In relief for farmers, govt offers sops to export more onions

The move is expected to boost demand for onions

New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the rash of loan waivers announced by some Congress-ruled states is not the solution to the agrarian crisis, the Centre on Friday announced a market-based solution for farmers.

The move suggests that the Modi administration is not as yet joining the race for farm loan waivers.

The agriculture ministry said the incentive for export of onion has been doubled to 10% in the interest of farmers. Under the scheme, exporters get duty-free scrips, which can be traded or used to pay a number of taxes. The move is expected to encourage exporters to buy more of the commodity from farmers, boosting demand for the politically sensitive farm produce.

“This will result in better prices for onion in domestic markets.... Onion arrivals have increased in the market at present due to which the prices in the mandis are subdued. To contain the situation, it has been decided to encourage exports so that domestic prices stabilise,” the government said.

With this, onion enjoys one of the highest incentives for agro-exports, the ministry said. The move will help farmers who have recently harvested or sowed seeds anticipating better prices, it said.

This is in sharp contrast to the Congress’ move in the states it had won in the recent Assembly elections. “The Congress would waive farm loans within six hours of forming government in Haryana,” Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister, said on Friday. The state goes to Assembly polls next year.

Hooda’s words echo that of party president Rahul Gandhi, who said earlier this month that he would not allow Modi to sleep until the Centre announced a nationwide farm loan waiver, even as he promised to waive all farm loans if his party came to power next year.

“Domestic onion prices are quite depressed. A 10% incentive under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme is sufficient for exporters to ship more onions. There is demand for onion in the Middle East and other markets. As exports expand, farmers will gain,” said Ajai Sahai, director general and chief executive officer of Federation of Indian Export Organisations.

In an interview aired by All India Radio on Tuesday night, finance minister Arun Jaitley avoided a question on whether the National Democratic Alliance government will announce a national farm loan waiver, but said states that can afford such short-term measures could go ahead. “So far we are on a tight fiscal deficit and I would not be in a position to comment on that. We have taken a position that if a state has the fiscal space, it can go ahead,” said Jaitley.

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Army Foils Attempt By Pak Troops To Launch Attack On New Year's Eve

Naugam sector: The Army foiled a major infiltration bid along the Line of Control

SRINAGAR: 

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Pak Border Action Team tried to strike post at Jammu and Kashmir's Naugam
2. Army launched search ops at night after detecting movement in a jungle
3. Intruders wore combat uniform, had improvised explosive device, army said

Pakistani forces made an attempt to strike a forward Indian post along the Line of Control at Naugam sector on Sunday, which has been foiled, the army said in a statement today. A team of Pakistani Border Action Team or BAT had tried to cross the Line of Control and two men have been killed, the army said. Pakistan has been asked to take back the bodies.

Helped by the cover fire of mortars and rockets, the team had tried to sneak in through the dense jungles, but was spotted in time by the Indian troops.

The intense gunfight continued through the night. In the morning, the Army launched a search operation and confirmed that two men, suspected to be Pakistani soldiers, have been killed.

The rest are believed to have escaped across the Line of Control under the cover of Pakistani firing and low visibility induced by the bad weather.

The Army also found a huge supply of weapons, which indicated that the men had come prepared for a prolonged encounter. It was estimated that they intended to carry out a large-scale attack on the Army's forward post at Naugam sector.

Search operations are still underway at the sector to sanitise the area, a spokesman said.

The intruders were wearing combat uniforms like the regular Pakistani forces and were carrying supplies with Pakistani markings. Some of them also wore old pattern Indian Army uniforms as part of their deception strategy, the army said.

The intruders were well-equipped with improvised explosive devices and inflammable material.

"The Army's resolve to keep a strict vigil along the LoC and defeat all such nefarious designs of Pakistan will continue to remain firm and consistent," the Army said in a statement.

"We will ask Pakistan to take back the bodies of the likely Pakistani soldiers since Pakistan did provide full covering fire support to these intruders," it said.

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Opinion: How Netflix is changing the way we consume entertainment

Netflix is dramatically changing the way we consume entertainment in India

Recently, at a gathering of friends, during a lull in the conversation, someone asked: “So, what have you been watching lately on Netflix?” And someone else laughed and said: “This is the question that has replaced ‘What have you been reading lately?’”

Everyone present subscribed to Netflix and Amazon Prime. Everyone had one or two shows to recommend that they had watched in the last week or two, and the next evening, when my wife and I sat down for our daily entertainment fix, the conversation was: “What was that French serial X was talking about? About that serial killer?” “No, we’ve seen too many serial killers in the last few weeks. Let’s watch that new science-fiction show that Y was recommending.” The conversations would have been similar in the homes of several of my friends.

I cannot remember the last time I turned on an Indian television channel for entertainment. It has been video streaming services—or over-the-top (OTT) media—for the last year-and-a-half, ever since Netflix launched in India.

Netflix is dramatically changing the way we consume entertainment in India. It is giving us enormous choice, the ability to watch at our convenience and, of course, it gives us the pleasure of binge-watching. Who wants to wait for one whole week for the next episode to know what happened next? We want to know it now.

(I am mentioning only Netflix here because, in our English-speaking 

demographic, it certainly seems to be the most popular OTT service for entertainment—Prime Video is only a part of the Amazon Prime package, and Hotstar has the Indian Premier League, which gives it an outsized viewership figure.)

Going to the theatre to watch a film is an experience larger than the film itself—family outing, date, stolen kisses, popcorn and soft drinks. If a lot of people in the hall are laughing, you also laugh, though you’ve missed the joke. You are moved to tears against your will, just because people all around you are sniffling. And, of course, there is the whole sensory experience. You need to watch some films on the big screen, especially if you like seeing monsters eating skyscrapers.

Television was different. We did not have to move from the sofa to enjoy a film, and we were happy with that for decades. We could always switch channels. All seemed fine with the world. The theatre for that special film experience and, for the rest, television.

But we failed to notice something. We failed to notice that at theatres, show timings were fixed. If you arrived late, you missed the beginning. Similarly, television works on a fixed schedule. Of course, if you could not be home to watch an episode of a favourite serial, you could record it and view it later, but how many of us, other than the most committed viewers, actually did it? (I have done it only twice, for Sherlock and Homeland.)

Yes, I know that a lot of people make it a point to be there when, say, Kaun Banega Crorepati or Indian Idol is on, but here I am talking about a Mintdemographic—an English-educated, urban, possibly millennial population.

In other words, the film in the theatre (or the serial on TV) controls your time. A service like Netflix completely inverts that. You control your time—when and how much. You can spend nine hours on a weekend and finish off the full season of a serial. Or you could watch a few episodes of a thriller, take a break with a romcom for a few evenings, and then go back to the mayhem.

And, please remember, you can always rewind if you missed the joke, or pause the film at any time and go to the toilet. That is freedom.

What Netflix has also exposed us to is some great TV shows that we would never have got the chance to watch otherwise—edgy, complex shows from France, Germany, Spain, Poland. Australian serials are a revelation. Watch The Code, Pine Gap, Secret City—superbly crafted stuff, and the happy surprise is that though most of these serials are co-produced by the state-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation, they talk about corruption and downright criminality at the highest levels of government. That is democracy.

Will Doordarshan ever fund such a serial? In fact, even private Indian film producers would baulk at tackling political corruption at a level more sophisticated than that of a murderous thug becoming a minister—Singham is the maximum we can get.

It can work both ways. Netflix and Amazon Prime are still free from Indian censorship, but one does not know for how long. But as long as these services remain outside the net, Indian filmmakers have a chance to make the films they have dreamed of. There are several Indian shows and films on these channels that would never have got financed—or made the way they were—through the usual processes. Of course, there is nudity and foul language. But that is real life.

Netflix and Amazon Prime will change our concept of TV viewership, and what we should demand as intelligent viewers. The format gives the viewer unmatched freedom, and the content gives more highs than Indian television has ever given.

I am not going back to Indian TV.

Sandipan Deb is a former editor of Financial Express, and founder-editor of Open and Swarajya magazines

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Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina scores big election win, 17 killed in clashes

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flashes a victory sign as she speaks to the media persons after casting her vote in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Dec. 30. Photo: AP

Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s alliance won Bangladesh’s election with a thumping majority, the country’s Election Commission said early on Monday, giving her a third straight term following a vote that the opposition rejected as rigged. The alliance dominated by Hasina’s Awami League, seen as close to regional power India, won 287 of the 298 seats for which results have been declared for the 300-strong parliament, the commission said.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted the last poll in 2014, won just six seats.

Hasina’s win consolidated her decade-long rule over Bangladesh, where she is credited with improving the economy and promoting development but has also been accused of rampant human rights abuses, a crackdown on the media and suppressing dissent. She denies such charges.

Raising minimum wages for workers in Bangladesh’s massive garments industry, the world’s second biggest after China, could be one of her first tasks after she takes office, party leaders have said. Hasina will meet foreign journalists and poll observers at her official residence later on Monday.

Opposition leader Kamal Hossain said their alliance, the National Unity Front led by the BNP, had called on the Election Commission to order a fresh vote under a neutral administration “as soon as possible”, alleging Sunday’s poll was flawed.

At least 17 were people were killed as the vote took place, police said, after a violent campaign season during which the opposition alleged the government denied it a level playing field.

“The whole election was completely manipulated. It should be cancelled,” 82-year-old Hossain said at his residence in the capital, Dhaka, late on Sunday. Candidates reported witnessing ballot-stuffing and vote-rigging by ruling party activists, who also barred opposition polling agents from voting centres, Hossain said.

“We’ve had bad elections in the past but I must say that it is unprecedented how bad this particular election was. The minimum requirements of free and fair election are absent,” he said.

Hossain said he would meet opposition alliance members on Monday to decide their next step.

Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, called the opposition “sore losers making false allegations”.

RIGGING INVESTIGATION

The Election Commission said it was investigating allegations of vote rigging from across the Muslim-majority country of 165 million people. A spokesman declined to say if those probes would affect the election result.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter: “With serious allegations of voter intimidation, restrictions on opposition polling agents and several candidates seeking a re-poll, there are concerns about the credibility of the Bangladesh elections.”

Hundreds of opposition workers were arrested in the months before the election on charges that the opposition said were “fictitious”, and many said they were attacked by ruling party activists, crippling their ability to campaign.

Hasina’s government has denied the accusations and her party says many of its own workers were hurt in attacks by the opposition. Seven ruling party workers and five BNP workers were killed and 20 wounded on election day, police said.

Reuters reporters across Bangladesh witnessed sparse attendance at polling booths and some voters alleged ruling party workers had blocked them from entering booths, saying their ballots had already been cast. Campaign posters of the ruling party dominated streets in many parts of Dhaka.

The Election Commission said it would declare voter turnout figures late on Monday.

This was the first election in which the BNP campaigned without its leader Khaleda Zia – Hasina’s arch rival. The two women have alternated in power for most of the past three decades but Khaleda has been in jail since February on corruption charges that she says are politically motivated.

The Election Commission said it would hold a fresh vote for one seat where the poll was marred by violence. Another constituency, where a candidate died days before the election, will also go to the polls in the next few days.

LIFT GROWTH, WAGES

Hasina’s son Wazed told Reuters on the eve of the election the next government would try to lift Bangladesh’s growth rate to 10 percent, from 7.8 percent in the 2017/18 financial year.

He also said minimum wages for workers in the garments industry, which at sales of more than $30.6 billion generates around 83 percent of Bangladesh’s total exports, would be raised.

“Can’t say if it will be done immediately but it will be raised without a doubt,” he said days after protests demanding higher wages.

The government, however, does not want to “stay stuck on the garments sector” but diversify into phone and other electronics manufacturing, he said.

China and India, Bangladesh’s western neighbour that helped it win independence from Pakistan in 1971, are its top two investors.

“We are open to investment from anyone and everyone. It’s just that the Chinese have been very proactive about investments,” Wazed said. “The West and others should try to compete with them.”

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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In search of e-KYC 2.0: Aadhaar’s identity crisis

While affirming the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, the Supreme Court had said Aadhaar can only be used for welfare schemes and for delivering state subsidies.

New Delhi: The weekend of 13 October was probably the longest weekend in Mr. A’s life. He was not able to sleep or focus on anything. His life had come to a standstill. The moment he was dreading had finally arrived. On 12 October (late Friday), the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had issued a circular to entities operating in the e-payments space to completely halt the use of Aadhaar e-KYC (electronic-know your customer).

Mr. A, the founder of an e-wallet company, who was not able to get clarity from regulators on the usage of Aadhaar post the Supreme Court’s verdict, finally got clarity from the circular. But the scramble had only just begun. Life in a world without e-KYC had to be figured out, at least for the time being. But the senior executive team of the e-wallet firm was to get together only on 14 October (Monday) to hash out a way forward.

Three weeks earlier, like most people in the country, Mr. A was glued to his television set from 10.30am, switching from one news channel to other. It was unlike him to be watching TV in the office that early on a weekday, but the day was momentous.

It was 26 September—the day the Supreme Court weighed in on the fate of the Aadhaar unique identity project. Mr. A recounts how anxious he had become as he waited for the court verdict. “What happens if Aadhaar-based customer acquisition is banned? What happens to my business model? What happens to all these years of efforts?” were some of the thoughts that crossed his mind. And then, around 12.30pm, the Constitution bench’s verdict was finally out.

While affirming the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, the apex court had said Aadhaar can only be used for welfare schemes and for delivering state subsidies. It had barred private companies from using Aadhaar data for authenticating customers. Also, in order to address privacy concerns, the court said it was not mandatory to link Aadhaar with bank accounts or mobile phone numbers.

For Mr. A and his team, making sense of the 1,448-page judgment itself took time. They brainstormed about the many possible interpretations of the judgment for more than five days, trying to somehow figure out a way to save the business from collapsing. He also did not know when exactly to stop customer verification through the Aadhaar-based mechanism. “The judgment was not 100% clear on whether it had to be stopped on the same day,” he said.

While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had updated its KYC guidelines in April 2018, all eyes had been on the Supreme Court. In the meantime though, e-wallet firms had already gone ahead with customer verification models based on Aadhaar. It was just cheaper and far more convenient. But on 14 October, in the internal meeting at Mr.A’s company, the top management decided to completely roll back Aadhaar-based customer verification until further clarity came from the regulators. It was a sudden and unexpected speed bump in the path of India’s booming fintech industry.

Impact on industry

Like Mr. A, most fintech companies, telecom operators and payment banks had built their business models based on the unique biometric number in order to deliver services in a paperless, cashless and presence-less manner.

“All the pillars of financial inclusion have been impacted with the restricted use of Aadhaar,” said Suresh Sethi, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). “It was being used for not only banking and account opening, but other efficiencies were getting introduced—like the whole concept of instant loans and insurance, and also the ability to invest immediately,” he added.

IPPB, which used Aadhaar-based e-KYC to verify customers, has not been able to on-board new customers in the last two months. Only customers seeking direct benefit transfer (DBT) have been able to open accounts through Aadhaar-based e-KYC, said Sethi. “Currently, the account opening per day is 15-20% of what we were doing earlier. The pace of acquisition has slowed down by 75-80%.”

Similarly, other payment banks have also confirmed that they have not been able to on-board new customers other than those seeking DBT as they all use Aadhaar-based KYC to verify customers.

IPPB has been incorporated as a public sector company under the Department of Posts with 100% government equity and is governed by the RBI. The bank was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 September to increase access to banking services in rural areas. The postal agents provide doorstep banking and account opening facility using a hand-held device, mobile phone, and a biometric reader.

According to Mr. A, the prepaid payment instruments (PPI) industry caters to around 250 million customers annually and the average cost of doing a physical KYC for each customer is around ₹100. The total cost of verifying these customers physically would be around ₹2,500 crore to the industry.

Even if other forms of identification were listed during customer verification, most customers would voluntarily opt for Aadhaar and this was also easier for us as the customer would be verified on a real-time basis, said Harshil Mathur, CEO and co-founder of Razorpay Software Pvt. Ltd, an online payment solutions company.

Since Aadhaar-based verification is not possible anymore, around 30-40% additional customers have to be physically verified which has significantly ramped up the operational costs for the company.

If the e-KYC suspension was not the only cause of worry for the fintech industry, e-sign based e-mandates used for automated collection of loan payments was also suspended in November by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organization for all retail payments in the country. It resulted in even higher operational costs for digital lenders.

According to a circular issued on 23 November by NPCI to banks, the e-sign based e-mandate product has been suspended with effect from 26 November in compliance with the judgment of the Supreme Court.

“A lot of mutual funds and digital lending companies which were moving from physical mandates to Aadhaar-based mandates had to go back to physical mandates which is expensive and inefficient,” said Mathur of Razorpay. “For customers too, this is very inefficient. Instead of auto debit every month, customers will have to come and make payments now.”

Some of the fintech firms are now using net banking-based mandate, which is currently live with only five banks. NPCI has plans to launch a debit card-based eNACH which might offer some respite for these companies. A recent report by Omidyar and the Boston Consulting Group said that digital lending to micro, small and medium enterprises in the country is projected to increase between 10-15 times by 2023 to ₹6-7 trillion.

Consumer concerns

The Aadhaar judgment has been lauded as a pro-consumer move by most critics of the project. It has definitely eased the lives of the common people who would get calls and emails from banks, insurance companies, lending companies and telecom operators to update their Aadhaar details. Before 26 September, Aadhaar was mandatory for almost everything including school and hospital admissions. With the Supreme Court doing away with the mandatory linking of Aadhaar, most consumers that Mint spoke with feel that they have finally gotten a chance to decide for themselves and use Aadhaar voluntarily.

Anirudh Sharma, a 32-year-old mechanical engineer recounts how he would get notifications from Paytm every day in July to complete his full KYC. “I was not able to send money to my friends and family in their Paytm wallets. So, the only option left was to get my full KYC done,” he said. However, when the Paytm executive came to his doorstep to do his full KYC, he was told that only Aadhaar-based KYC would be possible. The executive was carrying a biometric reader and a mobile phone to complete the process. Despite the quick and easy verification experience, Sharma said, “I should be the one choosing which identity proof I want to give or not give.”

Similarly, Seema Vashisht, a 46-year-old designer, who runs her own fashion store, said she got her Reliance Jio SIM card a few months ago through Aadhaar e-KYC. She too never got an option to exercise her choice while submitting identity proof documents. “After getting a mobile phone number based on my Aadhaar number, how can they ask me to link my mobile phone to Aadhaar? Isn’t it a two-way process? Why does it involve one process after another?” she said.

In the absence of a digital fix, which bypasses the bar on e-KYC, the offline process for acquiring a new phone number could take between 24 to 36 hours. In this nebulous sweet spot between convenience and privacy rights, the future of Aadhaar’s use by the private sector will be decided. Some experts say the top court judgment requires the use of Aadhaar to be purpose-limited, legally-backed and privacy-protected. They say there may still not be a problem if a person volunteers to give his or her Aadhaar card as proof of identity.

According to a 27-year-old civil services aspirant, who did not wish to be named, every state and the central government entrance exam still lists Aadhaar as the first option among the many documents admissible as a form of identity proof. “Before the judgment, Aadhaar would be marked compulsory, but now only the word ‘compulsory’ has been removed. The rest is the same. Aadhaar still is the topmost option in the list of documents and while verification, the examiners also emphasize on Aadhaar for establishing identity when I go to take the test.”

Regulatory uncertainty

Sethi of IPPB said the bank is actively in talks with the regulators to get an alternative KYC process in place. “We have made various representations to the government and we have very clearly heard from the government that they are working towards finding a way which involves voluntary usage of Aadhaar e-KYC.”

UIDAI has recently introduced an XML-based protocol, which they have shared with RBI, he said. “RBI is reviewing it to see if it can be a surrogate, paperless process. It basically means that you get on to a portal and you get your Aadhaar data downloaded in the form of an XML file and that file will have all the information needed for opening an account.”

However, the proposed process will depend on the accessibility to the internet. “Under the new mechanism, a customer will have to go to the bank or kiosk to get the sourced data, which is going to be a bit of a barrier, especially for the segments we are targeting. If we expect them to download and create this file, or go to an enrolment centre and get the file, there are going to be barriers,” Sethi said.

Mr. A said he has also approached the Payments Council of India (PCI), the industry body for prepaid payments, for exploring all the possible options to be able to conduct his business—including video-based KYC and artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions.

The AI-based application being considered will help customers send their identity proof over the web, enabling their facial images to be captured by the app from different angles to ensure liveliness. (Liveness is the ability to check whether it is a photograph before the camera or an actual human being). The use of ‘offline Aadhaar’, which relies on QR (quick response) code instead of biometric e-KYC for customer verification, is also being considered by the central bank, said a person familiar with the development.

But despite the many rounds of meetings and consultations, no clear path forward is yet in place.

The way forward

On 17 December, the government for the first time laid out its cards in the open, with the Union cabinet giving a go-ahead to amend existing laws in order to give legal backing to the voluntary use of Aadhaar. But the regulatory space will continue to be a muddle for quite some time. Any changes in legislation would require parliamentary approval and with a general election in sight, the time available for piloting any amendments through parliament is rather limited. The related big-ticket item of a personal data protection law is also pending.

The Congress, on its part, strongly opposes the use of the biometric ID by private entities. Thus, what’s in store seems to be months of uncertainty and impasse.

The prevailing state of affairs has pushed some industry voices to question the logic of a government-mandated standard to begin with. “What if multiple solutions were encouraged originally?” asked Ashish Aggarwal, senior director and head of public policy at Nasscom. Instead of getting into how exactly private companies verify their customers, the regulators should just focus on common standards, interoperability, and portability. The market can come up with ideal solutions to solve issues of operational nitty-gritty, Aggarwal said.

Caught up in these larger debates are ordinary people like Mr. A and millions of India’s fintech users. Their wait continues as the country’s e-wallet boom looks to push past the e-KYC hiccup.

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Coffee Day awaits caffeine kick from Mindtree stake sale

If the non-coffee businesses are hived off or sold, Coffee Day valuations may get the caffeine boost investors were desperately waiting for. Graphic: Mint

“Coffee is a beverage that puts one to sleep when not drank,” said French humorist Alphonse Allais. Investors in Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd might be tempted to think the company is in need of some sort of a caffeine boost. After all, Coffee Day shares are down 18% compared to its November 2015 IPO price of ₹328. They had briefly risen above the issue price early this year, before falling to the ₹270 levels.

Mint had recently reported that Coffee Day chairman and managing director V.G. Siddhartha is looking to offload his and the company’s stakes in Mindtree Ltd. Coffee Day Enterprises owns a 17.1% stake in mid-cap IT company. Based on the company’s market capitalization on Wednesday, the shares are worth about ₹2,390 crore.

The news should have excited investors. After all, Coffee Day’s market cap is currently ₹5,700 crore, and investors typically apply a holding company discount of 25-30% to investments. Even so, the news reports have barely caused the Coffee Day shares to budge, increasing just about 3% since Mint reported on 6 December that it was looking to sell its stake in Mindtree. Understandably, investors are waiting an official announcement. News reports also suggest that Mindtree promoters are not keen on giving up control, which, in turn, means that some buyers may get put off.

Coffee Day shares have underperformed the BSE 500 index so far this financial year. Some attribute the miserable show to the holding company structure and its presence across businesses, which results in investors assigning a conglomerate discount. That apart, there is high debt on its books.

The sale of the Mindtree stake will prove to be a positive development, as it would lead to value unlocking of the investment for Coffee Day investors, said Jigar Shah, CEO, Maybank Kim Eng Securities India Pvt. Ltd. In its September quarter earnings conference call, the company had said that its net debt stood at ₹3,600 crore.

Selling the Mindtree stake will also pave the way for the restructuring of the company, said Shah. Last month, Coffee Day said it was evaluating the segregation of the coffee and non-coffee businesses. Its board had also approved the appointment of financial, tax and legal advisors to explore the matter.

After the proposed simplification of its holding structure, investors should be able to invest in its coffee business directly, potentially enabling a fresh price discovery, said a report from Maybank on 30 November. Coffee Day, perhaps, needs to take its own tagline—a lot can happen over coffee—seriously. If the non-coffee businesses are hived off or sold, valuations may get the caffeine boost investors were desperately waiting for.

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Oil prices fall after 8% jump the day before; glut, economy worries weigh

Both crude benchmarks are down roughly 40 percent from highs touched in October. Photo: AFP

Seoul: Oil fell on Thursday after soaring 8% in the previous session, as worries over a glut in crude supply and concerns over a faltering global economy pressured prices even as a stock market surge offered support. Brent crude oil futures were down 8 cents, or 0.15 percent, at $54.39 a barrel by 0237 GMT. They rose 8% to $54.47 a barrel the day before.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 0.19 percent to $46.13 per barrel. They jumped 8.7 percent to $46.22 per barrel in the previous session.

Both crude benchmarks are down roughly 40 percent from highs touched in October.

Global stocks rebounded on Wednesday on the back of the Trump administration’s attempt to shore up investor confidence and a report on strong US holiday spending.

Shim Hye-jin, a commodity analyst at Samsung Securities in Seoul, said oil prices were still low despite gains made the day before.

“But if OPEC’s cuts are fulfilled, WTI prices are expected to rise to $50-60 a barrel, while Brent is expected to go up to between $58-70 a barrel next year.”

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia, agreed at a meeting earlier this month to limit output by 1.2 million barrels per day starting in January.

Meanwhile, potentially bolstering oil prices, a preliminary Reuters poll on Wednesday forecast that US crude inventories would drop 2.7 million barrels in the week to Dec. 21, marking their fourth straight week fall.

The American Petroleum Institute’s (API) inventory data is due on Thursday, while the government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) is set to release its report on Friday.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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KCR may announce Telangana cabinet this week

Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao greets Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photo: PTI

Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is likely to announce his cabinet by the end of this month, nearly three weeks after winning the assembly elections with a thumping majority.

Rao, who heads the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), is a staunch believer in astrology and thus the announcement was kept at bay as there are only two auspicious days (28 December and 30 December) for the task, said senior TRS leaders.

Rao, who is in New Delhi to meet political leaders to discuss his idea of forming a federal front, might not fill up all the 17 berths, said TRS leaders, who did not want to be quoted.

The chief minister is likely to choose about 10 ministers now and might decide on the rest after the Lok Sabha elections next year, they said.

Rao is likely to induct into his cabinet one of the three women MLAs of the party, unlike in 2014 when not a single woman was inducted.

The TRS won 88 of the 119 seats in the just-concluded assembly elections, decimating the Congress-led grand alliance of the Telugu Desam Party, Communist Party of India, and the Telangana Jana Samithi. Since the victory, Mohammad Mahmood Ali, the deputy chief minister in the previous government, was appointed the home minister. Both he and Rao took oath on 13 December, two days after the results were announced.

“There will definitely be new faces in this cabinet, but some of the senior leaders such as Eatala Rajender and T. Harish Rao are likely to be reinducted. KCR (as Rao is known) will take decisions based on caste as well, so that all communities are represented. Of course, individual capabilities as leaders will also be a factor,” said a senior TRS leader, who did not want to be quoted.

Rao’s son K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) and nephew (and senior leader) T. Harish Rao, who held the state IT and irrigation portfolios, are likely to be retained with the same roles.

In the last government, KTR was much appreciated by various sections of the public because of his role as IT minister and also for drawing investments to the state as he also had the industries portfolio. After the win of the TRS, KTR was also appointed as working president of the party, a role which did not exist until now.

On Wednesday, Rao met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss pending issues with regard to projects pertaining to the state. It was his first meeting with Modi after becoming chief minister. “There are certain poll promises which KCR made before the elections, including giving certain people cabinet berths, so he will want a smooth transition for the next six months. However, the biggest factor is that he wants only those leaders who are loyal not just to him, but who would also work under KTR, who will start taking party decisions,” said political analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy.

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India vs Australia: Tim Paine Dares Rohit Sharma To Hit A Six, Vows To Support Mumbai Indians - Watch

Tim Paine's chatter went on for a couple of overs but Rohit Sharma did not react.

Australia captain Tim Paine has not shied away from talking from behind the stumps during the ongoing Test series. With India building a commanding first innings total on the second day of the third Test in Melbourne, Paine was again feeling chatty. Paine challenged Rohit Sharma to hit a six against Nathan Lyon. Paine kept talking to Aaron Finch to distract Rohit Sharma, who was on strike at that time. Paine told Finch that he will start supporting Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) if India's limited-overs vice-captain manages to hit a six at the MCG. "It's a bit of a toss up between Royals and Indians for me. But if Rohit hits a six now, I'm changing to Mumbai," Paine told Finch.

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Paine's chatter went on for a couple of overs but Rohit did not react.

"Too many Poms at the Royals," Paine said referring to Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler.

Paine, who was also overheard whistling the Collingwood theme song, could not get a reaction from Rohit so he turned his attention to Finch.

"You've nearly played for every team now," Paine continued.

"Except Bangalore," Finch replied.

"Except Bangalore?" Paine questioned.

Finch has played for Rajasthan, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai in the IPL.

Paine took to sledging during Perth Test as well. "I know he's your captain. But you can't seriously like him as a bloke," he asked Murali Vijay.

Paine was also involved in a heated battle, which at one point needed the umpire to intervene, with animated Indian skipper Virat Kohli during the second Test in Perth.

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Delhi Battles Cold Wave At 3.7 Degrees, Air Quality "Very Poor"

Delhi has been reeling under a cold wave for the past a few days.

NEW DELHI: 

A cold wave continued to sweep through Delhi on Thursday as the national capital recorded a temperature of 3.7 degrees Celsius today, four points below the season's average. The overall air quality in Delhi was found in the "very poor" category today, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research said.

The Met department has predicted a maximum of 21.0 degrees Celsius in Delhi today. The weatherman said that shallow fog will hover over Delhi on Thursday.

The Met department said that visibility in Delhi will be around 500m due to shallow fog.

Delhi has been reeling under a cold wave for the past a few days. Cold wave conditions are also prevailing across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradeshand Uttarakhand. 

The Met department said that cold wave conditions are likely to continue over these regions, including Delhi, during the next three days.

The minimum temperature in Delhi on Wednesday had dropped to 3.6 degrees Celsius-- the lowest of this season so far-- the Met office had said.

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Hellboy trailer: David Harbour’s demon superhero seems a bit too campy

Hellboy trailer: David Harbour plays the Dark Horse Comics superhero in the R-rated reboot.

Director Neil Marshall’s version of the dark and gritty Hellboy is here. The first trailer of the reboot, starring David Harbour as the Dark Horse Comics superhero, seems a bit too campy, but it is exciting nevertheless.

In the trailer, we see an unexpected alliance between Sasha Lane’s Alice Monaghan and Daniel Day Kim’s Major Ben Daimio, teaming up with Hellboy to defeat an evil witch and save mankind. They will take on the Blood Queen Nimue, the medieval British sorceress, played by Milla Jovovich. In the trailer, we also see Hellboy showing off his Anung un Rama avatar, complete with horns and flaming crown.

The trailer also gives a perfect glimpse of how the film will be loaded with action, hellfire and Hellboy’s tongue-in-cheek humour. Fans now wait to see how David Harbour, known for Stranger Things, would make Hellboy his own.

The half-demon from hell whose real name is Anung Un Rama, was called on Earth as an infant by Nazi occultists and raised by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, the man who spearheads the US Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) We saw the origin story of Hellboy in its first film in 2004, and how the kid grows into a huge red demon with cloven horns, a tail, horns and the Right Hand of Doom, who gets hired by the B.P.R.D.

Hellboy will release on April 12, 2019 in the US.

The latest Hellboy film is a reboot of the franchise and the third live-action installment in the series. Hellboy draws inspiration from Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and The Storm and the Fury.

The reboot has a screenplay co-written by Hellboy comics creator Mike Mignola. It also stars Ian McShane as Trevor Bruttenholm among others.

Hellboy will release on April 12, 2019 in the US.

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