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<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Covid-19 Vaccination Plan Mumbai [/INST] Coronavirus Outbreak news. Title: Mumbai’s Covid-19 Vaccination Plan. Short_description: Just like several other cities in the country, the financial capital is also facing acute shortage of vaccines. . Description: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has received 20,000 doses of Covishield vaccine that it will use to vaccine those in the18-44 age group, said Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC to BloombergQuint., “On a pilot mode, we have activated five centres and are vaccinating 2,500 people everyday in the 18-44 age group. This stock will last for a week. Our demand is to get 1 lakh doses per day and as and when we get it we can accelerate our drive”., Mumbai has approximately 49 lakh people in the age group of 18-44 years, he said., As per the Modi government’s new vaccine policy, announced on April 19, the vaccine eligibility age has been lowered to 18 years starting May 1. Vaccinating those between 18-44 years is the responsibility of states, according to the policy. The centre has been supplying vaccines to states to inoculate those above 45 years, healthcare and frontline workers., But that supply has been , in recent days, prompting the city to halt vaccination of those 45 and above on April 29. That halt persists., Meanwhile, on May 1, vaccinations began in Mumbai for those in the 18-44 age group but in limited batches and at limited times., “Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has received a limited vaccine stock and first dose vaccination for 18-44 age group will be conducted between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. today”, India's richest civic body tweeted late at night on April 30., Due to the low supplies of vaccines, the decision to allow registrations for the select centres is being taken on a daily basis., Just like several other cities in the country, the financial capital is also facing an acute shortage of vaccines. Social media is full of first-person accounts of people detailing their ordeal -- waiting in queues for a long duration only to be asked to return as the centre was out of vaccines., As on May 1, Maharashtra had only 1.41 lakh doses available for the vaccination of 45+. While that’s dwindled to a few thousand now the centre says over 10.5 lakh doses are in the supply pipeline. This will help restart vaccinations., For the younger age groups, the state has been in conversation with the two domestic producers, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. States were given just 11 days to plan supplies for those aged 18-44., Mumbai has 141 active Covid Vaccination Centres, as per data shared by BMC on April 29. Of these, 50 CVCs are managed by BMC, 18 by the state and the remaining 73 by the central government and private entities., Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, recently shared BMC’s plans for vaccinating people who are 18 and above., In his address on the eve of Maharashtra statehood day on May 1, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that more than 1 crore 58 lakh citizens have been vaccinated in the state. “Our target is 8 lakh vaccinations per day”., The state will require 12 crore does for vaccination of 5.71 crore citizens in the age group 18-44. He also appealed to the central government to make the registration app available to all the states separately so that there is no stress on the system.. Publisher: Ashwini Priolker. Date Created: 01 May 2021, 6:34 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Lakh New Infections Coronavirus India Updates active case [/INST] Coronavirus Outbreak news. Title: Coronavirus India Updates: 3.86 Lakh New Infections Take Active Cases Above 31 Lakh. Short_description: Track the latest developments in India’s second wave of Covid-19 here. . Description: India continued to report a record surge in Covid-19 infections, with Maharashtra remaining the epicentre of the crisis., 3.86 lakh people tested positive for the virus in a 24-hour period, the highest number of fresh cases in any country in any day, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on April 30., Active coronavirus infections in India crossed 31 lakh for the first time ever., More than 3,000 patients succumbed to the illness for the third straight day, overwhelming the country’s crematoriums and burial grounds. That took the total death toll to 2.08 lakh., Maharashtra extended pandemic curbs by another two weeks as the state continues to battle the spread of the coronavirus. The existing restrictions on movement of individuals and on business operations will now stay in effect till May 15, and will not expire on May 1 as earlier announced., The local administration in Mumbai has decided to close all vaccination centres in the city for three days due to a shortage of doses., The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has said citizens above 45 years of age, who have registered, will be vaccinated for sure after May 2. The planned vaccination drive for those above 18 years of age is likely to be delayed due to the shortage, it said.. Publisher: BQ Desk. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 9:23 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Cryptomania Hits Home loss Turkey Manhunt Arrests [/INST] Crypto news. Title: Turkey’s Cryptomania Hits Home With Losses, Arrests, Manhunt. Short_description: Cryptocurrency mania is getting a wake-up call in Turkey after two local exchanges crumbled in the space of a few days.. Description: Cryptocurrency mania is getting a wake-up call in Turkey after two local exchanges crumbled in the space of a few days., The collapse of Thodex and Vebitcoin has triggered a manhunt for one of the exchange founders, led to dozens of arrests and inflicted untold losses on ordinary Turks. In the wake of a pledge last week by the central bank to tighten regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies, one Istanbul-based exchange said Monday it will establish a custodian firm to reassure investors., “This market looks like a bottomless pit and regulation is absolutely needed,” said Orkun Godek, the head of research at Istanbul-based Deniz Investment. “Risks may trigger new risks. People may close positions elsewhere to counter their crypto losses.”, The two exchanges were part of a cryptocurrency boom that has drawn in legions of Turks seeking to protect their savings. Inflation hit 16.2% in March, more than three times the central bank’s target, while the lira has weakened more than 10% against the dollar this year, headed for its ninth consecutive year of losses., The turmoil began last Wednesday when Istanbul-based Thodex halted trading and its 27-year-old Chief Executive Officer Faruk Fatih Ozer disappeared. He’s still on the run along with nine others. The state-run Anadolu Agency said Monday Turkish police teams have flown to Albania and Kosovo as part of the investigation. Sixty-two others have been questioned in Turkey in connection with the collapse and sent to court for their depositions., Then on Friday, Vebitcoin, an exchange based in the southwestern city of Mugla, halted operations, citing deteriorating financial conditions. Chief Executive Officer Ilker Bas and three other employees were detained, Anadolu reported. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board blocked Vebitcoin’s accounts and opened an investigation., Thodex had about 390,000 users, according to a lawyer representing its investors. Volume was $744 million as of Wednesday, according to CoinGecko.com, which tracks the data. Vebitcoin had close to $60 million in daily volume., Estimates vary for how much investors have lost. A lawyer representing one group of victims said the tab may reach billions of dollars, though he declined to elaborate., The saga has drawn the ire of regulators. Central Bank Governor Sahap Kavcioglu said last week more controls are in the pipeline after a move April 16 to ban cryptocurrencies as a form of payment starting April 30, while payment and electronic-money institutions will be prohibited from mediating transfers to cryptocurrency platforms., In an effort to allay investor concerns, Istanbul-based BTCTurk, whose 3 million users make it one of Turkey’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, said Monday it will start offering custodian services to clients. Operations will begin in the final quarter and be open for the use of other crypto exchanges, Ozgur Guneri, BTCTurk chief executive officer, said Monday., Trade on Turkish cryptocurrency markets was about $1.7 billion Monday, according to CoinGecko.com. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Taylan Bilgic. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 3:03 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Second Exchange Collapse Crypto Pain Turkey [/INST] Crypto news. Title: Turkey’s Crypto Pain Grows With Second Exchange Collapse. Short_description: Turkey’s fourth biggest exchange said it would halt operations, citing deteriorating financial conditions.. Description: Turkey’s cryptocurrency investors were dealt another blow at the end of a , after a second big exchange collapsed in as many days and its chief executive was , detained. , Vebitcoin has halted operations citing deteriorating financial conditions, and Demiroren News Agency said its Chief Executive Ilker Bas and three other employees have been detained. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board has blocked Vebitcoin’s accounts and opened a probe., Vebitcoin is Turkey’s fourth biggest exchange with close to $60 million in daily volumes, , to CoinGecko.com which tracks data on price, volume and market value on crypto markets. More than half of this volume came from Bitcoin, which , this week., This week’s rout marks the worst period for Bitcoin since it tumbled amid a wider slump in risk assets at the end of February and analysts have warned of further losses. Even digital currencies that managed to eke out gains over the past few days, like Ether and Dogecoin, tumbled on Friday., Vebitcoin’s collapse comes days after Thodex , and its 27-year-old founder fled the country. Thodex had about 390,000 users according to a lawyer for the victims and losses could be as high as $2 billion, according to Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper., Read More: , The two exchanges were part of the cryptocurrency boom that has drawn in legions of Turks seeking to protect their savings from rampant inflation and an unstable currency. Inflation hit 16.2% in March, more than three times the central bank’s target, and the lira has weakened more than 10% against the dollar this year -- its ninth consecutive year of losses., The daily volume of trade in Turkish crypto markets was close to $2 billion for Friday, according to data from CoinGecko.com. The boom has drawn attention from regulators., Turkey’s Central Bank has , cryptocurrencies as a form of payment from April 30, and the country has prohibited payment and electronic money institutions from mediating money transfers to cryptocurrency platforms., Central Bank chief Sahap Kavcioglu said more regulations are in the pipeline in a televised interview on Friday. “We are working on regulations in terms of cryptocurrency,” he said. “There are disturbing money outflows to outside of Turkey via cryptocurrencies.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Baris Balci. Date Created: 24 Apr 2021, 12:08 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Crypto Dominance decline Bitcoin Ether [/INST] Crypto news. Title: Ether Hits $3,000 as Bitcoin’s Crypto Dominance Declines. Short_description: Bitcoin’s domination in the cryptocurrency market is declining as its next-biggest rival Ether reaches the $3,000 milestone. . Description: Bitcoin’s domination of total cryptocurrency market value is declining as its next-biggest rival Ether reaches the $3,000 milestone., The rise of Ether suggests there’s room for more than one winner among digital tokens as the sector evolves. Bitcoin now accounts for about 46% of total crypto market value, down from roughly 70% at the start of the year, and Ether makes up 15%, according to tracker CoinGecko. , Bitcoin remains the biggest cryptocurrency but the momentum in other tokens is drawing increasing interest. Proponents argue investors are getting more comfortable with a variety of tokens, while critics contend the sector may be in the grip of a stimulus-fueled mania., Cryptocurrencies were broadly higher on Monday. Bitcoin climbed above $58,000, while Ether jumped 6% to $3,151 as of 8:17 a.m. in New York., “Ethereum is rising and not much seems to be in its way,” Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda Corp., wrote in a note Friday, adding that other tokens were also seeing “fresh interest.”, The current distribution of market share also reflects an April shakeout in the cryptocurrency sector. Bitcoin has yet to recover all the ground it lost after tumbling from a mid-April record of almost $64,870., Last month’s listing of crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc. in the U.S. is the latest sign of how more investors are embracing the sector despite risks from high levels of volatility and expanding regulatory scrutiny., Ether is currently occupying the limelight. An upgrade of the affiliated Ethereum blockchain as well as the network’s popularity for financial services and cryptocollectibles are among the factors cited for the rally. Evercore ISI strategist Rich Ross has set a target of $3,900 for the token., Other cryptocurrencies have jumped too. The price of Binance Coin is up 3,460% over the past 12 months, according to CoinGecko. Dogecoin, a token started as a joke in 2013 but now a social-media favorite touted by the likes of Elon Musk, has surged 15,000% to a market value of around $50 billion., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Joanna Ossinger. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 7:43 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Bitcoin Volatility Pushes Indian Crypto Users Stablecoins [/INST] Crypto news. Title: Bitcoin Volatility Pushes Indian Crypto Users Towards Stablecoins. Short_description: Stablecoins, which are pegged to an underlying asset such as the U.S. dollar and tend to be less volatile, are gaining popularity.. Description: 37-year-old Kumar Abhishek, who doubles up as a crypto trader while also working as a mortgage underwriter at a multinational company in New Delhi, has been investing in cryptocurrencies for the last two years. But, lately he has been increasing his stablecoin holdings, which now stand at close to 40% of his crypto portfolio., This, Abhishek said, is a conscious strategy to help protect himself against crypto volatility. It also helps him buy into the dips in prices of Bitcoins and altcoins., 26-year-old Karan Sharma, who has been investing in crypto tokens since 2017, has also increased the portion of stablecoins in his portfolio for similar reasons. “Given, Bitcoin prices have been extremely volatile after reaching peak-levels, it makes sense to convert part of holdings in stablecoins so that the returns don’t fluctuate too much,” he said., Abhishek and Sharma represent a growing pool of Indian crypto users who are now starting to hedge the inherent risk in Bitcoin, which has dominated trade so far across the country’s crypto exchanges. And as they do, stablecoins, which are pegged to an underlying asset such as the U.S. dollar and tend to be less volatile, are gaining popularity., The most common stablecoin traded on Indian exchanges is USDT or Tether that roughly trades at over or equal to $1 apiece., We have seen the highest-ever volumes in stablecoins in India in the last two months, said Vikram Rangala, chief marketing officer at ZebPay. "Indian investors, like their global counterparts, are diversifying into stablecoins for a few reasons. One is to have a stable-priced counterweight in their portfolio to volatile assets like Bitcoin and altcoins. Another is to use it to transact in dollar amounts— for online purchases or to buy other digital tokens," he said., The trading volumes for Tether, often dubbed as crypto-cash, have grown exponentially, claim exchanges WazirX, Unocoin, Bitex and ZebPay, even as growth in Bitcoin trading volumes has slowed., Bitex, which is headquartered in United Arab Emirates and entered India in November last year, claims that USDT trading volumes grew nine-times in April compared to last month, when it first launched the stablecoin on its platform. This was double the growth in Bitcoin volumes for Bitex, which grew three-times year-on-year in April., “Even for us, the USDT volumes grew nearly five-fold to $3 million in April compared to last year, as many of our traders liquidated their Bitcoin holdings and converted them into stablecoins,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, founder and chief executive of Unocoin, one of the oldest crypto exchanges in India., BloombergQuint could not independently verify these volumes as no official source of data is available., The shift being seen in India mirrors what is happening globally. Trading volumes of Tether had more than doubled to $171 billion as of April 20 compared to $54 billion a year ago, as per the latest data available on global cryptocurrency data tracker , . Bitcoin trading volumes grew at a relatively slower pace at 80% year-on-year to $68 billion over this period., Hedging volatility remains the key factor attracting crypto users to stablecoins even globally. , , which rose as high as $64,870 this year, has retreated back to $55,000. The cryptocurrency is still up about 90% year-to-date. Other tokens have corrected in line with Bitcoin, pushing demand towards stablecoins., “A dip in bitcoin prices also causes the prices of altcoins to drop thereby encouraging traders to buy into the dip. So, any market correction causes traders to buy stablecoins such as USDT, so that they can buy more altcoins with it,” said Siddharth Menon, co-founder and chief operating officer at WazirX., A third possible reason for higher stablecoin volumes in India, according to Monark Modi, founder and chief executive at Bitex, is the uncertain regulatory environment around cryptocurrencies in India and across the globe. As more institutional investors turn to buying cryptocurrencies, governments across the world are taking an active interest in how these tokens should either be regulated or banned, Modi said., "In India, too, there has been talk of an impending ban, which is leading investors to convert their crypto assets into stablecoins and holding them till the final announcement comes. This is being used as a strategy by some cautious traders, as it is much easier to do cross-jurisdiction transfers using digital cash than real money,” he said.. Publisher: Ridhima Saxena. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 11:25 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to low level bitcoin rebound March [/INST] Crypto news. Title: Bitcoin Rebounds After Hitting Lowest Level Since March. Short_description: Bitcoin fell to the lowest in seven weeks on Monday as it continued to struggle with the $50,000 level and nearby technicals.. Description: Bitcoin rallied back Monday as investors took advantage of the lowest levels in seven weeks to pile back in., The largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 13% to above $54,000, the biggest intraday gain since early February., The move comes as JPMorgan Chase & Co. is preparing to introduce an actively managed Bitcoin fund to some clients as soon as this summer, Coindesk , , citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The rebound reverses a two-week slump that had pushed Bitcoin below its 100-day moving average amid technical warnings from Wall Street and fears of a growing crypto bubble., Some pinned Monday’s move on a tweet Saturday from billionaire Elon Musk, who in the past has affected prices with his comments on the social platform., In a potential reference to cryptocurrencies, the Tesla Inc. founder asked “What does the future hodl?”, using a term often seen as meaning “hold on for dear life” that supporters use to refer to buying and holding their digital assets., After markets closed in New York on Monday, Musk’s Tesla Inc. quarterly results revealed that it spent $1.2 billion on Bitcoin in the first quarter and made $101 million selling it during that period. Musk had , the crypto investment in February and the announcement subsequently helped fuel a red-hot rally for the digital asset., Cryptocurrency-exposed stocks also rose. Monex Group Inc. gained 7.1%, while Remixpoint Inc. increased 7% and Ceres Inc. added 6.1%. In the U.S., Coinbase Global Inc. gained 4.4%, while Riot Blockchain Inc. jumped 6.3%., Bitcoin has retained a gain of about 80% year-to-date as big-name investors endorse it and institutions from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Bank of New York Mellon advance their offerings around cryptocurrencies. JPMorgan’s John Normand reiterated in a note Friday that Bitcoin’s ascent has been steeper than any other financial innovation or bubble of the past 50 years., “Crypto bulls breathed a sigh of relief as last week’s deep rout across the space failed to extend,” Steen Jakobsen, chief investment officer at Saxo Bank, wrote in a note. However, “it has quite a wall to climb to fully neutralize the recent selloff, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Joanna Ossinger. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 6:35 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Cryptocurrency exchange RBI Glare bank [/INST] Crypto news. Title: Banks Steer Away From Cryptocurrency Exchanges Under RBI Glare. Short_description: RBI’s glare stops banks from offering services to cryptocurrency exchanges.. Description: A number of large private banks have started to pull away from cryptocurrency exchanges, with some stopping account services to these businesses, at least two people aware of the matter told BloombergQuint. The decision follows a nudge from the Reserve Bank of India asking banks to review the extent of exposure they had towards cryptocurrency-related businesses, these people said., The RBI has made informal calls to bank teams seeking information about the extent of business which they do with cryptocurrency traders and exchanges, two private-sector bankers told BloombergQuint on condition of anonymity. The regulator has, in turn, asked banks to rethink this business even though no formal circular asking banks to pull back has been issued., The RBI did not immediately respond to queries mailed on Tuesday. Medianama first reported on Tuesday that banks are pulling back from cryptocurrency exchanges following queries from the RBI., Among the large banks that have started to pull back are ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank. Emails sent to these lenders were not immediately answered., According to the bankers quoted above, the RBI’s informal directions have come as the regulator is expecting the government to proceed with a ban on cryptocurrency trading in India in the coming months. The government is expected to table the Bill in the next parliament session, the bankers said., The founder of a cryptocurrency exchange, speaking on conditions of anonymity, said that the action by leading banks has come “out of the blue” and is in violation of the Supreme Court’s order in 2020., A second founder, who also spoke on conditions of anonymity, said that the move by banks had come without proper intimation and is purely based on verbal communication., In April 2018, the RBI had barred all entities regulated by it from interacting with cryptocurrency-related businesses. This was challenged in the Supreme Court and in March 2020, the apex court, the RBI’s directive., The RBI’s circular did not meet the test of proportionality, the Supreme Court said in response to the regulator’s arguments that the business poses a threat to the financial system., Since then, the government has been working on legislation surrounding cryptocurrencies. In the budget session of parliament, it , whose nomenclature suggested that all cryptocurrencies would be banned. The Bill, however, is yet to be introduced., In the interim, the RBI maintained that it is not favour of cryptocurrencies being traded in India. In an interview with PTI in February, Das said: “We have certain major concerns about cryptocurrencies. We have communicated them to the government. It is under consideration in the government and I do expect and I think sooner or later the government will take a call and if required Parliament also will consider and decide.”. Publisher: Vishwanath Nair &. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 5:42 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Doge Frenzy Sends India Largest Crypto exchange doge’house [/INST] Crypto news. Title: WazirX: Doge Frenzy Sends India’s Largest Crypto Exchange To The ‘Doge’House. Short_description: Dogecoin has given India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange a ‘ruff’ time.. Description: A sudden surge in trading volumes in meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin has left India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange struggling, with users taking to social media to complain about transaction and payment delays., WazirX, which claims to have the largest trading volumes of any crypto exchange in India, in turn has blamed the exponential increase in interest in cryptocurrencies, most recently, in Dogecoin., has risen from $0.002 cents a year ago to a record high of $0.65 on May 5. Its market value has shot up over 270 times to $85 billion, according to data from crypto data aggregator , . The surge, some say, has come ahead of Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance. Musk has frequently tweeted about Dogecoin, sending interest in the meme crypto soaring. Between May 3 and May 5, Doge’s trading volumes have more than tripled to over $42 billion globally, the website says., This, according to WazirX Founder and Chief Executive Officer Nischal Shetty, caused its systems and mobile application to crash as the sudden surge in volumes was wrongly perceived as a threat., “We’re seeing a new all-time-high everyday in terms of trading volumes, active users, and traffic on WazirX. On May 4, one of our systems—on detecting high traffic—wrongly marked it as bad traffic and started blocking the requests,” he said. “It was good traffic, and this error caused our users to have intermittent access to the app.”, WazirX’s users, however, weren’t in a forgiving mood and took to social media to complain. With memes, of course., Doge memes apart, WazirX has found it challenging to keep up with the growing interest in crypto trading in India., New users, active traders and trading volumes on the exchange, Shetty said, have grown over 300% since January. “The Dogecoin price surge was so massive that it caused an almost decade-old company like , to go down,” he said. “WazirX is a three-year old company, and apart from us, no other crypto exchange in India has ever seen this kind of traffic.”, But this isn’t the first time the exchange has faced an issue due to volume surge., These issues are not new and have only increased since January, said a user who spoke on condition of anonymity. Crypto user chat groups on Telegram and Reddit.com, the person said, have seen constant chatter on how the WazirX website starts acting up when faced with high trading volumes, has security issues with , , and a persistent lack of customer support., On April 4, Binance-owned WazirX faced an outage when trading volumes on the exchange crossed $270 million. It took more than a day for the company to fix those issues., When another outage hit in early May and users complained about deposits getting stuck, Shetty said a scheduled downtime was to blame., “When we were under a downtime yesterday (May 4, 2021), we weren’t able to get notified about the rupee deposits from our payment partner. This caused the rupee deposit to get stuck for anyone who tried depositing it on WazirX during that period,” Shetty said. “However, we have fixed this, and all the stuck deposits have been credited to our users’ wallets.”, The problem with delays in withdrawals and deposits, according to a founder of another cryptocurrency exchange who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is also due to suspension of its current account with , , which the exchange relied on heavily., As payment processors and banks in the country , from cryptocurrency exchanges citing regulatory uncertainty, the glitches in withdrawal and deposits from crypto wallets have increased, the person said., The problem for WazirX may go beyond one-offs though., “Clearly, the recent system outages are instances of WazirX biting off more than it can chew,” said Vishal Gupta, co-founder of Bitcoin Alliance India, a non-profit organisation that educates people on cryptocurrency., “The exchange has seen a tremendous rise in its trading volumes as many new-to-crypto users have begun using the exchange after the Bitcoin rally. But their infrastructure is obviously not being able to meet this demand spike,” he said. “While this goes on to show that more crypto users are trading on the exchange, WazirX needs to expand and upgrade its systems at a much higher pace to address server failures.”, The complaints are also higher for WazirX as its crypto user base is the largest in India, said Gupta., Agreed, Gautam Chhugani, director for financials and fintech at Bernstein Research. “It’s just unprecedented demand. The exchange has been facing server capacity issues and some delays in deposits, but those could only be addressed over time as its systems upgrade.”, Shetty of WazirX accepts they have problems to solve., “We’re learning, adding checks in place, and scaling our systems to handle more traffic and be better prepared for the future,” he said., But for now, Dogecoin is giving WazirX a “ruff” time!. Publisher: Ridhima Saxena. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 11:05 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to India Crisis Rajan Foresight Complacency Lack [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: India Crisis Reveals Complacency and Lack of Foresight, Rajan Says. Short_description: Former RBI chief says central bank ‘accommodative as possible’. U.S. Fed may ‘rethink’ policies, which could surprise markets.. Description: India’s overwhelming surge of coronavirus infections has revealed complacency after last year’s first wave, as well as a “lack of foresight, a lack of leadership,” according to Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the country’s central bank., “If you were careful, if you were cautious, you had to recognize that it wasn’t done yet,” Rajan said Tuesday in a Bloomberg Television interview with Kathleen Hays. “Anybody paying attention to what was happening in the rest of the world, in Brazil for example, should have recognized the virus does come back and potentially in more virulent forms.”, India is suffering the world’s worst outbreak of Covid-19 cases, with deaths hitting a record Sunday and new cases above 350,000 daily. Pressure is building on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to impose strict lockdowns to stem its spread, a move his government has so far avoided after the economic devastation last year from a similar strategy., After a drop in cases last year, “there was a sense that we had endured the worst the virus could give us and we had come through and it was time to open up, and that complacency hurt us,” said Rajan, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist and now a professor of finance at University of Chicago., India’s relative success against the first wave of infections also likely led to it not swiftly preparing enough vaccines for its own population, he said. “Some of that may be the sense that we had time. That since we had dealt with the virus we could roll out the vaccination slowly,” he said, adding that the government is now “getting its act together” and in “emergency mode.”, Rajan, appointed by the previous government in 2013 to lead Reserve Bank of India, became an outspoken critic of Modi’s administration after it took office during his tenure, spotlighting growing intolerance within the country as well as differing on the issue of RBI dividends and interest rates. Hindu nationalists, which form a large base of Modi’s support, questioned his allegiance to India and accused him of keeping interest rates too high. , The RBI has been “as accommodative as possible” to support the economy in the face of stubborn inflationary pressures. As doubts build over the Indian economy’s performance going forward, the RBI’s “fairly large” foreign exchange reserves can offer “a measure of comfort for foreign investors.”, Meanwhile in the U.S., a massive fiscal stimulus program and economic recovery may force the Federal Reserve to “rethink” its policies of staying on hold for the foreseeable future and waiting for a sustained rise inflation above its 2% target., In that event, “a financial market which has been thinking that the Fed is not going to act in the near future is likely to be somewhat surprised at the first signs that that will happen.”, While helming the RBI, Rajan had been , programs, particularly by the Fed, and warned that a , amid possible tightening would lead to market volatility, similar to the “Taper Tantrum” in 2013., At the moment, he said Tuesday, “it seems as if the Fed has somewhat been overtaken by events.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Kathleen Hays &. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 8:24 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.K. Economic Activity surge Fastest Pace year [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: U.K. Economic Activity Surges At Fastest Pace In Seven Years. Short_description: A survey of purchasing managers rose in April to its highest level since 2013, and retail sales in March grew most in nine months.. Description: , U.K. economic activity accelerated at the fastest pace in seven years this month, providing more signs of a strong rebound as the government began allowing stores and restaurants to reopen., A survey of purchasing managers rose in April to its highest level since 2013, and retail sales in March grew the most in nine months. Both indicators beat economist’s expectations by a wide margin., The figures indicate pent-up demand from both consumers and businesses after almost a year of restrictions to control the coronavirus. The Treasury and Bank of England anticipate a sharp recovery from the worst recession in three centuries as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government makes rapid progress on immunizing the population., “In the U.K. you have record net wealth, you have strong labor markets, you have this excess savings pile,” Kallum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Friday. “Households are ready and eager to spend as soon as we ease the remaining restrictions. We’re going to go on a big spending spree in the U.K.”, Read More: , Friday’s reports cap a week of data suggesting the U.K. will recover with fewer scars than in previous recessions. Inflation remained subdued in a report released on Tuesday, and a report on the labor market showed job vacancies accelerated earlier this year., Another report Friday showed the Treasury built up the largest budget deficit in peacetime history in the fiscal year that ended in March, albeit a smaller one than had been expected. The result allowed the Debt Management Office to pare back its outlook for bond sales needed to finance spending., IHS Market’s flash Composite Purchasing Managers Index climbed to 60 in April. above the critical 50 mark that signals expansion for a second month. The U.K.’s dominant service sector, which has been hard hit by Covid-19, outperformed manufacturing for the first time since Covid-19 hit the U.K. It rose to 60.1, the highest since 2014., Businesses expectations for the next year held near their record high and jobs were created at the fastest pace since 2017. Companies mostly pointed to additional staff hiring as opposed to the impact of recalls from furlough. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has spent billions on measures to keep firms going in hopes they would not only keep on existing workers, but be able to resume operations quickly as demand picks up., “Business activity should continue to grow strongly in May and June as virus restrictions are eased further, setting the scene for a bumper second quarter for the economy,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit. “Firms have been encouraged firms to take on extra staff at a rate not seen for over three and a half years.”, The PMIs did raise red flags. Exports returned to growth after three months of decline, but the performance was muted and many firms cited post-Brexit trading conditions for the malaise. Prices charged for goods by manufacturers rising at a rate not seen for a decade, linked to higher input costs and supply shortages, making higher inflation “inevitable,” Williamson said., The PMI survey is a flash estimate based on about 85% of the usual total responses. Data was collected April 12 to April 21., “The stronger-than-expected retail sales figures in March point to a less severe contraction in GDP in the first quarter. It may also be a precursor to a rapid turnaround once the lockdown ends. Pent-up demand and higher savings are likely to unleash a consumer-led recovery in 2Q when we forecast the economy will expand by 5%.”, Niraj Shah, Bloomberg Economics. Click for the full REACT., U.K. retail sales showed surprising strength during the last full month of restrictions. The volume of goods sold in shops and online rose 5.4% in March from the month before, double the gain of the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. Economists had expected 1.5% growth., The Bank of England estimates households have accumulated 150 billion pounds ($208 billion) of savings built up when lockdowns prevented them from spending. Retailers are hoping to grab a bit of that to help make up for last year’s slump., The outlook for April retail sales is for even stronger growth. Retail footfall in the week after lockdown eased jumped to 75% of levels seen in the same period of 2019, according to Springboard data published by the ONS on Thursday. Card transaction data from the Bank of England showed purchases of delayable goods such as clothing and furnishings surged to 89% of their pre-pandemic level., Consumers remain cautious though, according to GfK’s confidence index. It rose just 1 point in April, and households indicated that they were slightly less willing to make major purchases., “The improvement in the consumer mood since January is welcome, but the pandemic has hit household finances hard,” said Joe Staton, GfK’s client strategy director. “There’s every chance that as the recovery gains momentum and the numbers get stronger, confident consumers will continue to spend.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Lucy Meakin &. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 2:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Lockdowns Worsen India Fiscal Woes Weak auction [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: Lockdowns Worsen India’s Fiscal Woes Fueled by Weak Auctions. Short_description: India may have to raise more funds to fight the Covid crisis. But, it’s already lagging the existing borrowing target.. Description: The unfolding , in India is raising expectations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will need to raise more funds for stimulus even as the outbreak worsens its finances., States and cities through the country, including the New Delhi capital and its financial hub Mumbai, have implemented lockdowns or curfews, which are seen , revenue. That comes as the authorities are lagging their existing financing target by 188 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) just one month into the new fiscal year, according to Bloomberg’s calculations based on official data., Modi’s administration has fallen behind on its financing plans after auctions in April failed to raise as much as it targeted. Sensing the government’s growing need for funds, traders are holding out for higher yields, with the central bank forced to cancel sales or boost purchases if it refuses to accede., “The fear is that localized lockdowns may result in a slowdown which may be met by fiscal expansion, and more borrowing pushing longer yields higher,” said Vikas Goel, chief executive and managing director at PNB Gilts Ltd. India’s curve is likely to steepen with the 10-year yield climbing to 6.35% in the next two to three months, he said., The face-off marks the latest battle for control of India’s bond market, after the central bank earlier rejected traders’ demands for higher yields at a sale of benchmark debt. Underwriters were forced to , a five-year bond sale on April 9 and the central bank missed its target for an offering last week., A debt auction on Friday may provide a clue as to how the tussle will play out. The RBI is scheduled to offer 260 billion rupees of bonds, including 140 billion rupees of benchmark 10-year notes. Post trading Thursday, the RBI said it will buy 100 billion rupees of bonds as part of its Operation Twist on May 6., The yield on benchmark 10-year bond fell two basis points to 6.04% on Friday, and is down 13 basis points this month, the most since October., Much of the market’s worries center around the government’s plan to borrow a near-record 12.1 trillion rupees this year. For now, there are no signs the government intends to increase that amount although Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said last week she won’t hesitate to , if the need arises., India is now the global hotspot for the pandemic, with infections climbing above 18 million cases, while deaths have exceeded 200,000. The government has come under increasing pressure as hospitals run out of beds, oxygen and medical supplies in many parts of the country., Traders are also trying to , whether the new lockdowns and curbs will disrupt the flow of goods and drive up prices. While the central bank has pledged to keep policy accommodative, it has , that a failure to contain the second wave may disrupt domestic supply chains and fuel inflationary pressures., “The issue is how does the huge borrowing program go through,” said V. Lakshmanan, treasurer at Federal Bank Ltd. “Investor interest has added up significantly in the short term, while the stated intent on new issuances is to go longer term from the government perspective. Further, there is too much focus on the benchmark paper.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Subhadip Sircar. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 7:23 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to India Eases rule Ministries economy [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: India Eases Rules to Encourage Ministries to Spend to Aid Economy. Short_description: India has eased rules for capital expenditure by government departments to kick-start economy reeling from the pandemic.. Description: , India eased rules for capital expenditure by government departments, as it seeks to spur spending in an economy that is trying to shake-off the impact of a new wave of coronavirus infections., Curbs put in place in 2017 on monthly and quarterly spending by ministries won’t apply for capital expenditure, the Finance Ministry said in a , Thursday. The relaxations are effective immediately and will be in force until further orders, it said. , The easy rules are aimed at nudging various government departments to boost investments in creating assets, which will in turn make the best-spenders eligible to access a 440 billion-rupee ($5.9 billion) fund set aside by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She had proposed boosting capital expenditure by , in the fiscal year that began April 1, hoping that spending by the state will crowd in private investments., The Reserve Bank of India estimates that every one rupee spent by the federal government will lead to an increase in gross domestic product by 3.14 rupees. That is key for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to support a nascent economic revival in Asia’s third-largest economy, which this week recorded the , in Covid-19 cases at more than 300,000., India had , back expenditure for most of last year, including on productive assets that aid economic growth, before freeing spending toward the end of the fiscal period ended March. As of February, capital spending was 92.4% of the targeted 4.39 trillion rupee spending, according to data from the Controller General of Accounts., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anirban Nag. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 2:34 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Key Auction Looms India yield Traders RBI [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: Key Auction Looms for RBI as Traders Balk at India Yields. Short_description: An auction of Rs 32,000 crore of bonds on Friday will show if the RBI can begin bending traders to its will.. Description: Barely weeks into India’s new borrowing program, the nation’s sovereign bond traders and the central bank are shaping up for a third bruising battle., The Reserve Bank of India’s explicit assurance to buy 1 trillion rupees ($13 billion) of bonds this quarter has failed to encourage more purchases by traders. Underwriters were forced to rescue a five-year , sale on April 9 and the RBI canceled an offering altogether on April 16 when traders demanded higher yields for benchmark 10-year debt., An auction of 320 billion rupees of bonds Friday will show if the central bank can begin bending traders to its will, or whether the market could lose confidence entirely in its recent move toward , . At stake is a near-record 12.1 trillion rupee government borrowing plan for this fiscal year that is key to helping the country combat a , of Covid-19 infections., The South Asian nation is now the world’s second-worst hit country after the U.S., adding more than 200,000 cases daily for the last week. Soaring infections have compelled India’s financial and political capitals to impose movement curbs that can , . That has added to concerns about the need for greater fiscal stimulus, which in turn could push borrowing even higher., The market will be watching to see if underwriters are leaned on again and the RBI accepts more than the scheduled amount, according to B. Prasanna, head of global markets, sales, trading and research at ICICI Bank Ltd. “This could be quite bad for risk appetite going forward and lead to investors keeping away from bond auctions, fearing secondary market selling from primary dealers at distress levels,” he said., While the RBI isn’t alone in its tussle with bond traders, it is trying to contain inflation while many of its peers are striving to spur prices higher. Governor Shaktikanta Das has also added moral suasion to his policy tool kit, repeatedly urging traders to treat the bond yield curve as a “public good” because of its impact on borrowing costs in the broader economy., Das has provided the market with a clearer , for the next few months but traders want more clarity on how purchases of at least 3 trillion rupees will play out over the full fiscal year., The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond fell two basis points to 6.05% on Thursday. , Traders continue to demand higher yields, citing domestic inflation pressures and the global reflation trade, and some have adopted strategies that present new challenges for policy makers., One such approach to optimizing gains is by selling bonds first to the RBI under the new Government Securities Acquisition Programme, and then buying the same bonds later at auctions for a lower price, according to Dhawal Dalal, co-chief investment officer for debt at Edelweiss Asset Management Ltd., In order to avoid this situation, the RBI should keep a sufficient gap between G-SAP purchases and scheduled auctions, he said., ICICI’s Prasanna suggested policy makers adjust how they make bond purchases under the new regime., “RBI should definitely look at tweaking the tenors of the bonds it buys under G-SAP and buy more of the 5-, 10- and 14-year bonds, rather than buying the shorter end,” he said. “The biggest concern for the market is supply of duration due to the heavy borrowing program schedule.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Subhadip Sircar. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 6:32 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.S. Personal Incomes Soar fiscal Stimulus Record [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: U.S. Personal Incomes Soar By Most On Record On Fiscal Stimulus. Short_description: U.S. personal incomes soared in March by the most in monthly records back to 1946.. Description: U.S. personal incomes soared in March by the most in monthly records back to 1946, powered by a third round of pandemic-relief checks that also sparked a sharp gain in spending., The 21.1% surge in incomes followed a 7% decline in February, Commerce Department figures showed Friday. Purchases of goods and services, meanwhile, increased 4.2% last month, the most since June., The increase in personal spending and incomes provides the economy a solid hand off heading into the second quarter after a robust pace of growth at the start of the year., Economists projected a 20.3% jump in incomes and a 4.1% gain in personal outlays, according the Bloomberg survey medians., The March data showed transfer receipts that include stimulus checks and unemployment aid nearly doubled from a month earlier to nearly $8.2 trillion. Wages, meanwhile, rose modestly in March., Inflation-adjusted personal spending increased 3.6% in March after a 1.2% drop a month earlier. Goods outlays climbed 7.3%, while spending on services rose 1.7%., The personal savings rate jumped to 27.6% from 13.9% in February. Disposable income, which exclude taxes and are adjusted for inflation surged 23% in March., A separate report on Thursday , that gross domestic product expanded at a 6.4% annualized rate in the first quarter, driven by the second-fastest pace of personal consumption since the 1960s., With spending on the rise, more cash in people’s bank accounts and vaccinations driving reopenings, economic growth is poised to further accelerate in the coming months., The agency’s key measure of consumer prices, known as the personal consumption expenditure price index, that the Federal Reserve officially uses for its target rose 2.3% in March from a year earlier, the biggest gain since 2018. The so-called core PCE price index, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed 1.8% after a 1.4% gain in February., Inflation metrics are being temporarily impacted by so-called “base effects.” Year-over-year increases in the price metrics appear large because they are being compared to the very weak inflation prints seen at the start of the pandemic., Inflation has been a contentious topic among economists, lawmakers and Wall Street, especially in the wake of the latest stimulus package as well as Biden’s two infrastructure proposals that would total about $4 trillion., Fed officials anticipate that any surge in prices will prove temporary, but others point out that pent-up demand, rising materials costs and more federal spending could lead to sustained price pressures., Speaking after the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell , that 12-month measures of inflation are likely to move “well above” 2% over the next few months, but the effects will “disappear” in the months after April and May., “During this time of reopening, we are likely to see some upward pressure on prices,” Powell said. “An episode of one-time price increases, as the economy reopens, is not the same thing as -- and is not likely to lead to persistently higher year-over-year inflation into the future -- inflation at levels that are not consistent with our goal of 2% inflation over time.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Olivia Rockeman. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 6:11 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Second Covid-19 Wave PMI Steady April [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: Manufacturing PMI Remains Steady In April Amid Second Covid-19 Wave. Short_description: The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index stood at 55.5 in April compared with 55.4 in March 2021.. Description: A gauge of activity across India’s manufacturing sector remained steady despite mounting cases of Covid-19 amid the second wave., The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index stood at 55.5 in April compared with 55.4 in March 2021, according to a media statement. That’s the eighth straight month of the index remaining in the expansion zone., A reading above 50 indicates economic expansion., Consumer goods was the strongest-performing category, followed by capital goods and intermediate goods, the statement said., Growth was attributed to a pick-up in demand and marketing efforts, though hampered by the pandemic., New export orders increased for the eighth consecutive month in April and at the fastest rate since October 2020, led by a rise in international demand., Sustained growth of new work and greater output requirements boosted input buying during April. Purchasing activity expanded at one of the strongest rates recorded over the past nine years., Goods producers noted the steepest rise in input prices since mid-2014. Anecdotal evidence highlighted higher chemical, energy, metal, plastic and transportation costs. As a result, factory-gate charges increased further. The rate of inflation was sharp and the fastest seen for seven-and-a-half years., Employment continued to fall but the rate of contraction recorded in April was the weakest in the current 13-month sequence of job shedding, the statement said., Outstanding business rose in April along with another decline in stocks of finished goods., The headwinds facing manufacturers, however, cannot be ignored, cautioned Lima. “The surge in Covid-19 cases could dampen demand further when firms’ financials are already susceptible to the hurdle of rising global prices.”. Publisher: Pallavi Nahata. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 11:12 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Virus Surge People Jobless India [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: India’s Virus Surge Leaves Another 7 Million People Jobless. Short_description: Unemployment increased to 7.97% from 6.5% in March, with more than seven million jobs lost last month, CMIE data shows. . Description: , India’s unemployment rate rose to a four-month high of nearly 8% in April, and the outlook remains weak with state administrations extending lockdowns to curb a record surge in virus cases., Unemployment increased to 7.97% from 6.5% in March, with more than seven million jobs lost last month, according to data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt., a private research firm., “There is a fall in the jobs available. This could be due to the lockdowns,” CMIE Managing Director Mahesh Vyas said by telephone. “Since the virus is still quite intense and we are stressed on the medical health-services front, it’s likely that the situation will remain tense in May as well.”, Daily Covid-19 deaths in India hit a record 3,689 Sunday. The number of new cases slowed slightly Monday after India on Saturday became the first country to register more than 400,000 daily cases., Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who announced a strict lockdown in March 2020 that resulted in millions of lost jobs and a record contraction in economic output, now is urging states to use such measures only as a last resort. Local administrations have been forced to extend curbs as the nation’s creaky health infrastructure can’t cope with the flood of virus cases, jeopardizing a nascent , ., The weak employment outlook is a risk for India’s chances of reaching , economic growth this year. Many economists already have lowered their projections, while several are warning of possible reductions if provincial curbs are extended further., Barclays Bank Plc on Monday lowered its forecast by one percentage point to 10%, as “there is growing uncertainty around the number of cases and fatalities,” economist Rahul Bajoria wrote in a research note. “Slowing vaccinations are also hurting India’s recovery prospects.”, The rise in unemployment comes amid a backlash against government handling of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak. Modi’s party lost an , in a key state, while , are joining Indians on , clamoring for , with few medical supplies available., A separate survey Monday by IHS Markit showed the manufacturing sector was still losing jobs in April, though the rate of contraction was the weakest in the current 13-month sequence of job shedding. The CMIE data -- which economists track closely in the absence of real-time employment data from the government -- show joblessness is more acute in urban areas as laborers return to their villages., The labor-force participation rate, which includes the number of people with jobs and those seeking work, declined to just below 40% in April., “It’s a double whammy for the economy,” Vyas said. “Some people get disappointed and leave the labor market. The problem is the inability of the Indian economy to generate sufficient jobs for people who want them, so incomes are falling.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Vrishti Beniwal. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 1:15 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Inflation Limits Options Indian Central Bank Virus Threat [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: Virus Threat to Inflation Limits Options for Indian Central Bank. Short_description: The world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak risks fanning price pressures in India, threatening to limit RBI’s options.. Description: , The world’s worst Covid-19 , in India risks fanning price pressures, threatening to limit options for the inflation-focused central bank to support the economy., Provincial curbs to stem the virus are , domestic supply chains, risking higher prices for everything from essential drugs to cars. A recent weakening in the rupee is worsening the situation, boosting the local cost of imported oil and other raw materials for manufacturing., While the Reserve Bank of India’s looser monetary policies last year overlooked above-target inflation, further price pressure amid an expected economic recovery later this year may limit its options. Consumer price inflation is on course to test the upper limit of the its 2%-6% target, while recent gains in wholesale prices signal more pressure to come., For now, the central bank’s six-member interest rate panel has vowed to keep rates low for as long as needed to support the recovery. Meanwhile, as the RBI manages government borrowing, it has tried to keep a lid on yields as the pandemic fight stretches New Delhi’s finances and bond markets demand higher premiums to hold the sovereign’s debt., “Given the RBI has a formal inflation target, the answer is straight forward: between yield management and inflation, keeping a lid over inflation is first and foremost,” said Amol Agrawal, assistant professor of economics and public policy in Ahmedabad University. “The second wave could lead to rise in supply side inflation with the outlook rather uncertain.”, Accelerating inflation is not good news for the bond market, where investors have been clamoring for a premium, forcing the central bank to cancel a few debt auctions. Given the uptick in inflation, a wide fiscal deficit and the cloud over the government’s debt consolidation plan, investors argue it’s only fair they get compensated with higher yields., The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond in March surged to the most in almost a year, well above the monetary authority’s preferred 6% yield level. It’s up 18 basis points so far this year, even as the central bank has continued to buy government bonds through its open-market operations., The RBI this month announced a 1 trillion rupee ($13 billion) bond-buying plan for the April-June quarter, formalizing a quantitative easing program in an effort to assuage investors., “One of the key benefits of a bond market is to impose fiscal discipline on governments, by forcing them to pay higher interest rates when government borrowing increases,” , , assistant professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai, wrote in a recent , . “Persistent intervention by the RBI would disrupt this process, increasing the risk that large fiscal deficits will persist.”, Meanwhile, economists , and , at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in New Delhi argue that even though the government and businesses are better prepared than last year to handle lockdowns, the preparations are likely insufficient for the current surge in cases., S&P Global Ratings said Wednesday that the outbreak poses downside risks to the economy and heightens the possibility of business disruptions, and added that the agency may lower its growth forecast from the current 11% for the fiscal year ending March 2022., India is now the global coronavirus hotspot, with total cases nearing 18 million and rising at more than 300,000 daily. The nation is also running out of vaccines due to a shortage of imported ingredients., “It appears that no one expected a second wave of this magnitude,” Patnaik and Pandey , “These supply disruptions could in themselves cause higher prices.”, Sengupta at IGIDR said that if inflationary pressures persist, then the RBI’s problems could get tougher., “If it fails to fulfill its commitment and prematurely ends the liquidity injection, it could lose the confidence of the bond market for a long period of time,” she said. “If, on the other hand, it goes ahead with its secondary bond buying plan despite rising inflation, its credibility as an inflation-targeting central bank will be called into question.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anirban Nag. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 2:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Services PMI Dips Month Low expansion zone April India [/INST] Economy & Finance news. Title: India’s Services PMI Dips To Three-Month Low In April But Remains In Expansion Zone. Short_description: The India Services Business Activity Index, compiled by IHS Markit, stood at 54 in April compared with 54.6 in March 2021.. Description: A gauge of India’s services sector fell to the lowest in three months, but remained in the expansion zone and above the long-run average., The India Services Business Activity Index, compiled by IHS Markit, stood at 54 in April compared with , , according to a media statement. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in business activity. , The Composite PMI Output Index, too, dropped to 55.4 from 56 in March., Anecdotal evidence indicated that ongoing growth of new work underpinned the rise in output, which was nevertheless stymied by the intensification of the Covid-19 crisis, the release said. Business activity and sales expanded in three of the five broad areas of the services economy, the exceptions being information and communication, and real estate and business services. Transport and storage was the brightest spot in April., Companies reported a sharp rise in expenses in April, linked to higher prices for food, freight, fuel and a wide range of other items. The overall rate of input cost inflation was the strongest seen in close to nine-and-a-half years. But while some firms lifted their selling prices, most companies left fees unchanged due to efforts to secure new work and remain competitive., On the jobs front, there was a further decline in overall services sector employment. Payroll numbers fell for the fifth month in a row in April, albeit at the weakest pace since January., Travel restrictions and the Covid-19 crisis continued to curb international demand for Indian services. New export orders declined for the fourteenth month running and at a quicker pace than in March., Indian services firms were optimistic regarding the 12-month outlook for business activity, but the overall level of positive sentiment fell to the lowest since last October. The escalation of the pandemic was the main drag on confidence.. Publisher: Pallavi Nahata. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 12:53 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Methodology Conundrum GST Anti profiteering [/INST] GST news. Title: GST Anti-Profiteering: The Methodology Conundrum. Short_description: At the center of all controversy surrounding the NAA’s actions is the inconsistent methodology adopted for computing benefits.. Description: In the Goods and Services Tax regime, National Anti-profiteering Authority has an innocuous mandate – to ensure that businesses pass on the benefit of reduction in the rate of tax or input tax credit to consumers. Over three years down the GST lane, NAA, however, perhaps has single-handedly managed to contribute to a high number of litigations. Huge demands have been raised against business in almost every sector be it consumer goods, pharma, real estate, restaurants, or media and entertainment., At the center of all controversy surrounding the NAA’s actions, is its inconsistency in the methodology adopted for computation of benefits. The key terms “rate of tax”, “benefit” and “commensurate reduction in prices”, which are the soul of the anti-profiteering mandate, are regrettably not defined in GST. Neither are there any prescribed methodology or guidelines to decide the quantum of benefits, which should be followed by NAA. In fact, the NAA has been given wide powers to determine the methodology and procedure. In the guise of such powers, NAA, instead of notifying a standard computational methodology, has been arbitrarily deciding the computational methodology on a case-to-case basis., In relation to the FMCG sector, cases investigated by NAA such as Reckitt Benckiser, Johnson & Johnson, Hindustan Unilever, Mcnroe Consumer Products, Jubilant FoodWorks, Procter & Gamble, etc., the NAA seems to have adopted a unique parameter of “base price comparison” before reduction of tax rate , post-reduction, to determine profiteering. If the base price has increased while the GST rate has been reduced, the supplier is held liable for profiteering. In the case of multiple stores/depots, through which products are sold and sometimes at different prices, NAA in many instances has considered an average price as the base price for the entire business. It then computes profiteering by comparing this average price with the actual price charged., While adopting such methodology, NAA seems to have conveniently ignored sales below the average price. In effect, transactions where the difference is in negative (i.e. where the supplier has passed on the benefit to customers in excess of the required amount) are not considered. This means that NAA has not given the benefit of ‘netting off’ , pricing below the determined median of profiteering. This ultimately leads to an inflated and arbitrary figure of overall profiteering., The methodology also fails to consider the impact of discount or promotional schemes offered by the business or the increased quantity or grammage offered at the same price., In contrast, it is seen that the methodology adopted by NAA for real estate players such as Pyramid Infratech, Emaar MGF, Suncity Projects, Aster Infrahome, Fusion Buildtech, etc., hinges on the ratio of creditable taxes to turnover in the pre-GST regime , post-GST regime. Hence, for the real estate sector, NAA has been computing the benefit by applying the incremental ratio of ‘creditable taxes’ to turnover. The approach is entirely in conflict with the intention of law, which requires the business to pass on the benefit of ‘non-creditable taxes’ which were a cost before GST and became creditable post implementation of GST. In real estate, unlike any manufacturing business or typically one-time service contract, the life ­ cycle of a project generally spreads over a period of 3-4 years during which the developer continues to incur construction cost and avail corresponding credit. The turnover on the other hand, is recorded on the basis of invoices raised, which are time-bound contractually and are not construction linked. Thus, the ratio of credit to sales for any period will invariably differ from period to period, unless considered for the complete project lifecycle of approximately 3-4 years., In addition to the above sector-specific fallacies, a fundamental aspect of an increase in prices on account of an increase in the cost of raw materials or change in pricing strategy industry-wide, has been completely discarded by NAA. This is problematic as the anti-profiteering provisions fail to define the period for which profiteering should be calculated. It cannot be anybody’s case that the business ought not to consider the rising cost of materials, pricing strategy, etc., in the fear of facing the wrath of NAA., The lacunae in the methodology adopted by NAA has been raised by almost every company while challenging the NAA orders before the High Courts. For instance, Reckitt Benckiser (2019) has argued that NAA has not considered the benefit passed to consumers through discount and cashback schemes or the increased grammage keeping the price the same for ‘Dettol liquid soap’. Similarly, in Hindustan Unilever (2019), NAA denied giving the benefit of ‘netting off’ while computing profiteering, which is now being challenged by HUL before the High Court. Jubilant FoodWorks (2019), which owns the Dominos franchise in India, has challenged that NAA methodology , on grounds of failure to consider the impact of increasing costs, coupled with non-availability of input tax credit to their sector. Similar contentions on NAA methodology have been raised by real estate players such as Pyramid Infratech (2018)., Interestingly, India is not the first country to witness an anti-profiteering mandate. A similar provision was prevalent in GST of countries like Australia and Malaysia, where it was implemented in a more structured manner with the prescription of a definite formula-based methodology for computing profiteering. In fact, most of the Indian tax legislations, such as erstwhile excise and service tax, including GST, describes mechanisms to arrive at valuation or cost. The anti-profiteering provisions should be no exception., While the extended mandate of the NAA ended in March 2021, undeniably, the inconsistencies in computation adopted by it have led to confusion and litigation. Currently, the Delhi High Court is seized of the constitutionality challenge to NAA, on writ petitions by various aggrieved parties wherein one of the key grounds of the challenge remains the absence or inconsistency of methodology. We await the final outcome.. Publisher: Kumar Visalaksh &. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 11:24 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to 33rd GST Council Meeting Live Arun Jaitley Adjourns Meeting Feb. [/INST] GST news. Title: 33rd GST Council Meeting Live: Arun Jaitley Adjourns Meeting To Feb. 24. Short_description: Catch all the live updates on the 33rd GST Council meeting here.. Description: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley adjourned the 33rd GST Council meeting to Feb. 24, 2019 without taking a decision on any relief measures for the real estate sector., The meeting which was held through video conference, was cut short “so that the meeting can be held in person” in Delhi on Sunday, Jaitley said. Members of the GST Council wanted more discussion on proposals for the real sector sector, he added., Today, the council decided to extend the deadline for filing GSTR-3B by two days., Jaitley also said that the proposal on lotteries was not discussed today., The GST Council, in its last meeting, gave relief to small businesses by increasing the Goods and Services Tax exemption limit from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh and extending the composition scheme to service providers., The new exemption threshold—the minimum annual turnover for businesses supplying goods to register under the GST— will take effect from April 1, 2019., The state governments of Kerala and Delhi on Tuesday demanded deferment of the GST Council meeting scheduled for Feb. 20, saying a decision on rates for real estate sector and lottery should not be taken through a video conference., In a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that such “crucial issues” cannot be discussed through a video conference and convening a physical meeting is important to take a consolidated decision., Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, too, said that decision on the important issue of GST on lottery cannot taken without a fair discussion. He said inclusion of lottery in the council’s agenda only a day before the meeting is unfair.. Publisher: Mahima Kapoor. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 12:37 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Lakh Crore March Hits Time High GST Collection [/INST] GST news. Title: GST Collection For March Hits An All-Time High Of Rs 1.41 Lakh Crore . Short_description: GST revenues in April see a 14% increase compared to March collections. . Description: India's goods and services tax collection touched an all-time high as the economy continues to rebound after the disruption caused by the pandemic., GST revenue for March, collected in April, was around Rs 1,41,384 crore, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance on Saturday. That was 14% higher than the previous month. This was the seventh consecutive month that the GST revenue has stayed above Rs 1 lakh crore., Since it's the year-end, most companies close their books and raise invoices during the financial close, Rajat Bose, partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. said. That is perhaps one of the reasons for the spurt in GST collections in April. "The real challenge lies ahead as most parts of the country are again in a lockdown and most industries are temporarily shut," Bose said in an emailed comment to the media., Despite the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic affecting several parts of the country, Indian businesses have once again shown remarkable resilience by not only complying with the return filing requirements but also paying their GST dues in a timely manner during the month, the Ministry of Finance said in the official statement., Providing IT support to taxpayers in the form of pre-filled GSTR 2A and 3B returns and ramped up system capacity has also eased the return filing process., During April, the government has settled Rs 29,185 crore to CGST and Rs 22,756 crore to SGST from IGST as a regular settlement. The total revenue of Centre and states after regular and ad-hoc settlements in April is Rs 57,022 crore for CGST and Rs 58,377 crore for the SGST, the official statement said.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 01 May 2021, 3:53 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to GST Council Defers Decision Tax Cut Proposal Real Estate Sector [/INST] GST news. Title: GST Council Defers Decision On Tax Cut Proposal For Real Estate Sector. Short_description: The GST Council extends the deadline for businesses to file sales returns for January till Friday.. Description: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley adjourned the Goods and Services Tax Council meeting to Sunday in Delhi after some states , a decision on rates for the real estate sector should not be taken through video conferencing., “I have always had an approach of moving as per consensus and since some of the states wanted a meeting where members are physically present, keeping the idea of consensus in mind, I adjourned the meeting to Sunday so that a physical meeting can be held,” Jaitley told reporters., The council had to discuss a proposal , by a ministerial panel to bring down GST on under-construction properties to 5 percent from 12 percent. The group of ministers, headed by Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister, had also suggested lowering the tax rates on affordable homes to 3 percent or lower from 8 percent. But developers won’t be allowed to claim input tax credit., The council on Sunday may even consider lowering GST for affordable housing projects to nil to 2 percent as the effective tax rate currently is about 1.5 percent, according to an official present at the meeting., It was a wise decision to defer the meeting, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said. “There are a few technical problems that need to be sorted such as valuation of land, the 80 percent sourcing norm for builders from registered dealers, and concerns regarding revenue loss for the government,” Isaac told BloombergQuint., Builders will have to source 80 percent of their raw materials from registered dealers so that they don’t evade taxes as they won’t be allowed to claim credit for their inputs, the official quoted above said requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media., The real estate sector is critical for all states, hence unanimity in decision-making will assist in uniform implementation of the decisions of the GST Council, said MS Mani, senior director at Deloitte India., The council also didn’t take any decision on having a unified tax rate for lotteries. Another group of ministers suggested having a uniform rate of 18 percent or 28 percent for both state-run and state-authorised lotteries. Currently, the state-organised lottery attracts 12 percent GST, while a tax rate of 28 percent is levied on state-authorised lotteries., Isaac, however, said having a unified rate will benefit private lottery mafia. “States will also lose tax revenue by lowering GST for state-authorised lotteries,” he told BloombergQuint., The GST Council extended the deadline for businesses to file sales returns for January till Friday due to high volumes of returns being filed on the last day. The last day for filing GSTR-3B returns was Feb 20., Due to disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir, Jaitley said the council decided to extend the last date for filing GSTR-3B returns in the state to Feb. 28.. Publisher: Nikunj Ohri . Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 4:23 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to oil Rally Pauses Gasoline Supplies Investors [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Oil Rally Pauses as Investors Weigh Rising Gasoline Supplies. Short_description: Oil extended a rally after U.S. stockpiles fell and investors applauded reopening drives in the U.S. and Europe.. Description: Oil was little changed, giving up earlier gains as traders assessed an increase in gasoline stockpiles and technical signals suggesting the commodity’s rally was due for a pullback., Futures in London pared a gain of as much as 1.6% after testing a run to the key psychological $70-a-barrel mark. While an Energy Information Administration report on Wednesday showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell by nearly 8 million barrels last week and exports surged by the most on record, gasoline inventories rose for a fifth straight week., Crude has advanced alongside a broader rally across raw materials that’s driven the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index to the highest in almost a decade. The earlier oil rally failed to break through key , levels, and prices flirting with the upper Bollinger band in recent sessions added to bearish pressures. The longer-term demand recovery continues to be underpinned in the U.S. by the rollout of Covid vaccines as the country reopens., Oil “had a great run, but it got a little bit ahead of itself,” said Phil Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures LLC in Chicago. “We’ve hit , and prices pulled back,” but it’s hard to see a summer demand boost “being derailed,” he said., Beyond headline prices, the closely watched spread between U.S. benchmark crude’s two nearest December contracts has widened its bullish backwardation structure this week, reflecting expectations for an improving supply and demand dynamic., The crude draw “is indicating that not only is the U.S. economy reopening, but given the export number, international markets are opening back up as well,” said Brian Kessens, a portfolio manager at Tortoise, a firm that manages roughly $8 billion in energy-related assets. “It seems like, at least in the developed world, we’re seeing pretty constructive reopening” progress., While the U.S. and Europe are charting a course for reopening, the Covid-19 crisis in India , . Saudi Arabia has , for Asian customers as case numbers in the key crude importer crimp energy demand. Consultant Facts Global Energy now expects India’s oil-product demand to drop 670,000 barrels a day in May from March levels, larger than previously forecast., Refinery utilization in the U.S. climbed back above its 5-year average more than a year after the pandemic devastated oil consumption, though that includes year-ago levels that factor in the more immediate aftermath of the coronavirus fallout. , in the country is seen spurring a 30% jump in jet fuel use this summer -- one of the worst-hit parts of the barrel as international travel remains anemic., Investors are betting that rising vaccine-aided demand and greater mobility in key economies will drain crude stockpiles and support higher prices., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Andres Guerra Luz. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 5:58 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to pandemic Cost woman Lost Income year Oxfam [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Pandemic Cost Women $800 Billion in Lost Income Last Year: Oxfam. Short_description: Pandemic Cost Women $800 Billion in Lost Income Last Year: Oxfam. Description: , The Covid-19 pandemic had a greater economic impact for women due to over-representation in industries hardest hit by the crisis, according to a report by an international non-profit organization., Women around the world lost at least $800 billion in income in 2020, according to estimates by Oxfam International. That’s more than the combined gross domestic product of 98 countries, the $700 billion in market capitalization that Amazon.com Inc. gained in 2020, and the $721.5 billion the U.S. government spent in 2020 on defense budget, according to the report., “This conservative estimate doesn’t even include wages lost by the millions of women working in the informal economy — domestic workers, market vendors and garment workers — who have been sent home or whose hours and wages have been drastically cut,” said Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International. “COVID-19 has dealt a striking blow to recent gains for women in the workforce.”, Globally, women lost more than 64 million jobs last year, representing a 5% loss and exceeding 3.9% loss for men, the report said., They found women more likely than men to drop out of the workforce or reduce hours during the pandemic, largely due to care responsibilities. Even before the crisis, women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work each day, a contribution to the global economy of at least $10.8 trillion a year, more than three times the size of the global tech industry, it said., As the global economy recovers from the pandemic, governments around the world should work to build a more equal and inclusive economies, with increased investment in a gender, racial and climate-led recovery, Bucher said., “A fair and sustainable economic recovery is one that supports women’s employment and unpaid care work through strong social safety nets and vibrant care infrastructures. Recovery from COVID-19 is impossible without women recovering,” she said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 7:36 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Repatriation Flights India Australia [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Australia to Resume Repatriation Flights From India on May 15. Short_description: There’s been no decision on the resumption of normal commercial flights from the country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.. Description: Australia will resume repatriation flights for citizens stranded in pandemic-hit India from May 15, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said., Three flights are planned for May, , evacuate some of the 900 Australians in India considered to be vulnerable to the pandemic to a facility in the Northern Territory, Morrison told reporters in Newcastle on Friday. There’s been no decision on the resumption of normal commercial flights from the country, he said., While Morrison’s government has said the ban on allowing citizens in India from returning home, implemented on April 27, was necessary to relieve stresses and backlogs on Australia’s hotel-quarantine system, it’s been criticized for threatening to implement punishments on people defying the ban that include five years in jail and around $50,000 in fines. About 9,000 citizens are in India., Australia Defends Ban on Citizens Returning From Virus-Hit India, Morrison said on Friday the ban has been necessary “to prevent a third wave of Covid-19 here in Australia, but also to ensure that we can put ourselves in a stronger position to bring Australian citizens, Australian residents and their direct families home safely to Australia.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jason Scott. Date Created: 07 May 2021, 5:13 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Lane Rebuffs Prospect Lasting Surge inflation ECB [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: ECB’s Lane Rebuffs Prospect of Lasting Surge in Inflation. Short_description: ECB’s Lane Rebuffs Prospect of Lasting Surge in Inflation. Description: , European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane played down mounting global inflation pressures, saying price gains won’t stage a lasting comeback in the , ., Speaking at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, Lane said the inflation resurgence seen this year is largely a reaction to last year’s negative shock. A strong labor market is also key for a sustained rise in prices, and on the jobs front there is still considerable slack, he said., “I really don’t see it. I just don’t see it,” he said in response to a question about the likelihood of inflation that is durably too high over the next 18 months to 2 years., Prices of commodities such as copper and lumber have surged, and businesses are reporting transport logjams and order backlogs that are pushing up their costs., That could be the beginning of an end to the more than a decade of anemic price pressures that the ECB and its global peers have been battling. But Lane disagreed., “The pricing power being rediscovered by some global firms is not on its own enough to generate persistent inflation,” he said. “You need a strong labor market. We do think the labor market is going to lag behind the overall recovery.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Catherine Bosley. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 8:02 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to China Tensions Heat Twitter Swipe Report Japan [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Japan, China Tensions Heat Up Over Report and Twitter Swipe. Short_description: Japan and China are at loggerheads after a diplomatic report from the former criticized the latter in never-used-before words.. Description: Tensions between Asia’s biggest economies worsened this week as Japan intensified criticism of China in a government report as an international security threat and a Chinese Foreign Ministry official taunted Japan over its handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster., The Japanese government for the first time described China as a source of “strong” concern in terms of security for the global community in its so-called diplomatic Blue Book, the Nikkei newspaper said on Tuesday. Japan’s Foreign Ministry in the annual report also for the first time referred to activities by Chinese government vessels around disputed East China Sea islands as a breach of international law, the paper said., The Blue Book added to friction between the neighbors, which has worsened in recent months as Tokyo has joined the U.S. and Europe in criticizing China over human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, as well as over security issues. It also led to a rebuke from Beijing., “The Blue Book hypes up the China threat, smears China and interferes in China’s domestic affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. He added that “we firmly oppose that and have lodged solemn representation with the Japanese side.”, Japan’s Defense Ministry used its annual security white paper released in July to condemn Chinese actions in the region, accusing Beijing of “relentlessly” pushing its way toward uninhabited East China Sea islands claimed by the two countries and saying it was becoming a “matter of grave concern.”, In his briefing, Wang described the islands -- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China -- as China’s inherent territory. “We urge Japan to redress these mistakes and build a stable China-Japan relations with concrete actions,” Wang said., Japan also protested to the Chinese government over a tweet from one of its Foreign Ministry officials this week. The social media post adapted one of Japan’s most iconic works of art -- Hokusai’s “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” -- to show people in protective gear disposing of radioactive water in the sea., If the artist were still alive, he would be concerned about Japan’s plan to dispose of water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant at sea, Zhao Lijian said in the tweet. China is among the countries that have criticized the move, which the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency have backed., At a Wednesday briefing in Beijing, Zhao defended the tweet, saying “the picture reflects the righteous call of the people. It is the Japanese government that needs to revoke the wrong decision and apologize.”, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters Tuesday that Japan had made a stern protest over the tweet and asked for it to be taken down. Administrative Reform Minister Taro Kono, who has previously used face coverings to send a diplomatic message, on Wednesday sported a Hokusai-print mask., China has repeatedly pressed Tokyo not to align itself too closely with the U.S., Japan’s only formal military ally. China was high on the agenda when U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House earlier this month, Biden’s first in-person meeting with a foreign leader since taking office in January., Japan’s Motegi is also set to attend the , of Group of Seven Foreign Ministers in London from May 3-5, at which concerns over China are expected to be a major topic of discussion., Japan has continued to indicate it values economic ties with its biggest trading partner. It has avoided imposing trade sanctions on China and on Wednesday parliament approved the 15-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on Trade, Japan’s first trade deal to include its giant neighbor., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Isabel Reynolds. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 5:18 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Winter Lockdown Prompts Growth Outlook cut Denmark [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Denmark’s Winter Lockdown Prompts 2021 Growth Outlook Cut. Short_description: Denmark’s Winter Lockdown Prompts 2021 Growth Outlook Cut. Description: , Denmark cut its economic growth forecast for the second time in five months after a lockdown to fight the virus spread over the winter delayed the recovery in the Nordic country., The government in Copenhagen cut its gross domestic product outlook for this year to 2.1%, down from its December estimate of 2.8%, the finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday. It now expects a higher jump in 2022, at 3.8%. Bloomberg News reported the data earlier, based on documents it had seen., Like the rest of the Nordic region, Denmark has fared better through the second wave of the pandemic than many European peers. Still, a rebound after the first lockdown in 2020 was halted when a rapid rise in confirmed cases of Covid-19 before Christmas made the government shut down retail and schools., “The pandemic has led to a deep setback for the Danish economy,” the ministry said. “The lockdown during the winter and the changed behavior of Danes have led to a temporary decline in activity, but not to the same extent as was the case during the lockdown last spring.”, While others combat an up-tick in contamination figures, Denmark has started reopening shops and restaurants after months with a steady level of confirmed cases. Retail sales surged an annual 24% last month, the most on record, driven by clothing. The 2022 forecast suggests that the country is headed for its highest GDP growth in 15 years. The development looks to be much better than in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the ministry said according to the document., House prices in Denmark, in particular in major cities, are projected to rise more than 10% this year. Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen said the government is monitoring the real estate development “closely” as a part of its efforts to prevent a so-called K-shaped recovery., “I want a recovery where everyone is included,” Wammen told reporters. “The development we see on the real estate market makes it more difficult for families to buy a home, but it’s important to mention that the rise in prices this time is mainly driven by low interest rates and solid private incomes.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Morten Buttler. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 11:47 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Time Reopening Data Endless Rally Real Raft [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Fueling Endless Rally Is Raft of Real-Time Reopening Data. Short_description: Fueling the Endless Rally Is a Raft of Real-Time Reopening Data. Description: Amusement parks tickets. Business-class plane reservations. Drive-thru traffic at McDonald’s., Now more than ever, investors are leaning on real-time data to buttress their bullishness on the U.S. stock market. They’re sifting through an ever-widening array of snapshots at a time when some government figures are being distorted by year-ago comparisons to an economy hobbled by a recession., Of course, no one needs esoteric datasets to see that the U.S. -- once the epicenter of the pandemic -- is on the mend, notes Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group. Deaths are down, vaccinations are up and consumers are spending again. But with the snap-back recovery in the books and stocks perched at the highest valuations in two decades, the hunt is on for indicators to fine-tune the bull case -- or uncover an early warning signal to get out before being blindsided by a crash., The following is a rundown of what market pros say they’re watching., Sit Investment Associates’s Bryce Doty is scouring travel websites. He checks out destination hotels, resorts, Disney theme parks -- anything to gauge mid-summer availabilities. If he’s not looking at those sites, he sees how long it’s taking ships to unload goods on the West Coast, where there are backlogs. Shipments of modal rail cars are another metric -- it’s a proxy for how many retail goods are on the move across the country. All have helped the Minneapolis-based senior portfolio manager frame his investment strategy over the past year., Doty has also looked at employment ads and the ratio of part-time versus full-time positions. Recently, he’s seen the shift to permanent positions “explode.” He’s kept casual tabs on help-wanted signs at stores. “We are constantly on the lookout for these types of real-time indicators.”, JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade, monitors the percentage of overall flight bookings made up by business travelers. That’s because the number of vacationers could drop once the back-to-school season comes around, whereas business travelers could be year-round., “To me, that’s going to be the ultimate sign that we’ve turned the corner,” he said in an interview., The number of per-day passengers through TSA checkpoints has increased, , 1.4 million over the past month. Though that’s still down from 2019 levels, the numbers have been steadily climbing -- they averaged about 850,000 in December, for instance, when many traveled for the holidays. Compared to 2019, daily restaurant bookings through OpenTable have risen since the start of the year, though they haven’t yet fully recovered., Follow Bloomberg Economics’ dashboard of real-time data here, To Jeff Schulze at ClearBridge Investments, such data is useful because it allows him to see the extent to which consumers are getting back to pre-pandemic routines. The investment strategist says everything from restaurant reservations and the number of passengers boarding planes to , gives a glimpse into how people are engaging with the services side of the economy. Investors will be beholden to these statistics as long as the virus remains a threat to the economy -- but a drop in cases will be a catalyst for growth., “The data continues to surprise economists, and I think if this trend can continue, you’re going to continue to see a market that goes higher into the summer,” Schulze said. “It’s trending very much in the right direction, mobility measures are moving in the right direction.”, Chris O’Keefe, managing director at Logan Capital Management, says he’s analyzing announcements from consumer discretionary companies including , and Nike to gauge lifestyle changes as people become more comfortable leaving their homes., “The pent-up demand is phenomenal, everyone wants to get out there and go out to eat and , ,” he said. “You can , the jail break as people are getting out there and doing more.”, For McDonald’s, he’s looking at drive-thru traffic, which he expects to increase as people go back to work, as well as the number of diners inside its restaurants. “People are still slow to move to that but the trend is accelerating,” O’Keefe said., He’s also watching Nike closely for signs that customers are buying more traditional gym clothing and shoes -- and less loungewear., With cases falling, cyclical industries -- including travel, hotel and airline stocks -- could “run big,” according to Fundstrat Global , ’s Tom Lee. Small-cap stocks as well as sectors like energy could also benefit. “This is a significant bullish equity development,” he wrote in a recent note., Credit-card use is rebounding strongly, too. For the week ending April 24, total card spending based on Bank of America credit and debit cards was up 45% year over year and 20% on a two-year basis, the bank’s economists Michelle Meyer and Anna Zhou wrote in a recent note., That data is useful in gauging consumer activity, said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager at GLOBALT Investments. Though the spending stats aren’t the sole data point he and his team consider, they do have an influence on their decisions., “People using credit cards -- there’s just so much more of that happening,” he said. “People are putting stuff on their credit cards -- you have a good base of data from that.”, More traditional economic indicators also point to a pick-up in the economic rebound. U.S. , accelerated in the first three months of the year as personal consumption -- the biggest part of the economy -- surged an annualized 10.7%, the second-fastest pace since the 1960s., Data out Friday showed , soared in March by the most in monthly records back to 1946, powered by the latest round of pandemic-relief payments., Applications for regular state jobless benefits are hovering at a 13-month low, and U.S. retail sales posted the second-largest monthly advance on record last month as stimulus checks and a broader reopening of the economy fueled consumer spending., Meantime, a slew of factory surveys point to a rapidly improving manufacturing sector, including the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index which jumped to its highest level in 37 years in March., “We’ve seen very substantial progress in the vaccines in many places, we see economies reopening, we see how much pent-up demand there is,” Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab, said by phone. “That’s a good thing and those things are relevant -- and what we’ve seen the market do is extend its timeline for moving ahead of the economy. The market always moves ahead of the economy.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Vildana Hajric, . Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 4:15 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to End Energy Emission Cuts Inefficient project Focus Xi [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Xi Vows Focus on Emission Cuts, End Energy-Inefficient Projects. Short_description: Xi Vows Focus on Emission Cuts, End Energy-Inefficient Projects. Description: China will make cutting emissions a focus of its ecological strategy in the next five years, President Xi Jinping said, vowing to call off projects which consume a lot of energy and can’t meet environmental standards., “The carbon neutral and emission-peaking goals are solemn promises China has made to the world,” Xi said at a study session of the Communist Party’s Politburo on Friday. “They will bring about broad and profound economic and social reforms and they will not be achieved easily,” according to a , carried by the official Xinhua news agency, which cited him., Local governments at all levels must set out clear timetables, road maps and work plans for the efficient use of resources and development in a low-carbon way, he said. High energy-consuming and high-emission projects that fail to meet environmental standards must be stopped, he added., At a climate , convened by U.S. President Joe Biden last week, Xi reiterated the nation’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. While China will increase coal consumption between now and 2025, it plans to reduce it in the following five-year plan from 2026., China will improve its management of binding targets for environment protection, energy saving and emission reduction, and build a stable fiscal spending mechanism, the Chinese leader said at the Politburo event., The country will provide funds and technology support for developing nations to improve their environment management capabilities, Xi said. China will stick to “the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities” to “firmly protect our development interests,” he added, referring to a notion included in the 2015 Paris climate agreement that put a greater financial burden on the countries most responsible for global warming., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 01 May 2021, 1:21 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Price Veggie sale Turkish Food Inflation Cut [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Turkish Food Inflation Slows After Cut-Price Veggie Sales. Short_description: Local elections next month have catapulted rampant food inflation into the national spotlight.. Description: (Bloomberg) -- Sales of vegetables and fruit at , by Turkish municipalities are proving to be more than a pre-election stunt to boost President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party., Annual food inflation will likely be slower in February than in the previous month after state-run stalls in large cities opened last week, a Turkish official familiar with the figures said on Wednesday. Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices surged an annual 31 percent in January, keeping consumer inflation above 20 percent., Local elections next month have catapulted rampant food inflation into the national spotlight because it disproportionately hurts the base of the president’s party, the poorer sections of Turkey’s 82 million people. While Erdogan has faulted profiteering alone, the costs jumped right after the lira’s crash in August made food imports and transportation more expensive., Recent flash floods in Antalya may have also contributed to some shortages, but Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak has said bad weather has only had a marginal effect., The price controls are only a temporary solution, said Tuncay Ozilhan, head of High Advisory Council of the Turkish Industry & Business Association. The country “is experiencing high food inflation due to mistakes made in the past,” he said., After food inflation soared to the fastest pace since at least 2004, Turkish authorities decided to cut out middlemen by purchasing produce directly from farmers and selling it in several cities. Food and non-alcoholic beverages make up the largest component of the consumer-price index, accounting for over 23 percent., In the first week alone, more than 3,200 tons of vegetables were sold in Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey’s two biggest cities., Although Turkstat isn’t collecting data from the municipality-run stalls, the government-backed drive will have an impact on inflation figures since many stores monitored by the country’s statistics agency started to sell cheaper food items as well, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity., Turkstat said it couldn’t comment on the effect of these sales on inflation data but confirmed they may have “an indirect impact” as some stores also slashed prices. The agency will publish February figures for inflation on March 4., Some privately owned stores have matched the lower prices available at the municipality-run stalls. Discount sales may continue after local elections and will be expanded to include cleaning products and pulses, according to Erdogan., Both the government and stores imposed a quota on how much discounted food each person can purchase. Turkstat will take some of the stores’ prices into account despite the quota, the official said., The government’s crackdown on soaring food prices may strengthen the central bank’s hand as it waits for the right time to loosen its monetary policy after leaving interest rates on hold for three consecutive meetings. Governor Murat Cetinkaya has said he needs to see a “, ” deceleration in price growth before taking action., Under the central bank’s base-case scenario, consumer and food inflation will end this year at 14.6 percent and 13 percent, respectively., Turkey will have a hard time meeting those forecasts “if food price inflation remains sticky,” according to JPMorgan Chase & Co., which projects year-end price growth at 14.2 percent and expects the central bank to cut its benchmark by 650 basis points from 24 percent in 2019., “If newly introduced government programs -- such as government vegetable stalls -- prove successful, the fall in inflation could be steeper, opening the door for more rate cuts,” Yarkin Cebeci, an economist at JPMorgan, said in a report., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Cagan Koc. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 4:52 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.S. yield Offset Renewed Virus Spread EM Review [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Moderating U.S. Yields Offset Renewed Virus Spread: EM Review. Short_description: Moderating U.S. Yields Offset Renewed Virus Spread: EM Review. Description: Emerging-market currencies and stocks posted a weekly gain as easing Treasury yields offset concerns over a renewed surge in virus cases. Better-than-expected economic data from the U.S. and South Korea also boosted sentiment. Bonds headed for a third weekly advance., The following is a roundup of key emerging-market news for the week through April 23:, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said authorities used $165 billion of central bank , to weather developments in 2019 and 2020, and may use them “again when needed., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Maria Elena Vizcaino &. Date Created: 24 Apr 2021, 1:48 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to french Economic Growth Lockdown hit [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: French Economic Growth Seen Slowing as Third Lockdown Hits. Short_description: French Economic Growth Seen Slowing as Third Lockdown Hits. Description: , French economic growth will slow in the second quarter as renewed curbs to contain the resurgent pandemic delay the more robust recovery that is expected in other countries, forecasts from the national statistics bureau Insee show., The French economy had proved resilient at the start of the year, growing 0.4% in the first quarter while the euro area as a whole slid into recession. Yet for the current quarter, Insee forecasts the growth rate will decelerate to around 0.25% after the government implemented a strict lockdown in April that will lift only gradually in May and June., At around 4% below pre-crisis levels, the loss of activity is as much as it was during the worst moment of the global financial crisis, Insee’s chief economist Julien Pouget said., Still, the economy is holding up better than during the first two nationwide lockdowns in April and October of last year, and vast government support for workers and households has preserved productive capacity, Insee said., “The economy can rebound quickly, if and only if the pandemic is kept in check,” Pouget said. “We are both so far and so near to recovery,”, Bloomberg Economics predicts the currency bloc as a whole will see output grow around 1.6% this quarter, with Germany expanding 2.7% and Italy 1%., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: William Horobin. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 9:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to BOE Watchers decision sign Tightening guide [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: BOE Watchers Look for Signs of Tightening Ahead: Decision Guide. Short_description: BOE Watchers Look for Signs of Tightening Ahead: Decision Guide. Description: , The Bank of England on Thursday may add fuel to investors’ expectations that its next move will be to tighten monetary policy rather than provide fresh stimulus to the economy as the pandemic eases., The U.K. central bank is set to significantly upgrade its growth outlook as the debate shifts away from whether it should cut interest rates below zero to how fast can the economy recoup its pandemic-induced losses. A forecast for inflation around its 2% target within the next two years could be read as an endorsement to growing expectations that interest rates are headed higher, according to Bloomberg Economics., Economists expect the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to keep rates and bond-buying targets to remain unchanged at noon in London. Many also expect any inflationary surge this year to be short-lived and point to BOE’s statements that it needs to see a sustained rise in prices before pulling back stimulus. That hasn’t stopped investors from pushing up market-based rates, driven by the U.K.’s successful vaccination drive., “Despite the faster recovery, we expect the MPC to forecast inflation remaining around target over its forecast horizon,” Dan Hanson at Bloomberg Economics wrote in a preview of the decision. “That will provide validation for pricing by financial markets.”, Inflation has remained below the bank’s 2% target for 1 1/2 years, leaving Governor Andrew Bailey room to wait before acting., The nine-member MPC is expected to vote unanimously to keep their benchmark interest rate at a record low 0.1% and the asset-purchase target at 895 billion pounds ($1.2 trillion) at midday in London, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg., The BOE has been buying about 4.4 billion pounds of government bonds a week -- a pace that would see the program reach its overall target at the start of November., Some investors expect officials to announce on Thursday that they will slow the rate of buying so that the program stretches to the end of the year instead of ending abruptly. Most other expect no change and will look to Bailey’s press conference and minutes of the meeting for signs of when policy makers might act., “The most I expect, really, is maybe an acknowledgment in the language that the recovery has been very strong, probably ahead of expectations,” said Shamik Dhar, London-based chief economist for BNY Mellon Investment Management., Earlier this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen ruffled markets saying, “it may be that interest rates will have to rise somewhat to make sure our economy doesn’t overheat.” She , that she wasn’t forecasting rate increases., For the BOE, a decline in the pace of purchases wouldn’t impact the total amount of stimulus reaching markets, unlike the tightening seen last month by the Bank of Canada. Even so, there’s signs the BOE is preparing for broader action. In February, Bailey asked staff to review how the BOE might unwind its stimulus measures., Financial markets have responded to signs that the U.K. economy is bouncing back from its worst slump in three centuries. The yield on the U.K. government’s 10-year bond was over 0.81% on Wednesday, near the highest since before the start of the pandemic. Traders have priced in 12 basis points of rate increases in August 2022 compared to about 6 points a little over a week ago., Much has changed in the U.K. since the BOE’s last forecast round in February. The economy took less of a hit than expected in during the lockdowns to control the coronavirus. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect growth of 5.5% this year, above the 5% pace forecast by the BOE in February. Bloomberg Economics expects a 7% expansion., “With the vaccination program showing little sign of slowing, that’s likely to mean growth is more front-loaded this year compared with the central bank’s February projection. But with the recovery still in its infancy, the central bank is likely to stress there’s a higher than usual bar for tightening policy and that it’s ready to loosen again if needed.”, -- Dan Hanson, Bloomberg Economics. Click here for the full PREVIEW, The new projections will also likely reflect a lower peak in post-crisis unemployment. Previously, the BOE expected the jobless rate to touch 7.8% in the third quarter, but in March, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak extended furlough payments for workers thorough September., The strength of the recovery dependents on households’ willingness to dip into the 150 billion pounds of savings they accumulated when shops and restaurants were closed for lockdown. But some analysts, notably the central bank’s Chief Economist Andy Haldane, worry that higher inflation is around the corner., “The bias will be to keep monetary policy relatively loose and we’ll want to see the whites of inflation’s eyes before we start to raise dramatically,” said Dhar, the economist from BNY Mellon. “That that induces a bias toward maybe overshooting compared with undershooting.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Lucy Meakin. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 9:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Fix World Trade WTO Chief Pursues Agenda referee hectic [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: WTO Chief Pursues a ‘Hectic’ Agenda to Fix World Trade’s Referee. Short_description: WTO Chief Pursues a ‘Hectic’ Agenda to Fix World Trade’s Referee. Description: , The head of the World Trade Organization raised an alarm about the credibility of the multilateral trading system, urging leaders to act fast to bolster the global economy with steps like fairer vaccine distribution and cooperate to resolve longer-term problems like overfishing., During her first two months, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has met with trade ministers around the globe to communicate a message that the WTO is important, it needs to be reformed and it needs to deliver results., So far, she says the reception from world leaders has been positive, but quickly translating that goodwill into substantive outcomes during a global pandemic is just as daunting as she anticipated., “The word I would use to describe it is absolutely hectic,” Okonjo-Iweala said in a phone interview on Tuesday when asked about her first few months in the job. “The challenges we thought were there are there and getting an agreement is not as easy because of longstanding ways of negotiating business positions.”, Countries need to move past the notion that one country’s gain in international commerce is another’s loss, she said., “We need to break out of the zero-sum deadlock,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “We need to remind the countries and members that the WTO is here to deliver for people. We can’t take 20 years to negotiate something.”, Okonjo-Iweala said her top priority is to use trade to alleviate the pandemic and said her recent meeting with trade ministers and vaccine manufacturers provided a positive step in the right direction., “That meeting yielded quite a lot,” she said. “I see more pragmatism on both sides.”, An important component of the WTO’s trade and health agenda is a proposal from India and South Africa that seeks to temporarily waive enforcement of the WTO’s rules governing intellectual property for vaccines and other essential medical products., As of this week there are fresh signals that the Biden administration, which currently opposes a waiver to the WTO agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, wants vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc to help ramp up U.S. pandemic assistance to the rest of the world., “There is movement,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “Are we there yet? No, but there is a little bit of change in the air among members. I think hopefully we will be able to come to some sort of a framework for the WTO ministers to bless.”, “We don’t have time,” she added. “People are dying.”, Okonjo-Iweala said this month’s vaccine meeting also revealed areas where the developing world can increase its capacity to produce more doses rather than waiting for rich countries to send them their excess supplies., She said various emerging markets such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Senegal, Indonesia and Egypt already have some capacity to begin producing vaccines for people living in developing economies., “The idea that there is not additional capacity that can be refurbished and turned around in developing countries is not the case,” she said. “Some of them look like it can be turned around quite quickly for additional capacity. Others will take a little bit more investment.”, Another priority is concluding an agreement to curb harmful and illegal fishery subsidies -- something she hopes to achieve well in advance of the WTO’s end-of-year ministerial meeting in Geneva., Last week she told WTO members that she will hold a virtual ministerial meeting in July to try to produce a final fisheries text so that ministers won’t have to negotiate via teleconference if the pandemic prevents the WTO from holding an in-person ministerial meeting in November., “Negotiating by Zoom is very difficult,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “That’s why we need to conclude three or four things to deliver before the ministerial.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bryce Baschuk. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 8:31 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Telecom Firms Chinese Suppliers G Operations India [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: India’s Telecom Firms Avoid Chinese Suppliers for 5G Operations. Short_description: Telecom operators’ decision to avoid Huawei and ZTE Corp. echoes actions by the U.S., U.K. and Australia. . Description: India’s wireless carriers have avoided partnering with Chinese telecom players for 5G services, the fallout of a bloody border standoff between the neighbors, as they start trial operations in the South Asian nation., Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., Vodafone Idea Ltd. and state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. have tied up with equipment makers Ericsson AB, Nokia Oyj, Samsung Electronics Co. and state-run Centre for Development of Telematics, the telecom department said in a statement on Tuesday. Reliance Jio will also conduct trials using its own technology. The trial duration will be for six months, including a two-month period for procurement and setting up of equipment., The telecom operators’ decision to avoid Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. echoes actions by the U.S., U.K. and Australia, which have raised red flags about the companies’ Chinese government links. While India allowed Huawei to participate in its 5G trials earlier, its stance hardened after clashes with Chinese troops along the disputed border last year. India banned ByteDance Ltd.’s viral short-video service TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, citing threats to its sovereignty and security., The wireless carriers are keen to roll out a high-speed wireless network that can offer better user experience in streaming, gaming and entertainment in a market where Netflix Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. are making inroads. With applications ranging from manufacturing to education and health care, 5G could be the catalyst for India’s digital economy that has the potential to reach $1 trillion by 2025, according to a report by Deloitte., Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio last week said it is conducting field trials for network performance for its 5G network and standardizing device configurations from equipment manufacturers. Rival Bharti Airtel has recently acquired airwaves to bolster its telecom infrastructure and claw back market share from top rival Reliance Jio., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ragini Saxena &. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 7:01 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to 19th Century theory consumer [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: A 19th Century Theory Explains Why Consumers May Not Splurge. Short_description: A 19th Century Theory Explains Why Consumers Might Not Splurge. Description: , Consumers who saw their savings jump during the pandemic might be deterred from splashing out as the economy recovers if a 19th-century theory holds., European Central Bank policy maker Pablo Hernandez de Cos raised the prospect of so-called Ricardian equivalence in a , last week that addressed how the pace of consumer spending will contribute to the economic rebound., Named after British political economist David Ricardo, the theory states that people assume they’ll ultimately have to pay for the government’s budget. Hernandez de Cos, who heads the Bank of Spain, said consumers might hold back in anticipation of higher taxes after governments increased their debt burdens in the Covid-19 crisis., “We can’t rule out that in Spain and other countries, as a consequence of the deterioration in public finances, that what we economists call a Ricardian effect could occur,” he said., Policy makers are keen to understand how European consumers will behave after the pandemic. Savings have risen in part because access to travel and leisure has been restricted, while some workers’ wages have been protected by furlough programs. A spending spree would turbo-charge the recovery., Bloomberg Economics reckons the , ’s biggest economies boosted excess savings by , ($464 billion) last year. Oxford Economics estimates excess savings accumulated by euro-area households could reach 840 billion euros by early 2022., Ricardian equivalence may not apply. Marion Amiot, an economist at S&P Global Ratings, notes that during the region’s debt crisis about a decade ago, people cut their savings rate even as some countries raised taxes., She also says when European officials lifted the first round of strict lockdowns last year, the savings rate of households as a percentage of disposable income fell to 17% in the third quarter from 25% in the second quarter., “The same thing is likely to happen when things normalize this year,” she said. “There’s no evidence that this relationship exists in the euro zone.”, Outside the bloc, the , doubled its estimate on Thursday of how much U.K. residents would run down their excess savings over the next three years, to 10% from 5%., Some governments have shown they’re aware of the risk. French officials have said a post-crisis tax hike would drag on economic growth and consumer confidence. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said last week that “we have cut taxes and we will stick to this line: no tax increases in our country.”, Spain’s administration has said it will hold off on any tax increases until the recovery is on solid footing., Hernandez de Cos said Ricardian equivalence is just one factor to consider. He also said some demand is lost forever -- for example, canceled vacations in 2020 won’t mean people take extra vacations in 2021 -- and savings are skewed toward richer people who tend to spend a smaller share of their wealth than low-income groups., Still, economist Oliver Rakau at Oxford Economics reckons older, wealthier people will spend more than expected. He has analyzed , that show higher-income households report the greatest increase in intentions to make major purchases., He says Hernandez de Cos is probably trying to stave off any suggestion that monetary and fiscal support for the economy should be withdrawn too soon., “Evidence of Ricardian equivalence in Europe is not necessarily very straightforward,” Rakau said. “I would tentatively interpret caution by the Bank of Spain as that they want to caution against too much optimism.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jeannette Neumann. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 9:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Level IP Protection Drafts Completion China [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: China Says Top Level IP Protection Drafts Near Completion. Short_description: China Says Top Level IP Protection Drafts Near Completion. Description: China says it is near completion on top-level plans for strengthening intellectual-property protection, an area of contention with the U.S., The draft plans would support China’s current five-year economic and social blueprint, which puts renewed emphasis on intellectual property rights., China is “orderly implementing” provisions in the first-phase trade deal with the U.S., China National Intellectual Property Administration Commissioner Shen Changyu said at a briefing in Beijing on Sunday., Read more: , The Biden administration has pledged to work with allies to confront Beijing on a wide range of issues including intellectual property rights. While the U.S. administration is still formulating its China strategy, key members of the government have , they will continue some of former President Donald Trump’s hard-line economic policies toward China., Shen said China would speed up intellectual-property legislation in new fields such as artificial intelligence and big data., It will also accelerate the construction of a national big data center for IP and support Hong Kong in building a regional IP trading center, Shen said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 11:54 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to hike view Norway Sticks Growth resume rate [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Norway Sticks With Rate-Hike View for 2021 as Growth Resumes. Short_description: Norway Sticks With Outlook for 2021 Rate Hike as Economy Reopens. Description: , Norway’s central bank says it’s still on track to begin the first interest-rate tightening cycle of the advanced world since the coronavirus crisis struck., The Oslo-based Norges Bank kept its benchmark deposit rate at zero on Thursday, as predicted by all economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Officials reiterated guidance that vaccination progress should allow them to hike later in 2021, while signaling they no longer consider uncertainty over the economy’s recovery as “substantial.” , That change in wording suggests officials might deliver a rate increase in September rather than waiting any longer, according to Nordea analysts Dane Cekov and Kjetil Olsen. , “The central bank has likely become more confident seeing that activity is beginning to normalize in countries where a large share of the population have been vaccinated,” they wrote in a report. “Hence, uncertainty for them is lower than it was in March.”, Norway’s proximity to policy tightening contrasts with peers throughout the region such as the European Central Bank, which remains heavily committed to emergency stimulus. While the crisis forced borrowing costs there down to a record low a year ago, the nation hasn’t needed to deploy more unconventional policy such as asset purchases or negative rates., While the Danish central bank raised its key interest rate in March to prop up the krone and defend its peg to the euro, that didn’t augur a formal shift to a tightening stance, in contrast to the outlook in Norway., The krone, which is the second-biggest gainer in the G-10 sphere of major currencies this year, was little changed after the decision on Thursday., Despite a double hit from the pandemic and an historic plunge in crude prices last spring, the oil-rich Nordic nation has weathered the pandemic better than most in Europe, thanks in large part to generous welfare systems and widespread digitalization., “The authorities’ plan for the further reopening of society appears to be broadly as we envisaged in March,” the central bank said. There is uncertainty surrounding the use of some vaccines, but for now it does not appear that there will be substantial delays.”, “We expect a rebound in growth in 2Q will allow the central bank to liftoff in December and hike twice in 2022. The key rate should reach 1.5% by the end of 2024.”, --Johanna Jeansson, economist. Click here for the full REACT., Fiscal policy has borne the brunt of the adjustment in Norway, with its $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund -- the world’s biggest -- backing the government’s record support measures., While core inflation has exceeded the central bank’s 2% aim for more than a year, policy makers have stuck to their view that it will slow below that level next month. At the same time, uncertainty from the pandemic is still clouding officials’ view. Crisis restrictions slowed economic activity at the start of the year by more than the bank had expected., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ott Ummelas. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 1:39 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Digital Coins Central Bank existing co Bitcoin [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Central Bank-Issued Digital Coins Seen Co-Existing With Bitcoin. Short_description: Central Bank-Issued Digital Coins Seen Co-Existing With Bitcoin. Description: Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether will co-exist “for a while” with more-restrictive digital coins such as the one issued by China’s central bank, according to Changpeng Zhao, chief executive officer of Binance., Zhao, who runs the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, said digital assets issued by central banks will be different than public coins in many ways. They won’t offer the same freedom of use and won’t have a supply cap in place, Zhao, who’s also known as CZ, said Monday in a Bloomberg TV interview., “Most central-bank digital currencies are going to have a lot of control attached to them,” Zhao said. Differences between the two types of coins could make the central-bank version unattractive to people drawn to the crypto world. “At the end of the day, those are core properties that users care about,” he said., Bitcoin and Ether have hit all-time highs this year as institutional investors and corporations buy cryptocurrencies to add to their balance sheets. Ether hit a record $3,339 Monday. While Bitcoin is used only for transferring digital value, Ether supports the Ethereum blockchain on which more types of transactions are possible., User demand for Ether to buy assets such as non-fungible tokens also could be driving prices higher, Zhao said., “All of these use cases are moving right now and people need the other coins to do this type of new transaction,” he said. “Ethereum is one of those clear examples. That’s probably why Ether is going up.”, About 70% of Binance users are retail customers with the rest being institutional investors, he said. He has no plans to take the company public and follow in the footsteps of Coinbase Global Inc., which , directly on Nasdaq last month., Binance is making money on its own and doesn’t need to raise more, he said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Matthew Leising. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 1:38 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Wealth Fund Abu Dhabi [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Craving More, Abu Dhabi’s New Wealth Fund Can’t Move Fast Enough. Short_description: Craving More, Abu Dhabi’s New Wealth Fund Can’t Move Fast Enough. Description: Less than two years into frenetic dealmaking that reeled in a haul from pharmaceuticals to agricultural trading, Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi’s biggest worry is if he’s moving “fast enough.”, The sense of urgency may seem surprising from the chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s newest sovereign fund, ADQ, which amassed an estimated $110 billion in assets since being founded in 2018, including a 45% stake in Louis Dreyfus Company BV., “We’ll deploy significant amounts this year and over the next five years,” Alsuwaidi, 38, said in a rare interview. “People will be amazed at how much we will be able to deploy in the markets we operate.”, Even in a city that’s among the few globally to manage around $1 trillion in sovereign wealth capital, ADQ has quickly emerged as Abu Dhabi’s go-to lever for addressing its biggest weaknesses., Although Alsuwaidi wouldn’t specify ADQ’s size, he said an estimate from Global SWF that put it at , isn’t too far off. Moreover, that number should double within seven to 10 years, he said. ADQ currently has 120 employees, of which 60 to 70 are directly involved in the fund’s investments., ADQ is among an emerging breed of state funds in the Gulf region that are increasingly having to reconcile their ambitions as global investors with the priorities of domestic economies., Originally known as Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Co., the entity took custody of some of the emirate’s biggest assets, from air and sea ports, the stock market operator and the nuclear energy corporation to health care and utilities., The abbreviation of the company’s name proved a mouthful and was soon abandoned in favor of ADQ, according to Alsuwaidi. Its mission: to “extract value” out of the state assets through whatever means available, he said., Alsuwaidi, a former executive at a larger Abu Dhabi state fund, Mubadala Investment Co., says he’s constantly on the lookout for ways to deliver on its goal by listing, merging or selling assets., “Every single asset, every day of my life, will continue to be on the list to be taken public or monetized,” he said. “And that will happen day in, day out.”, by a royal family member, Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ADQ has quickly joined the ranks of the world’s top 20 sovereign funds and is now the UAE capital’s third-largest after Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala. Deal-hungry bankers privately describe the vibe around it as a “gold rush.”, The fund’s domestic focus -- 90% of its portfolio consists of Abu Dhabi assets -- still distinguishes it from its bigger counterparts. ADIA’s mandate as a rainy-day fund is to funnel the government’s oil surplus into foreign holdings, while Mubadala combines investments abroad and at home., “We will always be more Abu Dhabi-weighted versus any of our peers,” Alsuwaidi said., “We do have characteristics of a sovereign fund,” he said. “But we are defined in our articles as a holding company with developmental nature. And so, core to our bread and butter, is that developmental nature of our investments and our deals.”, But it was ADQ’s investment in Louis Dreyfus that catapulted it to global prominence for the first time last year. Another focus is Egypt, where ADQ has , to investing $10 billion alongside the country’s sovereign fund. It also recently bought an Egyptian pharmaceuticals company from Bausch Health Cos., while also investing in a UAE supermarket chain expanding in the North African country., Despite the acquisitive streak, the major preoccupation remains ADQ’s role back home., “To maximize any investment, sometimes you need to create an international tie-up,” Alsuwaidi said. “Sometimes a global presence with an Abu Dhabi anchor is the way to extract more value for the shareholder.”, Concerns about over-dependence on others to ensure vital supplies of food and medicine and the speed with which global supply lines were disrupted during the pandemic now appear to drive the fund’s philosophy. Four sectors in particular have caught ADQ’s attention and they’re all vital to the emirate’s long-term future: energy and utilities, food and agriculture, mobility and logistics, as well as health care and pharma., Energy accounts for 65% of ADQ’s portfolio and its share is likely to remain roughly the same even as it becomes part of a “greater pie,” Alsuwaidi said., “We shouldn’t shy away from the fact that we’re oil long position,” Alsuwaidi said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Nicolas Parasie. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Traders Lift Bets BOE Rate Hike U.K. yield Pound [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Pound, U.K. Yields Rise as Traders Lift Bets on BOE Rate Hike. Short_description: Traders now see the BOE raising rates by 15 basis points to 0.25% in February 2022.. Description: The pound and U.K. bond yields rose in tandem as the Bank of England’s comments on a stronger case for tightening prompted traders to bring forward their expectations for a rate hike., Sterling rose as much as 0.7% to the day’s high of $1.3714, while the 10-year yield climbed five basis points to 0.85%. Traders now see the BOE raising rates by 15 basis points to 0.25% in February 2022, having priced it for May before Thursday’s meeting., They now also expect a further quarter-of-a-percentage-point rise to 0.5% in August next year, compared with November previously. That came as two BOE officials dissented to vote for a reduction in bond purchases, showing a growing push to reduce pandemic-era stimulus., “The 7-2 vote is the beginning of a shift toward higher rates and boosts the chances that QE ends earlier than expected,” said Neil Jones, head of foreign-exchange sales to financial institutions at Mizuho Bank. “The text comments are looking more hawkish in my mind. We should continue to see further pound strength across the board and an increase in the chance of rate hikes.”, While the central bank traditionally shifts its key interest rate by multiples of 25 basis points, it last cut rates by 15 basis points in March 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. If officials wanted to raise rates, a move back to 0.25% is seen by strategists as the likely first step., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Greg Ritchie &. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 4:41 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Copper Producer Codelco Tap Price jump output [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Top Copper Producer Codelco Boosts Output to Tap Price Jump. Short_description: Top Copper Producer Codelco Boosts Output to Tap Price Jump. Description: Codelco, the world’s biggest copper producer, saw sales more than double in the first quarter as production rose and prices of the metal surged., The state-owned producer churned out 386,000 metric tons from its own mines in Chile, up 7% from a year ago, thanks in part to an improvement in ore quality after a, billion-dollar overhaul of aging deposits. Nevertheless, a surge in Covid-19 cases in Chile has slowed project development., Sales jumped to $4.65 billion, and the company’s contribution to state coffers was the highest since the peak of the commodity super-cycle a decade ago. That’s good news for Chile, as authorities seek funding for pandemic relief and policies to counter economic inequalities after mass protests in late 2019., Codelco’s ability to navigate both the pandemic and a slew of wage talks to increase output is also good news for tight global supplies of the metal. Copper topped $10,000 a ton on Thursday for the first time in a decade, fueled by stimulus measures, near-zero interest rates and an economic recovery from Covid-19., While Chilean output fell in the first quarter, the biggest copper-producing nation expects to be able to increase production this year as giant mines run by companies including Codelco, BHP Group and Antofagasta Plc have the protocols in place to continue operating through a surge in Covid-19 cases., In the first quarter, Codelco’s Hales, El Teniente, Chuquicamata, Salvador and Radomiro Tomic mines all posted gains, offsetting a 40% slump at Gabriela Mistral. The board approved the strategy for the Sulfides Phase II pre-feasibility study at Radomiro Tomic., In the longer term, the surge in cases in Chile may have an negative impact on the market. Measures taken to safeguard workers mean that expansions at El Teniente face delays of as long as a year. The ramp-up of underground operations at Chuquicamata is also slower than planned., “In any case, for the second half we expect a significant recovery in the development of all our projects,” Chief Executive Officer Octavio Araneda said in a statement accompanying the results., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: James Attwood. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 9:41 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Pandemic Pain North Korea economy [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: North Korea’s Economy Seen Barely Growing as Pandemic Pain Lasts. Short_description: North Korea’s Economy Seen Barely Growing as Pandemic Pain Lasts. Description: , North Korea’s economy will barely grow in 2021 after its worst contraction in decades as the country continues to struggle with the pandemic, U.S. sanctions and a lack of trade with China, according to Fitch Solutions., In its latest report Fitch slashed its economic growth forecast for the Pyongyang regime to just 0.5% for this year from an earlier projection of 2.5%. Shortages of basic necessities, including rice, have added to the country’s economic woes recently, prompting some Russian diplomats to , ., The small expansion would come on the back of an 8.5% contraction last year when the pandemic battered trade with China and led to strict regulations on public activity, the report said. That means North Korea’s recovery will fall well behind the rest of the world where a strong rebound is expected on vaccinations and looser virus restrictions., North Korea doesn’t release official economic data, and Fitch is among the few private firms that analyze growth in Kim Jong Un’s economy. The South Korean central bank will release its estimate of how the communist regime fared during the pandemic in mid-2021., The collapse in North Korea’s trade with China continued in the first two months of 2021 even as the world’s second-largest economy recovered from the pandemic quickly, Fitch said in its report Friday., “This reflects the constraints that North Korean traders are still facing, with reports now suggesting that the country’s trade is confined to medical supplies, fertilizers and construction materials,” Fitch said. “We do not expect to see a relaxation of international sanctions on North Korea any time soon, as the U.S. Biden administration is unwilling to reward Pyongyang without the latter making a tangible gesture in relation to abandoning its nuclear weapons program.”, North Korean leader Kim made a rare admission that economic policy was falling short when he , his point man in charge of the economy last summer. He shut down the borders with China early 2020 as cases started to rise in its giant neighbor and around the world., The country hasn’t officially reported a single coronavirus case yet, although its claims are , by U.S. and Japanese officials., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Sam Kim. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 9:23 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Unprecedented Supply Area Factories Chain delay Euro [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Euro-Area Factories Face Unprecedented Supply-Chain Delays. Short_description: Euro-Area Factories Face Unprecedented Supply-Chain Delays. Description: , Euro-area manufacturers are battling unprecedented delays in securing raw materials and parts, leading to a record build-up of uncompleted orders and rising prices as the economy starts to recover., Factories surveyed by IHS Markit cited a “mismatch of supply and demand” along with transport difficulties -- especially sea freight -- as the main reasons for delays. A gauge of manufacturing activity rose to 62.9 in April, the highest reading in the survey’s 24-year history though slightly below an earlier estimate., Companies reported higher costs for chemicals, metals and plastics and ran down their inventories to cope., “Euro-zone manufacturing is booming,” said Chris Williamson, IHS Markit’s chief business economist. “The consequence of demand running ahead of supply is higher prices being charged by manufacturers, which are now also rising at the fastest rate ever recorded by the survey.”, Coronavirus infections and slow progress on vaccinations drove the , into a double-dip recession in the first quarter, leaving the bloc’s economy trailing far behind the U.S. Yet a pickup in inoculations and the prospect that the region’s 800 billion-euro ($963 billion) joint recovery fund will soon kick in has fueled optimism., Williamson said increases in employment and investment in machinery and equipment signaled in the survey may help companies overcome the capacity constraints., “This should help bring supply and demand more into line, taking some pressure off prices,” he said. “But this will inevitably take time.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Carolynn Look. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.S. Small Businesses Increase Job Openings Fresh Record [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Job Openings at U.S. Small Businesses Increase to Fresh Record. Short_description: Job Openings at U.S. Small Businesses Increase to Fresh Record. Description: A record share of U.S. small-business owners reported unfilled positions in April, and firms are offering higher wages to lure workers, the National Federation of Independent Business said. , Some 44% of firms had job openings last month, and 59% of owners reported adding workers or trying to hire, the NFIB said in a report published Thursday. Almost one-third of small businesses raised compensation, the largest share in more than a year, and more companies said they plan to raise worker pay., “The tight labor market is the biggest concern for small businesses who are competing with various factors such as supplemental unemployment benefits, childcare and in-person school restrictions, and the virus,” Bill Dunkelberg, the NFIB’s chief economist, said in a statement., “Many small business owners who are trying to hire are finding themselves unsuccessful and are having to delay the hiring or offer higher wages,” Dunkelberg said., Within construction, 58% of respondents reported few or no qualified applicants., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Vince Golle. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 11:28 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Cash Flow Shortages Pile Small business Britain [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Cash Flow Shortages Pile Up for Britain’s Small Businesses. Short_description: Cash Flow Shortages Pile Up for Britain’s Small Businesses. Description: , The number of the U.K.’s smaller businesses and startups facing serious cash flow problems surged last quarter, leaving companies that employ millions of people vulnerable as they emerge from lockdown., More than 700,000 small- and medium-sized companies are now in significant financial distress, according to research by the advisory arm of intelligence provider Begbies Traynor published Thursday. That’s up 15% from the end of last year. The proportion of startups experiencing the most serious level of difficulty jumped 33%., The figures indicate that 3.2 million jobs could be at risk unless those businesses are able to improve their financial situation. The pandemic has hit the U.K. hard, plunging it into the deepest recession in three centuries last year. Economists are becoming more upbeat about Britain’s recovery after survey data that shows consumer spending is bouncing back strongly., The analysis suggests that the most recent lockdown along with Britain’s exit from the European Union have left the economy with serious scars. The number of transport and logistics companies in financial trouble climbed by almost a quarter in the three months to March., The research defines significant distress as businesses with minor county court judgments filed against them or those identified by a sustained or marked deterioration in key financial ratios and indicators including those measuring working capital, contingent liabilities, retained profits and net worth., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Lucy Meakin. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 4:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Runoff end Fed Asset timing Clarida [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Clarida Says Fed May Decide Soon on Timing of Asset-Runoff End. Short_description: Clarida Says Fed May Decide Soon on Timing of Asset-Runoff End. Description: (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said the central bank could soon decide when and how quickly to stop shrinking its balance sheet., The Fed can make important decisions “in coming meetings,” including when to stop shrinking the balance sheet and "the pace at which to do that,” Clarida said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on CNN International., Just before the interview aired, minutes of the Fed’s January meeting showed that officials widely favored announcing a plan before long to end the asset runoff later this year. Policy makers last month opted to stick with a policy framework that includes maintaining ample bank reserves -- suggesting that their balance sheet will remain larger than it otherwise might have been., Asked whether he thought the runoff should stop soon, he pointed to market estimates., “There are a number of estimates by outside observers that to run an ample reserve system will require reserves somewhere in the $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion with a buffer,” he said. “Under the current pace of normalization, we would get to that level sometime later this year, early next year.”, Clarida also said the central bank can afford to be patient as it waits for economic data to clarify where the global economy is headed., “We can afford without any presumption about timing to look at the data come in and tell us what the next adjustment in policy might be,” Clarida said. Asked if the Fed would hike once this year, he said “there’s certainly scenarios where that would be appropriate, there are other scenarios where we might not hike at all. Really it’s going to depend on how the data comes in.”, Fed officials expressed uncertainty over whether they would raise interest rates again in 2019, the meeting minutes showed earlier Wednesday. Those , on the dovish message delivered three weeks ago when the FOMC said it will be “patient,” signaling it had put interest-rate hikes on hold., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jeanna Smialek. Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 2:29 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to expensive high [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: It’s Getting More Expensive to Get High. Short_description: It’s Getting More Expensive to Get High. Description: (Bloomberg) -- Almost everyone, from President Donald Trump on down, agrees that Americans are getting gouged when they buy the kinds of drugs you can find at CVS or Walgreens., They pay a high price for other drugs too. That’s one finding of the latest Bloomberg Global Vice Index, an annual tracker of the cost of drugs that may be illegal., Americans would need to shell out $846 for a “basket of vice’’ made up of four generic groups of drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants. It’s the third-highest price in the world, behind only New Zealand and Australia – and up more than 40 percent from a year earlier., For the complete vice index and details of its components, click HERE., The vice gauge is purely an economic indicator, not a judgment about morality or legality. Marijuana, cocaine and heroin are permitted for recreational or medical use in various formats and jurisdictions, while inside the U.S. the debate on drugs is shifting. Several states have been easing curbs on cannabis, while there’s a mobilization at all levels against the abuse of legal prescription opioids, which have killed tens of thousands of Americans., The gauge also measures the share of average incomes (based on International Monetary Fund data) that’s needed to maintain a weekly habit. In the U.S., for example, the figure is 70 percent, almost double the level of neighboring Canada, where the basket costs a bit more than $300, about the same as halfway around the world in Hong Kong., Luxembourg repeated as the most affordable nation to get high, while the Netherlands jumped a few places to rank No. 2. In the former case, that’s because Luxembourgers are rich – with annual earnings above $100,000 -- and in the latter, because drugs are cheap. The Dutch basket costs just $93, well below the going rate in most developed economies., The Netherlands is a key exporter too. “With the amount of illicit drug trafficking on the dark net increasing, a considerable number of vendors reportedly operate from the Netherlands,’’ the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction said in its , ., Bloomberg’s 2019 Index has been streamlined from previous editions, which included cigarettes and alcohol. A look-back measure for the same products was made for comparison. Because so much of the trade in the remaining items happens in the dark, data collection is difficult and surveys tend to suffer from a time lag. Some price changes also have more to do with fluctuations in currencies than in the street price of illicit drugs., One place where that price is indisputably high is in the Antipodes. Australia’s world-beating price tag was $1,263, or 116 percent of the weekly pay, up from 91 percent a year ago, mostly reflecting a hike in opioids. In New Zealand, the cost of a habit also exceeds a week’s income., Australians spent $13.5 billion ($9.7 billion) on illicit drugs in the year through August 2017, the central bank estimates, with methamphetamine and cannabis accounting for more than 70 percent of purchases. The figure comes from a , of how the country’s banknotes circulate: it estimated that almost 2 percent of them are used in illegal drug deals., At the other end of the price scale are countries like Laos, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, that are close to key production centers or smuggling routes. The Costa Rica Star newspaper , in December that a kilogram of cocaine sells for about $8,000, compared with $35,000 in the U.S. and $60,000 in parts of Europe., A gram of cocaine, stripped of the salts or paste it’s often mixed with, is one of the four components of Bloomberg’s basket. The others are a gram of amphetamine-type stimulants, such as methamphetamine or ecstasy; a gram of cannabis products such as marijuana herb or hashish resin; and a gram of opioids such as heroin or opium., The basket’s price rose year-on-year in slightly more than half of the countries in the index. The U.S. recorded one of the biggest jumps, with the bulk of the increase coming from cocaine and opioids -- classes of drugs that accounted for almost 70 percent of the more than , recorded in the country in 2017., The role of painkillers such as OxyContin in the epidemic has come under close scrutiny. Its street price per pill is about 10 times the prescription price, according to a report sponsored by the , , a Florida-based company that manages addiction treatment centers. The markup on Percocet is about two-to-one., "It’s too much use of opioids which is driving this incredible crisis," David Ricks, chairman of Eli Lilly & Co. and president of the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, told the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference in 2018., The problem is a global one. “There has been an increase in the non-medical use of prescription drugs (either diverted from licit channels or illicitly manufactured),’’ the United Nations said in its 2018 , , one of Bloomberg’s main data sources for the index., For the complete vice index and details of its components, click HERE., Here are the 50 markets that ranked most affordable:, ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Lee J Miller &. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 4:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to BOE Taper Eco day Progress Powell Europe [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Europe Turning Around, BOE Taper, Powell Sees Progress: Eco Day. Short_description: Europe Turning Around, BOE Taper, Powell Sees Progress: Eco Day. Description: , Welcome to Tuesday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anirban Nag. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 11:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Uganda Detects Covid-19 Variant Urges Caution India [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Uganda Detects Covid-19 Variant From India, Urges Caution. Short_description: Uganda Detects Covid-19 Variant From India, Urges Caution. Description: Uganda detected the Covid-19 variant first traced in India, according to the health ministry, and advised its residents to step up precautions to reduce the risk of contraction., “This should be a wake up call for all of us,” the health ministry said in a statement on Twitter Thursday. “If eligible, get vaccinated now.”, Uganda has confirmed 41,797 coronavirus cases with 342 deaths since it reported the first infection last year, according to the health ministry data as of Tuesday. The government’s announcement of the new variant comes a day after its East African neighbor Kenya suspended flights to and from India for two weeks., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: David Malingha. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 10:04 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Quicker Rebound Mexico Economy Sign [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Mexico Economy Unexpectedly Grows in Sign of Quicker Rebound. Short_description: Mexico Economy Unexpectedly Grows in Sign of Quicker Rebound. Description: Mexico’s economy unexpectedly expanded in the first quarter driven by service activities, suggesting its recovery retains some momentum as the vaccination campaign advances., Gross domestic product rose 0.4% from the previous quarter, according to preliminary data from the national statistics agency published on Friday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected no growth for the period, in line with what central bank Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath predicted earlier this week. On an annual basis, GDP fell 3.8%., Latin America’s second-largest economy has been losing steam since the fourth quarter of 2020, after a strong rebound between July and September. While growing U.S. appetite for Mexican exports will continue to support its recovery, a surge in Covid-19 cases hurt domestic demand in the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has refused to increase public spending, leaving to the central bank the task of providing stimulus with interest rates near all-time lows., “Halfway through this year we’ll find ourselves in the same economic situation we had before the pandemic,” Lopez Obrador told reporters after the data was released, forecasting GDP to grow between 5% and 6% in 2021. “We are recovering jobs and doing well.”, “Growth was still positive but lost momentum, mainly due to base effects and transitory headwinds on manufacturing. Strong U.S. demand and abating infections and lockdowns still support expectations for the economy to continue recovering this year. Tight fiscal policy and reforms that undermine business confidence were a drag in the first quarter and do not contribute to the positive outlook.”, --Felipe Hernandez, Latin America economist, Click here for the full report., Services grew 0.7% from the previous three-month period, while agriculture fell by 1.3% and manufacturing remained flat, according to the statistics institute., Economic activity is expected to pick up in the next few quarters, with GDP expanding 4.5% this year, according to the latest central bank survey of economists. That will depend, however, on the success of Mexico’s immunization campaign and the level of investor confidence in the country after a series of , pushed by Lopez Obrador., Mexico’s exports to its northern neighbor are poised to boost its manufacturing and food industry going forward. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan could support key industries like cement while the tourism sector awaits a surge of vaccinated American tourists., Yet tailwinds from both services and the U.S. economic reopening may prove to be temporary, according to Alberto Ramos, chief Latin America economist at Goldman Sachs Corp., “Exports and remittances are likely to see a boost, maybe also the tourism industry,” he said. “But this doesn’t mean that Mexico found a path toward strong growth. As soon as investments and the boost of a demand that’s recovering from Covid disappear, the country will go back to mediocre growth.”, Complicating matters, Lopez Obrador has pressed on with reforms to the energy and oil sector, on top of changes to outsourcing laws which analyst fear could discourage foreign investment., “These reforms are causing a confidence shock and have heightened the uncertainty of doing business while increasing costs,” said Ernesto Revilla, head of Latin American Economists at Citigroup Inc., in an interview ahead of the GDP data., In 2020, Mexico posted a 8.2% decline in economic activity, the worst contraction in almost a decade., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Maria Eloisa Capurro. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 7:34 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to bond sale Drop Stimulus China [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: China Is Already Tapering Stimulus With Drop in Bond Sales. Short_description: China’s local governments have slowed the pace of debt sales to finance infrastructure projects this year.. Description: , China’s local authorities have slowed the pace of debt sales to finance infrastructure projects this year, evidence of a gradual tightening of fiscal policy as the government shifts its focus toward risk control., Local governments have sold or plan to sell 222.7 billion yuan ($34.3 billion) of so-called special bonds in January to April to fund shanty town renovations, highways and other infrastructure investment, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s a sharp decline from 729.6 billion yuan of debt sold in the same period in 2019 and 1.15 trillion yuan in 2020., Investors have been on guard for signs of monetary and fiscal tightening given the economy’s strong recovery from the pandemic slump and the government’s shifting of its attention to tackling debt. While an interest rate hike by the central bank is still a distant prospect, the drop in bond sales suggest a quiet scaling back of fiscal support., There’s been an aspiration to “steady debt growth, or even make it fall from last year,” said Zhou Hao, economist at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. Policy makers are looking for a “restrained pace of economic growth” so that they can reduce the reliance on fiscal stimulus as long as the economy keeps humming, he said., Beijing , the full-year quota for local government bond sales only moderately this year, allowing them to sell 3.65 trillion yuan of special infrastructure bonds. Yet unlike the usual practice of speeding up debt issuance at the start of a new year to maximize the impact, local governments have made slow progress so far, using funds carried over from last year to finance projects., While the latest data showed local authorities have accelerated the sale of infrastructure debt this month, some analysts argue that as long as the economic rebound is firm, the funds may just be kept in reserve., Meanwhile, the central government also softened its push on investment, cutting back approvals for fixed-asset projects sharply in the first quarter compared with previous years. They also ramped up scrutiny on new rail construction., As a result, the shortfall between government revenue and expenditure at all levels stood at 158.5 billion yuan in the first quarter, nowhere close to the gap of 930 billion yuan during the same period in 2020, and only one third of the level in 2019, according to Bloomberg calculations of official data., At a , Monday, Premier Li Keqiang asked local authorities not to relax budget discipline because of a rapid rebound in revenue income. “Local fiscal power is still pretty stretched this year” as the government has lowered the annual deficit ratio target and not issued any special sovereign bonds, he said., China International Capital Corp. economists said slower infrastructure bond sales have been a drag on government expenditure and domestic demand, and Nomura Holdings Inc. said the growth of fixed-asset investment will continue to ease., Even a modest slowdown in bond issuance will mean very slow growth of public-works investment in 2021, according to a report by analysts at Gavekal Dragonomics. “Reduced formal fiscal support, along with the slowing credit cycle, shows much less political urgency to support growth, and a higher priority on consolidating public finances,” they wrote., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 2:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to China Policy Banks Postpone Earnings Year delay [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: China Policy Banks Postpone Earnings, Echoing Last Year’s Delay. Short_description: China Policy Banks Postpone Earnings, Echoing Last Year’s Delay. Description: China Development Bank, Agricultural Development Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China, the nation’s three policy banks, delayed the release of their 2020 earnings results, they said in regulatory filings., The delay, which also occurred last year, is because the review process hasn’t completed, according to statements from , and , ., ly, Agricultural Development Bank , regulators haven’t reviewed its financial data. The results were originally due before April 30., China’s stock benchmark CSI 300 Index extended loss Friday afternoon to as much as 1.3% as traders digested the news. CDB’s 10-year bond, the most active in China’s interbank market, was steady., “Some investors may raise eyebrows given they are policy banks and important bond issuers,” said Kenny Wen, wealth management strategist at Everbright Sun Hung Kai Co. “Earnings delay will certainly cause some worries, and investors will pay close attention to their bond performances.”, The three unlisted policy banks finance state projects and economic and trade development. Their yuan-denominated bonds are popular among foreign investors, who primarily stick to debt sold by the lenders as well as those issued by the central government. The three banks, all wholly owned by the central government agencies, had about 28 trillion yuan ($4.3 trillion) of combined assets and more than 140 billion yuan of total profits in 2019., Chinese financial companies’ health has been under the , after the state-owned China Huarong Asset Management Co. missed a March deadline for releasing its 2020 results. Financials was the worst-performing sector in the MSCI China Index on Friday with a 2.1% drop., “Market has been weak for quite some time now. Liquidity is tight and people expect it to remain so even amid slowing PMIs,” said Hao Hong, head of research at Bocom International in Hong Kong. “The delay by policy banks to release earnings just added to that sentiment.”, The banks , their 2019 earnings releases as well, citing the pandemic, internal work arrangement and unfinished regulatory review. The policy lenders, which were established in 1994 to support the government’s economic goals and are wholly state-controlled, cannot take deposits from individuals and finance their lending activity by issuing bonds., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Moxy Ying &. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 12:23 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Digit Growth Forecast Double Peril India [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: India’s Double-Digit Growth Forecast in Peril. Short_description: Yet for now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is shunning a nationwide lockdown and encouraging states to keep their economies open. Description: , Just two weeks ago, the International Monetary Fund upgraded India’s economic growth forecast to 12.5% -- the quickest rate among major economies. Now, as Covid-19 cases surge the most globally, that bullish view is looking increasingly in doubt., In Delhi, India’s political capital, the streets are mostly empty and the markets nearly deserted with almost all shops closed in response to curbs put in place by the local administration to fight the pandemic. The scene is not so different in Mumbai, the financial hub that accounts for 6% of the national output., Yet for now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is , a nationwide lockdown and encouraging states to keep their economies open. And for that reason, economists are signaling risks to their forecasts, but not tearing them up all together just yet., “This second wave of virus cases may delay the recovery, but it is unlikely in Fitch’s view to derail it,” the ratings company said in an April 22 statement. It stuck to its 12.8% GDP growth forecast for the 12 months through March 2022., The Reserve Bank of India this month also retained its growth estimate of 10.5% for the current fiscal year. But Governor Shaktikanta Das said the surge in infections impart greater uncertainty and could delay economic activity from returning to normalcy., High-frequency data are already pointing to a deepening contraction in retail activity in the week through April 18 relative to its pre-pandemic January 2020 level, said Bloomberg Economics’ Abhishek Gupta. That’s a key risk for an economy where consumption makes up some 60% of gross domestic product., “Localized containment measures will act as a drag on growth,” said Teresa John, an analyst at Nirmal Bang Equities Pvt. in Mumbai, given that 10 Indian states that account for about 80% of the country’s Covid-19 cases contribute nearly 65% of the national output. Still, John left her “conservative” growth estimate unchanged at 7% for the current fiscal year., The reluctance by economists to revisit growth forecasts just yet possibly stems from expectations for the crisis to blow over soon. Fueling that confidence is a vaccination drive that’s covered more than 100 million people of the nation’s over 1.3 billion total, besides the promise of continued support from fiscal and monetary policy makers., “While the rapidity with which cases are rising is high, it is also expected that this wave will be relatively short lived,” said Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.’s Upasna Bhardwaj, who is among the few to have downgraded the economy’s growth forecast -- by 50 basis points to 10% for the current year. “Nonetheless, uncertainty remains,” she said., That uncertainty doesn’t look to be going away in a hurry, with India reporting record 349,691 new coronavirus cases and 2,767 deaths on Sunday. With almost 17 million cases in total, it is the second-worst affected nation globally, lagging only the U.S. Bloomberg’s Virus Tracker shows that only around 11 out of 100 people in India have received a vaccine dose., While the outbreak has overwhelmed the nation’s hospitals and crematoriums, it’s also , in an economy that was only beginning to recover from an , last year., “The surge in infections has led to the re-imposition of partial lockdowns in the more affected cities and states, and could trigger full lockdowns if the situation worsens,” said Kristy Fong, senior investment director for Asian equities at Aberdeen Standard. “This will have a knock-on impact on the re-opening of the economy and recovery prospects.”, Those concerns have contributed to the nation’s benchmark stocks index becoming Asia’s worst performer this month, while the rupee put up by far the region’s poorest show over the past month as traders factored in the impact of the curbs on economic growth., Although policy makers have signaled they are ready to take steps to support growth, a failure to flatten the virus curve could exert pressure on monetary and fiscal policies that have already used up most of the conventional space available to them., The government has limited fiscal headroom, having penciled in a near-record borrowing of 12.1 trillion rupees ($162 billion) this year to spur spending in the economy. For its part, the RBI has stood pat since cutting interest rates to a record low last year. It has instead relied on unorthodox tools, including announcing a Government Securities Acquisition Programme, or GSAP, to keep borrowing costs in check., Sovereign bonds are also facing the possibility of more supply if the government needs to spend more to deal with the second wave. Demand is tepid at auctions and the market is banking on central bank support to help ease the supply pressure., “Given the heavy borrowing program and the evolving macro situation wherein growth concerns are again coming back due the second wave of the pandemic and on the other side inflation could remain sticky, we think bond yields will struggle to soften despite RBI’s very laudable efforts,” said B. Prasanna, head of global markets, trading, sales and research at ICICI Bank Ltd., With or without lockdowns, some economists see the pandemic weighing on the confidence of consumers -- the backbone of the economy., “The rising burden of case counts could prove to be a negative distraction to the growth momentum and economic recovery,” said Shubhada Rao, founder at QuantEco Research in Mumbai, who sees a hit to the services sector, especially the contact-intense kind. “Potentially this could dent growth by a percentage point. This remains a developing story.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Vrishti Beniwal. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 4:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Developed World emission China [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: China’s Emissions Now Exceed All the Developed World’s Combined. Short_description: China now accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than all of world’s developed nations combined, according to new research.. Description: China now accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than all of the world’s developed nations combined, according to , from Rhodium Group., China’s emissions of six heat-trapping gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, rose to 14.09 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2019, edging out the total of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members by about 30 million tons, according to the New York-based climate research group., The massive scale of China’s emissions highlights the importance of President Xi Jinping’s drive to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and reach net-zero by 2060. China accounted for 27% of global emissions. The U.S., the second biggest emitter, contributed 11% while India for the first time surpassed the European Union with about 6.6% of the global total., Still, China also has the world’s largest population, so its per capita emissions remain far less than those of the U.S. And on a historical basis, OECD members are still the world’s biggest warming culprits, having pumped four times more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than China since 1750., “China’s history as a major emitter is relatively short compared to developed countries, many of which had more than a century head start,” the researchers said. “Current global warming is the result of emissions from both the recent and more distant past.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to real Progress economy Powell [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Powell Says Economy Making Real Progress, But Not for Everyone. Short_description: Powell Says Economy Making Real Progress But Disparities Weigh. Description: , Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that while the U.S. economic recovery is “making real progress,” the gains have been uneven following a downturn that cut hard along lines of race and income., “The economic outlook here in the , has clearly brightened,” Powell said Monday in remarks before the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Still, “it has been slower for those in lower paid jobs,” he said., The Fed chair , that almost 20% of workers in the lowest earnings rung were still unemployed after a year in February. That compares with just 6% for the highest-paid workers., Powell has repeatedly said during the pandemic that the burden of the recession has fallen hardest on those least able to afford it, especially lower-income workers in service-sector jobs. Despite average monthly payroll gains of 539,000 in the first three months of 2021, payroll employment is still 8.4 million jobs below its pre-pandemic level., Part of his speech to NCRC was a preview of the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, or SHED, which will be released later this month., “Our upcoming SHED report notes that 22% of parents were either not working or working less because of disruptions to childcare or in-person schooling,” Powell said. “Black and Hispanic mothers -- 36% and 30%, respectively -- were disproportionately affected.”, Record U.S. stocks and a hot property market could fan wealth inequality. Nationally, housing prices are up about 12% as of February compared to the same month a year ago., Powell, answering a question on housing after his speech, said “there is just a lot of demand,” partially fueled by low mortgage rates and fiscal stimulus that has helped boost household finances during the pandemic., “It is harder for first time home buyers to get in,” Powell said. “It is going to be a tight housing market for some time now because demand is just very, very high.”, Central bankers have forecast that they expect to keep interest rates near zero through 2023., They reiterated following a policy meeting last week that they would continue to buy $80 billion of U.S. Treasury securities and $40 billion of agency mortgage debt a month until “substantial further progress” has been made on inflation and employment., New York Fed chief John Williams, in separate remarks on Monday, said he was optimistic but “we still have a long way to go to achieve a robust and full economic recovery,”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Craig Torres. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 11:50 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Style benefit Covid Crisis Furlough U.K. [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: U.K. Urged to Adopt Furlough-Style Benefits After Covid Crisis. Short_description: U.K. Urged to Adopt Furlough-Style Benefits After Covid Crisis. Description: , The U.K. government should expand its social safety net to expand furlough-type payments to those who lose their jobs even after the pandemic, said a prominent research group campaigning for those on low pay., The Resolution Foundation said the government should introduce a form of earnings insurance, where unemployment support is paid at 80% of previous pay for three months. The measure would cost 3.25 billion pounds ($4.5 billion) a year if the jobless rate was similar to the level in 2009 and less than 1 billion pounds if it were near 2019 levels., That policy would echo the payments made to those temporarily , during the pandemic, a move credited with prevent a wave of joblessness in the past year. It would help address criticisms of the U.K. welfare system, which is one of the , in the developed world, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies., It would “mean those losing their jobs are automatically protected in future economic downturns, rather than having to rely on governments redesigning unemployment support in every crisis,” the Resolution Foundation said Thursday., and suffered a bigger hit to incomes during the pandemic than those in France and Germany partly because the British system is so rigid even though payments know as Universal Credit were increased during the crisis., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: David Goodman. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 4:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Australia Core price slow Record Low Policy Challenge [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Australia Core Prices Slow to Record Low in Policy Challenge. Short_description: Australia’s Inflation Eases as Government Programs Cut Costs. Description: , Australia’s core inflation decelerated to the slowest pace on record as government programs lowered costs in the economy, highlighting the scale of the Reserve Bank’s challenge to reignite stronger price growth., Annual trimmed mean core inflation eased to 1.1% in the first quarter, the weakest reading in a series dating back to 1983, versus an estimated 1.2% gain, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney Wednesday. The gauge, the RBA’s preferred measure, advanced 0.3% from the final three months of last year, compared with economists’ estimates of a 0.5% rise., “Core inflation is likely to remain weak for some time,” said Sarah Hunter, chief economist for BIS Oxford Economics. “Wages growth remains subdued and demand for many services is still recovering to pre-pandemic levels, which will limit any immediate pressures on prices.”, The Australian dollar slid after the release and was trading at 77.39 U.S. cents at 12:56 p.m. in Sydney. Australia’s 10-year bond yields erased earlier gains, while stocks advanced., Compounding its challenge, the RBA recently adjusted its inflation framework to allow the economy to run a little hotter, saying it won’t raise interest rates until prices are actually -- not forecast to be -- sustainably within the 2-3% target. That’s likely to be a prolonged wait given both core inflation and wages are now hovering around record lows., Governor Philip Lowe has said he doesn’t expect to raise rates until 2024 at the earliest, based on his expectation that wages will need to be rising by more than 3% on a sustainable basis in order to fuel faster inflation., Today’s report showed the headline consumer price index rose 0.6% from the final three months of last year, compared with economists’ estimates of a 0.9% gain. It increased 1.1% from a year earlier versus an estimated 1.4% increase., “The introduction, continuation and conclusion of a number of government, s remained a factor in the March quarter,” said Michelle Marquardt, head of Prices Statistics at the ABS. “The fall in new dwelling prices was due to the impact of the Federal Government’s HomeBuilder grant and similar grants by the Western Australian and Tasmanian state governments.”, Lowe is not alone among central bankers struggling to rekindle consumer-price growth. His Japanese colleague Haruhiko Kuroda is set to fail to reach his goal of stable 2% price growth during his term after what will have been more than a decade of stimulus. In contrast, Canada last week accelerated its timetable for a possible rate rise as inflation gathered strength., The RBA, like its U.S. and and European peers, maintains it will persist with stimulus as it tries to drive the economy toward full employment. The Federal Reserve has said it won’t scale back the pace of its $120 billion-a-month bond purchases until it sees “substantial further progress” on jobs and inflation., Among global influences on local prices, crude oil recovered through the latter part of 2020 and the first few months of this year. Yet, a stronger Australian dollar might have helped curb some of the flow through to pump prices., Today’s Australian inflation report showed tradables prices, which are typically impacted by the currency and global factors, rose 1.1% in the first quarter from the previous three months. Non-tradables, which are largely affected by domestic variables like utilities and rents, advanced 0.4%., Other details in the report include:, The weighted-median gauge, another core measure, advanced 0.4% from the fourth quarter for an annual increase of 1.3%, compared with forecast rises of 0.5% and 1.3%, respectively., The RBA meets Tuesday and is expected to keep its key policy instruments unchanged: the cash rate and three-year yield target at 0.1%; and a quantitative easing program involving A$5 billion ($4 billion) a week of purchases., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michael Heath. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 7:07 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to SNB Taps Experts Sexism Furor complaint Confront [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: SNB Taps Experts to Confront Pay Complaints After Sexism Furor. Short_description: SNB Taps Experts to Confront Pay Complaints After Sexism Furor. Description: The Swiss National Bank is using external experts to ensure women aren’t shortchanged on pay and promotion after reports they were subject to disparate treatment., Already faced with the deepest economic slump in decades due to the pandemic, the SNB found itself under public scrutiny last year following a story published by website Republik detailing bullying and salary discrimination endured by female staff., Although an internal review of the allegations found only a few cases and no systematic pattern of sexism and bullying, SNB Bank Council President Barbara Janom Steiner said corrective action nevertheless had been taken., “Processes relating to the reporting of misconduct -- as well as to hiring, salary-setting and promotion -- are being validated or certified by external experts,” the supervisory board chief said in a speech at the central bank’s annual general meeting on Friday. “This work is already well underway and any possibilities for improvement will be systematically implemented.”, As of last year, , of senior managers at the SNB were women, compared with , at the European Central Bank, where President Christine Lagarde has committed boosting diversity and said she still encounters sexism and patronizing comments., “It would really be to the credit of policy makers, governments, leaders of institutions, leaders in the corporate world to take a stand and steps in order to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Lagarde told an Aspen Institute conference this week. “It’s huge waste of talent.”, Speaking at the AGM, SNB President Thomas Jordan said his institution was keen to raise the proportion of women further. Diversity at the SNB meant having a good mix of different criteria, including gender, geographic origin and professional experience, he said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Catherine Bosley. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 4:15 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Stock Prices Pose Quandary Mapping policy Powell Frothy [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: ‘Frothy’ Stock Prices Pose Quandary for Powell in Mapping Policy. Short_description: ‘Frothy’ Stock Prices Pose Quandary for Powell in Mapping Policy. Description: , Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has called the risks emanating from “frothy” stock prices and other potential financial imbalances “manageable.” Some current and former central bankers are not so sure., They worry that the Fed’s rock-bottom interest rates and massive bond buying might lead to asset price bubbles, and excessive risk-taking and leverage that could come back to haunt the economy., “We’re now at a point where I’m observing excesses and imbalances in financial markets,” Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan , on April 30. “I’m very attentive to that, and that’s why I do think at the earliest opportunity I think it will be appropriate for us to start talking about adjusting those purchases.”, Powell, for his part, has shown no , to pull back on the Fed’s support for the pandemic-damaged, yet recovering, U.S. economy. But he’s lately sounded a bit more wary about potential dangers to financial stability., Investors will get further insight into Powell’s thinking when the Fed releases its semi-annual Financial Stability Report at 4 p.m. Washington time on Thursday. The report is a product of the Fed board in Washington and won’t reflect the views of regional central bank presidents like Kaplan., After avoiding calling asset prices elevated earlier this year, Powell surprised investors by using the “f” word to describe the markets when speaking to reporters on April 28., “You are seeing things in the capital markets that are a bit frothy,” he said, after a two-day meeting at which the Fed opted to maintain its ultra-accommodative monetary posture. “Some of the asset prices are high.”, But he argued that a growing number of vaccinations and a faster economic reopening were the main forces driving prices higher, not Fed policy., Powell also pointed out that some of the other factors the Fed looks at to assess financial stability risks are not flashing red. Household balance sheets are in good shape, leverage in the financial system is not high and banks are well-capitalized., “The overall financial stability picture is mixed but on balance, it’s manageable,” he said., Powell is far from alone in sounding wary about exuberance in financial markets., “Asset bubbles are a hot topic these days for the somewhat obvious reasons that so many markets are on fire,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. Head of Cross-Asset Fundamental Strategy John Normand said in an April 30 note., The Fed chief faces a quandary when it comes to the markets. He wants financial conditions to be easy to help the economy and the jobs market recover from the devastation of the pandemic., But he’s also aware that bursting asset bubbles can lead to economic recessions, as occurred in 2001 when high-flying technology company shares crashed, and in 2007 when housing prices crumbled., To help limit the financial fallout from an eventual step-back in Fed support, former Bank for International Settlements Economic , Stephen Cecchetti said policy makers should give investors a clearer idea of how they will adjust bond purchases in response to different economic scenarios., The central bank is currently buying $120 billion of assets per month and has pledged to keep up that pace “until substantial further progress” has been made toward its goals of maximum employment and 2% average inflation., Powell has repeatedly declined to be more specific, except to say that it will likely be some time before such progress is achieved., He has though promised to give investors ample warning of a coming shift in the Fed’s plans., That might not be enough to prevent a swoon in a stock market that’s become dependent on the Fed’s largesse., “Speculative markets are tricky,” former Fed Governor Jeremy Stein said. “They’re hard to manage.”, That could be especially the case if investors become fixated on the risk of faster inflation., “There’s been some dry kindling for a while (for a steep market decline) but now you can imagine what a spark might be,” Harvard University professor Stein added., Former Bank of England policy maker Adam Posen said the Fed and other regulators should act to make the financial system more resilient and thus better able to handle an eventual increase in interest rates., “There are things they can do now to reduce the likelihood that bad things will happen when they’re forced to raise rates in early 2023,” sooner than they’re currently expecting, said Posen, who’s now president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington., Kaplan is not the only Fed president who has flagged possible financial risks. Boston’s Eric Rosengren has as well., But unlike Kaplan, he has said it’s premature to talk about tapering bond purchases, though he’s added that it’s “quite possible” that the conditions for scaling back buying might be met toward the end of this year., While asset prices are not yet “unusually buoyant,” Rosengren suggested on a webinar on Wednesday that the Fed’s very patient approach to reducing stimulus could result in them becoming so., “If we get down to full employment by the end of next year with interest rates still quite low, I am going to be highly attuned to what’s happening in financial markets,” he said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Rich Miller. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Latin America New Nadir shockwave Poverty Covid [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Covid’s Shockwaves Took Poverty in Latin America to a New Nadir. Short_description: Covid’s Shockwaves Took Poverty in Latin America to a New Nadir. Description: The Covid-19 pandemic has sent a wave of poverty racing across Latin America, deepening declines that began over the past decade and consigning millions to lives of deprivation., The world’s most unequal region saw 22 million people — the equivalent of everyone in New York state — join the ranks of the poor from 2019 to 2020, unable to meet basic needs. In all, about one-third of Latin America’s roughly 600 million residents live in poverty or what the , defines as extreme poverty: subsisting on less than $1.90 a day., Short of vaccines and hospital beds, Latin America has been uniquely hard-hit due to the intensity of the pandemic and the steepness of its recession, the worst in two centuries. The region accounts for about 30% of the world’s Covid-19 deaths, despite having only 8% of its population. Its economy contracted 7% last year, more than double the decline of any other region., The crisis is warping societies in ways large and small. A massive Rio de Janeiro library and cultural complex has become a riotous, besieged soup kitchen. In Bogota, idled musicians serenade the rich, who toss them bags containing small bills with a coin or two for ballast as they fall from the balconies of luxurious apartments. In Mexico City, even attorneys are resorting to pawnshops., Workers who had attained a tenuous stability are finding themselves jobless. People who labor in the vast informal sector are finding traditional networks of casual employment disrupted. For the unluckiest, life has been reduced to a constant search for food., In Mexico City’s Calle Monte de Piedad, lawyer Juliana Ortega Aguilar, 36, waited outside the charity that gives the street its name. The centuries-old institution was founded to give the poor affordable loans. Inside, Ortega’s mother was pawning jewelry; the legal office where her husband works closed amid the pandemic. Ortega said few cases were arriving on her own desk., “We’re a house full of lawyers, but there’s no work,” Ortega said. “We all have to pay rent or a mortgage, the electric bill and even if the kids aren’t going to school, they have to eat, and they get sick.”, Across the region, people who reached the middle-class life are trying to cling to it., After years of renting in La Plata, Argentina, Romina Bravo, 44, and her husband in 2017 bought a three-bedroom house where 7-year-old Benicio and Valentino, 14, could grow up. They signed up for a government-promoted mortgage with payments tied to inflation, which was supposed to go down., Instead, it soared, because of a lack of confidence in the peso and a failure of government price controls. Bravo lost her bank job of 22 years right before the pandemic, and her new position as a court administrator pays the equivalent of about $320 a month, a fraction of her previous salary. A mortgage payment freeze just expired. Bravo put the house on sale in March., “It’s either I eat or I pay,” said Bravo. “I’m hoping for help. Otherwise, I’ll be the next one evicted.”, Latin America had made strides in recent decades. By 2019, half its college-age population was enrolled in some form of higher education, up from 23% in 2000, , to Unesco. The middle class expanded to 46 million households in 2018, up from 33 million a decade before, Euromonitor , ., Many countries finally stamped out runaway inflation. Stable policies and currencies paved the way for foreign investment and job growth. Brazil hosted the Olympics; Argentina held the G20 Summit; Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg chose Colombia for his first international town hall., The region’s single dominant economic driver has historically been exports of raw commodities like soy, beef and metals. China’s demand for those materials, a catalyst for growth in the 2000s, is surging again, causing prices to spike and giving policy-makers hope for growth. But governments remain heavily indebted — Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname and Belize all restructured their sovereign debt amid the pandemic — and few have money for social spending that could keep citizens afloat., Glitzy events are now gone, violence is increasing, especially against women, and progress is unraveling. The region lost over 34 million jobs during the pandemic and workers saw more hours cut than in any other region, , to the International Labor Organization. Instead of reaping the economic reward of higher commodity prices, the poor often experience them as soaring food costs. Millions of Venezuelans, fleeing a broken, mismanaged country, have spread across the region, adding acute challenges., The public’s anger is spreading: Faced with its worst contraction on record, Colombia is trying to rein in its budget deficit and stave off credit-rating downgrades that could send borrowing costs soaring. This week, the government shelved a plan to raise taxes after deadly street protests. , “It really is bad news all around. Unless there’s some serious changes in the structures of social protection in the region, the outlook isn’t promising,” said Santiago Levy, a former top Mexican official who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “There’s going to be a long-term loss of human capital.”, In Mexico City, the pawnshops are filled with artifacts of a better life. People — most of whom never redeem their collateral — have left engraved gold wedding rings, refrigerators and washing machines. On a recent visit, those in the city’s historic center offered videogame consoles, GoPro-style cameras, hair straighteners and blood-pressure machines. One employee said she had even accepted a gold flask with a tiny spoon that looked like it was designed for cocaine., “The middle class is no longer the middle class,” said Erika Guarneros, who buys and sells gold from her family’s stall. “It’s basically turned into the class of the poor.”, Many Latin American governments provide social welfare for those out of formal employment. At the same time, they increasingly concentrate taxes on companies and rich citizens to finance that spending. Researchers warn of a scenario where companies hire less, productivity falls and high-skill workers simply leave or seek jobs off the books to dodge taxes. Ultimately, governments lose revenue even as demand for aid soars., “It’s a vicious circle,” says Agustin Salvia, research director at the Argentine Social Debt , in Buenos Aires. “The trend is eventually an economic paralysis in terms of job creation, productivity and informal-sector salaries that are poorer.”, The informal sector accounts for at least half the region’s work force, with people catching jobs where they can, often for cash. The crisis has disrupted traditional labor markets., In Bogota, musicians for years used business cards and word of mouth to find steady work, and one could hire mariachi troupes directly off the streets. But since the pandemic stopped weddings and quinceaneras, wealthy neighborhoods have been filled with wandering musicians playing everything from folk tunes to opera. The trade of “balconeo,” or singing up at balconies, didn’t exist 18 months ago, said Enrique Gutierrez, who plays a small guitar known as a cuatro., “We sincerely hope we aren’t disturbing you,” Maryoris Cordero, the singer in his group, told the empty windows of one high-end apartment block, speaking through a small amplifier. The twanging of a harp rippled through the neighborhood as they struck up llanero songs from the cattle-grazing plains., After six hours of walking and playing, each of the group’s four members typically takes home about $7., Workers aren’t the only ones displaced when such labor markets collapse. Harpist Elio Materan, who is married to maracas player Karla Rivero, said their 9-year-old daughter, Karlieth, is shackled to their schedule., “She almost always goes with us, because we don’t have anyone to leave her with,” Materan said. “When she has virtual classes, she stays with her mom, and I go out with the other band members.”, The likelihood of a disadvantaged Latin American child graduating high school plunged an estimated 20 percentage points last year, the lowest level since the 1960s, , to Tulane University professor Nora Lustig. Meanwhile, graduation rates for rich kids barely budged., “It’s a huge shock that could turn into a lasting scar,” said Lustig. Income recovers with economic growth, she said. “Human capital damage doesn’t.”, Nowhere is the replacement of aspiration by desperation more literal than at Rio de Janeiro’s Biblioteca Parque Estadual, the hub of a state library network where thousands came for books before the pandemic. Now, it accommodates a massive feeding operation., Brazilians have gone hungry over the past year, according to food-security researchers. That’s almost double the amount the government says were in that , . At first, emergency payments helped many stay fed. But aid was drastically reduced — and stopped altogether in the first three months of this year — as President Jair Bolsonaro struggles with a deepening fiscal crisis., In Rio, the state’s human-rights agency gives out about 4,500 meals daily and runs the library site. The city’s neediest — the homeless, elderly, sex workers, mentally ill, and the out-of-work — crowd behind metal barriers before breakfast, lunch and dinner., Leonardo Bispo Dos Santos, 44, used to come to the library to watch films and use the Internet. Then, the furniture-moving business where he worked went bust. Now he comes to get fed., “After breakfast, I head straight for lunch,” he said as the line began to move on a recent Friday. “If you don’t get here early, you don’t eat.”, Police watched as the crowd heaved forward and shouts erupted. For nearly an hour, the hungry swarmed ahead, and more officers arrived on motorcycles to restore calm., Bispo Dos Santos squeezed toward aid workers, and stuffed an aluminum-foil container of rice and beans into his backpack. “This is survival,” he said., He headed to the back of the line to start the cycle anew., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Patrick Gillespie &. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New York City Pitches Vaccines Tourism Benefit Virus Update [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: New York City Pitches Vaccines as Tourism Benefit: Virus Update. Short_description: Track the global Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccination efforts here.   . Description: New York City is in talks to offer free vaccines to visitors as a way to spur tourism, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE can make as many as , of their vaccine this year, more than double what the partners predicted six months ago., Los Angeles eased limits on theme parks, bars and gyms as it moves to the state’s least restrictive tier. Minnesota’s governor said he envisions “a summer where just the simple pleasures will be back.”, India reported 412,262 new virus cases and 3,980 deaths, both daily records. German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposed a U.S.-backed proposal to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, , on international support for the idea., Subscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team , . Click CVID on the terminal for global data on cases and deaths., New York tax authorities have started auditing 2020 income tax returns filed by nonresidents with jobs tied to the state that they did from elsewhere during the pandemic., Legal challenges could follow as taxpayers wait to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the issue as requested by New Hampshire, which is challenging Massachusetts’ taxation of residents working remotely. , Minnesota will lift nearly all virus restrictions by Memorial Day, and a statewide mask mandate will be eliminated by July 1, Governor Tim Walz said., “We’re going to have a summer where just the simple pleasures will be back,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference., Restrictions will be lifted in phases, starting Friday, and end entirely by July 1 or when 70% of Minnesotans are vaccinated, whichever happens first. “We’re going to ramp up, step up and put our foot down on the gas on the vaccinations,” Walz said., Schools in Puerto Rico, which reopened in March before a surge in cases shut them again in mid-April, can resume in-class sessions starting Monday, Governor Pedro Pierluisi said. They’ll have to pass inspections and enforce social distancing in order to remain open., A nightly curfew will be pushed back an hour to midnight starting Monday, though capacity in restaurants and shops remains limited to 30%. Mask wearing on the island of 3.3 million is mandatory., “I want to underscore that we have not beat the pandemic yet, so we cannot let our guard down,” Pierluisi said in a statement. “If we keep complying with safety measures and can get everyone vaccinated, we can reach collective immunity soon.”, Illinois is on track to reopen without capacity limits as soon as June 11, Governor J.B. Pritzker said. The state will move to the bridge phase of the reopening on May 14, he said. The plans could change if the metrics worsen., “For restaurants, and bars and retail and weddings and public gatherings, this means higher capacity limits and a very hopeful move toward full reopening,” Pritzker said regarding the bridge phase. “Barring any significant reversals in key Covid-19 statewide indicators, Illinois will move to phase 5, normal business operations, free of pandemic-related mitigations, as soon as Friday, June 11.”, Illinois is expanding its Covid-19 vaccination rollout to include private doctors’ offices and small medical providers. About 60% of adult Illinois residents have received one dose, including 85% of residents ages 65 and older, according to the state., The Indian variant of the virus was found across England, the Guardian reported, citing leaked emails on the latest case count., The variant was uncovered in care homes, the paper said, raising concerns that it’s spreading quickly across communities. Public Health England is set to escalate one of the variants to one “of concern,” the newspaper said., Los Angeles County is easing restrictions on capacity limits from theme parks to restaurants starting Thursday after meeting the threshold to move to the least restrictive yellow tier. The county’s test positivity rate on Wednesday was 0.7%., Theme parks will now be able to boost their capacity to 35% and open their doors for fully-vaccinated out-of-state visitors. Bars will be able to operate indoors at a 25% cap, with that limit rising to 50% for breweries and wineries. The capacity limit for restaurants, gyms and movies theaters will also increase to 50%., Indoor live events and performances can have as many as 1,500 guests, with the capacity limit set at half for those tested or fully vaccinated, while outdoor venues can fill two-thirds of the capacity., Texas plans to dispatch mobile vaccination teams to offices, homes and civic organizations on request beginning Friday., Companies and civic groups with at least 10 employees or members, as well as individual residents, will be able to call a hotline to arrange a visit, Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement on Thursday., Until now, the state’s mobile vaccination efforts were focused on large-group settings such as nursing homes and meatpacking plants, which were among the hardest hit venues earlier in the pandemic. The hotline will go live at 8 a.m. Central time., Deaths related to alcohol in England and Wales last year reached the highest level in two decades, according to , from the Office for National Statistics. The number rose by almost 20%, with deaths from alcoholic liver disease and poisoning accelerating after March, when virus lockdowns began., Colorado’s highest Covid-19 transmission rate is among junior high school and high school students ages 11-17, state epidemiologist Rachael Herlihy said Thursday., Colorado has recorded five cases of a B.1617.2 virus variant from India, all in Mesa County in the western part of the state, Herlihy said during an online briefing., Hospitalizations statewide are among the highest since December at 666, she said. Governor Jared Polis said more than 2 million of Colorado’s 4.7 million eligible residents are fully vaccinated. , German Chancellor Angela Merkel weighed in against a U.S. proposal to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, , on whether the idea has enough international support to become a reality., “The limiting factor in the manufacture of vaccines is production capacity and the high quality standards, not the patents,” a government spokeswoman in Berlin said by email. “Protecting intellectual property is the wellspring of innovation and it must remain so.” , New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is working with state officials to offer free vaccines to visitors as a way to encourage them to visit and spur tourism., Mobile vans will bring Johnson & Johnson one-dose shots to Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge Park and other popular locations, de Blasio said Thursday during a briefing., “We think this is a positive message to send to tourists,” the mayor said. “Come here and we’re going to take care of you.”, The city plans a $30 million marketing blitz to recharge its tourism industry. Capacity restrictions on restaurants, stores and shows will be lifted on May 19 as Covid-19 cases decrease and vaccinations increase, Governor Andrew Cuomo said this week. Broadway tickets for September shows went on sale today., Pfizer and BioNTech have capacity to make as many as , of their Covid-19 vaccine this year, more than double the amount the partners had predicted less than six months ago., The partners will further increase their capacity for 2022 to more than 3 billion doses, BioNTech said in an e-mailed statement., The increase is the latest in a series of production target boosts and comes amid increased demand for messenger RNA Covid vaccines around the world., The coronavirus strain circulating in India has been detected in three African countries, according to the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention., Authorities in Kenya, Uganda and Morocco have reported the presence of the variant known as B.1.617 that is overwhelming the health system in India, Africa CDC’s director, John Nkengasong, said in an online briefing Thursday. Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are among countries that have temporarily banned flights from India., Rwandan President Paul Kagame said his country is in talks to establish the , in Africa as the continent battles the coronavirus pandemic. He did not give details., Africa has few manufacturing facilities of any kind and most that do exist can only package and distribute the inoculations -- so called fill-finish facilities -- rather than make the ingredients needed for the shots., Tokyo , athletes and delegations will be able to receive Covid-19 vaccine doses donated by Pfizer and BioNTech as organizers push ahead with preparations for the delayed games., The International Olympic Committee signed an agreement with the companies to donate the doses, with the first delivery expected to begin at the end of this month, according to a statement from the drugmakers on Thursday. The statement did not specify the number of doses., Russia , a single-dose version of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine after it showed almost 80% efficacy, according to the state-run fund that backed its development., The 79.4% efficacy rate of the vaccine, called Sputnik Light, is based on an analysis of real-world data rather than a standard clinical trial, and interim results from final-stage study are expected later this month, according to a statement from the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Early and mid-stage studies showed no serious adverse events, RDIF said., The U.S.’s sudden , for a waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines headed to the World Trade Organization, setting the stage for potentially thorny negotiations over sharing the proprietary know-how needed to boost global supplies of the life-saving shots., “In terms of how soon the WTO can deliver -- that literally depends on the WTO members, collectively, being able to deliver,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in an interview Wednesday. “I am the first one to, that what we are leaning into is a process that is not going to be easy.”, With the European Union and China signaling a willingness to take part in the debate after the Biden administration’s shock announcement, stock prices tumbled worldwide., Moderna Inc. said , of its Covid vaccine in teenagers showed that it was 96% effective. The company raised its product sales projections for the year as it reported its first-ever profitable quarter., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 4:28 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Migration wave Turkey Erdogan [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Erdogan Says Turkey Can't Stand Alone Against New Migration Wave. Short_description: Erdogan Says Turkey Can't Stand Alone Against New Migration Wave. Description: (Bloomberg) -- Turkey, which already hosts the , refugee population in the world, is at a tipping point, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning his country wouldn’t be able to cope with another influx of people fleeing the conflict in neighboring Syria., “In case of a new refugee wave, we can’t withstand this alone anymore,” Erdogan said in an address to government leaders from Europe and elsewhere who arrived in Istanbul to discuss the growing refugee problem on Wednesday., Erdogan is pushing for a greater say in a global debate over migration as countries from the U.S. to Australia clamp down on arrivals. Turkey played a key role in stemming the tide of migrants from Syria four years ago at the height of the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. More than 3.6 million Syrians have found a home there since the war began in 2011, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans followed in their footsteps., But with the war in Syria nearing its endgame, Turkey faces the prospect of more people fleeing across the border should an agreement collapse to prevent an assault by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Russian airstrikes on the last rebel stronghold of Idlib., “Keeping the refugees within our borders can’t be seen as the only solution to the problem that originates from Syria,” Erdogan said, referring to Turkey’s agreement with the European Union to prevent the refugees from reaching Europe in return for financial aid. The EU has also signed a deal in March 2016 that allows it to send back asylum-seekers and migrants to Turkey., Erdogan has said that Turkey already spent as much as $35 billion on the housing, health care, food and education for the arrivals. An economic downturn in Turkey is also fanning anger at government policies ahead of local elections in March., Turkey is now massing its troops on the border as it loudly calls for the formation of a safe zone within Syria where it hopes to build new cities to house the displaced people. The U.S. and Russia have serious reservations against the plan, “The formula of a safe zone is the most practical way to ensure the return of Syrian refugees,” Erdogan said., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Selcan Hacaoglu. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 12:45 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to North Korea Deal Human Rights Key [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Human Rights Are the Key to a North Korea Deal. Short_description: Trump can not realize his dream of seeing North Korea denuclearize, unless he addresses the regime’s massive human-rights abuses.. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- If Donald Trump’s , with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi next week goes as the U.S. president hopes, the two will emerge trumpeting promises of North Korea’s denuclearization, the proclamation of an end to the Korean War, and commitments by the international business community and multilateral lending institutions to transform the nation led by “Little Rocket Man,” in Trump’s words, into the “, ” of Asia., While there’s probably a better chance of pigs flying over Pyongyang, it is important to consider the latter prospect for one important but neglected reason: Trump will never realize his dream of seeing North Korea trade its missile launch pads for beachfront condominiums and casinos unless he addresses the regime’s massive human-rights abuses., Trump’s loudest pronouncements on the North’s horrific human-rights record came in 2017 after the death of Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student detained during a tourist visit to the country. The president even , the Warmbier family to the State of the Union speech to highlight the issue. But, since Trump met Kim in Singapore last summer, he’s gone quiet on human rights. , Over two years into his term, Trump still hasn’t appointed an envoy for human-rights abuses in North Korea, a position mandated by Congress. He seems to think that raising the issue in Hanoi with Kim would be impolite and distract from the question of denuclearization. Washington’s silence has had palpable consequences: Five years after a United Nations , created a groundswell of support for charging the North Korean leadership with crimes against humanity, the Security Council last December voted against raising the issue at the behest of China and Russia., What Trump doesn’t seem to realize is that human rights are critical to his negotiation strategy. For one thing, stopping North Korea’s bomb-making activities means blocking the hard currency flows that finance them. Much of that money comes from the regime’s , and other abusive business activities. , Second,, in order to verify any nuclear deal, inspectors have to be able to move around the country to different sites. That will require a much more open North Korean society than exists today, for which the U.S. should be pressing simultaneously with denuclearization. , Third, raising human rights can strengthen U.S. leverage in the talks. Over the past three decades, North Korea has barely cracked a yawn when Washington has condemned its nuclear activities. But, when the international community began shining a spotlight on Pyongyang’s human-rights abuses in 2014, the reclusive regime, feeling vulnerable, quickly dispatched diplomats abroad to lobby against punitive resolutions at the U.N., Fourth, for Trump to integrate human-rights demands into the negotiations would be smart politics at home, given how , will likely be to accept any deal that doesn’t address those issues., And finally, Trump’s promise of economic betterment for Kim in return for his nukes simply won’t be credible unless there is tangible progress on human rights. Current Security Council resolutions as well as U.S. laws make it difficult for private-sector companies or international financial institutions to engage economically with North Korea absent certification that the country is in compliance with international labor standards. Even at Trump’s behest, no general counsel of any U.S. company would recommend investing in North Korea if human-rights abuses in the supply chain might put them in violation of U.S. law., Raising human rights isn’t just a necessity but an opportunity. Since the Commission of Inquiry report, Pyongyang has quietly become more engaged in humanitarian efforts and information-gathering on human-rights standards. This may make the North Koreans more receptive to a dialogue about human rights and international monitoring standards for health and food assistance., But, they aren’t going to raise the issue if the U.S. doesn’t. For Trump to continue to keep quiet in Hanoi would not just dim America’s traditional role as a beacon of human freedom, but make the task of denuclearizing North Korea that much harder., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Victor D. Cha is Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Human Freedom Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute. He previously served as Asia director at the National Security Council. , ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Victor D. Cha. Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New IP Rights Protections Fall short USTR China Biden [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Biden’s USTR Says China’s New IP Rights Protections Fall Short. Short_description: Biden’s USTR Says China’s New IP Rights Protections Fall Short. Description: President Joe Biden’s administration urged China to do more to respect the intellectual property of American companies, signaling the U.S. will maintain pressure applied under Donald Trump to crack down on commercial crimes ranging from IP theft to counterfeiting and digital piracy., The Trade Representative’s office in Washington kept China on its “priority watchlist” of nations whose practices require monitoring. It , that China’s patent, copyright and criminal law has been amended in the past year. “However, these steps toward reform require effective implementation and also fall short of the full range of fundamental changes needed to improve the IP landscape in China,” the report released Friday stated., The , found that the pandemic has worsened some intellectual-property protection problems, given the accelerated shift to online shopping. The USTR also highlighted a move in recent months by Chinese courts that “broadly prohibit right holders from asserting their patents anywhere else in the world,” and expressed concern about comments from President Xi Jinping “about promoting the extraterritorial application of China’s IP law.”, “Widespread counterfeiting in China’s e-commerce markets, the largest in the world, has also been exacerbated by the migration of infringing sales from physical to online markets, which accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report said., U.S. officials are reviewing the actions Trump took against China that sparked a trade war between the world’s largest economies. Biden criticized Trump’s go-it-alone strategy toward Beijing, but the White House in recent weeks has signaled a willingness to keep applying tough economic and diplomatic pressure., The IP report, which carries no immediate penalties and “seeks to be a positive catalyst for change,” is meant to draw attention to the need for nations to protect the interests of foreign investment and multinationals doing business in their markets. The priority watchlist also includes Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Venezuela., Algeria dropped from that list to a lower-level watchlist this year. The United Arab Emirates was removed from that watchlist. , USTR Katherine Tai has repeatedly said that China needs to deliver on the promises made in phase one of a trade deal reached under Trump at the start of 2020. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said this month that Beijing “doesn’t play fair,” and that the U.S. has to do what it takes to ensure American workers “have a shot.”, In that agreement, Beijing pledged to combat Chinese companies’ theft of American intellectual property and to do more to enforce IP rights in the country. China also promised to purchase more American products but missed its 2020 trade-deal targets as the global pandemic disrupted shipping and supply chains., Friday’s report said “the , has been closely monitoring China’s progress in implementing its commitments.”, The report listed a raft of continuing concerns about China’s judicial system proving to be an ineffective advocate for protecting IP rights of foreign companies. The USTR also said, “A truly independent judiciary is critical to promote rule of law in China and to protect IP rights” -- something the Chinese Communist leadership is unlikely to embrace., While the deal acted as a cease fire in any escalation of the trade war between the two countries, tariffs remain in place on about $335 billion of Chinese goods annually., Trump used export controls under the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to limit the sale of cutting-edge technology to China. Biden is following the same path, expanding a crackdown that began under Trump with curbs on exports to Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies Co., USTR is required by law to identify countries that don’t adequately protect IP or deny market access to U.S. companies that rely on IP protection. USTR can launch investigations against countries on the priority watch list under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Trump administration used that section to investigate China., Trump slapped the tariffs on Chinese products in 2018 after USTR concluded that the nation engages in widespread violation of U.S. IP rights., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Eric Martin &. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 8:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Pandemic Risks Offset Brighter Outlook Riksbank Stays [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Riksbank Stays Put as Pandemic Risks Offset Brighter Outlook. Short_description: Riksbank Stays Put as Pandemic Risks Offset Brighter Outlook. Description: , Sweden’s central bank underlined its commitment to keeping monetary stimulus in place as continued risks from the pandemic outweigh a brighter outlook for the Nordic region’s largest economy., The Stockholm-based Riksbank, which kept its main interest rate at zero as expected, said the economy is set to “approach a more normal level , the end of the year.”, The central bank also kept its quantitative easing program at 700 billion kronor ($83 billion). In a statement, it said “monetary policy needs to remain expansionary to support the economy and for inflation to be close to the target of 2% more permanently.” The krona was little changed against the euro., Sweden’s Riksbank, which ended half a decade of negative rates in late 2019, has signaled it doesn’t want to go below zero again. But it’s also made clear it’s reluctant to remove monetary support as doubts around the continued fallout from the pandemic linger., “We think the Riksbank will be mindful to repeat past mistakes. It was early to hike after the financial crisis but had to reverse course due to a marked decline in inflation on the back of a stronger krona. It will want to see inflation near the target for an extended period before flagging rate hikes. That will take time.”, --Johanna Jeansson, economist for the Nordic region., For the full note, click here, Governor Stefan Ingves said that even though the bank expects to see the economy recover, changing policy direction now would be too early and carry too much risk., “If we’re wrong, we would be facing a very steep uphill battle, starting from scratch again,” he told reporters., Meanwhile, Sweden’s economy looks poised to recover faster from the Covid crisis than many of its European peers including Germany. The Riksbank raised its outlook for gross domestic product growth this year to 3.7% from 3% previously. Inflation isn’t expected to reach its 2% target until early 2024, though, and the Riksbank doesn’t see its main interest rate moving away from zero throughout that period., The bank said its forecasts assume that the “greater part of the adult population of Sweden and its most important trading partners will have been vaccinated , the end of the summer.” And by the second half of the year, the expectation is that “restrictions on social life are eased more substantially,” it said., The Nordic economies have weathered the Covid crisis better than most thanks in large part to generous welfare systems and widespread digitalization that made working from home less of a disruption., But years of ultra-low interest rates have also fed record house prices and rising private debt levels. Ingves has likened the monetary policy balancing act the Riksbank needs to maintain to , Andreas Steno Larsen, the chief strategist at Nordea, suggested the decision to continue buying 50 billion kronor worth of covered bonds that finance Swedish mortgages in the third quarter isn’t “smart.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Niclas Rolander &. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 4:51 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Pandemic Rages rbi [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Here’s What Else the RBI Can Do as Pandemic Rages on. Short_description: What comes next as the Reserve Bank of India seeks to ease the pandemic’s hit to Asia’s third-largest economy?. Description: The Reserve Bank of India’s , and liquidity injection plans unveiled Wednesday raise the question: What comes next as it seeks to ease the pandemic’s hit to Asia’s third-largest economy?, Benchmark rates have remained unchanged , amid , , so the RBI has relied on a string of unorthodox policies. It’s embraced a Federal Reserve-style “‘Operation Twist” and an European Central Bank-style , known as Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations, as well as its own version of , ., Here’s a look at what else Governor Shaktikanta Das can do as the pandemic rages on:, The Government Securities Acquisition Programme, or GSAP, is the RBI’s version of quantitative easing -- when central banks buy up financial assets, mainly government bonds, to pump cash into the banking system. When Das introduced its 1 trillion-rupees ($13.5 billion) program last month, he hinted there might be more in store., “We have announced the quantum for this quarter and there should be a surprise element too, for the second quarter,” Das had said last month. “It is not a , kind of announcement.”, The program helped lower bond yields, and has been successful in keeping overall borrowing costs in check despite stubborn inflationary expectations and doubts about the government’s ability to stick to its debt plan., As part of its efforts to control borrowing costs, the RBI resorted to its own version of Operation Twist -- selling short-term bonds while buying those longer-term to keep the yield-curve in a downward slope., Das has repeatedly urged traders to treat the bond yield curve as a “public good” because of its impact on borrowing costs in the broader economy., “With system liquidity assured, the RBI is now focusing on increasingly channelizing its liquidity operations to support growth impulses, especially at the grass-roots level,” he said Wednesday., As regulator of the banking sector, the RBI can ease loan repayment rules, especially for sectors badly hit by the pandemic’s second wave such as tourism, hospitality, aviation and small-scale industry., , an economist with Care Ratings Ltd., said there were expectations Wednesday’s , would include a loan moratorium., “That is something that can be considered later on,” she said. “Then they can come up with measures to alleviate distress in segments that are most affected, even small businesses.”, While its key policy rate has remained unchanged since mid-2020, the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee is likely to maintain its easing bias until rate-setters are sure an economic recovery has started. Deputy Governor Michael Patra has said inflation pressures can be overlooked given weak demand, while his central bank colleague Mridul Saggar is convinced that the priority now is supporting growth., That would allow policy makers to keep rates lower for longer, even if they don’t cut further., “Rate cuts are unlikely at the moment unless the growth outlook deteriorates substantially,” said Rahul Bajoria, senior economist at Barclays Bank Plc in Mumbai. “So while the Monetary Policy Committee will keep a dovish bias, they are likely to rely on unconventional policies going forward.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anirban Nag &. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 8:03 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.S. home New Ones expensive [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: Previously Owned U.S. Homes Are Now More Expensive Than New Ones. Short_description: Previously Owned U.S. Homes Are Now More Expensive Than New Ones. Description: , For the first time in more than 15 years, it’s cheaper to buy a new house than a previously owned dwelling., The premium for newly built homes vanished last month as low supply fueled price increases in the broader market and erased the discount traditionally associated with older properties., The median sales price of a previously owned single-family home rose to $334,500 in March, the latest National Association of Realtors data show. Meanwhile, new properties sold for a median $330,800, according to a government report, marking a reversal in the differential for the first time since June 2005., Prices -- which can vary widely each month depending on the composition of properties sold -- increased on a year-over-year basis, but the gains were much larger for older houses. That resale prices have risen so sharply reflects an historically low level of properties available: There were 900,000 existing homes for sale last month, down more than 30% from a year ago., The number of new homes sold and awaiting the start of construction, meanwhile, climbed to the highest level since September 2006. That’s a sign that builders have their work cut out for them as demand far exceeds supply., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jordan Yadoo. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 4:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Fed Taper talk BOJ Brighter Outlook Hungary Decision Eco day [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: BOJ Brighter Outlook, Hungary Decision, Fed Taper Talk: Eco Day. Short_description: BOJ Brighter Outlook, Hungary Decision, Fed Taper Talk: Eco Day. Description: , Welcome to Tuesday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michelle Jamrisko. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 11:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Fed Taper Plan Balancing Act Eco day Norway Hike BOE [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: BOE’s Balancing Act, Norway May Hike, Fed Taper Plan: Eco Day. Short_description: BOE’s Balancing Act, Norway May Hike, Fed Taper Plan: Eco Day. Description: , Welcome to Thursday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anirban Nag. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 11:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.S. Vaccine Patent Surprise Roils Pharma WTO debate [/INST] Global Economics news. Title: U.S. Vaccine Patent Surprise Roils Pharma as WTO Debate Heats Up. Short_description: The U.S. will support a proposal to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid-19 vaccines: USTR Katherine Tai. Description: The U.S.’s sudden support for a waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines is headed for potentially thorny negotiations at the World Trade Organization over sharing the proprietary know-how needed to boost global supplies., “In terms of how soon the WTO can deliver -- that literally depends on the WTO members, collectively, being able to deliver,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in an interview Wednesday. “I am the first one to, that what we are leaning into is a process that is not going to be easy.”, With the European Union and China signaling a willingness to take part in the debate after the Biden administration’s announcement, pharmaceutical executives reacted with anger and their stock prices tumbled worldwide., BioNTech SE’s depository receipts dropped as much as 16% in U.S. trading, while shares of Pfizer Inc. were down 2.8% as of 10:19 a.m. in New York. Together, the companies sell the messenger RNA shot that was one of the first to win regulatory endorsement., “This change in longstanding American policy will not save lives,” said Stephen Ubl, the president and CEO of PhRMA, the biopharma industry’s lobbying group. “This decision does nothing to address the real challenges to getting more shots in arms, including last-mile distribution and limited availability of raw materials.”, CureVac NV of Germany, which is developing another mRNA vaccine, fell as much as 13% in U.S. trading. Asian vaccine stocks including Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. and CanSino Biologics Inc. also slumped., “The EU is ready to discuss any proposal that addresses the crisis in an effective and pragmatic manner,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a virtual conference in Florence, Italy on Thursday. “And that’s why we are ready to discuss how the U.S. proposal for a waiver on IP protection for Covid vaccines could help achieve that objective.”, The U.S. and Europe have been strong supporters of IP protections at the WTO, particularly as a way to enforce problems like Chinese patent infringement. As the pandemic leads to some of the world’s more monumental and lucrative scientific discoveries, defenders of IP rights are warming to some exceptions on ethical grounds even though the drug companies argue it’ll do more harm than good., The WTO’s General Council is meeting on Thursday, though any final waiver of intellectual-property protections may take weeks to hammer out. Tai added that she sees momentum from WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala “to take this opportunity and see what is the WTO capable of.”, In a statement, Okonjo-Iweala called it the “moral and economic issue of our time.”, The Biden administration will encourage other countries to join its position, Tai said. “We are for the waiver at the WTO, we are for what the proponents of the waiver are trying to accomplish, which is better access, more manufacturing capability, more shots in arms,” she said., Drugmakers argue that the plan is ineffective and that few countries have the capacity to produce more vaccines even if they knew the formulas. Also, there’s limited global supply of the materials needed, and building new factories with the necessary technology to produce the vaccines could take years, they say., Nathalie Moll, director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said the Biden administration’s decision “puts the hard-won progress in fighting this terrible disease in jeopardy.”, “While we wholeheartedly agree with the goal of protecting citizens around the world through vaccines, waiving patents will make winning the fight against the coronavirus even harder,” Moll said., EU officials involved in the discussions caution that any negotiations at the WTO will drag for months or even years and will only result into a partial waiver that does not touch mRNA technology. Von der Leyen said in a tweet that the priority should be the ramping up of production of vaccines, after having earlier appealed to the U.K. and the U.S to lift export restrictions., Officials in Brussels see donations-in-kind of spare vaccines and a lift to export restrictions as a much more effective means to address the risks of mutations, rather than IP rights for vaccines that most countries in the world don’t have the capacity to produce., India and South Africa, two nations struggling to contain fresh outbreaks of Covid-19, have been urging WTO members to temporarily suspend rules on IP rights, arguing that it would be the most efficient and equitable way to address vaccine shortages in poor countries., The U.S. wasn’t the only country with initial reservations. The EU, U.K., Japan, Switzerland, Brazil and Norway have also resisted earlier proposals. However, supporters of the waiver argue that U.S. leadership on the issue could help sway other holdouts. The timing for approval of the waiver depends on how soon member states can find agreement., Norway’s foreign ministry on Thursday praised the U.S.’s decision to “commit itself to finding a solution that is less far-reaching than the proposal that was originally on the table, and on which there was great disagreement. This could be a limited and targeted measure to avoid patents being a possible bottleneck.”, WTO chief Okonjo-Iweala said proponents of the waiver were planning to revise a proposal initially submitted in October 2020 and asked for a meeting open to all WTO members in the second half of May, before the next formal gathering on the issue slated for early June., “The U.S. backing for a patent waiver is more form than substance. The complex manufacturing of safe and effective vaccines means very little impact in the next 6-12 months, suggesting countries still need to secure booster shots for 2022. If patent waivers were to raise production, it would diminish the durability of revenue for innovators including BioNTech and Moderna. The resulting lack of incentives will mean slower development of vaccines against emerging variants and future pandemics.”, -- Sam Fazeli, BI pharmaceuticals analyst, Click here to read the research., As the U.S. inoculations advanced and outbreaks diminished in recent weeks, the White House came under pressure from progressive Democrats and public-health advocates to take a stance while India in particular suffers from surging deaths and infections., Tai also met with top executives of vaccine-producing companies and held calls with members of Congress and other stakeholders in civil society and public health. In April, she called on the pharma companies to make sacrifices., “The desperate needs that our people face in the current pandemic provide these companies with an opportunity to be the heroes they claim to be -- and can be,” she said at a virtual conference at the WTO., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jenny Leonard, . Date Created: 06 May 2021, 12:27 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Paras Defence ipo time [/INST] IPOs news. Title: Paras Defence IPO Subscribed 304 Times, The Most So Far In 2021. Short_description: The issue overtook MTAR Technologies Ltd., which was subscribed nearly 201 times. . Description: Paras Defence & Space Technologies Ltd. became the most-subscribed issue of the year so far, with the offer getting subscribed more than 300 times on the final day., The issue overtook , , which was subscribed nearly 201 times. This is also the most subscribed initial share sale since at least 2017, when , was subscribed 273 times., The Rs 170.8-crore IPO by the defence engineering firm received interest from all categories. Demand was led by non-institutional investors, including wealthy investors, portfolio managers and other funds, that largely invest for listing-day gains. Shares allocated for this category were subscribed 927.70 times., The IPO, according to the red herring prospectus, comprises a fresh issue of 80.34 lakh shares and an offer-for-sale of 17.24 lakh shares by promoter shareholders and other investors. The price band is fixed at Rs 165-175 apiece., The offer was subscribed 16.57 times and 40.57 times at the end of day 1 and day 2, respectively., The Navi Mumbai-based defence and space engineering company is seeking a market value of Rs 683 crore at the upper end of the price band. , The company aims to utilise the funds by expanding capacity, augmenting working capital requirement and repaying certain borrowings., The IPO was subscribed 304.26 times as of 5 p.m. on Sept. 23., Institutional investors: 169.65 times., Non-institutional investors: 927.70 times., Retail investors: 112.81 times.. Publisher: Rishabh Bhatnagar. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 12:04 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to PowerGrid InvIT IPO Final Day [/INST] IPOs news. Title: PowerGrid InvIT IPO Fully Subscribed On Final Day . Short_description: Non-institutional investors and qualified institutional buyers piled into Rs 7,735-crore on final day of the offer.. Description: Non-institutional investors and qualified institutional buyers piled into the Rs 7,735-crore initial public offering of PowerGrid InvIT on its final day, deriving optimism from the success of recent share sales., The infrastructure investment trust’s initial share sale, the first by a state-run firm, was subscribed 4.83 times as of 5 p.m. on May 3, according to exchange data., The InvIT’s issue, in which shares were sold at Rs 99-100 apiece, received bids for shares worth Rs 37,360-crore against an offer of shares worth Rs 7,735-crore. The company has replaced Craftsman Automation at 14th spot on the 2021 IPO list., The issue comprised a fresh issue of up to Rs 4,993.5 crore and existing investors offering units worth up to Rs 2,741.5 crore., PowerGrid InvIT plans to utilise IPO proceeds for repayment or pre-payment of debt, including any accrued interest., ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, Edelweiss Financial Services and HSBC Securities and Capital Markets were the book running lead managers to the IPO.. Publisher: Darshan A Nakhwa. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 6:49 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to PowerGrid InvIT Day time ipo [/INST] IPOs news. Title: PowerGrid InvIT’s IPO Subscribed 0.61 Times On Day 2. Short_description: PowerGrid InvIT continued to witness a lukewarm response to its initial public offering on the second day of bidding. . Description: PowerGrid InvIT continued to witness lukewarm response to its initial public offering on the second day of bidding., The InvIT IPO—the twenty-first so far in 2021—was subscribed 0.61 times as of 5 p.m. on April 30, according to exchange data., PowerGrid InvIT is offering shares at Rs 99-100 apiece in the country’s largest initial public offering by an infrastructure investment trust. It plans to raise Rs 7,735 crore through a fresh issue of up to Rs 4,993.5 crore and existing investors offering units worth up to Rs 2,741.5 crore., The initial share sale is being made through the book-building process, up to three-fourths of which will be allotted to institutional investors. Out of this, 60% is reserved for anchor investors. Not less than 25% of the offer shall be allotted on a proportionate basis to non-institutional investors, subject to bids being received at or above the offer price., The proceeds of the fresh issue will be loaned to initial portfolio assets for repayment or pre-payment of debt, including any accrued interest., The offer, which is scheduled to close on Monday, is being managed by ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, Edelweiss Financial Services and HSBC Securities and Capital Markets.. Publisher: Darshan A Nakhwa. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 7:36 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Inspection Reports Supreme Court RBI Duty RTI bank [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: RBI Duty-Bound To Disclose Banks’ Inspection Reports Under RTI: Supreme Court. Short_description: Supreme Court upholds judgment asking the RBI to disclose annual inspection reports of banks.. Description: The Supreme Court dismissed banks’ pleas to “recall” its 2015 judgment that directed the Reserve Bank of India to release their annual inspection reports under the Right To Information Act., In its 2015 judgment, the Supreme Court had said the central bank has a duty to uphold the interest of public at large, the depositors, country’s economy and the banking sector., “This court was of the opinion that the RBI has to act with transparency and not hide information that might embarrass the banks and that it is duty-bound to comply with the provisions of the act and disclose the information sought,” the top court said, citing its previous judgment, The Justice L Nageswar Rao and Justice Vineet Saran-headed bench held that there was no provision in the Supreme Court rules for a recall of the judgment. The bench added that parties should not be allowed to file applications to reopen concluded judgments of the court., “Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that these applications are not maintainable,” the Supreme Court said, citing its stance in previous cases., The 2015 judgment pertains to the release of annual inspection reports and other financial reports of individual banks under the RTI Act from the RBI. Jayantilal Mistry, an RTI activist, had opposed the RBI’s decision to not share these reports under the act. At the time, the Supreme Court had ordered the release of such information in a transparent manner, since it is in public interest., In 2019, the banking regulator released a new disclosure policy for documents that can be accessed through RTI requests, which did not include annual inspection reports. The policy was challenged in the Supreme Court., , the court asked the RBI to comply with the 2015 ruling., State Bank of India, HDFC Bank Ltd. and a few others then filed a “recall petition”, stating that they were not given due hearing in the matter. Since banks would be impacted by the release of these reports, they need to be heard, the applicants had argued., They also argued that the release of such reports would impede on their right to privacy., “In the said judgment, this court did not consider the important aspect of violation of the right to privacy which has been held to be an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the banks had said in their petition., “The main contention of the applicants for recall of the judgment in Jayantilal N. Mistry (supra) is that the judgment has far-reaching consequences and the applicants who are directly and substantially affected were not made parties and heard,” the Supreme Court said in its latest order., In its order on Wednesday, the Supreme Court noted that though the information sought under the RTI Act pertained to the banks, it was the decision of the RBI which was in challenge and decided by the court., “No effort was made by any of the applicants in the miscellaneous applications to get themselves impleaded when the transferred cases were being heard by this Court,” it said on Wednesday., The apex court clarified that it was not ruling on the correctness of its 2015 judgment and the dismissal would not affect the rights of the applicants to seek other remedies available to them under the law.. Publisher: Vishwanath Nair. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 3:50 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Investigation Report Leak Antitrust Regulator Google [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Google Sues Antitrust Regulator Over Investigation Report Leak. Short_description: Google complains to Delhi high court against leak of a CCI-ordered investigation report into its Android smartphone agreements.. Description: Technology giant Google has approached the Delhi High Court, complaining against the leak of a confidential report in an ongoing investigation by the Competition Commission of India against it., The report relates to an anti-trust investigation by the competition regulator into Google’s android smartphones agreements. The petition was mentioned on Thursday morning by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi before the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court., On Sept. 18, the Times of India newspaper reported that the regulator's investigative arm, the Director General, had found Google's conduct to be anti-competitive in the mobile operating systems and related markets., The probe found Google India guilty of stifling competition and innovation to the detriment of the market as well as consumers in order to maintain its grip and dominance in search, music (through YouTube), browser (chrome), app library (Play Store) and other key services, the daily reported., The competition law promises confidentiality to entities under CCI investigation and gives them the right to claim, negotiate non-disclosure of commercially sensitive information obtained as part of a DG investigation. Once the DG submits its report to the CCI, parties to an investigation get an opportunity to rebut the findings. Only after that, the regulator gives a final order. , It's Google's case that even before a final order could be issued by the regulator, findings in the DG report have become public. The leak has resulted in breach of confidence, has impaired its ’’ability to defend itself, harmed Google and its partners", the tech giant said. , The investigation against Google was ordered by the CCI in April 2019. In its prima facie order, the regulator had noted that the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement that Google signed with device manufacturers required them to preinstall the entire suite of Google apps in order to be able to preinstall any proprietary app of Google—Play Store. , The signing of the Android Compatibility Commitment was also an essential condition of the distribution agreement., Since Play Store is a must-have app, marketability of Android devices may get restricted if these agreements aren't signed. The CCI took a prima facie view that mandatory pre-installation of the entire Google Mobile Services suite under the distribution agreement amounted to imposition of unfair conditions on the device manufacturers., And so, it directed an investigation by the DG. It's the alleged leak of this investigation report that has Google miffed., The DG’s findings are an interim procedural step and do not reflect the final decision of the competition regulator. It has not yet had the opportunity to review the DG’s findings or submit its defence to any allegations, Google has stated in a media release. , BloombergQuint awaits CCI's response to Google's complaint. The high court is likely to take up the case on Friday.. Publisher: Arpan Chaturvedi. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 8:44 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Tata Vs Mistry SP Group Review Petition reason [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Tata Vs Mistry: SP Group’s Reasons For A Review Petition . Short_description: Supreme Court’s ruling has left ‘large swathe of minority shareholders remediless’, says SP Group’s review petition. Description: The March 26 , of the Supreme Court incorrectly interpreted company law provisions, diluting corporate governance standards and leaving large swathe of minority shareholders remediless, the Cyrus Mistry group has said in its review petition., Last month, the Supreme Court had dismissed all allegations of oppression and mismanagement at Tata Sons Pvt. It overturned the , by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal that had directed the reinstatement of Mistry, scion of the SP Group, as executive chairman of Tata Sons—a position he was abruptly removed from in October 2016. On that ground and others the appellate tribunal had found oppression and mismanagement at the Tata Group holding company. Mistry’s family is the second largest shareholder in Tata Sons, with an 18.4% stake., The NCLAT’s conclusions have been disregarded and not applied in the judgment by the apex court without even declaring the findings of fact to be perverse. This is the legal standard to be met, as acknowledged by the apex court itself in the judgment, before a court of law can interfere with findings of fact by the NCLAT., Further, the Supreme Court ruling lays down contradictory legal propositions that are not only irreconcilable but also contrary to the company law statute, unnamed officials at SP Group told BloombergQuint., Here are the key reasons that the Mistry group has cited for a review:, On the one hand, the judgment holds that removal of a director “can never be oppressive or prejudicial” and yet on the other hand, it holds that where the removal is oppressive, relief can be granted, according to the review petition., But the circumstances that’ll merit removal of director or grant of relief under section 242 have not been specified, it said. The section lays down powers of the tribunal to give relief when an application of oppression and mismanagement is made., In fact, at multiple places, the judgment declares that Cyrus Mistry is SP Group’s representative on Tata Sons’ board and yet holds that the removal of a representative of the minority shareholder is not an act of oppression, the review petition said., The Supreme Court’s judgment makes the error of treating the application of company law as a variable based on identity of the shareholder of the company, the Mistry side has said. Contrary to the statutory provisions of the Companies Act 2013, it seeks to dilute the fiduciary duties of directors depending on which shareholder has nominated the director, it said., To recall, the apex court had opined that given the charitable objectives of the Tata Trusts, their nominee directors on board Tata Sons are not like any other ordinary directors. It had also questioned whether the need for having independent directors on the board itself was an acknowledgment that not every director could be expected to exercise completely independent judgment irrespective of who nominated them., In saying so, according to Mistry’s review petition, the apex court has overlooked the fact that a director of a company must act in the best interests of the company and not just to further the interests of the shareholder who nominated the director., It also confuses the duty of “independent judgment” expected of all directors with the qualification criteria for a director to be termed “independent director”., The apex court was not sitting in a writ jurisdiction with a constitutional challenge to the wisdom of the provisions of the Companies Act, it said. "Enforcing the legislation as it stands by interpreting it was the task at hand.", The company law requires independent decision making by the board which would be rendered redundant, if decisions are pre-cleared and decided in advance by Trustees, the Mistry side said., This core facet of the case has been discarded summarily as “much ado about nothing”., The judgment holds that Cyrus Mistry was not a managing director of Tata Sons but only an "executive chairman". And so the requirement, as per the company law, of a shareholder resolution to remove a managing director would not be breached., The apex court had restored the findings of the National Company Law Tribunal on issues relating to mismanagement, on the premise that the NCLAT did not specifically overturn these findings, while setting aside the tribunal’s order. This is an error apparent on the face of the record, the review petition said., The apex court had made erroneous finding of fact relating to Article 75 to deny relief to end matters complained of, it said. Article 75 allows Tata Sons to resolve by special resolution the transfer of any shareholder’s shares. Mistry had termed this as coercive. The Supreme Court viewed it as an exit clause.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 3:01 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to India Notifies Rules Digital Tax [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: India Notifies Rules For Digital Tax . Short_description: The tax department has notified the revenue and user threshold that will bring to tax the income of foreign entities. . Description: Starting April 2022, overseas entities that don’t have a physical presence in India but derive significant financial benefit from Indian customers will come under the Indian tax net. The levy will impact technology giants like Facebook Inc., Google, Amazon.com Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other such digital companies that derive considerable value from a large user base in India., While the main legal provision was introduced in 2018, the revenue department notified the thresholds for the purposes of significant economic presence (SEP) on May 3. Experts BloombergQuint spoke with said the move was surprising., In her budget speech last year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said SEP provisions are being deferred given that the G-20 OECD report on digital economy is expected by December 2020, according to Shefali Goradia, partner at Deloitte India., Curious timing apart, the concept was introduced via Finance Act, 2018, to enlarge the scope of income of non-residents that accrues or arises in India, by establishing a “business connection” of the foreign entities., At the time, the government had articulated its intent that it should get its fair share of tax from business-to-consumer transactions. The idea is to tax profits of those online and offline businesses that don’t have a physical presence in India but derive significant economic value from the country., Soon after, the Central Board of Direct Taxes floated a consultation paper seeking , on thresholds that should be applied to bring such businesses within the tax net., The department has now notified those:, The threshold is very low and should have been a little reasonably set, Ajay Rotti, partner at Dhruva Advisors, pointed out. “Given the Indian e-commerce market and the current situation, even smaller players will have more users than this.”, In short, once an overseas entity hits either this transaction threshold or the number of users, it’ll be seen as an entity that has business presence in India., To be clear, only those entities will get impacted by the SEP provisions who come from non-treaty jurisdictions. That’s because the treaties specify non-resident entities will come under the tax net only if they have a permanent establishment in India. Permanent establishment is, in tax parlance, a fixed place of business. India currently has a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with 97 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Australia, Netherlands, among others.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 9:16 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Yashwant Sinha Reminisce Soli Sorabjee Fali Nariman Arvind Datar Memory [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: In Memory Of Soli Sorabjee: Fali Nariman, Arvind Datar, Yashwant Sinha Reminisce. Short_description: Fali Nariman, Arvind Datar, Yashwant Sinha share their memories of the late Soli Sorabjee (1930-2021).. Description: When Soli Sorabjee was appointed India’s Attorney General in 1989, his mentor Nani Palkhivala, one of India’s greatest jurists,, : “The greatest glory of the Attorney General isn’t to win cases for the government but to ensure that justice is done to the people.”, He probably knew he could have those lofty expectations from his younger colleague., Sorabjee worked as a junior in Palkhivala’s chamber and assisted him in the landmark Kesavananda Bharti case. Over time he came be recognised as a leading jurist himself, served as Attorney General of India twice and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2002., A legal scholar, a lover of jazz, a man with a great sense of humour, even a gifted mimic—in the days since his death on April 30, Sorabjee has been remembered as many things to many people., I remember him as a senior advocate who never lost his patience with young journalists. He was always glad to explain the law and its implications, correcting gently, listening patiently. And always, speaking candidly., Sorabjee celebrated his 91st birthday in March., “In the passing of Soli Sorabjee, we lost an icon of India’s legal system. He was among the select few who deeply influenced the evolution of constitutional law and justice system,” the President of India said on social media., Chief Justice of India NV Ramana condoled his loss and said: “His body of work, spread over nearly seven decades, in defending the fundamental rights and human rights is of international repute. He will be remembered as a legend who added strength to the pillars of democracy.”, Here below are reminisces of a contemporary jurist Fali Nariman; a leading senior advocate who worked with him as a junior, Arvind Datar; and a politician who in the past sought his advise on state matters, Yashwant Sinha., We have been friends for many years now and he was a remarkable chap. He was very successful right from the start and his greatest success was the passport case (Maneka Gandhi case, 1978) when he was a very young man in the Supreme Court. That passport case has become a legend now on fundamental rights and so on., After that, he never looked back. He had one success after another—when he became Solicitor General for a while (1977-80) and then he was Attorney General on two separate occasions, one in 1989 and in 1998 for five years., We appeared against each other quite often in the Supreme Court, but that's all part of the game., We were in the same chamber—the Jamshedji Kanga Chamber in Bombay for many years and we hardly had a chair to ourselves, because it was a very successful chamber. Jamshedji Kanga was a classic figure, he was a giant of a man, with a giant of a mind and a giant of a heart, too. He was the person who really molded all of us by his example, he was a charming person. He was an amazing human being and actually we owe everything to him. All of us, Nani Palkhivala, myself, Soli Sorabjee—all of us because if we are what we are, we are because of him., It was very different but we were very fortunate. He was two years my junior but roughly speaking, we were there at the same time. The judges were exceedingly good to young people. For young people who prepared well, the judges were absolutely outstanding. All of them. I mean there was not a single judge about whom we complained. Of course judges have their weaknesses and have their habits but we have to somehow know those habits of the mind. But they were all very good to people who prepared their cases and of course we always prepared our cases extraordinarily well as young people and because we had that urge to get on in the profession and we had a star studded senior lead list of professionals who outshone us. We had judges who used to look upon us as people who’d be the next generation of lawyers and so encouraged us., Yes, we were rivals as well as friends. We were all friends at the bar and the fact that you appear against each other doesn't mean you’re enemies. But ofcourse we argued against each other, we tried to excel against one another and so on and so forth. That was all part of the game, a part of the progression as in all professions., He was an outstandingly convivial man, full of fun, full of laughter. Ofcourse we all inherited it from Jamshedji, to laugh at ourselves and laugh at others and so on. We had that great backing of the old man behind us., He was very astute, he had a command over the case law, he knew a lot of case law, he was adroit and knew when to shift his focus a bit. He was an outstanding lawyer, there's no question about it otherwise he wouldn't have been at the top of the bar that he was for many years., A lawyer, when he gets on in life loses more cases than he wins because you see, nobody needs a senior lawyer if he has a good case. Only the funny, bad and the difficult cases come to us but that is always so. You go to a very famous doctor only if you are extraordinarily ill or something has gone very wrong with you. It’s the same sort of thing in every profession., Passing and going at this stage and in this manner was a very sad business for me. We used to have a lot of talk and fun together, and my wife and his wife were also very close to each other when my wife was alive. Now, it’s quite a problem for all of us but then that’s how life is., I had the privilege of co-writing “Nani Palkhivala: The Courtroom Genius” with him. He was very clear and (though he) was functioning as a junior, he remembered all the landmark cases as they were argued and which Palkhivala himself argued., When we wrote The Courtroom Genius we thought that the book will sell two or three thousand copies and we told the publisher that there is no question of royalties as it’s in the memory of Palkhivala. The book went on to sell 35,000 copies and it’s still in print. So, he’d keep joking with me that “because of you, I’ve lost a lot of money”. He’d always be pulling my leg and saying, see Arvind, because of you, I’ve lost a lot of money., Then, when we started the Palkhivala Foundation he immediately agreed to deliver the first lecture. When he came to the hall, he was wearing a slightly unusual tie, it was all out of fashion. He didn’t say anything, and I also didn’t ask. When he went up on stage, he said that “I’m wearing this tie because this is what is what Mr. Palkhivala had given me at the bar”. He had kept that with him. That was a nice touch and if I recall the video, it was a superb lecture., When we started the Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre he instantly agreed to be a part of the governing body. In Delhi, there were five or six conferences. For every conference he would be there from the beginning and he wouldn’t ever insist on being on the dais. He would say that I’ll just come and attend. He would just come and sit. For the National Arbitration Conference he came till 2019, he attended every conference and would be there from the beginning. So that was his dedication., Ofcourse, he was a great champion of freedom of speech. He did more than anybody else on media law and freedom of speech and privacy issues., Right till 2019 I would meet him every time in the Supreme Court and he would come and speak to me. , (How’s it going?),” he would ask, in Marathi. We would sit in the consultation room and have a cup of coffee or something and I could see him getting frail day by day., He is one of the greats. Fali Nariman, Soli Sorabjee, Anil Diwan—all the greats of that era., I joined the bar in 1980 and in 1982 the first matter that we had in the Supreme Court was along with Gulam Vahanvati and Soli Sorabjee. I met him in February 1982, when I was just two years at the bar. He used to live in Sundar Nagar at that time. He was very effective as a counsel., He was very persuasive, and he never raised his voice. I have never seen him lose his temper or shout or something like that. He was very persuasive and often, he would have a sense of humour. He had a very dignified sense of humour., One thing to remember is, despite his busy practice, he continued to write articles in newspapers. He did so in Indian Express and he used to regularly write despite his busy practice. He was forthright in his views. He used to come out and say what he wanted to say especially on media issues and so on. Very few of us keep writing after doing well at the bar. Even after having other commitments, but he kept writing in newspapers on top issues too., First of all, my deepest condolences to Mrs. Sorabjee, on the passing away of Soli. As you may note, I refer to him as Soli, because that is how we used to address each other, by first names. That became possible because he was a person who never stood on any formality. The moment we first met, he was so informal, that we immediately came to the point that we decided to address each other with our first names—Yashwant and Soli., As you’re aware, I handled two portfolios in the Vajpayee government—Finance and External Affairs—and in both there were occasions where one had to deal with aspects of law. Though the process was for all other ministries to refer the matter to the Law Ministry, and then for the Law Ministry to make a reference to the Attorney General, we (at the MoF and then the MEA) used to suggest, often, to the Ministry of Law that we were interested in getting the view of the Attorney General on this matter or that issue. The method was there would be a background note and at the end of it, an issue was framed, for his advice. This is how it was sent to Soli, the Attorney General, and we used to receive his advice and would generally act upon it. He used to be invited to cabinet meetings to brief the union cabinet on important legal issues., So, there were often times where one acted quite closely with the Attorney General and it was a great pleasure. He was such a senior and respected lawyer that whenever it happened that I wanted to meet him, I would offer to go to his place. I have very pleasant memories of working with Soli Sorabjee as a minister of the Government of India.. Publisher: Menaka Doshi. Date Created: 02 May 2021, 7:26 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Supreme Court Tells Centre Augment Oxygen Supply Plan Delhi [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Submit Plan To Augment Oxygen Supply To Delhi, Supreme Court Tells Centre. Short_description: The Supreme Court of India will take up the case for hearing on Thursday.. Description: The Supreme Court of India has asked the central government to present its plan for ensuring adequate supply of oxygen to the national capital., The top court was hearing a plea by the central government against the Delhi High Court order on Tuesday. The high court had issued a show cause notice to the central government asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against it for non-compliance of orders on supply of oxygen., A two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah stayed the high court’s notice but directed the central government to submit its plan for ensuring adequate supply of oxygen to Delhi., The central government informed the court that it is taking proactive steps and a 24*7 control room has been set up to coordinate and address the nationwide requirement of oxygen. A separate control room has been set up for Delhi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court., The top court, however, made it clear that it cannot be denied that people are dying because of lack of oxygen and that 700 MT of oxygen as per its earlier order has to supplied for Delhi. The bench also clarified that it is not there to fault the centre or the state but there is a need for a new formula to calculate the requirement of oxygen in Delhi., The court also noted in its order on Wednesday that the central and the Delhi government officials have agreed to meet the BMC officials in Mumbai to learn from their experience and discuss measures which can be taken to augment the oxygen supply in the capital., In its order last week, the Supreme Court had noted that the situation on ground in Delhi is “heart rending”. The solicitor general had assured the court that the deficit of oxygen will be rectified and that the supply of oxygen will be made to Delhi based on the projected daily demand., The court had asked the centre to ensure compliance with its order on or before May 3, 2021., Subsequently, in a separate proceeding on Tuesday, the Delhi High Court had noted that the centre failed to ensure adequate oxygen supply to the national capital in line with what was mandated by it and therefore proceeded to issue a show cause notice. On Wednesday morning, the Solicitor General mentioned the plea in front of the Chief Justice of India. The chief justice referred the solicitor general’s plea to Justice Chandrachud’s bench., The Supreme Court will now take up the case on Thursday.. Publisher: Arpan Chaturvedi. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 4:03 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to SEBI Tribunal [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Why SEBI Is Not A Tribunal. Short_description: SEBI made astute use of an opportunity to better define its attributes & fortify for looming contingencies, writes Shruti Rajan.. Description: On April 6, 2021, the Securities Appellate Tribunal dismissed an appeal filed by IL&FS Securities Services. The subject matter of this was a January 2021 order of SEBI, interpreting its own ranking within the wider hierarchy of the justice system by addressing the question of whether SEBI would qualify as a , or a , ., First, we must understand how this all came to pass. The facts concerned a notice issued by SEBI to a securities market intermediary which is part of the beleaguered IL&FS group. Per an interim order dated Oct. 15, 2018 (followed by a confirmatory order in March 2020), a moratorium was issued by the NCLAT staying institution or continuation of proceedings against the IL&FS group “, So when the time came for SEBI’s adjudicatory process to commence, expectedly the threshold line of inquiry was whether SEBI, when exercising judicial powers, would qualify as a , . If yes, then no proceedings could lie before it during the effective period of the moratorium., In support of this proposition, the key argument advanced was that as a regulator with a trifecta of powers, SEBI’s quasi-judicial avatar is statutorily empowered to make decisions that directly impact the rights and liabilities of parties. In doing so, SEBI is also bound to act judicially and follow principles of natural justice, which imbue the regulator with the trappings of a court, and consequently, ascribe its orders with quasi-judicial characteristics. When its role is to hear and resolve disputes, could it not be accurately characterised as a , ?, The outcome, at the SEBI as well as the SAT level, was not surprising. Both forums held that SEBI and its whole-time members do not come within the definition of ‘tribunal’ and are, therefore, not bound by the NCLAT stay. A succinct yet lucid order which has now been upheld by the SAT articulates reasons why equating the securities market regulator to a tribunal, would be untenable. The pith of both SEBI and SAT’s reasoning rests on the fact that tribunals exist to support courts in efficient conflict resolution and hence, are bestowed with judicial powers and independence by the legislature., The SEBI Act itself, as the parent statute, formulates a heterogenous identity for SEBI and does not conceive its primary role to be akin to a judicial forum. Of course, SEBI has a duty to act judicially and must indeed remain zealously devoted to natural justice principles, but at its core, it is a regulator with multiple roles, only one of which is adjudication and enforcement, and hence it cannot be elevated to the stature of a , . The orders also note that the appointment process contemplated for members of a tribunal is very different from those applicable to SEBI officers, strengthening the inference that the entity could never have been envisioned as a court or a tribunal., Judicial recognition of SEBI’s structure is time-honoured; over the years, the Supreme Court itself has parsed through the regulator’s three embodiments - administrative, rule-making and quasi-judicial- and consistently endorsed its governance design. What makes these orders noteworthy though, is not the unique, difficult circumstances of its petitioner, but of how SEBI has made astute use of this opportunity to better define its own attributes and fortify for looming contingencies., A case in point is SEBI’s broader jurisdictional play with the insolvency regime. Consistent re-assertion of its distinctive regulatory status is tactically aligned with the securities market regulator’s position that SEBI’s determination of liability for recovery actions, treatment of assets in trust, etc., must be outside the purview of IBC moratoriums, much like it is for the Securities Exchange Commission in the United States. By acknowledging that exercise of its quasi-judicial powers is merely an extension of its executive function and necessary for overall market regulation, its regulatory personality remains both distinct and indivisible, strengthening its case to push for exemptions analogous to the U.S. SEC, within the wider insolvency and resolution framework., For instance, the recent Data Protection Bill exempts consent requirements for data processing, if such data is needed to ensure compliance with any order or judgments of courts/tribunals. But the tribunal characterisation would, on the other hand, have launched another avenue of appeal under Article 136 of the Constitution, which allows the Supreme Court to exercise discretion and permit appeals from any determination or findings from lower courts and tribunals. Although the SAT almost always qualifies as the most efficacious alternative, had SEBI itself been considered a tribunal, a new battleground under Article 136 appeals would have surely opened up to test the propriety of its orders., Having said all of this, there is some critical competing perspective to bear in mind too. SEBI has a formidable artillery of penal powers at its disposal, in terms of the nature of fines, penalties, and other substantive restraints and if appealed, the Supreme Court will no doubt, be implored to sharpen focus on SEBI’s role when it dons its judicial robes and evaluate it in substance, not going by form alone. Attention may also be drawn to the SEBI Act, which ousts jurisdiction of civil courts from matters which SEBI is empowered to deal with, another important indicia to measure its judicial prerogative., Until the final word is out, one can only wonder whether this conclusion would have been any different if, in line with an idea that has been championed for a few decades now, the legislature had institutionally severed SEBI’s ‘hear and determine’ powers from its executive/rule-making functions and marshalled an independent cohort of administrative judges.. Publisher: Shruti Rajan. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 11:36 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to billionaire India Jail [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: India Threatens to Send One of Its Billionaires to Jail. Short_description: The Supreme Court warned Anil Ambani of jail time if he doesn’t clear his dues to Ericsson AB.. Description: (Bloomberg) -- In a remarkable warning to India’s elite, the nation’s top court said it will put one of the country’s most prominent business executives behind bars unless his group pays its dues., It’s the latest twist in a dispute that helped push billionaire Anil Ambani’s mobile-phone carrier into bankruptcy proceedings and cast an unflattering light on the Indian mogul, who’s the younger brother of Asia’s richest man., India’s Supreme Court said Wednesday that Ambani disobeyed its earlier order for one of his companies, Reliance Communications Ltd., to pay 5.5 billion rupees ($77 million) to Ericsson AB’s Indian unit. If payments aren’t made within four weeks, the 59-year-old tycoon will be jailed for three months, the court said. Ambani’s group said it will comply., The threat shows India is upping the ante when it comes to tackling a mountain of bad debt that’s among the , . A $190 billion pile of soured and stressed debt has put the future of some Indian lenders in doubt and curbed investment just as the country is preparing for general elections., The court ruling “definitely sends a very strong message to defaulting companies and managements that contractual dues need to be paid,” said Manmeet Singh, a New Delhi-based partner at local law firm L&L Partners. “This will certainly give more confidence to foreign investors regarding enforcement of contracts in India.”, Noting that the Ambani group had “willfully not paid” the money owed to Ericsson, the court said that it “clearly demonstrates cavalier attitude” towards the “highest court of the land.”, India’s banking regulator, law makers and courts have been cracking down on delinquent borrowers armed with a two-year-old bankruptcy law to tackle the overhang of bad debt. India has surpassed Italy in having the worst non-performing loan ratio among the world’s major economies., The concerted crackdown on defaulters has given banks more bargaining power as founders and controlling shareholders can no longer hope to walk away from their dues without major consequences, irrespective of how storied their business families might be., It’s rare for billionaires to go to prison in India. Subrato Roy, founder of the Sahara Group who was sent to custody in 2014 for his group’s failure to comply with regulator’s order for a $3.9 billion refund to depositors, was an exception. Most others, including Vijay Mallya, founder of defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., have managed to , arrest., That’s changing. Last year, the government empowered state-run banks to prevent so-called willful defaulters from fleeing the country and enacted a new law against , economic offenders., The dispute with Ericsson began when the Swedish telecommunications equipment maker sought to collect 16 billion rupees in dues from Reliance Communications, or RCom. The Indian company , the dispute with Ericsson in May last year, but failed to meet the payment deadlines, prolonging the row., RCom decided to enter bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year after struggling to repay about $6.3 billion in debt. Ironically for Ambani, his extraordinary reversal of fortune in the telecommunications industry came after his older brother stormed into the market with a new outfit called Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., igniting a price war by offering free calls., The tycoon’s older brother is Mukesh Ambani, chairman of oil-and-telecom giant Reliance Industries Ltd. He , Chinese e-commerce titan Jack Ma as Asia’s richest man last year. Anil’s fortunes meanwhile have dwindled to $1.2 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index., Wednesday’s ruling, which included fines levied on three of Ambani’s companies, reverberated across his business empire. Shares of Reliance Communications fell 4.2 percent, Reliance Capital Ltd. slipped 4.3 percent and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. slumped 2.2 percent. Reliance Power Ltd. also declined., RCom had , its airwaves, towers, fiber and other telecom assets to Reliance Jio in December 2017 for 173 billion rupees to fend off creditors. But regulatory and legal hurdles stalled the closing of the deal, frustrating RCom’s attempts to repay lenders., The telecom operator, which had $113.6 million in cash and equivalents as of Sep.30, may have to rely on the group for paying these dues., “It’ll be very difficult for RCom to meet the ordered payment and the group companies might be utilized to pay the dues through inter-corporate loans,” said Sameer Kalra, president at Mumbai-based advisory Target Investing. “This risks group companies as well.”, ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Upmanyu Trivedi. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 11:17 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Madras High Court Tells Tax Department GST Non Payment seller [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: GST Non-Payment: Go After Sellers, Madras High Court Tells Tax Department. Short_description: Madras High Court points to GST department’s flawed approach to recover tax.. Description: A recent Madras High Court ruling has come as a significant relief for genuine buyers under the Goods and Services Tax regime. The decision will help buyers who’ve paid tax on the goods or services availed but the sellers haven’t deposited it in the government’s kitty., As per GST law, buyers can avail input credit based on the tax invoice which has details such as the amount of tax charged, description of goods or services, the total value of supply of goods or services, GSTIN of the supplier and recipient, etc. And one more condition is that tax has to be paid by the supplier., 17 traders of raw rubber sheets had moved the high court against the GST department’s decision to deny them the benefit of the input tax credit. The tax department sought to recover the input credit availed by these traders since the seller had not deposited the tax with the government., The GST department argued that the traders had availed input credit on the premise that tax had already been remitted to the government by their sellers. When it turned out that the sellers have not paid any tax and the traders could not furnish any proof for the same, the department was entirely justified in proceeding to recover the tax from them. And so the department cannot be faulted for having reversed input credit already availed by the traders., The high court dismissed the tax department’s contentions., It pointed out a fundamental flaw in the revenue department’s approach i.e. no inquiry against the defaulting sellers and non-initiation of recovery action against them. Once the department realised that the sellers have collected tax from the traders and not deposited it, strict action should’ve been taken against the former. Even more so, since the department believes there was no movement of goods, the high court said., The judgment is important as it casts an obligation on the revenue authorities to catch hold of the seller if it has collected tax from the buyer but not deposited with the government, Abhishek Jain, partner at EY, said. The authorities cannot singularly take action against the buyer, he added., But the ruling isn’t clear as to what happens in cases where recovery action was initiated against the seller but tax could not be recovered., Businesses should be able to prove that they are a bona fide buyer and the transaction was not a fraudulent purchase so as to argue credit eligibility basis recent judicial rulings, Ritesh Kanodia, partner at Dhruva Advisors, pointed out., Business should also initiate legal proceedings against their vendor if tax hasn’t been paid because it could impact their input credit in the future and do constant follow-ups on emails to nudge their vendors to deposit the tax, Kanodia said. This will also help establish that the purchases were bona fide and  they have taken reasonable efforts to ensure tax payment by the seller, he added.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 8:01 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Supreme Court tax Relief infrastructure project [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Infrastructure Projects Get Tax Relief From Supreme Court  . Short_description: Supreme Court strikes down tax department’s approach of applying deduction relief on only business income.. Description: In a welcome relief for infrastructure projects, the Supreme Court has ruled that benefit of certain deductions will apply to both business and other income., Under section 80-IA of the income tax law, companies engaged in infrastructure facilities like road or water supply or port, telecom services, industrial parks or SEZs, power sector, natural gas distribution, etc. can claim tax relief on profit/gain from such businesses. For such entities, 30-100% of the profit is allowed as deduction for 10 consecutive years., So far, tax authorities have disallowed the claim and restricted the deduction to business income on the contention that the matter is sub-judice and pending before Supreme Court, Anita Basrur, partner at Sudit K Parekh & Co. LLP, pointed out., “This led to huge tax demands, recovery proceedings and also adjustment of refunds against the demands thereby blocking funds of taxpayers,” she said., The relief under section 80-IA was phased out by the government from April 2017. So, this ruling will benefit cases which are in the litigation pipeline and where companies have claimed a deduction on “other income” in the past but were denied by the tax department, experts told BloombergQuint., The case pertained to Reliance Energy Ltd. and the contention was the amount eligible for deduction under section 80-IA. The company had claimed deduction against business income as well as income from other sources. The tax department had denied the benefit on the latter., The department argued before the apex court that profit-linked deduction for eligible business can be allowed against income of the same nature only i.e. business income and not other income. The deduction, it said, has to be computed as if income from the business is the only source of income for the company., The court didn’t agree with this argument., Pointing to the language of the section, it said that profit-linked deduction should be computed on the basis of net income from the eligible business. And that the section doesn’t limit the claim of deduction to the extent of business income., The ruling will benefit companies that have a large interest income or incentives in the form of duty drawback scrips, marketable instruments under the foreign trade policy or let’s say advertising revenue for a road project company - there can be different streams of “other income” which could be substantial amounts, Samir Kanabar, partner at EY, pointed out., Based on this decision of the Supreme Court, taxpayers can file a rectification application for earlier assessment years where claim made by them has been denied, Basrur said.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 3:29 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to tax Cheer Netherlands Treaty Dividend Income [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Netherlands Treaty: Tax Cheer For Dividend Income. Short_description: Interpretation of tax treaties must be liberated from technical rules, says Delhi High Court.. Description: Netherlands-based shareholders of Indian companies have a reason to cheer. Their dividend income will be taxed at a lower rate of 5% even though the country’s double tax avoidance treaty with India prescribes a 10% rate, the Delhi High Court has held., Tax treaties are negotiated by diplomats and must not be interpreted using technical rules, the high court noted., Netherlands is a holding-company structure destination—so, this is a welcome ruling for all shareholders there who receive dividends from their Indian investments, Ajay Rotti, partner at Dhruva Advisors, told BloombergQuint., The case relates to two Netherlands-based companies—Concentrix Services and Optum Global Solutions. Both hold 99.99% share in their Indian counterparts, Concentrix India and Optum India, respectively., Last year, the two Netherlands-based holding companies approached the revenue department seeking a tax certificate specifying that the dividends received by them from their Indian subsidiaries are taxable at the rate of 5%., Section 197 of the income tax law allows taxpayers to approach the department for a certificate for nil or lower deduction of TDS. Effective , , dividends are taxable in the hands of the shareholders., The tax department responded with a certificate specifying the tax rate to be 10% as per the India-Netherlands treaty., The companies approached the Delhi High Court against the tax department’s decision., Concentrix and Optum argued that even though the India-Netherlands tax treaty prescribes a 10% withholding tax rate, they should get the benefit of a lower rate by applying the “most-favoured nation” clause. The clause ensures if there’s a beneficial tax rate in any other treaty that India has signed, that rate can be imported to the Netherlands treaty., Basis this clause, the companies pointed to India’s tax treaties with Slovenia, Lithuania and Columbia which prescribe a 5% withholding tax rate., But the tax department argued against the import of the lower rate to the Netherlands treaty which was signed in 1969. The department took a technical view of the language of the treaty, which says:, The revenue department hinged its argument on— , . For the beneficial rate to be applicable, the three countries should’ve been OECD members when the Netherlands treaty was signed. Since Slovenia, Lithuania and Columbia became OECD members much later, the benefit of the lower rate cannot apply to the Netherlands treaty, it said., Also, it argued, that even though the Netherlands treaty has been amended several times, no change has made to the withholding tax rate of 10%., Tax treaties are meant to aid commercial relations and equitable distribution of tax revenues for income which falls for taxation in both countries, the high court pointed out., Their interpretation is liberated from the technical rules which govern the interpretation of domestic law, it said. And so the revenue department’s insistence to read the Netherlands treaty in a way that denies it the same benefit as the other three countries is misconceived, the court held., The principle of parity between the Netherlands treaty and those executed after that kicks in as long as the other country is an OECD member and its treaty provides for a lower withholding rate, the high court said in its order., The court has come to the correct conclusion that the treaty protocol requires all OECD member countries to be treated alike with respect to withholding taxes, Parul Jain, direct tax leader at Nishith Desai Associates, said., But the benefit of a lower rate, as per the treaty, will only be available if the recipient of the dividend income is also the beneficial owner of the same, she pointed out., Since beneficial ownership was not contested by the tax department, the high court approved the 5% withholding rate for Concentrix and Optum.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 24 Apr 2021, 12:11 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to implementation Process FDI insurance [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: 74% FDI In Insurance: Implementation Process Moving Quickly. Short_description: The government is moving quickly with the changes needed to implement the increase to the FDI cap in Indian insurance companies.. Description: The Indian government is moving quickly with the changes needed to implement the increase to the foreign investment cap in Indian insurance companies from 49% to 74%, which was announced in this year’s budget speech., As discussed in our previous , , a number of separate pieces of legislation and regulations needed to be amended for this increase in the foreign investment cap to take effect., The two key questions that international investors had at that stage were how quickly these changes would be implemented and what the various conditions referred to in the 2021 Budget Speech were likely to mean in practice. Both of these questions have now been answered., In relation to the first question, the Insurance Act, 1938 (Insurance Act) was amended with effect from 1 April 2021, to, amongst others, remove the statutory requirement that Indian insurance companies must always be , by Indian residents and to empower the Indian government to impose foreign investment-linked conditions through delegated legislation. This has been followed on 15 April 2021 by the publication of draft proposed amendments to the Indian Insurance Companies (Foreign Investment) Rules, 2015 (Foreign Investment Rules, and such proposals, the Draft Amendment). As far as the second question is concerned, the conditions imposed appear to be in line with market expectations and do not, so far, go beyond the matters referred to in the 2021 Budget Speech., The Draft Amendment proposes three key changes that are consistent with the approach indicated in the 2021 Budget Speech. Of these, the first will affect all Indian insurance companies that have foreign investment (i.e. regardless of the level of foreign investment) and the remaining two will affect only those Indian insurance companies that have foreign investment above 49%., Indian insurance companies with foreign investment will now need to ensure that: (i) a majority of their directors; (ii) a majority of their key management persons; and (iii) at least one of the board chairperson, the managing director and the CEO, are ‘, ’., Indian insurance companies with more than 49% foreign investment will now need to retain at least 50% of their net profits as part of their general reserves if, in the relevant financial year, they have paid a dividend on their equity shares and their solvency margin was lower than 1.2 times of the control level of solvency., Indian insurance companies with more than 49% foreign investment will now need to satisfy the following governance requirements: (a) at least half of the board will need to comprise independent directors (if the board chairperson is not independent); or (b) at least one-third of the board will need to comprise independent directors (if the board chairperson is independent)., Indian insurance companies will have up to one year to comply with the new residency requirement for directors and KMPs. However, surprisingly, the Draft Amendment does not contemplate a similar dispensation in respect of the new independent director requirement for insurers with more than 49% foreign investment., The practical implications of the Draft Amendment for international insurers are summarised below., The key question that international insurers had in February was the extent to which the Indian government would dismantle the requirement that the ‘, ’ of an Indian insurance company must remain in the hands of Indian residents at all times. The concern, in particular, had been around the reference to ‘, ’ in the 2021 Budget Speech and what that might mean in this regard. However, subject to certain further implementation steps that are needed (see ‘, ’ below), the amendments to the Insurance Act and the Draft Amendment appear to put that concern to rest. There are no ownership or control restrictions, instead, only certain citizenship and residency requirements for the board and KMPs, which are unlikely to cause a significant concern and certain governance requirements, which again, are unlikely to be problematic in practice., This is the most significant regulatory development and, following enabling changes to Indian exchange control rules (see ‘, ’ below), ought to result in increased foreign investment inflows and also further consolidation of existing holdings of international insurers., While the Draft Amendment itself does not exclude independent directors while calculating whether a majority of directors of an insurer are resident Indian citizens, the Guidelines on Indian owned and controlled dated 19 October 2015 (IOC Guidelines) provide that a majority of directors of an insurer must be nominees of the Indian promoter, after excluding independent directors (on this, see ‘, ’ below). Greater clarity on this front is expected after the consultation process described below is completed., The proposed new requirement of retaining at least 50% of net profits under general reserve is linked to: (a) the solvency margin being lower than 1.2 times of the control level of solvency; and (b) the payment of dividend on equity shares., The ‘, ’ for both life and general insurers is currently specified as a minimum solvency ratio of 150%. Whether 1.2 times of that ratio is an appropriate threshold will need to be assessed., In concept, this was foreshadowed in the 2021 Budget Speech, so this is not unexpected. That said, in concept, if the regulatory concern is to bolster solvency requirements, it seems unclear why purely domestic insurers should be treated differently and, ultimately, any controlling shareholder will want the ability to pay itself dividends. Therefore, new market entrants may factor this into valuations going forward., Note that in relation to foreign investment in insurance intermediaries (where 100% foreign investment is permitted), the Insurance and Regulatory Authority of India’s prior permission is required for repatriating dividends. This requirement has not been imposed under the Draft Amendment for insurance companies, but international investors may wish to consider suggesting some ability to declare dividends with IRDAI approval above these thresholds, as part of the consultation process with the Indian government (for which, see ‘, ’ below)., The Draft Amendment is currently the subject of a consultation process as the Indian government has invited comments or suggestions until April 30, 2021. It is likely to be notified (subject to any changes made by the government as a result of this consultation process) after April 30. Therefore, if any market participants have any views on the Draft Amendment, they ought to take advantage of this process now. In particular, the withdrawal/ recission of the IOC Guidelines (see ‘, ’ below) is something that ought to be flagged to the government in this consultation process., The Insurance Act and the Foreign Investment Rules merely specified the requirement that Indian insurance companies must be ‘, ’ by residents. The detailed governance requirements in this regard, however, are set out under the IOC Guidelines. For example, the IOC Guidelines impose specific requirements that the majority of non-independent directors must be nominated by the Indian promoter and that control over significant policies must be exercised through the Indian promoter-controlled board. These are clearly inconsistent with the amended Insurance Act and the Draft Amendment, but nevertheless, still remain in force. Therefore, the IRDAI will need to formally withdraw or rescind the IOC Guidelines together with the notification of the final amendment to the Foreign Investment Rules., The Foreign Exchange Management (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 (NDI Rules) and the consolidated FDI policy published by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (FDI Policy) will also need to be amended, or a clarificatory notification in the form of a press note with similar effect will need to be published, as a final step. However, no legislative changes are needed to achieve this and given the pace of developments so far, this may well be implemented very shortly., These measures and the pace of changes are encouraging. While there may be more general questions around why the citizenship and residency requirements are needed and how these benefit Indian policyholders, the changes represent a big step forward from the earlier regime, are unlikely to cause practical difficulties for international insurers and do not exceed the measures foreshadowed in the 2021 Budget Speech. Similarly, although there are questions around the dividend related provisions, international investors could look to deal with these restrictions by factoring them into valuation. Therefore, on the whole, the changes are seen as being positive., The critical next steps will comprise the formal notification of the Draft Amendment, the withdrawal/recission of the IOC Guidelines, and the introduction of enabling provisions and changes to the NDI Rules and the FDI Policy. That will complete the measures needed to implement the increase in the foreign investment cap, although as a longer-term project, the IRDAI may also wish to re-visit the IRDAI (Investment by Private Equity Fund or Alternate Investment Fund in Indian Insurance Companies) Guidelines, 2017 to liberalise certain aspects of those guidelines in light of the greater scope for foreign investment.. Publisher: Khaitan & Co. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 5:35 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to competition Regulator Orders Probe Tata Motors [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Competition Regulator Orders Probe Against Tata Motors       . Short_description: CCI orders finds a prima facie case of abuse of dominance and anti-competitive conduct against Tata Motors. . Description: The Competition Commission of India ordered an investigation against , after finding that its conduct was prima facie abuse of dominance and anti-competitive., Citing Tata Motors’ dealership agreement, the regulator said certain clauses can prevent entry of new players in the market. And could also potentially result in killing competition by hindering entry into the Indian commercial vehicles market., In an emailed comment to BloombergQuint, Tata Motors said it is currently reviewing the copy of the order available in the public domain and will consult its legal counsel to take necessary steps. "We understand that the CCI has passed a prima facie order and has not made any final or binding observations with regard to the allegations levelled against Tata Motors," a company spokesperson said. , The complainants had alleged that Tata Motors imposed unfair terms and conditions in its dealership agreement for commercial vehicles., The company coerces its dealers to order the vehicles according to its own whims and fancies—by compelling the dealers to copy-paste the list of vehicles provided by Tata Motors on dealer’s letter head and sending it back to the company., The clauses in the agreement also allowed Tata Motors to restrict and confine the territory of its dealers, the complainants alleged., The regulator noted that Tata Motors has a market share of 43% in the commercial vehicles segment, which is high compared to competing manufacturers such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland and VECV-Eicher., This allows the company to operate independently of the competing forces, the CCI said in its order., Having concluded Tata Motors’ dominance, the CCI examined the allegations of abuse of dominance and anti-competitive clauses in the dealership agreement., The regulator, citing the company’s email exchanges with its dealer Varanasi Auto Sales Pvt. Ltd., said that on the face of it, the emails suggest that Tata Motors indulged in the practice of coercing the dealers to bill vehicles as per its own needs and requirement., The regulator found this conduct to be prima facie an abuse of dominance. Specifically, a violation of the provisions that prohibits dominant entities from imposing unfair and discriminatory conditions in contracts., The CCI also examined a clause in Tata Motors dealership agreement which says that the dealer shall not start, acquire or indulge in any new business of product or services even if it is not related to the automobile industry., Pointing to the overarching restriction and the actual implementation of such clauses, the regulator said it has no hesitation in holding that the clause appears to be unduly restrictive and expansive in its coverage and interferes with the freedom of trade., The matter requires an in-depth investigation, the commission said., The regulator said certain clauses in the dealership agreement could harm competition., Specifically, the clause that restricts and confines dealers to the allotted territory. The territory, as per the complaint, could be extended or curtailed simply by oral instruction from Tata Motors., Tata Motors was unable to show any tangible accrual of benefits to consumers or improvements in distribution as a result of this clause, the CCI pointed out. The regulator found this to be a violation of the competition law provision that prohibits exclusive distribution agreements., The regulator directed its investigation arm to examine the allegations and Tata Motors defence in detail and submit the report within 60 days.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 10:55 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Anil Ambani Guilty Supreme Court Ericsson Case Contempt [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Supreme Court Finds Anil Ambani Guilty Of Contempt In Ericsson Case. Short_description: Supreme Court says Anil Ambani will face three months in jail if Ericsson’s dues are not cleared in four weeks. . Description: The Supreme Court found Anil Ambani guilty of contempt for not paying dues to Ericsson AB, saying that the chairman of the Reliance Group will face a jail term if he fails to comply., The apex court has given Reliance Communications Ltd. four weeks to clear the Rs 450-crore dues to Ericsson, which once supplied telecom network equipment to them. The court also said Ambani will face three months in jail if the dues aren’t cleared by then, adding that the Reliance Group companies had no intention of adhering to the payment schedule for outstanding dues., Shares of Reliance Group companies fell between 5 and 10 percent after the court's judgment. The order came weeks after RCom decided to approach the insolvency court for bankruptcy after failing to secure the government’s approval to sell towers and spectrum to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. to pare its Rs 47,000 crore debt by more than half., The judgment read out in open court by Justice Rohinton F Nariman said the action of the group companies “affects the administration of justice, and is therefore, contempt of court”.’, The top court outright rejected the argument by Ambani and RCom that the payment of dues was subject to its deal for sale of assets to Reliance Jio. To say that the sum of Rs 550 crore would be paid only out of sale of assets of the three companies is a deliberate misstatement made in the undertakings as well as the applications for extension of time filed before this court, “which was done with the purpose of circumventing the orders of this court,” the judgement said. “We are also of the view that in the facts of the present case, wilful default is made out.”, The court had strict words for Ambani’s companies for their attitude in the proceedings. Ericsson had earlier sought , for Ambani, arguing that the payment was to be made unconditionally and that the group companies “later mischievously tried to insert the condition of asset sale for the dues to be paid”., “It is clear that this reply affidavit clearly demonstrates the cavalier attitude of the deponent of this affidavit to the highest court of the land,’’ said the top court., Three Ambani companies will have to pay Rs 1 crore each to the apex court as legal aid in four weeks, according to the judgment. The chairman will face one month of jail if this payment isn't made, it said., “We respect the Hon’ble Supreme Court judgment. The group shall comply with the same,” an RCom’s spokesperson said in a statement., To be sure, Rs 118 crore has already been deposited by RCom. with the Supreme Court, which will be handed over to Ericsson., Ericsson had , contempt of court proceedings against the Ambani-owned firm in October last year for not clearing its dues within the Sept. 30 deadline set by the apex court. In December, the court , a plea by RCom that sought more time to make the payments.. Publisher: Arpan Chaturvedi. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 10:55 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Covid-19 Second Wave Timelines Relaxed CSR Scope India Inc. [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Covid-19 Second Wave: CSR Scope Widened, Timelines Relaxed For India Inc.. Short_description: Relaxed timelines to a wider CSR net, MCA offers relief to India Inc. during the second wave of pandemic.. Description: Offering relief to India Inc. in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has expanded the scope of CSR activities, and relaxed the time limits to hold board meetings and file charge-related documents., Here’s what the ministry notified this week:, The ministry expanded the list of activities on which companies can spend corporate social responsibility or CSR funds. The list will now also include:, Creating health infrastructure for Covid-19 care., Establishment of medical oxygen generation and storage plants., Manufacturing and supply of oxygen concentrators, ventilators, cylinders and other medical equipment for countering Covid-19., Companies can spend the CSR funds either on their own or in collaboration. , According to the company law, the gap between two board meetings in a financial year shouldn’t be more than 120 days. This requirement has now been relaxed by 60 days for the next two quarters., The ministry notified that the gap may extend to 180 days during April-June and July-September 2021., Any charge created by a company on its property, assets or undertaking has to be registered with the Registrar of Companies within 30 days of its creation or modification., The period between April 1 and May 31, 2021 will now be excluded while calculating the 30-day period., This relaxation is applicable when:, The charge has been created or modified before April 1 and the period of 30 days has not expired as on this date., Or where the date of creation or modification falls between April 1 and May 31., The ministry also relaxed the fee applicable in such cases., The relief will not apply to cases where the forms have already been filed, or where the period of 30 days expired before April 1 or where the timeline for filing the form expires at a future date, despite exclusion of the relaxed timelines, the ministry has clarified.. Publisher: Saloni Sanghi. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 9:18 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Chief Justice Sharad Bobde Legacy [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: What Is Chief Justice Sharad Bobde’s Legacy, As He Retires?. Short_description: Like Pontius Pilate, CJI Sharad Bobde often had the right instinct, but not the persistence to follow it, writes Sanjay Hegde.. Description: The 47th Chief Justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde, is set to zoom off into retirement after an eighteen-month reign, marked by two waves of the coronavirus. His leadership of the institution, during a time of national crisis, has not lead to any enhancement of its stature. The court has withdrawn into enforced isolation, looked away from people’s misery, and has largely hunkered down waiting for the storm to blow over, and better days to return. Throughout the world, countries, and institutions with good leadership, have weathered the pandemic better than institutions and countries with weak or whimsical leaders. After the storms of the Gogoi era, the court had looked towards the more affable Justice Bobde, to steer the court into calmer waters. The question is, has CJI Bobde’s hand on the tiller, left the institution becalmed by dead winds., His tenure began with a focus on religious issues that bedevil constitutional interpretation of the fundamental rights. In December 2019, he headed a bench that put a quietus to the Ayodhya verdict, by dismissing 18 review petitions filed against various aspects of the judgment. In February 2020, while dealing with the review petitions filed against the Sabarimala judgment, Justice Bobde held that the Supreme Court can refer questions of law to a larger bench while exercising its review jurisdiction. The Court also framed seven questions that are related to Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution which will now be heard by a Bench of nine judges. The bench was to be constituted shortly, but the pandemic put paid to those forays., The advent of the nationwide lockdown towards the end of March saw the court adopting video conferencing for urgent matters. As time went by video conferencing became the norm and physical hearings were not resumed, except for the Maratha reservation case. The Supreme Court however chose to run hearings, on a little-known app called Vidyo, operated by external control rooms, over which participants including lawyers and judges, had no control. Thankfully the Supreme Court did not impose its choice on other courts and consequently, some of the High Courts chose to operate more well-known apps with a much smoother user interface. The Supreme Court however has doubled down on its choice of Vidyo despite continual criticism from users, including some judges. To persist in error, in the face of contrary evidence, is to indulge in institutional confirmation bias, in the technology sphere., To his credit, Bobde headed a bench that directed the states and union territories to constitute high powered committees that could decide which prisoners may be released on interim bail or parole during the pandemic. The Court recommended considering prisoners for release who have been convicted or are undertrial for offences for which the prescribed punishment is up to 7 years or less. Thousands of prisoners were temporarily set free, to avoid an explosion of Covid-19 in prisons. On the Civil side, the court while exercising its powers under Article 142, passed an order extending the limitation period in all proceedings, whether condonable or not, with effect from March 15, 2020, until further orders. It also allowed summons and notice to be served through email, fax, and instant messaging applications in view of the Covid-19 pandemic., When farmers’ protests and the resultant blockades of roads, came up for the Court’s consideration, Bobde refused to interfere with the protest, holding that the “right to protest is part of a fundamental right and can as a matter of fact, be exercised subject to public order.” The Court declared that the farmers’ protest should be allowed to continue without any breach of peace either by the protesters or the police., Later the Supreme Court granted a stay on the “implementation of all the three farm laws for the present”, with a view to “assuage the hurt feelings of the farmers and encourage them to come to the negotiating table with confidence and good faith”. Rejecting the Attorney General’s argument concerning the presumption of constitutionality, the Court declared that it was not “completely powerless to grant stay of any executive action under a statutory enactment”. It also formed a committee to resolve the disagreements between the farmers and the government. The Court concluded by saying that it hoped that this “extraordinary order of stay… will encourage the farmers bodies to convince their members to get back to their livelihood”. However, these orders failed to convince the farmer unions, who even today are continuing with their protest., It is however Bobde’s turnaround on the question of not allowing crowds to gather for religious festivities, which may yet mark the Supreme Courts’ tacit encouragement of super-spreader exemptions. In June 2020, the country had barely emerged from a brutal nationwide lockdown, when the question of holding the , of Jagannath at Puri, was brought before the court. “Lord Jagannath Will Not Forgive Us If We Allow This” proclaimed CJI Bobde on June 18, while staying the gathering of crowds for the religious function. Barely had the ink dried on the order, that politicians of all hues began to remonstrate. Four days later, on June 22, 2020, Justice Bobde revised his order and allowed the yatra to proceed subject to some conditions. The court set its imprimatur upon religious exceptions to pandemic restrictions, which doctrine has thereafter plagued, all efforts to strictly enforce masking and social distancing in crowd situations., CJI Bobde’s final week in office, was marked by staying an order of the Allahabad High Court which excoriated the state government for its weak Covid response. The High Courts of Bombay, Uttarakhand, Telangana, and Delhi too are examining similar questions. Those state governments may now feel emboldened to resist High Courts that seem determined to hold their Covid response to strict constitutional scrutiny. After all, there is a precedential value attached even to interim orders of the Supreme Court. On April 22, the Chief Justice said there was confusion and diversion due to six separate High Courts exercising their jurisdiction, took suo moto cognizance on four issues (supply of oxygen, essential drugs, vaccination, and power to lockdown), and appointed Harish Salve as amicus in the matter., As the deadly second wave of the pandemic rages and the virus goes into exponential growth, killing thousands of Indians, we must squarely ask, has the Supreme Court been complicit in the destruction of human life? Has Lord Jagannath not forgiven us?, In the matter of judicial appointments, Chief Justice Bobde failed to leave any mark whatsoever on the Supreme Court. An eighteen-month tenure would normally produce four or five appointments, if not more. While the collegium did meet to consider recommendations for appointments to the Supreme Court, it failed to recommend any names during his tenure. Appointments to the High Courts were recommended and processed, but not in substantial numbers to cover the attrition due to retirements and resignations., The seeds of the logjam on Supreme Court appointments were possibly sown in Chief Justice Gogoi’s tenure when the appointment of Justice Akil Qureshi as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh was substituted by an appointment to the High Court of Tripura. The case of Justice Qureshi who is now due for consideration for elevation to the Supreme Court, but is likely to not find favour for appointment by the government, is a challenge that the collegium has not squarely addressed so far. Some senior judges seem inclined to make the recommendation and some others may prefer a cautious approach. The ball is now in the court of Chief Justice designate Ramana and the new collegium., There has also been considerable talk about a woman judge being elevated in time to be Chief Justice of India, but that too is still a question at large. It is however apparent, that Bobde has, in his tenure, failed to achieve consensus on recommendations for appointment to the Supreme Court., A summation of Bobde’s triumphs and disasters, brings to mind, the image of Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea, who presided over the trial of Jesus Christ. The New International Version of the Bible records the exchange:, Jesus answered with abandonment, “You say that I am a king. Instead, in fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”, What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this, he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!”, The gospel of John goes on to record, “…From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”, When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement. It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered., Finally, Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified., Like Pontius Pilate, Chief Justice Sharad Bobde often had the right instinct, but not the persistence to follow it., In the face of persistent clamour, he yielded his individual voice and added it to the multitude. As he demits office, one can only hope that he retires to a fruitful private life and chamber practice as a gifted man of law. A return to public office or employment may only further fray what remains of his legacy.. Publisher: Sanjay Hegde. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 2:06 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Crore Bad Loan Recovery Finance Ministry March Lakh [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Finance Ministry Expects Rs 1.80-Lakh-Crore Bad Loan Recovery By March. Short_description: Lenders expect to recover almost Rs 52,000 crore loan in case of Essar Steel and Rs 18,000 crore from Bhushan Power & Steel.. Description: With two major cases in the final stage of resolution, the Finance Ministry expects bad loan recoveries to touch Rs 1.80 lakh crore in the ongoing financial year., So far, banks have recovered Rs 1 lakh crore under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The recovery is expected to touch Rs 1.80 lakh crore by March 2019 with some of the resolutions at the final stage, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said., Lenders are expecting to recover almost Rs 52,000 crore loan in case of Essar Steel Ltd. and Rs 18,000 crore from Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd., Besides, the National Company Law Tribunal is expected to finalise corporate insolvency resolution process of several stressed assets, including Videocon Group, Monnet Ispat, Amtek Auto and Ruchi Soya., According to estimates, the IBC has helped address stressed assets worth about Rs 3 lakh crore—directly or indirectly—since the new law came into force in December 2016., In 2018, insolvency proceedings against some companies including Bhushan Steel, ElectroSteel Steel, Binani Cement were almost completed and the new management from their successful bidders—Tata Steel, Vedanta group and Adity Birla-led UltraTech, respectively—have taken over the management control of the stressed assets., When asked about his outlook for public sector banks in the current January-March quarter, Kumar said it is “very positive.”, Banks have posted a combined profit in the last quarter, he said, adding, provisioning by and large is over and resolution in the current quarter would add recoveries., In June 2017, the Reserve Bank of India’s internal advisory committee identified 12 accounts, each with over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans and accounting for 25 percent of total non-performing assets of banks., Following the RBI’s advisory, banks referred Bhushan Steel Ltd., Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd., Essar Steel Ltd., Jaypee Infratech Ltd., Lanco Infratech Ltd., Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd., Jyoti Structures Ltd., Electrosteel Steels Ltd., Amtek Auto Ltd., Era Infra Engineering Ltd., Alok Industries Ltd.. Publisher: PTI. Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 12:04 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Courtroom Discussions Supreme Court Media [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Cannot Stop Media From Reporting Courtroom Discussions, Says Supreme Court. Short_description: People have the right to know the discussions in a hearing and not just the final judgment, says Supreme Court.. Description: The public has the right to know the discussions between the bar and the bench that happen during the course of a hearing and the request to stop that is far-fetched, the Supreme Court told the Election Commission of India., The top court said this while hearing a plea moved by the commission against the observations made by the Madras High Court. Last month, the high court had observed that the commission was singularly responsible for the second wave of Covid-19 and should probably be booked for murder. The observations were not part of the final order of the high court., Arguing for the Election Commission, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told the top court that the commission was castigated without even being given an opportunity to present its side. Dwivedi also told the court that despite a large number of staff themselves testing positive, the commission ensured that the elections were successfully conducted., The hearing saw a discussion on the importance of the right of the public to know the court’s proceedings as well as the nature of the observations that judges make from time to time., The top court explained to Dwivedi that it cannot ask the media to not report the observations and discussions. There is a vital public interest to know the process that goes on before the court comes to a final judgment, the bench said., Justice MR Shah also suggested to the commission that it must take the observations as a bitter pill. The bench pointed out to the counsels that at times, judges make some harsh observations but those are in larger public interest and intended to ensure that their orders are complied with., Justice Chandrachud said the top court will take the arguments of the Election Commission in consideration while making the final order but made it clear that it does not intend to demoralise the high courts., “We have to make sure that the high court judges and the chief justices are independent to express their views and that the media fully reports on the court proceedings,” observed the bench., The commission maintained that in this instance, the high court had not just made observations but conclusions without giving it a chance to respond and that there needs to be a balance., The court has reserved its order on the commission’s plea against the high court’s observations. The bench is likely to pronounce the order on Thursday.. Publisher: Arpan Chaturvedi. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 2:52 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Supreme Court Orders Eviction Lakh Tribals [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Supreme Court Orders Eviction Of More Than 10 Lakh Tribals. Short_description: Supreme Court orders eviction of over 10 lakh tribals whose claims are rejected under the Forest Rights Act.. Description: The Supreme Court ordered eviction of at least 10 lakh Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers after their claims on forestlands were rejected in a case pending for a few years., The order was passed on Feb. 13 by a three-judge bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Indira Banerjee. Wildlife First, one of the petitioners, had challenged the constitutional validity of the Forest Rights Act and sought review of the rights granted to forest dwellers., The eviction of rejected claims or encroachers “has to be ensured before July 24, non-compliance of which will be viewed seriously”, the apex court said., States, including Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, will have to submit details such as the number of claims rejected and the status of eviction in a written affidavit, the order said. The chief secretaries of these states will have to explain why action has not been taken on claims which have been rejected and ensure eviction before the next date of hearing. Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and Manipur will have to update the court on the adjudication status of the claims of forest dwellers., In a , in 2016, in this long pending case, the Supreme Court had noted the argument made by counsel of Wildlife First that “approximately 44 lakh claims for recognition of the Rights under the above-mentioned Act and grant of Pattas came to be filed before the authorities competent to deal with those claims in various States out of which some of the claims were accepted and some were rejected”., It had asked each of the states to file an affidavit with data on the number of claims rejected and the extent of land covered by those claims and the consequent action taken up by the states. The matter has since then dragged on awaiting the states’ data., The case dates back to 2008 when Wildlife First challenged the Forest Rights Act, 2006 , of the rights granted to forest dwellers. This included the recovery of forest land from encroachers.. Publisher: Arpan Chaturvedi. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 11:54 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to SP Group Files Tata Vs Mistry Review Petition Supreme Court [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Tata Vs Mistry: SP Group Files A Review Petition In Supreme Court. Short_description: Mistry family group files a review petition against Supreme Court’s March 26 verdict.. Description: The Shapoorji Pallonji group has filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s , which had dismissed all allegations of oppression and mismanagement at Tata Sons, a spokesperson for the Mistry group told BloombergQuint. The news was first reported by legal news website Bar and Bench., In its order on March 26, the apex court overturned the , by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal which had directed the reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry, scion of the SP Group, as executive chairman of Tata Sons—a position he was abruptly removed from in October 2016. On that ground and others the appellate tribunal had found oppression and mismanagement at the Tata Group holding company. Disagreeing with the NCLAT, the apex court concluded that removal of a person from directorship cannot be called as acts oppressive to minority shareholders., Post the Supreme Court’s ruling, Mistry had , a statement saying he had “no doubt or erosion of conviction about the direction I chose, the integrity behind my actions and their consequences”. Mistry’s family is the second largest shareholder in Tata Sons, with an 18.4% stake., The power of review is very limited, and typically addresses an error on the face of the record in the judgement, Anand Desai, managing partner at DSK legal said in a comment emailed to media., “It is usually decided without a fresh hearing, and by the same bench that passed the judgment against which the review is filed. It is pertinent to note that the bench that had passed the March 26 judgment included Chief Justice Bobde, who has just retired, and will not be part of the bench deciding the review,” Desai added., The grounds for the review petition are not known yet.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 11:06 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Supreme Court Bats Vaccine Equity [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: Supreme Court Bats For Vaccine Equity. Short_description: Supreme Court poses a series of questions to the government on vaccine pricing, distribution and access.. Description: The Supreme Court of India on April 30 raised several critical questions with regards to the central government’s vaccination policy and emphasised there needs to be equity among the states when it comes to vaccine distribution., The court asked the central government to detail the steps it intends to take to ensure that those without means and resources get access to vaccine. The top court bench, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud, told the government that it needs to ensure that the vaccine manufacturing capability is ramped up., The bench also suggested that the central government should consider taking charge of vaccine procurement for the states., The top court’s suggestions come at a time when the vaccination programme for 18-44 age group opens up on May 1. But a number of state governments, including some of the BJP-ruled states, have expressed their inability to open up the programme since they’ve not been able to secure vaccine supply., During the course of the hearing, the top court inquired from the government whether it is considering the grant of a compulsory licence on manufacturing of essential medicines such as Remdesivir., Under the Patents Act, a compulsory license can be issued by the government in public interest. This allows eligible companies to manufacture a patented product without attracting allegations of intellectual property infringement., The bench proposed that the government can include a sunset clause in the license which will ensure it remains in effect only until the pandemic is over. Doha Declaration of TRIPS shows that member states can take such steps to protect the right of public health, Justice Chandrachud pointed out during the course of the hearing., The bench asked the government about its plans to ensure vaccine access to the illiterate and those who may not have access to internet for registration. The vaccination process for individuals between 18-44 years at present requires mandatory online registration on the Cowin portal., Further, the court also raised questions on vaccine pricing for the states and the central government. While the apex court didn’t issue any directions, it asked the central government to look into the issue of differential pricing. The court also suggested the government can consider procuring all the vaccines by itself and then de-centralising the distribution mechanism through the states. The suggestion was part of the court’s concern towards ensuring that there is equity between the states on access to vaccines., Finally, the court also asked the government to share details of the direct and indirect grants which have been provided to the two vaccine manufacturers—Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. The court told the government the capacity of the two companies to manufacture the vaccine is now known and the government should ensure the manufacturing capacity is further ramped up., Representing the central government, Solicitor General for India Tushar Mehta told the court that some of the queries posed are new and sought time to respond in detail., He also informed the bench the government isn’t taking this case as an adversarial litigation. Mehta also took the court through the steps being taken to augment oxygen production, including assistance to states which are facing logistical issues on transportation of oxygen., The Supreme Court repeatedly made it clear that its observations were not a critique of the federal government or states but were more in the spirit of cooperation in effectively dealing with the situation., The case also saw a number of parties coming up with suggestions such as using resources of companies which are currently lying ideal because of the insolvency proceedings going on against them. The bench asked the parties to submit their suggestions to the court appointed amicus curiae Senior Advocates Jaideep Gupta and Meenakshi Arora., The top court posted the case for hearing next week by when the central government is likely to clear its stance on the queries posed by the bench.. Publisher: Arpan Chaturvedi. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 10:35 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Delhi High Court WhatsApp Privacy Case CCI Hands [/INST] Law-and-Policy news. Title: WhatsApp Privacy Case: CCI Can’t Be Asked To Hold Its Hands, Delhi High Court Says. Short_description: Mere pendency of court challenge to WhatsApp’s privacy policy won’t ouster Competition Commission’s jurisdiction, high court says.. Description: In directing an investigation into WhatsApp LLC’s privacy policy and the data that gets shared with its parent Facebook Inc., the competition regulator hasn’t exceeded its jurisdiction, said the Delhi High Court in its order., The messaging platform had challenged the initiation of an anti-trust investigation against its privacy policy which was updated this year. In , , the CCI had made a prima facie finding that WhatsApp has contravened competition law provisions through its “exploitative and exclusionary conduct” in the garb of the policy update., WhatsApp and Facebook had approached the high court against the CCI’s direction. They argued that the regulator couldn’t have ordered an anti-trust investigation since a challenge to the privacy policy is pending before the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court., Relying on the Supreme Court’s ruling in , ’s case, WhatsApp and Facebook questioned the CCI’s decision to order an investigation when two courts are already examining the platform’s privacy policy. In the Bharti Airtel judgment, the apex court had stopped the CCI from looking into a telecom sector issue since the sector regulator was already examining the matter., But a single judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla dismissed this argument., It pointed out that in spite of having come to the conclusion that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is the expert regulator of the telecom sector, the apex court had stated it would not be sole repository of the jurisdiction to deal even with competition law violations. Similarly, pending cases on the privacy issue does not mean that the CCI is completely denuded of the jurisdiction vested in it under the Competition Act, 2002, or it must necessarily await the outcome of such proceedings., In a lot of cases, parties are challenging CCI’s jurisdiction on grounds that some other statutory authority or court is seized of the matter, Abir Roy, partner at Sarvada Legal, pointed out. For instance, Amazon, Flipkart, Monsanto., But the high court has now made it clear the Supreme Court is examining the policy from the lens of fundamental right to privacy while the issue before the CCI is much broader, Roy said., Also, the language of the policy, which the CCI had termed as “opaque” in its prima-facie order as it used terms like “includes”, “such as’’ in the context of data that’ll be shared with Facebook, Roy said., In directing this investigation, the CCI has joined its global counterparts in Germany, Italy and Turkey to examine whether data sharing between WhatsApp and Facebook violates competition law., Last year, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice , that Facebook is dominant in the social media networks market and is abusing this position through its terms of use. The , has termed Facebook’s data-sharing practices as abusive and barred it from combining user data collected from its subsidiaries like WhatsApp, Oculus, Masquerade and Instagram without free consent- a decision that’s now being reviewed by the European Court of Justice., In 2017, the Italian competition authority , a fine of €3 million on WhatsApp for having forced its users to share their personal data with Facebook., And earlier this year, Turkey’s competition board , an investigation into WhatsApp new privacy policy and whether obligations under it violate the country’s anti-trust rules.. Publisher: Payaswini Upadhyay. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 11:10 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Coldest April decade Europe [/INST] Lifestyle news. Title: Europe Had Its Coldest April in Almost Two Decades. Short_description: Another sign that global warming is changing our climate in unprecedented ways. . Description: Europe experienced its coldest April in almost two decades last month, another sign that global warming is changing our climate in unprecedented ways. , Global temperatures in April were about 0.2 degrees Celsius higher than the average between 1991 and 2020, Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus said in its monthly , . Parts of northeastern Canada, northwestern Russia and the Middle East were much hotter than usual, the agency said. , For the 10th consecutive year, Arctic sea ice extent was smaller than ,  over the past two decades. April typically marks the start of the melting season. Only some parts of the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, as well as the southernmost part of the Barents Sea, posted above average sea ice conditions. , The first months of 2021 have seen global temperatures hover close to the average for the past two decades, though parts of the world have seen extremely hot or extremely cold spells. Last year tied with 2016 for the warmest on record. The past decade was also the hottest in at least 2,000 years. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Laura Millan Lombrana. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 6:18 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Shell Sells U.S. Refinery Latest Divestment [/INST] Markets news. Title: Shell Sells U.S. Refinery in Latest Divestment. Short_description: Shell Sells U.S. Refinery for $350 Million in Latest Divestment. Description: Royal Dutch Shell Plc reached an agreement to sell its Puget Sound Refinery to HollyFrontier Corp. for $350 million in the latest major divestment for the European oil giant that’s moving away from processing crude., The U.S. refiner will also pay an estimated $150 million to $180 million for the hydrocarbon inventories at the facility near Anacortes, Washington, according to a HollyFrontier statement. The transaction also includes on-site co-generation and logistical assets., Shell is shrinking its refining portfolio as it adjusts its holdings to better align with a lower-carbon future. The company is instead focusing on sites that have integrated oil refineries and chemical plants -- a bet on the future growth of petrochemicals., In September, the European major said it would retain only six downstream facilities including Norco in Louisiana and Deer Park in Texas, paring back from 14. Shell then said in November it was , its Convent refinery in south Louisiana amid the devastating impacts from the pandemic on the fuel industry., HollyFrontier said it expects to fund the takeover with a one-year suspension of its regular quarterly dividend and cash on hand. The deal should be closed by the fourth quarter., “Puget Sound Refinery will complement our existing refining business, with sales into premium product markets and advantaged access to Canadian crude,” HollyFrontier Chief Executive Officer Mike Jennings said in the statement., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Gerson Freitas Jr. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 3:52 AM IST </s>