Junior Digest

Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday announced the first list of 20 cities to be developed as Smart Cities, with Bhubaneswar topping the list and Pune and Jaipur coming in second and third respectively. The others on the list include Surat, Kochi and Ahmedabad.

These cities will be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.

“The states selected cities and sent us a list of 97 names. There was a competition among these names and 20 cities have been selected,” Naidu told a news conference. “Bottom up approach has been the key planning principle under Smart City Mission,” he said.

In the subsequent years, the government will announce 40 cities each to be developed as smart cities as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to develop 100 smart cities in the country.

“Congrats to winners of Smart City Challenge. I wish the cities the very best as they move forward with implementation and transform urban India,” Modi tweeted on Thursday.

“I thank all those who took part in the comprehensive deliberations on various forums to decide winners of Smart City Challenge,” he added.

@Agency report.

Davos :  The European Union is “falling apart”, American financier George Soros warned as part of wide-ranging remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He also said that China’s economy was experiencing a hard landing, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates too late, and Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump was “doing the work” of the Islamic State (IS) group.

“The EU is falling apart,” Soros told a collection of WEF participants, including journalists, yesterday.

“You have a panic in the European asylum policy,” he said, adding: “We have passed a tipping point where the influx reduces the capacity of the countries to assimilate or integrate the refugees.”

“Everybody is out for himself.”

The Hungarian-born multi-billionaire, answering questions from a Bloomberg reporter at the event, added that the migrant crisis had also hurt German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

She “wanted to stop it (the migrant crisis) so she risked her political capital and she lost because her gesture of opening Germany was not properly prepared”.

Russia, according to Soros, was in a “very, very weak position” and faced “impending collapse”, but the financier said that while China’s economy was experiencing a hard landing, “it has greater latitude… than most other countries”.

Soros also criticised the Fed, saying policymakers “acted one year too late by raising interest rates when the US economy was already slowing down”.

And with the first test of the US presidential race due on February 1 in Iowa, Soros — who has voiced support for Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton — said that by “fearmongering”, Trump and one of his main rivals Ted Cruz were “doing the work of ISIS”, using another acronym for IS.

@Agency report.

The Japanese central bank decided to keep an interest rate of -0.1% from its current level of 0.1%. The rate will apply to current accounts that financial institutions hold at the bank. The policy was decided by a 5-4 majority vote.

A negative interest rate means the central bank and perhaps private banks will charge negative interest; instead of receiving money on deposits, depositors must pay regularly to keep their money with the bank. This is intended to incentivise banks to lend money more freely and businesses and individuals to invest, lend, and spend money rather than pay a fee to keep it safe.

“The decision is aimed at achieving the price stability target of 2% at the earliest possible time,” the central bank said in a statement. Further rate cuts will be taken if judged as necessary, it added.

This is the first time since October 2010 that the Bank of Japan has moved interest rates, a report in the Financial Times said.

New Delhi  : Genesis Indian Investment Company on Tuesday bought stake worth Rs 318 crore in FMCG major Dabur India through an open market transaction.

According to the bulk deals data on BSE, the investment firm bought about 1.27 crore shares, or 0.72% stake in Dabur, for Rs 317.77 crore. The shares were bought at an average price of Rs 250.55.

Meanwhile, a similar number of Dabur’s shares were offloaded at an equal consideration by US’ Central State Pension Fund. Dabur India Ltd is one of India’s leading FMCG companies operating from last 125 years.

  NEW DELHI: The government is set to reduce interest rates on small savings products such as public provident fund and National Savings Certificate .
The new formula will see small savings rates linked to returns on government securities of comparable maturity, with the reduction expected to be up to 50 basis points (100 basis points equal a percentage point). There are indications that senior citizens and women will be protected with some special category schemes.

Banks are expected to follow the small savings rate cut with lower fixed deposit rates.

The Reserve Bank of India and banks have been seeking a reduction in small savings rates, arguing that PPF and other products offered higher returns when compared with fixed deposits, resulting in a flight of funds to the government schemes.

The move may trigger a fall in returns on  savings. It is seen as a reform move by the government, which recently announced a plan to end subsidies to the high-income segment.