Defence procurement procedure revamped

The defence ministry has approved changes to the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) to make it industry-friendly and facilitate faster procurement of operationally urgent requirements of the armed forces. The Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, approved the changes. The changes are focused on simplifying certain unwieldy aspects to ease the conduct of business and facilitate smoother and faster procurement. Some of the major decisions include simplification of the best price determination process wherein latest government policies on GST and custom duties have now been taken into account in order to evaluate the lowest bidder and the existing price bid format has been simplified for ease of assimilation and submission by vendors, officials said.

Govt clears project to build six submarines

The defence ministry has approved the indigenous construction of six submarines for the Indian Navy at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore. The Defence Acquisition Council, presided over by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also approved the acquisition of 5,000 Milan anti-tank guided missiles for the Army. The project to build the submarines will be implemented under the strategic partnership model, which provides for roping in private firms to build select military platforms in India in partnership with foreign defence firms. It will be the second project to be implemented under the model. The first project under the model was the deal for 111 utility helicopters for the Navy at a cost of Rs 21,000 crore.

Factory orders in Jan rose fastest since 2017

India’s manufacturing sector activity edged higher in January as companies continued to scale up production and employment, driven by the fastest rise in factory orders since December 2017. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index increased from 53.2 in December to 53.9 in January, indicating stronger improvement in the health of the goods producing sector. This is the 18th consecutive month that the manufacturing PMI remained above the 50-point mark. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction. The increase in factory orders was the strongest seen in 13 months.

Tax breaks for India, dole for Bharat

Making a strong re-election pitch, the Narendra Modi government on February 1 announced the biggest income tax sops for the middle class - including complete exemption for income up to Rs 5 lakh - and Rs 6,000 annual cash dole to poor farmers in a scheme that will cost Rs 75,000 crore per year. Converting a vote on account speech into an almost full-fledged Budget announcement in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal proposed an array of incentives for both the middle class and farmers, whose disenchantment was said to have cost the BJP dearly in recent Assembly elections. More than 3 crore salaried class, pensioners, self-employed and small businesses will save Rs 18,500 crore in income tax annually after the exemption limit was doubled to Rs 5 lakh. Also, the standard deduction has been raised to Rs 50,000 from the current Rs 40,000.

RBI lifts lending curbs on three PSBs

In a significant move, the RBI lifted lending curbs on three out of 11 weak public sector banks (PSBs) on January 31 as the central bank under new governor Shaktikanta Das met one of the government’s key demands for boosting credit growth. Bank of India (BoI), Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) are now out of the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework, which will help expand loan growth to prop up the economy. “It has been decided that Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra, which meet the regulatory norms including capital conservation buffer and have net NPAs (non-performing assets) of less than 6 per cent as per third-quarter results, are taken out of the PCA framework subject to certain conditions and continuous monitoring,” the RBI said.

GST collections cross Rs 1 lakh crore in Jan

GST collections in January crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark after a gap of two months, the finance ministry said on January 31. “The total gross GST revenue collected in January 2019 has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore. This has been a significant improvement over the collection of Rs 94,725 crore during last month and Rs 89,825 crore during the same month last year,” the ministry tweeted. It also said that the increase in GST mop up in January has been achieved despite various tax relief measures implemented by the GST Council. This is the third time in the current fiscal that GST collections have crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. Previously in April and October, the collections had surpassed this milestone.

Govt says NSSO jobs report not final

The Centre said on January 31 that it has not finalised the survey on labour force, which reportedly showed that the unemployment rate hit a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. According to a business daily, the periodic labour force survey of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) says the last time the unemployment rate was this high was in 1972-73. The rate was 2.2 per cent in 2011-12. NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar said the report cited by the newspaper “is not finalised. It is a draft report”. He said the government will release its jobs report by March after collating quarter-on-quarter data. He also debunked claims of jobless growth, saying how can a country grow at an average of 7 per cent without generating employment.

GDP numbers revised for FY17 and 18

The Union government on January 31 revised the GDP growth rates by 110 basis points from 7.1 per cent to 8.2 per cent for 2016-17 and by 50 basis points from 6.7 per cent to 7.2 per cent for fiscal 2017-18. “Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for 2017-18 and 2016-17 stand at Rs 131.80 lakh crore and Rs 122.98 lakh crore, respectively, showing growth of 7.2 per cent during 2017-18 and 8.2 per cent during 2016-17 (from earlier estimate of 7.1 per cent),” said the Central Statistics Office (CSO). For the current fiscal, in May, the CSO in its advance estimate had projected a growth rate of 7.2 per cent. The 2017-18 growth is the lowest in four years. The previous low at 6.4 per cent was recorded in 2013-14.

Musk releases Tesla patents to ‘save Earth’

Elon Musk announced on January 31 that he has released all of electric carmaker Tesla’s patents as part of an effort to fight climate change. In a blog post, the Tesla CEO promised the company “will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology”. It was a remarkable move in an industry where the smallest idea or seed of invention is carefully guarded to protect its monetary value. And it in fact came on the same day US prosecutors charged a Chinese national with stealing secrets from Apple’s self-driving car project. In fact, Musk said, he was now sceptical of patents which too often only served “to stifle progress” and helped enrich giant corporations and lawyers rather than inventors.

Europe opens trade channel with Iran

Britain, France and Germany launched a trade mechanism to bypass US sanctions on Iran, drawing praise from Tehran - and a warning from Washington. Brussels hopes the long-awaited special payment system will help save the Iran nuclear deal by allowing Tehran to keep trading with European Union companies despite the US reimposing sanctions after President Donald Trump abruptly quit the accord last year. The three countries - the European signatories to the 2015 deal that curbed Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions relief - launched the system, which has been in preparation for months, at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bucharest. While the new institution, called INSTEX - short for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges - is a project of the three governments, it will receive the formal endorsement of all 28 EU members.

EU lawmakers recognise Guaido as prez

The European Parliament recognised Venezuela’s self-declared interim president Juan Guaido as de facto head of state, heightening international pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro. EU governments, divided over whether to recognise Guaido, also agreed to lead a crisis group with South American nations to seek new elections, setting a 90-day time limit, and threatening further economic sanctions. EU lawmakers voted 439 in favour to 104 against, with 88 abstentions, at a special session in Brussels. In a statement with the non-binding vote, the parliament urged the bloc’s 28 governments to follow suit and consider Guaido “the only legitimate interim president” until there were “new free, transparent and credible elections”.

Giant cavity found in Antarctic glacier

NASA scientists have discovered a gigantic cavity, almost 300 metres tall, growing at the bottom of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, indicating rapid decay of the ice sheet and acceleration in global sea levels due to climate change. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, highlight the need for detailed observations of Antarctic glaciers’ undersides in calculating how fast sea levels will rise in response to warming. Researchers expected to find some gaps between ice and bedrock at Thwaites’ bottom where ocean water could flow in and melt the glacier from below, NASA said. The size and explosive growth rate of the newfound hole, however, surprised them. It is big enough to have contained 14 billion tonnes of ice, and most of that ice melted over the past three years.

Detained refugee wins Aussie literary prize

An Iranian asylum-seeker detained in Papua New Guinea under Australian asylum laws has won Australia’s richest literary prize for a book he reportedly wrote using WhatsApp. Behrouz Boochani, a Kurd who has been held on Manus Island since 2013, was awarded the Victorian Prize for Literature. The journalist and filmmaker was awarded the A$72,600 prize for his book No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison. He will receive an additional A$25,000 after it also won the non-fiction category. The award was accepted by the book’s translator Omid Tofighian, who worked with Boochani over five years to bring the stories to life. Boochani reportedly wrote the work on his phone and sent it to Tofighian bit by bit in text messages.

Newsmakers

Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera has been named the head of a key Congressional subcommittee that will have broad jurisdiction to conduct oversight into US foreign policy.

Mithali Raj has become the first female cricketer to play 200 ODIs. The 36-year-old is also the highest run-getter in ODIs with 6,622 runs, including seven hundreds.