Front Page

• Modi, Sharif to meet in Russia: Expectations are that some kind of agreement will be declared over the course of dialogue. It could relate to mainly agreeing to promote business-to-business exchanges, easing passage for businessmen, extending visa terms and issuing multiple visas for bus travellers.

Opinion/Editorial

• Subverting a progressive law: This article is an insight into how land deals are brokered, and how land is acquired officially, taking the Delhi NCR region as an example. Read once to get an idea of how things work.

• To be a bridge, not fault line: Amongst all the meetings that are scheduled to happen at Ufa over the next couple of days, perhaps the entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is the most important. Currently, India cannot access markets in Central Asia because Pakistan blocks off all significant trade routes. Entry into the SCO opens up the possibility of trade via China and into Russia as well. Also, the presence of Iran as an observer nation in the SCO allows India to use that country as a means of getting to Central Asia (sending exports via sea to Iran and then via road to Central Asia. Please google the map of Iran to see the potential routes into Central Asia).

• NJAC: Objection overruled: Past attempts by the Executive at regulating the appointment of judges have been all struck down by the Supreme Court as attacks against judicial independence (judicial independence is a “Basic feature” under Keshavananda Bharati). But since the  National Judicial Appointments Commission Act does not confer the primacy in the appointments to the Executive, there is a chance it will be upheld. The present collegium system lacks transparency and is susceptible to abuse. The NJAC is by all accounts a superior alternative. (Please take a note of who the writer is and what he used to work for).

• Mastering rocket science, failing basics: At the time of launch of the Make in India programme, the Prime Minister had declared that defence manufacturing was at the heart it. India’s ambitions of being a great power fall flat as long as we is dependent on imports for military hardware. But the initiative is only one half of the framework needed to realise the goal of technological sovereignty and self-reliance in defence production. It has to be complemented by a drive for indigenous production.

• China’s aspirations versus its foreign policy: An article that explores the Chinese mindset, and what the country is trying to achieve. A must read because of the position of China as the new challenger to US predominance in the world and the huge influence of Chinese politics with respect to Asia.

Economy/Business

• Centre wants to break forex reserves: The Union government is examining if India’s foreign exchange reserves held by the RBI can be utilised for funding infrastructure projects or recapitalising the debt-ridden public sector banks.

• China meltdown panics Asia: Beijing has had very turbulent markets in recent weeks. It has been suggested that China can either allow the crash to take the economy to where it will and then deal with the consequences, or it can manipulate the markets to arrest the slide. The second course runs the risk of creating many impediments to free trade, and foreign investors will be discouraged from entering the market for a long time. The Chinese stock markets have dropped to almost 30 per cent lower than they were in mid-June.

• NHAI, six other PSUs to raise Rs.40,000 cr through tax-free bonds: The 2015-16 Budget had announced that PSUs would be permitted to raise funds through tax-free bonds for development of infrastructure.

• Capital Goods sector gets fund booster: India’s capital goods sector faces challenges in terms of outdated technology and knowledge obsolescence, resulting in large scale imports of capital goods worth over $30 billion a year. It is being actively supported by the Central Government to boost indigenous production and bring in a competitive adge.