Moody’s Investors Service has forecast a high risk of further deterioration in the growth outlook of advanced and emerging market economies due to continuing escalation of the US-China trade dispute.
“An uncertain policy environment is not conducive to investment and the steady escalation of trade tensions will continue to weigh on sentiment, leading to further retrenchment of capital expenditure and weaker growth,” it said in the latest global macroeconomics sector comment.
The incremental but continuing escalation of the US-China trade dispute is already adversely affecting economic activity in the United States, China and the rest of the world.
“We continue to believe that at the macroeconomic level, the direct exposure of the United States and China to a full-blown trade war is moderate. However, indirect channels are powerful, their effects on confidence and investment are already becoming evident, andfurther deterioration could potentially serve as a catalyst for a severe downturn,” said Moody’s.
Trade relations between Washington and Beijing soured further on August 23 after Beijing announced new retaliatory tariffs on imports from the United States, quickly followed by the White House announcing it will increase tariff rates on more than 500 billion dollars of imports from China.
Notwithstanding conciliatory remarks on August 26 indicating that trade negotiations may resume, the two sides are headed toward further escalation. “As a result, we expect the steadily worsening trade friction between the world’s two largest economies to leave a lasting impact on the global economy,” said Moody’s.
Under the new restrictions, China will implement tariffs on more than 25 billion dollars of imports from the United States on September 1. Chinese tariffs on an additional 40 billion dollars of US goods will take effect on December 15.
In response, the US administration will increase tariff rates on more than 500 billion dollars of imports from China by 5 per cent. The United States will raise tariffs to 15 per cent in two stages, affecting 110 billion dollars of Chinese imports on September 1 and another 160 billion dollars of imports on December 15.
Tariffs will increase to 30 per cent on 250 billion dollars of other Chinese imports on October 1.
Supermodel Cara Delevingne feels that she is a better person when she’s “in love” and is happy sharing her life with someone special.
The 27-year-old model, who has kept her relationship with ‘Pretty Little Liars’ star Ashley Benson private, revealed in her October cover story with ELLE UK that she feels like a better person when she’s in a committed relationship.
“I’m just better when I’m in love,” she said, clarifying that it could also mean self-love.
“That doesn’t have to mean with someone. It can also mean with myself. It just feels incredible when you’re not alone, when you’re facing the world with someone else,” she added.
Delevingne and Benson have largely kept their romance out of the spotlight. However, the model finally confirmed their relationship in June when she shared a steamy clip on Instagram pulling Benson in close for a kiss.
In her ELLE UK cover story, the model explained that their secretive nature was not out of shame of accepting their sexual preferences.
“I don’t want to be so secretive that people think I’m ashamed of anything. But I’ve never been in a relationship where things are so public, or where I posted pictures of someone else,” she said.
“This seemed different. We had gotten to the point where we had kept it a secret, or at least not wanted attention, and now I feel like I’m not going to not be proud,” the model added.
The pair was first linked in August 2018, when two were spotted kissing at London’s Heathrow Airport. The same month, Benson told People Now that she values privacy when it comes to her personal relationships.
“I think privacy is the best way in any relationship. I’ve always been very private about them, and I think it’s just better,” Benson told People Now in August 2018.
Benson added, “I mean it’s hard, I don’t know, you kind of can’t get away from that if you’re in the public eye. I just kinda try to keep myself as private as possible.”
American comedian and actor Kevin Hart successfully underwent surgery following a late-night car crash that left him with “major back injuries.”
A source told a publication that the actor is now in recovery after surgery which dealt with his back injuries.
The comedian is expected to stay in the hospital for a few days as he recovers.
The 40-year-old star was left injured when his vintage Plymouth Barracuda veered off the road in California on Sunday morning. The actor was a passenger in his car when its driver, friend Jared Black, lost control and crashed through wooden fencing just before 1 am on Mulholland Highway in Malibu, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol shared.
The car crashed about 10 feet off the road and into a ditch, leaving Black and Hart with “major back injuries,” the media reported on Sunday.
A third occupant, Black’s fiance Rebecca Broxterman, was unharmed. Hart left the scene and headed to his home nearby, but was later treated for his injuries at a local hospital.
Photos of the accident showed that the blue car’s roof was completely crushed by the impact of the crash, with the rest of the vehicle appearing as a mangled wreck with a totally shattered windshield.
Hart bought himself the Barracuda in July as a birthday present, and showed it off on Instagram shortly after making the big purchase, noting he’d nicknamed it “Menace.”
Prabhas‘ “Saaho” has some uncanny similarities with French filmmaker Jerome Salle’s 2008 film “Largo Winch” and the director has criticised the makers of the multi-lingual Indian movie for creating a “bad” copy.
“Largo Winch” is an action thriller based on the Belgian comic book of the same name, and post the release of “Saaho” on Friday many social media users pointed out how the film looked like a rip-off of the successful French movie.
Salle, who was being tagged by a lot of users on microblogging site Twitter, seemed upset by the team of “Saaho” and advised Telugu directors to at least make the copy “properly”.
“It seems this second “freemake” of Largo Winch is as bad as the first one. So please Telugu directors, if you steal my work, at least do it properly?” Salle tweeted.
This is not the first time Salle has accused Telugu filmmakers for stealing his work.
In 2018, he had claimed that “Agnyaathavaasi“, featuring Pawan Kalyan, was also a copy of “Largo Winch”. The film was written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas.
“Saaho”, directed by Sujeeth and also featuring Shraddha Kapoor, has minted over 90 crores in India.
The pair tied the knot after a rehearsal dinner in Maui on Friday. The couple also spent time with family and friends including a beach party on Saturday.
The couple started dating in 2013 after meeting at a Grammys afterparty and got engaged in August 2017 while on a safari trip in South Africa.
Opening up about the romantic details of the proposal, Teller said that he led Sperry to a tree with a rose and note tied to it reading “May 11th, 2013-August 20th, 2017.” On one knee he said to her, “This was the first day that I asked you to be my girlfriend, and today was the last day you woke up as my girlfriend.”
Thinking that the proposal was ‘perfect,’ Sperry said yes right away. “I’ll never get the image out of my head of him down on one knee with a tear in his eye,” she said. “He really thought about every detail and was so nervous!”
Earlier, the couple had attended the 2016 Met Gala together, as well as the 2016 MTV Movie Awards.
Nowadays several leaders from opposition parties like Congress, NCP are joining BJP. While the party is welcoming their entry, some leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Eknath Khadse and Raosaheb Danve are opposing their entry. Taking a jibe at those leaders joining BJP Eknath Khadse said those leaders are not saints. He added that greed is forcing them to shift loyalties towards BJP. Nitin Gadkari compared those leaders joining BJP to rats and they cannot script history. Opposing the entry of opposition party leaders Raosaheb Danve said that so many leaders need not join BJP and they might oust the existing leaders from the party. Thus, some BJP leaders have objection towards the joining of opposition leaders into the party. Incidentally, the BJP is in midst of an influx of opposition leaders in the run up to the Maharashtra assembly polls likely to be held in October. More than a dozen leaders from Congress and NCP have deserted their respective political parties to join the BJP.
BJP spokesperson Avdhut Wagh said, “Those, indulged in corruption, are joining BJP is news to me. Our national president and chief minister have said that they will induct only leaders with clean image. There is no vacancy for corrupt leaders. Show me one case where we have inducted new leaders in place of existing BJP leaders. When an outfit is formed, there are new and old leaders. New leaders and old leaders should get representation.”
They also leveled corruption allegations against Congress and NCP leaders joining BJP. On the other hand, Congress leaders compared the Fadnavis government to Ali Baba and Forty thieves. BJP has inducted those leaders who made allegations against the Fadnavis government. Congress and NCP leaders asked whether they will be free of corruption after joining BJP.
Nitin Gadkari had stated that when a ship sinks rats are the first to get out of it. In the same manner, Congress and NCP leaders are quitting their own party to join BJP. He said that history will not be written by such opportunists but by those who stick to their ideologies despite facing hardships. Gadkari also said that those leaders quitting their own party should not take short cut route to achieve success and asked them to do self-introspection. He added that leaders should stick to an ideology and avoid party switching like rats jumping from a sinking ship. Gadkari was addressing a gathering at the launch of ‘Political Icons of Vidharba’ a coffee table book organised by Lokmat group. He said, “I feel people in politics must clearly understand the meaning of politics. Politics is not just power politics. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Veer Savarkar did not indulge in power politics.”
Eknath Khadse stated that Fadnavis has washing powder to cleanse those indulging in corruption. He said, those joining BJP are given a clean chit despite being involved in corruption and no action is taken against them.
Raosaheb Danve said that four leaders from opposition party have met BJP leaders. BJP asked them to wait for some time. Danve stated that these leaders might pave way for the ouster of exiting BJP leaders. Thus there is a possibility of existing BJP leaders quitting the outfit to join other parties. This might send wrong message to citizens.
These days BJP leaders are open in giving comments about those leaders who are leaving their ideology and political party to join BJP. Nitin Gadkari told a gathering of politicians that one should stick to an ideology and avoid party switching like rats jumping from a sinking ship. Incidentally, the BJP is in the midst of an influx of opposition leaders inside. Unfortunately, what Gadkari said is true. Nowadays people are so against Congress that they can’t see the wrong deeds of BJP. The way CBI and ED are raiding each and every opposition party, it is quite evident they are following someone’s leads. Most of the initiatives of BJP government failed and created chaos and nothing else. But every BJP supporter will defend quoting that “THEY ARE at least TRYING”. Since BJP is often respected for being active and implementing the so-called laws. But on the other hand, when children died in a hospital due to sheer negligence, only the officers were blamed as if ministers had nothing to do.
Suppose, the government would have saved those children, BJP wouldn’t have mind bragging about this even in Tamil Nadu elections. But BJP supporters would defend this with “this is politics or Congress would have done the same”. However, BJP nowadays is the pilgrimage to every politician. No matter how corrupt a politician is, when he joins BJP, he comes out as an honest and dedicated politician. BJP is following some vague dogma, whenever someone raises a question regarding any issue, they somehow prove that Congress has already done that in the past and they are doing better than them.
At the moment, the BJP is attracting candidates who are significant and can win in their constituencies. If they have an internal strategy on how to keep them in line, it will work. When the party coffers are full, and there are millions of donors, they can keep their members well paid, and well taken care of for the rest of their lives. Indian society has never been so corrupt or morally bankrupt even during imperialistic rule by foreigners at the ground levels, or at family levels or at the common man’s levels. This degeneration took place in last five decades only.
Scams of the order of Trillions of rupees never get investigated properly and never leads to convictions. This time BJP too has crossed all the corruption limits of the past. Present regime under Narendra Modi is brazenly working for the benefit of big industrial houses, especially Ambani and Adani group. These corporate bodies openly servicing the cause of BJP and in return Narendra Modi is paying gratitude to these corporate bodies by allowing them to loot the people’s money. Once, in Lucknow, in a conversation with these corporate houses, Narendra Modi paralleled himself with our father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi who was so close to G.D.Birla that Gandhi never hesitated to live in Birla house where he was assassinated by RSS/Hindu Mahasabha activists on January, 30 1948. Though, RSS is all along denying it’s hand in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, one can easily convince himself with the fact that Yogi Adityanath, still a member of Hindu Mahasabha is chosen for the post of Chief Ministership of state like Uttar Pradesh. One can easily trace out the corruption level of BJP with the fact that murder of their icon Late Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Home Minister Late Haren Pandya is still unsolved and this party is approaching Supreme Court to reinvestigate assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. There is not much difference between Congress and BJP, both are somewhat on same line of thinking.
BJP’s ex-president Bangaru Laxman was caught taking bribe in a sting operation named Operation West End. He was convicted and sent to jail for this crime. This is an example of financial corruption. BJP first came into power with a promise of Ram Mandir, Article 370 abolition and Common Civil Code.Somehow Article 370 has got abolished but Kashmir had to pay huge price. The utmost brutality meets the masses and media to ministers all are on ignore mode. One may argue that there are political compulsions but still BJP is not even mentioning the causes. One of the BJP main leaders LK Advani tried to undermine his own party candidate. He encouraged a person named Keshubhai Patel against Modi, which was actually detrimental to party’s interests. This is called ethical corruption. Although history would be rewritten by highly opinionated and biased leftist, which should be corrected. However, the way forward is not to go to other extreme either. In recent times we have seen some laughable claims from right wing such as mythology as a case of plastic surgery. The Haryana government last month spent a whopping Rs 3.80 lakh on purchase of 10 books of the Hindu mythological scripture Gita. The purchase of books at this phenomenal price would be a record of sorts. The BJP government in Haryana led by RSS ideologue and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is now finding it hard to come up with a rational justification for this high-price purchase.
The expenditure on the books is a part of the money spent by the government during the international Gita Mahotsav last month. Not just on the books, the government also paid Rs 6 lakh to a magician for a show in Kurukshetra and purchased jute bags worth Rs 1 lakh. The issue is courting controversy with the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) seeking a probe. The details are a part of information procured under the RTI act. BJP is more or less the same as Congress minus the scams for now. Simply because no matter how much we may despair at BJP, if the only other alternative is Congress in the absence of any other party with a pan India presence, for now it appears that BJP is the only option except that people have to start acknowledging that this is no party with a difference, start calling them out when they behave like those they claim to despise and not accept things without question. Congress has not cleaned up its act. We only hear about what BJP they oppose, not what else they propose. Voting Congress in will simply mean opening up the doors once more to their brand of corruption. Until the nation has a viable alternative, BJP it should be, simply because Congress it shouldn’t be. By the next to next elections, BJP would have successfully absorbed the remainder of Congress, possibly even Rahul Gandhi and by then, if AAP or a brand new party managed to be the new face we are looking for, it will be time for change.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
Present action seems to focus on the operational synergies of these mergers, implicitly referring to the profitability and operational efficiency of the banks. Nationalized banks are interlocked with monetary policies of the government and its regulations. The principal shareholder being the government of India, monetary policy rather than profitability will be government’s main thrust.
Creating mega banks will increase performance risks, and therefore “we cannot afford to let it fail” paradigms of the government because failures could lead to macroeconomic repercussions. Given socialistic policies to boost growth in the rural areas driven by politics may mean that the cost of inefficiencies are borne by bank customers or the eventual taxpayer. The real losers in these mergers could be bank customers, as services will commensurately degrade with reduction in competition. So the question to ask is: who benefits from these mergers?
There is a big hue and cry over the mergers and main reason being loss of one’s identity on merger. It is too early to say whether these mergers are good or bad time only will tell. Intentions are good and hopefully the mergers will result in good happening to the banking and in turn economy too. Some banks like IOB and UCO are managed so badly that they are left out of merger. How long such weak banks are allowed to exist and get capital from the government instead of allowing them to die a natural death? In the interest of depositors all the bad assets should be taken out and a separate Recovery bank should be formed with such bad assets from other banks too and then they are merged to protect interests of depositors. This idea was initiated early but did not take shape. Now the time has come for a change.
The discussion was going on since many years and recently present generation also came to understand that it may come any time. Already they started with SBI, next BOB. Now we feel the pinch. VRS followed by Centralised Banking and computerisation and merger, amalgamation also allow so many things. Though manpower rationalization will help to improve operational efficiency and makes the balance sheets looks brighter isn’t it going to leave a significant number unemployed?
Howsoever we may cry, or feel nostalgic the merger of Banks was a necessity. It was pursued from 15 years back but no FM was courageous enough to implement fearing backlash particularly from employees.
(This is the first part of the article and remaining portion will continue tomorrow)
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
It is one more case of fire in Maharashtra and the explosion that followed killed people and left over 50 injured after an explosion in a chemical unit in Dhule. The factory manufactures washing detergent and its owner has not been identified and the cause of the fire. The death toll is likely to increase in a day or two. It is believed that a 200 litre chemical barrel exploded creating a big fire and the worker ran helter skelter for dear life. The explosion happened where chemicals were being mixed and it is a dangerous process. It appears that the cause of the accident is sheer negligence and there is no fire audit in the chemical factory for many years. The series of fire accidents in the state of Maharashtra is causing concern and there are no preventive measures to stop such accidents.
Nikhil Krishnan
India can demand shifting of Kulbhushan Jadhav to UN
It was on expected lines that Kulbhushan Jadhav had to speak during counsellor-access with Deputy High Commissioner of India in Pakistan on September 2, 2019 under tremendous pressure of Pakistani authorities in accordance with tune of Pakistan. Since he has to remain in torturous custody of Pakistan, he could not speak reality in fear of extended dose of torture later.
India has sufficient evidence through photographs and videos that Kulbhushan Jadhav was beaten mercilessly by Pakistan authorities. Indian government should raise the issue on international forum to shift Kulbhushan Jadhav to office of either United Nations or Red Cross in Pakistan if it may not be feasible to demand his shifting to some neutral country of Pakistan. Demand should also be made for a complete and comprehensive medical check-up by a collegium of doctors in a country outside Pakistan. He can return to Pakistan after such medical check up but to be lodged under offices of United Nations or Red Cross in Pakistan.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Railways should waive online ticketing charges
The recent move by IRCTC to restore convenience fee for online railway ticket bookings will cause inconvenience to the rail passengers. The move aimed at generating only the revenue to the Railways should be looked into restoring instead of providing comfortable services to the passengers, including booking of tickets. Bookings made through digital payment gateways, UPI wallets and other online modes will otherwise attract a fees of Rs.30 and Rs.15 for AC and Sleeper services respectively.
It is given to understand that the convening fee was waived in the wake of demonetization since November 2016 and move was aimed to encourage passengers to avail digital payments while booking online tickets. It is ironical to note that instead of promoting paper free ticketing facility and cashless payment services, the Railways is only forcing the passengers now to pay more for online services thus availed through booking tickets. The move otherwise forces the passengers to only rush to manual ticket booking counters to get railway tickets and thus increases burden on the Government to issue more paper based tickets and entangle in cash based payment mechanism.
The Railways should instead find innovative ways to garner revenue and should not levy the same by burdening the passengers by levying fees for digital payments made. In an era of technological revolution, the Railways should also find smart ways to reduce paper based railway ticket printing and should instead encourage cashless and online mode of ticket booking and payments by waiving off necessary payment gateway/service fees.
It refers to steep and unreasonable hike in fines for traffic-violation even for petty violations which at times are unavoidable. Of course, fine of rupees 100 was too small and people in general did not care to obey traffic-rules because of such petty fine. But hiking it suddenly in range of rupees 1000-1500 will induce large-scale corruption because people will find it advantageous to pay a part of such heavy fine to traffic-policemen on duty rather than having a big hole in their pockets that too in cumbersome court-proceedings.
Traffic-fines for normal traffic-violations should be maximum rupees 500. For serious offences like drunken driving or allowing driving by minor children, fine can be rupees 5000-10000. There are practical instances when violation of crossing zebra-lines is due to sudden turning of red light to orange light. New traffic-rules must have taken care of such instances. Moreover even when traffic-fines were low previously, holding regular traffic-courts allowed violators to skip even earlier smaller fines.
Need is to discourage automobile-sector (rather than encouraging in name of economic slowdown) so as to decongest road and parking space from ever-increasing vehicles on roads.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
At least five people were killed and several others injured after a fire broke out at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation‘s (ONGC) plant in Navi Mumbai’s Uran on Tuesday, police said.
The ONGC said there was no impact on oil processing and that the gas was diverted to its Hazira plant in Surat district of Gujarat.
The blaze erupted around 7 am in a processing plant of the ONGC located in Uran area of neighbouring Navi Mumbai, the police said.
“Four people have been killed and three others injured in the mishap,” a senior police official said.
Visuals of Fire at a cold storage ONGC Uran, Navi Mumbai. With 2 casualities and 2 injured, Fire tenders have taken the control of fire#ONGC#ONGCFirepic.twitter.com/2hP2ygp8Yi
Note: This video contains strong language viewer discretion is advised.
“Fire broke out in storm water drainage in Uran Plant early morning successfully doused within two hours by fire fighting team. #ONGCs robust crisis mitigation preparedness helped put off this major fire in a very short time,” the ONGC said in a tweet.
Fire broke out in storm water drainage in Uran Plant early morning successfully doused within two hours by fire fighting team. #ONGC ’s robust crisis mitigation preparedness helped put off this major fire in a very short time. @PetroleumMin@PTI_News@pallab_ongc@ANI@CMD_ONGC
Earlier, in another tweet, it said, “A fire broke out in storm water drainage early morning 2day in Uran oil & gas processing plant. ONGC fire services & crisis management team immediately pressed in2 action. Fire is being contained. No impact on Oil processing.Gas diverted to Hazira Plant. Situation is being assessed.”
A fire broke out in storm water drainage early morning 2day in Uran oil & gas processing plant.ONGC fire services & crisis managemnt team immediately pressed in2 action. Fire is being contained. No impact on Oil processing.Gas diverted to Hazira Plant. Situation is being assessed
Nearly 22 fire brigade tenders, including that of the ONGC, Navi Mumbai civic body and other agencies, were at the spot, the police official said.
The injured persons were admitted to nearby hospitals for treatment, he said.
Manohar Bhoir, MLA from Uran: The fire broke out at around 6:30 am today, four people have died in the incident, the fire is completely under control now. https://t.co/NwUhKVVB1rpic.twitter.com/qopZGbXzFL
Supermodel 
American comedian and actor 
Prabhas
‘
Present action seems to focus on the operational synergies of these mergers, implicitly referring to the profitability and operational efficiency of the 
At least five people were killed and several others injured after a fire broke out at the