Today's Hot Stories - April 16, 2014
10 Headlines for Today(1) PM being blamed for sins of mother-son duo: Modi
(2) Priyanka-Varun war of words escalates
(3) French scientists lose 2300 samples of deadly SARS virus
(4) Tsonga battles past Kohlschreiber
(5) Deterioration in credit conditions felt in India, says Moody’s
(6) Mercedes-Benz launches new SUV
(7) Gupta loses to Iturrizaga in Dubai finale
(8) IPL jamboree set to start in the Emirates
(9) Tsonga battles past Kohlschreiber
(10) Eatery owner killed over payment of two rotis
5 Stories for Today
(1) Supreme Court recognises transgenders as third gender
(2) Israeli Police enter holy site to disperse riot
(3) Petroleum Ministry to move Cabinet to allow RIL to retain gas finds
(4) Micromax eyes stake in South Korean phone maker Pantech
(5) Bets are on: will a Modi govt retain RBI governor Rajan?
(1) Supreme Court recognises transgenders as third gender
In a significant step, the Supreme Court on Tuesday recognised the transgender community as a third gender along with male and female.
A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri, in separate but concurrent judgments, said “eunuchs, apart from the binary gender, be treated as a “third gender” for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under our Constitution and the laws made by Parliament and the State Legislature.” The ruling came on a petition filed by the National Legal Services Authority.
The Bench directed the Centre and States to take steps to treat them as socially and educationally backward classes and extend reservation for admission in educational institutions and for public appointments.
The Bench said “recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue but a human rights issue. Transgenders are also citizens of India. The spirit of the Constitution is to provide equal opportunity to every citizen to grow and attain their potential, irrespective of caste, religion or gender.”
By virtue of this verdict, all identity documents, including a birth certificate, passport, ration card and driving licence would recognise the third gender.
The Bench said gender identification is essential. It is only with this recognition that many rights such as the right to vote, own property and marry will be meaningful.
Source: The Hindu
(2) Israeli Police enter holy site to disperse riot
Israeli police say they have stormed a Jerusalem holy site to disperse a riot.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says Palestinian rioters hurled stones and firecrackers on Wednesday from atop the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
Rosenfeld says police then entered the site and dispersed the rioters with tear gas and other non-lethal means.
The compound is known to Muslims as the "Noble Sanctuary" and is Islam's third-holiest site. Israel captured the area from Jordan in the 1967 war.
Clashes often erupt after Muslims conclude their prayers at the site.
Jews typically pray below at the Western Wall but tensions have grown lately with an increased number of Jews arriving to pray at the Temple Mount as well.
Source: The Times of India
(3) Petroleum Ministry to move Cabinet to allow RIL to retain gas finds
The Petroleum Ministry is moving the Cabinet to allow Reliance Industries retain three gas discoveries worth USD 1.45 billion in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block even after expiry of timelines.
Upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) had sought taking away the three finds from RIL as the company had failed to prove their commerciality by not conducting prescribed tests.
The Petroleum Ministry is, however, seeking relaxation of the rules for RIL as it feels rebidding the finds may lead to delay in development of the discoveries, which hold 345 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves, sources privy to the development said.
Also, it feels RIL may go to arbitration which may lead to further delay in production and extra cost associated with the arbitration.
The three finds, which can be quickly put on production by RIL using existing infrastructure of currently producing gas fields as well as those being developed, are worth USD 1.45 billion at current gas price of USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit.
Sources said the ministry is likely to seek approval of the Election Commission before floating a draft note for inter-ministerial consultations.
After comments are received from the finance and law ministries besides the planning commission, it will be put to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for approval.
Sources said RIL will have to conduct DGH prescribed Drill—Stem Test (DST) on D29, 30 and 31 discoveries and only half of the USD 93 million will be allowed to be cost recovered.
If the CCEA approves, the same rule will then be applied to RIL’s four gas discoveries (D—9, 10, 32 and 40) in North—East Coast block NEC—0sn—97/1 (NEC—25) which hold recoverable reserves of 1.032 Trillion cubic feet.
Out of a total area of 7,645 square kilometres in KG—D6 block in Bay of Bengal, the government last year allowed RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada’s Niko Resources to retain only 1,4462.12 sq km area where regulator DGH-recognised discoveries have been made.
The area snatched away from RIL was more than 5,367 sq km that the company had offered to relinquish voluntarily and contained five discoveries — D4, D7, D8, D16 and D23 for which the DGH had opined that RIL missed deadlines for submission of investment plans.
The five discoveries together had 0.805 Tcf of reserves, or about one-fourth of the restated reserves in the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) fields in KG-D6 block.
Sources said the 1,4462.12 sq km area that RIL was allowed to retain included the currently producing D1&D3 gas fields and D26 (MA) oil and gas field.
Besides, a cluster of four satellite fields (D2, D6, D19 and D22) and two other significant discoveries (D42 and D34), for which investment plans have already been approved, are also being allowed to be retained by RIL.
The area allowed to be retained also includes three yet—to—be—confirmed discoveries of D29, D30 and D31.
Source: The Economic Times
(4) Micromax eyes stake in South Korean phone maker Pantech
India’s No.2 smartphone maker Micromax Informatics Ltd has expressed interest in buying a stake in South Korean peer Pantech Co Ltd as part of its drive to expand overseas and go upmarket, two sources said on Monday.
Pantech, South Korea’s No.3 smartphone maker, has been under a debt-restructuring programme after suffering six consecutive quarters of losses due to fierce competition.
“Micromax told Pantech that it was interested in a stake in the company,” one of the sources said, declining to elaborate on the size of a potential deal and other details.
Nine creditor banks own a combined 37 percent of Pantech, while Qualcomm Inc has a 12 percent stake and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd holds 10 percent.
“Micromax is among those who are interested in Pantech,” another source said.
(Also read – MicroMaxed: Samsung in trouble in India in mobile phone market)
The two sources declined to be identified because of the confidentiality of the sales process.
High-end smartphone maker Pantech has struggled against competition from giant rivals Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc in South Korea, where nearly 70 percent of mobile users have smartphones.
Pantech also sells phones in such markets as the United States and Japan.
Micromax has brought smartphones to the masses in India’s price-sensitive market where basic handsets still dominate, with heavy advertising and phones based on Google Inc’s Android software starting at $50 – almost half the price of a comparable Samsung model.
Now the unlisted company backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Sequoia Capital is trying to push into pricier segments dominated by global brands and break into overseas markets.
Source: The Indian Express
(5) Bets are on: will a Modi govt retain RBI governor Rajan?
RBI's high-profile governor, Raghuram Rajan, is likely to come under political pressure to retreat from his hawkish stance on inflation if opposition leader Narendra Modi wins power in the general election.
RBI governor Raghuram Rajan at a news conference at the bank's Mumbai office. (Reuters photo)
Strategists in Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), confident that his jobs-first policy pitch will secure a strong voter mandate, suggest that they would prefer to have one of their own at the helm of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
That sets the stage for a confrontation with RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, who since being appointed last September has enjoyed an unusually smooth ride in a country where governments often treat the RBI as a punchbag for their own policy failings.
The former International Monetary Fund chief economist is widely viewed as India's most capable technocrat, winning the respect of investors for his handling of a currency crisis that hit the country's economy last year.
"It will be a big loss of face for the country and would create a negative perception among foreign investors if the BJP removes the governor immediately after forming the government," said A Prasanna, an economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd in Mumbai.
Read: RBI voices concern over LS polls, keeps key policy rates unchanged
Before moving to the RBI, Rajan, 51, served as chief economic adviser to the finance ministry under the Congress party-led government, which opinion polls say faces defeat in the five-week national election starting on Monday.
BJP treasurer Piyush Goyal has attacked Rajan over a series of interest rate hikes intended to curb inflation, now running at double the RBI's longer-term 4 percent target, at a time when economic growth has fallen to its slowest in a decade.
Rajan has raised the repo policy rate three times by a total of 75 basis points to 8%.
"Governor Rajan is only aggravating the problems and making them worse by increasing interest rates," Goyal, a leading strategist and fundraiser for the nationalist opposition party, told the Economic Times.
Subramanian Swami, a BJP ideologue and former cabinet minister with close ties to a Hindu grassroots movement that has shaped Modi's thinking, puts it more bluntly: "We can make it worthwhile for him to leave," Swami told Reuters.
"I would not be surprised if a government led by Narendra Modi removes the governor," said Satish Misra, an analyst at the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think-tank. "Modi does not brook any opposition."
Good cop, Bad cop
Rajan's policy and academic credentials - he was a professor at Chicago's Booth School of Business - qualify him as a card-carrying member of the policy jetset that gathers twice a year at the IMF's Washington headquarters or at Group of 20 meetings.
Yet his autonomy as central bank governor is more circumscribed than that of his counterparts in the West, who are typically nominated by the government but also accountable to lawmakers.
Under the RBI Act of 1934, Rajan serves at the pleasure of the government: "The central government may remove from office the Governor, a Deputy governor or any other Director," it says.
While no RBI governor has been sacked in the central bank's 80-year history, two have quit before completing their terms - most recently Sir Benegal Rama Rau, who resigned in 1957 due to differences with the finance minister.
In that context, analysts interpret the verbal broadsides as a softening-up exercise intended to secure greater RBI compliance with Modi's expansionist credo.
To be sure, Rajan has moderated his rhetoric on inflation but analysts said that is more a response to cooler inflation than anything else.
Arun Jaitley, a BJP leader tipped to assume either the finance or home affairs portfolio in the next government, has meanwhile avoided confrontation. Asked about Rajan in a TV interview last month, Jaitley said: "If someone is doing good job, he will certainly continue."
Manufacturers and traders, a constituency of the right-wing BJP, have complained that the RBI under Rajan has allowed the rupee to recover too strongly with a near 15% rally from last year's slump, hurting India's export competitiveness.
The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has called for a cut in interest rates of 100 basis points and a more competitive exchange rate to support domestic manufacturers.
Savvy operator
Rajan's former colleagues at the finance ministry say he is a pragmatic and politically savvy economist who may yet find a way to work with a BJP-led coalition government that pundits say is most likely to be formed after votes are tallied on May 16.
For his part, Rajan cautions that coalition building may not go as smoothly as bullish foreign investors may expect. They have bought $10 billion in Indian stocks and bonds this year, driving the BSE Sensex to record highs.
Speaking on Tuesday after the RBI kept its key rate unchanged, Rajan cautioned that "we have to be prepared for some turmoil" in the event that the next government is not stable.
As long as the next government shows proper concern about the economy and the fiscal situation, Rajan added, "I would suspect that after an initial bout of turmoil there might be a reassessment which may be more positive".
Those statements represent a careful deployment by Rajan of his credibility with markets to guard against any attempt by a BJP-led government to render his position untenable.
"It would not be easy to remove Rajan from a constitutional post," said a senior finance ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Explaining why, he used the same words as Rajan: "It would lead to turmoil in the markets."
Source: Hindustan Times
Disclaimer: All news stories and content sourced from freely available material on the internet. All sources are acknowledged.
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