Economic Survey outlines blueprint to achieve Modi’s dream of $5 trillion economy

  • Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2019 in the Parliament today, a day before Budget Day
  • The Economic Survey has pegged a GDP growth rate of 7% for FY20, up from 6.8% in the previous fiscal
  • The Indian economy is at a 5-year low of 6.8% in 2018-19 and the fourth quarter growth has slumped to 5.8% which is a 17-quarter low. 

Relations With India “Organic”, Says Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

  • Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on a visit to China, has described her country’s ties with India and engagements with New Delhi as “organic”, saying it is “beyond a few billions of dollars of trade”.
  • Ms Hasina addressed the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in the northern Chinese port city of Dalian on Tuesday
  • “It is just organic. We have shed blood together for our (Bangladesh) independence,” the PM said on Bangladesh-India relations.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Services Back Online After Worldwide Outage

  • Facebook said it was “back at 100 percent” Wednesday evening after an outage on all of its services affected users in various parts of the world.
  • Online monitoring service DownDetector reported earlier the outage began around 1200 GMT and affected Facebook as well as its Instagram and WhatsApp services.

Pakistan announces crackdown on Hafiz Saeed

  • Pakistan’s counter-terrorism department said it had launched 23 cases against the 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind and 12 aides for using five trusts to collect funds and donations for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
  • Pakistani authorities announced a crackdown on Wednesday against Hafiz Saeed, leader of the group blamed for the deadly attacks on Mumbai in 2008, amid growing international pressure to act against militant groups.

IMF approves $6-billion loan for Pakistan, $1 billion to be disbursed immediately

  • The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a $6-billion (approximately Rs 41,314 crore) loan to be disbursed over a period of three years to Pakistan.
  • The IMF said the loan would help the country generate sustainable and balanced growth.