AMALLAH, Feb 27,2024: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced his resignation on Monday, as the Palestinian Authority looks to build support for an expanded role following Israel’s war against the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.
The move comes amid growing U.S. pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas to shake up the Authority as international efforts intensify to stop the fighting in Gaza and begin work on a political structure to govern the enclave after the war.
Abbas accepted Shtayyeh’s resignation and asked him to stay on as caretaker until a permanent replacement is appointed.
The Palestinian Authority, created about 30 years ago as part of the interim Oslo peace accords, has been badly undermined by accusations of ineffectiveness and corruption and the prime minister holds little effective power.
But Shtayyeh’s departure marks a symbolic shift that underlines Abbas’ determination to ensure the Authority maintains its claim to leadership as international pressure grows for a revival of efforts to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Guwahati, Feb 24,2024: Assam cabinet on Friday decided to repeal an 89-year-old legislation involving the registration of marriages and divorces by Muslims residing in the state.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma chaired the meeting at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Dispur.
“This act contained provisions allowing marriage registration even if the bride and groom had not reached the legal ages of 18 and 21, as required by law. This move marks another significant step towards prohibiting child marriages in Assam.” Himanta Biswa Sarma said on X.
“District Commissioners and District Registrars will be authorised to take custody of registration records currently in the custody of 94 Muslim Marriage Registrars on repeal of the legislation under overall supervision, guidance, and control of the Inspector General of Registration, Assam, he added.
Cabinet approved the Assam Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2024, to recognise Manipuri as an Associate Official Language in four districts of the state: Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, and Hojai.
Cabinet approved guidelines for Mukhyamantri Mahila Udyamita Abhiyan-Nogoria, to be implemented by the Assam State Urban Livelihood Mission Society in phases for the promotion of women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) members as urban women entrepreneurs.
Cabinet sanctioned Rs 274 crore for infrastructure projects under the Assam Infrastructure Financing Authority (AIFA), out of the total allocated budget for FY 2023–24.
BEIJING, Feb 22,2024: As the annual meeting of China’s parliament approaches next month, its leaders are facing the greatest pressure in almost a decade to take bold policy decisions that safeguard the economy’s long-term growth potential.
The start of the year saw Chinese stocks tumbling to five-year lows on growth concerns and deflation deepening to levels unseen since the global financial crisis, prompting comparisons with the 2015 turmoil that forced policymakers into action.
“The last time the Chinese leadership faced this kind of pressure was in 2015,” said Tommy Wu, a senior China economist at Commerzbank, who added, “2024 is a crucial year for China to stabilize the economy.
“However, the current situation is a lot more complicated.”
China overcame the 2015 crisis by devaluing the yuan and tightening its capital account to prevent outflows, while pouring resources into property and infrastructure, and slashing interest rates by more than 100 basis points.
But that policy ammunition is now spent, bent or broken, limiting its options to fix a stuttering economy and find a way out of what threatens to become a self-feeding downward spiral in consumer and investor confidence and economic growth.
The property market has been in free fall since 2021 because of a series of defaults among developers after years of overleveraged, bad investments. Infrastructure spending is difficult to sustain because of high levels of local government debt.
China’s debt was 3 times the GDP in 2022
Further monetary policy easing risks a run on yuan assets due to a yawning interest rate gap with other economies and could exacerbate deflationary pressures as cheap credit flows into China’s industrial complex, ridden with overcapacity.
As China’s rubber stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), begins its annual meeting on March 5, there has been no indication of major stimulus or a grand reform plan in the making.
“It is widely underappreciated how constrained Beijing is at this point, in terms of options to stimulate the economy via fiscal policy, or through more rapid credit growth from banks,” said Logan Wright, a partner at Rhodium Group.
“There will be no policy bazookas unveiled at the NPC, in part because China has no good options to maintain growth via its traditional channels.”
China economy
‘STUCK BY CHOICE’
Fleeing investors have expressed frustration that authorities have not unveiled a clear roadmap to fixing structural issues laid bare last year when the Chinese economy failed to replicate the explosive recovery experienced by other economies after COVID-19.
Markets want clear, long-term plans for cleaning up the property sector, restructuring municipal debt, and switching to a more sustainable growth model that relies less on debt-fuelled investment excesses and more on household consumption.
The NPC is not the traditional venue for Chinese leaders to declare momentous policy shifts, which are usually reserved for events known as plenums, held by the ruling Communist Party between its once-every-five-year congresses.
One such plenum was initially expected in the final months of 2023, and while the meeting could still take place in the near future, the fact that it has not yet been scheduled has deepened investor concerns over policy inaction.
At the NPC, Premier Li Qiang is expected to deliver his annual work report and set the year’s economic targets, including steady growth for 2024 at around 5%, and a budget deficit of 3% of gross domestic product.
But setting a target similar to last year’s without new policies to redirect resources from infrastructure and manufacturing investment to households runs the risk of hurting confidence, rather than boosting it, analysts say.
Fathom Consulting estimates that every additional 10 yuan invested in the Chinese economy today generates 0.2 yuan in output, down from 2.1 yuan in 2002.
On the demand front, consumer confidence languishes at record lows more than a year after China ended its COVID lockdowns.
New Delhi, Feb 22,2024: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the extension of the women’s safety scheme till 2026 to strengthen security with timely intervention and prevention of crimes against women.
The government proposed to continue the several projects under this scheme, which include 112 Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) 2.0, upgradation of central forensic sciences laboratories, including the setting up of a national forensic data center, and strengthening of DNA analysis and cyber forensic capacities in state forensic science laboratories (FSLs), the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Cybercrime prevention against women and children, capacity building and training of investigators and prosecutors in handling sexual assault cases against women and children, the women’s help desk, and anti-human trafficking units are also among the projects that will continue under this scheme, the statement said.
The Cabinet approved MHA’s proposal for the continuation of the implementation of the umbrella scheme on ‘Safety of Women’ at a total cost of Rs1179.72 crore during the period from 2021–22 to 2025–26.
Out of the total project outlay of Rs1179.72 crore, a total of Rs 885.49 crore will be provided by MHA from its budget, and Rs294.23 crore will be funded from the Nirbhaya Fund, the Ministry added.
In its efforts towards women’s safety, the government, in collaboration with States and Union Territories, has launched several projects aimed at strengthening mechanisms in States and Union Territories for timely intervention and investigation in cases of crime against women, ensuring higher efficiency in investigation and crime prevention in such matters.