Category: Finance/Economy

The number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to below 10 percent of the global population in 2015, according to a forecast released by the World Bank last week. The forecast used a new international poverty line of $1.9 a day, an upgrade from the previous line of $1.25 a day, which was set in 2005, reports Xinhua.

The upgraded poverty line incorporated new information on differences in the cost of living across countries and preserved the real purchasing power of the previous line. The reason for the World Bank to adjust the poverty line is to correct for the fact that prices had risen since 2005 and $1.25 now would no longer buy what it bought in 2005, said the World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu in a blog post.

The method used to upgrade the poverty line was to take the average inflation in the poorest nations of the world and raise the nominal poverty line in order to hold it constant in real terms, according to Basu. Using the new line, the World Bank projected that global poverty will fall from 902 million people or 12.8 percent of the global population in 2012 to 702 million people, or 9.6 percent of the global population this year.

The continued major reductions in poverty were due to strong growth rates in developing countries in recent years and investments in people’s education, health and social safety nets, said Jim Yong Kim, president of World Bank Group.

In order to further reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity, the World Bank president called on countries to boost broad-based growth that generates sufficient income-earning opportunities to invest in areas such as education, health and sanitation, and to protect the poor and vulnerable against sudden risks of unemployment, hunger, illness and other calamities.

The free fall in rupee value is expected to continue in the short term, as the US starts discussions on an interest rate hike and global recessionary fears prompt risk aversion by investors, experts said last week. However, a monetary easing by the Indian central bank could arrest the rupee’s downward trajectory in the turbulent times.

“With US Federal Reserve (US Fed) again raking up interest rate hike discussion, global equities may start off negatively in coming week and the impact will be seen in the rupee as well,” Hiren Sharma, senior vice president, currency advisory at Anand Rathi Financial Services, told IANS.

The US Fed did not raise interest rates from near zero levels, that it has maintained for a decade or so, during the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held on September 17. Fears that it may soon announce a hike has spooked global investors.

A hike in interest rates by the US Fed will send shock waves across the world’s capital markets.

A rate hike could potentially lead to massive amounts of pull-back of foreign funds from emerging economies like India. The US dollar will also strengthen against emerging market currencies, gold and other asset classes.

High interest rates in the US are expected to wean away foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from India. It is also expected to dent business margins as access to capital from the US will become expensive.

“Markets are still in a consolidation zone, post August sell-offs… I expect, risk aversion to resume soon… Global recessionary fears are there… Talk of US Fed hike is not helping much,” said Anindya Banerjee, associate vice president for currency derivatives with Kotak Securities.

Notwithstanding the fears of further downward trajectory, the rupee can rely on the fact that the India Inc and global investors are betting at a cut in key lending rates by Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The RBI will decide on whether or not to ease the key lending rates during its upcoming monetary policy review slated for September 29.

But a mere token reduction of only 25 basis points “won’t do much” for the rupee, market watchers said. “RBI policy may not have much of an impact. Overall bias will be of depreciation,” Banerjee said.

According to India Inc and market observers, the rupee might require a “booster dosage” of nearly a 50 basis points cut, which will spur the recovery in both equity and currency markets.

“All eyes will be on the RBI policy. Markets have already discounted a 25 bps rate-cut. Whereas a 50 bps cut can be a surprise move which will have a positive impact on domestic equities leading to a recovery in the rupee,” Sharma added. The rupee continued on its downward trajectory. The rupee ended last week’s trade down 17 paise at 66.16 to the dollar, against its previous close of 65.99.

The IMF has said India is among the few bright spots in the global economy as G20 Finance Ministers began their two-day meeting here against the backdrop of concerns over Chinese economic slowdown looming large on world markets. The remarks from International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Christine Lagarde came at the meeting of G20 Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors where they also discussed monetary policy uncertainties.

Lagarde told the gathering that between advanced and emerging economies, there are problems in most places in the advanced world while in emerging economies, there are problems in China although not that big as stock markets are making it to be, according to officials present at the meeting.

Among emerging economies if there is any growth, that is in India. India is among the few bright spots in the global economy, the officials said quoting Lagarde. Officials said that RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said at the meeting that they are surrounded by economic gloom probably hinting at concerns over slowdown in China.

With plans for more investments in line with the ‘Make In India’ initiative, US conglomerate General Electric’s chairman Jeff Immelt is headed for India later this month.

Describing India as a “growth engine for Asia”, Immelt said there is huge manufacturing potential in the country.

GE, which has diverse business interests spanning manufacturing to healthcare, is keen to bolster its partnership with India and wants to be part of efforts to make the country a global manufacturing destination.

“India is a growth engine for Asia, and we see huge potential for the country in the manufacturing space,” Immelt said in a statement. “Infrastructure is a key driver of India’s growth. We are keen to invest much more in India and in projects to boost its infrastructure in sectors such as rail, power and healthcare. These efforts will have a ripple effect on the overall economic growth in India and beyond,” he said. GE has doubled its investment in the country over the last five years and the group is ensuring that investments and jobs created in India support the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the statement said.

The meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers held in Ankara, Turkey over the weekend underscored the inability of the major capitalist powers to initiate any measures to halt the recessionary forces overtaking the world economy. Rather than a proposal for concerted action, the official communique was a public relations exercise aimed at masking the acuteness of the crisis and the impotence of the economic and financial authorities.

The meeting was held in the midst of turbulence on global financial markets fuelled by growing fears that the efforts of central banks to prop up the economy with injections of money are being swamped by deflationary trends.

Despite an admission that “global growth falls short of our expectations” and warnings of the impact of financial turmoil and slowing growth in China on emerging markets and more broadly, the communique declared that the G20 had taken “decisive action to keep the recovery on track” and was “confident the global economic recovery will gain speed.”

There is, in fact, no global economic recovery. In a note published in preparation for the G20 meeting, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowledged that its forecasts for the world economy, made only last July, were already out of date. Growth had fallen below predictions in the US, the euro zone, Japan and most poorer countries.

The predicted boost from lower oil prices had failed to materialise, the IMF acknowledged, risks to the world economy had risen, and “a simultaneous materialisation of some of these risks would imply a much weaker outlook.” The IMF is expected to again revise downward its forecasts for global growth, already at their lowest level since the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008–2009, at its next meeting scheduled for October. “After six years of demand weakness, the likelihood of damage to potential output is increasingly a concern,” it said.

Another indication of the real state of the global economy is the data on world trade released last month, showing that trade contracted in the first half of 2015 more sharply than at any time since the height of the financial crisis in early 2009.

A pointed comment published on the CNBC web site on the eve of the G20 meeting predicted that whatever came out of the gathering, global leaders would “undoubtedly try to give the impression they have a plan, no matter how far-fetched it is, because if the world markets get a sniff that there is no plan, that things are being made up on the hoof and that things are slipping out of control,” there will be increased turbulence. This was an apt preview of the communique that emerged from the meeting.

As a result of the financial turbulence in China and mounting concerns over its growth rate—with expectations that real growth will be closer to 4 percent than the official target of 7 percent—there was undoubtedly discussion of the state of the world’s second largest economy behind the scenes.

But the comments from financial officials sought to promote an upbeat message. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said the G20 had agreed there was no reason to fear slower Chinese growth, while Pierre Moscovici, the European Union commissioner for economic affairs, praised “the absolute determination of the [Chinese] authorities to sustain growth.” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said there had been a very open dialogue with China and it was “extremely comforting to have that level of understanding.”

However, the underlying reality broke through the façade of contrived statements on one decisive question, revealing growing divergences among the major powers. The official line of the meeting was to accept the Chinese explanation that last month’s currency devaluation was not aimed at bolstering Beijing’s export position at the expense of its rivals, but was a move towards a market-based currency. The communique included a hollow pledge that members would “refrain from competitive devaluation” and “avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments,” even as it is acknowledged that such commitments are being honoured mostly in the breach.

But in a pointed departure from normal procedure at such meetings, Japan, which stands to lose heavily as a result of a major fall in the Chinese currency, did not adhere to the official line. Speaking to reporters, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said Chinese representatives had given an incomplete explanation of their motives. “They may have tried to be constructive, but they weren’t detailed enough,” he said.

Another area of divergence, which was also largely covered over, was on the issue of monetary policy. The United States is officially committed to an increase in its official interest rate, even if only a very small one, in the coming period. But the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are both committed to continuing the policy of quantitative easing, with ECB President Mario Draghi indicating on the eve of the meeting that he might extend the present asset-purchasing operation beyond the scheduled completion date of September 2016.

The IMF has urged the US Federal Reserve not to begin interest rate increases until well into next year, a position that was repeated by Managing Director Lagarde. The Fed had not raised interest rates for such a long time (nine years), that it should make a move only when there was no uncertainty and should not give it a try and then have to reverse its decision, she said.

Lagarde and others fear that any interest rate increase in the US will impact heavily on the financial position of emerging markets and spark a major outflow of capital, exceeding that which took place during the so-called “taper tantrum” of 2013, when the Fed first indicated it would wind back its asset-purchasing program.

Emerging markets are already feeling the effects of the slowdown in China, their major export market, with currency values in some South East Asian countries down to levels not seen since the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98. If a rise in US interest rates sparks a rush for the exit by major investors, it could set off a major financial crisis.

According to Troy Gayseki, a senior portfolio manager as Skybridge, a firm that specialises in hedge fund investing, several emerging market hedge fund managers suffered losses of between 3 and 35 percent in August. “There is a lot of chaos and carnage out there,” he told the Financial Times.

In all of the reports by economic authorities on the state of the world economy, including the IMF and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the lack of investment, now 25 percent below where it was in 2007 in some cases, is cited as the major cause of economic stagnation. There was an attempt to address this issue at the G20 heads of government meeting in Brisbane, Australia last November, at which participants committed themselves to the target of a two percent increase in growth over the next five years, much of it to be achieved through infrastructure projects. Less than a year on, the goals of the Brisbane meeting are regarded as a dead letter.

This decline in productive investment is a product of the colossal growth of financial speculation and parasitism in the world capitalist economy, with resources increasingly diverted away from investment in the material productive forces and into financial manipulations and swindles that account for an ever greater share of the income of the world’s billionaires. The policy of central banks and capitalist governments of continuing to pump vast sums into the financial markets only fuels the growth of financial parasitism.

Seven years after the Wall Street crash of September 2008, the inability of the major capitalist powers and their economic and financial authorities to devise any coordinated solution to the crisis is the expression not of some intellectual incapacity, but of something much more fundamental. It is the outcome of the irresolvable contradiction under capitalism between the global economy and the national state system, which generates trade and currency conflicts and economic and political rivalries leading ultimately to war. All of these tendencies will be intensified by the gathering world slump.

Seven years after the beginning of the global financial crisis, a Pew Research Center survey of 40 nations finds that publics in fewer than half the countries have a positive view of their economy. A median of just 40% in advanced economies say economic conditions are good, as do 45% in emerging economies and 46% in developing nations. Such overall sentiment is largely unchanged from economic sentiment in comparable countries in 2014.

However, the survey also finds that people in emerging economies and developing countries are more likely than publics in advanced economies to believe that economic conditions will improve over the next 12 months. And while only about a quarter of publics in advanced economies think that those in the next generation will be better off financially than their parents, about half or more of respondents in emerging and developing countries see a bright future for the next generation.

There are also signs of growing public faith in an economic recovery in some of the largest economies. Roughly four-in-ten Americans (40%), Europeans (38%) and Japanese (37%) say economic conditions are good in their countries. Such sentiment is up 30 percentage points in Japan from the low point in 2012; up 23 points from the low in the United States in 2009; and up 23 points from the low in 2013 for the median of five European Union nations. European and Japanese views, while far from positive, have now returned to or exceed pre-financial-crisis levels. But American attitudes, while rebounding, are still more negative than they were in 2007. This modest recovery in public economic sentiment parallels a gradual pickup in economic growth in many of these economies.

And economic attitudes have swung dramatically in a number of nations in just the past year. In Nigeria, views of economic conditions have brightened 18 points. Meanwhile, economic sentiment has darkened in Malaysia (down 26 points), Chile (down 24 points) and Russia (down 20 points).

In the 40 nations surveyed, a median of 45% say economic conditions in their country are good. And just 39% believe that their economy will improve over the next year, a pessimism that echoes projections by the International Monetary Fund that 2015 global growth will be marginally slower than in 2014. Only in developing nations does a majority (58%) expect conditions to get better.

Nor are publics that optimistic about prospects for the next generation. Just 45% around the world express the view that today’s children will be better off financially than their parents. But such doubt is largely centered in advanced economies, where only 27% think kids will be better off. About half or more of those surveyed in emerging markets (51%) and developing nations (54%) expect the next generation to exceed their parents financially.

The most optimistic about prospects for the next generation are the Vietnamese (91%), Chinese (88%), Nigerians (84%) and Ethiopians (84%). The most doubtful about the next generation’s prospects are the French (14% optimistic), Italians (15%) and Japanese (18%).

In many countries, the young – those ages 18 to 29 – are more likely than their elders – those 50 and older – to believe that economic conditions are good. But the greatest generational divide is over prospects for today’s children. In 18 of 40 nations, young people are significantly more likely than older people to believe that when children today grow up they will be better off financially than their parents.

Americans are sharply divided along partisan lines about the economy. Democrats are far more upbeat than Republicans. A majority of Democrats (55%) say the economy is doing well, but only 25% of the GOP agrees. More than half of Democrats (53%) believe the U.S. economy will improve over the next 12 months, while just 23% of Republicans are optimistic. And while 41% of Democrats say those in the next generation will be better off financially than their parents, just 24% of Republicans hold this view. These are among the main findings of a new Pew Research Center survey, conducted in 40 nations among 45,435 respondents from March 25 to May 27, 2015.

The world economy is growing at a moderate pace, according to the IMF. Much of this growth is being driven by economic activity in advanced economies at a time when expansion in emerging and developing economies is slowing.

Such modest growth has not impressed many global publics, who are fairly gloomy about the current state of their economies. A median of 56% in advanced economies say economic conditions are bad, while 55% in emerging markets and 54% in developing countries share this negative view.

Half or more in seven of the 11 advanced economies surveyed say their economy is performing poorly. The most negative views are in Italy (88%), France (85%), South Korea (83%) and Spain (81%). In contrast, 75% in Germany, 57% in Canada and 55% in Australia believe their economy is doing well.

In emerging markets, half or more in 14 of 21 countries see their economy as negative. The gloomiest are Ukrainians (94%), Lebanese (89%) and Brazilians (87%). At the same time, 90% of Chinese, 86% of Vietnamese and 74% of Indians think economic conditions are good.

In developing economies, half or more in six of eight nations say their economy is performing poorly. The most downbeat are Ghanaians (73%) and Palestinians (67%). Only Ethiopians (89%) and Senegalese (60%) think economic conditions are good.

There is even greater disparity in economic perceptions between geographic regions. A median of 51% in the Asia-Pacific region say economic conditions are good, as do 48% in Africa. But just 36% in Latin America, 31% in the Middle East and 28% in the European Union believe their economy is doing well.

Publics’ perception of their economy has improved significantly in just a handful of countries over the past year. In 2014, only 39% of Nigerians said their economy was in good shape; now, 57% voice a positive view. In Argentina, the proportion saying economic conditions are good is up 12 percentage points, from 26% to 38%. Views have also improved in Spain, India and Pakistan.

The revival in economic sentiment is more pronounced compared with views in the immediate wake of the financial crisis. In spring 2009, just 17% of Americans thought their economy was doing well. Now, 40% are upbeat. Similarly, in Germany, 28% said in 2009 that economic conditions were good; 75% now say the economic situation is good. And in the United Kingdom, the story is the same: 11% in 2009, now 52%.

But in many nations, the economic mood has darkened in the past year, in some cases quite dramatically. Positive assessment of the economy is down 26 points in Malaysia, from 72% in 2014 to 46% in 2015. It has fallen from 69% in Chile a year ago to 45%, and from 44% to just 24% in Russia. And in South Korea, public sentiment about the economy is down 17 points, from an already-dim 33% to only 16%.

In 11 of the 40 nations surveyed, those ages 18 to 29 are significantly more upbeat about current economic conditions than people ages 50 and older. This generation gap is particularly strong in Peru: 61% of younger Peruvians say the economy is doing well, but only 45% of older ones agree. This age-related difference, with the young notably positive and the old more negative, also exists in countries such as Malaysia, South Africa, Kenya and Australia. Notably, however, in a handful of nations – Italy, Vietnam, Venezuela and Turkey – it is older respondents who are more pleased with economic conditions than are the young, though in both Italy and Venezuela, both age groups are nonetheless quite dissatisfied.

Men and women around the world generally see their economy in the same light. But there is a gender gap in economic perceptions in some key countries: in the U.S., 44% of men but just 36% of women say their economy is good; and in Japan, 46% of men but only 30% of women are positive about economic conditions.

Pew Research Center The predominant view among emerging and developing countries is that their economies will improve over the next 12 months. But a plurality in advanced economies expects economic conditions to remain about the same. Relatively few around the world foresee their economies worsening.

A median of 25% in advanced economies expects an economic uptick. But such sentiment varies widely. The Israelis (47%) and Spanish (42%) are the most optimistic. The French (20%), Australians (21%) and South Koreans (21%) are the least likely to expect conditions to improve.

In advanced economies, a median of 42% expect conditions to remain about the same, with the strongest such sentiment in Germany and Japan (both 54%). It is notable that the IMF expects Germany to grow by only 1.6% in 2015 and Japan to expand by a mere 0.8%.

Publics in emerging markets are far more optimistic: a median of 40% believe economic conditions will improve. Majorities in six of the 21 countries expect their economy to do better. Those in developing nations have even higher hopes for the future. Half or more in six of eight such countries voice the view that their economy will do better over the next year. People in Burkina Faso (85%) and Ethiopia (84%) have the greatest optimism. Palestinians (30%) are the least upbeat about the future.

Overall, the most optimistic are people in Nigeria (92% say the economy will improve), Burkina Faso (85%), China (84%), Ethiopia (84%) and Peru (83%). The most pessimistic about the near future are the Lebanese (44% say the economy will worsen), French (42%) and Turks (42%).

In 12 of the 40 countries surveyed, people ages 18 to 29 are more optimistic about economic conditions in the next year than are people ages 50 and older. This is particularly true in Africa and Latin America. For example, 53% of young South Africans expect economic conditions to improve, but only 35% of older South Africans agree. Similarly, 59% of young Kenyans say the economy will pick up in the next 12 months, while just 44% of older Kenyans share that view. More than half (53%) of young Mexicans are upbeat about the economy’s prospects, but only 38% of their elders are optimistic.

Notably, the group of countries in which young people are more pessimistic about their financial future than their elders includes two advanced economies. Younger French (16%) and South Koreans (14%) have an even bleaker view of the near future than their elders.

Advanced Economies Pessimistic about Next Generation’s Prospects. Public expectations of the economic prospects for the next generation are a telling indicator of a society’s optimism or pessimism about the future.

About half or more of the publics in both emerging economies (51%) and developing nations (54%) believe that when today’s children grow up they will be better off financially than their parents. This includes more than half in 11 of 21 emerging markets and five of eight developing countries.

The most hopeful for the next generation are publics in some of the world’s fastest-growing economies: Vietnam, which grew 6% in 2014 and where 91% expect children to be better off; China, which expanded by 7.4% in 2014 and where 88% have similar expectations for the next generation; Ethiopia, whose economy grew by 10.3% in 2014 and where 84% expect a brighter future for the next generation; and India, which grew at 7.3% and where 74% anticipate that children will outdo their parents financially.

However, there is not always a relationship between recent economic performance and optimism. The most downbeat about the financial future of the next generation among publics in emerging and developing countries are the Poles (53% say today’s kids will be worse off) and the Turks (52%), despite the fact that Poland grew by 3.3% in 2014 and Turkey by 2.9%. Neither has experienced Asian-style growth rates, but nonetheless they are doing fairly well for their regions.

Publics in advanced economies are almost uniformly pessimistic about prospects for the next generation. A median of 64% anticipates that today’s kids will be worse off in the future, including half or more in 10 of 11 nations. Of the 40 countries surveyed, the pessimism found in nine advanced economies exceeds the negativity seen in all 29 emerging and developing economies. Only in Israel (51%) does roughly half the public voice the view that today’s children will be better off financially than their parents.

By far, the French (85%) are the most pessimistic about prospects for the next generation. The French economy grew by only 0.2% in 2014, among the worst performances in Europe. But the French are not alone. The Japanese economy shrank by 0.1% in 2014, and 72% of Japanese expect today’s kids to be worse off in the future.

Regional differences in perception about the financial future for today’s children are quite stark. In Latin America, a median of 58% believe the next generation will be more prosperous than their parents, as do 56% in Africa and 51% in the Asia-Pacific region. But a median of just 32% in the Middle East and 28% in six European Union countries are optimistic.

In a number of nations, those ages 18 to 29 are significantly more likely than those ages 50 and older to expect today’s kids to be better off financially than their parents. Young Spaniards (47%) are far more likely than older ones (21%) to believe that the next generation will be better off. There is a comparable 24-point generation gap in such views in Peru and a 21-point difference in Brazil and Germany. But the opposite generational divide exists in Turkey, where just 34% of young people are optimistic about the financial prospects of the next generation, while 56% of older people think children’s future is bright.

A.J. Khubani, Indian American founder and CEO of TeleBrands Corporation, will be honored with the 2015 ERA Lifetime Achievement Award during a special presentation at the Moxie Awards Gala this October.

The signature event of the Electronic Retailing Association’s annual ERA D2C convention is set for Oct. 6 to 8 at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel. The ERA D2C Convention is the industry’s largest annual gathering for the global direct-to-consumer category. The Moxie Awards Gala, held on Oct. 8, honors the year’s best direct response television campaigns covering a number of categories spanning every aspect of the industry including television, radio, online and multichannel.

The ERA Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to a deserving member whose career achievements have had a profound impact on the industry.

Khubani founded TeleBrands Corporation in 1983 during his senior year of college. The company features well-known products, such as the PedEgg, Hurricane Spin Mop and the Pocket Hose, and has a 32-year history of such hits as Ambervision sunglasses, Smart Mop, Safety Can, Static Duster, Audubon Bird Clock, Abflex and Windshield Wonder, to name a few.

TeleBrands has successfully launched over 200 hit products over the years, the most in the history of the DRTV industry, according to J.W. Greensheets, a leading industry monitoring service.

Khubani is credited with designing the well-known, red “As Seen on TV” logo that was used for the first time on his Ambervision retail package, the product that started it all for TeleBrands. Beginning in 1990, TeleBrands began a campaign to persuade every major retail chain in the country to create a new “As Seen On TV” department and to assign a single buyer to the category. As a result of this effort, “As Seen On TV” departments at retail chains are the single largest channel of distribution and profit center for most DRTV companies today.

Khubani appears regularly on major national media and his extensive on camera experience led to his being cast as a featured guest star on the Discovery Channel hit show “Pitchmen.” Khubani travels across the country for TeleBrands Inventors Days, meeting at-home inventors via consumer product pitch-a-thons.

The Electronic Retailing Association honored TeleBrands as its “2013 Marketer of the Year.” Khubani is also a member of the Foundation for Free Enterprise’s Hall of Fame, and the New Jersey Advertising Hall of Fame.

In his spare time, he raises money for Children’s Hope India; serves on the boards of ARC, the UIA, and the Business Advisory Board at Montclair State University; and has chaired the Entrepreneurial Engineering program at Princeton University.

Five India-based social companies are among the 15 in Santa Clara, Calif., this month as part of the 13th annual Global Social Benefit Institute Accelerator program. The India companies, all attempting to battle global poverty, are Aquasafi Purification System, Banka BioLoo, Essmart, Naandi Community Water Services and Rangsutra Crafts India.

Pavin Pankajan is the executive director of Aquasafi Purification System, which has established state-of-the-art water purification units across many villages in the Gadag district of Karnataka. In all, the company has 101 water stores in 100 villages, with each store delivering water to at least 200 houses. The store provides clean drinking water to roughly 100,000 people daily.

Sanjay Banka founded Banka BioLoo, which installs biotoilets – or bioloos – to treat human waste using bacterial culture, which eliminates the need for excreta disposal and treatment. The company has installed more than 570 facilities that have more than 25,000 users daily. About 2.8 million pounds of waste are treated each year, and 30.4 gallons of water are recycled daily. The company also employs more than 70 people to maintain the toilets.

Essmart, under director and head of India operations Prashanth Venkataramana, builds an essential marketplace for life-improving technologies in local retail stores throughout the rural landscape. Essmart has six distribution centers and works with a network of more than 500 retail stores. The company has sold more than 6,500 technologies, impacting more than 26,000 end users.

Naandi Community Water Services, led by CEO Anoop Rao, builds and operates community water centers with a promise to provide safe, reliable and affordable water in rural India. Thus far, the company has provided access to safe drinking water to more than a half million people in 375 villages.

Rahul Noble Singh is the CFO of Rangsutra Crafts India, which provides a trustworthy platform, access and exposure to a market of artisans and farmers, living in remote villages and facing difficult gender biases. The company has reached a base of about 3,000 artisans in remote villages, 1,800 of which are shareholders of the company.

Santa Clara University is hosting the event from Aug. 12 to Aug. 21, highlighting 10 months of training and mentoring for the 15 entrepreneurs who are seeking to reach much larger numbers of customers and beneficiaries.

Part of the university’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, GSBI has trained nearly 400 social entrepreneurs from 63 countries since 2003.

The program will have more than 55 Silicon Valley mentors who have been working online with this year’s batch of global entrepreneurs since early on in 2015. They will spend their time in Silicon Valley going over the likes of business strategy and impact metrics.

Among the mentors are former CEOs, venture capitalists, finance, distribution and supply chain experts; specialists in solar and renewable energy, as well as startup veterans.

The entrepreneurs will be honing their pitches which they will give to an audience of hundreds of Silicon Valley investors Aug. 20 at the 2015 Investor Showcase at the Santa Clara University Recital Hall. Last year, 85 percent of the entrepreneurs received funding within six months of the showcase.

Ashish Aggarwal, a young Silicon Valley investment banker of Indian descent and two of his friends have been charged with insider trading in a scheme that allegedly netted them more than $600,000, Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell announced last week.

J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Ashish Aggarwal and his friends, who surrendered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and were arrested, face securities fraud, conspiracy and wire fraud charges, Caldwell said.

Aggarwal, 27, who worked in the JP Morgan San Francisco office, allegedly got inside information about upcoming mergers and acquisitions which he shared them with his friend Shahriyar Bolandian, 26. He in turn relayed them to another friend, and Kevan Sadigh, 28, the FBI said in a press release.

Bolandian and Sadigh then allegedly used the inside information to trade in advance of the public announcements of Integrated Device Technology Inc.’s April 2012 planned acquisition of PLX Technology Inc., and Salesforce.com Inc.’s June 2013 acquisition of ExactTarget Inc., the FBI said.

Their $600,000-profit apparently didn’t finance luxuries. The FBI said they allegedly used the profits to pay off liabilities and cover the trading losses of Bolandian and Sadigh.

Aggarwal is the latest person of Indian origin to face insider trading charges in the US. Rajat Gupta, a former CEO of the consultancy company, McKinsey, is the best known of them and was convicted in 2012 for insider trading with Raj Rajaratnam, a hedge fund operator of Sri Lankan origin. Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey employee, pleaded guilty in the samw case. In April this year, Amit Kanodia, a private equity investor, and Iftikar Ahmed, a general partner at a venture capital firm, were charged with insider trading.

Attorney Shivbir Grewal and his wife, Preetinder Grewal, were charged last December with insider trading. Last September, hedge fund portfolio manager Matthew Martoma received a nine-year sentence for insider trading.

September 1, 2015 – Washington, DC – The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) applauds the Government of India for accepting the A.P. Shah Committee’s recommendation that the Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) provisions do not apply retrospectively to Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) before April 1, 2015.

“The Council applauds Finance Minister Jaitley and Justice A.P. Shah and their teams for reaching this resolution. This announcement demonstrates the Government of India’s commitment to attracting long-term foreign investment into the country by providing greater tax certainty and ensuring ease of doing business for the global investment community,” said Dr. Mukesh Aghi, President, U.S.-India Business Council.

This decision reduces tax uncertainty for FIIs and will result in increased investment into India. USIBC supports actions, including those announced in India’s Union Budget, supporting a more predictable and consistent tax framework that follows published guidance, respects past court decisions, and conducts audits and investigations without predetermined outcomes and targets for revenue.

Formed in 1975 at the request of the U.S. and Indian governments, the U.S.-India Business Council is the premier business advocacy organization, composed of more than 300 top-tier U.S. and Indian companies advancing U.S.-India commercial ties. The Council is the largest bilateral trade association in the United States, with liaison presence in New York, Silicon Valley, and New Delhi.

Tata Consultancy Services announced Aug. 25 it was gifting $35 million to Carnegie Mellon University, marking a new era of partnerships between known leaders in industry and academia. The global IT services company’s gift will be used to fund a new facility, the Tata Consultancy Services Building.

The 40,000 square-foot stand-alone facility will support education and cutting-edge research conducted by CMU students and faculty. It will include collaborative spaces for the CMU community, as well as for TCS staff. It is the largest corporate gift given to CMU.

“Whether you’re running a university or a global company, you want to find the best and the brightest people to do cutting-edge things,” said CMU president Subra Suresh in a statement. The Indian American president said TCS is a household name in India and many other countries, and soon college students in the U.S. will be familiar with the TCS name as well.

In addition to its on-campus benefits, the gift will endow presidential fellows and scholarships. TCS – known for its grassroots campaign encouraging STEM studies – will help CMU undergraduate and graduate students with the knowledge they need for future careers.

“With our shared commitment to education and research in areas that help address many challenges of our time, TCS’ support of Carnegie Mellon is both natural and extraordinarily promising,” Suresh added. “Together, our two organizations have the capabilities to make breakthrough discoveries and the capacity to make a societal impact on a global scale.”

As of late, there has been an influx in major technology companies moving into the Pittsburgh region. TCS joins a group of more than 350 companies partnering with CMU as the Mumbai-based company joins an ecosystem of entrepreneurship supported by the university. Welcoming TCS to the state was Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.

“This is an exciting time as we see more and more companies establish and expand their presence in the state,” Wolf said in a statement. “Carnegie Mellon has been especially adept in attracting cutting-edge businesses to and near its campus, which helps to drive economic growth.”

CMU, which since 2008 has seen students and alumni create 215 new companies, is ranked first of all U.S. research universities in startups per research dollar, according to the Association of University Technology Managers.

“CMU is known for the best in education and research in machine learning, robotics, driverless cars, statistics, information management and other disciplines, and how these technologies can impact businesses,” said TCS managing director and CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran. “As global leaders, Carnegie Mellon and TCS have the intellectual power, creativity, institutional nimbleness and global reach to capitalize on new opportunities and have a lasting impact on society and industry through cutting-edge digital research and a long-term commitment to education.”

The new facility will be located just west of the university’s major new academic hub, the David A. Tepper Quadrangle, along Pittsburgh’s new Forbes Avenue corridor, which work has already begun. The new additions will result in the largest campus expansion since Andrew Carnegie founded the university in 1900.

Seven Indians feature in Forbes Asia’s ninth annual Heroes of Philanthropy list, highlighting some of the region’s most noteworthy givers from 13 countries across Asia Pacific. Among them is Kerela-born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, who in June this year pledged at least half his estimated $2.25 billion dollar fortune to charity as part of the Bill Gates and Warren Buffet-led Giving Pledge initiative.

Besides Dubai-based Varkey, whose GEMS Education runs 70 private schools in 14 countries, the list features six other Indians. Four of Infosys’s co-founders – Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani, S.D. Shibulal and Mohandas Pai – feature on the list for their independent contributions to the fields of health and education.

Their funding has helped projects which include medical research, education, children who live in poverty and care for the elderly, Forbes said. The fifth Infosys co-founder, NR Narayana Murthy, is represented on the list by his son Rohan for donating $5.2 million to Harvard University Press for the promotion of ancient Indian literary classics.

The other Indians on the list are London-based brothers Suresh and Mahesh Ramakrishnan, founders of Whitcomb & Shaftesbury tailors on London’s Saville Row. The brothers have spent nearly $3 million to train more than 4,000 people in tailoring over the past decade in India.

Beneficiaries include fishermen hurt by the 2004 tsunami as well as destitute and abused women. For the first time, the list features a philanthropist from Nepal. Billionaire Binod K. Chaudhary has been supporting rebuilding efforts in the country ever since the April earthquake.

He has pledged $2.5 million for the rebuilding of homes and schools in the Himalayan nation. Besides Dubai-based Varkey, whose GEMS Education runs 70 private schools in 14 countries, the list features six other Indians. Four of Infosys’s co-founders – Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani, S.D. Shibulal and Mohandas Pai – feature on the list for their independent contributions to health and education.

The fifth Infosys co-founder, N.R. Narayana Murthy, is represented on the list by his son Rohan for donating $5.2 million to Harvard University Press for the promotion of ancient Indian literary classics.

The other Indians on the list are London-based brothers Suresh and Mahesh Ramakrishnan, founders of Whitcomb & Shaftesbury tailors on London’s Saville Row. The brothers have spent nearly $3 million to train more than 4,000 people in tailoring over the past decade in India. The beneficiaries include fishermen hurt by the 2004 tsunami as well as destitute and abused women. For the first time, the list features a philanthropist from Nepal. Billionaire Binod K. Chaudhary has been supporting rebuilding efforts in the country since the April earthquake.

The India Aspiration Fund (IAF) has been launched with the intention to set up as a fund of funds under the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in order to boost the startup ecosystem in the country. An initial corpus of Rupees 400 crore has been already allocated to various venture funds under it, official sources close to the development told ET. The fund has committed up to Rs 60 crore in IvyCap Ventures, up to Rs 30 crore for Blume Ventures and up to Rs 20 crore for Carpediem Capital Partners, sources told the media.

In February, this year, ET had reported about the government’s intention to launch a Rs 2,000-crore fund of funds to be managed by SIDBI. India’s largest insurance company LIC will be a coinvestor in the IAF. “India is witnessing a startup revolution and to harness the potential of India’s innovators and entrepreneurs a vibrant financial ecosystem is essential. IAF will play a vital role in this financial ecosystem,” said Arun Jaitley while addressing a function in Mumbai.

According to reports, the IAF will be managed by an investment committee with veterans such as Harkesh Mittal, Secretary, Technology Development Board, Manipal Global Education Chairman TV Mohandas Pai, Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bhikchandani, former Nasscom chairman Kiran Karnik and Indian Angel Network cofounder Saurabh Srivastava.

“This is a very well structured fund and since it’s built on sectoral allocation, it will provide investment to startups in sectors which are not hot today for venture funds but will become hot in future,” said Sharad Sharma, cofounder of iSPIRT.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also launched a new scheme called SIDBI Make in India Loan for Small Enterprises (SMILE) with an allocation of Rs. 10,000 crore. “The Fund is expected to catalyse tens of thousands of crore of equity investment in startups and MSMEs, creating employment for lakhs of people over the next 4-5 years,” Jaitley added.

The objective of SMILE scheme will be to provide soft loans in the nature of quasi-equity and term loans on relatively soft terms to MSMEs. The loan scheme’s focus will be on 25 sectors under government’s ‘Make in India’ programme with emphasis on financing smaller enterprises within the MSME sector.

“India is expected to surpass the UK in terms of number of startups launched and would be behind only to the US. There is need for more funds that focus on startups and growth stage MSMEs,” said Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha.

Rajesh C. Patel, an Indian American hotelier and former banker has admitted in a federal court to defrauding an investor of $500,000 and now faces a prison sentence, according to a federal prosecutor in Tennessee.

Patel, 55, of Duluth, Georgia, pleaded guilty July 13 before federal Senior Judge William J. Haynes, Jr., in Nashville, Tennessee, to two charges of wire fraud in defrauding the investor, according to the prosecutor, David Rivera.

Patel had received the money from the Tennessee-based investor for a $3.75 million auction bid for a hotel mortgage, but when he lost the bid he diverted the money to pay a debt, the FBI said July 14. He also misrepresented the result of the auction to the investor. According to a PTI report, he operated a company known as Diplomat Properties.

He has since, however, repaid the money to the investor.

The maximum penalty Patel can receive when he is sentenced Oct. 15 is 20 years in prison for each of the offenses, in addition to fines and property forfeiture. In practice, though, it is unusual for someone to receive the maximum prison sentences to run serially.

Wire fraud charges involve the use of telephones or digital communications to carry out the crime.

Patel and his brother, Mukesh “Mike” Patel, had been the main shareholders of Haven Trust Bank in Duluth, Georgia, which was shut down in 2008 by Georgia state authorities.

Subsequently, he and 14 others who were directors or officials of the bank were sued by the federal agency, which guarantees deposits made by bank customers. The agency had accused them of gross negligence and failure to carry out their duties properly. In 2014 all 15 reached a settlement in which they agreed to pay the agency $2.45 million.