Hyderabad: A three-day international summit of entrepreneurs started here on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hard selling India and inviting investors from across the globe to invest in India taking advantage of a friendly climate while President Donald Trump s daughter Ivanka said much remains to be done with regard to equitable laws for women in many developing as well as developed countries. To my entrepreneur friends from across the globe I would like to say: Come Make in India Invest in India - for India and for the world. I invite each one of you to become a partner in India s growth story. And once again assure you of our whole-hearted support Modi said while inaugurating the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit here.The event being co-hosted here by the US and India is being attended by 1 500 entrepreneurs investors and eco-system supporters from 159 countries.Modi told young entrepreneurs from India that each of them has something valuable to contribute towards creating a New India by 2022. You are vehicles of change and instruments of India s transformation. My government understands that an environment of transparent policies and a rule of law providing a level-playing field are necessary for entrepreneurship to flourish.Listing various steps taken by his government in the last over three years in improving the business climate Modi said the jump in India s ranking in the World Bank s Ease of Doing business Report from 142 to 100 in three years was a result of this.Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting the Advisor to the President of United States Ms. Ivanka Trump on the sidelines of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit-2017 in Hyderabad on November 28 2017. My government understands that an environment of transparent policies and a rule of law providing a level-playing field are necessary for entrepreneurship to flourish. A historic overhaul of the taxation system has been recently undertaken bringing in the Goods and Services Tax across the country. Our Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code introduced in 2016 is a step towards ensuring timely resolution for stressed ventures. We have recently improved this further preventing wilful defaulters from bidding for stressed assets he said.Touching on demonetisation the Prime Minister said tough measures have been adopted to tackle the parallel economy check tax evasion and control black money. Our efforts have been recognised by Moody s recent upgrade of India s government bond ratings. This upgrade comes after a gap of almost 14 years. India he said has improved its rank from 54 in 2014 to 35 on the World Bank s Logistics Performance Index. This signifies the relative ease and efficiency with which products can be moved into and from a country. An investment-friendly environment needs to be stable from the macro-economic perspective. We have succeeded in containing the fiscal and current account deficits and curbing inflation. Our foreign exchange reserves have crossed USD 400 billion and we continue to attract large foreign capital flows he said.Speaking before the prime minister Ivanka who is also the US President s Advisor said: When it comes to equitable laws while many developed and developing countries have made tremendous strides there is still much work to be done. She said in some countries women are not allowed to own property travel freely or work without the consent of their husbands. In some other countries the cultural and family pressure is so great that women do not feel the freedom to work outside the home. Our administration is striving to promote greater opportunity for women around the world both through our domestic reforms and our international initiatives she said.She also said that when women work it creates a multiplier effect and leads to more reinvestment in families and society. When women work it creates a unique multiplier effect. Women are more likely than men to hire other women and to give them access to capital mentorship and networks. Women are also more likely to reinvest their income back in their families and communities she said.She also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his belief that progress of humanity is incomplete without the empowerment of women. Just consider if India closes the labour force gender gap by half your economy could grow by over 150 billion in the next three years she said.Noting that this is the first time India has hosted the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Ivanka said it is a symbol of the strengthened friendship between our two peoples and the growing economic and security partnership between our two nations.Complimenting India for being one of the fastest growing economies globally lifting millions out of poverty and for the progress achieved in science and technology Trump said: The people of India inspire us all. The people of India have lifted more than 130 million citizens out of poverty. All of you are helping India s middle class reach its goal of becoming 500 million people by 2030. This year s summit is focused on a theme: Women First Prosperity for All.Stressing on women s achievements in India Modi said: In Indian mythology woman is an incarnation of Shakti - the Goddess of power. We believe women empowerment is vital to our development. Indian women continue to lead in different walks of life. Our space programmes including the Mars Orbiter Mission have had immense contribution from our women scientists. Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams both of Indian origin have been part of US space missions he added.Talking about Indian women empowerment Modi added: We have launched the MUDRA scheme to provide easy finance of upto one million rupees to entrepreneurs. Since its launch in 2015 over 90 million loans worth 4.28 trillion rupees have been sanctioned. Of these more than 70 million loans have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs. The US State Department and other American agencies in partnership with NITI Aayog India s think tank are organising GES which seeks to create an environment that empowers innovators particularly women to take their ideas to the next level.The delegates include about 400 each from India and the US and the remaining from the rest of the world.This is the 8th GES which brings together entrepreneurs investors and eco-system supporters for mentoring networking and investment matchmaking. This is the first time that the event is being held in South Asia.
By Mihir Sharma According to one of India s most respected bankers it s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity -- a mammoth sale of distressed assets some 40 billion in the first round. Much could go wrong of course especially given that so many powerful interests have so much money at stake in the process. Fortunately Prime Minister Narendra Modi s government which has stumbled in some of its biggest policy moves recently appears to be handling this particular challenge with both agility and a sense of urgency. That mindset should now be carried over into other parts of the reform agenda. The fire sale of assets has been made possible by one of Modi s true achievements: the passage of a modern law to replace the creaking ineffectual bankruptcy mechanism India had used earlier. The law gives courts the power to appoint resolution professionals to sell off and revive investments and companies financed by loans that have turned bad. The hope is that India s state-controlled banks will recover some of their money and that the economy-wide problem of stalled investment and stranded assets might finally begin to shrink. As has been made clear by the botched rollout of a nationwide goods-and-services tax however even a landmark reform can do great damage if not handled well. One problem with the new law has been apparent since the beginning: It didn t say anything about who could or couldn t bid for these distressed assets leaving open the possibility that the same company owners who had bankrupted their firms -- many of them powerful and politically connected families -- could buy them back at pennies on the dollar. This might seem counterintuitive. Someone who s deep in debt wouldn t seem likely to be the winning bidder at a blind auction. In India however company owners (or promoters in the local terminology) are adept at squirrelling away money -- whether company revenues or funds borrowed with the firm s assets as collateral -- using complicated group holdings and privately held corporations. At least some owners undoubtedly saw the new bankruptcy act as a way to retain control of the firms they had mismanaged while avoiding the need to repay the loans that state-controlled banks had unthinkingly handed them. At first state banks seemed happy to oblige. Some senior bankers argued that the existing owners at least understood the sectors they were in and if they offered high bids banks should accept them in order to preserve the value of the assets as far as possible. In one much-publicized example one of the banking system s largest debtors reportedly tied up with a Russian bank to bid for a steel company it had previously controlled. This loophole threatened to discredit the whole process. Most observers have an understandably hard time understanding why owners who have demonstrated their inability to judge market conditions or to abide by their promises should be treated like any other bidder. Even if some of them had defaulted because of a shift in the economic climate rather than malfeasance or mismanagement the damage done to the credibility of the process by including them in auctions outweighed any possible benefit. So it s welcome that the government last week issued an ordinance modifying the bankruptcy law so that anyone who runs a company into the ground is forbidden to bid for a distressed asset. (Parliament still needs to ratify the change within six months.) The government says that its amendments aim to keep out such persons who have willfully defaulted are associated with non-performing assets or are habitually non-compliant and therefore are likely to be a risk to successful resolution of insolvency of a company. If nothing else this means that in the future owners will be quicker to try and push their companies into resolution; the law allows them one year to raise funds that would allow them to retain control. That should help clear the credit pipes a bit faster. But there was always meant to be a larger purpose to bankruptcy reform as well: to revive a certain degree of faith in India s corporate sector which had sullied its reputation over the past decade as high-profile promoters took out loans they knew they couldn t repay defrauded investors and outright mismanaged their businesses. A bankruptcy process that ended with the same bunch of capitalists in control of the same sectors might have saved some banks -- and taxpayers -- money in the short run. But it wouldn t have achieved the aim of restoring credibility whether in state-controlled banks or in troubled infrastructure companies. The new ordinance gives the investment-starved Indian economy a chance to regain some dynamism and for investors to begin to trust the private sector again. India Inc. needs new blood and new faces. The government s trying to ensure it finds them. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
The six British men acquitted of weapons charges after four years in an Indian jail could be home within 48 hours a relative has said as they walked free from prison in Chennai. The so-called Chennai Six were taken from a prison in the town on the south-eastern coast of India by British consulate officials on Tuesday before telephoning their delighted families. Giving the thumbs up to photographers before they were driven to a nearby hotel the men were said to be over the moon at their release although relatives said their ordeal would not be over until the men had returned home. Lisa Dunn the sister of one of the men Nick Dunn said he had called her within an hour of being released and that while she screamed down the phone with joy he was very quiet he was quite subdued he seemed in shock a bit anxious and on edge . She told the Guardian: They re desperate to get movement on it but the Foreign Office have said that they re hoping to get them out and home within 48 hours. They re really pulling out the stops this time. The former British servicemen were working as security guards on the American-owned anti-piracy vessel the MV Seaman Guard Ohio in the Indian Ocean when they were detained in 2013. They were accused of carrying unlicensed weapons though they insisted they had been granted permits by the UK s Department for Business Innovation and Skills. The British government s head of export controls eventually confirmed to the Indian court that Vince Cable the then business secretary had granted licences for firearms in 2012 and 2013. Initially the charges were quashed and the men were freed for a short time on bail but a lower court reinstated the prosecution and in January 2016 they were sentenced to five years in prison. It is understood the men met Sir Dominic Asquith the British high commissioner in India within hours of being released on Tuesday in a British embassy where many of the men made calls home. Lisa Dunn from Ashington in Northumberland said: Our Nick when he phoned said they re going to try to get us back within 48 hours or as quickly as possible but we still won t relax and certainly the way Nick is sounding he won t relax until he touches down on Newcastle tarmac. I m so excited right know but I know that when I see Nick he s not going to be the Nick that we know and love. He s going to be extremely on edge and very anxious understandably so. That s one of the main reasons I ve flown out because I knew he was going to be feeling that way. He s my baby brother and I can t let him go through the next few days on his own. Dunn who flew from Heathrow to Chennai on Tuesday said the British government had previously failed the men by not pushing harder to get their appeal heard sooner by the Indian judiciary but that it now appeared to be a top priority for senior diplomats. She added: They know the men are innocent and now they re pulling out the stops and rightly so. It s not before time at all. It s a very nervous time because they were in this position last time but the Foreign Office failed them and said Let s wait and see for the appeal. I think the Foreign Office know they cannot allow that to happen this time round. The whole nation is behind them. Yvonne MacHugh the partner of one of the men Billy Irving from Connel in Argyll said she screamed with delight to hear his voice. She added: He s just over the moon and didn t think they would be released. He took everything that was said with a pinch of salt and didn t believe it. Joanne Thomlinson the sister of John Armstrong echoed Dunn s fears about the prospect of the men having to stay in India while their paperwork was sorted. She added: As ecstatic as we all are at them being released there are going to be emotional issues around that and it is going to be difficult for them to adapt. The six Britons including Dunn; Irving; Ray Tindall from Chester; Paul Towers from Pocklington east Yorkshire; John Armstrong from Wigton Cumbria; and Nicholas Simpson from Catterick North Yorkshire were arrested and detained along with three Ukrainians 14 Estonians and 12 Indians when customs officials and police searched their anti-piracy ship owned by US-based company AdvanFort in 2013. A British consulate spokesman said: The government shares their happiness. We are working with the Indian authorities to discuss the next step and we will continue to offer the men and their families consular assistance for as long as needed.
Do you have a dream for the future? Justice DY Chandrachud asked 25-year-old Hadiya in the Supreme Court on Monday. Freedom release! she replied.But freedom is not hers yet. The court has ordered that Hadiya who converted to Islam in 2015 against the wishes of her parents and then went on to marry a Muslim man will go back to homeopathy college in Tamil Nadu. She will no longer be confined to her parents home in Kerala as she has been since August. But in its order on Monday the Supreme Court also said The dean of the college shall approach this court if there is any problem with regard to any aspect. The dean has already declared that he will not allow Hadiya to meet anyone other than her parents.Besides the marriage of her choosing annulled by the Kerala High Court in May is still being treated as a terrorist conspiracy requiring an inquiry by the National Investigation Agency. The Supreme Court ignored Hadiya s repeated statements that she wanted to see her husband Shafin Jahan whom she married last December. In response to her saying that her husband could take care of her Justice Chandrachud condescendingly told her a husband cannot be his wife s guardian. A wife is not chattel. She is an individual with her own mind and talents...You must have the ability to stand up on your own feet and live a life of dignity. But that is exactly what Hadiya was saying only the Supreme Court justices were not listening. In fact this is what the young woman has been saying and trying to do all along. She has shown that she has a mind of her own and the ability to stand up for herself. But the courts have treated Hadiya as if she has no mind at all or certainly not a mind she has any control over. It is a court that dissolved her marriage and a court that placed her in her father s custody. It is a court that has allowed her to return to college and made the college dean who will decide whom she can and cannot meet her de facto guardian. It is the same court that instead of overturning the High Court s bizarre annulment of her marriage ordered an investigation into her conversion and marriage by India s anti-terror agency.The courts have treated Hadiya like she is chattel. The Kerala High Court treated her as if she was her father s property as someone who does not have the right to choose her religion or whom to marry. The Supreme Court too has treated her as someone without the right to choose how to live whom to marry or even to assert that she has a husband who can support her.Hadiya told the apex court on Monday that she had suffered 11 months of mental harassment . The courts colluded in this. That the choices she has made as an adult are subject to the authority of court decisions is what denies her a life of dignity . A gender issue indeedWhile the apex court dithered over whether to hear Hadiya on Monday lawyer Indira Jaising said that if it was a man in Hadiya s place the court would have responded differently. The court s sharp reaction it criticised Jaising for bringing in gender and asserted that it treats men and women alike suggested that the judges of the Supreme Court are unable to identify what is patently an issue of gender justice.That Hadiya was in court at all is because she is a woman. That her marriage was annulled without the court even asking her if she had consented to it is because she is a woman. That the court placed her an adult in the custody of her father is because she is a woman. That she was declared to be indoctrinated or of unsound mind is because she is a woman. That a Supreme Court judge after hearing her speak her mind felt the need to tell her that a woman is an individual with her own mind is because she is a woman. This is how women were treated for millennia and in India it seems even modern laws are no protection. Women who stand up for themselves take decisions about their lives that go against the wishes of their parents especially those women whose marriages transgress socially enforced boundaries of caste religion and region are a threat to the primordial social structures that still cohere our modern nation. In some parts of India parents just kill such errant daughters. In Kerala they use the courts and terrorism laws against them. Hadiya chose a different religion from that of her family s and a husband not of their choosing. This was sufficient to have her declared indoctrinated unstable and a victim of what was described as mental kidnapping . In response Hadiya has reaffirmed that a woman has the right to choose how to live her own life whom to love what creed to follow how to keep body and soul together and above all as she said in court to be considered a human being . Hadiya said in court before she left for her college and after she arrived there that she hoped for more freedom and to meet Shafin Jahan in Salem. It is a hope that Hadiya will have to hold on to because the Supreme Court is in no hurry to let her have the freedoms that are hers by right as a human being and as a citizen of India.
NEW DELHI: India is getting set to provide to Singapore naval practice and logistics facilities which will include live firing drills in the Andamans to add to the ones already being provided to the army and air force of the city-state for the last 10 years. Visiting Singapore defence minister Ng Eng Hen who reached New Delhi from Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal on Tuesday will hold delegation-level talks with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman in South Block on Wednesday. The bilateral naval agreement is also slated to be inked during the talks. With land and airspace being a scarce commodity in Singapore the city state has been utilising Indian military facilities to train its own small but high-tech armed forces under special agreements first signed in 2007 and 2008. India for instance provides facilities to Singapore for exercises of mechanised forces at Babina and artillery at Deolali ranges as well as for fighters at the Kalaikunda airbase. The two countries also regularly hold the Simbex naval wargames which have graduated from being purely anti-submarine warfare exercises to complex ones involving multiple facets of operations at sea. With an eye firmly on China India has over the last several years worked towards deepening military ties with Asean countries like Singapore Vietnam Myanmar Malaysia and Indonesia in accordance with its Act East policy. India for instance provides military supplies and submarine training to sailors from Vietnam and will soon begin to also train its fighter pilots on Sukhoi jets. Moreover it has also offered BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and Akash area defence missile systems to Vietnam. Similarly India has also offered to train Indonesian Navy in submarine warfare in addition to holding joint combat exercises with the country.
NEW DELHI: Former military dictator of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf said this week that he is banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba s (LeT) biggest supporter and that he s aware they like him too. When asked by Pakistan s AryTV if he s similarly appreciative of LeT s founder and mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks Hafiz Saeed Musharraf nodded saying Saeed is involved in Kashmir and he supports that involvement. Saeed a United Nations-designated terrorist was freed from house arrest last week on an order from the Lahore high court. Musharraf meanwhile was declared a fugitive from justice by Pakistan in August this year. I am the biggest supporter of LeT and I know they like me and JuD (Jamaat-ud-Dawa) also likes me said Musharraf referring to both groups founded by Saeed. JuD is the LeT s charitable wing. The US has also branded Saeed a terrorist and put a 10 million bounty on Saeed s head after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Musharraf claimed Saeed was not involved in the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 because Saeed himself denied the charges of being the attacks mastermind. Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stirred fresh controversy by saying that he loves LeT and that the LeT l... https://t.co/1UkJyLlgjq TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) 1511925163000 The LeT is banned in Pakistan since 2002 and it was in fact the Musharraf government that banned the group. When reminded of that fact Musharraf said he didn t know much about Saeed at the time. He implied that he wouldn t have banned LeT if he had known more about Saeed. We had banned LeT because the situation was different at that time. We were moving towards peace and as such I thought we should reduce mujahids (religious warrior) and increase political dialogue and frankly I had very less knowledge about him said Musharraf. LeT though banned it is widely believed to orchestrate attacks in India especially in Kashmir. For Musharraf that makes Saeed a-ok. I was always in favor of action in Kashmir and of suppressing the Indian Army in Kashmir and they (LeT) are the biggest force. India got them declared as terrorists by partnering with US said Musharraf. The former military dictator was also reminded that he calls himself a liberal and a moderate. The interviewer wondered if that was at odds with Musharraf s admiration for LeT. He said it isn t. Yes I am liberal and moderate... these are my thoughts but that doesn t mean I am against all religious leaders said Musharraf. This kind of hypocrisy is typical of Pakistan s establishment. On the one hand you will have Pakistan s foreign minister saying on a public forum that Saeed is a liability for Pakistan - like minister Khawaja Asif did in New York in September - and on the other you have the country s army and its intelligence agency providing safe havens for terror groups and terrorists. Which is why the president of an infuential US think tank said this week it s a mystery why Pakistan is still considered a major non-Nato ally . Richard Haass president of the prestigious think tank Council on Foreign Relations tweeted this week saying Pakistan has harbored terrorists for years and provides sanctuary to the Taliban and others including Saeed The Council on Foreign Relations president joins what s becoming a chorus of influential domestic voices asking that Pakistan s status as a major non-Nato ally be taken away. After Saeed was freed last week a top American counter-terrorism expert told PTI news agency that it s time to remove Pakistan non-Nato ally status. Nine years after 26/11 its mastermind still eludes justice. It is time to rescind Pakistan s status as a major non-NATO ally said Bruce Riedel a top U.S. expert on security South Asia and counter-terrorism. Saeed s release by the Lahore High Court came despite entreaties by a senior Pakistan finance ministry official who said that freeing Saeed would bring diplomatic and financial problems to the country reported Pakistan s Dawn newspaper. Those entreaties obviously fell on willingly deaf ears as the emboldened Lahore High Court even ignored the US administration s August threat to cut off all aid to Pakistan if it doesn t stop providing safe havens to agents of chaos and terror . The US hasn t really followed up with stringent punishment since those fighting words in August from US President Donald Trump. In fact a significant alteration to a bill that would have pinned Pakistan down on the Saeed-founded and banned organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was watered down last week in its final iteration. The US Congress decided against including action against terror group LeT as a condition to reimburse Pakistan for its cooperation in the war on terror . In September the version of the bill passed by the US Senate said Pakistan must show it has taken steps to demonstrate its commitment to prevent the Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e- Taiba from using any Pakistan territory as a haven and for fundraising and recruiting efforts . Now Pakistan must only show it has acted against the Afghanistan-oriented Haqqani Network (no relation the Haqqani cited in this article) and not the India-focussed LeT.
HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Modi evoked inspirational stories of women from history and the rural heartland. Indian women continue to lead in different walks of life. Our space programmes including the Mars Orbiter Mission have had immense contribution from our women scientists he said. The PM also traced the key role women had to play in cooperative and entrepreneurial movements like the milk revolution and Lijjat Papad. More than 60% workers in our agriculture and allied sectors are women. Our milk co-operatives in Gujarat and Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad are examples of successful and globally acclaimed women-led co-operative movements he said. Reeling out some key statistics on the rapid strides India has made in women s empowerment he said three out of four oldest High Courts in India are now headed by women judges and women have one third representation in rural and urban local bodies to ensure their participation in grassroot level decisionmaking. He also called upon young entrepreneurs from India to contribute towards creating a New India by 2022. Each of you has something valuable to contribute... You are vehicles of change and instruments of India s transformation. And to entrepreneurs from across the globe present at the summit he urged them to Make in India Invest in India - for India and for the world. I invite each one of you to become a partner in India s growth story. Lauding GES 2017 for connecting Silicon Valley with Hyderabad and show-casing the close ties between the US and India he said it underlines the shared commitment towards encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation. And it was not just women empowerment and GES that the PM dwelt on. He also seized the occasion to introduce the global audience to key initiatives taken by his government like Make in India Mudra Scheme Aadhaar Bhim and virtually presented them with a report card of his government s performance over the past three years.
NEW DELHI: Nearly 15 global players including Samsung Construction and China Construction are competing with home-grown companies such as L&T and Reliance Infrastructure for bagging the contract for constructing India s largest convention centre. The government has invited the request for proposal by December 8 under the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) mode after the Rs 26 000 crore International Convention and Expo Centre (IICC) project received the Union cabinet s nod earlier this month. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) held a pre-bid meeting on November 6 to gauge the interest of the market players where the project managed to grab global attention according to government officials. The EPC contract will be finalised by the end of December this year. It would involve development of trunk infrastructure along with exhibition-cum-convention centre and internal road network system and underground car parking facilities. The first phase will commence in January 2018 and is likely to be completed by December 2019. Convention and exhibition facilities will be operated and managed by experienced global players The facilities will be on a par with the best in the industry worldwide in size and quality said a senior government official who did not wish to be identified. Several international exhibition organisers from Germany Singapore Australia Hong Kong and Dubai have evinced interest in operating the IICC the official said. The government has planned the IICC as an international brand to promote growth and development of India s trade and commerce. It will be used for hosting national and international events such as multilateral summits trade fairs conferences and conventions. The proposed business district includes a 230 000 square metre exhibition and convention space 275 000 sq metres of hotel space and 375 000 sq metres of commercial retail entertainment and offices. The project site is spread across 89.72 hectare in Dwarka in southwest Delhi. The components comprising hotels retail space and offices will be implemented in public-private partnership mode. The government expects footfall of more than 10 million after Phase-I and 23 million after the completion of Phase-II in 2025. The project is estimated to generate more than 500 000 direct and indirect employment opportunities. The Cabinet had approved creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the implementation of the project with 100% equity from the government through the DIPP. The government will provide Rs 2 037 crore to the SPV over a period of three years to fund trunk infrastructure. The SPV will be authorised to raise debt or mobilise resources through land monetisation depending on market conditions.
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