1. Next Year Isn't Exactly Smooth Sailing: Economic Survey
A day ahead of the Union Budget, the Economic Survey for 2016-17 tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley does not present a bright picture for the next financial year 2017-18. While it does expect the growth rate to inch up, placing it within a wide band of 6.75-7.5 percent, it warns of downside risks due to rising oil prices, trade tensions and increasing protectionism.
In the current year or 2016-17, the Survey expects the economy to grow 6.5-6.75 percent, with demonetisation lopping off 0.25-0.5 percentage points from a baseline growth of 7 percent.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), in the first advance estimates for 2016-17, had projected India’s GDP to grow 7.1 percent, not taking into account the impact of demonetisation.
(Source: The Indian Express)
2. In UP, Growing Disquiet Within RSS and BJP Over Tickets
There is growing disquiet within a section of the BJP and the RSS over the allocation of tickets in Uttar Pradesh.
Torching effigies of party national president Amit Shah and state chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, protests blocking Shah’s vehicle on his recent visit to Lucknow, holding Faizabad BJP MP and party’s district president virtual hostage in Ayodhya – party insiders say this is the first time that such resentment has boiled over so close to the election.
The RSS has six state units in UP and at least four of them are said to have expressed their reservations against what they call “arbitrary ticket distribution” to “outsiders and relatives” instead of those who have worked on the ground.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. H1B Visa Restrictions: Tech Stocks Plummet
Tech stocks took a beating Tuesday and the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) said the US Bill proposing the High-Skilled Integrity and Fairness Act of 2017 to more than double the minimum wages for H1B workers from the current $60,000 to $130,000, and to prevent high skill jobs from going to non-US citizens, will pose a big challenge to the Indian information technology sector.
The Zoe Lofgren Bill, introduced in the US House of Representatives, is a long way from becoming law but it does pose dangers to Indian IT companies which receive the largest share of the 65,000 H1B work visas issued by the US every year, NASSCOM said in an official statement.
The Lofgren Bill is the first introduced in the US since Donald Trump took charge as President on 20 January.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Girl Among 3 Killed in Blast at Venue of Congress Poll Rally in Bathinda
Three people, including a minor girl, were killed and 15 others injured in an explosion in a car at the site of an election meeting Tuesday in Bathinda district of Punjab. Police said a pressure cooker had been recovered from the site which had been cordoned off by BSF personnel.
The incident occurred at Maur Mandi shortly after 8.30 pm, around the time Congress Maur candidate Harminder Singh Jassi wrapped up his campaign speech.
Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said police will probe if the blast was an act of terror. “Forensic and ballistic experts are reaching the spot tomorrow morning. As per preliminary investigations by local police, we cannot rule out the terror angle,” Arora said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. UP Election: BJP to Dial Down on Modi Rallies, Focus on 'Local Factors' Instead
The BJP has decided to scale down Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s involvement in the poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh, a departure from its original plan to use its most popular face to the optimum level. BJP sources said Modi would address 14 rallies in UP – two in each of the seven phases of elections.
The number is in sharp contrast to Bihar, where he addressed over 30 rallies in the run up to the assembly elections in 2015.
While the strength of Bihar assembly is 243, UP elects 403 MLAs. The BJP’s stakes are also higher in UP that sent 71 BJP MPs to the Lok Sabha. Besides, the results of UP elections would be seen as a verdict on the NDA government’s decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes, although the BJP has since returned to its Hindutva agenda in the state.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Hafiz Saeed Detention: India Asks Pak for 'Credible Crackdown'
The detention of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and four aides was a “policy decision” in the national interest, the Pakistani military said on Tuesday as New Delhi called on Islamabad to do more by launching a “credible crackdown” on all groups involved in cross-border terror.
Saeed, for whom the US has offered a $10 million bounty, and his aides were placed in “preventive detention” late on Monday night. He is now being held at his home in Johar Town area of Lahore.
The detention came ahead of a deadline set by a financial task force for action on terror financing but no ban was imposed on the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the group now led by Saeed, or its front organisation, the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF). Both groups were only included in the Pakistan interior ministry’s “watch list”.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. Former Union Minister E Ahamed Passes Away
Former Union minister E Ahamed died early on 1 February, hours after suffering a cardiac arrest in Parliament.
Ahamed was admitted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) where he was put on ventilator support. "E Ahamed has passed away at 2:15 am. His body has been taken to AIIMS hospital for embalming (a method to preserve a corpse from decaying) as the facility is not available at RML," a senior RML doctor told PTI.
Ahamed, 78, an MP from Kerala’s Mallapuram, suffered a cardiac arrest during President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to the joint session of the Parliament.
(Source: PTI)
8. Budget May Focus on Skilling Youth, Creating Jobs
With "jobless growth" being a persistent feature of official statistics over the past decade, the Union Budget is being keenly watched for measures to spur employment and skilling, particularly in the context of increasing urbanisation.
The Budget is expected to tackle this area of concern that the Modi government has inherited from the UPA and which was highlighted by Congress in its critique of the economy released by former PM Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram.
The government has been engaged with the issue of creating more quality jobs and this has been an important part of Niti Aayog's task and the Budget is expected to reflect initiatives to improve opportunities for the youth.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. Centre Cites Animal Sacrifice, Slaughter to Defend Jallikattu
The Centre on Tuesday defended Jallikattu by telling the Supreme Court that "goats are sacrificed throughout the country during a festival" and "it is done for halal and all such things".
Attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Centre in the court, put forth the argument after suddenly rising to defend the Tamil Nadu government when the judges asked a flurry of questions to the state's lawyers defending a peace-buying bill that legalised the bull-taming sport.
"Goats are sacrificed throughout the country during a festival. It is done for halal and all such things. This is done because the law – the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) – permits it to do so. But, a holistic approach is required to be taken," Rohatgi told a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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