www.business-standard.com SUNDAY, 25 AUGUST 2019 12 pages in 1 section WORLD P8 WORLD P8 MUMBAI (CITY) ~10.00 AS EU THREATENS RETALIATION, BRAZIL TRUMP, EU CLASH OVER VOLUME XIII NUMBER 23 SENDS ARMYTO FIGHT AMAZON FIRES TRADE AT G7 OPENING PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM BENGALURU, KOLKATA, MUMBAI AND NEW DELHI Govttooffersix Arun Jaitley passes away oil&gasblocksin ARCHIS MOHAN unexploredbasins New Delhi, 24 August Apersonal run Jaitley, former SHINE JACOB finance minister and a New Delhi, 24 August IN UNCHARTED key troubleshooter for tribute the Narendra Modi The government is set to offer six TERRITORY A government, died on ARUNJAITLEY, theformer blocks in the unexplored Saturday at the All India Institute of financeministerand Vindhyan and Bengal sedimenta- 311 Blocks awarded so far Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the politicianofconsiderable ry basins for oil and gas explo- under Discovered Small national capital. He was 66. consequence,isnomore.Itis ration. Under a new policy, the Field Policy, New A press statement from AIIMS, animmeasurablelossforthe Centre will not charge royalties on Exploration Licensing Policy where he was put on life support after country, markingtheendofan production from companies oper- being admittedon August 9, era,theageofmoderationin ating in these areas. (NELP), and pre-NELP announced his demise at 12.07 pm. civiclife,whenitwasstill The Directorate General of Jaitley, the principal architect of possibletodoubtthe Hydrocarbons (DGH) will be invit- 178 Operational blocks under these policies the Modi government that took office ARVIND Nietzschedictumthatpower ing bids for seven oil and gas blocks in May 2014, had been in poor health SUBRAMANIAN isneverheldininnocence. during the fourth round of bidding for the past few years, which took a Jaitleywasamongstthe under the Open Acreage Licensing 89 Blocks awarded in the turn for the worse since January when moreenigmaticofrecentpoliticians.Itriedtoshed Policy (OALP), likely to open on first three rounds of Open he was diagnosed with soft-tissue somelightonhisstintasfinanceministerafew August 28, sources in the know Acreage Licensing Policy sarcoma, a rare cancer, and travelled monthsago;here,Iwanttosharesomethingeven said. The only block on offer in an Vedanta, RIL, BP, ONGC and to the USfor treatment. morepersonal.Politiciansdon’t“dointimacy”very already explored area in OALP-IV Oil India were major players Asfinanceminister, Jaitleyoversaw well.Asamatteroffact,theyshunitveryconsciously. will be in the Rajasthan basin. in the three rounds theroll-outofthegoodsandservices Andforgoodreason.Politicianswanttoexude Investors will get a window of 60 tax(GST)—probablythebiggesttax confidenceandinfallibility.Butintimacyleadsto days to submit their bids. 2023 Expected first reformsinceIndependence—andthe vulnerability,sinceconfidencescanbefataliftheyare The government sees this as a InsolvencyandBankruptcyCode(IBC). betrayed.So,oneoftheprivilegesofmy association milestone in the country’s hydro- production under OALP Also, itwasduringhistenureinNorth withhimwastogetjustaglimpseofthepersonality carbon sector, as investments so BlockthatPrimeMinisterNarendra behindthatguard,ofthemanmanningthepolitician. far were limited to only seven of 42 bn tonnes of Modiannouncedthecontroversial Still,Ican’tsaywithanyconfidencethatIcrackedthe the 26 sedimentary basins in oil-equivalent: Estimated decisiontodemonetise~500and enigmathatwasArunJaitley. the country. in-place resources in the ~1,000notesonNovember8,2016. WhenMrJaitleywasfirsttreatedinNewYorkfor According to the latest DGH 26 sedimentary basins Jaitley officially retiredfrom active hisillness,heexudedthequietconfidenceofaman estimates, the 26 basins have in- in the country political life on May 30, but falling “The level of popularsupportto this "Many warned us that it may notbe whobelievedthathewouldovercomethisdiseaseas place resources of 41.872 billion weight, low immunity, and fear of move (scrappingArticle 370 politically safe to introduce the GST. hehadseveralothersinhislife—diabetes,bariatric tonnes of oil-equivalent (BTOE), of infection had forced him to avoid provisions) has compelled several In several countries, governments surgery, renaltransplant. which 29.796 billion tonnes is public places in recent months. He, opposition parties to lostelections because of Butsadlythatconfidencewasmissingoncethe undiscovered hydrocarbons. however, continued to comment on supportthe move.They the GST. But India had mostrecentmedicalcomplicationsemerged.Heleft Bids will be floated after com- political developments in his tweets have sensed the ground JAITLEY'S one of the smoothest thegovernmentandretreatedtohishomeinKailash panies submit expressions of inter- and blogs. His last post was on reality and do notwantto transformation... Colony, honourably—anduncharacteristicallyfor est for these areas, incentivised by Parliament scrapping provisions of face the wrath of the LAST The Council worked modern-daypoliticians—givinguphislargeofficial a February 19 decision by the Article 370 of the Constitution. Jaitley people...The ‘New India’ on the principle of houseandmanyoftheperksthatcamewithit.And Cabinet that waived royalties for had undergone a kidney transplant at WORDS whenvisitorscame,hewantedtoreflectonthelarger unexplored blocks. It also stated AIIMS in May 2018. In September has changed. Only consensus, adding to issuesthatconcernedhim. that in basins where there was no 2014, he had bariatric surgery to the Congress does not the credibility of the InJune,hiseyesweregluedtotheWorldCup commercial production, explo- control diabetes-induced weight gain. realise this” decision making process” cricketmatchplayingontheTVscreen.Buthewas ration blocks would be bid out During the tenure of the firstModi (In his lastblog on August 6, 2019) (On the GST on July 1, 2019) nonethelessinanexpansivelyreflectivemood, exclusively on the basis of explo- government, Jaitley had handled the THE PEOPLE'S FINANCE MINISTER PAGE 9 talkingabouthishealth,thechallengingstateofthe ration work programme, without portfolios of defence, information and economy, andhiscorelifevalues.Threevalues,drawn any revenue or production share broadcasting, finance, and corporate fromdifferentreligions,appealedtohim,hesaid: to the government. The move is Contracts for 32 blocks under affairs. He was also the chief find difficult to fill. the Opposition in the House from Karma,thelinkingofactionandconsequence;comp- likely to draw more interest from the second and third rounds were troubleshooter of the government, a Jaitley was serving his fourth term 2009 to 2014, and the leader of the assionforothers;andthespiritofsocialservice. global oil and gas majors, which awarded on July 16. Those rounds vacuum that the government could as Rajya Sabha MP, was the leader of House from 2014 to 2019. Turn to Page 4 > Turn to Page 4 > had not shown much interest in saw participation from private the first three rounds of the OALP. players like Vedanta, BP and The Vindhyan basin covers Reliance Industries, and state-run areas under the Son valley, majors like ONGC, Oil India and Bundelkhand and Rajasthan, while Indian Oil Corporation. The first GOVT: NO ADDITIONAL the Bengal basin is in West Bengal OALP bid round was launched by Smartphone firmsstormsmartTV and extends into the offshore the government in January 2018, SURCHARGE ON FPIs region of the Bay of Bengal. The and received 110 bids for 55 blocks seven category-I explored basins covering 59,282 sq km area. The FOR DERIVATIVES, TOO in India are Cambay, Mumbai blocks were awarded in October market,thankstolowdatatariffs Offshore, Rajasthan, Krishna 2018 and production from the first The Centre on Saturday Godavari, Cauvery, Assam Shelf, round blocks is expected by 2023. clarified that enhanced and Assam-Arakan Fold Belt. Turn to Page 4 > surcharge had been 32% 39% YUVRAJ MALIK competitive prices. MINI withdrawn for foreign Others Xiaomi Bengaluru, 24 August This week, OnePlus, the maker of the BUDGET portfolio investors on hugely popular OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T capital gains in both the Leading smartphone brands such as handsets, too announced that it would come ISOLATION OF J&K ALLOWED equity and derivatives segments. The SMART TV Xiaomi, Micromax, Redmi (a sub-brand out with smart TVs in September. The Centre on Friday had announced a slew of Xiaomi) and OnePlus are set to disrupt the Chinese phone-maker is expected to woo measures to boost the economy, MARKET smart television space, which has so far consumers with smart TVs that are as aggres- YOUTH TO BE MISGUIDED: PM including roll-back of enhanced super- 14% been dominated by electronics giants sively priced as its feature-rich phones. rich tax on foreign and domestic equity Sony Sony, LG, Samsung and Panasonic. “Over the past six years, we have achieved Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said investors imposed in the Budget. The 15% Internet-enabled smart TVs, which are a great success in India in large part because of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status derivatives (futures and options) are not LG relatively new segment in India, are our passionate and supportive communi- was revoked to end its “isolation”, treated as capital asset and the income expected to see a major boost on the ty… The OnePlus TV is such an important which allowed some of the youth to be arising from the transfer of the back of lower data tariffs, which have product for all of us, and we can’t wait to see “misguided, get radicalised and take derivatives is treated as business income