Narendra Modi arrives home after concluding successful Japan visit

Winding up his official programme on Tuesday, Narendra Modi had expressed gratitude to Japan for reposing “trust” in India. Photo: Bloomberg

Mint PTI Wed 3 Sep 14 10 10 am

Modi’s 5-day visit helped India garner $35 billion investment from Japan over next five years for developmental projects

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday returned home after concluding his successful visit to Japan, which promised to give $35 billion to India over the next five years for developmental projects, as the two sides agreed to enhance their strategic cooperation to a new level.

He arrived this afternoon after five-day trip during which he visited Kyoto, besides Tokyo where he held talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and met other leaders. External affairs minister Sushma Swarajreceived him at the airport. The two countries signed five pacts covering defence exchanges, cooperation in clean energy, roads and highways, healthcare and women while vowing to take their relationship to newer level.

Japan also lifted ban on six Indian entities including Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) which had been imposed in the aftermath of 1998 nuclear tests. During the visit, his first bilateral outside the subcontinent since becoming Prime Minister in May, Modi invited Japanese investments while hard-selling India as a conducive destination for business particularly for the manufacturing sector.

He told the Japanese businessmen that India was awaiting the investments with a “red carpet” and not “red tape” as rules and procedures have been eased by his government. Winding up his official programme on Tuesday, Modi had expressed gratitude to Japan for reposing “trust” in India and demonstrating its friendship with a quip “yeh fevicol se be zyada mazboot jod hai (this bond is stronger than that of fevicol)”.

“This visit has been very successful,” he had said at the Indian community reception hosted in his honour earlier. “There has been talk about billions and millions. But there has never been talk of trillions,” he said, referring to ¥3.5 trillion ($35 billion or Rs.2,10,000 crore) promised by Japan to India through public and private funding over the five years for various works, including building of smart cities and cleanup of the Ganga river.

During the talks between Modi and Abe, the two sides agreed to enhance their defence and strategic cooperation to a new level and also decided to speed up negotiations on civil nuclear deal that could not be concluded now. Striking good personal chemistry, the two leaders had “very fruitful” exchanges.

Abe also went out of his way to receive Modi in Kyoto when he went there on 30 August in the first leg of his tour. In Kyoto, a pact was signed under which Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi would be developed on the pattern of Kyoto “smart city” with the help of Japan

CVC refuses to give vigilance nod to top public sector bank appointments

TNN | Sep 2, 2014, 05.35AM IST

 NEW DELHI: The Central Vigilance Commission has refused to grant vigilance clearance to the latest list of those recommended to the post of executive directors in public sector banks, until the government clarifies its position on the names.

Sources said the CVC has asked the government to clarify if it endorses the latest list of candidates. The move comes on the back of concerns about irregularities in top level appointments to PSU banks after the Syndicate Bank scandal.

The ED appointments have seen 'back and forth' communication between CVC and the banks, and now the entire process has been escalated to the ministry level.

The CVC has written to the department of financial services- the administrative ministry for PSU banks — asking it to clarify about its stand on the selection of new EDs. The CVC has cited newspaper reports that said the finance ministry has decided to take a relook at the recent appointments of senior level PSU executives.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley had recently written to cabinet secretary Ajith Seth and RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, asking them to review the recent appointments. While RBI governor is the head of the appointment board that selects chiefs for state-run banks, the cabinet secretary processes the papers for the appointments committee of the cabinet.

The finance minister is believed to have asked them to look at some of appointments processed during UPA's last weeks that appeared to be lacking transparency.

Jaitley's letter was prompted by CBI findings in its investigation into the Syndicate Bank loan scandal, in which it arrested bank's CMD SK Jain, Bhushan Steel's vice chairman Neeraj Singal and some others.

CBI chief Ranjit Sinha told the finance ministry that the agency has noted irregularities in senior level appointments during the investigations. CBI had suggested a scrutiny of senior level appointments since it had stumbled upon evidence, indicating that ACRs and interviews were manipulated in some cases. The CBI also suspects that some middlemen may be involved in such manipulations.

The candidates are selected on the basis of marks totalled from both confidential reports (ACRs) and interviews. It is suspected that both the marks were "dramatically altered" to favour certain candidates.

Hiren Joshi: Meet the man behind PM Narendra Modi’s Japanese tweets

The embassy reverted with the Japanese translation, after which a translator appointed by the external affairs ministry was asked to verify the tweet.  

Vasudha Venugopal, ET Bureau | 3 Sep, 2014, 06.36AM 

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi's tweets in Japanese before his trip may have sparked a tsunami of sorts on the microblogging site, but for Hiren Joshi it was yet another affirmation of the PM's growing digital presence.

Joshi, 44, who has been managing Modi's blogs, websites, and Twitter and FB accounts, accomplished the task of sending out eight impactful tweets with help from the Indian embassy in Japan and a translation tool. While a section of sceptics termed the exercise 'twiplomacy' and others wondered just when the PM learnt Japanese, all that brouhaha was nothing new for Joshi.

After all, he has had a role in almost every tweet that has gone out in Modi's name. The PMO sent a script of the intended tweets in English to the Indian embassy in Tokyo last Tuesday, asking for translation of the Japanese greetings that Modi wished to send out to his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and the people of Japan, officials told ET.

The embassy reverted with the Japanese translation, after which a translator appointed by the external affairs ministry was asked to verify the translated tweet. The messages were embedded in a third-party language translator software equipped with Japanese fonts and words related to social conventions, before being posted. The software is being used to translate Modi's tweets in other languages, an official said.

The tweets came out from Modi's personal account, not PMO's, making it clear that the messages were posted under Joshi's supervision. Joshi could not be reached for comment.

An electronics engineer from Pune with a PhD from the Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior, Joshi was an assistant professor at the Manikya Lal Verma Textile and Engineering College, Bhilwara, and had over 18 years of teaching experience before he was hand-picked by Modi to handle his digital presence in 2008.

Officials in Gujarat, where Modi was CM before becoming PM, recall: "The Gujarat government had organised an event for engineers. A technical glitch developed during the event when Modi was also present. Joshi resolved the situation in a few minutes. And Modi was impressed."

While in Gujarat as Modi's OSD, he would use a special software that produced analytical charts mapping Modi's time spent, avoiding duplicate meetings, ensuring follow-ups and short-listing visitors to be added to the CM's itinerary. He ensured that tweets were translated in various languages when, in August last year, Modi launched his twitter accounts in Urdu, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil and Bengali.

Joshi made narendramodi.in available in Sanskrit and Hindi too. Recent meetings with officials at Twitter, which has been given direct access to ministers and officials in embassies to advise them on social media usage, were conducted under Joshi's supervision. He gives PM a daily report on online activities at 11.30 pm, besides shortlisting 100 of the thousands of messages marked to Modi on his social media accounts.

He also keeps an eye on the birthdays or deaths of important people to ensure appropriate messages are sent from the PM. He is assisted by a research team across the country. "Getting the most suitable people to write posts and getting them cleared by Modi is also Joshi's job," said an official. Joshi's papers on analytical tools and new configurations in mobile architecture presented at national meets are still available online.

"His most challenging day was the swearing in when the PMO website was supposed to go live seconds after Modi's swearing-in. He was updating all accounts and getting them prepared for the launch, with a sense of calm," said a person, who has worked with Joshi at the PMO.

PM Narendra Modi's Japan visit: 10 key takeaways

ET Bureau & Agencies | 2 Sep, 2014, 04.23PM 

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden five-day visit to Japan saw the latter nation pledging financial support for building infrastructure in India. Sticking to his 'Make in India' slogan, Modi gave an open invitation to Japanese companies to consider India as a 'competitive low-cost manufacturing hub'.

The meet also saw India-Japan relations being upgraded to the level of 'Special Strategic Global Partnership'. We take a look at the ten takeaways from PM Modi's visit:

1) PM Modi's 3D mantra: Inviting Japanese investors to 'Make in India', PM Modi said, "There is no better place than India for Japanese investors. India is one of the most competitive markets in the world."

Addressing Japan's Nikkei Exchange, Modi said that India offers the three essential 'Ds' for businessmen to thrive namely; Democracy, Demography and Demand. "It is important for Japan to move to low cost hubs of manufacturing."

Promising a conducive environment for investors, Modi said, "Foreign investors need a proper environment to grow in India. We are working towards improving ease of doing business in India." "There is no red tape but red carpet in India. We have eased off a lot of regulations," Modi sought to assure.

2) Bullet trains: With Japan committing to fund bullet trains, the dream of running high-speed trains on Indian tracks is now a step closer.

Modi's dream project got a big push after Japan expressed readiness to provide financial, technical and operational support to introduce bullet trains in India in a joint statement.

The first high-speed train is expected to run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai at an estimated cost of around Rs 60,000-70,000 crores.

As Japan is a pioneer in running superfast trains, the agreement is expected to help Modi achieve his dream of a bullet train for India running at a maximum of 300 km per hour.

3) Two nominees of Japan in PMO's special team: PM Modi announced that a special management team would be set up directly under the Prime Minister's Office to facilitate investment proposals from Japan.

The decision to include two nominees of Japan in the special management team is unprecedented and such a system of having nominees of the foreign government will happen for the first time. Modi said that the two nominees selected by Japan would also be part of the decision-making team which evaluates business proposal.

4) 'Special Strategic Global Partnership': Japan and India have upgraded their partnership to the level of 'Special Strategic and Global Partnership' with the signing of a defence pact for regional stability and Tokyo's decision to double FDI in India.

India and Japan also decided to "upgrade" and "strengthen" their defence cooperation as they asked officials to launch consultations to promote military equipment collaboration and accelerate discussions on modalities for the sale of Japanese US-2 amphibian aircraft.

The two sides signed a Memorandum of Cooperation and Exchanges in the Field of Defence during Modi's five-day visit. "We intend to give a new thrust and direction to our defence cooperation, including collaboration in defence technology and equipment, given our shared interest in peace and stability and maritime security. We have also decided to expand our cooperation in advanced technology, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges, educational exchanges, etc," Modi said at the joint press briefing with Abe.

The two sides stressed on the importance of the regularisation of bilateral maritime exercises as well as on Japan's continued participation in India-US Malabar series of exercises.

5) Civil nuclear deal remains elusive: Despite last-minute negotiations, the two sides could not narrow down differences over Tokyo's insistence for a tougher safe-guard regime and "no nuclear test" clause in the bilateral agreement.

Japan wants India to guarantee not to conduct nuclear tests and more stringent inspections of its nuclear facilities to ensure that spent fuel is not diverted to make bombs.

India has been insisting on self-imposed moratorium on its tests and does not agree to Tokyo's insistence on the clause in the text of the agreement that provides for automatic termination of nuclear ties if India conducts test in future.

Addressing a joint press briefing with Abe, Modi said, "In recent months, we have made significant progress in our negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation. Today, we have discussed this issue at length. We have reached better understanding of each other's positions through this discussion.

We have agreed to instruct our negotiators to work expeditiously to conclude the negotiations at an early date so that we can further strengthen our strategic partnership." Abe commended India's efforts in the field of non-proliferation, including the affirmation that goods and technologies transferred from Japan would not be used for delivery systems for weapon of mass destruction.

Mega surplus transfer by RBI, expected big-bang share sale ease NDA government's fiscal woes

Deepshikha Sikarwar, ET Bureau | 3 Sep, 2014, 

NEW DELHI: The fiscal worries of the NDA government, which is set to complete 100 days in office this week, have ebbed significantly on the back of bumper surplus transfer by the central bank as well as expectations of a big-bang share sale programme driven by the stock market rally and an increase in tax revenues aided by economic recovery.

The finance ministry also expects increase in public provident fund limit and the launch of new savings instruments, like one for the girl child, to stir up small savings and help the government cut market borrowings in the second half. Firsthalf borrowings were cut by Rs 16,000 crore to Rs 3.52 lakh crore from the initially planned Rs 3.68 lakh crore. "Fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP is very much doable," said a finance ministry official.

Analysts, too, share this optimism. "...We expect the improved momentum seen in July to continue on the back of better revenues (pick-up in tax; divestment process) and containment in expenditure (particularly fuel subsidies), said Citi economist Rohini Malkani in a note.

Robust disinvestment pipeline this year

"This bodes well for the government meeting its 4.1% fiscal deficit target and India's sovereign credit profile," said Malkani.

The fiscal deficit touched 61.2% of the budgeted target for 2014-15 in the first four months of the year, but North Block mandarins are not losing sleep over it as they see the deficit losing steam once revenues from multiple sources begun to flow in.

The government's disinvestment plan will kick in within a few days with sale of 5% stake in ONGCand SAIL and 10% in Coal India

These three stake sales alone will bring the government close to the budgeted PSU disinvestment target of Rs 43,425 crore.

The robust disinvestment pipeline for the current fiscal also includes share sales in several other companies such as Power Finance Corporation National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, Rural Electrification Corporation and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

In addition, Rs 15,000 crore is expected from sale of the government's residual stake inHindustan Zinc and Balco, the two erstwhile state-run companies. A booming stock market could help the government raise more than expected. The Sensex crossed the 27,000 mark on Tuesday to close at an all-time high of 27,019.39, up 151.84 points.

Last month, the government's finances got a boost when the Reserve Bank of India transferred its entire surplus of Rs 52,679 crore to the central kitty, a 60% increase over what the central bank had transferred last year. The government had budgeted Rs 62,414.18 crore as receipts from public sector banks as dividends and the central bank, and will now easily overshoot this target.

A government official said the surplus on this account would help the government compensate for any shortfall in tax collections. But he was optimistic that tax collections would pick up in the second half as there is a further economic pick-up.

First quarter net tax revenues rose just 1.2%, but collections for July grew 10.6% on the back of improved corporate tax and excise duty collections. The government has budgeted for a growth rate of 16.9% in tax collections for 2014-15.

"The numbers look much better than they seemed around budget," said DK Pant, chief economist, IndiaRatings, even though he sounded a note of caution on the tax revenues. The finance ministry also believes that things are under control on the expenditure front.

Reduction in global crude prices and the monthly 50 paise increase in diesel rates have brought the pump prices of the fuel close to market prices, helping the government cut its subsidy outgo on account of petroleum products.

With state governments yet to roll out food security law, the food subsidy bill could also come in lower than the budgeted Rs 1 lakh crore plus figure . Plan expenditure has been tardy with spending remaining subdued due to elections in the first quarter and could only see a marginal pick-up in second half.

North Block officials are optimistic that global agencies will take the improved macroeconomic climate into account while deciding India's sovereign rating this year.