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Twitter warned that governments around the globe are asking the company to remove content or snoop on private details of user accounts at an alarming rate.

The social media company revealed in a new report that it fielded a record number of legal demands nearly 60,000 during a six-month period last year - from local, state or national governments that wanted Twitter to remove content from accounts or reveal confidential information such as direct messages or user locations.

We're seeing governments become more aggressive in how they try to use legal tactics to unmask the people using our service, collect information about account owners and also using legal demands as a way to try and silence people, Yoel Roth, the head of Twitter's safety and integrity, said in a conversation broadcast on the site Thursday.

The US makes up the majority of demands for account information, accounting for 20% of the requests. India follows closely behind. Twitter says it complied fully with roughly 40% of all asks for information on user accounts.

Japan, which is also a frequent requestor for account information, makes the most requests of Twitter to take down content from accounts. Japan made more than 23,000 requests half of all requests for content to be removed. Russia followed closely behind on its takedown asks.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, also reported an increase in government asks for private user data during the same timeframe.

Twitter also reported a huge spike in requests from governments that targeted verified journalists and news outlets during the last half of 2021.

Governments also made a record number of legal demands on 349 accounts of verified journalists or news outlets around the globe between July and December of last

Twitter did not provide a breakdown of which countries made those requests on journalists' accounts or how many of the asks they complied with.

Governments are using the social media companies to silence critics and censor journalists, Rob Mahoney, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.

This surge in government demands for content takedowns and information on journalists is part of a global trend of increasing censorship and manipulation of information," Mahoney said. Social media platforms are vital for reporters and they must do more to resist government attempts to silence critical voices.

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There has been no progress made on resuming trade ties between India and Pakistan over the last three years, the Centre has informed the Parliament.

"In August 2019, Pakistan announced the suspension of bilateral trade with India. Pakistan partially relaxed its ban on trade with India in September 2019 by permitting trade in certain pharmaceutical products," V Muraleedharan, Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs, said in a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on July 28.

"There has not been any progress regarding resumption of trade with Pakistan since then," Muraleedharan added.

Pakistan suspended trade with India on August 7 2019, days after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 and removed Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

The move saw trade between India and Pakistan slump to $329.26 million in FY21 from $2.56 billion in FY19.

India's exports to Pakistan amounted to $2.07 billion in FY19 - 0.63 percent of all its exports - while imports stood at $494.87 million. In FY22, India exported $513.82 million worth of goods to its neighbour - just 0.12 percent of all its exports - and imported a mere $2.54 million worth of merchandise.

Indian government bonds and the rupee strengthened on Thursday despite a 75-basis-point (bp) rate hike by the US Federal Reserve as key aspects of the central bank’s commentary were perceived as indicating that future policy tightening may occur at a slower pace in the world’s largest economy.

At 9.30 am IST, the rupee was trading at 79.78 per US dollar, stronger than 79.90 to a dollar at previous close. A sharp rise in domestic stocks also boosted the rupee, with the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty both trading 1 per cent higher.

Yield on the 10-year benchmark 6.54 per cent, the 2032 government bond was at 7.31 per cent, three bps lower than Wednesday’s close. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

Also Read: Indian diaspora, global bankers may profit from New Delhi's dollar crunch

Late Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve announced a 75-bp rate hike, taking its benchmark policy rates to 2.25-2.50 per cent. The latest move takes the total tally of rate hikes announced by the US central bank so far in 2022 to 225 bps.

While the US central bank reiterated its commitment to reining in 40-year high inflation in the US, markets took comfort from US Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s assessment that as the stance of monetary policy tightens further, “it may become appropriate to slow the pace of (rate) increases.”

The aggressive pace at which the US Fed has raised interest rates thus far in 2022 has been a key reason behind the large-scale exodus of foreign funds from Indian equities as investors have preferred improved returns in the US. FPIs have net sold $28.6 billion worth of Indian stocks so far in 2022, the largest outflow so far on record, NSDL data showed.

As a result, the rupee has faced considerable pressure versus the dollar this month, weakening to a lifetime low of 80.06 per dollar on July 19.

“The markets consequently cheered the indication that the biggest rate hikes of this cycle were over,” economists from ICICI Securities wrote.

US bond yields fell sharply after the Fed’s statement, with the 10-year yield declining 5 bps to a three-and-a-half-month low of 2.73 per cent, while the five-year yield dropped 7 bps to 2.97 per cent.

The US dollar index, which earlier this month had climbed to a 20-year high of 108.54, declined as well. The index was last at 106.31 as against 107 around 5 pm on Wednesday.

Lower US bond yields make Indian debt more attractive for foreign investors.

“Domestic government bonds have rallied in line with the OIS (overnight indexed swap) market. The swap curve has steepened as short-term swaps have fallen sharply on view that the Federal Reserve will now be data dependent instead of providing clear forward guidance of rate hikes,” ICICI Securities Primary Dealership’s Head of Trading Naveen Singh said.

With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said to have been strongly defending the rupee whenever it approaches 80 per dollar, currency traders said the domestic currency would likely stabilise after the recent bout of volatility.

“So far, RBI has kept a strong hold on USD/INR above 80 levels and curbed rupee depreciation. Also, the unwinding of the open interest position yesterday didn’t move the rupee much as the RBI might have intervened heavily to avoid a sharp move as seen in the June expiry,” wrote Amit Pabari, managing director of CR Forex Advisors.

Also read:- As credit demand grows in India, banks may soon be scrambling for deposits

Loan growth in India is at a three-year high and seen inching up further as economic activity gains traction but a much slower growth in deposits could send banks scurrying for funds and prompt deposit rate increases, say analysts and bankers.

Deposit growth has floundered as high inflation has resulted in less savings, as would be depositors are choosing to put money into shares and mutual funds in search of better returns, said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at state-owned lender Bank of Baroda.

In order to bulk up its deposit growth, country's largest private lender, HDFC Bank has started a short-term drive to beef up its deposits by offering a higher rate of interest on non-resident accounts held by Indians living abroad. Analysts believe that other lenders may also follow suit with similar moves.

As surplus funds in the system get slowly pulled out by the central bank measures, banks' margins and their profitability could come under pressure, forcing them to not just raise deposit rates, but also possibly go to the more expensive capital markets to raise funds needed to meet credit demand.

That could worry investors, already in retreat due to global factors, and send banks' stock prices further down.

Rating agency ICRA said in a note last week that it expected banks "to aggressively start chasing deposits, which will also lead to higher deposit rates."

Indian banks' deposit growth, currently at 9.8%, has stayed in single-digits for a large part of the last 14 months, while credit growth - having touched a record low of 5.6% in FY21 - has nearly tripled to 14.4% in the fortnight to July 1st.

Retail loan growth which includes personal loans, mortgages, auto loans has steadily been growing at a faster clip and continues to outpace corporate credit.

"Personal loans have been the main growth driver for the Indian banking sector during the past few years, as corporate lending has stalled due to NPAs (non-performing assets) and deleveraging," CARE Ratings said in a report earlier this week.

Going ahead, while the prospects for credit growth appear promising, high inflation and rate hikes may cast a shadow, CARE said.

Banks' credit-deposit ratio - currently 73% of banks total deposits are being lent out - has been steadily rising, indicating that their earning capacity is also improving.

But as credit demand picks up, there could be pressure on funding unless deposit growth matches up

In the next few months if the trend continues then we will have no other option but to raise deposit rates because the market conditions are also not very favourable for us to go to the market to raise growth capital," said a senior executive at a state-owned bank.

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The Indian rupee has strengthened against the British Pound in 2022 though it has depreciated against the US dollar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

Global factors -- such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, soaring crude oil prices and tightening of global financial conditions -- are the major reasons for the weakening of the Indian Rupee against the US Dollar, she said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

"The British Pound, has weakened more than the Indian rupee against the US dollar and therefore, the Indian rupee has strengthened against the Pound in 2022," she noted.

The nominal exchange rate is only one of the factors that impact an economy, the minister said.

The depreciation of a currency is likely to enhance the export competitiveness, which in turn impacts the economy positively while it is also likely to impact the imports by making them costlier.

In reply to another question, Sitharaman said GST rates or rate slabs applicable on goods and services are prescribed on the recommendations of the GST Council.

GST Council has not made any recommendation for change in the existing GST rate slabs so far, she said, adding that a Group of Ministers (GoM) has been constituted by the council in its 45th meeting held on September 17, 2021.

One of the terms of reference of the GoM is to review the current rate slab structure of GST, including special rates, and recommend rationalisation measures, including a merger of tax rate slabs, required for a simpler rate structure in GST.

Regarding Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), she said a new procedure for the flow of funds to the state governments was introduced with effect from July 1, 2021.

As per the revised procedure, each state has to notify a Single Nodal Agency (SNA) for each CSS and open a bank account of each SNA, she said in another reply.

The CSS funds flow from the Centre to the consolidated fund of the respective state and further to the bank account of SNA, she said.

The new procedure has brought more transparency to the availability of CSS funds in state treasuries and bank account of SNAs, and this has led to better monitoring of the utilisation of funds and availability of funds with SNAs for CSS implementation.

The decade-long dream run of low inflation for emerging economies in Asia is about to end and there will be consequences, warned Moody’s Analytics, the research arm of the rating agency Moody’s Investor Services Ltd.

“Starting with a slow creep and swirling into a Category 5 hurricane, inflation will make itself felt across the region, landing later than in the rest of the emerging world and proving only slightly less disruptive,” Moody’s said in a report.

For more than a decade, consumer price inflation in emerging Asian economies such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and China have remained low despite short episodes of sharp increase in the prices of commodities globally.

“This is partly due to gains on the supply side of the economy, with growth in labour productivity helping the region absorb the pressures of a rising consumer class,” the report said. Local subsidies given by governments also helped offset the impact of global price hike.

Most of these economies have current account surpluses and export more than they import. The outcome of this is higher domestic savings which find its way into offshore markets.

All this has changed now. Moody’s believes that the rise in inflation is mostly demand-led for emerging Asian economies. Excluding China, Asian countries have reported a stellar rebound in their economic growth in the first six months of 2022. This means demand impulses have come back with force, showing up in price increases. Needless to say, supply hasn’t kept pace which has accelerated the price increases.

“Now that the reopening process in India and South East Asia is nearly complete, the supply shock from the invasion of Ukraine and lingering supply-chain bottlenecks have crashed into demand,” the report noted. The far reaching effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on food, oil, metals, engineering goods and others have begun to show across economies.

The rising inflation pressure has forced the central banks across Asia spring into action with rate hikes. Most have effected one or more hikes so far but Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are yet to bite the bullet.

Moody’s pointed out that unlike other economies such as those in Latin America, emerging Asian countries are underbanked. This blunts the impact of the rate hikes by central banks on the economy somewhat. It also means that the central banks will see the effects after a long lag and therefore need to be patient.

The casualty of rate hikes would be the economic growth, Moody’s said. It expects the Asian economies to see a deceleration in economic growth this year. The gains from economic growth would be limited in terms of employment and income generation, the report said.

Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal has directed all deputy commissioners in the state to expedite pending cases related to Right of Way (RoW) permissions for installation of towers for mobile and internet service.

He was holding a review meeting on the issue of RoW with all the Deputy Commissioners through video conferencing here on Monday.

Kaushal gave special directions to the Deputy Commissioners of Rohtak, Ambala, Kaithal, Karnal, Sonipat, Panipat, Yamunanagar, Nuh, Hisar and Kurukshetra districts, where the percentage of cancellation of applications for RoW is high.

He said that all those service providers may also be directed to ensure that they submit their documents and prescribed fee within seven to 10 days so that the pending cases can be completed at the earliest.

RoW permissions are needed for overhead and underground telecom infrastructure, including laying of telecom fiber.

Kaushal said that the state government is committed to increase the communication and mobile connectivity infrastructure.

In the districts where there is still any problem related to mobile signal and internet connectivity, the DCs were directed to contact the Department of Telecommunications for immediate installation of telecom towers in those districts, according to an official statement here.

It was informed in the meeting that more than 5,700 applications have been approved in the districts related to RoW permissions.

Presently 1,091 cases are pending. There are some cases where the service providers have not submitted the required documents or in some cases the prescribed charges have not been paid.

It was informed in the meeting by the officials that some cases are pending due to non-submission of 'radiation' certificates.

The chief secretary apprised the deputy commissioners that according to the policy of communication and connectivity infrastructure, radiation certificate has to be submitted within 30 days of installation of tower, so there should not be any delay in grant of permission due to this certificate.

In the meeting, the Director General (Telecom), Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India, connected through video conferencing and said that they will establish contact with the service providers and ensure that they get the required documents submitted within the stipulated time as well as pay the fixed charges, as per the statement.

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