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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