• India
  • Sep 14

Daily Briefing / September 14, 2019

Exports decline by 6%; imports dip 13.45%

India’s exports dropped by 6.05 per cent to $26.13 billion in August mainly on account of a significant dip in shipments from key sectors such as petroleum, engineering, leather, and gems & jewellery. Imports too declined by 13.45 per cent to $39.58 billion, narrowing the trade deficit to $13.45 billion. Imports during the month slipped the most after August 2016, when it had contracted by 14 per cent. The trade deficit stood at $17.92 billion in August 2018. Out of 30 key sectors, as many as 22 showed negative growth in August. Shipments of gems & jewellery, engineering goods and petroleum products contracted by 3.5 per cent, 9.35 per cent and 10.73 per cent, respectively. India’s exports have remained subdued. It will have implications on economic growth, which has reported over six-year low growth of 5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Forex reserves soar $1 bn to $429.60 bn

India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $1.004 billion to $429.608 billion in the week to September 6, helped by a rise in foreign currency assets. In the previous week, the reserves had fallen by $446 million to $428.604 billion. The reserves had touched an all-time high of $430.572 billion in August. In the week to September 6, foreign currency assets, a major component of overall reserves, and risen by $1.2 billion to $397.205 billion. During the week, gold reserves declined by $199 million to $27.35 billion. The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remained unchanged at $1.434 billion during the week. The country’s reserve position with the IMF rose marginally by $2 million to $3.619 billion, RBI data showed.

5G spectrum auction likely by year-end

Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said the 5G spectrum auction will be conducted this year-end or early next year. In June, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had outlined plans to hold the next spectrum sale - the first since 2016 - by December 2019. Under the scheme, the government plans to auction around 8,293.95 MHz of airwaves at an estimated total base price of Rs 5.86 lakh crore. The DoT has suggested a base price for 5G airwaves at Rs 492 crore per MHz and proposed a sale of a minimum 20 MHz blocks, which would mean a telco spending close to Rs 10,000 crore for 20 MHz, and Rs 50,000 crore for 100 MHz. Prasad was speaking while launching the maritime communication services of Tata firm Nelco, which provides broadband services to the maritime sector.

Vice prez calls for setting up of SC benches

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu has called for the setting up of Supreme Court benches in various parts of the country, so that people do not have to travel to New Delhi only to fight their cases. There is a need to expand the Supreme Court benches and have separate benches at different regions on a trial basis as suggested by the parliamentary standing committee on law and justice, Naidu said. He added that this will reduce the inconvenience faced by litigants who have to travel long distances to access justice. “The Supreme Court must also think about different benches say in south, east and west regions so that people don't have to come all the way to Delhi. The Constitution itself provides for the expansion of benches of SC and no separate legislation is required for that,” Naidu said.

BJP MPs to lead crucial parliamentary panels

Two crucial parliamentary panels, the standing committees on finance and external affairs, which were headed by Congress MPs in previous Lok Sabha are now chaired by BJP MPs. The Lok Sabha Secretariat updated the details on September 13. BJP MPs Jayant Sinha and P.P. Choudhary will head the panels on finance and external affairs respectively. In the previous Lok Sabha, Congress’ Veerappa Moily and Shashi Tharoor used to head the two committees. Moily lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Tharoor has now been made the head of the standing committee on IT. The Congress - which was earlier heading two committees of the Lok Sabha - will now be heading only one. Standing committees are allocated by Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman on the recommendation of the government.

Hope fading on making contact with Vikram

Hopes of salvaging the lander-rover, part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, are fading with the window of opportunity to restore link with Vikram closing in in about a week’s time. Lander Vikram, with rover Pragyan housed inside it, lost communication with ground station on September 7 during its final descent, just 2.1 km above the lunar surface, minutes before the planned touchdown. Efforts to re-establish the link has been going on since then. On September 8, ISRO said the lander was spotted on the lunar surface by a camera onboard the orbiter. Vikram had a hard-landing. The lander, designed to execute a soft-landing on the lunar surface, and rover have a mission life of one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 Earth days - which means ISRO now has just over a week to spring Vikram back to life.

Tejas successfully performs arrested landing

In a major milestone in the development of a naval version of Tejas, the aircraft successfully carried out an “arrested landing”, a key performance demonstrating its ability to land on board an aircraft carrier. Military officials involved in the first-ever “arrested landing” of the plane said the successful test has put India among a select group of nations having capability to design a jet that can land on an aircraft carrier. They said the test at a shore-based test facility in Goa demonstrated the aircraft’s ability to halt at a short distance using wires attached to a hook mounted on its fuselage after landing. The DRDO is involved in the development of the naval variant along with the Aeronautical Development Agency, Aircraft Research and Design Centre of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and CSIR.

414 posts of judges vacant at High Courts

A total of 414 posts of judges are vacant at the 25 High Courts. According to law ministry data, as on September 1, the HCs had 414 vacant positions as compared to the sanctioned strength of 1,079 judges. A three-member Supreme Court collegium recommends names of candidates for appointment as HC judges. In case of appointments to the Supreme Court, the collegium consists of five top judges of the apex court. HC collegiums shortlist candidates for their respective courts and send the names to the law ministry. The Centre has maintained that appointment of HC judges is a “continuous collaborative process” between the executive and the judiciary. Vacancies keep arising on account of retirement, resignation or elevation of judges and increase in judges’ strength. More than 43 lakh cases are pending at the 25 HCs.

Drone attacks strike Saudi Aramco facility

Drones attacked the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oilfield operated by Saudi Aramco on September 14, the interior ministry said, sparking a huge fire at a processor crucial to global energy supplies. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Buqyaq and the Khurais oilfield, though Yemen’s Houthi rebels previously launched drone assaults deep inside of the kingdom. It wasn’t clear if there were any injuries in the attacks, nor what effect it would have on oil production in the kingdom. The attack is likely to heighten tensions across the wider Persian Gulf amid a confrontation between the US and Iran over its nuclear deal. According to estimates, the Abqaiq facility in Buqyaq can process up to 7 million barrels of crude oil a day.

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