India promotes digital transactions to encourage cashless economy

People stand in queues at cash counters to deposit and withdraw money inside a bank in Chandigarh, India, November 10, 2016

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced incentives ranging from 0.75 percent to 10 percent on retail purchase of products like petrol, diesel and insurance products from state-run companies to encourage digital, cashless transactions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee banknotes on Nov. 8 in a bid to flush out cash earned through illegal activities, or earned legally but never disclosed. Citizens could redeem their money only by depositing it with banks, to be paid out over a period of time.

Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has pledged to crack down on so-called black money with new measures including 10-year jail terms for evaders.

"The incentive scheme has the potential of shifting at least 30 percent more customers to digital means which will further reduce the cash requirement of nearly 2 trillion rupees ($29.69 billion) a year at the petrol pumps," Jaitley told reporters.

He said state-run insurance companies would offer discount of up to 10 percent on payment of insurance premium through digital means.

Government officials are worried 90 percent of the discontinued notes could yet come back into the financial system, deposited in banks to be converted into valid lower or new higher-denomination notes. This would put a question mark on meeting Modi's aim of flushing out untaxed money.

Indian banks have so far received nearly 12 trillion rupees in discounted currency since the government decided to abolish high value bank notes.

Opposition parties stalled the parliament for the 14th day on Thursday seeking a probe into the mismanagement of supply of new currency to the public.

Modi has called for patience until Dec.30 by when he has promised the cash situation would stabilize, and urged the people to shift to electronic transactions.Modi has called for patience until Dec.30 by when he has promised the cash situation would stabilize, and urged the people to shift to electronic transactions.

Government waives service tax charged while making payments through credit card, debit card, charge card or any other payment card; waiver limited to payments up to Rs. 2,000 in a single transaction 
When a customer uses a credit card, debit card, charge card or any other payment card for payment of his purchase of goods or services, the merchant/service establishment is charged certain merchant discount rate (MDR) by credit card or debit card issuing banks. With a view to promote digital transactions and encourage merchant establishments to accept such card payments, Government has waived service tax on such amount charged while making payments though credit card, debit card, charge card or any other payment card. However, this waiver is limited to payments upto two thousand rupees only (Rs.2000) in a single transaction.

Triple talaq "cruel" and "most demeaning", says Allahabad HC

Allahabad, Dec 8 (PTI) Coming down heavily on the practice of "triple talaq", the Allahabad High Court has held that this form of "instant divorce" is "cruel" and "most demeaning" which "impedes and drags India from becoming a nation".

"Muslim law, as applied in India, has taken a course contrary to the spirit of what the Prophet or the Holy Quran laid down and the same misconception vitiates the law dealing with the wife's right to divorce", a single judge bench of Justice Suneet Kumar said in its judgement passed last month.

The court observed that "divorce is permissible in Islam only in case of extreme emergency. When all efforts for effecting a reconciliation have failed, the parties may proceed to a dissolution of marriage by Talaq or by Khola".

RBI keeps policy rate unchanged;lowers growth forecast to 7.1%

Mumbai, Dec 7 (PTI) RBI today unexpectedly kept interest rate unchanged despite calls for lowering it while it slashed the economic growth projection by half a per cent to 7.1 in the first policy review post demonetisation.

Announcing the fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review of the current fiscal, RBI Governor Urjit Patel also said demonetisation was not done in haste and efforts were being made to increase the supply of currency notes and appealed to the public not to hoard them.

Acknowledging that supply disruptions against the backdrop of currency replacement may drag down growth this year in India, he said short-term developments that influence the outlook disproportionately warrant caution with respect to setting the monetary policy stance.

"On balance, therefore, it is prudent to wait and watch how these factors play out and impinge upon the outlook.

Accordingly, the policy repo rate has been kept on hold in this review, while retaining an accommodative policy stance," RBI said.

Satisfied with the RBI decision to keep the repo (short term lending) rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent, decided unanimously by Patel-led 6-member Monetary Policy Committee, the Finance Ministry described it as a "bold and brilliant" move which will prevent flight of overseas capital in uncertain global environment.

In its last review, which was first under Patel, the MPC had lowered the rate by 0.25 per cent.

India Inc, which was hoping for a 0.5 per cent cut in interest rate on account of surge in bank deposit following demonetisation, expressed disappointment saying RBI should cut the rate to support growth of trade and industry hit by demonetisation.

Bankers felt that there could be easing of interest rate in the days to come with RBI deciding to remove the incremental Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of 100 per cent from December 10.

"The combination of removal of incremental CRR limit and MSS (market stabilisation scheme) will help banks to manage their liquidity conditions better and bring financial stability to the system," SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said.

The Reserve Bank projected the headline inflation at 5 per cent by the fourth quarter of 2016-17 with risks tilted to the upside, but lower than in the October policy review.

The fuller effects of the house rent allowance under the Seventh Pay Commission award are yet to be assessed, pending implementation, and have not been reckoned in this baseline inflation path, RBI said.

On demonetisation, it said the withdrawal of old high value currency notes could transiently interrupt some part of industrial activity in November-December due to delays in payments of wages and purchases of inputs, although a fuller assessment is awaited.

The central bank also said that almost Rs 12 lakh crore out of total Rs 14.5 lakh crore in scrapped notes have already been deposited in banks.

PSLV-C36 Successfully Launches RESOURCESAT-2A Remote Sensing Satellite

   
In its thirty eighth flight (PSLV-C36), ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully launched the 1,235 kg RESOURCESAT-2A Satellite today morning (December 07, 2016) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the thirty seventh consecutively successful mission of PSLV. 

After PSLV-C36 lift-off at 10:25 am IST from the First Launch Pad with the ignition of the first stage, the subsequent important flight events, namely, strap-on ignitions and separations, first stage separation, second stage ignition, payload fairing separation, second stage separation, third stage ignition and separation, fourth stage ignition and cut-off, took place as planned. After a flight of 17 minutes 05 seconds, the vehicle achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 824 km height inclined at an angle of 98.725 degree to the equator (very close to the intended orbit) and 47 seconds later, RESOURCESAT-2A was separated from the PSLV fourth stage. 

After separation, the two solar arrays of RESOURCESAT-2A deployed automatically and ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took over the control of the satellite. In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide imagery from its three cameras. The data sent by RESOURCESAT-2A will be useful for agricultural applications like crop area and crop production estimation, drought monitoring, soil mapping, cropping system analysis and farm advisories generation. 

Like its predecessors RESOURCESAT-1 and 2, RESOURCESAT-2A has a unique 3-Tier imaging system with Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS), Linear Imaging Self Scanner-3 (LISS-3) and Linear Imaging Self Scanner-4 (LISS-4) cameras. The AWiFS provides images with a sampling of 56 metres, a swath of 740 km and a revisit of 5 days whereas the LISS-3 provides 23.5 metre sampled images with 141 km swath and a repitivity of 24 days. LISS-4 provides 5.8 metre sampled images with 70 km swath and a revisit of 5 days. 

With today’s launch, the PSLV has yet again demonstrated its reliability. The total number of satellites launched by India’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV including today’s RESOURCESAT-2A has now reached 122, of which 43 are Indian and the remaining 79 are from abroad. 

Sensex falls 156 pts, post RBI policy review, banks hit hard

Mumbai, Dec 7 (PTI) The benchmark Sensex reversed its two-day rally as it fell 156 points on Wednesday to end at 26,237 as RBI left interest rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent, contrary to market expectations, in its first policy review since the currency switch.

Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel today left the repo rate intact in his second monetary policy even as the central bank lowered GDP growth forecast to 7.1 per cent from 7.6 per cent for the current fiscal, saying short-term disruption in economic activity and demand compression arising out of demonetisation has led to downside risks to growth.

The 30-share index declined by 155.89 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 26,236.87 after shuttling between 26,540.83 and 26,164.82. The gauge had gained over 162.10 points in the previous two sessions.

The wider Nifty hit a low of 8,077.50 before recovering partially to settle at 8,102.05, down 41.10 points or 0.50 per cent. It had touched a high of 8,190.45 in early trade.

The Patel-led 6-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which in its first policy review had cut interest rate by 0.25 per cent in October, belied expectations to keep benchmark repo rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent unanimously.

In sync with overall trend, the rupee too gave up its initial gains to trade almost flat (intra-day) against the dollar during the day, which weighed on sentiment.

Interest-linked banking stocks such as SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank fell by up to 2 per cent in reaction to the RBI decision.

RBI left the short-term lending rate, or repo rate, unchanged at 6.25 per cent, and the cash reserve ratio at 4 per cent. The central bank also lowered the GDP projection at 7.1 per cent for this fiscal from earlier estimate of 7.6.

Out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 25 ended lower, while 5 led by Adani Ports, HDFC Ltd, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors and M&M finished higher and cushioned the fall.

Sun Pharma fell the most among Sensex constituents by falling 5.96 per, followed by TCS 1.47 per cent, Tata Steel 1.40, Lupin 1.33 per cent, ITC Ltd 1.17 per cent and Wipro 0.06 per cent.

Sector-wise, the BSE healthcare index fell the most by 1.70 per cent, followed by realty 1.49 per cent, bank 1.07 per cent, IT 0.63 per cent, FMCG 0.61 per cent and capital goods 0.56 per cent.

In line with the trend, the small-cap index shed 0.51 per cent and mid-cap 0.16 per cent.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), which had been net sellers on the domestic bourses since November 8, bought shares worth a net Rs 161.80 crore Tuesday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Other Asian markets closed higher with Japan's Nikkei advancing 0.74 per cent, China's Shanghai Index rose 0.71 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.55 per cent up.

European markets too were trading in positive terrain in their early deals.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 1.10 per cent while France Paris CAC 40 climbed 1 per cent.

Jaya buried with full state honours, Prez, PM pay homage

The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee paying tributes to the mortal remains of Ms. J. Jayalalithaa, in Chennai on December 06, 2016

Chennai, Dec 6 (PTI) Lakhs of grieving men and women today bid a tearful adieu to J Jayalalithaa, the charismatic Chief Minister who held sway over Tamil Nadu politics for more than three decades with a pro-poor image, as the AIADMK supremo was buried here with full state honours.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, his counterparts from several states, Governor Vidyasagar Rao, DMK leader M K Stalin and superstar Rajnikanth were among the dignitaries who paid homage at Rajaji Hall where the body of 68-year-old Jayalalithaa lay in state since early morning.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi pays tributes to the mortal remains of Ms. J. Jayalalithaa, in Chennai on December 06, 2016.

Sasikala Natarajan, the close confidante of Jayalalithaa for over three decades, was beside the body throughout the day and later conducted the religious rituals before the sandalwood casket was lowered at a site close to MGR memorial on the shores of Marina beach.

No sooner had the brief rituals concluded at around 6 PM, the casket carrying the mortal remains of the five-time chief minister was lowered after a gun salute amid emotional chants of 'Amma Vazhga' (Long Live Amma) by a sea of humanity which had converged at the burial site.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi pays tributes to the mortal remains of Ms. J. Jayalalithaa, in Chennai on December 06, 2016

Various leaders including Naidu, Rao, Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Paneerselvam, Speaker Dhanapal and former Governor K Rosiah placed wreaths at the feet of the body that was draped in a silk saree in her favourite green colour and a sandalwood garland placed around her neck.

Earlier, thousands of people hailing 'Puratchi Thalaivi Amma' (Revolutionary Leader Amma) walked with the cortege that was part of a military convoy in which her coffin was carried, wrapped in the national flag and covered with flowers.

Amid heavy security cover, the funeral procession made steady progress to the destination, a distance of three km from Rajaji Hall in the government estate, passing through Madras University and the burial site opposite the British-era iconic PWD building.

Big photographs of Jayalalithaa, an actor-turned- politician, were placed all around the coffin even as people showered the hearse with flowers, as Sasikala accompanied the body.

With the Central government ordering a state funeral, personnel from the three armed forces paid their respects and gave a guard of honour before Sasikala conducted the last rites with the aid of a Brahmin priest.

The rituals include sprinkling of water, offering of rice, showering of flower petals and sandalwood pieces.

Jayalalithaa, a spinster who never shied away from flaunting her religious identity and beliefs, was surprisingly buried and not cremated. She was laid to rest by the side of her mentor and actor-turned politician M G Ramachandran, a former chief minister.

Lakhs of people had packed the area around Rajaji Hall where men and women wept in grief as they attempted to reach the body of their Amma or "mother".

The mortal remains of Jayalalithaa was earlier taken from her Poes Garden residence to Rajaji Hall, hours after she died at a private hospital late last night after battling for life for 75 days. .

India's southern leader Jayalalithaa dies, supporters grieve in streets

Well wishers of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaraman hold her portrait as they pray at a temple in Mumbai, India, December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

One of India's most popular politicians, Jayalalithaa Jayaraman, died on Monday following a massive cardiac arrest, setting off an outpouring of grief among thousands of supporters gathered outside.

Her political party and the hospital where she was being treated confirmed the popular former film actress and chief minister of southern India's Tamil Nadu state, widely known as "Amma" or "Mother", had died at the age of 68.

"Our beloved leader, The Iron Lady of India ... is no more," tweeted her AIADMK party, the third-largest party in India's lower house of parliament in New Delhi.

Her death deprived her regional ruling party of its only charismatic leader, whose portrait adorned placards and posters around her home state and who was tipped as a possible future Indian prime minister.

Jayalalithaa had gone into cardiac arrest on Sunday night, the Apollo Hospital in Chennai said, following her admission with fever and dehydration in September.

Despite being resuscitated and put on life support, "her underlying conditions rendered her unable to recover and she passed away at 11:30 p.m.", the hospital said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes, tweeting that Jayalalithaa's death had left a huge void in Indian politics.

"Jayalalithaa ji's connect with the citizens, concern for welfare of the poor, the women and marginalized will always be a source of inspiration," Modi said.

The news of her death was met with howls of grief and tears from the crowd of supporters outside the hospital. Rumors earlier in the evening that she had died, which proved to be false, led to brief unrest.

CULT FOLLOWING

About 2,000 policemen were deployed around the hospital in case crowds of devoted supporters reacted strongly to Jayalalithaa's death. Supporters have been known to commit suicide in reaction to bad news.

"Nothing can kill Amma," said one man holding a picture of the leader outside the hospital earlier as doctors battled to save her life.

Aloof and powerful, Jayalalithaa had a cult following among the people of Tamil Nadu that endured even though she went to jail for corruption more than once.

She began a film career at 16 and rose to stardom with dozens of hit Tamil films, often with her screen partner M.G. Ramachandran, an actor-turned politician who then served three terms as chief minister of Tamil Nadu state.

With voters ready to confer god-like status on their matinee idols, she also went into politics and trumped her mentor by serving five times as head of the state government.

Jayalalithaa leaves behind a legacy of populist schemes, including giving away free cellphones, laptops and kitchen grinders that endeared her to millions of voters. She also drew foreign investors to India's second largest state economy.

Auto giants Ford Motor, Daimler, Hyundai and Nissan have operations in Chennai as has U.S.-listed outsourcing firm Cognizant .

LEADERSHIP VACUUM

Her death opens up a leadership vacuum in her AIADMK party, which she ran with an iron hand with designated successor.

During her latest illness, her picture was put in a chair at the head of the table at state cabinet meetings.

O.P. Panneerselvam, a cabinet colleague, has stood in for Jayalalithaa in the past, but he has repeatedly made it clear he was not replacing her. He pointedly refused to take her place at the head of the cabinet table while she was ill.

"There is no second line of defense here, and these are emotive times. There is a chance of violence," said T.R. Ramachandran, an independent expert on Tamil Nadu politics.

The AIADMK and its bitter rival, the DMK party, are the main political groupings in Tamil Nadu. Both are built around a personality cult of their leaders, both of whom are drawn from the Tamil film industry.

India's two national parties, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress, have little political presence in the state, despite decades of efforts.

The death of Jayalalithaa's mentor Ramachandran, or MGR as he was known, sparked looting and rioting across Tamil Nadu by his grief-stricken supporters in 1987.

The U.S. consulate in Chennai asked American citizens to avoid areas where demonstrations were happening and be vigilant because of the chance of violence.

"U.S. citizens are reminded that even gatherings intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence," the consulate said in a notice posted on its website.

PM to visit Chennai to pay tributes to Jayalalithaa

New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will shortly leave for Chennai to pay floral tributes to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who passed away at a Chennai hospital last night.

He will place a wreath on the mortal remains of Jayalalithaa at Rajaji Hall.

In a series of tweets last night, the Prime Minister, who enjoyed a good personal equation with the late leader, said he was "deeply saddened at the passing away of Selvi Jayalalithaa. Her demise has left a huge void in Indian politics."

Jayalalithaa, a popular leader who showered the poor with populist programmes, died last night at a private hospital in Chennai after battling for life for the past 75 days.

The 67-year-old leader had suffered a massive cardiac arrest on Sunday evening.

PM Narendra Modi Briefed On Jayalalithaa's Health By Venkaiah Naidu

 Jayalalithaa suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday. She's on life support, Apollo Hospital has said

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Jayalalithaa in ICU after cardiac arrest on Sunday evening
2. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on heart, lung support system
3. Crowd of supporters, police outside Apollo hospital

 NEW DELHI:Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who has been camping in Tamil Nadu since today morning, has apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the latest health condition of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

Mr Naidu, who met doctors from the Apollo hospital, where she is admitted and those from AIIMS who have been called in to treat the AIADMK chief, briefed the Prime Minister on the latest health condition of the 68-year-old chief minister, sources said.

Ms Jayalalithaa suffered a cardiac arrest Sunday evening and is said to be in an "extremely grave" condition.

Mr Naidu also met top leadership of AIADMK, including party legislators, during the day, sources said.

They said Jayalalithaa's condition would be evaluated once again around 10.30 pm.

Sensex makes a late recovery, up 118 pts on rate cut odds

Mumbai, Dec 5 (PTI) Staging a late recovery, the Sensex today shook off its initial weakness and ended higher by 118 points at 26,349 as bets stacked up in anticipation of a rate cut at RBI's policy review on Wednesday.

The Nifty too regained the key 8,100 mark at the close.

The monetary policy committee (MPC) is meeting tomorrow to decide on the interest rate and the final announcement is due on Wednesday. On the global front, Europe took in its stride a 'no' vote to the constitutional referendum in Italy and opened positive, which provided the momentum here.

The 30-share Sensex after shuttling between 26,390.80 and 26,125.35 settled higher by 118.44 points, or 0.45 per cent, at 26,349.10. The gauge had lost 422 points in the previous two sessions on foreign fund outflows amid weak global cues.

The NSE Nifty ended up by 41.95 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 8,128.75 after moving in a range of 8,141.90 to 8,056.85.

The rate cut prospects brightened after the sharpest contraction in services PMI in three years opened up room for RBI to lower rates. A better trend in European shares lifted mood.

"With rate cut expectations running high ahead of RBI meet this week, risk appetite improved, especially in rate sensitive stocks forcing short covering. Sentiment was also helped by European markets swinging higher after Italian referendum," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

"Expectations of populist measures aimed at softening demonetisation worries are also allowing markets to be forward looking now."

Caution prevailed due to muted regional indices after Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's resignation in the wake of a heavy referendum defeat sparked worries about political instability in the euro zone and beyond.

The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which tracks services sector companies on a monthly basis, stood at 46.7 in November, down from 54.5 in October.

Among bank stocks, SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank ended 0.90 per cent higher as participants created fresh positions ahead of the RBI policy review.

Shares of IT exporters, however, traded with a negative bias as the rupee strengthened against the dollar after falling to an all-time low of 68.86 last month. TCS, Wipro and Infosys all fell by up to 1.68 per cent.

On the sectoral front, BSE auto index rose by 1.92 per cent, metal 1.52 per cent and FMCG 1.36 per cent.

Broader markets too showed a better trend, with the mid-cap index rising by 0.66 per cent and small-cap 0.26 per cent as investors made fresh purchases.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 190.52 crore last Friday, showed provisional data.

Overseas, key indices in Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong dropped by up to 1.21 per cent. In Europe, Frankfurt's DAX surged 1.73 per cent and Paris CAC 1.34 per cent while London's FTSE was up 0.72 per cent in their late morning trade. .

Trump tweets against China's currency, military policies

Washington, Dec 5 (AFP) US President-elect Donald Trump railed against China in a series of tweets, accusing the Asian giant of currency manipulation and flexing its military might in the South China Sea.

"Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the US doesn't tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don't think so!" 

It was not clear what prompted the last night's tweets, which came amid a controversy over a phone conversation Trump held with the leader of Taiwan, a self-ruled island Beijing considers part of its territory.