Daily News (In Short)-6-August-2015

#* Pak Terrorist Naved Entered India 90 Days Ago, Trained by Lashkar: Sources

JAMMU:  Mohammad Naved, the Pakistani terrorist captured yesterday after an attack on a security convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur, has told interrogators that he was trained by the terror outfit Lashkar e Taiba and entered India 90 days ago, sources have told NDTV.
Here are 10 developments in the story:
1. Naved, 22, was interrogated through the night, and he revealed that he entered through the Kashmir Valley during Ramzan, along with another terrorist.
2. Investigators have learnt that Naved, who has said he is from Pakistan's Faislabad, had been in hiding in the Kashmir Valley for over a month.
3. Naved and his companion came to Udhampur by truck, say sources. He has reportedly told interrogators that he had specific orders to target military convoys on a part of the highway south of the Banihal tunnel. This route is taken by Amarnath pilgrims but sources have said that pilgrims were not the target.
4. Naved has given contradictory statements ever since his capture yesterday. He will be questioned by top police officers in Jammu today.
5. Sources say the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will also be present when the terrorist is interrogated.
6. Naved was caught hours after he and his companion, Noman, attacked a Border Security Force (BSF) convoy on a highway near Udhampur, killing two soldiers.
7. Naved fled into a forest nearby, taking three villagers hostage. He was overpowered by the unarmed villagers when he started firing from a hilltop school. The villagers snatched his AK 47 rifle, grabbed his neck and held on till security and police personnel arrived.
8. Pakistan has yet to comment on the terrorist. National Security Advisors from both countries are to meet later this month in Delhi to discuss combating terror.
9. Last week, gunmen stormed a police station and killed seven people in Punjab. India said the gunmen had come from Pakistan, according to an analysis of a GPS tracking device they carried.
10. Naved's capture is being billed as the first major catch since the arrest of Ajmal Kasab, the only 26/11 attacker to be caught alive after the siege in Mumbai in which 166 were killed. Authorities used his testimony to show that the assault was plotted in Pakistan.

#* Naga accord shows arrogance of govt, CMs not consulted: Sonia

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday questioned the Naga peace accord saying it was signed without taking the chief ministers of stakeholder north eastern states into confidence.
"PM Modi did not even think of taking into confidence our Manipur CM, Assam CM, Arunachal Pradesh CM who are directly affected," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.

"How can they sign an accord with NSCN without consulting Nagaland CM. This is another show of arrogance by the Modi government," she added.

The Congress president's comments came while she was leading a protest outside Parliament over the Speaker's suspension of party MPs.

Party vice president Rahul Gandhi said the way the accord was signed was an "insult to the people of these three states and the chief ministers."

The Naga peace accord, ending a six decade long insurgency, was signed by the government and leaders of the NSCN (IM) in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

The announcement came as a surprise, but immediately after the signing Modi called up opposition leaders including Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh and briefed them about the accord.

Besides Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh, many top government functionaries  and NSCN (I-M) leaders attended the ceremony, but the chief ministers were not present.

National security adviser Ajit Doval and government interlocuter RN Ravi are believed to have worked overtime in the last few months to reach the accord.

The signing of the pact was the culmination of over 80 rounds of negotiations, with first breakthrough in 1997 when leaders of the NSCN (I-M), then the most lethal insurgent group, agreed to a ceasefire.

#* What can investigators learn from the MH370's flaperon?

An investigation team in France is examining a Boeing 777 flaperon which washed up on the French island of La Reunion and that Malaysia says is from missing flight MH370.
 
Analysts and experts say the wing part could shed light on how the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet entered the ocean after it vanished with 239 people on board in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
 
Q. How will the forensic study of the debris tell us more about what happened to the plane?

A. Investigators will be examining the condition of the flaperon, which aviation experts say is not badly damaged. The analysis could also reveal how the wing part detached from the jet and therefore how the plane entered the ocean, as well as how violent the impact was. Barnacles on the flaperon could also point to where it may have drifted from.
 
Q. Will it reveal anything about how the crash occurred?

A. Australian aviation expert Neil Hansford says the decent condition of the flaperon, apart from what appears to be some laminations on the trailing edge, might point to the aircraft entering the water in a "controlled-type crash", which could suggest it landed on the water when the fuel ran out rather than hitting the ocean in a traumatic manner.
 
Q. Could other plane debris still be floating on the ocean surface?

A. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency leading the search, caution that drift modelling by the national science agency CSIRO indicates if there is more floating debris, it could be anywhere across the vast Indian Ocean. Hansford says given the wing part is made from a composite material -- carbon fibre -- rather than heavy metal, the flaperon from the other wing could still be afloat. The head of the aviation programme at Australia's Central Queensland University Ronald Bishop says the discovery could at least prompt a closer look at debris that washes up in the La Reunion region that otherwise would not receive any attention.
 
Q. How important is the flaperon discovery in tracing the location of the main debris field?

A. Jakarta-based aviation consultant Gerry Soejatman says the discovery is a boost that the searchers need, proving they are not looking for the plane in the wrong area. Australian authorities say the drift modelling shows that material from the current search area could have been carried to La Reunion, among other locations. However, they add that reverse modelling to determine where the debris may have drifted from was almost impossible, and have reaffirmed their confidence that the main debris field is in the current search area.
 
Q. How much closer does the discovery bring us to solving the world's greatest aviation mystery?

A. Aviation analysts are cautious about how much the wing part could tell us about why the plane went missing. Hansford says what it can prove is that MH370 definitely crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, but why it went there in the first place can only be solved if and when the black boxes are recovered. Bishop notes that it took more than 70 years to find the wreckage of the Titanic, the liner that sank in 1912 in the Atlantic.

#* Churchill Alemao, Ex-Goa Minister, Arrested in Louis Berger Case

PANAJI:  When he was arrested at midnight, former Goa minister Churchill Alemao said, "I am happy they have arrested me. This is a political game." As proof of his innocence, he said, he had not applied for anticipatory bail which would have prevented his arrest.

That logic suggests that by seeking anticipatory bail, Mr Alemao's one-time boss, former Chief Minister and Congressman Digambar Kamat, has revealed his complicity, suggests the BJP government in the state.

Mr Kamat's government lost the election two years later to the BJP.

Mr Kamat has been interrogated in recent days and on Friday, the Crime Branch will oppose his request for anticipatory bail in a local court.

Last week, two executives from Louis Berger testified that Mr Alemao, who was the Public Works Minister, and Mr Kamat, had received nearly a million dollar kickback from them.

The controversy around Louis Berger - part of a consortium for the Goa project - erupted in July after company executives admitted in a US court that bribes were paid to top Indian government officials to win projects in Goa and Guwahati. The company has agreed to pay a fine of nearly 17 million dollars.

#* Unease of doing business: Modi's 'port-led' export drive leaves hinterland stranded

Mumbai's commercial seaport, which handles over half the container traffic through India's major ports, is doubling capacity as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to build an export powerhouse.
The expansion, due to be completed in seven years, can't come quickly enough for Avinash Gupta, whose family business supplies steel forgings to Europe and the United States from the industrial hub of Ludhiana in northern India.
Yet the greatest challenge his $30 million business faces is getting his production to port. Gupta pays nearly $800 to a state-run rail cargo company to transport a 20-foot container to Mumbai – as much as 40 times the cost of shipping it onward to the Gulf commercial hub of Dubai.
It is exporters like Gupta that Modi had in mind when he launched his 'Make in India' drive last September, laying out a model of "port-led" development that would support industrial growth and help create manufacturing jobs.
JNPT. ReutersJNPT. Reuters
Modi's vision includes creating a tax union to slash costs and transport times, and a network of industrial corridors connecting the interior to ports. But political opposition to both the new tax and a law making it easier to buy land for development mean those may be years away.
For now, the inefficiencies are exacerbating the pain of weak global demand and a 15 percent drop in exports between December and June from a year ago.
Exporting a standard container requires seven documents, takes 17 days and costs $1,332 in India, according to the World Bank's Doing Business 2015 report. India ranked 126th of 189 economies on the ease of trading across borders, well behind Mexico (44th) and China (98th). All of India's ports together handle less trade than Shanghai alone.
RISING COSTS
Gupta runs one of the thousands of small companies that contribute about half of India's $300 billion in annual goods exports. Despite falling global prices, his costs have gone up, and his overseas sales are down more than 60 percent.
While shipping lines have slashed freight rates in search of business, state-run Container Corp of India actually raised rail rates by up to 15 percent in April - even though its fuel costs have fallen.
"The hike in freight costs has made our life difficult. Since exports are already down 60-70 percent in the last three months, we will soon have to cut production," said Gupta.
Unless Modi's government makes faster progress on stalled rail and road corridors, like one that would link the Mumbai port to New Delhi and lower costs, India's exporters will find it hard to compete on price and speed during the global trade downturn.
Nowhere is this more evident than at state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which last year signed a $1.26 billion deal with Singapore's PSA International to build a fourth terminal in Mumbai on reclaimed land.
Modi has also acted to simplify export procedures, launching electronic clearance by customs, trade and port officials.
"Ports are the gateway to trade growth," said Neeraj Bansal, the head of JNPT. "The government is expanding port capacity and building railway freight corridors and roads to reduce logistics costs for exporters. Trade is dynamic, we cannot wait till the end of global recession."
The two-stage expansion by PSA International would boost capacity to around 11 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). That would speed turnaround times and cut costs - it can take up to 12 hours for a truck to enter the port due to narrow approach roads, limited parking and customs delays. More than 10,000 trucks enter every day.
Imports, too, are hobbled by the poor infrastructure, with several container shippers imposing congestion surcharges of up to $200 per TEU to cover the cost of delays in unloading.
"Congestion at major ports is predominantly caused by an inability to clear cargo from the quayside, and that manifests itself mostly on the bulk handling terminals on the east coast," said Ian Claxton, managing director of Thoresen Shipping.
PRIVATE PORTS ARE FASTER
Analysts estimate it takes up to four times as long to fill or unload a cargo ship at JNPT than at private rival the Adani Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd up the coast in Gujarat, Modi's home state.
"Land connectivity plays a major role," said Deven Choksey, managing director at KR Choksey Securities, a brokerage, adding that even after the expansion "the inherent disadvantages of JNPT will continue."
India added 71 TEU of capacity at major ports in the fiscal year to 31 March. Modi wants to double total capacity to 1,600 million tonnes at major ports over the next five years.
But businesses hit by the worst slide in exports since the global crisis of 2008 say Modi's approach to easing rules for trade and expanding state-run ports fails to tackle competitive barriers adequately.
"Even a delay of a few hours results in missing the vessel and sometimes cancellation of an order," said Khalid Khan, a Mumbai-based exporter of engineering goods and regional president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations

#* MP train derailment: Village youth saved many lives

Bhopal: A group of villagers saved over 70 passengers' lives after two trains derailed and many coaches fell into a river in Madhya Pradesh's Harda district.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who visited the accident site, appreciated the courage and help extended by the villagers in saving so many lives in such an adverse situation.The derailment of the Kamayani Express and the Janata Express claimed 27 lives and left around 70 people injured.
"A group of 20 youths, from nearby villages of Neemsara and Mandla, reached the accident site after one of them noticed a big light at one point in the Machak river and suspected something untoward might have occurred and called other villagers for help," Vipin Patel, one of youngsters, said.
"Since villagers were awake due to heavy rainfall, the 20 youngsters lost no time in reaching out to the affected passengers," he added.
"On reaching the site, they noticed many passengers trapped in the coaches which were quickly getting filled by river water. The youngsters used ropes to reach out to the trapped passengers and managed to safely bring out over 70 people from the coaches," said Rajkumar, another youngster.
Villager Govind said if the initial rescue work was not launched by the local people, the toll could have been much higher.
Police and railway personnel could reach the accident site about three hours after the villagers started their rescue work, he added.
Meanwhile, Narmada Bachao Andolan activist and Aam Aadmi Party member Alok Agarwal blamed the state government's carelessness for the train accident.
"The Indira Sagar dam, located on the Narmada river, was filled up to its maximum level ahead of the prescribed time which prevented the Narmada's water from returning into the dam. Instead, it went on to raise the water-level in the Machak river which made this river water reach rail bridge and the rail tracks," he said.
"According to the manual of filling water in the dams, the Indira Sagar dam should have been filled up to 258 metres till August 31, and 262 till September 30. But till Tuesday night, the water level had been raised to 261 metres," he added.

#* Hiroshima marks 70 years since atomic bomb

Thousands of people in the Japanese city of Hiroshima are remembering the 70th anniversary of the first atomic bomb being dropped by a US aircraft.
A ceremony, which was attended by 40,000 people, was held at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.
The bombing - and a second one on Nagasaki three days later - is credited with bringing to an end World War Two.
But it claimed the lives of at least 140,000 people in the city.An American B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay dropped the nuclear bomb, exploding some 600 metres above the city on 6 August 1945.
On that day alone, at least 70,000 people are believed to have been killed.
Thousands more people died from their injuries and radiation sickness in the weeks, months and years that followed.People across Japan have observed a minute's silence to mark the anniversary.
In Hiroshima a bell tolled at 8.15am Japanese time - when the US warplane dropped the bomb that flattened the city centre.
Later in the day, thousands of paper lanterns will be released on the city's Motoyasu River - symbolising the journey to the afterlife of those who died.Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who attended the ceremony at Hiroshima's peace park, said that that atomic bomb not only killed thousands of people in Hiroshima but also caused awful suffering to survivors.
"Today Hiroshima has been revived," the prime minister said, "and has become a city of culture and prosperity.
"Seventy years on I want to reemphasise the necessity of world peace."

Rejecting pact with Iran will lead to war: Obama

In his address, Obama praised the art of diplomacy over war and the policy of enemy rapprochement, which he is also pursuing with Cuba.

President Barack Obama warned Congress that rejecting the nuclear agreement with Iran would be the worst mistake since the invasion of Iraq and would lead to “another war” in the Middle East.

Obama, at American University in Washington, on Wednesday delivered his most detailed and extensive speech to date on the nuclear pact reached with Tehran in July, two days before going on vacation and as part of his campaign to try and convince lawmakers to support the accord when it comes up for a vote in mid-September.

The selection of American University as the site for the speech was not coincidental, given that Obama in his speech clearly intended to evoke the memory of former president John F. Kennedy’s speech at the same location in June 1963, when he had called for the “pursuit of peace” in the midst of the Cold War, when the prospect of a nuclear war was “very real”.

In his address, Obama praised the art of diplomacy over war and the policy of enemy rapprochement, which he is also pursuing with Cuba.

“Because more sanctions won’t produce the results that the critics want,” Obama said, “congressional rejection of this deal leaves any US administration only one option: another war in the Middle East. I say this not to be provocative. I’m stating a fact.”

The choice facing the US is between diplomacy and some kind of war, perhaps not tomorrow, “but soon”, the president added.

Obama also said that the debate on the pact that Congress has scheduled is the most important such discussion on a foreign policy question since that involving the authorisation to go to war in Iraq in 2002.

He told his audience of more than 200 that the pact with Iran is the most solid non—proliferation agreement ever negotiated.

He also insisted that the agreement, reached last month in Vienna between Iran and the P5+1 group comprised of the US, Russia, China, France and Britain, plus Germany, is based on verification, not on trust, and that it guarantees that Tehran will not have short—term access to the materials needed to build a nuclear bomb.

Obama said that if Congress kills the pact, the US will lose its credibility as a leader in diplomacy.

Lawmakers would only be able to prevent the US from participating in the pact if a two—thirds majority in both houses of Congress vote to do so, thus invalidating the veto that Obama has promised to impose on any bill overturning the accord.

Obama has involved himself in lobbying for the pact in a very personal way, devoting much time and effort to his campaign to try and sell the benefits of the accord to skeptical lawmakers and meeting to date with about 80 of them.

On Wednesday, the president said that he is ready to talk about increasing defence aid to Israel, whose government vehemently opposes the accord with Iran.

The agreement sets forth that Tehran will limit its nuclear programme so that it will be unable to build nuclear weapons for at least the next 10 years in exchange for the international community’s lifting of sanctions that are severely burdening the Iranian economy.

#* Police on the lookout for Yakub Memon sympathiser who wants to join Islamic State

Days after execution of 1993 Bombay blast convict Yakub Memon, Mumbai Police is on the lookout for one of his sympathisers. Zuber Ahmed Khan, who claims to be a journalist, has expressed desire to join Islamic State by renouncing his Indian citizenship. 

Khan has reportedly made several controversial posts on social media before and after the execution of Memon.

In his posts, he claims that Memon was innocent, calls the government a terrorist and accuses the judiciary of being biased. Khan also threatens that every day new Yakubs will take birth to destroy India. 
Days after execution of 1993 Bombay blast convict Yakub Memon, Mumbai Police is on the lookout for one of his sympathisers. Zuber Ahmed Khan, who claims to be a journalist, has expressed desire to join Islamic State by renouncing his Indian citizenship. 

Khan has reportedly made several controversial posts on social media before and after the execution of Memon.

In his posts, he claims that Memon was innocent, calls the government a terrorist and accuses the judiciary of being biased. Khan also threatens that every day new Yakubs will take birth to destroy India. 

#* The CBA just sent out a big warning to property investors

The Commonwealth Bank has reduced the amount of finance it will lend to property developers in the latest move by one of Australia’s big banks to reduce their exposure to the property market.

Fairfax reports this morning that the bank has allowed late stage financing negotiations with multi-unit developers to fall over “because CBA has changed its lending terms and required a higher level of loan coverage.”

Part of the reason for the new approach is new capital requirements and lending restrictions on investors.

“Prospective developers have been told that the bank now requires the percentage of pre-sold apartments must now equate to 100 per cent or more of the debt provided by the bank. It used to be about 80 per cent. The loan-to-value ratios have also apparently changed. The bank will only lend 75 per cent of the total development cost, down from 80 per cent,” Fairfax said.

That’s also a warning to investors who are buying off the plan in the hope of a quick turn (profit from sale before settlement) or capital appreciation to built their deposit, because as well as capital and lending restrictions the change is also related to “settlement risk”.

Settlement risk for developers is the risk that a buyer, who has put down a deposit, will be either unwilling or unable to complete the purchase once the building is complete. That means the developer could end up as the holder of one or many units in their building they had considered “sold”.

Thus the bank wants developers to have a little more skin in the game and has reduced the amount it will lend them from 80% to 75%.

But the move also seems to underlie Ross Elliot’s piece in Business Insider earlier this week which mapped out what an Australian housing downturn could look like for investors.

Elliott hypothesised a perfect storm for the investor who just before settlement is hit with a lower valuation than expected, banks lending a lower amount on the purchase and as a result needs to find more cash to settle. But, it is also a storm banks and developers have seen before in other property cycles.

It’s also the very storm APRA’s new lending restrictions on investors and the banks raising rates and restricting credit to investors just might create.

This move might be aimed at developers but it is investors who should be worried.

#* Indian rupee climbs 4 paise against dollar in early trade

The rupee edged up 4 paise to 63.71 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the American currency by exporters amid higher foreign funds inflow.
Forex dealers said a weakening dollar against other currencies overseas and a higher opening in the domestic equity market supported the rupee.
The rupee had closed barely steady at 63.75 against the US dollar in Wednesday’s trade on fresh selling of the greenback by banks and exporters amid sustained foreign capital inflows into equities.

#* Porn websites ban effectively in place as ISPs seek clarity

In a twist to the ongoing porn site ban controversy, the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPAI), the main lobby group for the country’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs), has written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) saying its members will continue to block the 857 URLs mentioned in a government note, till they receive clearer directions.

“The ISPs don’t have mechanism to check the content, as the same is dynamic in nature, hence we request your good self to advise us immediately the further course of action in this regard. Till your further directive, the ISPs are keeping said 857 URLs disabled,” the letter signed by Rajesh Chharia, president of the ISPAI, to the DoT secretary, said. A copy of the letter has been reviewed by Mint.On Friday, DoT asked ISPs to block 857 sites, listed by an Indore-based advocate Kamlesh Vaswani in a public interest litigation that is being heard in the Supreme Court, asking that pornography be banned in India. The order led to outrage on social media and other platforms, including open letters to the Prime Minister. This led communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to call a meeting of the relevant senior government officials, including DeitY secretary R.S. Sharma and additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, late on Tuesday.

Soon after, DoT forwarded a directive from the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) stating that the ISPs were free not to disable any of the 857 URLs, “which do not have child pornographic content.” This essentially meant that the government was putting the onus of the ensuring that none of the sites carry the illegal content on the intermediary.

#* Indian Waste Water Purification Tech Wins Google Pitch Fest

A hand-held waste-water filtration technology that promises zero wastage, developed by researchers at the IISc in Bengaluru, has won the Google startup festival at Zurich, Switzerland, a scientist said on Wednesday.
The filtration technique can transform highly contaminated water into very clean water, with no water wastage.

The technology was developed by Sanjiv Sambandan of the Flexible Electronics Lab, Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics and his team at the Indian Institute of Science. It won the Pitch Fest at Google Zurich, he said.

The system is membrane-less, chemical-free and scalable. It can be upgraded from a hand-held water bottle to large community based system.

It can also be used as a pre-filter for membrane based purifiers thereby improving the lifetime of the membranes, according to Sambandan.

The technology uses an electric field to polarise tiny impurities and cluster them into larger chunks that can then be removed by low cost meshes and if needed, these meshes can be cleaned and re-used.

With just 100 MW of power needed for purifying one litre of very poor quality water, the system is highly efficient.

"This implies that the hand-held bottle purifier can be powered by a hand-crank, battery or solar cell. This can be useful for people living in remote areas, people stuck in disaster hit areas, and the army," he said.

Now, the researchers are planning field tests for a community based water purification system with the required automation in place.

#* Tata Sons to acquire 2.18% stake in Titan for Rs 680 crore

New Delhi: Tata Sons Ltd, the promoter of major operating companies of the Tata group, will acquire 2.18% stake in Titan Company Ltd at an estimated price of over Rs.680 crore taking its total holding to 19.59%.

Tata Sons will acquire 2.18% stake from Tata Steel as a part of restructuring of its investment portfolio, Titan said in a BSE filing. Titan said the proposed date of acquisition is on or after 11 August and the shares are proposed to be acquired at the prevailing price on the date of acquisition.

However, it added that the acquisition price would not be more than 25% of Rs. 352.10 per share, which is the weighted average market price for a period of 60 trading days preceding its notice issued on Wednesday.

At the indicated price, the transaction is estimated to be around Rs. 682.64 crore. Before proposed acquisition, Tata Sons’ holding in the company was at 17.40%.

Titan Company’s shares closed at Rs. 319.35 apiece, up 1.19% on BSE.

#* India defers FTA talks with EU over ban of 700 pharma products

New Delhi: Expressing disappointment and concern over the EU banning sale of around 700 pharma products clinically tested by GVK Biosciences, India has deferred the talks with the European Union on the proposed free trade agreement.

Chief negotiators of India and the EU were scheduled to resume the negotiations on the Broad based Investment and Trade Agreement (BTIA) this month.

"Government of India has taken a decision to defer the proposed talks between the Chief negotiators on BTIA for the present.

"This decision has been taken as the Government of India is disappointed and concerned by the action of EU in imposing legally binding ban on the sale of around 700 pharma products clinically tested by GVK Biosciences, Hyderabad," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement.

The government has engaged on the issue with various EU regulators over past eight mon
ths, it said.

Pharmaceutical industry is one of the flagship sectors which has developed its reputation through strong research and safety protocols over the years and therefore, the government will examine all options in this regard, it added.

"It is pertinent to mention that most of these drugs are already in EU market for many years without any adverse pharmaco-vigilance report from any member state," it said.

After a gap of about two years, India and the European Union were expected to resume negotiations on August 28 on the proposed free trade agreement to boost two-way commerce and investment.

The India-EU trade talks, formally known as the Broad- based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), remain stuck as both sides are not satisfied with each other's offers.

The talks were launched in June 2007 and have missed several deadlines.

The two-way commerce between the two sides stood at about USD 99 billion in 2014-15.

The European Union has banned the marketing of around 700 generic medicines for alleged manipulation of clinical trials conducted by India's pharmaceutical research company GVK Biosciences.

The largest EU-wide suspension of sales and distribution of generic drugs ordered by the European Commission will come into effect on August 21 and it will be applicable to all 28 member nations, according to Germany's drug regulator, the Federal Institute for Medicines and Medical Products (BfArM).

Industry body Pharmexcil has said that India's business loss arising from the European Union's ban on 700 generic drugs is likely to be around USD 1.2 billion. 

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