Nifty ends 2.6 percent higher, led by banks

The NSE Nifty jumped more than 2.6 percent on Monday, its biggest daily percentage gain in more than a year, encouraged by strong trading in shares of banks and miners after a selloff last week.
The broader Nifty ended at 7,162.95, while the benchmark BSE Sensex gained 2.47 percent to close at 23,554.12.
Among gainers, State Bank of India (SBI.NS) soared 9 percent on value-buying after the stock fell as much last week. India's biggest lender on Friday reported the biggest fall in its quarterly profit in nearly five years as bad loan provisions jumped.

Construction and engineering stocks also surged. Industrial group Larsen & Toubro (LART.NS) jumped 9.1 percent.



(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)

India's wholesale prices fall for 15th straight month in January

  

A vendor takes notes of a sale at a wholesale fruit market in Bengaluru, India, October 15, 2015.

Reuters/Abhishek N. Chinnappa/Files

NEW DELHI Wholesale prices fell for a 15th straight month in January, declining an annual 0.90 percent, driven down by tumbling oil prices, government data showed on Monday.
The pace of fall, however, was slower than a 0.15 percent annual decline forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. In December, the index fell a provisional 0.73 percent.
The wholesale fuel prices dropped 9.21 percent from a year ago in January, while prices of manufactured goods declined 1.17 percent year on year.

Food prices last month, however, gained 6.02 percent year-on-year, compared with a provisional 8.17 percent gain in December.



(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Malini Menon)

SAG :Indian won Gold in Triathlon Mix Relay

In Triathlon Mix Relay, India won Gold in 12th SAG today. Indian team led by Pallavi Retiwala, Dilip Kumar, Sorojini Devi Thoudam and Dhiraj Sawant covered their destination in 1:24:31:00 hrs and won the Gold medal. Nepalese team comprising Yem Kumari Ghale, Himal Tamata, Roza K.C and Rudra Katuwal clinched the Silver medal in 1:31:35:00 hrs. Bronze medal won by Sri Lankan Team led by Gayani Dasanayake, Lakruwan Wijesiri, Dinusha De Silva and Nuwan Kumara in 1:32:05:00.

Indian Team won Gold in 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men shooting also. Chain Singh, Gagan Narang and Surendra Singh Rathod won Gold for India. W.K.Y. Krisantha, S.M.M. Samarkoon and H.D.P. Kumara of Sri Lanka won Silver medal while Golam Saifuddin Siplu, Md. Yusuf Ali and Md. Ramjan Ali of Bangladesh won the Bronze medal.

Afghanistan’s Mahmood Haidari won the Men under 58kg Taekwondo in Shillong. Gajendra Parihar of India won Silver medal and Sunil Poudel of Nepal won Bronze medal.

12th SAG: Indian Men & Women aim Gold in shooting

Indian men and women shooters Team won the 10m Air Pistol Men, 25m Pistol Women and 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women at 12th SAG in Guwahati today. Indian shooters Omker Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Jitendra Vibhute won Gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol Men Team. Kalimullah Khan, Kaleem Ullah and Muhammad Shehzad Akhtar of Pakistan won Silver Medal while Sri Lanka’s S. Fernandoo, M.P. Pathirana and D.M.S.M. Disanayake won Bronze medal.

In 25m Pistol Women Team, Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed and Annuraj Singh of India won Gold medal and A.I.D.A. Kulathunga, K.S.C.G. Kendawala and W.A.N.M. Weerakkodi of Sri Lanka won Silver medal while Pakistan’s Lubina Amin, Farhat Nasreen and Tazeem Akhtar won Bronze medal.

Indian Women Team, Anjum Moudgil, Elizabeth Susan Koshy and Lajja Gauswami won Gold medal in 50m Rifle 3 Positions and W.M.S.Y. Perera, K.K.G. Perera and G.G.U.N. Ruparathna of Sri Lanka won Silver Medal. Pakistan’s Nazish Khan, Nadia Rashid and Nadira Raees won Bronze Medal.


SAG Triathlon: Gold and Silver for India


Indian athletes won gold medal Triathlon in 12th SAG here today. Indian Men squad comprising Dilip Kumar and Guru Datt bagged Gold and Silver medals respectively while Sri Lankan Nuwan Kumara could manage Bronze medal. In woman section, Pallavi Retiwala and Pooja Chaurushi were declared first and second while Nepal’s K. C. Roja bagged Bronze medal for her country.

Facebook India MD Kirthiga Reddy stepping down

Facebook Inc's India managing director, Kirthiga Reddy, said on Friday she is stepping down and returning to the United States to "explore new opportunities" at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
Reddy, who joined Facebook in 2010 as its first employee in India, said in a Facebook post she would be relocating in the next 6-12 months.
Reddy is working closely with William Easton, MD of emerging markets (Asia Pacific), and Dan Neary, vice president of Asia Pacific, to search for her successor.
The move comes days after India introduced rules to prevent Internet service providers from having different pricing policies for accessing different parts of the Web, in a setback to Facebook's plan to roll out a pared-back free Internet service.

The service, earlier known as internet.org, has also run into trouble in other countries that have accused Facebook of infringing the principle of net neutrality - the concept that all websites and data on the Internet be treated equally.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was disappointed with the Indian ruling and said that the company was still "working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world."
"As she had planned for some time, Kirthiga Reddy is moving back to the U.S. to work with the teams in Headquarters," a Facebook spokesperson said. "During her time in India, Kirthiga was not involved in our Free Basic Services efforts."


(Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Supreme Court says Gandhis need to face trial in graft case

  

India’s main opposition Congress party president Sonia Gandhi (L) and her son and the party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi, arrive at a court in New Delhi, India, December 19, 2015.

Reuters/Adnan Abidi/Files

NEW DELHI India's Supreme Court said on Friday that opposition leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul, will have to face trial in a case involving the alleged misuse of party funds, but exempted them from appearing in court.

The two members of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty had approached the top court to throw out the case which their Congress party says is a vendetta carried out by a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling group.
But the court said it saw no justification for interfering in the trial conducted by the lower court. However it granted them leave from attending regular hearings.
The Gandhis deny any wrongdoing.
Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party are bitterly opposed to the Congress party, leading to a gridlock in parliament where key legislation such as simplifying state taxes is stuck.

The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty ruled India for most of its post-independence era after 1947 and helped shape the country's institutions. Detractors accuse the family of holding back economic development with socialist policies.
The legal case, brought by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy against the Gandhis, has further poisoned ties and there are no signs of compromise, political analysts say.

"The main prayer for which they (Gandhis) came has been defeated," Swamy told reporters after the Supreme Court decision.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the party welcomed the court's decision to exempt the Gandhis from appearing in court and would continue to fight Swamy's "false allegations".

Swamy has accused the Gandhis of cheating and criminal breach of trust by setting up a shell company to illegally gain control of properties worth $300 million that belonged to a company that published the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Rahul's great grandfather.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Suchitra Mohanty; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Nick Macfie)

Speech by the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of call on by Ashoka Fellows for the year 2015

1. I am happy to meet this young, enterprising group of Ashoka Fellows for the year 2015. At the very beginning, I extend you and the representatives from the ‘Ashoka Innovators for the Public’ a warm welcome to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

2. ‘Ashoka Innovators for the Public’ (ASHOKA) is a worldwide network of social entrepreneurs comprising people with innovative solutions to urgent social problems. It provides an enabling platform to social entrepreneurs to think and act as change agents. It is a matter of pride that this organization has over the last 35 years of its establishment, mentored and supported over three thousand Ashoka Fellows in eighty two countries, including over 380 Fellows elected from India.

3. I am told that ASHOKA applies a rigorous selection process to elect their Fellows. The candidates and their innovations have to fulfill criteria like system-changing idea, entrepreneurial quality, creativity, ethical fiber and social impact. It is heartening to know that the Ashoka Fellows for the year 2015 who are present here have devised innovative solutions in areas like education and skills training, healthcare and urban development.
Friends:

4. There are many social needs that public, private and civil society institutions are not able to meet fully. At the same time, there is tremendous ingenuity amongst the people, which if tapped, could address the necessities of the common men and women. Much as the blooming of the spring, innovations by students, professionals, common man and local communities can bring smiles on the faces of millions of people.

Friends:

5. The process of innovation converts knowledge into social good and economic wealth. It encourages the engagement of talent with the society to improve the quality of life. India has had a long tradition of innovation.From time to time, the common people in our country have ushered in novel solutions to overcome their day-to-day difficulties.The drivers that influence the pursuit of innovation are many – from basic survival to propulsion of growth.A healthy eco-system is needed to harness innovative potential of various segments in different sectors and at multiple levels in our society.

6. Creating an inclusive eco-system call for linkages between innovators on the one hand, and academic and research institutions and market forces, on the other. Countries successful in building such a network have become innovation leaders. As an attempt to bring educational institutions and innovators within the ambit of an inclusive innovation system, a programme for Innovation Scholars In-Residence was started in Rashtrapati Bhavan. I would like to inform you that two batches of innovation-scholars have come so far, one group of five scholars in the year 2014 and a second group of ten scholars in 2015. During their stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, they have been mentored and connected with relevant stakeholders to provide wings to their ideas.

Friends:

7. Educational institutions have a critical role to play in nurturing innovations in society. The large network of higher educational institutions of 712 universities and over 36,000 colleges in India is poised to play a leading part in developing an innovation eco-system. To catalyze the institutions of higher learning in this process, I have been urging the leaders of the higher education sector to establish a connection between their institutes and innovations in their hinterland, and to also set up Innovation Clubs. I am happy to state that in over sixty central higher educational institutions, innovation clubs have been set up. They provide a platform to encourage students tosense the unmet needs of the common men and women, and search, spread and celebrateinnovations.Once unmet needs are mapped, the pedagogy and research process can be reoriented suitably.

8. For the first time ever, a week-long ‘Festival of Innovations’ was organized at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in March 2015 in collaboration with the National Innovation Foundation. It demonstrated new technologies and products made by the grassroots innovators. TheGlobal Roundtables on Inclusive Innovation and Financing of Innovation in the Festival saw the participation of distinguished thinkers, policy-makers, academicians, entrepreneurs and financiers. The second ‘Festival of Innovations’ will be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in March this year. You may like to consider participating in this event. The presence of renowned participants from India and abroad will provide a global platform to all the innovators and participants of this Festival.

9. With these few words, I conclude. I wish you all the very best for your endeavours. Chase your dreams as you fulfill the dreams of your country and countrymen.

Thank you.

Mission incomplete: Rajan's overhaul of RBI

  

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan listens to a question during a news conference after the bi-monthly monetary policy review in Mumbai, India, February 2, 2016.

 
MUMBAI In a video conference in mid-2014, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan told employees that he wanted to hire talented external candidates and improve the quality of research at the 81-year-old central bank.
The proposals, described to Reuters by three officials who heard Rajan speak, would hardly seem out of place in any major institution on the planet.
But in the storied halls of the RBI, where staff have to pass comprehensive examinations to join public service and spend decades slowly moving through its ranks, Rajan's ideas were seen by some staff as controversial, the sources said.
"(The) entire process is being hurried up," a protest letter written United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees, the central bank’s staff union, read, according to a copy seen by Reuters at the time.
"There is a need for better clarity, communication – both internal and external, consensus and fairness to all stakeholders."
Rajan did not formally respond to the letter, according to several sources.
Since then, Rajan has only hired one permanent staff externally. It is not clear what role, if any, opposition from the rank-and-file RBI staff played in the low number of external hires.
The RBI declined to comment for this story.
Rajan's calls for out-of-the-box thinking were reiterated in a memo last month, seen by Reuters, which urged increased accountability and performance and was described by a half dozen mid-level officials as toughly worded, sparking similar misgivings among some in the bank's rank-and-file.
Such reactions highlight what has probably been one of the hardest fights of his tenure: transforming what many see as a slow-moving and bureaucratic RBI of 17,000 staff into a modern, nimble central bank.
Rajan said he also wants to improve training for staff, through initiatives such as sending them to other central banks for short stints, creating scholarships, and emphasising research, while also strategically bringing in outside expertise.
"In general, I am not trying to swamp the place," Rajan told reporters last week in response to questions about external hires at a press event following the RBI’s monetary policy announcement.


"When outsiders come in they have to show that they can actually deliver as advertised. It shouldn't be seen as a privileged position just because they got a foreign degree."
At stake are both Rajan's legacy and wider confidence in India's ambitious reform agenda, which seeks to make its economy and markets more robust and globally integrated. His tenure expires in September and central bank watchers say he may only be able to finish the job if he is appointed to a second term.
Domenico Lombardi, an economist who has served on the boards of both the World Bank and the IMF, said it is vital for Rajan to persuade sceptics within the RBI and the government to integrate India into the world economy.
"Central banks are very conservative environments, and it takes far more than a three-year stint to change their culture," Lombardi said.
Since taking over as governor in 2013 in the midst of India's worst currency turmoil in two decades, Rajan, 53, has overcome several challenges to steer some of the biggest changes in the central bank's history.
These include introducing inflation targeting, tackling crony capitalism and successfully asserting the RBI's independence with New Delhi. Government sources say he has struck a personal relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even though he was appointed by a rival administration.


The former International Monetary Fund chief economist has also become a source of confidence for those investing in India and a leading voice for emerging markets on global economic policy issues.
"There is no alternative to officials like Rajan if India wants to signal that it is serious in its reform process," said Lombardi.
QUICK CHANGES
Rajan, who likes to start his day with an 8:30 breakfast, early by Indian government standards, is seen by many RBI employees as fast and decisive.
On his very first day at work in September 2013 and as the rupee INR=D2 was still near record lows, Rajan announced a slew of initiatives to stabilise markets.
Barely four months later, he set about reshaping monetary policy, shifting the bank's inflation target to consumer prices away from wholesale prices, the biggest central bank change since the country began economic liberalisation in 1991.


Rajan also streamlined operations, scaling back scheduled policy reviews to six from eight per year. One RBI official said he ended dated practices, such as an RBI official hand-delivering copies of monetary policy statements to government officials. Statements are now directly uploaded to the web site.
Such rapid change, however, has brushed against the bank's slow and deliberative style, one that prizes consensus-building among stakeholders, though some changes have been welcomed.
EASY GOING
Unlike most previous RBI governors who have come from civil servant backgrounds, Rajan himself was an external hire, previously working as the chief economic adviser to the Congress-led government that was voted out in 2014.
People who work closely with Rajan describe him as genial and easy-going, compared with the more formal interactions favoured by past governors.
Upon his arrival, for example, four officials said Rajan reached out to younger staff, especially researchers, to hear their views and have lunch with them, stepping away from the 18th floor executive dining area with its expansive view of Mumbai.
At the same time, Rajan remains an exacting boss.
One senior official described a recent initiative to research the direct impact interest rates have on inflation and growth using econometric models, a much more demanding level of economic analysis than was requested by previous governors.
As Rajan put it in a speech in July last year: "The kind of economics we need is based on rigorous fundamentals – blood, sweat, tears, and toil."

(Writing by Rafael Nam; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Sam Holmes)

Government to support Ethanol blending of Petrol in a big way: Petroleum Minister

The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has expressed the Government’s commitment for time bound execution of initiatives to introduce Ethanol blended Petrol and Bio diesel in the country. Inaugurating a National Seminar on “Lignocellulose to Ethanol- Roadmap for India” in New Delhi today, he said that Oil Marketing companies have already invited bids for 120 crore litre of Ethanol for blending in petrol for sugar year 2015-16 which would be 5% (approx) of the country’s total petrol consumption.

Listing out the benefits of using Ethanol blended petrol, Shri Pradhan said that it will not only help in value addition for the farmer’s produce but will also reduce foreign exchange expenditure. He said that added benefits of blended petrol would be in the form of employment generation, entrepreneurship promotion and environment protection. He said that Ethanol blended petrol was introduced in 2003 but the process got impetus only in 2014-15 when new government took policy decisions to incentivize petrol blending.

Shri Pradhan said that there is a demand for Ethanol for blending with petrol but there are technological and financial challenges which needs to be overcome. The Petroleum Minister called upon various departments of Government, State Governments, Academic and Research Institutions to work together to find solution to these challenges. Shri Pradhan said that molasses to Ethanol conversion is already going on and the Government has taken up second generation of lignocelluloses to Ethanol production to utilize agricultural residues/wastes, and achieve the target of 10% Ethanol blending.

The National Seminar was aimed at accelerating the EBP programme in the country and to draw up a roadmap for establishing ethanol industry from lignocellulosic route thus reducing the foreign exchange outflow, generate rural employment and protect environment

India, Singapore scientists race to make Zika test kit, but lack of live sample a challenge

NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE | By Aditya Kalra and Rujun Shen: Scientists in Asia are racing to put together detection kits for the Zika virus, with China on Thursday confirming its first case, but the researchers are challenged by the lack of a crucial element - a live sample of the virus.
Zika, suspected of causing brain defects in more than 4,000 newborns in Brazil after spreading through much of the Americas, is a particular worry in South and Southeast Asia, where mosquito-borne tropical diseases such as dengue fever are a constant threat.
India is working on diagnostic kits for the virus, as there is no testing kit commercially available in the world's second populous country, but the lack of a live virus sample is hindering its efforts.
A strain from 1950 was found dead and not suitable for research, said Soumya Swaminathan, director general of the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which spearheads biomedical research.
"We want it for our research," Swaminathan said, referring to live samples of the virus. "In a big country like India, we need it."

India has written to international agencies, the World Health Organisation among them, seeking a sample of live Zika virus, the council says.
"If we get it, we can develop a kit and testing procedures within a month," said a council official, who declined to be identified because of lack of authorisation to speak to the media.
In the affluent city state of Singapore, scientists are working on a diagnostic kit to simultaneously detect Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses, which are transmitted by the same type of mosquitoes and cause similar symptoms.

Singapore, which is just north of the equator, has suffered a spike in cases of dengue fever this year, and has taken precautions against a Zika outbreak.
"Every country and major city needs to be prepared," said Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, director of the infectious diseases programme at the Bioinformatics Institute of A*Star, Singapore's public sector research agency.

The new kit developed by Maurer-Stroh's team would save two thirds of the cost and time needed to test for the three viruses individually, and can be run on standard hospital equipment.
The new kit is expected to be distributed to hospitals by the end of March, where it will undergo final testing on real viruses, if Zika eventually hits the shores of Singapore.
"It is a challenge to get the information as well as access to all samples and sequences, and that's a challenge that everyone in the world faces," said Maurer-Stroh.

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)