The First Forum is an initiative that focuses on covering the latest happenings in a brief format. This is in lieu of the importance of knowledge about current happenings in this fast-changing world.
In the Sixty Eighth – Edition of The First Forum we would be covering the following topics:
1. Politics
2. Science and Technology
3. Business
4. Economics
5. Finance
(By Gunika Vij, Ashika Deb and Shitij Goyal)
Politics
New political alliance for restoration of Article 370
Leaders of the National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Conference, Communist Party of India Marxist, Peoples Movement and Awami National Conference parties came together on Thursday to form an alliance to peacefully seek the restoration of the erstwhile state’s special status and fight for the rights of the people in the restive region. The coalition has been named “People’s Alliance.” Read More
Ministers, political leaders touring flood-hit areas
With incessant rain damaging crops and claiming several lives in parts of western Maharashtra and Marathwada, ministers and leaders of different political parties have decided to tour flood-hit areas to supervise rescue work. On Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister announced that farmers will be compensated. Read More
U.S-Israeli envoy flies to Bahrain to advance ties
A joint American-Israeli delegation was set to fly to Bahrain on Sunday on the first direct Israeli commercial flight to the Gulf Arab state, where they’ll be signing a number of bilateral agreements. U.S. Treasury Secretary and Israel’s Prime Minister’s national security adviser are leading the delegation that is flying out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Read More
China’s new laws to handle epidemics
China has passed a new law to improve its handling of disease outbreaks, including protection of whistle-blowers. It flags the right to report “acts that endanger biosecurity” and calls for risk prevention systems, ranging from active monitoring to emergency plans, effective from April next year. Read More
G23 to take stand on issues
The Congress dissidents who wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi are likely to issue regular statements on national issues independent of the official party platform. This move may appear to be designed to show gaps and deficiencies in the party’s articulation of criticism of the Modi government. Read More
Science and Technology
Study of “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena”
The U.S. Navy recently admitted that strangely behaving objects caught on video by jet pilots over the years are concerning and to investigate these, in August, the Navy established an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force. The recently observed UAPs purportedly have accelerations that range far higher than a human pilot could survive, no air disturbance is visible and they don’t produce sonic booms. Read More
CRISPER diagnostic technique to detect coronavirus in just 5 minutes
Researchers have used CRISPR gene-editing technology to come up with a test that detects coronavirus in just 5 minutes. It doesn’t require expensive lab equipment to run and could potentially be deployed at doctor’s offices, schools, and office buildings. They work by identifying a sequence of RNA unique to SARS-CoV-2. The initial CRISPR tests required researchers to first amplify any potential viral RNA to increase their odds of spotting a signal which added complexity, cost, and time. Read More
New method to block coronavirus replication
Scientists have laid out an approach to block a protein that the novel coronavirus uses to cut and disable crucial components of the immune system and to produce its copies. The researchers developed two molecules that inhibit the molecular “scissor” enzyme used by the coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2-PLpro. Read More
New development: Room-temperature superconductor
Previously discovered superconductors need to be cooled to very low temperatures making them impractical for most uses. Now, we have the first superconductor which is superconducting below temperatures of about 15° Celsius. However, its superconductivity appears only at extremely high pressures.. The superconductor was formed by squeezing carbon, hydrogen and sulfur between the tips of two diamonds and hitting the material with laser light to induce chemical reactions and at a pressure about 2.6 million times that of Earth’s atmosphere, and temperatures below about 15° C, the electrical resistance vanished. Read More
Remdesivir doesn’t reduce COVID-19 deaths
A large international study found that Remdesivir doesn’t reduce deaths from covid-19.The tested drugs include remdesivir, the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine, an anti-HIV drug called lopinavir and interferon-beta1a. None of the drugs showed any benefit in reducing deaths or the need for ventilation or the length of hospital stays, but some analyses may change during the peer-review process but it currently has emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in all hospitalized patients. Read More


Business
Government set to borrow for states
The central government has agreed to borrow Rs 1.1 lakh crore from the market and extend it as loans to state governments in lieu of GST shortfall so the bond market expects further flattening of the yield curve. The RBI has already assured that the borrowing programme of the Centre and states for the rest of 2020-21 will be completed in a non-disruptive manner without compromising on price and financial stability and it will conduct Open Market Operations in State Developments Loans for the first time. Read More
Diesel and petrol sales pick up
Diesel sales by Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation rose above pre-Covid levels by 8.8% for the first time since February while the sales of petrol grew by 1.6%. The recovery of diesel sales has been slower than that of petrol with an increasing number of people preferring personal mobility over public transport. Read More
Go ‘swadeshi’, end imports and increase exports: Nitin Gadkari
Union minister Nitin Gadkari made a pitch for ‘swadeshi’ (indigenous) production and said imports need to end, while exports should increase. Gadkari said an alternative fuel economy worth Rs 5 lakh crore could be created through rural participation. He went on to inform the gathering that turnover of village industries had increased from Rs 80,000 crore last year to Rs 1 lakh crore and the target was to take it further to Rs 5 lakh crore soon. Read More
Post-COVID: Indian Companies look towards three Central American nations for business opportunities
“Indian business establishments should look at this region with a strategy to expand market share and not just look at this region as small countries with small populations. “Minimum population and Maximum business share” should be the approach. Our products offer good quality at affordable prices. With sustained efforts, we will be able to increase our market share in these countries and that will provide adequate returns on investments,” Indian envoy to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, BS Mubarak. In an exclusive virtual meet organized by FICCI for Central America, held in August the FMCG Supply Chain expo had the Guatemalan Minister of Economy, Tony Malouf, as the chief guest. “Around 15 companies from India and more than 100 companies from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras had participated in the event. Read More
Economics
IMF calls for more international cooperation as the world economy recovers slowly
The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook sums up the challenges ahead in the report’s title: ‘A long and difficult ascent’. With COVID-19 having already extracted a toll of over a million lives, accompanied by an evisceration of livelihoods and output in economies, prognosticating the economic future even as the pandemic rages on is an unenviable task. Read More
Covid Pandemic Will Push China GDP Growth Far Beyond US, IMF Data Shows
The Covid-19 pandemic will produce lasting shifts to global growth, pushing China even more to the forefront. The proportion of worldwide growth coming from China is expected to increase from 26.8 per cent in 2021 to 27.7 per cent in 2025, according to Bloomberg calculations using International Monetary Fund data. That’s more than 15 and 17 percentage points, respectively, higher than the US share of expected global output. India, Germany and Indonesia round out the top five largest growth engines, next year . Read More
China passes new law restricting sensitive exports
China has passed a new law restricting sensitive exports to protect national security, allowing Beijing to reciprocate against the US as tensions mount between the sides over trade and technology. Export controls under the law will apply to civilian, military and nuclear products, as well as goods, technologies and services related to national security. Read More
India’s exports turn positive in September; up 6% at USD 27.58 billion
After contracting for six straight months, India’s exports rose 5.99 per cent to USD 27.58 billion in September on account of growth in shipments of drugs and pharmaceuticals and readymade garments, as per the government data released on Thursday. Exports stood at USD 26.02 billion in September 2019. The country’s imports contracted 19.6 per cent to USD 30.31 billion in September. It was USD 37.69 billion in the same month last year. The trade deficit narrowed to USD 2.72 billion, compared to a shortfall of USD 11.67 billion in the year ago-month. Gold imports declined by nearly 53 per cent to USD 601.43 million in September. Read More
States’ GST gap to be fully bridged, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday told 21 states and 2 UTs, which have chosen the incentivised Option 1 to bridge their yawning GST revenue shortfall in FY21 that, they “won’t face any cash shortfall” in the year due to the paucity of relevant cess proceeds. She wrote to the finance ministers of these states: “A total of Rs 2.16 lakh crore is unconditionally available to states under Option 1 (special window + 0.5% extra OMB sans reforms). This more than covers the funds which would have been received by them during the current financial year if total compensation were paid in full.” Read More
Finance
Ministry of Finance kick-starts Budget making exercise amid contraction pressure
The finance ministry on Friday kicked off the exercise to prepare the annual Budget for 2021-22 amid the urgency to push economic growth hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The upcoming Budget will be crucial for the country as it will have to deal with impact of pandemic which has affected all segments of the economy, including revenue collection, disinvestment, expenditure, exports and food price. The economy is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year, according to an IMF forecast. Even the Reserve Bank of India expects the economy to shrink by 9.5 per cent in the current financial year. As per the finance ministry schedule, the nearly one-month long exercise to finalise the Revised Estimate (RE) for 2020-21 and Budget Estimate (BE) for 2021-22 began last week. The meetings will conclude on November 12. Read More
Adani Group, Piramal among 4 bidders for DHFL, lenders stare at over Rs 60,000 crore write-off
Four entities — Adani Group, Piramal Group, US-based asset management company Oaktree Capital Mangement, and SC Lowy — have submitted bids for Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL). While Oaktree submitted a bid for the entire company, others bid for select portfolios. While Adani Group has submitted bids only for the construction finance portfolio and slum rehabilitation loans, Piramal Group has bid for the retail portfolio, and SC Lowy for the construction finance business, putting it in competition with Adani Group. Read More
Taxpayers will have to report only transactions pertaining to FY19 in annual GST return: Finance ministry
In a statement, the ministry said certain representations have been received stating that certain tables in the auto populated GSTR-9 for the year 2018-19 also include the data for the financial year 2017-18. However, this information for 2017-18 has already been furnished by the taxpayers in the annual return (GSTR-9) filed for 2017-18 and there is no mechanism to show the split of two years (2017-18 and 2018-19) in Form GSTR-9 for 2018-19. “It is clarified that the taxpayers are required to report only the values pertaining to the financial year 2018-19 and the values pertaining to the financial year 2017-18 which may have already been reported or adjusted are to be ignored,” it said. Read More
Railway Ministry resorted to “window dressing” for projecting its finances in a better light: CAG report
The Ministry of Railways resorted to window dressing for presenting its working expenses and operating ratio in a better light, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said in its report on assessment of railways’ finances for FY 19. Pointing that the net surplus in 2018-19 was Rs 3,773.86 crore, the Indian Railways would have ended with a negative balance of Rs 7,334.85 crore but for receipt of advance freight and less appropriation to Disaster Relief Fund and Pension Fund.Read More
Finance Ministry plans stake sale in Indian Railway Finance Corp, RailTel
The finance ministry is looking at launching the initial public offering (IPO) of Indian Railway Finance Corp Ltd (IRFC) and state-owned telecom infrastructure provider RailTel Corporation. Officials said the plan is to sell about 25 per cent in IRFC and 27 per cent stake in RailTel. “The government is planning to sell 20-25 per cent stake in IRFC through an IPO and 27 per cent stake in RailTel,” said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary of Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). Read More
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