News digest: Rafale case, next stop for start-ups, sterlite plant and more

NGT sets aside the Tamil Nadu government's decision to shut down the Vedanta group's Sterlite Copper plant at Toothukudi by terming it non-sustainable and unjustifiable

Govt seeks correction in SC's Rafale deal order as Cong accuses it of lying

A day after the Congress and several other Opposition parties alleged that it had lied in the Supreme Court, the government on Saturday moved the court, seeking correction in a paragraph of its judgment in the Rafale deal case.

The government’s submission, recorded under paragraph 25 of the judgment, had stated that the pricing details were shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General and that the report was examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Read more 

NGT orders reopening of Vedanta's copper plant, TN govt to approach SC

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Saturday set aside the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to shut down the Vedanta group’s Sterlite Copper plant at Toothukudi, terming it “non-sustainable and unjustifiable”. The tribunal also directed the state pollution control board to pass a fresh order of renewal of consent, paving the way for reopening the plant, which caters to 35-40 per cent of the country’s copper demand.

The renewal of consent by the pollution control board is an authorisation for the firm to handle hazardous substances. Read more 

Start-ups to be invited to tap into Rs 153-billion govt e-marketplace

Start-ups have been at the centre of things during the Narendra Modi government, but there’s more to come. The Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the online portal through which all public sector agencies are mandated to directly purchase common-use goods and services, is planning to start featuring start-ups soon.

A start-up corner on the website would allow start-ups to tap into the Rs 153-billion marketplace ( the total size of orders placed on GeM currently through more than 1 million separate orders).

The GeM portal now features more than 660,000 products, from office stationery to vehicles and, 1,862 services — including transportation, logistics, waste management, web casting and analytical, among others, according to GeM chief executive officer Radha Chauhan. Many of these services have start-ups keen to be a part of this ecosystem. But the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)'s list of 13,000 start-ups will be the basis of their entry, Chauhan added. Read more 

How security probe of Huawei set off an international incident

It was a message that federal authorities had grown accustomed to hearing: The global bank HSBC belatedly realised it had been processing financial transactions that might have run afoul of American law.

HSBC had repeatedly been penalised for helping clients launder money. Now, though, there was a different problem. From 2009 to 2014, HSBC helped the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei move money in Iran, in breach of United States sanctions. This time, the bank said, it had a good excuse: Huawei, and one of its top executives, tricked HSBC into handling the business.

This month, the matter exploded into an international incident that shook global financial markets and threatened to deepen tensions between the American and Chinese governments. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and a daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested in Vancouver by Canadian authorities who were acting at the behest of American prosecutors. Read more