Yogi Adityanath to make surprise calls to catch UPs truant 'babus'

Uttar Pradesh government 'babus' used to playing truant for an afternoon siesta or meeting an old friend will now risk getting caught as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to dial up officers' on their office landlines to check if they are present.

Uttar Pradesh's Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that Adityanath would make these surprise calls on office landlines of officers between 9 am to 6 pm.

If the officials are not able to justify their absence and explain the reasons for not being able to take the chief minister's call, there could be penalties, Sharma told a press conference today.

However, officers on field jobs will be given some relaxation, said Sharma, who is also a spokesman of the state government.

"The idea is that if the top bosses are present in office, juniors will follow their example," he explained.

In another significant decision, senior officers in the state have been ordered to immediately close their home- offices, Sharma said.

The priest-turned-politician, Adityanath, after he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh had made it clear that he expects the administration to put in long hours.

After he took over in March, Adityanath had warned that anyone who had problems working at least 18-20 hours per day should take a different path.

The 44-year-old chief minister had told the officials that only those who were ready to work up to 20 hours will be able to work with him.

He has also taken measures to ensure presence of the government staff by direction that biometric attendance systems be put in place to deter late-comers.

Surprise attendance checks have been carried out in various departments to check punctuality.
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Federal Bank Q4 profit jumps to Rs 257 cr as net NPAs ease

Private lender Federal Bank's net profit went up manifold to Rs 256.59 crore for the quarter to March as net bad loans shrank.

Also, there were significant gains from retail, corporate and wholesale banking verticals. Net profit stood at Rs 10.26 crore in the January-March quarter of 2015-16.

The board also approved capital-raising plan of Rs 2,500 crore through various means, including qualified institutional placement (QIP), rights issue, preferential issue or follow-on public offer.

Total income during the period rose to Rs 2,598.06 crore, from Rs 2,262.94 crore a year ago, Federal Bank said in a regulatory filing.

For the all of 2016-17, net profit spiked 75 per cent to Rs 830.79 crore, from Rs 475.65 crore a year earlier.

Likewise, total income grew to Rs 9,759.20 crore, from Rs 8,556.35 crore.

The bank improved its asset quality, with net non- performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans easing to 1.28 per cent of net loans as on March 31, 2017, from 1.64 per cent at the end of March 2016.

Gross NPAs read 2.33 per cent of gross advances by the end of 2016-17, slightly down from 2.84 per cent a year ago.

In absolute terms, net NPAs stood at Rs 941.20 crore at March-end, down from Rs 950.01 crore in the year-ago period. Gross NPAs came in at Rs 1,727.05 crore as against the earlier Rs 1,667.77 crore.
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US first-quarter growth weakest in three years as consumer spending falters

BREAKING NEWS - The US economy grew at its weakest pace in three years in the first quarter as consumer spending barely increased and businesses invested less on inventories, in a potential setback to President Donald Trump's promise to boost growth.

Gross domestic product increased at a 0.7 per cent annual rate also as the government cut back on defence spending, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was the weakest performance since the first quarter of 2014.

The economy grew at a 2.1 percent pace in the fourth quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP rising at a 1.2 percent pace last quarter. The survey was, however, conducted before Thursday's advance data on the March goods trade deficit and inventories, which saw many economists lowering their first-quarter growth estimates.

The pedestrian first-quarter growth pace is, however, not a true picture of the economy's health. The labour market is near full employment and consumer confidence is near multi-year highs, suggesting that the mostly weather-induced sharp slowdown in consumer spending is probably temporary.

A measure of private domestic demand increased at a 2.2 per cent rate last quarter. The first-quarter GDP tends to underperform because of difficulties with the calculation of data that the government has acknowledged and is working to rectify.
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US to deport 7,000 Ghanaians for breaching visa agreement

The United States would deport 7,000 Ghanaians this year for breaching terms of their visa agreement, a US diplomat said on Thursday.

US Ambassador to Ghana Robert P. Jackson said the Ghanaians had overstayed their permits and were currently at different stages of their deportation process, Xinhua news agency reported.

"About 7,000 of them are currently at different stages of the deportation process, and we are not apologetic about that," Jackson said at an event in the Brong Ahafo region, 400 km from the capital, Accra.

"We have a lot of Ghanaians who have overstayed their visas in the US and I think that they need to be concerned about whether they would be allowed to remain illegally," Jackson said. "My guess is they will be given some options but the President will be serious about asking those who've violated their visa status to depart."
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Donald Trump's 100 days of u-turns, bombs and cake

The hundredth day of an American president’s term traditionally marks the end of the honeymoon period – a time to take stock of early achievements, launch new legislation, and set a new direction. But the scorecard for Donald Trump’s first 100 days doesn’t read well, and the direction for the next four years is looking so new as to radically contradict the premise of his campaign.

Trump hasn’t commenced the wall along the US-Mexican border, his signature campaign pledge. He has failed (and spectacularly) to repeal and replace the healthcare reforms collectively known as Obamacare, and the courts have thwarted his orders to ban foreign nationals from several mainly Muslim countries from the US. And on a moral front, his compassion for Syrian children killed in a horrific chemical attack was offset by his decision to turn away 10,000 Syrian refugees.

The administration is under intense pressure from investigations into the Trump team’s Russian connections and purported Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The resignation of General Mike Flynn and the hapless antics of the investigating committees in Congress have only made the saga more damaging.

All the while, American opinion remains divided as ever: Trump currently enjoys the approval of roughly 40% of his people.

Trump’s image problem extends well beyond the US’s borders. In the past month, I spent a week in China while President Xi Jinping was visiting Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. I then visited the US, travelling from North Carolina through Virginia and on to Washington, DC. The Chinese are mostly bemused by the new president, who comes in for plenty of criticism in the Chinese media.

In the US, meanwhile, the president is at the centre of a perpetual media frenzy, lurching from one decision to the next while providing byplay via his own tweets. And undoubtedly his most dramatic lurch has been away from isolationism and towards outright military adventurism.
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Amount unknown: United reaches settlement with passenger dragged off plane

United Airlines reached an "amicable settlement" with David Dao, the passenger dragged off a full flight earlier this month sparking worldwide outrage, his attorneys have said.

As a condition of the settlement, Dao's lawyers Thomas Demetrio and Stephen Golan did not disclose the total amount in a statement announcing the deal.

The US airline has been trying to repair its image since the April 9 incident, in which Chicago airport security officers dragged the 69-year-old doctor off a full flight in order to make room for airline crew.

Dao suffered a concussion, a broken nose and teeth, according to his lawyers.

"United has taken full responsibility for what happened on Flight 3411, without attempting to blame others, including the City of Chicago," Demetrio yesterday said in the statement.

"For this acceptance of corporate accountability, United is to be applauded."

Demetrio had earlier in the day lauded the airline for operational changes it announced in an effort to avoid a repeat of the incident.

With its chief executive promising to refocus on customers, the company said it will change its policies to, among other things, offer passengers up to $10,000 in compensation for giving up a seat on an overbooked flight, and reduce overbooking in the first place.

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Fighter jet variant jointly built by China, Pakistan makes debut

China on Thursday launched an upgraded version of a fighter jet manufactured jointly with Pakistan that can be used for training in peacetime and for combat missions during wartime.

The dual-seat fighter trainer JF-17B is an upgraded version of the military aircraft JF-17.

The JF-17B was developed by Aviation Industry Corporation of China to meet the requirements of international customers and the global market, according to AVIC.

China and Pakistan jointly manufacture JF-17 Thunder - a lightweight and multi-role combat aircraft.

AVIC said in a statement that the plane can be used for training in peacetime and can also be used in combat missions during wartime.

The JF-17B climbed up and stayed in the air for about 26 minutes during its maiden flight and was witnessed by guests from home and abroad, reported state-run Xinhua news agency.

The debut flight symbolised a major milestone in the development of the JF-17 aircraft series, AVIC said.

Yang Wei, chief designer of the JF-17B, said the aircraft brings a new force to JF-17 family and will increase JF-17 series' competitiveness in global market.

AVIC said the JF-17B was developed in a market and customer-oriented manner and has achieved a balance among performance, quality, cost and market needs.

Sources with AVIC said the F-17B aircraft has received overseas orders during its development stage.
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Ford profit beats estimates; maintains 2017 profit outlook

Ford Motor Co reported a lower quarterly net profit on Thursday but beat analyst expectations amid higher commodity, engineering and recall costs, and a drop in vehicle sales

Ford shares were down slightly at $11.54 in early trade.

The No. 2 US automaker, which reiterated its pretax profit forecast for 2017, warned investors in late March that higher costs and lower sales volumes would hurt quarterly earnings.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told reporters at the company's headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, that additional costs made this the "toughest quarter" for 2017.

Shanks said Ford's results for the rest of the year would be "about flat to a little bit better" compared with 2016.

The company's results come at a time of uncertainty for the U.S. auto industry following disappointing sales in March.

While sales of new vehicles have risen since the end of the Great Recession and hit 17.55 million units in 2016, analysts expect a slight sales decline in 2017. Ford said Thursday it expects industrywide sales to decrease a little this year and in 2018.

Ratings agencies have warned of worsening credit and there are concerns millions of nearly new leased vehicles due to flood the market over the next couple of years will depress used-car values and hurt US automakers' sales.
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Here's what Donald Trump has done in his first 100 days in office

Since FDR, a president’s first 100 days offer an important – if arbitrary – measure for evaluating success. While it is unlikely any executive will again match the productivity of Roosevelt, most scholars of the presidency agree that this period still matters for advancing an administration’s agenda.

It has been an unruly 100 days since President Donald Trump took the oath of office. His administration has been plagued with scandals, protests and a critical media with a renewed sense of purpose.

As a scholar of the presidency and the press, I’ve found the beginning of the Trump administration morbidly fascinating.

Despite his boasts, Trump’s legislative agenda appears to be stalled. As we approach day 100, many will point critically to the dearth of bills coming across Trump’s desk. However, focusing solely on legislation overlooks a thriving aspect of the Trump presidency: the use of unilateral powers like executive orders, memoranda and proclamations.

Trump goes it alone

Trump hit the ground running with a flurry of unilateral activity. This burst of direct actions may seem surprising in light of Trump’s past statements. In 2012, he took to Twitter to criticize President Obama for “constantly issuing executive orders that are major power grabs of authority.” According to the American Presidency Project, Trump has surpassed his power-grabbing predecessor in unilateral actions, and in less time.

Trump is clearly making a concerted effort to fulfill his campaign promises. In areas where he can act alone, Trump has made gestures – some symbolic, others more substantive – toward 14 of the 18 pledges outlined in his Contract with the American Voter. With a stroke of the pen, Trump attempted to reduce the number of people working for the government, “drain the swamp” and advance pipeline projects.
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Asian stocks retreat from highs after Trump tax plan

Asia stocks ticked down from a near two-year high on Thursday after a long-awaited U.S. tax plan failed to inspire investors, though sentiment remains supported by global growth prospects and receding worries about political risks in Europe.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.1 percent after hitting its highest level since June 2015 on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.3 percent.

U.S. President Donald Trump proposed slashing tax rates for businesses to 15 percent from the current 35 percent for public corporations and 39.6 percent for small businesses, and on overseas corporate profits returned to the country.

But the one-page plan offered no specifics on how it would be paid for without increasing the deficit, which many analysts think would be difficult to achieve.

"There were no specifics in terms of funding for the tax cuts. The announcement appeared many thins are still in flux," said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended down 0.05 percent, failing to cling to earlier gains made on optimistic views on corporate earnings.

Overall profits of S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 11.8 percent in the first quarter, the most since 2011, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The world's share markets have been bolstered by relief over the first round of the French presidential election and also by signs of solid global economic growth in recent months.

The disappointment on the tax plan prompted fall in U.S. bond yields and the U.S. dollar.

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield slipped to 2.304 percent from two-week high of 2.350 percent touched earlier on Wednesday.

The euro traded at $1.0908 , having bounced back from Wednesday's low of $1.0856 and near its 4 1/2-month high of $1.09515 touched on Wednesday.

The ECB is scheduled to hold a policy meeting on Thursday, with the focus on the potential for a scaling back of monetary stimulus in the months ahead.
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US missile system claims another victim: Hyundai Motor

Hyundai Motor Co reported on Wednesday more than a 20 per cent drop in its first quarter profit as the anti-Korean sentiment in China sparked by the deployment of the US missile defence system battered the Korean carmakers' sales in its biggest auto market.

The company said its January-March net profit was 1.3 trillion won ($1.2 billion), down 21 per cent from 1.7 trillion won a year earlier.

Its profit slide was smaller than what analysts expected. FactSet, a financial data provider, said the market consensus was 1.22 trillion won.

Sales rose five per cent to 23.4 trillion won ($20.8 billion). Operating profit fell seven per cent to 1.3 trillion won. The biggest drag in earnings was the US missile system that triggered China's anger and hurt Korean businesses in the world's most populous country.

Hyundai Motor, the maker of Tucson sports utility vehicles and Sonata sedans, said it sold 206,000 cars in China during the first three months, down 14 per cent from a year earlier.

In January and February, Hyundai appeared to have been on track for sales recovery in China. That changed when South Korea's Defense Ministry signed an agreement with Lotte Group in late February to use its golf course in the southwest to deploy the missile defense system, known as THAAD. In March, Hyundai saw a sharp fall in its China car sales.

"Such sales fall is not due to the internal factor as you know. It is the result of the anti-Korean sentiment that flared up within China since late February and some rivals that launched marketing to exploit the anti-Korean sentiment," said Koo Zayong, a vice president at Hyundai Motor.

South Korea and the US say THAAD is a deterrent against North Korean aggression, but China opposed it because it worries that its powerful radars could peer through its territory.
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Google, Amazon eye Toshiba's lucrative memory chip business

Google and Amazon joined a list of potential buyers eyeing Toshiba's lucrative memory chip business as the Japanese conglomerate seeks bidders to cover huge losses, a newspaper said on Saturday.

Toshiba has reportedly completed the first round of bidding for its prized memory chip business, seen as key for the cash-strapped company to turn itself around.

Some 10 foreign companies and funds, including Google and Amazon, tendered bids, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources.

The two US tech giants are expected to use Toshiba's memory chips for their cloud services, the daily said.

Taiwan's Hon Hai, which acquired Japanese electronics maker Sharp last year, has apparently bid more than 2 trillion yen ($18 billion), the daily said.

Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.

Toshiba shares jumped more than five percent on Friday after local media reported that bidders included Apple, US private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and American chipmaker Broadcom.

Toshiba is expected to negotiate with individual candidates this month.

Local media said any foreign buyer would need to pass a Japanese government review, given concerns about security around systems already using Toshiba's memory chips.

Toshiba is the world's number two supplier of memory chips for smartphones and computers, behind South Korea's Samsung, and the business accounted for about a quarter of its 5.67 trillion yen in revenue last fiscal year.

The news report came after angry investors lambasted Toshiba executives at a shareholders meeting over its warning that annual losses could balloon to more than $9.0 billion.

The red ink is largely tied to huge cost overruns and construction delays at its US nuclear power unit Westinghouse Electric, which filed for bankruptcy protection late March. (read more)

New FBI photos recall devastation of 9/11 attacks

A set of never-before-seen photos showing the devastation at the Pentagon following the 9/11 attacks has been released by the FBI.

According to a report in CBS News on Friday, the new photos were uploaded on March 23 to the FBI's "Vault" — the bureau's online hub of archival materials.

Five terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11, 2001, and flew the 90-ton plane into the Pentagon, killing all passengers and crew on board as well as 125 civilians and military personnel on the ground.

In the newly released photos, the immediate devastation of the attack and the fire engulfing the building can be seen.

There are aerial photos also that show the site where the attack had taken place.

One of the photos shows the hole left by American Airlines Flight 77 as it crashed into the Pentagon.

The photos also show the insides of the building where the flames had melted office equipment and the walls of the building. (READ MORE)