US removes India from its currency monitoring list
Washington, May 29: The Trump administration on Tuesday removed India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners, citing certain developments and steps being taken by New Delhi which address some of its major concerns.
Switzerland is the other nation that has been removed by the US from its currency monitoring list which among others include China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.
India has been removed from the monitoring list in this report, having met only one out of three criteria a significant bilateral surplus with the US for two consecutive reports, the Treasury Department said in its latest semi-annual report on macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of major trading partners of the US sent to the Congress.
After purchasing foreign exchange on net in 2017, the central bank steadily sold reserves for most of 2018, with net sales of foreign exchange reaching 1.7 per cent of GDP over the year, it said.
India maintains ample reserves according to the IMF metrics for reserve adequacy, it said.
In both Switzerland and India, there was a notable decline in 2018 in the scale and frequency of foreign exchange purchases, the report said.
Neither Switzerland nor India met the criteria for having engaged in persistent, one-sided intervention in either the October 2018 report or this report. Both Switzerland and India have been removed from the monitoring list, the Treasury said in its report running into over 40 pages.
India for the first time was placed by the US in its currency monitoring list of countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange policies in May 2018 along with five other countries - China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland.
In its next report in October 2018, the Treasury had said that India has made improvements and its name would be removed from the currency manipulation list in the next report.
"India's circumstances have shifted markedly, as the central bank's net sales of foreign exchange over the first six months of 2018 led net purchases over the four quarters through June 2018 to fall to USD 4 billion, or 0.2 per cent of the GDP," the Treasury had said in its October 2018 report.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Thane (PTI): A 23-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly molesting and extorting Rs 50,000 from a 15-year-old schoolgirl over six months in Thane city, police said on Wednesday.
Accused Prathamesh Desai, a resident of Lokmanya Nagar, was taken into custody following a complaint by the girl’s parents on March 1.
A police official from the Vartak Nagar police station said Desai targeted the teenager between September 2025 and February 2026. “On multiple occasions, he took her to isolated locations and molested her,” the official said, citing the FIR.
The accused threatened to inform the girl’s parents about their purported “relationship” and extracted a total of Rs 50,000 from her, he said.
“Unable to bear the persistent threats and financial demands, the girl finally confided in her parents, who approached the police,” the official said.
Desai has been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said, adding that further investigation was underway.
