Page 14 - Banking Finance October 2019

ROUNDUP

RSS to ask govt reintro- India, Russia eye $30 billion trade by 2025
duce Citizenship Amend- According to Indian foreign secretary, India and Russia are targeting $30 billion
of annual trade by 2025. Seeking to boost bilateral trade
ment Bill by December from its current $11 billion, the two countries announced

Following the non listed 19,06,657 deals in sectors including energy, defence and shipping
names dis- after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin
covered by and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an economic
the Na- forum in Vladivostok.
tional Reg- India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer and importer aims to raise the
ister of proportion of gas in its energy mix to 15% in the next few years and diversify its
Citizens, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak energy supply to hedge against geopolitical risk.
Sangh will ask the Narendra Modi
government to reintroduce the Citi- "We have had a major breakthrough in the energy sector. This is a sector where
zenship Amendment Bill by Decem- we are looking to diversify our sources of supplies and we are increasingly find-
ber. A majority of whom are believed ing it attractive to buy oil and gas from the Russian federation,” said India's
to be Hindus among the 19,06,657 foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale.
non-listed names. "We are looking at investing in additional oilfields in Russia…we are also looking
at sourcing LNG," Gokhale said. Indian companies have stakes in Russian hydro-
“We have been saying that NRC will
not bear results and Assam will not carbon assets including the Sakhalin-1, Imperial Energy, Vankor and Tass-Yuriakh
be free of foreigners. The final NRC fields, but it rarely imports oil from there because of logistical constraints and
has proved this right. A large num- higher freight costs.
ber of Hindus and other local com-
munities have been excluded from Amit Shah ensures security to J&K sarpanches
NRC. We will insist that the Centre Home Minister Amit Shah has assured a group of village heads of security cover
reintroduce the Citizenship Amend- and insurance schemes worth Rs 2 lakh each. Various delega-
ment Bill by December, immediately tions of village heads or sarpanches, fruit growers, agricultural
after the appeal at the foreigners’ marketers and refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)
tribunal is completed. This NRC can- informed Shah about the difficulties being faced by locals due
not be final,” said a senior RSS leader. to the monthlong restrictions in the valley. This was his first
The bill meant to give Indian citizen- meeting with the representatives from various districts of J&K
ship to refugee Hindus, Sikhs, Bud- after the abrogation of Article 370.
dhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians “The home minister assured us of security, insurance cover and promised to
from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and restore statehood once the situation improves,” Pampore sarpanch Mir Altaf
Pakistan was shelved in February af- told. J&K has 4,130 sarpanches and 29,719 panches or panchayat members.
ter the Lok Sabha passed it following The voter turnout was 74% in the 2018 panchayat elections, with the Kashmir
stiff resistance from several Valley recording 41% turnout.
organisations in the northeast who
feared that their states would be P V Sindhu wins World Badminton Championship
flooded with refugees from
Beating rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final, P V Sindhu became
neighbouring Bangladesh.
the first Indian to win badminton World Championships gold.
However, BJP’s 2019 manifesto said, P V Sindhu won 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38
“We are committed to enactment of minutes. It was Sindhu’s fifth World Championships medal -
Citizenship Amendment Bill for the joint most for a woman singles player with former Olympics
protection of individuals of religious and world champion Zhang Ning of China - to go with the two
minority communities from successive silvers and a couple of bronze medals. Sindhu has
neighbouring countries escaping per- also won Olympic silver in 2016 Rio Games, silver at Gold Coast Commonwealth
secution.” Games, Asian Games silver at Jakarta and the BWF World Tour Finals last year.

14 | 2019 | OCTOBER | BANKING FINANCE