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.
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BJP slams move to make CM Siddaramaiah as RDPR varsity chancellor replacing Guv
Bengaluru (PTI): Opposition BJP on Friday condemned the government's move to make the chief minister the chancellor of the Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) University replacing the governor, terming it as an attempt to pollute the higher education system.
State BJP president B Y Vijayendra said this attempt to cut down on the powers of the governor is a conspiracy to upset the constitutional system.
The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday approved a bill, according to which the chief minister will be appointed as the chancellor, replacing the governor at the RDPR University in Gadag.
The governor is the chancellor for all public universities in Karnataka.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot currently holds the post.
"With a good intention that politics should not mix in education and as per the intent of the constitution, the Governor who is also the constitutional head of the state is the chancellor of the universities. But the government led by Siddaramaiah (CM), which is engaged in a series of corruption, by abusing its existing powers, is trying to pollute the higher education system," Vijayendra posted on 'X'.
He said the government's move will allow "unnecessary political interference" in the field of rural development studies.
"The Congress government, which has been impatient towards the governor since the beginning, sees him as an enemy to cut down on the powers, and it is a conspiracy to upset the constitutional system. This move of the state government is highly condemnable," he added.
Earlier in September, the cabinet, at a meeting held in Kalaburagi, decided to divest the governor of the power to appoint the vice-chancellor of RDPR University.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil on Thursday defended the government's move and said, "It will make the university more active and quick decisions will be taken...this system is there in many states, including Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh."
