Daily Financial News Analysis – 30th June’20

Table of Contents

Customs Checks Eased

Indian customs authorities have exempted select US and South Korean companies from mandatory 100% physical checks.
Shipments of HP, Dell, Samsung and Apple have been cleared following the relaxation.
US companies importing goods or inputs from China for the Indian market may be exempted from the scrutiny.
Exporters and manufacturers who rely heavily on inputs will like get exemption.

Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian to give a review of India’s free trade agreements (FTA) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Senior officials of Commerce and Finance ministries will be present.
China is suspected to route goods through other countries, taking advantage of the trade pacts.
India is scanning: South Asian Free Trade Area, the Asean group, and bilateral pacts with Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Sri Lanka.

The World Trade Organization has agreed to the European Union’s second request to establish an adjudication panel to decide on India’s import duties on certain information and communications technology (ICT) products, including mobile phones.
New Delhi has, however, managed to block separate complaints by Japan and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) to set up similar panels
Around 400 million euros in annual ICT exports to India are affected by the customs duties.

India banned 59 Chinese mobile applications.
Threat posed by these applications to the country’s “sovereignty and security”
The ban has been imposed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.
Indian users’ data was transferred without authorisation.
China’s Digital Silk Route ambitions
More countries can follow India’s cue.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, has sent an “exhaustive recommendation for blocking the malicious apps”.
Analysts said the move will impact the Chinese apps.

Unlock 2.0: New guidelines announced by the Centre
Schools and colleges will remain closed until July 31.
No restriction on “inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods”.
Lockdown will continue in the containment zones.
Night curfew timings: 10 pm to 5 am
Several states including Maharashtra extended the lockdown in the state until July 31.

SBI has urged UK home secretary Priti Patel to Reject Mallya’s asylum plea.
SBI urged the British authorities to expedite the fugitive businessman’s extradition proceedings as this was key to recovering dues.
Collective effort by Indian banks, investigative agencies and other entities to put pressure on the UK government to hasten Mallya’s return to India.
Mallya has maintained that Indian banks have repeatedly rebuffed his offers to “pay in full”.
Lenders claimed that Mallya owns them a total of ₹9,000 crore

Ram Vilas Paswan has directed officials to make sure that no Made in China item is purchased through the Government e Marketplace or other sources.
Pawan issued an office memorandum banning purchase of ‘made in China’ items to all its departments including public sector units.