09:45 RLSP chief Kushwaha may quit NDA today:
RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha may quit the BJP-led NDA Monday, a day ahead of the start of the Winter Session and triggering a realignment of political equations in Bihar.
The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief has been targeting the BJP and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a key ally of the ruling party, for weeks.
He has been upset with the BJP after it asserted that the RLSP would not be given more than two seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, even as it went out of way to accommodate Kumar by agreeing that the saffron party and the JD-U would fight equal number of seats.
“Kushwaha is likely to announce his parting of ways with the BJP today. He will also quit as a Union minister,” a senior RLSP leader said.
The RLSP may join hands with the opposition, which includes Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress.
Bihar sends 40 MPs to Lok Sabha.
— PTI
09:28 Mamata a lady of great courage, can lead anti-BJP coalition: Yashwant Sinha:
Praising West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Union Finance Minister Yashant Sinha said she has all the qualities to be the face of a coalition that can be formed at the Centre if the incumbent Narendra Modi-led dispensation is defeated in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
“She has all the qualities to be the face of that coalition,” Sinha told mediapersons in Kolkata on the sidelines of a talk show “Idea of Bengal”, organised by Banerjee`s Trinamool Congress.
Sinha, who held important portfolios including Finance and External Affairs in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee — the first Prime Minister to complete a full term as the head of a coalition — said such governments can run well if the Prime Minister has the ability to carry all coalition partners.
“I have experience of coalition government. I think it can run beautifully if the Prime Minister has the personality to carry all the coalition partners,” he said.
Sinha also lauded Banerjee for her courage and said she has a big role to play in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
“She is a lady of great courage, and that reflects all the time in her actions. We have just talked about electing a new government when Lok Sabha elections take place. My view is that the Chief Minister of West Bengal has a very major role to play in achieving that,” he said.
08:47 Macron to break silence, address French nation amid protests:
Pressure mounted on French President Emmanuel Macron to announce concrete measures to calm protests marked by violence when he addresses the nation on Monday evening, and breaks a long silence widely seen as aggravating a crisis that has shaken the government and the whole country.
The president will consult in the morning with an array of national and local officials as he tries to get a handle on the ballooning and radicalising protest movement triggered by anger at his policies, and a growing sense that they favour the rich.
Macron will speak from the presidential Elysee Palace at 8 pm (1900 GMT), an Elysee official said. The official wasn’t authorised to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said earlier on LCI TV station he was “sure (Macron) will know how to find the path to the hearts of the French, speak to their hearts.”
But, he added, a “magic wand” won’t solve all the problems of the protesters, known as “yellow vests” for the fluorescent safety vests they often wear.
Last week, Macron withdrew a fuel tax hike the issue that kicked off protests in mid-November in an effort to appease the protesters, but the move was seen as too little too late.
For many protesters, Macron himself, widely seen as arrogant and disconnected from rank-and-file French, has become the problem. Calls for him to resign were rampant on Saturday, the fourth weekend of large-scale protests.
08:31 Will Vijay Mallya be extradited to India? London court may deliver verdict today:
Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, wanted in India on alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore, is scheduled to return to the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday when his extradition trial is listed for a judgment hand-down.
The 62-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss has been on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year.
He has contested his extradition on the grounds that the case against him is “politically motivated” and the loans he has been accused of defrauding on were sought to keep his now-defunct airline afloat.
“I did not borrow a single rupee. The borrower was Kingfisher Airlines. Money was lost due to a genuine and sad business failure. Being held as guarantor is not fraud,” he said in his recent tweet.
“I have offered to repay 100 per cent of the principal amount to them. Please take it,” the flamboyant businessman tweeted earlier.
While dismissing that his intervention has anything to do with the extradition case, it came just days before Judge Emma Arbuthnot was expected to present her ruling in the case.
The trial, which opened at the Magistrates’ Court on December 4 last year, has gone through a series of hearings beyond the initial seven days earmarked for it.
If the judgment goes ahead as scheduled on Monday, it would mark a significant point in this high-profile extradition trial that has lasted over a year.
07:56 India’s growth ‘very solid’: IMF Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld:
India’s growth has been “very solid” over the past four years, IMF’s Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld said, praising the fundamental economic reforms like the GST and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code carried out by the government.
Obstfeld — who is set to retire this month-end — will be succeeded by Gita Gopinath, the second Indian to be appointed to the position. Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had served as Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund.
“India under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has carried out some really fundamental reforms. These include the Goods and Services Tax, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code…A lot of what they have done on financial inclusion has been really important,” Obstfeld told a group of journalists here.
Summing up his impression of India’s economy in the last four-and-a-half years of the Modi government, the top IMF economist said the country’s “growth performance has been very solid”.
“I mean, not so much in the third quarter of this year, but generally it has been quite solid,” he said.
“There are important vulnerabilities, so it is important for the reform momentum to be maintained even as an election comes up and for the path of fiscal adjustment to be maintained,” Obstfeld added.
He said one risk that has become much more evident in the last few years has been non-bank finance, usually called shadow banking.
“There is a big challenge of stricter, oversight,” the economist said.
Noting that there has long been a legacy of corporate debt associated with bad infrastructure projects in India, Obstfeld said it has been very concentrated in banking system.
“But as the government is trying to better oversee the banking system, these loans have migrated to shadow banking and that is an area where more needs to be done to contain financial pressures, which we are beginning to see in India,” he said.
However, with an upcoming election in the country, there is a reluctance to do anything that would slow the economy, Obstfeld said, observing, “But the lesson of experiences is that financial vulnerabilities can go south very quickly”.
— PTI
Source: Rediff