3 JULY 2016

Ø  An inter-ministerial meeting of secretaries will on July 5 shortlist loss-making and sick government companies to be considered for closure and strategic disinvestment from a list the Niti Aayog submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Office last month. The meeting will recommend strategic disinvestment only in non-contentious government companies; Air-India, which is now reporting operating profits, and BSNL, among the top three loss-making public sector units, will not be considered. Sources in at least two departments said candidates are likely to be picked from among the state-owned companies in the cement, salt, textiles, paper and antibiotics sectors, since there was no reason for government presence in these businesses. They said there was a case for selling the Centre’s stake in a number of companies including Hindustan Goa Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals, Orrisa Drugs and Chemicals, Rajasthan Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Sambhar Salts, Hindustan Salts Ltd, Hindustan Newsprint Ltd, Hindustan Paper Corporation, Cement Corporation of India and National Textile Mills. Those that could be taken up for closure include ITI Ltd, IDPL and Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd, which incidentally, has considerable land holdings. A highly-placed Finance Ministry official said it was trying its best to make sure at least one public sector unit is sold off this year. He explained that strategic disinvestment may not be very easy and the Niti Aayog’s recommendations for such cases will have to be evaluated by the government minutely.

Ø  In the wake of Friday’s attack on a Dhaka caf?, India has again raised the pitch for its 20-year-old proposal for a convention on terror to be passed during the UN General Assembly in September with Israel taking charge of the legal committee. Calling for the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in September this year, India’s Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin told the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy meet on Friday that the CCIT should be agreed on “at the earliest, and by the 71st session of the UN General Assembly”, indicating the government intends to have the convention tabled in September this year.

Ø  A group of hostage-takers killed 20 people, hacking many of them to death, in an upmarket caf? in Dhaka before Bangladesh commandos stormed the restaurant, killing six gunmen and capturing one alive.