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Bharti Global and the UK government-led satellite communications company OneWeb announced the launch of 36 satellites from a Soyuz launch vehicle, which began from the Vostochny Cosmodrome (Russia).
A statement by OneWeb said that the development brings the total in-orbit constellation to 110 satellites, part of OneWeb’s 648 LEO satellite fleet that will deliver high-speed, low-latency global connectivity.
It said that the launch puts OneWeb on track to offer global services to customers from late 2021, starting with the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Artic Seas, and Canada, with global service in 2022.
OneWeb has secured global priority spectrum rights and now successfully completed four launches and aims to offer high-speed internet from OneWeb satellites in India by mid-2022.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said: “Today’s launch is one of many steps we have taken to operationalise one of the world’s first LEO constellation which clearly demonstrates we are on our way to achieving our mission.
He noted that overall, there is an overwhelming demand for broadband and the pandemic has taxed infrastructure everywhere and many people worldwide are left with little to no options to access the internet.
“OneWeb’s system will help meet existing and future demand by delivering broadband connectivity to the communities, towns, regions left unconnected or under-connected,” he said.
Less than a month since its acquisition by Bharti Global and the UK Government, OneWeb is quickly returning to full operations — hiring at a fast pace, restarting launches, continuing to build its ground station network, and pushing forward on user terminal development, said the OneWeb statement.
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“The official data is not only revealing but very distressing. During the 10 years of UPA government (2004-2014), the total loans written off was Rs 2,20,330 crore, but during less than five years of the NDA (2015-2019), the figures zoomed up by almost 350 per cent to Rs 7,94,354 crore,” said Prafful Sarda…reports Quaid Najmi
In a dubious distinction of sorts, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA rule achieved the highest loans write-off between 2015 and 2019, which is more than three times compared to the figures of bad loans written off during the previous Congress-led UPA regime from 2004-2014, as per an RTI revelation.
During the UPA’s 10-year rule, around Rs 2,20,328 crore was written off by various banks, and this figure shot up to Rs 7,94,354 crore during the NDA regime from 2015-2019, resulting in a corresponding reduction in the banks’ NPAs.
The data was provided under an RTI query by Pune-based businessman Prafful Sarda, giving some shocking insights into the state of affairs of not only public sector banks, but also those in the private sector and foreign banks.
The RTI reply figures around two-dozen public sector banks, some three-dozen in private sector, nine Scheduled Commercial Banks, and a whopping four-dozen foreign banks, and includes several in each category which have not written off any loans.
Of the loan write-offs in the Congress’ decade (2004-2014), the PSBs accounted for approximately Rs 1,58,994 crore, while the amounts written off by the private banks was Rs 41,391 crore and for foreign banks it was Rs 19,945 crore, with no write-offs by Scheduled Banks.
Later, in the NDA regime (2015-2019), the figures provided show a phenomenal increase with the PSBs accounting for a stupendous Rs 6,24,370 crore loan write-off, with the private banks writing off Rs 1,51,989 crore and the foreign banks shared the remaining 17,995 crore, (Total — Rs 7,94,354 crore), besides an additional write-off by Scheduled Banks totalling Rs 1,295 crore (Total – Rs 7,95,649 crore).
In a silver lining, however, during the BJP rule, there was some recovery from the write-offs between 2015 and 2019 — a paltry Rs 82,571 crore or roughly 12 per cent of the total Rs 7,94,354 crore written off, according to the RTI reply.
“The official data is not only revealing but very distressing. During the 10 years of UPA government (2004-2014), the total loans written off was Rs 2,20,330 crore, but during less than five years of the NDA (2015-2019), the figures zoomed up by almost 350 per cent to Rs 7,94,354 crore,” Sarda told IANS.
The surprising aspect is the huge increase in the write-offs by foreign banks — from 2004-2014, it was Rs 19,945 crore in the UPA’s 10-year tenure (Rs 1,995 crore each year on an average), but shot up to Rs 17,995 in the NDA’s four years between 2015-2019 (Rs 4,499 crore annual average).
Several global giants like HSBC, Barclays, CitiBank and Standard Chartered Bank apparently gained due to the write-offs, among many others, in the past 15 years of the UPA-NDA governments.
Sarda questioned why the government should permit such write-offs by the financially sound foreign banks instead of concentrating on the financial health of the Indian PSBs, private, scheduled and cooperative banks which directly concern a majority of the countrymen.
“In 2020, it seems we still follow the 1995 policies for loan recoveries or write-offs rather than innovating to ensure relief to the common masses instead of select corporate houses and bankrupt businessmen like Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi etc.,” Sarda said.
Worse — many of these bank defaulters are absconding since years and the government has also admitted that it has caught only two of the 72 fugitives in the past five years.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has warned of a collapse of the social and political systems and overwhelming chaos without a financial reform in the country.
Al-Kadhimi made his comments during an extraordinary session of the Iraqi cabinet on Saturday to discuss the federal budget for the fiscal year 2021, which came after the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) decided to devaluate the national currency due to the economic crisis that resulted from the decline in oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.
“The political crisis in Iraq is linked to three issues: power, money, and corruption. We are working to address the crisis from an economic standpoint and with a bold decision to overcome the obstacles of corruption and money,” al-Kadhimi’s media office said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, the CBI decided to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar to be 1,450 dinars per $1 in the central bank, instead of its previous price of 1,119 dinars per dollar.
The exchange rate of the dollar will reach 1,470 dinars in the local market, the statement said.
The CBI attributed the decision to the financial crisis that resulted from the decline in oil prices and the pandemic, which led to a large deficit in the state budget, forcing the government to borrow money from banks to pay salaries and to cover other expenses, according to the statement.
In a separate statement, Iraqi Minister of Finance Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi said “it has become clear that urgent reforms are needed in various economic fields, including the currency exchange rate.”
“Despite the difficulty of this decision, we are forced to take such a step to address a large part of the crisis, and to ensure the protection of the Iraqi economy by achieving a brave reform step,” Allawi added.
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Apple has placed Wistron Corporation on probation after finding fault with the company over payment delays in October and November to workers at the Taiwanese contract manufacturer’s Narasapura facility near the Karnataka capital.
The development comes one week after violence broke out at the Wistron’s Narasapura facility as a large number of workers went on a rampage last Saturday over issues related to payment of salary.
A Karnataka government report also found lapses in the way Wistron tried to scale up production in the factory.
The investigation found that the practices put in place at the plant with regard to payment of wages and overtime work were not in line with the provisions of law.
“Apple employees and independent auditors hired by Apple have been working around the clock to investigate the issues which occurred at Wistron’s Narasapura facility,” Apple said in a statement.
“While these investigations are ongoing, our preliminary findings indicate violations of our Supplier Code of Conduct by failing to implement proper working hour management processes. This led to payment delays for some workers in October and November,” the company said.
Apple said Wistron will not receive any new business from Apple before they complete corrective actions, dealing a blow to its plans to scale up production at the India facility.
“As always, our focus is on making sure everyone in our supply chain is protected and treated with dignity and respect. We are very disappointed and taking immediate steps to address these issues,” Apple said.
“We have placed Wistron on probation and they will not receive any new business from Apple before they complete corrective actions. Apple employees, along with independent auditors, will monitor their progress. Our main objective is to make sure all the workers are treated with dignity and respect, and fully compensated promptly.”
Wistron on Saturday admitted mistakes and apologised to all workers and also said that it will remove the Vice President who oversees the company’s business in India.
“Since the unfortunate events at our Narasapura facility we have been investigating and have found that some workers were not paid correctly, or on time. We deeply regret this and apologize to all of our workers,” Wistron said.
“This is a new facility and we recognise that we made mistakes as we expanded. Some of the processes we put in place to manage labour agencies and payments need to be strengthened and upgraded,” it added.
The company said that it is “working hard” to ensure all workers are fully compensated immediately.
“We have established an employee assistance program for workers at the facility. We also set up a 24-hour grievance hotline in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and English to ensure all workers can voice any concerns they may have anonymously,” Wistron said.
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French President Emmanuel Macron’s health condition is “stable” after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week, the Elysee Presidential Palace said in a statement.
“The medical condition of the President is stable… He presents similar Covid-19 symptoms which do not prevent him from fulfilling his obligations,” Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying on Saturday.
Macron started working in self-isolation from an official residence outside Paris on December 17 after the diagnosis established by “RT-PCR tests carried out as soon as the first symptoms appeared”, said his office.
On December 18, the President said in a live video on Twitter that he was doing fine but was working at a slower pace.
Following Macron’s diagnosis, a host European leaders went into quarantine as they came in contact with the President in recent days.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who met Macron on December 14 during an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) event in Paris, will quarantine until December 24.
European Council President Charles Michel, who had lunch with Macron also on December 14, as well as OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria were also self-isolating.
Meanwhile, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa has been in self-quarantine following close contact with Macron.
France, one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, has so far reported a total of 2,516,957 coronavirus cases and 60,534 deaths.
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UAE and UK discussed the critical role of strong UK-UAE bilateral ties in accelerating progress on emissions reductions and sustainable industrial development, areas which both closely align with the UAE Vision 2021 and UAE Centennial 2071.
UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, met with COP26 President and UK Special Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Alok Sharma.
The two officials discussed the critical role of strong UK-UAE bilateral ties in accelerating progress on emissions reductions and sustainable industrial development, areas which both closely align with the UAE Vision 2021 and UAE Centennial 2071.
In his conversation with Sharma, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said, “For more than 49 years, the UAE has prioritized responsible stewardship of natural resources, and my new appointment as Special Envoy for Climate Change is a testament of the UAE’s continued commitment to further progress on this front both domestically and globally.”
“On the issue of climate change, collective action is essential, and I am both impressed and motivated by the UK’s ambitious emissions targets. I look forward to working closely with Secretary Sharma to identify new potential areas of UK-UAE climate cooperation and aligning our national ambitions as we approach the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow.”
Dr. Sultan, in his capacity as Chairman of the UAE’s National COVID-19 Crisis Recovery, Management & Governance Committee, also shared learnings from the UAE’s successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic and highlighted the UAE’s keen interest in leveraging its renewable and carbon capture and storage technology to support its post-COVID economic recovery.
Secretary Sharma shared words of praise for the UAE’s investments in renewable energy both domestically and abroad, and expressed appreciation for Dr. Sultan’s proposal to form a joint working group aimed at advancing opportunities for UK and UAE joint coordination on climate action, the post-COVID economic recovery, and sustainable industrial development.
Scientific advances
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said scientific advances can be used to battle climate change, a challenge which he described as being “far worse, far more destructive than coronavirus”.
Johnson made the remarks while speaking at the virtual Climate Ambition Summit co-convened by the United Nations, Britain, and France, in partnership with Chile and Italy.
The Prime Minister hailed a new era of “scientific optimism” as the year comes to the end.
“We are coming to the end of an extraordinary year with, I think, a sudden surge of scientific optimism, because of after barely 12 months of the pandemic we are seeing the vaccine going into the arms of the elderly and the vulnerable.”
“Together we can use scientific advances to protect our entire planet — our biosphere — against a challenge far worse, far more destructive even than the coronavirus,” he said.
“And by the promethean power of our invention, we can begin to defend the Earth against the disaster of global warming.”
“At the same time, we can create thousands of jobs, millions of jobs as we collectively recover from the pandemic,” he added.
Earlier this month, Johnson announced that Britain will be committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68 percent by the end of the decade compared to 1990 levels.
The virtual Climate Ambition Summit, held exactly five years since the adoption of the landmark Paris Agreement, aims to make new commitments to tackling climate change and delivering on the Paris Agreement ahead of the next UN Climate Conference, COP26, which will be hosted by Britain in November next year in Glasgow.
The summit brought together UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and more than 70 world leaders from such countries as Britain, France, Germany, China and Canada, as well as businesses and civil society.
Ahead of the COP26 in Glasgow, China will host the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan in southwest China, in May, 2021.
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Russia was on Thursday banned from using its flag at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and other major world championships for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS’s order is a reduction from the initial four-year ban imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
“…the flag of the Russian Federation (current or historical) may not be flown or displayed in any official venue or area controlled by a signatory or event organiser appointed by the Signatory at any of the following events during the two-year period: i. The Olympic and Paralympic Games (winter or summer); ii. Any World Championships organised or sanctioned by any Signatory,” said the Switzerland-based CAS in its order.
Russia has also been banned from hosting any world championship-level events during the two-year period.
Athletes from the country will hence be participating in the Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed to July-August next year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, under a neutral flag. They have additionally been barred from featuring the country’s name or emblem “or other national symbol of the Russian Federation” on their clothes, equipment “or other personal items or in a publicly visible manner at any official venues or other areas”.
The order also states that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) remains suspended and specifies conditions it must satisfy in the two-year period to be reinstated.
While the three-judge panel largely agreed with WADA’s arguments against Russia, it is unclear as to why it reduced the four-year ban imposed by the global anti-doping watchdog to two.
“The consequences which the Panel has decided to impose are not as extensive as those sought by WADA,” said the panel in its preface to the order.
“This should not, however, be read as any validation of the conduct of RUSADA or the Russian authorities. In making its orders, the Panel is limited by the powers granted under the applicable law, in particular the WADC (World Anti-Doping Code) and the ISCCS (International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories). It has considered matters of proportionality and, in particular, the need to effect cultural change and encourage the next generation of Russian athletes to participate in clean international sport.”
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The 2030 Asian Games will be hosted by Doha, Qatar while the 2034 Asiad has been awarded to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on Wednesday.
Qatar’s capital Doha was announced as the winner after a vote by 45 OCA member committees at the 39th OCA General Assembly held in Muscat, Oman and online.
The process was hampered by repeated delays caused by problems with the online voting system.
Riyadh ended up runner-up to Doha for the 2030 Asian Games and was thus awarded the 2034 edition. “I will be glad to have two games in west Asia, to be honest,” said OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.
Doha hosted the 15th Asian Games in 2006, but Saudi Arabia has never organised an OCA multi-sport event. The next two Asian Games will be held in East Asia, China’s Hangzhou in 2022 and Japan’s Aichi and Nagoya in 2026, before the Games move to West Asia.
Indian automobile major Tata Motors Ltd on Thursday said it would buy the 49 per cent stakes of Marcopolo S.A. in the bus and coach making joint venture Tata Marcopolo Motors Ltd for Rs 99.96 crore.
In a regulatory Tata Motors said as a consequence of its refreshed business strategy, Marcopolo S.A has decided to exit from the joint venture and offered to sell its 49 per cent shareholding in Rs 170 crore capital Tata Marcopolo to it.
According to Tata Motors, the two companies have entered into a share purchase agreement whereby the former will purchase the balance 49 per cent shareholding in the Rs 650.55 crore Tata Marcopolo for a cash consideration of Rs 99.96 crore.
Tata Motors will pay a price of Rs.12 per share to Marcopolo S.A. for the Rs 10 per share of Tata Marcopolo.
Last fiscal Tata Marcopolo had made an after tax profit of Rs 20.63 crore.
Post the purchase, Tata Marcopolo with manufacturing facilities in Dharwad and Lucknow will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors.
All technologies pertaining to existing bus body products manufactured will continue to vest with Tata Marcopolo, said Tata Motors.
In addition, as part of the transition, Marcopolo S.A. will continue to license the “Marcopolo” trademarks to Tata Marcopolo for a minimum of three years with a non-compete provision in India for a corresponding period.
The acquisition is expected to be completed by February 28, 2021.
Tata Motors said, an open channel will be maintained with Marcopolo S.A. and Tata Marcopolo for future collaboration opportunities around bus body designs and technical consulting services.
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