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JOINT SESSION NOT POSSIBLE NOW ON INSURANCE BILL

NEW DELHI: The central government’s worries on the Insurance Bill aggravated on Tuesday with Congress accusing it of adopting double standards on the issue and dismissing threats from the treasury benches that a joint session may be convened, forcing BJP ministers to knock on the doors of parties like SP and BSP to muster the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. Congress sources maintained the government was reportedly keen on passing the insurance bill in Parliament in this session so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can showcase it to the US during his visit in September and hence wants to hurry through the process without sending it to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha. BJP leaders, on the other hand, alleged Congress was playing politics on

POWER MINISTRY MULLS FUND TO FINANCE HYDRO PROJECTS

NEW DELHI: The power ministry plans to create a fund to provide long-term finances to hydropower developers, and aims to play an active role in resolving state level sues that are blocking such projects.

“Hydropower did not get the desired attention as concerned ministries and departments were working in silos, and problems with states and central authorities could be resolved.

However, the new government is working in tandem as a team and we are hopeful to resolve pending issues to give conducive environment to hydropower sector,” power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.

He said one of his first projects Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated was the

RAJASTHAN GOVERNMENT BANKS ON HPCL DATA TO NULLIFY LATTER’S CLAIM

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government while censuring previous Congress government for ignoring state’s interests while signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), has banked on the HPCL’s own consulting firm, SBI Caps’ report.

Chief minister, Vasundhara Raje, during her budget speech, said that based on appraisal report, the project will earn revenue of more than 68,000 crore within 15 years, from the day of production.

According to government officials, the data was cited from the report prepared by HPCL-appointed consulting firm, SBI Caps. Riding on these figures, the government is firming its stand on renegotiating the terms. “These facts came

Egypt plans Suez parallel channel

Egypt plans to build a new channel parallel to the Suez Canal in a 60 billion Egyptian-pound ($8.4 billion) venture to boost capacity at the vital global waterway, marking a new era of regeneration after the 2011 revolution. Construction of the new passage is scheduled to take three years, though President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has ordered it to be completed in a year, Mohab Mamish, head of the […]

Microsoft’s Xbox One Is Failing

By Bargain Bin: During Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) second quarter, the company sold a total of 1.1 million video game consoles, including both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. This was only a 10% increase in unit sales year-over-year, a surprisingly small increase that was partly due to excess retail inventory. But looking at unit sales over the past few months, Microsoft has bigger problems than excess inventory, […]

World’s most expensive RV sold in Dubai

|By TAP Staff| The world’s most expensive recreational vehicle (RV) was recently sold in Dubai. The 40-foot-long EleMMent Palazzo from Austrian company Marchi Mobile changed hands for around $3 million, luxury and performance automotive website Motor Authority reported. The EleMMent Palazzo looks like an alien spacecraft, or perhaps two different vehicles fused together by some mishap involving tampering with the spacetime continuum. At least it’s covered in […]

Cost of Saudi Labor Reform: $4 Billion A Year

When Saudi Arabia started to seriously tackle its labor market problems a few years ago, it had to take decisions that made it quite unpopular with both businesses and the general public. The government argued that some tough measures must be taken even if they are painful. After decades of depending on low-paid foreign workers, it was clear that fixing the labor market would be difficult and […]

MINISTRY WORKING ON SWEETENING BANKRUPTCY PILL FOR SICK UNITS

NEW DELHI: The government is working on developing a bankruptcy framework to offer easier exit routes to sick companies while helping revive those with viable options, said Kalraj Mishra, the new minister for micro small & medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Another issue the ministry is dealing with is availability of land for industrial units. It is asking states to create land pools by listing out all unused land available with them.

“Entrepreneur bankruptcy framework will be developed to enable easy exit of sick units,” Mishra told ET. “It has been a major demand of the MSME sector for a very long time. The details will be worked out soon.”

SMEs employ close to 40 per cen

GOVT OPEN TO MINOR CHANGES IN INSURANCE BILL

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the government was open to accommodating minor modifications to the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, so that it could be passed in the current session of Parliament. He also said calling a joint session of Parliament was a real option if the Bill was defeated in one of the Houses. After an all-party meeting failed to break the deadlock on the issue between the government and Opposition, Jaitley on Monday reached out to the Congress. But the Congress continued to insist the Bill be sent to a select committee of Parliament, as it now was much changed from the one the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The party added it would be willing to support the legisl

INDIA EYES $40-BILLION PIPELINE FROM RUSSIA TO IMPORT GAS

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at ensuring India’s energy security, the Narendra Modi-led government plans to import huge volumes of natural gas from Russia. The Centre is working out the contours of a $40-billion (Rs 2.4 lakh-crore) mega onland pipeline project carrying gas from Russia to India, in one of India’s biggest energy projects till date.

Top government officials told HT that the move follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Brazil on the sidelines of the Brics summit.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) along with the ministry of petroleum and natural gas are preparing a blueprint to examine the feasibility of this new project, they added.

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U.S.-Israel Ties Strained Over Diplomacy on Gaza

Video | Cease-Fires of the Gaza-Israel Conflict With the Israeli Army now moving into defensive positions, a historical look at how the fighting could end. By MARK LANDLER August 4, 2014 WASHINGTON — When the State Department condemned Israel’s strike on a United Nations school in Gaza on Sunday, saying it was “appalled” by this “disgraceful” act, it gave full vent to what has been weeks of mounting American […]

Op-Ed Contributor: Atef Abu Saif: Life and Death in the Gaza Strip

Op-Ed Contributor Eight Days in Gaza: A Wartime Diary By ATEF ABU SAIF August 4, 2014 Sunday, July 27 For the last two hours we’ve heard nothing but sonic booms and the sound of rockets and mortars. Shells have fallen on our street a few hundred yards from my father-in-law’s house, where my wife and I, and our five kids, are staying, and on the street behind us. My wife, […]

UAE workers get this year’s Camp Ka Champ under way

DUBAI // Shamas Mashi cleared his throat and knitted his eyebrows in concentration, then belted out his well-rehearsed number at a labour camp in Dubai Investments Park on Tuesday night. Mr Mashi got this year’s edition of the Western Union Camp Ka Champ under way with his catchy Bollywood tune, and set the stage for three months of auditions in which thousands of labourers will vie for […]

Family tradition of building UAE palaces, mosques and forts kept alive

Abdul Rahman Qayed’s hands are smooth for a man who works in the construction trade. The reason, he says, is simple. For much of the past 28 years they’ve been covered in clay. Along with the date palm, coral stone, gypsum and straw, clay is one of the key materials with which Abdul Rahman, 52, and his 58-year-old brother, Mohammed Saleh, ply their trade. “We use the […]

I’d rather my son play video games than sit passively in front of the TV

Surveys were carried out annually across four school years with the participants aged 14 or 15 at the start of the study and 17 or 18 at its conclusion Photo: Alamy Can it be true? Is playing video games not the corrupting activity that we’ve been led to believe? Gaming’s position as society’s current bête noire, so often blamed for the degradation of youth just like rock ’n […]

INTERNATIONAL NORMS MAY BE ADOPTED TO REJIG FDI POLICY

The government is proposing a major overhaul of its foreign direct investment (FDI) policy as part of the Narendra Modi-led administration’s plan to woo overseas investors and improve ease of doing business in India, which ranks at a lowly 134 out of 189 global economies in this respect, according to the World Bank.

The government is looking to adopt the international practice of linking policy with industrial codes to ensure foreign investors won’t have to wade through complicated press notes or circulars to decipher the policy for a sector.

“Discussions are on. There is merit in seeding the industrial codes with the FDI policy,” said a government official aware of the deliberations. The mov

CENTRE PLANS CHANGES IN ATOMIC ENERGY LAW FOR NPCIL VENTURES TO TAKE OFF

NEW DELHI: The Centre is looking to move amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to enable the licensing of three joint ventures proposed by state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd — with NTPC Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation and National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) — to set up new atomic power projects in the country.

Amid concerns over India’s nuclear liability provisions holding up the deployment of imported Light Water Reactor-based projects in collaboration with global vendors, the proposal by NPCIL to strike joint ventures with cash-rich PSUs is being seen as an alternative strategy to tide over the paucity of funds and ramp up execution capability for new projects using the indigenous pressurised heavy water react

BP & NIKO CANNOT BE PARTY TO ARBITRATION

NEW DELHI: Stung by Reliance Industries’ alleged bid to “influence” the foreign third arbitrator appointed by the Supreme Court in the KG-D6 block case, the government is set to approach the court with a plea that the relevant arbitration be done strictly within the country sans a foreign umpire.

Armed with a law ministry opinion conveyed to it recently, the petroleum ministry will also take the firm stand that RIL’s foreign partners, BP and Niko, should not be made a party to the arbitration, which was initiated by the Indian company, sources familiar with the matter told FE.

The government’s move would escalate the conflict between it and RIL over the alleged suppression of gas production at the once-pro

Lost world of an artist caught in the crossfire

Britain declared war 100 years ago tonight , but some other countries had already begun. On July 29, a Hungarian painter, Béla Zombory-Moldován, was on holiday at the seaside resort of Novi, on the Croatian coast, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Suffering from a hangover, he had slipped out in the early morning for a swim from the spit. The bathing attendant approached, and told him, […]

‘It couldn’t be Ebola, could it?’

Close call: Dr Naomi Platt with her dog, Bonnie, near her home in Devon Photo: Stuart Clarke Am I the first person to be told that they have malaria and feel a sense of relief? Possibly. However, my diagnosis five weeks ago was given while I was working in a small rural hospital in Sierra Leone, where contact with the Ebola virus was a real possibility. I’d had […]

Missing Soldier Killed in Battle, Israel Confirms

Israeli soldiers watching Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak on television at a coffee shop near the border with Gaza. By STEVEN ERLANGER and JODI RUDOREN August 2, 2014 JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said early Sunday morning that an officer thought to have been captured by Palestinian militants during a deadly clash Friday morning, which shattered a planned 72-hour cease-fire, was now considered to have been killed in battle. The announcement […]

Gaza Fighting Intensifies as Cease-Fire Falls Apart

By JODI RUDOREN and ISABEL KERSHNER August 1, 2014 JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants sprang from the ground and confronted Israeli soldiers Friday morning, as they have repeatedly in recent days. This time, Israeli officials said, one exploded a suicide belt while another unleashed machine-gun fire. This time, two Israeli soldiers were killed and the militants apparently escaped with a third. The attack, at the start of what was supposed to be […]

Chinese head for Harvard

Chinese students have a new favorite summer destination: Harvard University. So many students and their families are visiting Boston-area schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University that Hainan Airlines Co. started direct flights to Boston from Beijing in June and increased the number from four to seven a week in July and August. Tufts gets so many requests from large organized groups that […]

India’s WTO stand may trigger trade disputes

The World Trade Organization failed on Thursday to reach a deal to standardise customs rules, which would have been the first global trade reform in two decades but was blocked by India’s demands for concessions on agricultural stockpiling. “We have not been able to find a solution that would allow us to bridge that gap,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told trade diplomats in Geneva just two hours […]