NEW YORK: The International Monetary Fund has agreed to increase its crisis loan package aimed at restoring confidence in Argentina's struggling economy by $7 billion to $57 billion, the South American country's Finance Minister Nicolas Dujovne said on Wednesday.

The agreement "will allow our country to leave behind the turbulent path of recent months," said Dujovne during a press conference with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Lagarde said the aim of the program was to help Argentina "face its challenges" and support the most vulnerable populations.

The Guardian quoted Lagarde as saying that "This is the biggest loan in the history of the IMF".

Argentina originally secured a $50 billion loan back in June, when an initial $15 billion tranche was handed over.

However, last month, President Mauricio Macri revealed he had asked for an accelerated disbursement of the remaining $35 billion, with another $3 billion not due until November and the remainder over the next three years.

The new deal "front loads IMF financing," the Fund said in a statement, increasing by $19 billion the amount due to be made available up to the end of 2019.

The announcement of the agreement comes a day after Argentina changed its central bank president.

Some analysts claimed outgoing head Luis Caputo was at odds with the IMF over Argentina's monetary strategy, leading to his replacement by Guido Sandleris.

Lagarde said that "persistently high inflation continues to erode the foundation of economic prosperity in Argentina" and to tackle it, the country's "authorities will shift towards a stronger, simpler, and verifiable monetary policy regime."

She said Argentina would "contain the supply of money, and keep short-term interest rates at their currently" world-high level of 60 percent, aiming to rapidly bring down inflation, expected to hit 40 percent by the end of the year.

Argentina's economic woes were brought on by a rapid loss of confidence in its peso currency from April.

It has lost around 50 percent of its value against the dollar since the start of the year, including 20 percent in a two-day period in August after Macri announced he was seeking to renegotiate the IMF loan.

He has since introduced hugely unpopular austerity measures, including halving the number of government ministries and restoring taxes on grain exports.

The peso has largely stabilized since its August slump, although it lost 2.2 percent on Tuesday following Caputo's resignation.

NEW DELHI:
The Supreme Court delivered an unanimous verdict with all the five judges concurring on a crucial 150-year-old adultery law that considers punishment only to a man and not a married woman for an affair by treating her as a victim and not as an abettor of the offence. "Adultery law arbitrary," said the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra. Section 497 deprives women of dignity and that women are treated as property of her husband. The court said any provision treating women with inequality is not constitutional and it's time to say that husband is not the master of woman. Adultery will remain a ground for divorce, the bench added.

The centre had, in its defence, claimed that the law should remain valid as it protects the sanctity of marriage. The petition filed against the law was done so on the premise that the law does not treat men and women equally.

Import duty of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) or jet fuel has been increased to 5 percent from zero, a move that is expected to make air tickets more expensive.

“The significant increases in customs duties of selective items which the government perceives to be non-essential imports appears to be aimed at reducing the drain of currency reserves and boost domestic demand,” Prashant Deshpande, a partner at Deloitte India said.

Another expert said that the government’s decision, though significant, is not surprising as India is looking at discouraging import of white goods and other items perceived to be used more by the affluent class.

“Message is clear - local is a new global and if local market is to be accessed then more value addition should take place in India," Pratik Jain, partner and leader at PwC India said.

The development comes after the government announced a five-point strategy to arrest the rupee’s slide, after meeting that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and officials Reserve Bank of India (RBI) among others on 14 September. Modi met also top finance ministry officials to review the current economic scenario to work out a strategy to bolster the market’s confidence and improve the macroeconomic scenario.

The measures included removal of withholding tax on masala bonds, relaxation for foreign portfolio investors, and curbs on non-essential imports, to contain the widening CAD, which has widened to 2.4 percent of the GDP in April-June and check the rupee’s fall.

These measures are likely to have a positive impact to the tune of USD 8-10 billion.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday successfully test fired the indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) Astra from a Su-30 aircraft, the Defence Ministry said.
The missile, tested at Kalaikunda Air Force Station, "successfully engaged a manoeuvring target with high precision meeting the mission objectives".

In the series of trials held till date, Astra has been launched in the complete Su-30 flight envelope.

The flight test assumes significance as it was part of the series of final pre-induction trials. Astra, deemed to be the best in class weapon system, has undergone more than 20 developmental trials.

COMMENT
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while lauding the efforts of the IAF, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other teams involved in the mission, said India had attained a high level of capability in the indigenous design and development of advanced weapon systems.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday signed an ordinance to establish a committee to run the Medical Council of India until a bill is passed in Parliament to replace it with the National Medical Commission, PTI reported.

The announcement was made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after a meeting of the Union Cabinet in New Delhi. The presidential assent came after the Cabinet cleared the ordinance on Wednesday morning.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been awarded with the UN’s highest environmental honour, bestowed upon five other individuals and organisations, for his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and pledge to eliminate single use plastic in India by 2022.

Six of the world’s most outstanding environmental changemakers have been recognised with the Champions of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental honour.

“This years’ laureates are recognised for a combination of bold, innovative, and tireless efforts to tackle some of the most urgent environmental issues of our times,” the UN Environment Programme said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, President of France and Modi have been jointly recognised in the Policy Leadership category for their pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and promoting new areas of levels of cooperation on environmental action, including Macron’s work on the Global Pact for the Environment and Modi’s unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022.

Cochin International Airport has als

India and Morocco signed an MoU for deepening cooperation between MSME sectors of the two countries in Rabat, Morocco yesterday. The MoU was signed by CMD, National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Ravindra Nath and Director General, Maroc PME, Mr. Rabri Barrazouka. Through this MOU, the NSIC and Maroc PME will work together to enhance cooperation opportunities for MSMEs of both countries. It will facilitate transfer of Indian technologies and products to Morocco.

Ms. Alka Arora, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of MSME, who is leading the official delegation along with CMD NSIC to Morocco held bilateral meetings with Mr. Othman El Ferdaous, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Trade and Digital Economy and with other related Departments for enhancing cooperation in MSME Sector. Both sides discussed the ways and means to synergize the strengths of both countries in MSME Sector in terms of capacity building, sharing of experiences, exchange of business delegations for creating linkages, JVs and technology transfers. Morocco mainly relies on its exports of minerals and ores and SERVICE sector. It has very small MSME sector in manufacturing, whereas India has strong MSMeE sector especially in manufacturing.

Over the years, India and Morocco have enjoyed cordial and friendly relations and bilateral relations have witnessed significant growth. India is one of the major markets for Moroccan phosphate and its derivatives. An India-Morocco joint venture in fertilizer sector in Morocco, called IMACID, was set up in November 1999. At present, the JV is producing around 430,000 MT per annum of phosphoric acid, nearly all of which is imported by India. The Moroccan phosphate company, OCP, has invested in Paradip Phosphates Ltd. in India. Other main items of export to India are metallic ores and metal scrap, semi-finished products and inorganic chemicals.

The cabinet on Wednesday approved the new telecom policy, now named National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018, which aims to attract USD 100 billion investment and create 4 million jobs in the sector by 2022.

“The cabinet has cleared NDCP,” an official source told PTI. According to the draft of the policy, NDCP is focused on increasing high-speed broadband penetration, with use of modern technologies like 5G and optical fibres across the country at affordable rates.

The draft promised to rationalise levies such as spectrum charges to rejuvenate debt-ridden telecom sector, the proposed new telecom policy seeks to provide broadband access to all with 50 megabit per second speed, 5G services and create 40 lakh new jobs by 2022.

Vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated Smart City Expo India-2018 in Jaipur today. Addressing the inaugural function, Mr. Naidu said that state govt. is doing well for linking of rivers. He stressed on need for water harvesting.

Vice President said that Smart Vision, Smart execution and smart Implementation are essential to develop smart cities. He said that no city can become smart without participation of public.

The object of this three days long expo is to have discussions among different experts and groups to utilize benefits of new technology, town planning, capacity management, challenges before socio-economic development and development of networking in the Smart City sector. Near about 6000 delegates from MNC's of different countries , researchers , CEO's of different Smart cities , Mayors and corporates are participating in the expo.

MUMBAI: 

Industrialist and Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Mukesh Ambani has topped the "Barclays Hurun India Rich List-2018" for the seventh consecutive year, with his wealth estimated at Rs. 371,000 crore, an official said on Tuesday.

Figuring next on the chart are S.P. Hinduja & Family of Hinduja Group, with an estimated wealth of Rs. 159,000 crore, and Arcelor Mittal's L.N. Mittal & Family at Rs. 114,500 crore.

Following them are: Wipro's Azim Premji at Rs. 96,100 crore, Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd's Dilip Shanghvi at Rs.89,700 crore, Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak at Rs. 78,600 crore, Serum Institute of India's Cyrus Poonawalla at Rs. 73,000-crore, Adani Group's Gautam Adani & Family at Rs. 71,200 crore, and Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry's Cyrus P. Mistry at Rs. 69,400 crore.

The annual list is a compilation of the super-richest Indians having a net worth of Rs. 1,000 crore or more, and this number has increased by a staggering one-third -- from 617 in 2017 to 831 in 2018, said Hurun Report India's Managing Director Rahman Junaid.

The cumulative wealth of these 831 individuals featuring in the list stands at USD 719 billion, or one-quarter of the Indian GDP of USD 2,848 billion, as per the IMF's April 2018