, we've had a series of intensive diplomatic engagements with allies and partners to plan and coordinate the way ahead in Afghanistan,” he said.“I've met with the foreign ministers of NATO and the G7. I've spoken one-on-one with dozens of my counterparts. Last week, President Biden met with the leaders of the G7 countries. And Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has been convening a group of 28 allies and partners from all regions of the world every other day,” he said.Going forward, he said, the US will coordinate closely with countries in the region and around the world as well as with leading international organisations, NGOs and the private sector.“Our allies and partners share our objectives and are committed to working with us,” Blinken said.

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Apple’s own India store to open on 2022 I-Day

On August 15, 2022, the day when India would be celebrating its 76th Independence Day, Apple will have its own milestone date in the country. The tech giant will open doors to its first India company-owned-and-operated store in Mumbai, according to two people familiar with the development. “Apple has decided to open its first store on 15th August next year,” said one of them asking not to be identified.ET had reported in 2019 that Apple has leased 20,000-25,000 sq ft in Mumbai’s Maker Maxity Mall, co-owned by Reliance Industries, to open its first company-owned outlet in India. The pandemic delayed both the store launch and the opening of the Maker Maxity Mall by about a year and the mall is now scheduled to roll out ahead of Diwali this year, sources said. Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment.The Mumbai debut will be immediately followed by an outlet in New Delhi next year, said one of the persons quoted earlier. He said Apple plans to open three more outlets in the coming years — one in Bengaluru and plans to add one store each in Delhi and Mumbai, he said. Apple has been eyeing opening its own store in India for years. However, a 30% mandatory local sourcing clause for single brand retailing prevented the firm from opening its own stores in India.

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How a war hero won India’s first Paralympics gold in 1972

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How Paralympics classification is done

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Rishabh Pant's technique under the scanner after modest scores

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Raining medals: India celebrates best-ever day at Paralympics

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How is Paralympics classification done

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Insurance : New vehicles may get costlier by 10%

Purchasing new vehicles could cost up to 10% more in the coming months as India’s insurance industry — on the back of an order by Madras High Court last week — is being forced to revamp policy designs and existing risk models of motor covers.As per a Madras HC landmark judgement, vehicle owners now have to purchase mandatory ‘bumper to bumper’ cover, which means that along with the compulsory third-party insurance policies, consumers would also have to purchase motor own-damage (OD) insurance, as well as accident covers for co-passengers.Insurance industry sources say that the new comprehensive motor package, which would be offered at dealerships, could be at least three times the premium of the current third-party prices. They said that the industry is in active dialogue with sector regulator IRDA to understand the specifics of the new rules as well as to understand compliance timelines.“This is a landmark judgement in that it will ensure a significant increase in penetration of insurance in India just like the earlier order to make third-party motor insurance mandatory,” said an industry official. “The industry has met the regulators as well as seeking legal opinion on the enforcement of the new rules. There will be a significant revision in pricing as claim events are certain to go up, as well as the five-year lock-in period makes it tough to judge the impact on loss ratio for insurers,” the person added, requesting anonymity.Own Damage is an insurance cover that protects you against the loss and damage that occurred to your own vehicle like fire, theft, etc. Third-party covers are those which cover liability on damage to other vehicles in the event of an accident. Currently, only third-party covers are mandatory during the time of vehicle purchase, while OD with accident riders have largely been a complimentary product.

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IBBI proposes code of conduct for CoCs

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has proposed a code of conduct for the committee of creditors and measures to strengthen the regulatory framework for the liquidation process. It has sought public comments on discussion papers related to the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP).The discussion paper related to CIRP, released on Friday, is focused on three issues — code of conduct for committee of creditors (CoC), restrictions on request for resolution plans and use of ‘Swiss challenge’ method, and treatment of live bank guarantees and line of credit as claims.The proposal for a code of conduct also comes against the backdrop of instances where the conduct of CoCs or some financial creditors have been under question.The IBBI has said since the decisions of the CoC impacted the life of a firm and consequently its stakeholders, it needed to be fair and transparent in its decisions. “Specifying a code of conduct will promote transparent working of the CoC and make participating members accountable for their actions during the process,” it said.Such power should come with accountability, said the IBBI.“Any attempt by members of CoC to make favourable decisions in the interest of any particular (group of) stakeholder(s) would be avoided, thereby ensuring that the principle of fairness is met,” it said.Further, the IBBI said the code of conduct would also promote higher responsibility to make decisions in the interest of all stakeholders instead of their own self interests.“The Board proposes to put in place a code of conduct for CoC that shall elevate accountability and responsibility of CoC to ensure transparency in the functioning of a CoC... the proposed code of conduct establishes broad principles that can be applied to every situation,” it said. The code also draws from the ethical norms on which a CoC is expected to function and shall act as its guiding light, it said. Another proposal is with respect to use of the Swiss challenge method for bidders. Under this system, a bidder (original bidder) makes an unsolicited bid to the auctioneer. Once approved, the auctioneer then seeks counter proposals against the original bidder’s proposal and chooses the best among all options.The IBBI also proposed changes to liquidation. “It is proposed to provide in the liquidation regulations that the liquidator shall consult stakeholders’ consultation committee (SCC) for all significant matters related to liquidation process, including appointment of professionals (and their remuneration), and sale of assets (including major aspects such as fixation of reserve price, manner of sale, etc),” the regulator noted seeking comments.The discussion paper also proposed to provide in the liquidation regulations that if the secured creditors having 60% of the value in the secured debt decide to relinquish or realise the security interest, such decision shall be binding on the other pari passu charge holders, who are on an equal footing. The deadline for submitting the public comments on the discussion papers is September 17.

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Jhunjhunwala-backed co to invest in Syska LED

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Rare Enterprises said on Monday the company will invest in Uttamchandani family-promoted Syska LED, which will help the fast-moving electrical goods company in its next phase of growth, a release said. "Rare Enterprises and its partners have signed a term sheet to invest in Syska LED Lights Private Limited, promoted by the Uttamchandani family. In accordance with the terms of the signed term sheet, about 15 per cent of the funds have been deployed already," it said. The transaction is expected to conclude in the next 60 days, the release added. "We are encouraged with the business and the brand that Syska has built so far - we view this as a long-term partnership with the promoter family to take Syska into its next phase of growth and leadership," Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Partner, Rare Enterprises said. Rare Enterprises and its partners are investors in Indian equities, both listed and unlisted. Syska Group has witnessed success over the years due to its first mover mindset and constant innovation and become one of the leading fast-moving electrical goods companies in the country, as per the release. "Syska Group has been on a consistent growth trajectory and we are poised to achieve new business milestones in the coming years. We believe this collaboration with Rare Enterprises will support our organisation in its next phase of growth, and enable us to secure a leadership position in India's fast moving electrical goods (FMEG) industry," said Govind Uttamchandani, Director, Syska Group, said. He said the company is confident that this will be a long and fruitful association. Syska Group over the years has grown and diversified into segments such as LED, personal care appliances, mobile accessories, home appliances and only continues to grow and dominate these markets, according to the release.

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Mi NoteBook Ultra, Mi NoteBook Pro to Go on Sale in India Today: Price, Availability

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Tokyo Paralympics LIVE: Bhagyashri Jadhav eyes Shot Put gold

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India only Asian country invited at key Europe meet

India’s profile is steadily increasing across Europe where several countries now see New Delhi as a reliable and dependable advocate of rules-based international order that can help counterbalance China’s influence. India is the only Asian country and one of three non-European countries along with the USA and Kenya to be invited for the 2021 Bled Strategic Forum (BSF), an annual international conference held in Slovenia, that has become a key forum of European foreign ministers. Slovenia is the current European Union chair.Foreign minister S Jaishankar will address the three-day event starting on Tuesday. He will seek to build partnerships with Europe for a stable and rules-based Indo-Pacific region, people aware of the matter said. Resilient supply chains in the post-Covid world order has been among New Delhi’s key goal.Several European countries are seeking wider Indian presence in the continent to balance China. It may be recalled that the EU has put trade and investment pact with China on hold while seeking to revive a proposed trade pact with India at the summit held earlier this year. This year’s edition of the forum will seek to bridge East-West divide within Europe and EU.

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Story behind vaccine turnaround in Bastar

As India started inoculating senior citizens against Covid-19 on March 1, Bastar district collector Rajat Bansal faced the daunting task of fighting misinformation spread by social media forwards and persuading tribal groups to take the shot. Bansal vividly remembers how challenging the first one month was. “There was a lot of resistance from the tribal community. There was misinformation about vaccine:s People believed they would die if they took the vaccine,” he said. Bastar district had one of the lowest vaccine uptakes in March. Six months later, the turnaround in tribal-dominated Bastar is remarkable. The district administration has managed to inoculate over 75.5% of 45+ and 36.4% of 18-44 year age group with at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccines. “The people here follow a daily routine. They eat right before starting from home and then return at night to eat the next meal. Some people take the vaccine in the middle of the day and then go right back to their fields for hard labour in the sun without rest or respite. Some people developed fever and this triggered hesitancy. People thought that they did not have Covid-19 but with the vaccine they were developing fever and condition worsening,” Bansal said.This hesitancy and poor vaccine uptake pushed the district administration to rope in youth volunteers who have been organised in a group called Yuvoday. Yuvoday has district and block coordinators and a network of youth volunteers in the villages. “Yuvoday volunteers were given basic training in Jagdalpur on how to dispel fear and hesitancy against vaccination. They were taught how to persuade people, tell them it was natural to develop fever and the benefit of Covid-19 vaccination,” Bansal said. Volunteers drove those willing to be inoculated on their bikes to the vaccine centres and involved influencers like schoolteachers, anganwadi workers and other healthcare workers to persuade people. Yuvoday volunteers recalled how they brought inoculated frontline workers to speak to villagers. “We took vaccinated frontline workers to the villagers to demonstrate that they had taken the vaccine and were fine,” a Yuvoday volunteer told ET.What added to the challenges were administrative protocols to reduce vaccine wastage. As Chhattisgarh reported high wastage initially, health officers were told not to open a vial if there were less than 10 in the queue. If there were 4 people in a village, volunteers faced the tough task of looking for six more from neighbouring villages to ensure all were vaccinated without wastage.There were specific tribes that showed vaccine hesitancy. They included Mariya, Muriya, Gond and Halbi. “We faced hesitancy especially among Mariya tribe in Bastanar block,” Bansal said, adding there were still about 8-10% of the eligible population unwilling to be inoculated. However, the district has come a long way from the March figures. Now, it gets about 10,000 vaccine doses, which as per the district collector, are exhausted within 2-3 days. “The demand is exceeding the supply now,” he said.

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Ex Reliance Capital CEO plans small finance bank

Former Reliance Capital CEO Soumen (Sam) Ghosh has applied for a small finance bank license through a recently set up firm called Cosmea Financial Holdings.The Maharashtra-based firm was incorporated in November last year.Cosmea aims to involve in activities auxiliary to financial intermediation, except insurance and pension funding. Directors of the company are Soumen Ghosh, Suresh Thiruvananthapuram Viswanathan and Amit Agrawal. Former Reliance Capital CEO Soumen (Sam) Ghosh along with his wife Caroline Ghosh bought this company from Amit Agarwal and Luv Chaturvedi who had incorporated the company as a part of management buy-out from Reliance Securities.This company has no linkage with ADAG group at present and is owned by the Ghoshes in individual capacity, Sam Ghosh confirmed the matter. Cosmea and fintech firm Tally Solutions have applied for a small finance bank licence, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Monday.Cosmea and Tally thus joined VSoft Technologies, Calicut City Service Co-operative Bank, Dvara Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services and Akhil Kumar Gupta in the race to set up small finance banks under the central bank's on-tap licensing policy.Gupta, the vice chairman at Bharti Enterprises, applied for the licence in his personal capacity. In March, the banking regulator formed a five-member standing external advisory committee under former deputy governor Shyamala Gopinath for evaluating the applications.RBI's central board director Revathy Iyer, former executive director B Mahapatra, former Canara Bank chairman TN Manoharan, and former State Bank of India managing director Hemant G Contractor are members of the committee.

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Jhunjhunwala-backed co to invest in Syska LED

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Rare Enterprises said on Monday the company will invest in Uttamchandani family-promoted Syska LED, which will help the fast-moving electrical goods company in its next phase of growth, a release said. "Rare Enterprises and its partners have signed a term sheet to invest in Syska LED Lights Private Limited, promoted by the Uttamchandani family. In accordance with the terms of the signed term sheet, about 15 per cent of the funds have been deployed already," it said. The transaction is expected to conclude in the next 60 days, the release added. "We are encouraged with the business and the brand that Syska has built so far - we view this as a long-term partnership with the promoter family to take Syska into its next phase of growth and leadership," Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Partner, Rare Enterprises said. Rare Enterprises and its partners are investors in Indian equities, both listed and unlisted. Syska Group has witnessed success over the years due to its first mover mindset and constant innovation and become one of the leading fast-moving electrical goods companies in the country, as per the release. "Syska Group has been on a consistent growth trajectory and we are poised to achieve new business milestones in the coming years. We believe this collaboration with Rare Enterprises will support our organisation in its next phase of growth, and enable us to secure a leadership position in India's fast moving electrical goods (FMEG) industry," said Govind Uttamchandani, Director, Syska Group, said. He said the company is confident that this will be a long and fruitful association. Syska Group over the years has grown and diversified into segments such as LED, personal care appliances, mobile accessories, home appliances and only continues to grow and dominate these markets, according to the release.

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Ranji Trophy: Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka clubbed in same group

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Amazon urges Sebi rescind exchanges' letters

US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to Sebi requesting the market regulator to direct stock exchanges to withdraw the 'Observation Letters' that were issued related to the proposed Rs 24,713-crore Future-Reliance deal. The company has also urged Sebi to take necessary action to comply with the recent Supreme Court judgment related to the deal. In its letter dated August 17, Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC noted that the Supreme Court had on August 6, 2021 held that the order of the Singapore-based Emergency Arbitrator (EA) in the case was an 'order' referable to and made under Section 17(1) of the Arbitration and Conciliation (A&C) Act. Thus, the arbitration order can be enforced under the provisions of Section 17(2) of the Act. "In light of the directions contained in the Enforcement Judgment, and the EA Order whose validity has been affirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, Amazon requests you to take all such action as is necessary to comply with the Supreme Court Judgment, and to further ensure that no communications subsist or emanate which are at variance with the Supreme Court Judgment," the letter said. The letter -- a copy of which was seen by PTI -- further said: "...we request your good offices to direct the Indian Stock Exchanges to withdraw the Observation Letters with immediate effect." Amazon declined to comment on the matter, while e-mails sent to Future Group did not elicit any response. In January this year, Sebi had given its go-ahead to Future Group's scheme of arrangement and sale of assets to Reliance with some riders, based on which the BSE granted its "no adverse observation" report for the Rs 24,713-crore deal. The stock exchange, in its observation letter dated January 20, 2021, had said it has "no adverse observations with limited reference to those matters having a bearing on listing/de-listing/continuous listing requirements within the provisions of Listing Agreement, so as to enable the company (Future) to file the scheme with Hon'ble NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal)." In August last year, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) had said it will acquire the retail and wholesale business, and the logistics and warehousing business of Future Group for Rs 24,713 crore. The scheme of arrangement entails the consolidation of Future Group's retail and wholesale assets into one entity Future Enterprises Ltd and then transferring it to Reliance Retail. The deal has been contested by Amazon, an investor in Future Coupons that in turn is a shareholder in Future Retail Ltd. In August 2019, Amazon had agreed to purchase 49 per cent of one of Future's unlisted firms, Future Coupons Ltd (which owns 7.3 per cent equity in BSE-listed Future Retail Ltd through convertible warrants), with the right to buy into the flagship Future Retail after a period of three to 10 years. Amazon had dragged Future into arbitration at SIAC (Singapore International Arbitration Centre). In October, an interim award was passed by the EA in favour of the US-e-commerce major that barred Future Retail from taking any step to dispose of or encumber its assets or issuing any securities to secure any funding from a restricted party. Amazon and Future Group had also filed litigations in Indian courts, including the Supreme Court, on the issue. Earlier this month, the apex court ruled in favour of Amazon by holding that the EA award was valid and enforceable under Indian laws. Notably, Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd had on August 28, 2021 said it has approached the Supreme Court against an order passed by the Delhi High Court to maintain status quo in relation to the deal and directing it to enforce the order of the Singapore-based Emergency Arbitrator.

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How Taliban's gains complicated India's options

India has sunk billions into Afghanistan, hedging its bets with a combination of soft and hard power. Now, as nations desperately evacuate their troops, people and equipment, stunned by the Taliban’s quick takeover and attacks on those trying to flee, it’s worth examining what New Delhi’s strategic goals were and what the gains have been over the last two decades.In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Afghan Parliament house, built by India at a cost of $90 million, describing it as his country’s tribute to democracy in Afghanistan. The following year, Modi unveiled the renovated 19th century Stor Palace in Kabul, that was home to Afghan King Amanullah Khan during his reign in the 1920s. In 2016, he inaugurated the Salma Dam, a significant infrastructure undertaking in the western city of Herat that allows water access to the surrounding districts and the irrigation of thousands of hectares of land. With its investments in other highway and building projects, in total, India has put around $3 billion into Afghanistan, making it one of the largest regional donors to the country. While the absolute amount may not be a huge sum compared to India’s $1.4 trillion domestic infrastructure promise this month, or even the hundreds of billions of dollars in losses from the teetering banking system that taxpayers have had to swallow, it’s hard to see what the policy achieved as images of the Taliban inside the parliament go viral.The Modi government’s “Neighborhood First” foreign policy approach focuses on keeping the peace and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships in the region. It invests billions of dollars into countries from Bhutan to Nepal through its external affairs ministry’s budget and other departments. A key goal of this approach toward Afghanistan has been to ensure the country “doesn’t fall into the hands of Pakistan supported Taliban or some such force,” as former ambassador V.P. Haran put it in his speech at an Indian external affairs ministry lecture series in 2017. Friendship and goodwill aside, India has always known what’s at stake.That fear has now become a reality India will have to reckon with. Its security establishment how has to assess whether Kashmir will once again be in play as it was three decades ago, when Islamist militants turned their attention to the region after the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan.India’s investment hasn’t put it in a position to manage this risk, though, because New Delhi failed to create the strategic foothold it badly needs in Afghanistan. While Modi’s administration has long said such diplomacy isn’t about reciprocity, the reality is that as Afghanistan falls into chaos, India doesn’t have any leverage to ensure the country doesn't become an even larger security threat across South and Central Asia.On Thursday, India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said India had only invested in its friendship with Afghan people and insisted it would get the full value in return. For now, he noted, India will take a “wait and watch” approach.But if India’s strategy was meant to ensure it had a meaningful presence in a geographically strategic place, then it has fallen well short. Indeed, beyond its infrastructure investments, it has been unable to get significant projects off the ground, like the $11 billion Hajigak mine in Afghanistan’s Bamyan district. Friendship only gets you so far. Another key development, the Chabahar Port in Iran, was supposed to open up an important route to connect Afghanistan to Central Asia while bypassing India’s key rival, Pakistan. Already affected by Covid and the threat of more sanctions on Iran, the port is likely to face an even more difficult operating environment now the Taliban is in power. A lesson from China may be in order here. The Belt and Road-style build up across Africa, Eastern Europe and places like Sri Lanka and the Maldives has ensured China’s heft is front of mind. In Afghanistan, despite putting in very little, Beijing ensured it had a hold on some mining rights there, even though there’s been no output because of security considerations. It assessed the risk-reward. Part of China’s success has come from its strategic engagement with the Taliban. As a result, the world is now talking about how China could benefit from the recent turn of events, in the same breath that it mentions India’s geopolitical challenges. It’s clear New Delhi failed to change its diplomatic posture in line with the shifting balance of power on the ground in Afghanistan. In a working paper looking at India’s options once the U.S. completed its troop withdrawal, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted that “being more engaged in international negotiations, and even agreeing to talk to certain sections of the Taliban as part of a broader diplomatic initiative, are options that India can no longer afford to disregard.” India’s policy in Afghanistan was mostly about soft power. Along with the parliament and the dam, several community projects and schools were set up, and of course, Afghans do love their Bollywood. Yet, India’s middling path has turned into a diplomatic dead end. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)

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