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Must Read News Articles of the Day – 16 August

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The Hindu

 

 

National

Drones better than satellites to gauge crop loss, says panel : The government’s objective is to increase the number of insured farmers from the current 20 per cent to 50 per cent within three years. A panel that submits its report to the Niti Ayog says that use of drones will help assess crop loss better. The current satellite system – even those with resolution of 10 meters fails because of cloud cover on some days.

International

‘Sri Lanka-India economic pact may soon be a reality’ : India-Sri Lanka bilateral trade stood at $4.6 billion last year, of which Indian exports were valued at about $4 billion, said the diplomat. Nearly 60 per cent of Sri Lankan exports were making use of the FTA whereas 90 per cent Indian exports did not use the channel. An economic pact between India & Sri Lanka is on the cards.

Business

Gold import plunges 52.5% in April-July : Gold Imports have halved in the last four months , keeping in check the current account deficit. Can you answer why?

Steel Ministry wants review of policies affecting producers : India wants to promote domestic steel production. So the government did something – curb the import of steel. Now the industry says – domestic steel production wont happen because of two reasons – clean energy cess and railway freight policy. Read more.

Editorial

Finding the right measure : The discretion on spending public funds must go. A union Minister says he spent most of his funds on creating 100 Hindu crematoriums. Is this justified?
Not only the mother’s responsibility : The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha on August 11, is a shallow attempt at protecting maternity, and one that does not adequately embrace a human rights approach, says Swagat Raha.
Thats all folks 🙂
Newspaper Made Easy 🙂

Comments

4 responses to “Must Read News Articles of the Day – 16 August”

  1. zazen Avatar
    zazen

    gold imports to india halved in first half of 2016. WHY?

    sharp jump in gold price, weaker rural income and govt regulation cited as reasons for low gold demand , by report of World Gold Council

    Lower spending by rural Indians : The rural population accounts for more than half of India’s jewellery demand, so any difficulty in this sector has a material impact on demand. Two consecutive years of deficient monsoon rainfalls have taken their toll on rural incomes

    govt regulations impacted gold demand in organised sector:
    1. increase in gold price = due to 1% excise duty, without input credit, OR, 12.5% excise duty, with input credit ,imposed on gold and diamond jewellery, by budget 2016. this sparked strike by jewellers , added to poor demand of gold
    2. govt also increased customs duty on imported imitation jewellery , to protect domestic imitation jewellery sector
    3. income disclosure scheme has also made people wary of buying gold. gold demand may increase once income disclosure scheme ends in sep.
    4. To curb rotation of black money ,the government introduced permanent account number (PAN) requirement for jewellery purchase above Rs 2 lakh apart .

    DIP IN IMPORT OF GOLD DORE :Weak domestic demand for gold, forced traders to sell gold even at discounted prices . Domestic refineries which import unrefined gold (called gold dore) , incurred losses because of discounted gold price in india. Gold is available at a disparity in india, compared to international price. Hence, dip in imports of gold dore .In contrast, gold refineries using scrap jewellery as raw material prospered

    All this led to increase in gold smuggled into india.
    For the first time WGC laid quaterly statistics of “unofficial gold” flow. It plans to launch a separate report on “unofficial gold” flows into India.

  2. tc_786 Avatar
    tc_786

    Sir if possible categorize Must read new articles in terms of GS1,2,3,4 . Thanks.

  3. sharathporeddy Avatar
    sharathporeddy

    sir please post news articles
    from Indian express and live mint as done before

  4. mangoapple Avatar
    mangoapple

    Sir please start 9pm brief .these are mains specific and comprehensive .very use full to us.

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