‘US move won’t hit India’s exports badly’

India said the US government’s move to withdraw duty concessions on certain products under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme will not have a significant impact on exports as the benefits were only about $190 million annually. Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan said despite the fact that India was working on an “extensive and reasonable” trade package, the US has decided to go ahead with its decision to scrap the preferential trade benefit after 60 days. The package was covering all concerns related to bilateral trade with the US on sectors including medical devices, dairy products and agricultural goods, he said. India exported goods worth $5.6 billion under GSP last year, but “our total GSP benefits were to the tune of only $190 million”, the bureaucrat added.

China hikes defence budget to $177.61 bn

China, the world’s second largest military spender after the US, has announced a 7.5 per cent increase in its defence budget for this year, hiking it to a whopping $177.61 billion, more than three times that of India. The increase this year is lower than that of last year’s 8.1 per cent, which amounted to $175 billion. China, which increased its defence budget in double digits till 2015, has been lowering it to single digit hikes since 2016. China’s budgeted defence spending growth rate stood at 7.6 per cent in 2016, 7 per cent in 2017 and 8.1 per cent in 2018. In recent years, China has resorted to major military reforms, which included giving priority to expand its navy and air force to enhance its influence.

China lowers GDP growth target to 6-6.5%

China will face a “graver and more complicated” environment to development, Premier Li Keqiang warned on March 5 as the world’s second largest economy slashed its GDP target to 6 to 6.5 per cent this year, amid an ongoing trade war with the US. The lowered growth rate from the 2018 target of 6.5 per cent was proposed by Li in his work report at the opening session of the National People's Congress. Last year, the economy, which is largely dependent on exports, slowed down to 6.6 per cent, the lowest in about three decades. In order to rejig its economy, China is all set to pass a new foreign investment law, providing an equal footing to foreign investors with that of local business with legal safeguards for IPR and tech transfer.

Move to speed up sale of CPSE assets

The finance ministry is planning to set up a special cell in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to expedite the monetisation of non-core assets of state-owned companies. The Asset Monetisation Cell will also deal with cases related to the sale of immovable enemy property, which refers to the assets left behind by people who migrated to Pakistan or China and are no longer citizens of India. NITI Aayog has been tasked with drawing up a list of non-core assets of various CPSEs, both healthy and sick ones, as a first step towards the finance ministry’s plan to monetise such assets. So far this fiscal, the government has raised more than Rs 56,473 crore by divesting stakes in state-owned companies, against the full-year Budget target of Rs 80,000 crore.

Coffee exports rise 13% in Jan-Feb 2019

Coffee shipments from India, Asia’s third-largest producer and exporter, rose 13.26 per cent to 48,330 tonnes during the first two months of this calendar year, according to the Coffee Board. The country had exported 42,670 tonnes in the year-ago period. India ships both robusta and Arabica varieties, besides instant coffee. As per latest data, the shipment of Robusta coffee jumped 28.42 per cent to 34,090 tonnes during January-February, from 26,545 tonnes in the same period last year. Similarly, the export of Arabica coffee increased by 14.39 per cent to 11,156 tonnes, from 9,752 tonnes in the said period. The volume of coffee re-exported also remained higher at 13,392 tonnes, as against 11,516 tonnes in the said period. Germany, Italy and Russia were the major export destinations for Indian coffee.

Antibody clears path for Ebola vaccine

An antibody taken from an Ebola survivor has been found to target all three human strains of the virus and could eventually lead to an all-purpose vaccine against the killer disease. Ebola, which can be lethal in 90 per cent of cases if untreated, killed more than 11,000 people in 2014-15 in West Africa in what was the worst-ever outbreak of the haemorrhagic disease. The epidemic caused international panic. A vaccine was developed that offers some protection against one strain of the virus. Tens of thousands of people have received the vaccine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after an outbreak there killed more than 500 people. Now, scientists believe they have identified an antibody from a survivor of the West Africa epidemic that can be used to target all three forms of Ebola in humans.

India nominates NITI member for FAO post

India has nominated NITI Aayog member and agricultural economics and policy expert Ramesh Chand to lead a specialised agency of the UN focussed on achieving food security for all. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that five candidates have been presented by member countries for the post of director-general to be elected in June. The election will take place in Rome between June 22 and 29 at the 41st session of FAO’s Conference, the highest governing body of the organisation. Members will cast their vote on a one country-one vote basis in a secret ballot. The next director-general will be appointed for a four-year period from August 1 and will be eligible for only one additional mandate. The new director-general will succeed Jos Graziano da Silva, who was first elected in 2011 and has served two consecutive terms.

Mars orbiter reveals groundwater system

Scientists say they have found the first geological evidence of a system of ancient interconnected lakes that once lay deep beneath the surface of Mars, five of which may contain minerals essential for life. According to researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Mars appears to be an arid world, but its surface shows compelling signs that large amounts of water once existed across the planet. Last year, European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission detected a pool of liquid water beneath the planet’s south pole. A new study reveals the extent of underground water on ancient Mars that was previously only predicted by models. “Early Mars was a watery world, but as the planet’s climate changed, this water retreated below the surface to form pools and groundwater,” said a researcher.

One Nation One Card now a reality

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the indigenously-developed National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) on March 4 to enable people to pay multiple kinds of transport charges, including metro services and toll tax, across the country. Dubbed as One Nation One Card, the inter-operable transport card would allow the holders to pay for their bus travel, toll taxes, parking charges, retail shopping and even withdraw money. The PM launched the NCMC while inaugurating the first phase of the Ahmedabad Metro service. “This card runs on RuPay card and it will eliminate all your travel-related problems. Many a times, we do not have change to pay in cash while travelling in metro, bus or train, or for toll and parking. To overcome this issue, an automatic fare collection system was introduced,” Modi said.

Stubble burning costs India $30 bn/year

Air pollution due to crop residue burning in northern India causes an estimated economic loss of $30 billion annually, or nearly Rs 2 lakh crore, and is a leading risk factor of acute respiratory infections, especially among children, according to a study published on March 4. Researchers from the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute and partner institutes found that living in districts with air pollution from agriculture crop residue burning (ACRB) is a leading risk factor for acute respiratory infection, particularly in children less than five years of age. The study that estimates the health and economic costs of ACRB in north India also found that it leads to an estimated economic loss of over $30 billion annually.

22 GPS-enabled observatories launched

Twenty two GPS-enabled observatories across the country were made operational by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) on March 4 to facilitate surveying related to geological and geophysical mapping. “This move will enable India to delineate high seismic hazard zones as well as produce themaicm maps with high positional accuracy,” said GSI director general Dinesh Gupta. He said while the 22 GPS-geodetic observatories were operational from March 4, the 169th Foundation Day of GSI, another 13 will be operational from March 2020. Geodetic pertains to geodesy, the science of measurement of the Earth. The GPS infrastructure consists of highly sensitive receivers installed in a dense network, operating continuously and monitored centrally, Gupta said.

Services sector activity gathers pace

India’s services sector activity gathered momentum in February, driven by a quicker expansion in new work orders that supported a faster increase in output and job creation, a monthly survey showed on March 5. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index rose from 52.2 in January to 52.5 in February, indicating an upturn in output. The services PMI was in the expansion territory for the ninth straight month. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction. New business received by services companies rose to a greater extent in February amid strengthening underlying demand, the survey said, adding that the upturn in new orders in the sector was domestically driven, as highlighted by a renewed contraction in external sales.

Pak to seize banned terror outfits’ assets

Amid pressure from the global community to rein in the terror groups operating on its soil, Pakistan promulgated a law to streamline the procedure for the implementation of the UN sanctions against individuals and organisations. The Foreign Office said on March 4 that the government issued the UN Security Council (Freezing and Seizure) Order, 2019, in accordance with the provisions of Pakistan’s UN Security Council (UNSC) Act, 1948. Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said issuing of the order means the government has taken over the control of assets and properties of all banned outfits operating in the country, a media report said. “From now on, all kinds of assets and properties of all banned organisations will be in the government’s control,” he said.

SpaceX’s crew capsule docks with ISS

SpaceX’s sleek, new crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on March 3, acing its second milestone in just over a day. Only an instrumented dummy was aboard the Crew Dragon capsule launched on March 2 on its first test flight. But that quickly changed once the hatch swung open and the space station astronauts floated inside. SpaceX employees at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, cheered and applauded as Crew Dragon pulled up and docked at the orbiting lab, nearly 400 km above the Pacific, north of New Zealand. This beefed-up, redesigned Dragon is the first American-made, designed-for-crew spacecraft to pull up to the station in eight years.

Newsmakers

Venur Dhananjay Kumar, a former minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, passed away in Mangaluru on March 4 at the age of 67. A four-time Lok Sabha MP, Kumar served in various capacities in the Vajpayee government, holding the portfolios of civil aviation, finance and textiles, the latter two as minister of state.

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia won the gold medal at the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov tournament in Ruse, Bulgaria. Punia, who bagged the top prize at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games last year, has won four gold and one silver in his past five tournaments.

Baijyant ‘Jay’ Panda, who was an MP of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal, joined the BJP on March 4. The BJD suspended him last year for “anti-party” activities. He then resigned from the BJD and also the Lok Sabha, where he represented Kendrapara constituency twice.