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faint for comfort?

definition: A fiscal deficit occurs when a government’s total expenditures exceed the revenue that it generates, excluding money from borrowings.
October 2018, GST collection: ₹1,00,710 crore
It will be more or likely same next month too, due to festive season.
2017-18 average was: ₹89,885 crore
April 2018: for the 1 st time we crossed ₹1 lakh crore
Rate reduction in July: increase in compliance
It also helps to reduce the distortionary effect of indirect taxes.
Direct tax: ₹10 lakh crore collection is all time high and not bad.
Lacklustre sales in the market.
The export sector, for example, has been affected by undue delays in GST refunds worth thousands of crores of rupees.
Make GST friendly.

How not to choose among allies

- Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): Iran Nuclear Deal
- India agreed to cut its imports by only about 15%.
- Cumulative global pressure: more than 50% drop in oil sales.
- USA has stepped out of JCPOA.
- E3s are not happy
- International Atomic Energy Agency is not happy
- China + Russia are ready to take USA down
- Other JCPOA members are trying to make sure that Iran does not step out of the deal.
- U.S. is increasingly isolated politically.
- So the ? Is how will this CAATSA impact India

Iran is India’s third largest oil supplier
Most of our refineries are accustomed with Iranian oil.
India’s investment in the Chabahar port.
$2 billion plan for a railway line to circumvent Pakistan and reach Afghanistan and Central Asian trade lines.
India’s regional security situation
Iran-Arab divide
China-Russia penetration
U.S. has said that it is only issuing temporary waivers
What about Iranian reaction?
Iran can shift its focus from Chabahar back to Bandar Abbas
What about U turns of Mr. Trump?
Just months after the U.S. demanded that India close its mission in Pyongyang, Mr. Trump was planning a summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj : “UN sanctions, not unilateral ones”
As a result, if the U.S. presses on with sanctions, it would be a marked failure of Indian diplomacy.

A judgment and its aftermath

Pakistan often finds itself at the mercy of hardline clerics and unscrupulous individuals seeking to exploit religion for political gain.
People are demanding to kill a person, against whom SC of Pakistan found not credible evidence.
Ms. Bibi, an illiterate berry picker, was convicted of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws date back to the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq.
Persecute the weakest of the weak

Important News

- Iran oil: India to get U.S. sanctions waiver
- Eight countries will be given exemptions and “weeks longer to wind down” their trade with Iran, once U.S. sanctions against Iran kick in on November 5.
- He also clarified that the European Union (EU) — which consists of 28 countries including the U.K. — will not be one of the jurisdictions granted a temporary exemption.
- In terms of entities granted exemptions, there would be no exemption for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a global financial messaging service, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was also on the call, said.
- SWIFT — which does not hold money itself but transmits information on transactions — has a network that spans 200 countries and some 11,000 financial institutions, as per the data released by the company
- If it is sanctioned, that will have a significant impact on organisations that use it. SWIFT has been told it will have to cut off from sanctioned entities as soon as technologically feasible or could face sanctions, Mr. Mnuchin said.

Loans for MSMEs in 59 minutes
“In the time taken for you to reach your office, you can now get a loan,” he said. “We had run a pilot and I had set a target of 72,000 MSMEs. As of today, 72,680 have been on-boarded.”
The Prime Minister said firms registered on the Goods and Services Tax portal would be able to avail themselves of this facility on the portal itself. “When you file GST returns, you will be asked if you want a loan,” Mr. Modi said. “GST-registered firms will also get a 2% rebate on interest rates. Being a part of the GST and being an honest taxpayer will become your strength.”
Mr. Modi said public sector companies had now been asked to compulsorily procure 25%, instead of 20%, of their total purchases from the MSMEs. He said that of the 25% procurement mandated from the MSMEs, 3% must now be reserved for women entrepreneurs.
“There are five key aspects for facilitating the MSME sector,” he said. 1. access to credit 2. access to market 3. technology upgradation 4. ease of doing business 5. sense of security for employees
Xi calls for ‘new era’ in ties with Pak.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan arrived in to rework “all-weather” ties with China, after reinforcing Islamabad’s bonds with Saudi Arabia, and keeping the door open for the re-entry of West-backed International Monetary Fund (IMF) into his country.
President Xi said that China-Pakistan “all weather” friendship should enter a “new era”.
NASA’s historic Dawn mission comes to an end
NASA’s pioneering Dawn spacecraft — which orbited the two largest objects in the asteroid belt — has run out of fuel, ending a 11-year mission that unravelled many mysteries of our solar system, the U.S space agency said on Friday.