Today's Hot Stories - March 28, 2014 - PT education

Today's Hot Stories - March 28, 2014

10 Headlines for Today

(1) IAF aircraft C-130J Super Hercules crashes, 5 killed
(2) Birbhum gang-rape: SC asks Bengal govt to pay Rs.5 lakh to victim
(3) Pistorius trial adjourned till April 7
(4) PM urged to reject US pressure on trade, biz policies
(5) Tata Power, CLP fight over Jhajjar plant operation
(6) Legal loopholes on unruly passengers should be closed: IATA
(7) SC appoints Sunil Gavaskar interim BCCI president for IPL 7
(8) Nadal outslugs Raonic to reach semis
(9) Tennis: Li edges Cibulkova in Sony Open semis
(10) Actor Nagma slaps youth after he misbehaves with her at poll rally in Meerut

5 Stories for Today

(1) India successfully tests nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile
(2) South Korea seizes North Korean boat amid heightened tensions
(3) State-run banks surge after RBI extends Basel III deadline
(4) IMF throws Ukraine financial lifeline, Russian economy to slump
(5) Industry sees weak demand in next 3 months: Ficci survey

(1) India successfully tests nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile


India successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile from a military base in Odisha on Friday, a senior official said.

The indigenously-developed ballistic missile with a maximum range of 350 km was fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Balasore district, about 230 km from Bhubaneswar.

"It was a perfect launch. It met all mission objectives," test range director M V K V Prasad told IANS.

The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Indian Army conducted the test as part of a regular training exercise," he said.

Prithvi is India's first indigenously-built ballistic missile. It is one of the five missiles being developed under the country's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

The battlefield missile, with flight duration of 483 seconds and a peak altitude of 43.5 km, can carry a 500-kg warhead.

The missile has features to deceive anti-ballistic missiles and uses an advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring capabilities and reaches its target within a few metres of accuracy.

It has a higher lethal effect compared to equivalent missiles in the world. Scientists say the accuracy has already been demonstrated in the past in the development flight trials.

Source: The Times of India

(2) South Korea seizes North Korean boat amid heightened tensions


South Korea’s military on Thursday seized a North Korean fishing boat that it said had crossed a disputed maritime border after ignoring warnings to retreat amid growing tension between the two sides.

The incident comes as North Korea faces renewed pressure from the international community after it fired two mid-range missiles on Wednesday just as the leaders of South Korea, Japan and the United States pledged to curb its nuclear arms ambitions.

In what appeared to be a show of defiance, North Korea fired two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles into the sea, both Japan and South Korea said.

The UN Security Council will hold closed-door consultations on Thursday to discuss a possible condemnation of North Korea’s action, UN diplomats said.

North Korea refuses to recognise the so-called Northern Limit Line that has been the naval border since the end of the Korean civil war in 1953. The two sides have been technically at war ever since, as the fighting ended with a mere truce, not a treaty.

North Korean navy vessels crossed the line in 1999 and 2002 that led to clashes that killed an unidentified number of sailors on both sides.

Three people aboard the vessel that crossed the naval border were under South Korean custody on Thursday, an official at the office of South Korea’s Joint Chief’s of Staff said.

“If North Korea tries provocation with the excuse that we seized the vessel that crossed the line, we’ll be sure to come back with punishment pretty decisively,” the official said, asking not to be identified.

North Korea threatened nuclear strikes against the South and the United States last year after the United Nations tightened sanctions against it for conducting its third nuclear test.

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama said North Korea’s provocations would be met by a united response, after meeting South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a security summit in The Hague.

A South Korean navy ship was sunk four years ago near the area of the latest infringement. An international team of investigators said it was torpedoed by the North, but Pyongyang denies the charge.

Source: The Indian Express

(3) State-run banks surge after RBI extends Basel III deadline


Shares of state-run banks on Friday surged in the range of three per cent to nearly five per cent after the Reserve Bank of India extended deadline for meeting Basel III norms to March 2019.

RBI on Thursday extended deadline for banks to implement global capital norms, Basel III, by a year to March 2019 on concerns of potential stresses on the asset quality and profitability of the banks.

Reacting to the development, shares of State Bank of India jumped 4.64 per cent to an intra-day high of Rs 1,925 on the BSE.

Similarly, the scrip of Bank of Baroda rose 3.36 per cent to a high of Rs 717.90 and Punjab National Bank edged 4.10 per cent higher to Rs 733.65 on the BSE.

As per the RBI notification, the transitional period for full implementation of Basel III Capital Regulations in India is extended up to March 31, 2019, instead of as on March 31, 2018. "This will also align full implementation of Basel III in India closer to the internationally agreed date of January 1, 2019," RBI said.

Brokers said the jump in the counter was largely on the back of Thursday's announcement by the RBI, which is likely to ease concerns of potential stress on the asset quality and profitability of the banks.

Source: Hindustan Times

(4) IMF throws Ukraine financial lifeline, Russian economy to slump


Ukraine won a $27-billion international financial lifeline on Thursday, rushed through in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea, as Moscow's economy minister spoke of the cost of military action in its former Soviet neighbour.

The International Monetary Fund announced agreement on a $14-18 billion standby credit for Kiev in return for tough economic reforms that will unlock further aid from the European Union, the United States and other lenders over two years.

The IMF deal, to be approved by the global agency's board next month, was a political boost for the pro-Western government that replaced ousted Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich last month, prompting Moscow to seize the Black Sea peninsula.

"The financial support from the broader international community that the programme will unlock amounts to $27 billion over the next two years," an IMF statement said.

The Ukraine crisis has triggered the most serious East-West confrontation since the end of the Cold War a quarter-century ago, deepening the slump in Ukraine's battered economy, centred on coal and steel production, gas transit and grain exports.

Without IMF-mandated austerity measures, the economy could contract by up to 10 percent this year, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told parliament, explaining why his government had bowed to the Fund's conditions.

"Ukraine is on the edge of economic and financial bankruptcy," he said.

Kiev opened the way for the IMF deal by announcing on Wednesday a radical 50-percent hike in the price of domestic gas from May 1 and promising to phase out remaining energy subsidies by 2016, an unpopular step Yanukovich had refused to take.

It also accepted a flexible exchange rate that is fuelling inflation, set to hit 12-14 percent this year, according to Yatseniuk, and a central bank monetary policy based on inflation targeting.

The prime minister, who took on the job a month ago saying his government was on a "kamikaze" mission to take painful decisions, said the price of Russian gas on which the nation depends may rise 79 percent - a recipe for popular discontent.

The IMF statement said a key element of the programme would focus on cleaning up Ukraine's opaque energy giant Naftogaz, which imports gas from Russia's Gazprom . Naftogaz's chief executive was arrested last week in a corruption probe.

"The programme will focus on improving the transparency of Naftogaz's accounts and restructuring of the company to reduce its costs and raise efficiency," it said.

UKRAINE AIDED, RUSSIA ISOLATED

The international rescue for Ukraine was in sharp contrast to Western measures to isolate Russia diplomatically and charge it an economic price for the annexation of Crimea, home to Moscow's Black Sea fleet and a majority of ethnic Russians.

Targeted US and EU visa bans and asset freezes against senior Russian and Crimean officials, with the threat of tougher economic sanctions to come if President Vladimir Putin goes any further, have accelerated capital flight.

Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Thursday capital outflow could be around $100 billion this year, and would slow economic growth to about 0.6 percent.

"If we assume in the first quarter capital outflow was $60 billion ... then (it) will reach around $100 billion for the whole year," Ulyukayev told an investment conference.

"Under this scenario, we estimate that economic growth will slow down to 0.6 percent." The Economy Ministry forecast in January that GDP growth this year would be about 2.5 percent.

The World Bank gave a gloomier forecast for the Russian economy, saying that in a high-risk scenario of persistent tension over Ukraine, Moscow's economy could shrink by up to 1.8 percent, even without Western trade sanctions.

Ukraine's dollar bonds jumped on news of the IMF bailout while Russian stocks were down about 1.5 percent on economic pessimism there.

US President Barack Obama, in the main policy speech of his European tour, warned Russia on Wednesday that it faced growing isolation, incremental sanctions and more severe economic consequences unless it changed course.

In a statement after Ukraine's IMF deal, the White House said: "This represents a powerful sign of support from the international community for the Ukrainian government.

"The IMF programme will be a central component of a package of assistance to support Ukraine as it implements reforms and conducts free and fair elections that will allow all the Ukrainian people to determine the future of their country."

Russian leaders have already said that Ukraine's discount from Gazprom will come to an end next week. Yatseniuk said he expected Moscow to charge Kiev as much as $480 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas from April 1 instead of the current $268.50.

That could exacerbate the country's economic woes and cause political instability in the run-up to a May 25 presidential election.

The European Union signed a political association agreement with Ukraine last week but is holding off from signing a far-reaching trade and economic cooperation pact until a new elected government is in place.

Source: The Economic Times

(5) Industry sees weak demand in next 3 months: Ficci survey


Painting a gloomy picture, a survey by Ficci found that the industry sees a weak demand and bleak employment scenario over the next 3 months, plagued by econonic slowdown and high interest rates, even as there was a negligible improvement in outlook for the coming 6 months.

The Business Confidence Survey by Ficci found that not only the cost but even the availability of credit had become a problem area for companies, inhibiting investments. Almost 53 per cent of the companies covered by the survey felt that high cost of credit was creating a problem for India Inc.

Only 24 per cent of the companies saw an uptick in investments over the next six months, while 67 per cent firms expected stagnant employment levels during the same period.

Around 56 per cent indicated that demand has declined by over 10 per cent.

Moreover, lesser percentage of respondents cited an improvement in current performance, as against the last six months, of the economy and industry.

The overall Business Confidence Index value inched up to 60.8 in the current survey from 59.8 in the last survey round.

The survey was conducted during January and February this year and brings out expectations of the industry for the period January-June 2014.

It drew responses from about 173 companies with a wide sectoral and geographical spread and a turnover ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 3.7 lakh crore.

The participating companies belonged to a wide array of sectors such as textiles, cement, financial services, chemicals, construction, metal and metal products, automobiles, FMCG, electrical equipment and machinery, paper and paper products.

Source: The Hindu

Disclaimer: All news stories and content sourced from freely available material on the internet. All sources are acknowledged.