NATIONAL NEWS
A) Twitter removes blue tick from Bhagwat, other RSS functionaries’ accounts; restores them after outcry.
Social media giant Twitter on Saturday removed the blue verification tick from the accounts of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and other senior functionaries, only to restore it after a lot of hue and cry by Sangh sympathisers on social media, PTI reported. Taking strong objection, Rajiv Tuli, a functionary in RSS’s Delhi unit, told PTI that this clearly shows biasness and a clear example of ‘tech feudalism’ by Twitter. He cited several Twitter handles which have been inactive but continue to remain verified. The blue tick, which is a verification badge, was removed from five accounts belonging to senior functionaries of the RSS, the ruling BJP’s ideological mentor, sources in the Sangh said. The blue tick on Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu’s personal account was also removed, before being subsequently restored. Reacting to the removal of the blue tick from the Vice-President’s account, Twitter said the referenced account has been inactive since July 2020. Meanwhile, there have been zero tweets from Bhagwat’s account. As per Twitter’s verification policy, Twitter may automatically remove the blue verified badge and verified status if the account becomes inactive or is incomplete. Inactivity is based on logging in and to keep the account active, the account holder must make sure to log in at least every 6 months, Twitter said. Later in the day, the verification badge of Bhagawat, Suresh Soni, Arun Kumar, Suresh Joshi and Krishna Gopal was restored.
B) Govt issues ‘one last notice’ to Twitter to comply with IT rules.
The government on June 5 issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to immediately comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said that Twitter’s refusal to comply with the rules demonstrated the microblogging site’s lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform. Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc has doggedly refused to create a mechanism that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes, by India-based, clearly identified resources, the IT Ministry said. The Ministry said that though with effect from May 26, 2021, consequences follow given Twitter’s non-compliance with rules, however, as a gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc. is hereby given one last notice to immediately comply with the rules, failing which the exemption from liability available…shall stand withdrawn and Twitter shall be liable for consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India. The notice, however, did not given a specific deadline to comply with the rules.
C) Middle-class badly hit, need loan moratorium, says plea in Supreme Court.
A petition was filed in the Supreme Court to direct the government to offer moratorium on loans for the period between June and August, saying the pandemic has wrecked homes and is pushing the middle-class into poverty. It is not a hidden truth that the middle-class have been badly hit by the financial implications of Covid-19. The second wave has actually been worse than the first, and the death toll is just one of the indicators of its severity, Distress Management Collective, an NGO represented by advocate Jose Abraham, said. The weekly extension of lockdowns since the last one and a half months had resulted in more people from the middle-class losing their jobs, and those who have their jobs safe at the moment, faced prospects of substantial salary cuts, the petition said. A report by Pew Research Centre stated that about 32 million people were driven into poverty by the pandemic last year, it noted. Loan accounts should not be classified as non-performing assets by banks and financial institutions for non-payment of monthly instalments between April and August. The plea asked the court to intervene with the Union government to roll out a financial package primarily focusing on the severely affected sections of society and also keeping in mind an imminent third wave. Consider the grievances of scores of borrowers who have availed housing loans or loans that fall in other categories from banks, it stated. It referred to how work had slowed for professionals like lawyers, who have shifted back to their hometown. The Small and Medium Enterprises [SME] sector has also been badly jolted by the second wave of the pandemic, it said. The emergence of the second wave had come at a time when the SME sector had hardly recovered from the blow received by the first wave, it pointed out.
D) ‘Bank NPAs set to rise, deposit growth outpacing credit flow’
Gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratios of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) are expected to shoot up in the coming quarters, according to data compiled by BCT Digital. This is despite the regulatory interventions to provide relief to both borrowers and lenders in the wake of the pandemic. The GNPA for the banking system was at 7.5% in September 2020, an improvement from pre-pandemic levels. This is expected to shoot up to 13.5% in a basecase scenario and 14.8% in an extreme scenario by September 2021 as per RBI’s assessment in the latest Financial Stability Report (FSR), said Jaya Vaidhyanathan, CEO of Bcr Digital, which helps banks manage risk. For public sector banks, GNPAs are expected to zoom from 9.7% in September 2020 to 16.2% and 17.6% in the base case and extreme scenarios, respectively, by September 2021, she added. As per data that BCT Digital has collated from the FSR, the September 2015 quarter saw year-on-year (YOY) credit growth of 9.4%. It declined to 8.8% in March 2016, the first quarter after the asset quality review was mandated. In March 2017, YOY credit growth slowed sharply to 4.4% while September 2019 saw 8.7% growth. Credit grew 5.9% and 5%, in March and September 2020, respectively. Deposit growth, however, has quickened. September 2015 saw YOY growth of 9.9% while March 2016 and March 2017 posted 8.1% and 11.1%, respectively. Growth was 10.2%, 8.6% and 10.3% in September 2019, March 2020 and September 2020. Care Ratings recently said FY21 credit growth was the lowest in 4 years as lenders and borrowers have remained risk averse.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) About 100 killed in Burkina Faso in deadliest attack since 2015.
Around 100 civilians were killed overnight in the deadliest attack in Burkina Faso since jihadist violence erupted in the country in 2015, security and local sources said on Saturday. The attack occurred during the night of Friday to Saturday when armed individuals staged an incursion into the northern town of Solhan, a security source said. The toll, which is still provisional, is about 100 dead, men and women of different ages, the source said. The government confirmed the attack and the death toll. Assailants struck around 2 a.m. local time (7.30 a.m. IST) against a position of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Motherland (VDP), an anti-jihadist civilian defence force which backs the national army, before attacking homes and carrying out executions, a local source said. The VDP was set up in December 2019 to help Burkina’s poorly-equipped military fight jihadists but it has suffered more than 200 fatalities, according to an AFP tally. The volunteers are given two weeks’ military training, and then work alongside the security forces, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties. In addition to the heavy human toll, the worst recorded to date, homes and the market were set on fire, another security source said, voicing concern that the still temporary toll of a hundred dead may increase. The authorities have declared three days of national mourning, ending Monday night at 11:59 pm. Sohlan, a small community around 15 kilometres from Sebba, the main city in Yagha province near the border with Mali, has been hit with numerous attacks in recent years. On May 14, Defence Minister Cheriff Sy and military top brass visited Sebba to assure people that life had returned to normal, following a number of military operations. The massive attack by suspected jihadists came hours after another attack Friday evening on Tadaryat village in the same region, where at least 14 people were killed. Since 2015 Burkina Faso has struggled to fight back against increasingly frequent and deadly jihadist attacks from groups including the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS). The attacks first started in the north near the Mali border, but have since spread to other regions, particularly in the east. Around 1,300 people have died and more than a million have fled their homes.
B) China hits out at U.S., EU consulates in Hong Kong.
China on Saturday berated the U.S. and EU consulates in Hong Kong for displaying candles to commemorate the June 4 Tiananmen crackdown, slamming it as a clumsy political show’ to destabilise the city. Candles were seen lit in the windows of the U.S. consulate building, which is next to the residence of Hong Kong’s Beijing-appointed leader Carrie Lam, and the European Union’s office on Friday night. The missions also posted photographs of their Tiananmen memorials on social media. Any attempt to exploit Hong Kong to carry out infiltration or sabotage activities against the mainland crosses the red line is absolutely intolerable, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong office of China’s Foreign Ministry said. We again urge the organs of relevant countries in Hong Kong to immediately . stop meddling with Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs at large, and avoid playing with fire. For three decades in Hong Kong, huge crowds, often tens of thousands strong, have held candlelight vigils on June 4 for those killed in 1989 when tanks and troops crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing. However this year’s vigil was banned at a time when Hong Kong authorities are carrying out a sweeping clampdown on dissent following huge and often violent democracy protests two years ago. Flashes of defiance still flickered across the city Friday night as residents simultaneously turned their mobile phone lights or lit candles in multiple districts across the city to mark the date. There were online calls for people to turn off the lights at home and place candles in their windows in commemoration.
C) G7 nations reach historic deal to tax big multinationals.
A group of the world’s richest nations reached a landmark deal on Saturday to close cross-border tax loopholes used by some of the world’s biggest companies. The Group of Seven (G7) said it would back a minimum global corporation tax rate of at least 15%, and put in place measures to ensure taxes were paid in the countries where businesses operate. After years of discussion, G7 finance ministers have reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age, British finance minister Rishi Sunak told reporters. The accord, which could form the basis of a global pact next month, is aimed at ending a decades-long race to the bottom in which countries have competed to attract corporate giants with ultra-low tax rates and exemptions. That has in turn cost their public coffers hundreds of billions of dollars a shortfall they now need to recoup all the more urgently to pay for the huge cost of propping up economies ravaged by the coronavirus crisis. Ministers met face-to-face in London for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a copy of the final agreement seen by Reuters, the G7 ministers said they would commit to a global minimum tax of at least 15% on a country by country basis. We commit to reaching an equitable solution on the allocation of taxing rights, with market countries awarded taxing rights on at least 20% of profit exceeding a 10% margin for the largest and most profitable multinational enterprises, the text added. The ministers also agreed to move towards making companies declare their environmental impact in a more standard way so investors can decided more easily whether to fund them, a key goal for Britain. Rich nations have struggled for years to agree on a way to raise more revenue from large multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, which often book profits in jurisdictions where they pay little or no tax. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration gave the stalled talks fresh impetus by proposing a minimum global corporation tax rate of 15%, above the level in countries such as Ireland but below the lowest level in the G7.
