statesman news service
New Delhi, 3 July
Worried over ever growing bad loans, Union finance minister Mr P Chidambaram has asked banks to target top defaulters and taken penal action against them.  
“You focus on the top defaulters, as well as keep an eye on the top non-performing accounts… They are keeping a close watch on the top 30 non-performing accounts in each bank and action will be taken on the defaulters,” Mr Chidambaram said.
Briefing the media after meeting the heads of public sector banks and financial institutions here, Mr Chidambaram said it is the 30 top non-performing accounts which account for bulk of the NPAs.
Non-performing assets of banks have been on the rise for the past several months due to slowdown in the economy. The gross NPAs of some public sector banks, including State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have crossed four per cent of the total assets at the end of March 2013. Gross NPAs of PSU banks have risen from Rs 71,080 crore as on March 2011, to Rs 1.55 lakh crore as on December 2012. He said he has asked banks to review their lending rates.  
“Reduction in base rate will be powerful stimulus to boost credit growth,” he said adding that unless the base rate is cut, interest rates cannot be brought down.  
While the the RBI has reduced the policy rates by 1.25 per cent since January 2012, to prop up growth, banks have lowered the lending rates by only 0.30 per cent during the period.  
At the meeting with the bank chiefs, Mr Chidambaram reviewed the credit to agriculture, MSME sector, housing, education, minority communities and also financial inclusion.
Asked about discussion on gold loan with bank chiefs in the meeting, Mr Chidambaram quipped: “You want gold loan, chances are there you won’t get it”.
Replying to a query on new bank licences for which 26 entities have applied before the Reserve Bank, the finance minister said “every guideline has to be satisfied”. He, however, said it is the RBI which will give the licences and the government will have no say in it.
According to Mr Chidambaram public sector banks plan to recruit 50,000 new hands and open 10,000 new branches around the country during 2013-14.
“This year public sector banks are expected to add 10,000 branches of which 2,000 are to be by Regional Rural Banks. Correspondingly there will be recruitment. In fact all the banks put together are expected to recruit some 50,000 persons in the current year,” he said.
The PSU banks had a sanctioned strength of about eight lakh employees as on 31 March 2012. They hired around 63,000 people in the last financial year.
The country&’s largest bank SBI alone recruited 20,000 clerical staff and 1,200 officer level employees. Other PSU banks hired 22,000 officers and 20,000 clerical staff.
There were 84,489 vacancies at various levels in the state-owned banks at the end of 2010-11.

STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
Kolkata, 3 July
The Indian tea industry is facing many obstacles due to climate change ~ declining soil fertility, old age of plantations, dwindling availability of labour force and emergence of small tea growers.
The need of this hour is, therefore, to face theses challenges effectively and sustain the industry.
"This is the first time in the world an effort has been made to establish a sustainability code for the tea industry," Tea Board chairman, Mr MGVK Bhanu told reporters here today.
He said: "We will implement this code in North Bengal (including Darjeeling), Assam and South India." The producers who will be joining the initiative include McLeod Russell, Harrison Malayalam, Goodricke Group Limited, Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited, Chamong Tea Exports, Laxmi Tea Company and Confederation of India Small Tea Growers.
The sustainability code is being developed in partnership with IDH-Sustainable Trade Initiatives , Solidaridad and Rainforest Alliance, with the support of Hindustan Unilever Limited.
"Around Rs 18 crore has been invested in this initiative through IDH and Solidaridad," Mr Bhanu announced.
The code seeks to embrace sustainability principles to boost productivity, maintain safety standards to improve quality compliance, and inclusion of small farmers in the mainstream.
Tea Board is of the view that effective implementation of the sustainability code will enable tea industry to safeguard the plantation environment, welfare of the workers and small farmers, as well as long-term security of supply.

STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE 
New Delhi, 3 July 
India and Pakistan should do business in rupees and not in dollars in order to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, according to Mr Imran Sohail, leader of a nine-member delegation of Jhang Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pakistan.
He was speaking at an interactive session organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today. 
Mr Sohail said improving economic ties will help in resolving larger issues, and political relations should not affect the prospective business ties between the two countries 
He hoped India will be granted most favoured nation status soon and proposed that Indo-Pak travel be made easy with the grant of multiple-entry visa to multiple cities.
Since Pakistan has been facing a severe energy crisis, he said that India could help Pakistan to meet its power needs. 
Mr Zirgham Raza, First Secretary (Trade), High Commission of Pakistan, said both the governments are working on technical aspects to facilitate bilateral trade between the two countries, including issues related to visas, opening of bank branches and standardisation of products.

STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
Kolkata, 3 July
Small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) around the world and across industries are competing with larger companies by investing in technology to improve operations and become more efficient. These companies are making major changes to their business models, products and go-to-market strategies.
A survey of 2,100 executives from SMEs in 21 countries, released today, says they believe they are equipped to compete with larger firms and have some clear advantages over them. The Oxford Economics’ global study sponsored by SAP looked at SMEs with an annual turnover of $20 million to $750 million across the globe.
The findings overturn some industry stereotypes of smaller companies as local or regional entities that are largely technophobic.
The study reveals that SMEs that do business in six or more countries will more than double in three years.
SMEs are expected to grow outside their home markets while facing increasing global competition at home. The number of firms expecting to generate as much as 40 per cent of their revenue internationally will jump by 36 per cent in the next three years.
Fifteen per cent of the respondents currently do business in six or more countries today, a figure that is expected to rise to 35 per cent in three years based on survey responses.
More than one-quarter of respondents cite increasing global competition among the top three trends affecting their business today.
Nearly 60 per cent say competition from companies in other countries has increased substantially in the past two years. And 59 per cent say they are competing more with larger companies now than in the past.
SMEs are forming networks around the globe. Over half of the respondents say they increasingly are forming partnerships with suppliers and other vendors located in countries outside their home markets.
A similar number are increasingly collaborating with other firms via online business networks and platforms to help drive innovation and growth.
Nearly 40 per cent of SMEs cite forming strategic partnerships and alliances as a key challenge as they remake their companies for the global marketplace.

Associated Press
PARIS, 3 JULY: Bolivia’s president left Europe for home today amid diplomatic drama, a day after his flight was rerouted and delayed in Austria amid suggestions that he was trying to spirit National Security Advisor (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden to Latin America.
Bolivia demanded explanation from various European countries it accused of thwarting President Evo Morales’ flight.
French officials denied today that France refused to let the plane cross over its airspace amid suspicions that Mr Snowden was aboard. Spain, too, said the plane was free to cross its territory.
The plane carrying Mr Morales home from Moscow was rerouted to Austria yesterday night, in a new twist to the international uproar over Mr Snowden and the widespread US surveillance that he revealed. It took off again from Vienna shortly before noon today.
Bolivian and Austrian officials both say Mr Snowden was not on Mr Morales’ plane, which left Moscow yesterday following a summit. Mr Morales had suggested that his government would be willing to consider granting asylum to the American.
Mr Snowden is believed to be in a Moscow airport transit area, seeking asylum from one of more than a dozen countries. Bolivia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, speaking in Geneva today, continued to insist that several European countries had refused permission for the plane to fly in their airspace.
Mr Sacha Llorenti said it was an “act of aggression” and that France, Portugal, Spain and Italy violated international law. Mr Llorenti said “the orders came from the USA” but other nations violated the immunity of the president and his plane, putting his life at risk.
Bolivian officials said that France, Portugal and Italy blocked the plane from flying over their territories based on unfounded rumours that Mr Snowden was on board. Bolivia said Spain agreed to allow the plane to refuel in the Canary Islands but only if Bolivian authorities agreed to allow it to be inspected.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said today that Mr Morales’ plane had authorization to fly over France. French officials would not comment on why Bolivian officials said otherwise.
Spain’s foreign ministry said in a statement today that the country yesterday authorised Mr Morales’ plane to fly within its airspace and to make the Canary Islands refueling stop and gave the authorisation again today morning after Bolivian authorities repeated the request.
A foreign ministry official declined comment when asked if Spain demanded the right to inspect the plane. The Spanish spoke on condition of anonymity because of ministry rules. Officials in Portugal did not return repeated telephone messages seeking comment and Italian officials were not available to speak on the subject today morning.
In Vienna, an official said that Mr Morales’ aircraft asked controllers at Vienna airport to land because there was “no clear indication” that the plane had enough fuel to continue on its journey.

Coming up trumps

For Kolkata-born Rituparna Bose, research and endeavour have paid off handsomely. The 32-year-old, who now teaches at City University, New York, has developed mathematical algorithms that give the most specific estimates of biodiversity till date. She recently identified new fossil species in Michigan, a kind of ancient marine shell, and showed that the ancient biodiversity was underestimated. Her findings showed that a greater diversity of life had, in fact, existed in the past than had been previously appreciated.
   “There are around five to 30 million species of plants and animals today. One reason for such ambiguity in biodiversity numbers is that organisms have been historically classified based on visual assessment of external morphology ever since the days of Carl Linnaeus (1735). Organisms that looked different were grouped differently, and that was fine till now,” she said.
   Bose&’s findings demonstrated the shortcomings of such visual classification and highlighted the need for classification based on objective quantitative algorithms. Part of her research was presented at the North American Paleontological Convention. This is especially significant as the United Nations has declared 2011-2020 the Decade of Biodiversity and she has subsequently been elected a Fellow of the Paleontological Society of India and the prestigious Geological Society of London.
   Her findings were recently reported in Historical Biology and Paläontologische Zeitschrift, both journals on fossil science. Bose is also the editor of Acta Palaeontogica Sinica, the flagship journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China&’s highest academic institution and provides scientific leadership on vital global issues. She also serves on the editorial board of a few famous scholarly journals, including the Geological Journal and Bulletins of American Paleontology (Paleontological Research Institute, Cornell University).
   One of the exciting findings of her work, along with David Polly, was that scientists may have misestimated the number of species that existed in prehistoric times.
   “My research has been published in several acclaimed palaeontology journals, including Palaios. My dissertation has also been selected for the best theses award by prominent publisher Springer and is being published in their ‘best of the best theses’ series,” she said.
   An alumnus of both Calcutta University and Jadavpur University, she is now an adjunct faculty at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, City University, New York, and married to Arnab De, a microbiologist from Columbia University, who has also been her co- worker. De, too, is from Kolkata and had graduated from Presidency College.

India blooms news service

Android-based console

Reports from the Wall Street Journal have revealed that Google is currently developing an Android-powered gaming console and smartwatch and it is believed that this is partly a pre-emptive measure intended to counter similar devices from Apple. Although there have so far only been suggestions that Apple might be entering the gaming market (these include patents for iOS gaming controllers and the uptick in Apple TV&’s profitability), such rumours seem far more substantial if Google also believes in them.
  Android-based gaming consoles have enjoyed great success over the past year with notable devices including the GameStick and Ouya. The latter, a £99 Kickstarter-funded console, was launched at the beginning of last week and managed to sell out through both Amazon US and UK stores, despite criticism for poor quality hardware.
Sources indicated that the company would be rebooting its Nexus Q device — a product described as “the first social streaming media player” but never released to the public.   

THE INDEPENDENT

Press Trust of India
CHANDRAPUR (Maharashtra), 3 JULY: In order to increase the involvement of public to check the growing crime, a ‘police mitra scheme’ has been launched in Chandrapur.
City police, in association with Chandrapur Bachao Samiti, have launched this initiative.
“A police mitra (friend) would act as a bridge between the police and people of the city thereby resulting in better understanding with improved efficiency in police functioning,” superintendent of police Rajiv Jain told reporters here yesterday.
The idea was proposed by Chandrapur Bachao Samiti president Gopal Mundada, he said.
“We have circulated pamphlets in schools and colleges, besides putting up hoardings in the city encouraging youths to help police. We are also keen to improve our intelligence input and reduce the gap between police and common people,” Mr Jain added.
According to the officer, the existing police force of around 3000 personnel, proves to be inadequate to tackle the law and order situation in the city which has a population of around 3.5 lakh.
“The Police mitra could definitely be helpful during the festival times like Ganapati, Dussera and annual Mahakali fair here,” Mr Jain said.
 

IMPHAL, 3 JULY : A massive landslide damaged a bridge in Nung Dolan area in Tamenglong district and blocked Imphal-Jiribam-Silchar national highway 37 in Manipur, as reported by official sources.  
The landslide, caused by heavy rainfall, has damaged the bridge yesterday, the sources said.
Border Road Task Force (BRTF) sources said that it would take two to three days to clear the highway.

Says panchayat polls as per schedule; will abide, says CM
“Should we violate the Constitution (by postponing the dates) or should we allow polls without security?”
“If you (state government) wanted to have election on time, then you should have taken steps earlier. This is dilly-dallying.” ~ Supreme Court
Statesman News Service
New Delhi/Kolkata, 2 July
The Supreme Court today rejected the state government’s plea to modify its order on 28 June directing a five-phase panchayat poll beginning on 11 July.
In a stinging rebuff to the state government’s constantly shifting position on holding the crucial rural poll, the Division Bench of Justices A K Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi asked the government and the NGOs that filed similar petitions whether the Constitution should be violated.
“Judges have to go according to Constitution,” the court said and pulled up the state government for “dilly-dallying” on the issue.
The apex court directed the Bengal government to issue a notification for the poll as per its earlier order.
Turning down the plea of the state government and NGOs seeking to reschedule the dates to have the election process before or after the period of Ramzan, likely to start on 10 July and end on 9 August, the Division Bench said the court could not reschedule the elections owing to constitutional mandate and unavailability of Central security forces before 11 July.
The apex court dismissed the plea that holding of the polls in the month of Ramzan could adversely affect the participation of one-third of the state’s  population ~ Muslims.
It said all these options had already been considered before passing of the court&’s 28 June order with regard to holding of panchayat polls in West Bengal.
The Bench had on 28 June fixed the dates of poll in West Bengal for 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25 July.
It said it respected the sentiments of the Muslim community, but insisted the Constitutional provision for holding the election before tenure of Panchayat was over couldn’t be bypassed.
The apex court noted that dates couldn’t be advanced at this stage as the Centre had expressed its inability to provided force before 10 July.
 “We cannot modify the schedule of election. The state government shall issue notification pursuant to our order,” the Bench said.  
The apex court refused to accept the state government’s plea that it could provide 50,000 security personnel while it had earlier stated it could arrange for 35,000 armed personnel for each phase.
As per the court’s earlier direction, the balance of the personnel would be met by Central forces.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said : “I am happy with the apex court directive. I respect all religions and abide by the Constitution.”
The state panchayat department issued in the evening a fresh notification announcing the five-phase poll and sent it to the SEC. The commission will issue its matching notification tomorrow.

statesman news service
New Delhi, 2 July
A Delhi court today dismissed a criminal defamation case filed against Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his ‘Hindu terror’ remark.
 Metropolitan Magistrate Amitabh Rawat also refused to give a copy of detailed order to the complainant in the case and directed him to apply for a certified copy.
 The court passed the order on the complaint lodged by Ved Parkash Kumar, who had alleged that the home minister had willfully made the derogatory remarks to cause ill will and hatred among communities.
 In his petition filed through his counsel Monika Arora, Kumar had alleged that Shinde’s remarks were aimed at “polarising minority votes” in the 2014 general elections.   “The impugned statement is not only defamatory in its natural meaning but also contains the imputation and insinuation that Hindu religion is involved in anti-national and terrorist activities,” Arora had submitted.
 She had further told the court that the minister has used the word saffron as synonym of terrorism, which is totally absurd, wrong, mischievous and defamatory.
 According to the petition, Shinde, while addressing an AICC meeting at Jaipur earlier this year, had said “…We have got an investigation report that be it RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism. We are keeping a strict vigil on all this.”

Terror funding?
Four trucks loaded with 150 bags of cash and  jewellery, worth Rs 2,500 crore were impounded
NIA has rounded up 47 angadias who were to deliver the consignment to Ahmedabad
The agency wants to find out if the alleged hawala operation involved terror funding
Statesman News Service
Mumbai, 2 July
The National Investigation Agency and the vigilance wing of Mumbai’s Income Tax late on Monday night impounded four trucks loaded with 150 bags stashed with unaccounted cash, jewellery, gold and diamonds roughly estimated at Rs 2,500 crore.
The seizure was made minutes before the consignment was to be taken
to Ahmedabad by more than 40 "angadias" or personal couriers by the Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Gujarat Mail.
NIA said they have rounded up 47 "angadias" who were expected to ferry the undeclared wealth to their yet to be identified receivers in the Capital of Gujarat and other cities.
The "angadias" are being questioned in batches to unravel the trail of cash from senders to final users.
Counting of seized cash was on at I-T department’s Scindia House office at Ballard Pier in south Mumbai. The building has been cordoned off by Mumbai police.
The NIA received a tip off about physical transfer of unaccounted wealth from the diamond markets and bullion bazaar last week.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the four trucks were escorted to Mumbai Central station by a senior officer of the Vithal Bhai Road Police Station. The Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Gujarat Mail is the angadias’ favourite, since it cover the distance overnight in both directions. NIA sources said they had to involve the Income Tax (Vigilance) in the operation since the Central investigating agency does not have mandate to impound cash or other unaccounted wealth.
"The prime concern of the agency is to find out whether the alleged hawala operation involved terror funding,” said a source.
The IT director general (Vigilance) Mr Swantantra Kumar confirmed the consignment was headed to Ahmedabad. He said it would take a day or two to count the cash and other valuables.
Sources in Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House diamond hub, however, discounted suspicion about terror funding. They say such hawala transfers of cash and valuables are done routinely by the "trusted tribe of angadias". A diamond dealer who spoke on condition of anonymity said most of the transfers between Mumbai and Gujarat are done through "Jayanti Amba".
He is believed to have monopolised the alleged hawala transfer of cash and unaccounted wealth in other forms. Most of the business deals on daily basis in these markets are finalised through hawala transactions.

statesman news service

New  Delhi, 2 July
 Delhi police today approached the special court seeking its permission to summon the owner of the bus, in which a 23-year-old paramedical student girl was gang-raped on 16 December, as witness.
 In his plea before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna, special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan, sought to call Dinesh Yadav, owner of the bus, as witness .
 Besides Yadav, the prosecutor has also sought the court’s permission to call Ramadhar, a carpenter who was allegedly robbed by the six after luring him into the bus.
“On review of the evidence, it is submitted that Dinesh Yadav, the owner of the bus and the employer of accused Ram Singh (since deceased) as well as Ramadhar who is not a cited witness but is a complainant, and a purported victim of the same accused persons, are required to be summoned as it is in our respectful submissions that not summoning them may be perceived as being unfair to the accused,” said Krishnan adding that in the interest of justice and fair trial, Yadav and Ramadhar be summoned as a witness.
 The prosecution’s move was, however, opposed by the counsel for accused Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh, who are facing trial for gangrape and murder of the victim. 

statesman news service
New Delhi, 2 July
After months of intense speculation and lobbying, Ms Sujatha Singh was today named as the next foreign secretary of the country.
Ms Singh&’s name had been doing the rounds for a while, along with that of India&’s current envoy to China, Jaishanker.
Sources said while the PMO was in favour of Mr Jaishanker, what finally tipped the scale in Ms Singh&’s favour was her seniority and her father&’s close connections with the Congress.
Ms Singh is the daughter of T V Rajeshwar, former head of the Intelligence Bureau and also a former Governor of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Mr Rajeshwar was close to the Congress top brass
and this was a major factor that went in Ms Singh&’s favour.
Her supporters pointed out that she is a hard working officer with a mind of her own, while sources in the government admitted that she is now likely to loosen the grip of the National Security Advisor (NSA) over foreign policy.
The NSA had pushed for another candidate, Mr Sudhir Vyas, for the top post. 
The current foreign secretary, Mr Ranjan Mathai, is due to retire on 31 July, after which Ms Singh will take charge.

No ‘differences’
Etihad had announced its stake purchase decision on 24 April
On 13 June, the FIPB deferred a decision on the deal
There are no differences among ministries over the deal, PMO said today
The stake sale is still under examination, the PMO added
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, 2 July
Amid a raging controversy over the Rs 2,058 crore deal between Jet Airways and Etihad, Government today said the equity stake sale matter is still under examination and asserted that there were no differences between Ministries over the air services agreement between India and Abu Dhabi.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) came out with a statement rebutting reports about objections to the deal raised by senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta, Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamul Congress) and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy, each of whom had shot off separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Reports of rift within the Government on the India-UAE (Abu Dhabi) Bilateral Air Services Agreement and the Jet-Etihad equity proposal are “factually incorrect and baseless”, the PMO said.
“There is absolutely no disagreement within the government or between the Ministers and the Prime Minister on the matter,” it said.
“The Prime Minister is neither washing his hands off the Bilateral Air Services Agreement nor is the PMO trying to do a U-turn on the issue now.”
On the stake sale issue, the PMO said this was a “distinctly different” matter as it was an agreement between two private parties.
“This is a matter between private parties which needs to be approved by the concerned agencies as per the policies and laws in place. This is not an agreement between governments and there is no question either backtracking from or disowning this proposal as this is not an agreement with the government.”
“As for the equity stake matter, that is a matter still under examination,” it said, adding that the issues raised have been referred to the Civil Aviation Ministry, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Department of Economic Affairs and the Corporate Affairs Ministry “for examination and appropriate action as they were concerned with various aspects of the complaints.”
The issues relating to security concerns were also referred to the Cabinet Secretary for examination to suggest whether there was a need to look into any issues afresh.

Barasat, 2 July: Today the six accused, chargesheeted in Kamduni gang rape and murder case, were in produced before the Barasat court.
Today at around 9.20 am while the accused were being brought to court, angry villagers demonstrated on the court premises and demanded death for the guilty howver, no untoward incident was reported in the area.
According to CID, they have submitted the supplementary chargesheet to  the Barasat court  against the six accused – Ansar Ali, Saiful Ali, Bhola nath Naskar, Imanul Mollah, Aminul Ishlam and Gopal Naskar.
But two other accused Amin Ali and Nur Ali are still absconding.
 Today at around 12.30 pm while the case  was being heard, a crowd of Kamduni villagers that included the elder brother of the Barasat rape victim  and her father  encircled the the court premises.
The protesters raised
slogans demanding speedy justice for the victim’s
family and trial of the accused.                                sns

statesman news service 
Burdwan, 2 July
Police have brought charges against Mr Kalicharan Majhi ~ a CPI-M leader and pradhan of the Kurmun-1 panchayat ~ for failing to prevent cannabis cultivation in his area.
During a special raid against ID liquor distillation today morning at Kurmun village under the Burdwan police station area, police destroyed 6,000 litres liquor and molasses.
The police team, led by SDPO (Sudder), discovered that cannabis was being cultivated in nearly two bighas of land in the village. Police seized nearly four quintals of cannabis and three kg of dried hashish and 17 persons were taken into custody, including two women. 
In 2011, the district authority had warned the respective panchayats to be cautious and prevent cultivation of such substances. Burdwan DM, Mr Onkar S Meena, had sought a written undertaking from the pradhans of the respective panchayats stating they would be responsible for any such cultivation in their region.
Burdwan SP S M H Meerza said: “We are bringing charges under Section 47 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, 1985, because he was bound to prevent cultivation of cannabis.” 
The section suggests: “It is the duty of certain officers to give information of illegal cultivation. Every officer of the government and every panch, sarpanch and other village officer of whatever description shall give immediate information to any officer of the police or of any of the departments mentioned in Section 42 when it may come to his knowledge that any land has been illegally cultivated with the opium poppy, cannabis plant or coca plant, and every such officer of the government, panch, sarpanch and other village officer who neglects to give such information shall be liable to punishment.”