Softbank Group to invest USD 627 million in Snapdeal

This is the largest investment made by a single investor in an e-commerce company in India. Other existing investors have also participated in this round of investment but the company declined to disclose the amount.

Snapdeal will use the investments in expanding its chain of fulfilment centres and make acquisitions in the coming few months specifically in the area of mobile technology.

With mobile commerce fast gaining pace in the country, the city-based firm also plans to set up an incubation centre to hone and harness start-up businesses in the mobile technology space within next 6 months.

Through this strategic investment and partnership with Snapdeal, the SoftBank Group aims to further strengthen its presence in India and leverage synergies with its network of Internet companies around the world, Snapdeal said in a statement.

Snapdeal has raised close to USD 1 billion during this calendar year. Founded in 2010, Snapdeal has more than 25 million registered users and more than 50,000 business sellers.

"We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market," SoftBank Corp Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said.

SoftBank has pledged an investment of USD 10 billion (over Rs 60,000 crore) in India's IT and communications space, one of the biggest investment commitments from a Japanese firm after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to that country.

"India has the third-largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential," SoftBank Corp Vice Chairman and CEO of SIMI Nikesh Arora said.

Arora will join the board of Snapdeal as part of the strategic investment.

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Switzerland acts iffy about India making Swiss bank a/c information public

However, the Swiss Foreign Ministry official hoped that with the advent of the new government in India, which has made taking action against black money a priority, the differences would be resolved much quickly.

Valentin Zellweger, Director and Legal Adviser, Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, at the same time asserted that there is no banking secrecy in case of illegal acts.

"There's no banking secrecy if we talk about illegal acts. So if we get a request from a prosecutor in another country, there's no banking secrecy. We have very stringent know your customer rules. So we are quick in being able to give the information," he said.

Responding to a question on the first list of names, allegedly having accounts in Swiss banks on unaccounted wealth, Zellweger said the talks with the Indian Government so far has been on tax evasion and not any other illegal acts.

"We have had long discussions with the Indian government. But that is for tax evasion. Tax evasion used not to be a criminal offense under Swiss law. That is changing. We are now adapting to international standards," he told a Washington audience, acknowledging that this is a issue of dispute.

"That is at the heart of the dispute. There is a disagreement with the Indian government and as to what exactly will have to be disclosed. There is a new Indian government. We now hope that we will be able to resolve the case much quicker than we could do so in the past," he said.

Appearing at a panel discussion on Returning Stolen Assets organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, Zellweger said this is now very much on the forefront of international news and argued that in recent years Swiss authorities have been very co-operative in repatriation of the unaccounted money.

"You take Tunisia, for example. You had a restitution of USD 27 million by Lebanon to Tunisia, what is it now, 2011 within three and a half years. The Swiss prosecutor general has decided to send back two-thirds of the funds we have frozen in Switzerland to Tunisia," he said.

"We never had that in the past. The quickest case we had so far was Abacha, and that took us five years. We were efficient because we had an excellent cooperation with Nigeria in that case. Now, in Tunisia, we solved the case within three years," he said.

"So I am pretty confident for two reasons. First, asset recovery is now a topic on the international agenda. And second, international cooperation has hugely increased over the past two years," he said.

In the run-up to Parliamentary polls, BJP had promised to bring back black money kept by Indians in overseas banks while targeting the UPA government for not taking effective action on the issue.

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US, China to hold trade talks in Chicago in December

US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Trade Representative Michael Froman will host a high-level Chinese delegation for the talks during the 25th session of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) from December 16 to 18, officials said.

US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will also take part in the dialogue to address key agricultural trade issues between the two countries. "Expanding the US-China bilateral trade relationship is critical to strengthening our nation's economy and supporting job creation in communities from Maine to Hawaii," Pritzker said. Noting that JCCT has played a vital role in their efforts to bolster mutually beneficial relationship for more than two decades, the Commerce Secretary said the upcoming high-level discussions will culminate a year of continuous work to address important issues facing the two nations.

"This dialogue comes at an important time for the two largest economies in the world who share an enormous stake in the global trade and investment system," Froman said. The JCCT continues to be a place where the bilateral ties that link the US and China are reinforced through cooperation and constructive face-to-face discussions focused on making concrete progress to address the challenges, he said.
  
Established in 1983, the JCCT is the primary forum for addressing bilateral trade and investment issues and promoting commercial opportunities between the United States and China. High-level plenary meetings are held annually and are co-chaired by the US Secretary of Commerce, the United States Trade Representative, and the Chinese Vice Premier in charge of trade and investment issues.

Sixteen JCCT Working Groups meet throughout the year to address topics such as intellectual property rights, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, information technology and travel and tourism. The 24th Annual JCCT meeting was held in Beijing in 2013. In the last year's meeting, significant progress was made on several important issues, including protection and enforcement against theft of trade secrets, government procurement and market access for US testing and certification companies.

China was the third-largest market for US exports in 2013 (after Canada and Mexico). US goods exports to China were USD 122 billion in 2013, up 652 per cent since 2000. Trade in services with China (exports and imports) totaled USD 52.1 billion in 2013.

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India ranks 114 out of 142 nations on WEF's Gender Gap Report

India's slipped 13 spots from its last year's ranking of 101 on the Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum. India is part of the 20 worst-performing countries on the labour force participation, estimated earned income, literacy rate and sex ratio at birth indicators.

On the other hand, India is among the top 20 best-performing countries on the political empowerment subindex.

The index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. The index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health criteria.

On the criteria of economic participation and opportunity, India was ranked 134. Its female to male ratio in labour force participation was 0.36. The disparity in estimated earned income was high with females earning USD 1980 compared to USD 8087 earned by their male counterparts.

On educational attainment, India ranked 126 with female to male ratio in literacy rate at 0.68. India was the second-lowest performing country on health and survival, ranking 141 just ahead of Armenia.

However on political empowerment subindex, India ranked an impressive 15. It is the highest-ranked country on the years with female head of state (over the past 50 years) indicator.

There is also some evidence from India to suggest that women in local government roles make decisions with better outcomes for communities than men do when charged with budget decisions.

They also appear to be more competent representatives than men, obtaining more resources for their constituencies despite having significantly lower education and relevant labour market experience.

The report said that India has the highest difference between women and men on the average minutes spent per day on unpaid work—a difference of 300 minutes.

It is also among the countries with the highest difference in the female and male percentage of total R&D personnel. India has one of the lowest percentages of firms with female participation in ownership.

India had experienced improvement of its overall score since 2010, when it had ranked 112. It had ranked 105 in 2012 and 101 last year but saw a decrease in 2014 due to a drop in scores on the economic participation and opportunity and educational attainment subindexes.

India performed better than countries like UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Jordan.

Iceland, which has had a female head of state in 20 of the past 50 years, ranked number 1 on WEF's index. Iceland has taken the top spot on the index consecutively since 2009. The country was followed by its Nordic neighbours: Finland ranked 2, Norway (3), Sweden (4) and Denmark (5). US is ranked 20, putting it behind countries like Canada, South Africa and France, but ahead of other developed countries like the United Kingdom and Australia.

The report said that no country in the world has fully closed the gender gap, but all five of the Nordic countries have closed more than 80 percent of it. Yemen, the lowest ranking country has closed just over 50 percent of the gender gap.

At 141, Pakistan was the second lowest ranking country, scoring poorly on all the four parametres.

In 2014, 25 countries fully closed the gap in Educational Attainment (same as last year). Angola, Ethiopia, Yemen, Guinea and Chad hold the last five spots on this subindex, with Yemen and Chad having closed less than 70 percent of their education gender gap. In total, there are 22 countries where women still have less than 90 percent of the education outcomes that men have.

While eight countries—Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, France, Guyana, Latvia, Namibia, and the Philippines have fully closed the gap on both the health and education subindexes, no country has closed either the economic participation gap or the political empowerment gap.

On the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, 14 countries have closed more than 80 percent of gap, including from from Sub-Saharan Africa and five from Europe and Central Asia.

Burundi, Norway, Malawi, the United States and the Bahamas occupy the top five spots on the subindex.

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Travellers with Ebola should not be stigmatised: UN Chief

UN Secretary General said that the restrictions put particular pressure on health care workers and those who have been on the frontline of the Ebola response.

"The Secretary-General is concerned by the recent restrictions put in place in several countries and localities applying to people who have travelled to the main Ebola-affected countries," a statement issued by Ban's spokesman said here.

"Returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity. They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science," he said in the statement.

"Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatised," he added.

Ban reiterated that the best way for any country to protect itself from Ebola is to stop the outbreak at its source in West Africa.

"This requires considerable international health care worker support and in return for this support, we have an obligation to look after them," he said.

According to UN World Health Organisation's latest situation report, there have been 9,936 cases of Ebola and 4,877 deaths so far.

In New York, after a doctor who treated Ebola patients returned from Guinea and tested positive for the virus, state government had put in place a mandatory 21-day quarantine for travellers returning from the most-affected West African countries.
  
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo came in for sharp criticism from health experts and had to loosen restrictions, allowing asymptomatic medical workers who had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa to remain at home during the quarantine period.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also faced backlash after a nurse who arrived from Sierra Leone last week was swiftly quarantined in a tent set up inside a Newark hospital, with a portable toilet but with no shower.

Ban is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the start of a joint trip uniting the capacities of the United Nations, World Bank, European Union, Islamic Development Bank, and African Development Bank and targeting a swathe of countries in the Horn of Africa, spanning Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

Ban announced a new USD 8 billion development initiative aimed at boosting economic growth, reducing poverty and spurring business activity across the African region's eight countries.

As aid workers and medical personnel return to their countries after working to provide treatment to Ebola patients in West Africa, several restrictions have been put on their movement by governments as they aim to prevent the spread of the virus.

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India should refrain from complicating boundary issue: China

"China's position on China-India boundary question is consistent and clear. We are committed to finding a solution to the boundary question with the Indian side through friendly negotiation as soon as possible and working together to safeguard peace and tranquillity along the border," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
  
"Pending the final settlement of the boundary question, we hope that the Indian side could refrain from taking any action that may complicate or exaggerate the question," Hua said in an e-mail response to a query about 54 new Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force border outposts to be built along the Arunachal Pradesh border.
  
China claims Arunachal Pradesh as southern Tibet.
  
China's reaction is a trifle different from its reaction on October 15 to the plans announced by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju to build new roads along the boundary from Mago-Thingbu in Tawang to Vijaynagar in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh to match China's infrastructure development.
  
"There is a dispute about the east part of the China- India border. Before final settlement is reached we hope that India will not take any action that may further complicate the situation," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said earlier while reacting to the road proposal.
  
"We should jointly safeguard the peace and tranquillity of the border area and create favourable conditions for the final settlement of the border issue," he had said.
  
Subsequently, officials from India and China held the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) meeting in New Delhi during which the two sides discussed a host of issues relating to the management of the boundary and maintaining of peace and tranquillity along the borders.

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Centre hopeful of UP sugar mills falling in line & start operations

Few months back, private sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh the country's second biggest producer threated not to open their mills in the current 2014-15 season (October-September) till the state government links cane prices with sugar rates.

Mills were forced to issue suspension notice as they suffered huge losses during last season on account of high cane prices fixed by the state and lower realisation from sugar sales.

"There is no way that UP sugar mills will remain shut for long. My reading is that all mills will run. But they may start 10-15 days late," Food Secretary Sudhir Kumar said.

Kumar said that mills do not have any option but to run their mills as they cannot shift to other business, while farmers can easily shift to some other crops.

However, the Secretary clarified that this is the matter between the state government and UP millers, and the Centre does not have much role to play.

On likely impact on the country's sugar production due to delay in crushing operation in UP, he said, "It is too early to say. Let the crushing begin. We will assess it at the end of the season."

Meanwhile, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Director General Avinash Verma said: "UP sugar mills have taken one step forward and have agreed to start maintenance activity which should take 40-45 days."

"However, they would wait for a mechanism or a policy that determines sugarcane price in relation to revenue generation before start of the crushing operations, so that they are in a position to pay cane price on time," he said.

The UP sugar industry has shown confidence in the state government that a rational cane price formula would be announced and the industry would pray that the state should not fix the cane price, he added.

Crushing operation in western UP normally begins from October 15 and five days later in other parts the state.

According to industry estimates, sugarcane arrears in Uttar Pradesh have come down to Rs 2,400 crore now from Rs 7,500 crore at the end of March this year.

Sugar production for this season is pegged at 25-25.5 million tonnes, against 24.3 million tonnes last year.

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