Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said the economic development of South Asia has been "severely hampered" due to lack of intra-regional trade and stressed on the need for a greater push to investments, travel and tourism in the region.He further said that economic growth will not come to South Asia from America or Europe and it will need political will and determination of SAARC countries, which will enable growth to take place and also eliminate poverty."Politicians may say anything and politics of the region may do anything but South Asia as a region has been severely hampered and it will remain backward till we don't integrate and till we don't push for greater trade, greater investments and greater travel and tourism within the region," he said.Kant was addressing SAARC Development Fund (SDF) Partnership Conclave 2018 here.He pointed out that most of travel and tourism across different regions of the world is intra-regional in character."If you look at America and Europe, it (trade, travel and tourism) is intra-regional. But if you look at South Asia, it is least integrated region in the world," the Niti CEO said.He added, "If you look at intra-regional trade, there is virtually no trade taking place in the SAARC region. There is no intra-regional travel and tourism therefore multiplier impact of trade within the region has not benefited the SAARC countries."Stating that SAARC countries have not been able to work together in the region, Kant said "we have nobody to blame but ourselves"."Within the SAARC region, we have ensured that we don't do trade with each other, within the SAARC region we have ensured that we don't allow tourists to come to other country...," he asserted.The NITI Aayog CEO stressed that SAARC countries should allow greater trade and investment to take place within the region.He also wondered why Indian tourists prefer to travel to South East Asian countries instead of travelling to South Asian countries."Why Indian tourists are going to Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. Why they can't travel to Bhutan, Pakistan, or Afghanistan," he underlined.He also stressed on the need to provide more job opportunities to women in South Asian region, saying women contribute only 25 per cent to GDP in these parts and in case of rest of the world, women contribute 48 per cent to GDP.Speaking at the same event, SAARC Development Fund CEO Sunil Motiwal said, "We plan to convert SDF into regional bank in the next 2 years.""We will go to capital marker to raise funds in near future," Motiwal added.He said the SDF has already implemented 12 intra-regional projects in South Asia.The SDF is currently implementing 12 regional projects with more than 70 implementing and lead implementing agencies, covering all the eight member states under the Social Window funding.The SDF was established by the heads of the eight SAARC member states in April 2010 and its Governing Council comprises finance ministers of these eight countries.

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Reliance Jio has alleged that tender norms mandating use of 2G technology for government funded mobile service projects will favour incumbent operators and cause financial loss of around Rs 5,000 crore to the public exchequer, according to sources.The Mukesh Ambani led firm has also written letter to Universal Service Obligation Fund Administrator Sanjay Singh and marked it to telecom minister Manoj Sinha and telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan seeking their intervention for removing the clause."...We are hugely disappointed by USOF Administration's decision to continue with extremely unfair, arbitrary, discriminatory, restrictive and retrograde mandate to use 2G technology for voice in its recent tender for Andaman and Nicobar Islands despite numerous reasons for not mandating a legacy technology," Jio said in the letter, seen by PTI, dated June 25, 2018.The telecom department in June first week invited bids to install 214 mobile towers in Andaman and Nicobar islands (ANI) in uncovered villages and on national highways for providing 2G and 4G services. The project will be funded by the government through USOF, which is corpus created from money paid by telecom subscribers as part of their every call.Jio said that mandatory 2G rollout is discriminatory in nature and is bound to prohibit participation of 4G operators in the bid.Jio in the letter alleged that the project with mandatory use of 2G technology will be used by incumbent operator with 2G networks to deploy their old and wasted network equipment in ANI while they upgrade their networks to 4G in other parts of the country.The USOF wing, which is managing the project, has also proposed similar clause for telecom connectivity project in naxal affected states and unconnected villages in the Northeast.Jio representatives in pre-bid meeting held on June 19 have alleged that the extension of clause for telecom infrastructure rollout project in naxal affected area and Meghalaya alone will add to Rs 5,000 crore financial loss to the public exchequer."The restriction on latest technology would also impact cost efficiencies as there will be at least 30-40 per cent incremental cost addition...For example, in ANI tender itself, the government could save around Rs 100 crore and possibly more, if this restrictive condition of the tender gets removed," the letter said.It said that 2G has reached to its end of life, where a large number of developed and developing countries have already completely switched off their 2G networks and over 75,000 mobile towers on 2G technology have been shut down in India."With no advantage in terms of additional service or otherwise, the present bid condition for mandatory 2G rollout is bound to cause additional losses in both capex as well as opex," the letter said.Jio played down arguments of USOF, which comes under the telecom department, that 2G is required for economical handsets and point-of-sales machines.It said that areas to be covered under USOF project are uncovered areas and therefore there is no likelihood of any customer within these areas holding a 2G only handset and at present there is almost nil differential in 2G and 4G handset prices."The tender, in the current form, is bound to result in virtual monopoly of few incumbent operators, causing huge loss to the tune of thousands of crores to the exchequer," the letter said.Email query sent to DoT and Jio elicited no immediate response.

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Sheth said that in the future 15-20% of contextual and judgement based processes would be automated using technologies such as natural language processing and machine learning.

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As much as 80% of data in business enterprises is unstructured or semi-structured data, making cognitive computing a powerful tool in helping business leaders unlock data to make informed decisions, according to a new report by EY entitled 'Intelligent Automation: Making Cognitive Real'."Traditionally enterprises have relied heavily on past experience in order to predict the future," said Milan Sheth, technology sector leader and intelligent automation lead at EY. "What makes a cognitive approach different is that these systems are designed to learn and built to change based on the captured knowledge base. They also have an ability to identify patterns and linkages between data elements that the enterprises might not even know existed." He said that in the future 15-20% of contextual and judgement based processes would be automated using technologies such as natural language processing and machine learning.For instance, a telecom company was receiving thousands of emails daily on its official consumer complaints ID.Applying a variety of cognitive tools such as sentiment analysis on these emails, a bot segregated the emails into five categories given the tone of the mail and keywords used. These were then prioritised and directed to a person who was an expert on that query, speeding up processing times and improving the customer experience.

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SRINAGAR: Faced with a situation where young girls in the Kashmir Valley now throw stones at it, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed over 500 women commandos to deal with such stone pelters.The special CRPF women’s unit, which has been trained in combat, special operations and all kinds of weaponry including pump action guns, shot guns used for firing PAVA shells, chilli-filled grenades, tear gas shells and pellet guns, is being familiarised with the topography and dynamics of violence in the Valley. They are also being readied for nighttime deployment by training blindfolded.The women troopers, CRPF said, will be armed with assault rifles as well so they can retaliate in case of a terrorist attack. They will be equipped with lightweight body protectors, helmets, wooden sticks, bullet-proof jackets and lethal and non-lethal ammunition.After 45 days of induction training at the force’s Humhuma recruitment training centre in Srinagar, these women are likely to be deployed in disturbed belts of Srinagar, Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam, Budgam and Anantnag.In case of women pelting stones during counter-terror operations or convoy movements, these commandos will take the lead while their male counterparts will assist them.Although stone-pelting incidents have come down in the Valley since 2016, over 300 incidents have been reported this year.The paramilitary force’s director general Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar told TOI, “The women were deployed in Kashmir earlier as well for law and order duties. But their use in handling extreme situations was limited.”Other CRPF officials said their action against stone-pelters, which was in self-defence, was often criticised by people and human rights groups. Inspector general Kashmir (operations) Zulfikar Hassan said, “Deployment of more women will definitely have a positive impact on law and order duties and anti-terror operations.”CRPF already has women commandos in the Naxal belt and UN postings apart from general law and order duties in states.

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NEW DELHI: Just a week after the Narendra Modi government chose E Sreedharan to head a committee to lay down standards for metro rail systems in the country, the 'metro man' has slammed Prime Minister Modi's ambitious bullet train project.A retired Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer, Sreedharan served as the managing director of Delhi Metro from 1995 to 2012."Bullet trains will cater only to the elite community. It is highly expensive and beyond the reach of ordinary people. What India needs is a modern, clean, safe and fast rail system," Sreedharan said in an interview to Hindustan Times.The Japan-backed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project costing $17 billion is expected to be constructed by August 2022. Modi has called the project crucial for his pet 'Make in India' campaign aimed at lifting the share of manufacturing in India’s $2 trillion economy. The government also hopes to generate hundreds of jobs through the train project.Sreedharan has also punctured the claims that the railways has improved. Under Modi's ambitious project to transform the railways, a lot of things — including engines, trains and stations to food and bookings — are getting a makeover. With the next Lok Sabha elections less than an year away, the Modi government is trying to ensure it lives up to his promise of changing the way Indians travel on trains.However, Sreedharan is not impressed. "I do not agree that the Indian Railways has made rapid progress. Apart from bio-toilets, there is no technical upgradation. Speed has not increased. In fact, the average speed of most prestigious trains has come down. Punctuality is worst – officially 70%, actually less than 50%. Accident record has not improved. Many also die on tracks, at level-crossings, in suburban sections. Almost 20,000 lives are lost on tracks yearly. I feel Indian Railways is 20 years behind those of advanced nations," he said.The government has already faced severe criticism from opposition parties which have questioned the utility of the bullet train as well as the expenditure on it. Sreedharan is the first expert to differ with the government publically on a project that not only holds big iconic value but also claims to bring to India higher standards of efficiency.On standardisation of the metro service across the country, Sreedharan said, "I have been pushing for standardisation and indigenisation of metro service for long. It is a welcome move. With standardisation, efficiency will go up and reduce cost considerably. We can manufacture coaches and other parts indigenously. I feel we can convert metro into a ‘Make in India' project. Delhi Metro has set a standard and triggered a metro revolution in the country. Results are there to see. Today there are 13 metros under construction. Within 20 years, Delhi Metro has reached a size of 260 km and is the fastest growing metro in the world. I also feel really proud of the work culture of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)."

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MUMBAI:A sharp fall in the value of the rupee may affect the Indian economy, but there have been significant EPS upgrades of IT stocks over the past few weeks as rupee depreciation will bolster FY2019 earnings of IT exporters, said analysts.India’s largest tech company TCS has seen a 3 per cent jump in its EPS estimates in the past four weeks, while Infosys’ EPS estimate has gone up by 1.2 per cent . Mindtree’s EPS estimates has risen 9 per cent in the past 12 weeks while that of Tech Mahindra, KPIT Technologies, Mphasis and Firstsource Solutions have risen 7-8 per cent during this period. The rupee has fallen nearly 7 per cent so far this year against the dollar.“The trend reversal in INR/USD could lower the forex hedge gains, but translation gains could be high,” said Pankaj Kapoor, analyst, JM Financial. “We expect a net upgrade in consensus EPS estimates, though it could be more from the linear conversion of USD revenues into INR than a material uplift in margins.”Technology shares have performed the best so far this year as analysts are expecting a substantial bounce-back in revenue growth rates for Indian IT companies not only because of a fall of the rupee but also due to better-than-expected numbers from global companies such as EPAM, Luxoft and Accenture. 64823063 BSE’s IT index surged 23 per cent so far this year, as against 3 per cent gains by the benchmark Sensex. India’s biggest company in terms of market capitalisation, TCS, for instance, has given a 36 per cent returns since January 1.IT major Infosys’ shares have jumped 26 per cent so far this year. Midcap IT stocks such as NIIT Technologies, KPIT Technologies, Zensar Technology, L&T Infotech and Mphasis have gained between 40 per cent and 70 per cent in 2018.“At present, there’s an apparent premium for near-term growth visibility. However, in at least a few cases, we believe the elevated valuations could be ignoring the business risks, and hence leave little scope for a disappointment,” said Pankaj Kapoor of JM Financials.Earlier this week, Accenture had raised its revenue growth guidance to 9.5-10 per cent from 6-8 per cent in Q1FY18, the highest in the last five years. Other than the rupee, factors such as good results by global IT majors and growth in BFSI sector indicate towards a substantial improvement in demand environment for Indian IT companies, said analysts.“Our on-ground surveys, the Q4 FY18 numbers, management commentaries, results of global companies such as EPAM, Luxoft and now Accenture unequivocally indicate demand revival led by robust digital adoption and global recovery,” said Sandip Agarwal, analyst, Edelweiss Securities. “We continue to maintain the positive stance and expect a substantial bounce-back in revenue growth rates for Indian IT companies.”Analysts advised playing the sector recovery through companies such as Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, NIIT Technologies and L&T Technologies Services where relative valuations are still inexpensive even though they may lack near-term triggers.

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The Army will write off its special, high-yielding milch cows for a token amount in an attempt to cut flab by shutting down its military farms. The write-off -- by transferring the cows to state dairy cooperatives and other government departments -- comes after earlier attempts to auction, or sell the 25,000-odd cattle, did not succeed.While the special Frieswal cows are believed to be valued at over Rs 1 lakh each, the lack of buyers who are willing to pay such a large sum has forced the defence ministry to convey a special sanction to transfer of the cattle at a ‘uniform nominal price’ of Rs 1000 per animal.Orders have been issued in late June to transfer all military farms cattle to central and state departments or dairy cooperatives for the token amount, as long as the cost of transportation is borne by the receiving entities. 64819261 This decision brings to an end an impasse over the closing down of 39 military farms that has been stuck for almost a year over the fate of these cows. A defence ministry panel had recommended shutting down of military farms across the nation -- raised in 1889 to provide fresh food to troops -- as part of larger measures to free up over 57,000 troops from non-combat duties.While orders for shutting down of the farms were issued in August last year -- with a three-month implementation deadline -- the farms could not be closed as all attempts to sell off its living assets were thwarted.This posed a unique problem as military farms host the highyield Frieswal cows. These cows were developed by cross breeding Dutch Holstein-Friesian cattle with native Sahiwal cattle which produce almost double the national average yield of milk.There were also fears that in case the cattle were sold to individual farmers or private dairies, the high-yield cows could find their way to slaughter houses. This is because the cows require a high daily investment that could make them difficult to maintain.With the issue now resolved, the army will move ahead on closing all the military farms that are spread across the country in places such as Meerut, Ambala, Srinagar, Jhansi and Lucknow. The total of 39 farms are spread over 20,000 acres of land but were meeting only 14% of annual demand of milk by the armed forces.A cabinet decision was taken in August last year to shut all farms down to save expenses (they were allocated `334 crore in the last budget) and cut flab. The land freed up will now be used for other military purposes. At least seven of the farms have been closed already and the rest are now in the process of shutting down with the transfer of livestock.

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MUMBAI: Bulge-bracket buyout opportunities have soared as Indian merger and acquisition (M&A) activity notched up a record-breaking first half in 2018. Both foreign interest in Indian assets — or inbound activity — and domestic-consolidation deals were the highest in a decade, recovering from the disruptions caused by demonetisation and GST rollout. The tediously progressing bankruptcy cases also added buoyancy to deal street even as outbound acquisitions by Indian companies, a major theme in the last decade, lost sheen.The big story was the return of foreign strategic acquirers after a few tepid years. Walmart’s $16-billion acquisition of online retailer Flipkart rallied sentiments of overseas buyers as the first six months saw Schneider along with Temasek buying L&T Electricals for $2.5 billion and Teleperformance snapping up BPO firm Intelenet for around $1 billion. 64819678 Dealogic data showed inbound activity in the first half of 2018 at almost $26 billion, dribbling past the previous high of $25 billion in 2011. Similarly, domestic consolidation deals swelled to about $39 billion — well past $30 billion in the first six months of 2010. In terms of full-year highs, the previous record for inbound deals was more than $29 billion in 2011 and for domestic activity about $49 billion in 2010.Overall, Indian M&A activity — including outbound deals — stood at $68 billion in the first half, surging past $65 billion in entire 2017 and looking to eclipse $92 billion reported in 2010.Foreign strategic buyers and private equity funds are chasing large buyout deals worth at least $20 billion in the second half of the current calendar. Among these are sale of GSK Consumer’s sale of Horlicks and other health food drinks; Kraft Heinz’s divestment of Complan, Glucon-D and Nycil; Punjab National Bank and Carlyle selling PNB Housing Finance; bidding process for Fortis Healthcare; and imminent sale of Ramky Infra.ArcelorMittal and Russian investor VTB-led Numetal are chasing the Essar Steel acquisition through the bankruptcy sale process, which is expected to pick up momentum amid high drama in the coming weeks. About $210 billion worth of stressed assets are up for grabs, several of them clogging the country’s National Company Law Tribunal.There are deals that are not in the public domain, such as KKR & Co’s talks with Allied Blenders & Distillers and discussions around Piramal and TPG’s exit from Shriram Capital. Financial services firm Ambit Group’s CEO Ashok Wadhwa said, “There is a long list of potential acquirers for generally good, liquid assets like PNB Housing and Fortis Healthcare.” Private equity, global pension funds and sovereign wealth managers like Blackstone, KKR, CPPIB and GIC of Singapore remain bullish on Indian buyouts.If the momentum continues, domestic and inbound M&A deals would set new highs in 2018. But there are worries that several ongoing large deals could be pushed back as the economy gears up for bruising general elections and corporate earnings don’t keep pace with valuations. A section of bankers are predicting a sharp deceleration, as witnessed during the second half of 2011, as anti-corruption campaigns signalled the descent of the earlier United Progressive Alliance government.EY partner and M&A head Ajay Arora said large private equity investors, which have been in the country for long and seen multiple election cycles, would stay on course with buyout opportunities pouring into the market. “The recent set of large deals in the market might also attract foreign strategic acquirers keen on leading Indian assets,” Arora added.

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Aurobindo Pharma has received final approval from the US health regulator to manufacture and market Ibuprofen capsules, used to relieve pain and reduce fever.The approved product is a generic equivalent of Pfizer's Advil Liqui-Gels Capsules. The product will be launched in September 2018."The company has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture Ibuprofen capsules OTC, 200 mg," Aurobindo Pharma said in a BSE filing.Quoting Nielsen data, Aurobindo Pharma said the estimated market size of ibuprofen capsules OTC is USD 164 million for the twelve months ending March 2018.The pharma company said it has now a total of 373 ANDA (Abbreviated New Drug Application) approvals (340 final approvals, including 17 from Aurolife Pharma LLC and 33 tentative approvals) from the USFDA.Stock of Aurobindo Pharma was trading 0.61 per cent higher at Rs 610.25 on BSE.

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Abhimanyu Sofat, VP-Research, IIFL, tells ET Now that auto continues to give confidence that earnings momentum is going to be good going forward.Edited excerpts: While Maruti has seen very strong sales trend with domestic uptick of about 45%, there has been a month on month dip. Royal Enfield continued with an impressive performance. Tata CV sales have remained very strong and the uptick in M&M has continued. What according to you has stood out?Tata Motors passenger vehicle sales have crossed M&M numbers. One needs to keep in mind that the base was pretty low considering the impact of GST last year. There was some pre-buying earlier also because of regulatory change on the CV cycle. The Maruti numbers also look decent. So overall, auto continues to be one of the space which is giving confidence that earnings momentum is going to be good going forward.In terms of stocks, Maruti at any correction should be a good stock to look at because if you look at Baleno sales, you continue to have four weeks of waiting period. Overall, numbers look quite healthy from our perspective.Do you think sales are strong because last year there was the GST impact? Maruti Suzuki month on month aggregate demand is down 16%, LCV is down 4.5%, UVs are down 24.5%, midsize category which is Ciaz is down 60% and compact is down 7.5%. In all categories, excepting exports it is a decline of 15% to 60%.?Last year festive season sales also had an impact on Maruti. One needs to consider that. In terms of Ciaz numbers, with the change in regulation. Price of Ciaz has increased and it has become unattractive compared to last year. One needs to look at those things and consider the fact that Maruti’s stock has also corrected a bit. It is not at a all-time high like HDFC or a Kotak Bank.Are you still recommending buying into IT sector, given that the best seems way behind us?Yes. Because of the currency depreciation, most of the companies are seeing an upgrade in terms of earnings estimate. Going forward, because of currency depreciation one might not see an improvement in terms of stock performance going forward. One needs to be quite specific about which particular stock one is recommending. From the mid-cap space, something like a Cyant which is currently available at around 13.5 times earnings, earnings CAGR of more than 20% looks quite attractive to us. Similarly, on the larger cap side, something like a Tech Mahindra, even HCL despite the profit warning of las quarter look quite attractive. Our analysis of the previous 15-year data suggests that until and unless there is an improvement on the dollar revenue growth, stocks are unlikely to give return only on the basis of just the currency. However, this time I feel that the hedging losses for companies are unlikely to be too much similar to what happened in case of 2008-09 when we saw a big dip in IT stocks because of sudden movement in rupee. Those things are unlikely. My advice would be to be stock specific within the IT sector.What about Bajaj Auto? If you were to stack it up with Hero MotoCorp and unlisted Honda. what would be the order of preference?The numbers look quite decent. On the domestic side, the numbers were around two lakh relative to last month’s number of 1,92,000. The issue in the export market is that TVS is now gaining market share in exports.In terms of preference with the rising commodity prices TVS is likely to get negatively impacted relative to Bajaj and Hero. So, from a risk reward perspective, I would always go for a Hero MotoCorp than Bajaj Auto and then TVS within the sector. Let us see what numbers Hero MotoCorp comes out with but as of now, Bajaj Auto numbers look pretty decent.

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Bajaj Auto today reported a 65 per cent jump in total sales to 4,04,429 units for June.The company had sold 2,44,878 units in the same month a year ago.Its motorcycle sales also increased by 65 per cent to 3,37,752 units as against 2,04,667 in June last year, Bajaj Auto said in a BSE filing.The two-wheeler major said its exports during the month went by up 44 per cent to 1,69,853 units from 1,17,903 units in the year-ago period.In the commercial vehicles category, Bajaj Auto's sales in June stood at 66,677 units compared to 40,211 units in the year-ago period, up 66 per cent.

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After the Silk White edition, comes a new Red edition of the OnePlus 6.

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By Harshal Dewangan