Time magazine article author a Pakistani, trying to malign PM Modi: BJP

Washington, Jul 18: The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the US to India has crossed the $40 billion mark so far this year, reflecting the growing confidence of American companies in the country, the head of an India-centric business advocacy group has said.

The American companies, during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has battered the world economy, have shown great confidence in India and its leadership, said Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF), which keeps a track of the major US FDIs in India.

“Year to date investment from the US, including the recent ones, is over $40 billion,” Aghi said.

In recent weeks alone, the announcement of the FDI into India has been over $20 billion, he said, referring to the announcements made by some of the top companies like Google, Facebook and Walmart.

“Investors’ confidence in India is high. India still remains a very promising market for global investors. If you look at the $20 billion… not just the US, but (investment) has also come from other geographies such as the Middle East and the Far East.

“So, India still remains a very, very bullish market for the investor community,” Aghi said in response to a question.

The USISPF has been working with New Delhi to bring in FDI into India… playing a key role in encouraging American companies planning to move their bases out of China, he said, adding that the move was going on in the last three years of the Trump administration, but gained momentum during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We feel that Prime Minister (Narendra Modi’s) intention is very high. The challenges lie on the execution side. Efforts are being made to encourage manufacturing… I've never seen it so better. The policy framework is moving in the right direction,” he said.

Early this week, Larry Kudlow, the White House Economic Advisor, told reporters that the US tech giants like Google and Facebook announcing big investments in India shows that people are losing trust in China and India is emerging as a big competitor.

At the same time, he rued that India continues to be a protectionist country.

“The question is how do you define protectionism... the administration here is saying America first and India is saying vocal for local…,” Aghi added.

Kolkata, Jan 12: Strongly defending the new citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday the dispute that has arisen over it has made the world aware of persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan.

He, however, deplored that a section of the youth is being “misguided” over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which is aimed at giving and not taking away anybody's citizenship rights.

“CAA is not about taking away citizenship, it is about giving citizenship. Today, on National Youth Day, I would like to tell this to the youngsters of India, West Bengal, North East that this is not an overnight law for giving citizenship.

“We must all know that any person of any religion from any country of the world who believes in India and its Constitution can apply for Indian citizenship through due process. There's no problem in that,” he told a gathering at Belur Math, the headquarters of Ramkrishna Mission.

Modi said even Mahatma Gandhi had favoured Indian citizenship to those fleeing religious persecution and that his government has only delivered on the wishes of the freedom fighters.

Referring to anti-CAA protests in the North-East, Modi vowed to protect the distinct identity and culture of the people of the region, and asserted the new law will not hurt their interests.

“We've only done what Mahatma Gandhi had said decades ago. Should we send these refugees back to die? Are they our responsibility or not? Should we make them our citizens or not?” he said, evoking a thunderous applause by the gathering.

Modi said some people with political interests are deliberately spreading rumours about the new citizenship law, despite “complete clarity” over the CAA.

“Our initiative to amend the citizenship act has created a dispute. It is the result of our initiative that Pakistan will now have to answer why they have been persecuting minorities for the last 70 years. Human rights have been demolished in Pakistan,” he said.

Seeking to assuage the concerns of the people of the North-East, Modi called the region “our pride”. “Their culture, traditions and demography remains untouched by this amended law,” he said.

He said the citizenship law was only “changed a little” for those who were ill-treated in Pakisan after Partition.

“They were having a bitter time living there. Women were in danger of losing their pride,” he said.

“Young people have understood the whole thing but those who want to indulge in politics over it will not,” he said.

Modi said five years ago, there was disappointment among the youth of the country, but the situation has changed now.

“Not just India, the entire world has a lot of expectations from the youth of the country. The youth are not afraid of challenges....they challenge the challenges,” he said at the Belur Math, the abode of Swami Vivekananda for several years until his death in 1902, aged 39 years.

Modi, an ardent devotee of Vivekananda, spent the night at the Math.

He has a long association with the Ramkrishna Mission order founded by Vivekananda in 1897. Inspired by the teachings of Vivekananda, Modi had arrived at the Mission Ashram in Gujarat's Rajkot and expressed desire to join the order.

Swami Atmasthananda, who later went on to become the 15th president of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, then headed the Rajkot branch and had advised him that sanyas was not for him and that he should work among people.

During those days, Modi used to regularly meet Atmasthananda and sought his spiritual guidance.

Although Modi went back after spending some time there his the relationship with Swami Atmasthananda and the Ramkrishna Mission continued.

Whenever Modi used to visit Kolkata, even during his days as Gujarat chief minister, he would travel to the Math.

In 2013, during his Kolkata visit, he had gone to Belur and sought the blessings from Atmasthananda.

He had in 2015 called on ailing Swami Atmasthananda at Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratisthan, a hospital run by the Mission in south Kolkata and enquired about his health.

After Atmasthananda's death in 2017, Prime Minister Modi had termed it as a “personal loss”.

On Sunday, the prime minister paid tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary, which is celebrated as the National Youth Day, and spent some time in the spiritual leader's room in quietude.

Bengaluru, Mar 23: Indian stocks plunged over 9% on Monday, as the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic sent major states including the country's capital into a lockdown amid increasing fears that outbreak could bring world economies to a grinding halt.

The NSE Nifty 50 index slipped 9.17% to 7,937.75 by 0408 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex was 9.42% lower at 27,093.24.

Over the weekend in India, the virus drove several companies to shut operations and the government sent states into lockdowns, bringing normal life to a grinding halt.

"Panic has gone up domestically because of the lockdown situation," said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.

"There is fear that the situation will not be brought under control soon."

The rupee hit a fresh record low of 76.05 against the dollar, as a flight into cash and worries about tightening liquidity boosted demand for the world's reserve currency.

Meanwhile, global markets crumbled, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan sliding nearly 4% as the global death toll climbed to over 14,000, further battering economic activity, and raising fears of a global recession.

After market hours on Friday, the Securities and Exchange Board of India halved position limits for certain stock futures, restricted short-selling of index derivatives and raised margin rates for some shares to curb "abnormally high" volatility amid the pandemic.

In domestic trading, the Nifty PSU Bank Index plunged 8%, while the Nifty bank index crashed nearly 10%.

The Nifty Auto Index slid 9% after several carmakers over the weekend suspended production due to the virus.