Maduro wins Venezuelan election

ON MAY 21, 2018 BY NARESH SAGARLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

Nicolas Maduro has been declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election, which saw a 46.1 percent turnout, according to Venezuela’s electoral council, after the opposition branded the vote a fraud and called for a boycott.

With 92.6 percent of the vote counted, Maduro has won presidential election with 5,823,728 of the votes, National Electoral Council chief Tibisay Lucena announced. His main adversary, Henri Falcon of the Progressive Advance party, obtained 1,820,552 votes; while the independent candidate Javier Bertucci won 925,042 votes.

“How much have they underestimated our revolutionary people, and how much have they underestimated me,” Maduro told a late-night crowd in front of the presidential palace. “And here we are, victorious.”

Over eight million Venezuelans participated in the election, which witnessed a low 46.1 percent participation rate after opposition parties called for a boycott of the election, declaring them a “fraud.”

“The process undoubtedly lacks legitimacy and as such we do not recognize it,” Falcon proclaimed, even before the election results were announced. The candidate claimed that the vote was full of irregularities and totally rigged in favor of Maduro because the mainstream opposition promoted abstention, leaving Falcon without potential voters.

On Friday, the US Treasury seemingly tried to sway public opinion and the result of Sunday’s vote by officially linking Maduro to drug trade, accusing the country’s “second most powerful man,” Diosdado Cabello, of running a narcotics ring and sharing profits with the president.

Maduro, who himself is subject to US sanctions, repeatedly slammed Washington’s punitive measures as part of a broader campaign aimed at overthrowing his government.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Sullivan says U.S. will not recognize the result of the Venezuela election; oil

Vaccine specific regulatory policy

ON MAY 21, 2018 BY NARESH SAGARLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

Drugs Controller General of India, S. Eswara Reddy has announced that he plans to come out with vaccine specific regulatory policy and a manual for regulatory requirements for commercialization of new drug and how to conduct clinical trials in India.

Speaking at a symposium on ‘research and development of vaccines: issues, challenges and opportunities organized by PC2 Scientific Services, a strategic and technical consulting company in association with Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) and CR RAO AIMSCS at University of Hyderabad, he said that since pneumococcal is one of the majority vaccines, they would first come out with a policy to facilitate introducing indigenously-produced vaccines. He further listed out the steps being taken by his organization to promote innovation through transparent system and regulatory changes.

He also proposed to conduct symposiums across India and invite research institutions to know their regulatory challenges. The regulator will reach out to research and innovation centres by disseminating information about the regulatory requirements for commercialization of their products.

Reddy underlined the need to communicate to media the facts about the deaths due to clinical trials. He told the gathering that media gives a wrong projection about the number of deaths.

He said that although media reports that during last 7-8 years, 25,000 patients died during clinical trials in India, the fact is that only 5 percent of these deaths are actually due to clinical trials. “For example, during clinical trials related to cancer, patients who are already in terminal stage die. The death of such patients is not due to clinical trials,” he said.

With the drug developers and researchers raising concern about the restrictions on import of animal models, the Drug Controller General hoped that the Union Environment and Forests Ministry would look into the issue.

He said the import of animals was restricted by the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) guidelines and suggested that the innovators, industry and regulator make a joint representation on the issue.

Some participants spoke how the researchers were forced to go abroad because of non-availability of such animals in the country for studies and the restrictions on the import. Reddy said the issues was relating in the country losing its credibility and the forex reserves.

Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, the malaria vaccine scientist from Columbia, was the keynote speaker. The symposium was attended by delegates from scientific research & academic and industry both from India and abroad.

Dr. Dasari V Ravi Kumar, Director of PC2 Scientific Services, pointed out that Hyderabad is producing about 33 per cent of global vaccines dosages and 35 per cent to the pharmaceutical production in the country.

biospectrumindia.com/news

RBI releases final guidelines on Basel III Framework on Liquidity Standards

ON MAY 21, 2018 BY NARESH SAGARLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

RBI releases final guidelines on Basel III Framework on Liquidity Standards – Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR)

The Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) and Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) are significant components of the Basel III reforms. The LCR guidelines which promote short term resilience of a bank’s liquidity profile have been issued vide circular DBOD.BP.BC.No.120/21.04.098/2013-14 dated June 9, 2014. The NSFR guidelines on the other hand ensure reduction in funding risk over a longer time horizon by requiring banks to fund their activities with sufficiently stable sources of funding in order to mitigate the risk of future funding stress. The draft guidelines on the NSFR for banks in India were issued on May 28, 2015 for comments. The final guidelines, after considering comments received from various stakeholders, are given below for implementation by RBI. Final Guidelines on Basel III Framework on Liquidity Standards – Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) Introduction In the backdrop of the global financial crisis that started in 2007, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) proposed certain reforms to strengthen global capital and liquidity regulations with the objective of promoting a more resilient banking sector. In this regard, the Basel III rules text on liquidity – “Basel III: International framework for liquidity risk measurement, standards and monitoring” was issued in December 2010 which presented the details of global regulatory standards on liquidity. Two minimum standards, viz., Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) for funding liquidity were prescribed by the Basel Committee for achieving two separate but complementary objectives. The LCR promotes short-term resilience of banks to potential liquidity disruptions by ensuring that they have sufficient high quality liquid assets (HQLAs) to survive an acute stress scenario lasting for 30 days. The NSFR promotes resilience over a longer-term time horizon by requiring banks to fund their activities with more stable sources of funding on an ongoing basis. At the time of issuing the December 2010 document, the Basel Committee had put in place a rigorous process to review the standard and its implications for financial markets, credit extension and economic growth and agreed to review the development of the NSFR over an observation period. The focus of this review was on addressing any unintended consequences for financial market functioning and the economy, and on improving its design with respect to several key issues, notably: (i) the impact on retail business activities; (ii) the treatment of short-term matched funding of assets and liabilities; and (iii) analysis of sub-one year buckets for both assets and liabilities. These guidelines are based on the final rules text on NSFR published by the BCBS in October 2014 and take into account the Indian conditions. Objective The objective of NSFR is to ensure that banks maintain a stable funding profile in relation to the composition of their assets and off-balance sheet activities. A sustainable funding structure is intended to reduce the probability of erosion of a bank’s liquidity position due to disruptions in a bank’s regular sources of funding that would increase the risk of its failure and potentially lead 4 to broader systemic stress. The NSFR limits overreliance on short-term wholesale funding, encourages better assessment of funding risk across all on- and off-balance sheet items, and promotes funding stability. Definition of NSFR The NSFR is defined as the amount of available stable funding relative to the amount of required stable funding. “Available stable funding” (ASF) is defined as the portion of capital and liabilities expected to be reliable over the time horizon considered by the NSFR, which extends to one year. The amount of stable funding required (“Required stable funding”) (RSF) of a specific institution is a function of the liquidity characteristics and residual maturities of the various assets held by that institution as well as those of its off-balance sheet (OBS) exposures. Minimum Requirement and Implementation Date The above ratio should be equal to at least 100% on an ongoing basis. However, the NSFR would be supplemented by supervisory assessment of the stable funding and liquidity risk profile of a bank. On the basis of such assessment, the Reserve Bank may require an individual bank to adopt more stringent standards to reflect its funding risk profile and its compliance with the Sound Principles (issued vide circular “Liquidity Risk Management by Banks” DBOD.BP.No.56/21.04.098/2012-13 dated November 7, 2012). The NSFR would be binding on banks with effect from a date which will be communicated in due course. Definition and computation of Available Stable Funding The amount of ASF is measured, based on the broad characteristics of the relative stability of an institution’s funding sources, including the contractual maturity of its liabilities and the differences in the propensity of different types of funding providers to withdraw their funding. The amount of ASF is calculated by first assigning the carrying value of an institution’s capital and liabilities to one of five categories as presented below. The amount assigned to each category is then multiplied by an ASF factor, and the total ASF is the sum of the weighted amounts. Carrying value represents the amount at which a liability or equity instrument is recorded before the application of any regulatory deductions, filters or other adjustments. Sr. No. Components of ASF category (liability categories) Associated ASF factor (i) • Total regulatory capital (excluding Tier 2 instruments with residual maturity of less than one year) • Other capital instruments with effective residual maturity of one year or more • Other liabilities with effective residual maturity of one year or more 100% (ii) • Stable non-maturity (demand) deposits and term deposits with residual maturity of less than one year provided by retail and small business customers 95% (iii) • Less stable non-maturity deposits and term deposits with residual maturity of less than one year provided by retail and small business customers 90% (iv) • Funding with residual maturity of less than one year provided by non-financial corporate customers • Operational deposits • Funding with residual maturity of less than one year from sovereigns, PSEs, and multilateral and national development banks • Other funding with residual maturity between six months and less than one year not included in the above categories, including funding provided by central banks and financial institutions 50% (v) • All other liabilities and equity not included in the above categories, including liabilities without a stated maturity (with a specific treatment for deferred tax liabilities and minority interests) • NSFR derivative liabilities net of NSFR derivative assets if NSFR derivative liabilities are greater than NSFR derivative assets • “Trade date” payables arising from purchases of financial instruments, foreign currencies and commodities. 0% Definition and computation of Required Stable Funding (RSF) The amount of required stable funding is measured based on the broad characteristics of the liquidity risk profile of an institution’s assets and OBS exposures. The amount of required stable funding is calculated by first assigning the carrying value4 of an institution’s assets to the categories listed in the in appended table below. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the NSFR standard, assets should be allocated to maturity buckets according to their contractual residual maturity. However, this should take into account embedded optionality, such as put or call options, which may affect the actual maturity date. The amount assigned to each category is then multiplied by its associated required stable funding (RSF) factor, and the total RSF is the sum of the weighted amounts added to the amount of OBS activity (or potential liquidity exposure) multiplied by its associated RSF factor in appended table Definitions mirror those outlined in the extant LCR guidelines, unless otherwise specified. Sr. No. Components of RSF category Associated RSF factor (i) • Coins and banknotes • Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) including excess CRR • All claims on RBI with residual maturities of less than six months • “Trade date” receivables arising from sales of financial instruments, foreign currencies and commodities. 0% (ii) • Unencumbered Level 1 assets, excluding coins, banknotes and CRR • Unencumbered SLR Securities 5% (iii) • Unencumbered loans to financial institutions with residual maturities of less than six months, where the loan is secured against Level 1 assets as defined in LCR circular dated June 9, 2014 and updated from time to time, and where the bank has the ability to freely re-hypothecate the received collateral for the life of the loan 10% (iv) • All other ‘standard’ unencumbered loans to financial institutions with residual maturities of less than six months not included in the above categories • Unencumbered Level 2A assets 15% (v) • Unencumbered Level 2B assets • HQLA encumbered for a period of six months or more and less than one year • ‘Standard’ Loans to financial institutions and central banks with residual maturities between six months and less than one year • Deposits held at other financial institutions for operational purposes • All other assets not included in the above categories with residual maturity of less than one year, including ‘standard’ loans to non-financial corporate clients, to retail and small business customers, and ‘standard’ loans to sovereigns and PSEs 50% (vi) • Unencumbered ‘standard’ residential mortgages with a residual maturity of one year or more and with the minimum risk weight permitted under the Standardised Approach • Other unencumbered ‘standard’ loans not included in the above categories, excluding loans to financial institutions, with a residual maturity of one year or more and with a risk weight of less than or equal to 35% under the Standardised Approach 65% (vii) • Cash, securities or other assets posted as initial margin for derivative contracts and cash or other assets provided to contribute to the default fund of a CCP • Other unencumbered performing loans with risk weights greater than 35% under the Standardised Approach and residual maturities of one year or more, excluding loans to financial institutions • Unencumbered securities that are not in default and do not qualify as HQLA/SLR with a remaining maturity of one year or more and exchange-traded equities • Physical traded commodities, including gold 85% (viii) • All assets that are encumbered for a period of one year or more • NSFR derivative assets net of NSFR derivative liabilities if NSFR derivative assets are greater than NSFR derivative liabilities • 5% of derivative liabilities as calculated according to para 8.1 • All other assets not included in the above categories, including non-performing loans, loans to financial institutions with a residual maturity of one year or more, non-exchange-traded equities, fixed assets, items deducted from regulatory capital, retained interest, insurance assets, subsidiary interests and defaulted securities • All restructured ‘standard’ loans which attract higher risk weight and additional provision 100%

WB to Scale Up India’s Energy Efficiency Program

ON MAY 21, 2018 BY NARESH SAGARLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

US$300 Million World Bank Operation to Help Scale Up India’s Energy Efficiency Program 

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a US$220 million loan and an $80 million guarantee for the India Energy Efficiency Scale-Up Program. The Program, to be implemented by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), will help scale up the deployment of energy saving measures in residential and public sectors, strengthen EESL’s institutional capacity, and enhance its access to commercial financing. India’s climate change commitments to reduce carbon intensity by 33-35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level will require a significant focus on energy efficiency improvements. The investments under the Program are expected to avoid lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of 170 million tons of CO2, and contribute to avoiding an estimated 10 GW of additional generation capacity. This would be over 50 percent of the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency target of 19.6 GW indicated in India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Accord. The key components of the operation include: creating sustainable markets for LED lights and energy efficient ceiling fans; facilitating well-structured and scalable investments in public street lighting; developing sustainable business models for emerging market segments such as super-efficient air conditioning and agricultural water pumping systems; and strengthening the institutional capacity of EESL. Moreover, the Program will help to increase private sector participation in energy efficiency, including through private sector energy service companies. Under the Program, EESL will deploy 219 million LED bulbs and tube lights, 5.8 million ceiling fans, and 7.2 million street lights, which will be supplied by private sector manufacturers and suppliers. As an integral part of the operation, the first-ever IBRD guarantee in India will help EESL access new markets for commercial financing in line with the Bank’s approach of maximizing finance for development. The guarantee is expected to leverage some $200 million in additional financing, to help EESL with its growing portfolio and future investment needs. Demand for energy end-use appliances and equipment like lighting, ceiling fans, air conditioners, refrigerators, agricultural pumps, and industrial motors is projected to grow significantly in India. So far, through the “Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All” (UJALA) program, EESL has already deployed more than 295 million LED bulbs, resulting in avoiding over 7,500 MW of new electricity generation capacity and bringing a significant drop in retail prices of high quality LED lightbulbs. The India Energy Efficiency Scale-Up Program will help EESL expand UJALA’s deployment of efficient ceiling fans, LED street lights and LED tube lights, along with its already-successful LED bulbs procurement and distribution. Under the Street Lighting National Program (SLNP) of EESL which has installed over 5.8 million LED street lights in three years across more than 500 municipalities, EESL enters into long-term annuity agreements with municipalities to retrofit existing streetlights with LED lamps and fixtures, and maintain them for up to seven years. The entire investment is made upfront by EESL and recovered from the energy savings of municipalities/cities. To realize the street lighting program’s full market potential and its growing program, EESL will leverage the capacity and resources of the private energy service companies (ESCOs) to a wider range of commercial financing sources. The $220 million loan, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to EESL, has a 5-year grace period, and a maturity of 19 years.  The $80 million IBRD guarantee will partially cover re-payment risks to commercial lenders or investors, to enable EESL to raise funds for its program.

Launch of the Jandec Aviation and Hospitality Institute

ON MAY 21, 2018 BY NARESH SAGARLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

A Grand Launch of the Jandec Aviation and Hospitality Institute held in New Delhi

   The new Institute of one of India’s leading aviation and hospitality college– Jandec was launched by with former Miss India World Priyadarshini in New Delhi, at Hotel Royal Plaza, Ashoka Road. Jandec Aviation and Hospitality institute also announced Priyadarshini Chatterjee, the successful model and beauty pageant titleholder as their “Brand Ambassador”.

   The Institute offers premium aviation training program for Airlines In-flight services and airport ground handling services to develop skilled manpower for airlines, airport, and hospitality and retail management industries. The goal of the initiative is to provide the industry with skilled manpower and generating employment in aviation and the support sector. JANDEC, an accredited institution in aviation provides state of the art airport ground handling training and in-flight management programs.

  Speaking about the event, Jandec founder Mr. Manav Bhalla said “We are thrilled to have formally launched our Institute. It is an initiative to encourage the young demographic to pursue a career in aviation and hospitality Industry. The Institute is well equipped and is led by a group of highly accomplished professionals who have contributed immensely to the industry. It is a good start and students here will benefit greatly professionally.”

   The courses offered in the Institute falls under the guidelines and needs of the industry. We strive to facilitate excellent training keeping in mind the highest industry standards. A team of highly qualified instructors who bring their years of experience and expertise to the institute will be spearheading the curriculum. The focus is to cater to the airports in the Indian subcontinent from North East India in lieu of upcoming airports in the region.

  Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Priyadarshini Chatterjee said, “It is a great career prospect, a career in the aviation and hospitality sector. I am truly excited to be a part of the Jandec family and representing the brand. The Institute is well equipped and backed by top professionals to provide top-notch training that is required to excel in the Industry.”

   Jandec is one of the premier vocational training institutes in India. With a unique curriculum, pedagogy and innovative programs, it has chartered a unique and high growth path not only in aviation but also in hospitality, travel management, and customer service. As an institute, it has always been in touch with various industry bodies and thus recognized industry needs in time and responded to them with quick and appropriate innovations as well as adaptations in its course curriculum as well as teaching methodologies. This constant evolution and the spirit to excel have led to Jandec being recognized as a company of repute and eminence for its professionally oriented courses.

Karnataka state Election

ON MAY 21, 2018 BY NARESH SAGARLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

May 25

Centre for Policy Research & Trivedi Centre for Political Data (Ashoka University) invite you to a discussion on Unpacking the results of the Karnataka elections Presentation by Neelanjan Sircar, Senior Fellow, CPR Panelists: Sreenivasan Jain, Managing Editor, NDTV Radhika Ramaseshan, Consulting Editor, Business Standard Sugata Srinivasaraju, Co-Founder & Editorial Director, The State

Friday, 25 May 2018, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Conference room, Centre for Policy Research