You are what you eat: Why the future of nutrition is personal for everyone

Humans are complicated, and there are many things that influence our health. There are things we can’t change, like our age or genetic makeup, and the things we can, such as our choice of food and drink. There are also the trillions of bacteria that live in our guts – collectively known as the microbiome – that have a significant impact on our health and digestion.

The foods we eat are mixtures of many nutrients that affect the body and microbiome in different ways, so unravelling the relationship between diet, metabolism and health is no simple matter. A new study from the University of Minnesota adds yet another layer of complexity, showing that foods that have comparable nutritional profiles can have very different effects on the microbiome.

Feeding the five trillion

While we know that a more diverse microbiome is usually an indicator of better gut health, we understand little about how specific foods affect the abundance of different microbial species.

In their recent study, the Minnesota team asked 34 healthy volunteers to collect detailed records about everything they ate over 17 days, mapping this information against the diversity of microbes in daily stool samples. As expected, although there were several foods that were eaten by most of the participants – such as coffee, cheddar cheese, chicken and carrots – there were plenty of choices that were unique.

The researchers found that while each participant’s food choices affected their own microbiome, with certain foods boosting or reducing the abundance of particular bacterial strains, there wasn’t a straightforward correlation that carried over between people. For example, beans boosted the proportion of certain bacteria in one person but had far less effect in another.

Intriguingly, although closely related foods (such as cabbage and kale) tended to have the same impact on the microbiome, unrelated foods with very similar nutritional compositions had strikingly different effects. This tells us that conventional nutritional labelling may not be the best way of judging how healthy a food is likely to be.

The results also show that making dietary recommendations for improving the microbiome won’t be simple and will need to be personalised, taking into account a person’s existing gut microbes and the effects of specific foods on them.

Trillions of bacteria live in our guts. Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock

Go large

The microbiome is probably the hottest topic in nutrition and health right now, with researchers keen to map and manipulate our bacterial friends. But it’s not the whole story.

My team at King’s College London is collaborating with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and a company called ZOE to run PREDICT, the largest nutritional science study of its kind anywhere in the world. The aim of PREDICT is to unpick all the complex interacting factors that affect our unique responses to food, especially the regular peaks in sugar and fat levels in blood that are linked long term to weight gain and disease.

We’ve been studying personal nutritional responses to food in 1,100 volunteers from the UK and US, including hundreds of pairs of twins, measuring their blood sugar (glucose), insulin, fat levels (triglycerides) and other markers in response to a combination of standardised and freely chosen meals over two weeks. We also captured information about activity, sleep, hunger, mood, genetics and, of course, the microbiome, adding up to millions of datapoints.

The initial results, presented at the American Diabetes Association and American Society for Nutrition meetings earlier this month, came as a big surprise. We discovered that individuals have repeatable, predictable nutritional responses to different foods, depending on the proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates. But there were wide variations between people (up to eightfold), making a mockery of “averages” – even among identical twins who share all their genes.

Less than 30% of the variation between people’s sugar responses is due to genetic makeup and less than 20% for fat. Unexpectedly, there was only a weak correlation between the two: having a bad response to fat couldn’t predict whether someone would be a good or bad responder to sugar.

We also discovered that identical twins shared only around 37% of their gut microbes. This is only slightly higher than that shared between two unrelated people, underscoring the modest effect of genes.

You do you

We all have personal tastes and preferences when it comes to food, so it makes sense to assume that our personal metabolisms and responses to the foods we eat should be different too. But we’re only now coming to the point where scientific research is catching up with this gut feeling, proving that everyone is unique and that there is no one true diet that works for all.

This research shows that if you want to find the foods that work best with your metabolism, then you need to know your personal nutritional response – something that can’t be predicted from simple genetic tests.

Of course, there are healthy eating messages that apply to everyone, such as eating more fibre and increasing diverse plant-based foods and cutting down on ultra-processed products. But the take-home message is that there is no one right way to eat that works for everyone, despite what government guidelines and glamorous Instagram gurus tell you.

I need chocolate! The science of PMS food cravings and how to get rid of it

Premenstrual food cravings are the punchline of endless jokes. Like most good jokes, they’re funny because they’re true.

 

Certain parts of a woman’s menstrual cycle do seem to go hand in hand with the desire for chocolate ice cream and potato chips. I hear about this every day from my OBGYN patients.

Researchers have studied food cravings for years; one of the most cited studies dates back to 1953. Scientists – and lots of others – want to know who has food cravings and why, what they crave, when they crave it and how to minimize the cravings. Here’s what the research has found.

Craving and eating before a period

Food cravings are just one of the many symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, also known as PMS. PMS is likely caused by hormonal fluctuations and how they affect chemical messengers in the brain called neurotransmitters. Its symptoms are exclusive to the second half of the menstrual cycle. This luteal phase of the cycle starts with the release of the egg at ovulation and ends when a period begins. The symptoms usually resolve around the third or fourth day of menstruation.

PMS symptoms come in the second half of the menstrual cycle, after ovulation through the beginning of the period. Designua/Shutterstock.com

Researchers have documented more than 150 different PMS symptoms in studies, ranging from physical to emotional to behavioral to cognitive. Food cravings are up there with the most commonly reported behavioral PMS symptoms, along with mood swings, irritability, anxiety and tension, and sad or depressed mood.

A woman doesn’t need an official diagnosis of PMS to report hankering for sweets and chocolates, though. Eighty-five percent of women have some sort of perceptible premenstrual symptoms, while only somewhere in the range of 20% to 40% of all women meet the diagnostic criteria for PMS. Researchers find that cravings can occur during that premenstrual time period in normal, healthy individuals without a diagnosis of PMS or other disorder. In fact, one study showed that 97% of all women had previously experienced food cravings – independent of their menstrual cycle.

Research data confirm women tend to eat more during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, compared to the follicular phase that leads up to ovulation. With or without the diagnosis of PMS, this increased food intake can be as high as 500 extra calories per day.

What foods are women reaching for? Carbs and fats and sweets. No surprise there. The most commonly reported food craving is chocolate, likely because it’s a pleasantly sweet combination of carbs and fat.

And although the existence of any craving is similar across women with and without PMS, the craving itself may differ depending on if you have the diagnosis of PMS. In one study, women without PMS increased their intake of energy and fat, while women with PMS showed increase in total energy and all macronutrients.

What causes food cravings?

Researchers aren’t exactly sure where these food cravings come from, but there are several leading theories.

Food cravings can be very compelling. Jordane Mathieu/Unsplash, CC BY

One idea is that women are unconsciously using food as a pharmacological therapy. Many studies show that women in their luteal phase crave more carbohydrates compared to during their follicular phase. Eating carbs turns up levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, which contributes to a general sense of well-being and happiness. By increasing carb intake, women may be self-medicating with food to cause that serotonin bump in order to feel better. In one study, when researchers increased serotonin neurotransmission in the brain, either through diet or drugs, people’s food intake and mood went back to normal.

Another possible explanation for food cravings suggests that women intentionally turn to food for physical and psychological comfort. Food can play a sensory role, eliminating any uncomfortable feeling of hunger while tasting good and feeling pleasant to eat. Researchers find that “thinking” of a really tasty food is the most common provocation for wanting to consume it and that cravings are not solely hunger driven. Women also usually reported specific triggers for thinking of comforting food, like boredom or stress, further promoting the idea that the comfort of food helps mitigate unpleasant feelings – as one might experience with PMS.

Other researchers suggest that these food cravings are regulated by hormones. Scientists have observed that women tend to eat more when estrogen levels are low and progesterone levels are high – as occurs during the luteal phase. The reverse pattern is seen in rats during the follicular phase, when estrogen levels are high and progesterone levels are low. The fact that progesterone-only forms of contraception like Depo Provera are associated with weight gain, likely due to increased appetite, supports this theory as well.

How can you get rid of monthly cravings?

My general advice to women: be knowledgeable about your own body and how it changes in response to your monthly cycle. Your experience is different than your best friend’s. Being in touch with your symptoms can help you acknowledge that they are normal for you at this point in time instead of worrying whether they’re weird. If you feel unsure, ask your gynecologist.

Healthy lifestyle choices might help. madison lavern/Unsplash, CC BY

Lifestyle changes can help balance and minimize unwanted symptoms related to your menstrual cycle. Things to try include regular exercise, relaxation and stress reduction techniques such as breathing exercises, yoga, meditation, massage, self-hypnosis and regular, good sleep.

Japan's Shinzo Abe says G20 leaders confirm need for free and fair trade

Australia is in the bottom third of OECD countries when it comes to working long hours, with 13% of us clocking up 50 hours or more a week in paid work.

These long hours are bad for our health. A new study from France has found that regularly working long days of ten hours or more increases our risk of having a stroke.

Other research has found that employees who work long work hours are likely to have poorer mental health and lower-quality sleep.

Long working hours have also been shown to increase likelihood of smoking, excessive drinking, and weight gain.

Long hours are bad for our health

The effects of regular long work hours on our health are wide-ranging.

The new French study of more than 143 ,000 participants found those who worked ten or more hours a day for at least 50 days per year had a 29% greater risk of stroke.

The association showed no difference between men and women, but was stronger in white-collar workers under 50 years of age.

Another meta-analysis of more than 600,000 people, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, found similar effects. Employees working long hours (40-55 hours per week) have a higher risk of stroke compared with those working standard working hours (35-40 hours per week).

Irregular work hours, or shift work, has also been associated with a range of negative health and well-being outcomes, including the disruption of our circadian rhythm, sleep, accident rates, mental health, and the risk of having a heart attack.

And it’s not just the physical effects. Regularly working long hours results in poor work-life balance, leading to lower job satisfaction and performance, as well as lower satisfaction with life and relationships.

Why are we working more?

Although many countries have imposed statutory limits on the work week, worldwide around 22% of workers are working more than 48 hours a week. In Japan, long work hours are such a significant issue that karoshi – translated as “death by overwork” – is a legally recognised cause of death.

Concerns around automation, slow wage growth, and increasing underemployment are some of the reasons Australians are working longer. A 2018 study showed Australians worked around 3.2 billion hours in unpaid overtime.

And work doesn’t end for many people when they leave the office. If they aren’t doing extra work at home, taking calls, or attending after-hours meetings online, working second jobs is increasingly becoming the norm. Many Australians now work additional jobs through the gig economy.

The influence of job control

Autonomy and “decision latitude” at work – that is, the level of control over how and when you perform your duties – is a contributing factor to the increased risk of health problems.

Low levels of decision latitude, as well as shift work, are associated with a greater risk of heart attacks and strokes. Individual control plays a significant role in human behaviour; the extent to which we believe we can control our environment considerably impacts our perceptions of and reactions to that environment.

Early psychology research, for example, showed that reactions to the administration of an electric shock were very much influenced by the perception of control the person had over the stimulus (even if they did not actually have control).

These findings were echoed in data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It found that a lack of alignment between an individual’s preferences and their actual working hours resulted in lower reported levels of satisfaction and mental health. The results applied both to workers who worked long hours and to those who wanted more hours.

What can employers do?

Effective communication with employees is important. Employees may be unable to complete their work in standard hours, for example, as a result of having to spend excessive amounts of time in meetings.

Employers can take steps to implement policies to ensure that long work isn’t occurring regularly. The Australia Institute holds an annual Go Home on Time Day to encourage employees to achieve work-life balance. While this initiative raises awareness of work hours, going home on time should be the norm rather than the exception.

Increasing employees’ input into their work schedule and hours can have positive effects on performance and well-being.

The design of the workplace to promote well-being is an important factor. Research on shift work has shown that enhancing the workplace by providing food, child care, health care, accessible transport, and recreational facilities can reduce the effects of shift work.

Finally, implementing flexible work practices, where employees have some control over their schedule, to encourage work-life balance has been shown to have positive effects on well-being.

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Such initiatives require ongoing support. Japan instituted Premium Friday, encouraging employees to go home at 3pm once a month. Initial results, however, showed that only 3.7% of employees took up the initiative. The low take-up can be attributed to a cultural norm of lengthy work days, and a collectivist mindset where employees worry about inconveniencing peers when they take time off.

Given the rise in concerns about future work, and workplace cultures where long hours are the norm, change may be slow in coming about, despite the negative health effects of long work hours.

Putin says Russia and Saudi Arabia will maintain oil cuts for 6-9 months

Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to extend the Opec+ agreement at current production levels for the rest of this year and potentially into early 2020.

Speaking at the Group of 20 summit in Japan, the Russian president said the extension of output cuts -- which expire at the end of June -- could be for six or nine months. His comments make the outcome of next week’s Opec+ gathering in Vienna all but a foregone conclusion, and further reinforce Putin’s role as the ultimate policy maker within the group.

Saudi oil officials later confirmed their support to the extension, although cautioned they still needed to discuss the deal with other Opec ministers.

Riyadh and Moscow ended years of animosity in 2016, joining forces to manage the global oil market in an effort to prop up prices. The current version of the deal by the so-called Opec+ coalition calls for production cuts of 1.2 million barrels a day.

“We have agreed: we will continue our agreements,” Putin said in Osaka. “In any event we will support the continuation of agreements, both Russia and Saudi Arabia, in the volumes previously agreed.”

The announcement marks the first time a senior leader from the group has indicated the curbs could be needed into 2020. That reflects a somber outlook for oil supply and demand next year due to a combination of slowing global economic growth and rising US shale output.

Trade Deal

The Russia-Saudi deal followed an agreement made earlier in Osaka between the US and Chinese presidents to restart trade talks, and comments by Donald Trump that he wouldn’t impose new duties on Beijing for now.

“The Saudi-Russia deal, combined with a positive outcome from the US-China trade talks at the G-20, should allow oil prices to move higher,” said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultants Energy Aspects Ltd. in London.

The alliance between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners has had a mixed track record of supporting oil prices, in part because some members have at times overproduced. Since Russia and Saudi Arabia came together to manage the market in late 2016, benchmark Brent crude has oscillated between $45 and $85 a barrel. On Friday, Brent futures for September closed at $64.74.

Hours after the Osaka meeting, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on his arrival to Vienna for the Opec meeting that the kingdom supported extending the deal for another nine months until early 2020. "But we have to talk to other ministers," he cautioned on the early hours of Sunday in the Austrian capital.

OPEC ministers are scheduled to meet on July 1 in Vienna to discuss their production policy for the next few months. On July 2, oil ministers from non-OPEC nations will join the talks. Saudi Arabia and Russia are the largest members in the group, and usually both nations are able to steer the Opec+ alliance into their preferred policy. Yet, others may oppose. In the past, Iran has put up fierce fights to the position of Riyadh.

Al-Falih warned the extension of the production cuts was needed as oil demand growth had “softened a little bit,” but said there wasn’t a need to deepen them. Earlier, the Saudi oil minister said in a tweet that the Russian-Saudi deal to extend the production cuts would "help reduce global stockpiles" of crude oil "and thus balance the market."

For Moscow, there’s an extra incentive to extend the curbs by nine months, as Russian oil companies struggle to raise production over the winter. By extending the deal into 2020, Russia could be in a better position to pump more during the spring of next year.

A long extension could also be an acknowledgment by Russia of the impact of the massive Druzhba pipeline outage on its production capacity. The country’s oil output has fallen in recent weeks as a result of on-off flows through the link, parts of which were suspended two months ago amid the contaminated-crude crisis.

This year the Opec+ alliance has cut production by more than the pledged 1.2 million barrels a day as US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela slashed output from both countries. Saudi Arabia also unilaterally made deeper curbs, pumping 9.7 million barrels a day in May, compared with its Opec+ ceiling of 10.3 million.

Saturday’s verbal agreement between Putin and Prince Mohammed highlights the importance of the G-20 as a key policy-making forum for oil and Opec watchers. Last year, Putin and the crown prince used the summit in Buenos Aires to give their political backing to extend the Opec+ deal into the first half of 2019. A few days later, with clear instructions from their leaders, the respective oil ministers met and agreed on the details of cuts.

The G-20 in 2016 in Hangzhou, China, also proved pivotal for the oil market, with Putin and the crown prince forging a rapprochement between the world’s top two oil exporters. Since that meeting, the two nations have cooperated on output policy as de facto leaders of the Opec+ coalition, which includes all the members of Opec plus a handful of independent producers including Mexico, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

“The strategic partnership within Opec+ has led to the stabilization of oil markets” while supporting global economic growth, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said on Saturday following the talks.

As further proof of the importance of the G-20 for the Opec negotiations, Saudi Arabia and Russia recently lobbied fellow Opec+ nations to reschedule their Vienna meeting, shifting it by a few days so oil ministers would gather just after Putin’s sit-down with the crown prince, rather than before as originally planned. Opec+ will meet in the Austrian capital on July 1-2.

Wildfires and heatwaves plague Europe; mercury at record levels kills 6

Hundreds of firefighters brought wildfires under control in southern France on Saturday as a stifling heatwave brought record-breaking temperatures to parts of Europe, killing at least six people.

In the worst-hit Gard region, where France’s highest-ever temperature was registered on Friday at 45.9 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit), scores of overnight fires burned some 550 hectares (about 1,360 acres) of land and destroyed several houses and vehicles.

“We came very close to a disaster,” Didier Lauga, prefect of the Gard, told reporters. “There are still firefighters in place in case fires break out again.”

A psychologically unstable man was arrested after starting a blaze in one village, but the extreme heat was likely to blame for many of the fires, Lauga said.

Fifteen firefighters and several police officers were injured in the Gard, where 700 firefighters and 10 aircraft were mobilised to contain the flames, emergency services said.

In the neighbouring Vaucluse region, authorities said a man who had been cycling in a mountainous area had died after collapsing due to the heat.

The sweltering conditions were expected to ease on Saturday in southern France but highs were still forecast at close to 40 degrees. Further north, Paris was due to experience its hottest day of the heatwave with a high of 37-38 degrees predicted.

As huge crowds took to the streets of the capital for the annual gay pride parade, firefighters sprayed water on revellers, some of whom used rainbow-coloured fans and umbrellas to counter the heat.

In Germany, organisers of Sunday’s Frankfurt Ironman made contingency plans to keep athletes from overheating in temperatures expected to reach up to 38 degrees.

“EXTREME RISK”

The World Meteorological Organization said this week that 2019 was on track to be among the world’s hottest years, and 2015-2019 would then be the hottest five-year period on record.

It said the European heatwave was “absolutely consistent” with extremes linked to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

Britain experienced its hottest day of the year so far with temperatures set to reach up 35 degrees, the Met Office said.

In Spain, unusually hot conditions were registered for a fourth consecutive day.

The mercury reached 43.3 degrees at a meteorological station between the Catalan towns of Vinebre and Masroig in northeastern Spain, close to an area hit by wildfires, officials said.

Forty of Spain’s 50 regions have been placed on weather alert, with seven of them considered to be at extreme risk, the national meteorological agency said.

Two people died on Friday due to heat-related complications, and the sizzling temperatures fuelled several wildfires.

New blazes started on Saturday in southern and central areas, though firefighters managed to contain 90% of the wildfires that raged across 60 sq km (23 sq miles) in the northeastern Tarragona province, the Catalan government said.

Two other fires in the central Castilla La Mancha and Madrid regions were still burning, affecting more than 30 sq km (11.5 sq miles) of land, officials said.

At least three people died in central and northern Italy, while hospitals in the financial capital Milan saw a 35% rise in emergency visits due to heat-related conditions, local media reported.

Demand for power in the city surged as people cranked up air conditioning causing sporadic blackouts in stores and restaurants. Temperatures are forecast to ease in the coming days but it will remain hot.

Recreational drug use surges worldwide, cannabis most popular: UN report

Some 271 million people globally, or more than one in 20 of the population aged 15 to 64, used recreational drugs in 2017, according to newly released data from the United Nations World Drug Report. That’s a 30% increase from 2009.

The use of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and prescription stimulants are at post-recession highs in the U.S., the study said. And although the use of prescription opioids has dipped recently, the number of overdoses has increased. More than 47,000 deaths were recorded there in 2017, many of them attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

The most popular drug globally continues to be cannabis, with an estimated 188 million people having used it in 2017, according to the study. Cannabis usage is most prevalent in North America, where there are an estimated 56.6 million users, followed by Asia with 54.2 million.

One-third of Israeli men in the 15-to-64 age bracket and 28.5% of those in Jamaica used cannabis at a greater frequency than all other countries measured, the study said. American men followed at 21.4% while Canadians and New Zealanders rounded out the top five with 19.1% and 18.6%, respectively, according to the latest data available.

The legalization of cannabis in some North American jurisdictions has contributed to a decline in seizures, which have slumped 77% since 2010, the study said.

Meanwhile, a record 693 tons of opiates was seized worldwide in 2017, a 5% increase from the previous year, as law enforcement efforts and international cooperation curtailed the global distribution of opium.

Still, the temptation to traffic illegal drugs remains strong for some. A Brazilian Air Force sergeant traveling with President Jair Bolsonaro’s entourage en route to the G-20 summit in Japan was arrested earlier this week for allegedly possessing 39 kilograms (86 pounds) of cocaine.

Encounter breaks out in J&K's Budgam, 1 terrorist killed; internet snapped

One terrorist lost his life during an exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces in Chadoora area of Budgam district on Sunday.

"The encounter process is underway and one terrorist has been killed during the cross firing. The operation will continue for a while as an exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces is still going on," Sub Inspector, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Vinay Kumar told ANI.

Mobile internet services have been suspended in Budgam.

The exchange of fire started in the early morning.

Further details are awaited.

PSB stake sales through ETFs to help govt achieve FY20 disinvestment target

The government will depend heavily on resource mobilisation by selling its stake in public sector banks through the newly launched financial sector ETFs.

Government sources said that ETFs have been saviour for government disinvestment plan for the past few years and even in FY20, these exchange trade funds would help it to surpass the targets set for the year.

The NFOs and FFOs of these ETFs had received huge response from all categories of investors.

The total subscription received by the Centre from various ETFs launched so far stands at Rs 1.87 trillion and of this government has retained over Rs 51,000 crores in the last five years, said DIPAM in an estimation of the proceeds from such funds.

Recently DIPAM said keeping in view the encouraging response and demand for such product, the Government proposes to create and launch a new ETF in addition to the existing two ETFs, comprising stocks of listed PSBs, Public Sector Insurance Companies and public sector Financial lnstitutions.

In 2018-19, the government raised Rs 18,729.85 crore through Bharat 22 ETF in two tranches. It raised another Rs 26,350 crore through CPSE ETF. DIPAM has raised Rs 2,350 crore against a disinvestment target of Rs 90,000 crore for the current fiscal. In 2018-19, it raised Rs 84,972.16 crore as disinvestment proceeds against the budgeted target of Rs 80,000 crore.

The usual mode of taking a partial disinvestment offering of CPSEs and other public sector enteritis to the market include initial/further public offering, offer for sale through stock exchange and Institutional Placement programme.

The proposed new ETF will serve as an additional mechanism for the government to monetize its shareholdings in listed PSBs, PSICs and PSFls that will eventually form part of the new ETF basket. For this, the government will select and appoint one Advisor with experience and expertise in advising on creation and launch of ETFs/ Mutual Funds/Index linked fund. The last date for submission of application by merchant bankers, investment bankers, consulting firms, financial institutions and asset management entities is July 26.

Pressing for ETFs as a preferred tool of realising value of the PSU stocks, DIPAM said an ETF is a security that tracks an index fund but like a stock traded on the exchange. The constituent stocks are listed and actively traded and may have representation from various sectors to provide ETF unit holders adequate diversification.

Due to risk diversification in an ETF product, there is greater participation by retail individual investors, which help deepen the market for equity based products. Further, ETFs are attractive instruments for investors due to lower expense ratio and higher transparency.

Both existing ETFs have provided a great investment opportunity to small retail, PF/Pension Funds and HNI investors as they have been able to diversify their investment exposure across a number of companies through a single instrument.

Govt should stop terming luxury cars sin goods, reduce GST burden: JLR

The government should stop classifying luxury cars as sin goods and reduce tax burden on such vehicles, as manufacturers contribute healthily in the country's economic growth, according to Jaguar Land Rover India.

Stating that heavy tax burden has restricted growth of the luxury car market in India, Jaguar Land Rover India President and Managing Director Rohit Suri told PTI that if the criteria of sin goods classification is based on expensiveness, then even going to five-star or wearing expensive shirts and shoes would also be 'sin'.

At present luxury vehicles in India attract top GST slab of 28 per cent and additional cess of 20 per cent on sedans and 22 per cent on SUVs, taking the total tax incidence to 48 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.

"The government calls it (luxury vehicles) sin goods. This does not allow the market to grow. We can't understand how it is a sin-good. I can understand something which impacts your health like cigarettes but does driving a car impact your health?" Suri said.

He argued that it was unfair to classify luxury vehicles as sin goods just based on the expensiveness, without looking at their contribution to India's economic development, such as by providing employment across the value chain.

"If you classify this (luxury vehicles) as sin goods then there are ten more goods like wearing expensive shirts or shoes, which are also sin...In that case, every five-star hotel should be sin and people going there should be called sinners.

"We employ around 2,400 people. We give employment to people across our value chain. If the market remains restricted then we are going to be handicapped," Suri said.

At present, the Indian luxury vehicles market is around 40,000 units annually, and JLR with its product portfolio addresses a segment of around 27,000 units.

"The market size is small, all because of the high GST rate that the government continues to apply," he added.

"We are very keen, we are hoping that the government will stop calling us sin goods. Do you want to stop the growth of the industry by classifying it as sin goods? It is something we are clearly not happy with the way it is being branded," Suri lamented.

TikTok's videos are goofy. Its strategy to dominate social media is serious

Sometime in 2018, executives at Snap Inc. realized their biggest advertiser was also a rising competitor. It was an addictive app featuring cat videos, pranks and people doing robot dances. The Chinese video-sharing app TikTok was splurging by spending nearly $1 billion on advertising for the year, according to a person familiar with the spending, helping turn it into the first ever Chinese consumer-tech company to break out big in the U.S.

TikTok has also flooded Facebook Inc. and Instagram with ads, rattling the social-media giants by targeting their audiences on their own turf.

Its Beijing-based parent, Bytedance Inc., is now among the world’s most valuable startups, with an estimated value of $75 billion and an initial public offering expected this year or next, people familiar with the matter said.

Pivotal to TikTok’s success is its skill in serving up snappy, lighthearted videos people didn’t even know they wanted until Bytedance’s powerful algorithms pushed them, in an increasingly personalized stream, until users are hooked.

Before now, China’s tech giants have largely failed to create brands with big followings in the West. E-commerce operator Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and WeChat operator Tencent Holdings Ltd. , both of which dominate in China, have for the most part struggled abroad. Washington wants Huawei Technologies, which makes smartphones and telecom equipment, out of the U.S.

Bytedance is bucking the trend—and drawing scrutiny. Washington regulators and privacy advocates have raised concerns about children’s activity and predators on the site. With tensions over Huawei rising in recent months, TikTok scuttled plans to air a commercial it created for the Super Bowl, people familiar with the matter said. Bytedance executives worried about the attention it could draw, some of the people said.

Bytedance has expressed interest in buying Snap if the U.S. company gets closer to profitability, people knowledgeable about Bytedance’s plans said. Bytedance has also considered buying TwitterInc. and Quora, several people said. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has said he has no interest in selling, and a person familiar with Snap said Bytedance didn’t express its interest to Snap. Twitter and Quora declined to comment.

Using high-end artificial intelligence, TikTok has figured out how to serve up the fun parts of social media—focusing squarely on fluff—and to create a viral user-made video network that none of the other giants have managed to pull off.

Most of TikTok’s videos last 15 seconds or less. Users make the videos with TikTok editing tools that let them add music and other effects. The format lends itself to sight gags and silliness. In one video, an orange puppet dances to the words, “If you like chicken nuggets, then you’ve got to sing along.”

Instead of sharing videos only with friends, as is typical on Facebook or Snap, users can share them with the whole world, YouTube style, and build large followings. The tools make video production simple, and celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon, often start “challenges” to draw people in.

Compared with social media such as Instagram and Twitter, which can create stress with social pressure or news, TikTok strives to be like candy.

It was the third-most installed app world-wide in the first quarter, behind Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger. It has about 104 million American downloads to date, and nearly 1.2 billion world-wide.

Beth Lambdin, a 21-year-old living outside Chicago, said she started noticing TikTok when ads for it flooded her Facebook feed last fall. She said she felt “harassed with ads for months” before she caved and downloaded TikTok this year.

She didn’t spend much time on it at first. Then she got attached to content creators on the app, including a single mom with a messy house who didn’t wear makeup and was making efforts to flirt with a friend in Europe. After all the curated photos on Instagram, she said, it seemed more genuine.

Ms. Lambdin recently spent 11 hours in a week on TikTok, according to Screen Time analytics on her phone.

The average user opened TikTok more than eight times and spent about 45 minutes on the app daily as of March, according to internal documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Targeted ads pop up when users open the app and throughout the feed; TikTok is still ramping up ad sales in the U.S., according to a person familiar with its efforts.

Bytedance, founded in 2012, makes a variety of video and news-aggregation apps that are popular in China, but it emerged after Alibaba, Tencent and others had already locked up the domestic market. Bytedance looked overseas for growth. TikTok made its debut in the U.S. market in 2017.

U.S. parents have complained about videos promoting suicide on TikTok as well as minors performing suggestive dance moves. A BBC investigation in April found hundreds of sexually explicit commentson videos posted by children as young as 9. India and Indonesia have temporarily banned downloads or restricted access to TikTok.

In February, TikTok agreed to pay a record $5.7 million fine to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it illegally collected personal information from children under 13.

Bytedance has responded to complaints about TikTok and other apps by hiring thousands of content moderators in China, the U.S. and elsewhere and by pledging to respect privacy. After its FTC settlement, TikTok tweaked its app to split users into age-appropriate areas. “Promoting a safe and positive app environment is our top priority at TikTok,” a spokeswoman told the Journal.

Bytedance also maintains a room in one of its Beijing offices where a Chinese police cybersecurity team is stationed, as some other Chinese tech companies do, a person familiar with the matter said. When Bytedance finds criminal content like terrorism or pedophilia on its platform, following an established internal protocol, it informs the police and provides user information for further investigation, the person said.

“We comply with local laws and regulations for each of our local products in the specific markets where each product operates,” the spokeswoman said.

U.S. tech companies, meanwhile, are waking up to the challenge TikTok poses. Inside Snap, a debate erupted over taking the competitor’s ads. Many employees felt they were aiding a rival trying to lure away its users.

Snap decided to keep selling the ads—for now, a person familiar with the company’s thinking said.

Tech companies have accused Bytedance of cloning American innovations. The company’s Duoshan app replicates many of Snapchat’s Stories features, including disappearing videos, the editing tools and method of discovering other videos.

They are also encouraging Washington to scrutinize Bytedance. Washington recently forced a different Chinese company to unwind an acquisition of gay-dating social media app Grindr, because of fears the personal data it collects could be exploited by Beijing for blackmail.

Officials are trying to work out whether TikTok might similarly present some sort of security risk, a person familiar with the matter said. A White House executive order signed in May that gives the government authority to block services from foreign adversaries in the U.S.—widely seen as targeting Huawei—could be a mechanism for action against Bytedance if necessary, the person said.

In China, authorities permanently shut a Bytedance app, Neihan Duanzi, in April 2018 over worries its humor-related content wasn’t in keeping with public morals. The shutdown wiped out a business that had more than 10 million daily active users, according to people familiar with the matter. Beijing also temporarily removed Jinri Toutiao, a Bytedance news-aggregation app, from app stores for hosting content deemed by authorities as improper and harmful. Such terms often refer to material the Communist Party finds politically objectionable.

Bytedance’s founder, 36-year-old Zhang Yiming, saw a market for content that simply entertains or passes the time. “Most people need to revolve around something, and it doesn’t matter if that is religion, novels, love” or Bytedance apps, the software engineer told a Chinese magazine in 2016. Bytedance declined to make him available for an interview.

People who know him said he is shy and somewhat geeky. In Bytedance’s early days, “people often skipped me and went straight talking to my other colleagues when they were introduced to us, due to my baby-face look,” he said in a TV interview. He insists on being called by his first name—unusual in China.

Investors said they were impressed by his mastery of AI, which underpins Bytedance’s powerful recommendation engines, and his aggressive decision making.

Mr. Zhang learned early on that consumers don’t always know what they want and are highly open to suggestions. While working at a travel-booking website in his 20s, he developed software to ping users with deals instead of waiting for them to input what they wanted, a Bytedance investor said.

Mr. Zhang elaborated his views in 2013, when Google announced it would kill Google Reader, an RSS-feed news aggregator—which supplies subscribers content based on their identified areas of interest. The service was unfriendly to users because people were “forced to figure out ‘what I like and what I want’ themselves” rather than having algorithms tell them, he wrote in an essay published on social media.

The company’s first hit, launched in summer 2012, was Toutiao, the news app, which used AI to push interesting and addictive news clips to users.

While the user inputs some personal details, the system over time built a profile for the person with as many as 2,000 tags to drive recommendations, according to a former employee. If a user swiped up while reading an article to check a paragraph a second time, for example, keywords from that paragraph would become tags associated with the user.

Toutiao featured some serious content, but Bytedance found most users “just want to kill time,” the former employee said. Bytedance would try to push certain articles, but whenever it looked at what was popular, it was usually fun or sensational news.

In 2016, Bytedance launched Douyin—the app that would eventually be called TikTok outside of China.

Douyin drew criticism for mimicking features of Musical.ly, an app founded by two entrepreneurs in Shanghai in 2014 and popular in the U.S. that featured young people lip-syncing and dancing to music. Several companies, including Facebook and Disney , were considering acquiring it, according to a former Bytedance employee. Bytedance pounced in November 2017, acquiring Musical.ly for $1 billion.

Bytedance upgraded the app’s recommendation engine and added features, including letting users respond to videos, giving them more of a sense of participation. The app’s retention rate shot up around 3 percentage points in a week—a big gain in an industry where 3 percentage points a year is considered good, according to a former Bytedance employee.

In August 2018, Bytedance dropped the Musical.ly name in favor of TikTok. It took off in the U.S., and also signed up hordes of users in India, Japan and Southeast Asia. In the U.S., artists such as country-hip hop star Lil Nas X got boosts to their careers when their songs became fodder for memes on the app, with masses of people posting videos of themselves dancing. TikTok told ad buyers it was the fastest-growing platform for Gen Z globally, according to an ad buyer TikTok pitched.

TikTok’s own ad spending, to drive downloads of the app, jumped to as much as $3 million a day in the U.S., a person familiar with the matter said.

In October 2017, Mr. Spiegel, Snap’s chief executive, met with Bytedance in China, where he was impressed with how Toutiao served people content based on what they had clicked in the past, rather than friends’ recommendations—a strategy common on Facebook that had been rejected by Snap, people familiar with the visit said. He ordered staff to redesign Snap’s app using more AI to order content, in part based on ideas from Bytedance, but glitchy technology caused it to flop with users.

Soon, TikTok’s aggressive advertising on Snap and fast growth became more of a worry. Mr. Spiegel reminded people he believes consumers only want to share content with friends on social media—not the whole world, as on TikTok.

Late last year, Facebook launched a TikTok clone called Lasso, but monthly downloads have averaged less than 1% of TikTok’s.

Some tech executives have suggested TikTok would turn out like Vine, the video-sharing site that exploded in popularity in 2013, only to disappear three years later when its then-owner, Twitter, decided it wouldn’t be profitable. Vine was criticized for being niche, because it featured content created by a small number of users. TikTok has tuned its algorithm to promote content from a broader range of users, driving engagement.

Bytedance generates lots of cash from its numerous apps, people familiar with its operations said. TikTok globally contributed more than $1 billion to Bytedance’s 2018 revenue, the Journal has reported. Bytedance isn’t consistently profitable, a person familiar with the matter said.

TikTok employees are now being encouraged to target older people, with various efforts such as ads using colors and fonts attractive to more mature users. The idea is to develop a broader audience, modeled partly on Instagram, which one former employee said has been the most closely watched non-Chinese product at Bytedance. The photo app attracts a wider range of ages and its social element—users share photos with friends—tends to help retain subscribers. In June, Bytedance hired a vice president at Facebook, which owns Instagram, to help build TikTok’s international business.

Earlier this year, TikTok started approaching people with large followings on Instagram to ask if they would run TikTok ads to attract users, a person familiar with the matter said. In one case, TikTok paid more than $1 million for an influencer to run a single video, the person said.

Ford to cut 12,000 jobs in Europe, shut down five plants on weak car demand

Ford Motor Company said that it would cut about a fifth of its European work force and shut down five plants as the company deals with weak demand for its cars. The automaker, which has struggled to turn a profit in Europe, said about 12,000 of its 65,000 workers across Europe would lose their jobs, with most being offered voluntary separation programs.

The job reductions were announced along with plans to build more electrical vehicles in the region, as part of "a new business model" to streamline the company's European operations. Ford started to shrink its European presence in 2013, but said at the start of 2019 that it would cut thousands of jobs. Like many global automakers, it has been buffeted by changes in the industry that have made it increasingly difficult to justify maintaining production facilities in the region.

Ford is closing three plants in Russia, one in France and another in Britain. It will also sell a plant in Slovakia, leaving it with 18 facilities in the area by 2020. It will also consolidate two headquarters in Britain and move them to one location.

Employees at its assembly plants in Saarlouis, Germany, and Valencia, Spain, will also have shifts reduced.

“Separating employees and closing plants are the hardest decisions we make, and in recognition of the effect on families and communities, we are providing support to ease the impact,” Stuart Rowley, president of Ford of Europe, said in a news release.

The job reductions were announced along with plans to introduce new vehicles, including ones with the option of running on electricity.

"Ford will be a more targeted business in Europe, consistent with the company's global redesign, generating higher returns through our focus on customer needs and a lean structure," Rowley said.

In recent months, companies including Nissan, Honda and Jaguar Land Rover have all announced plans to withdraw from parts of Europe, where tighter regulations over fossil fuels, sluggish sales and Brexit have made markets harder for carmakers.

In Britain, car production has fallen for 12 consecutive months, an industry group said this week, with output falling 15.5 percent over that period. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders blamed Brexit for the continued slump.

"The ongoing political instability and uncertainty over our future overseas trade relationships, most notably with Europe, is not helping," Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the organisation, said in a statement.

At the same time, traditional auto companies are facing more competition from technology companies and have turned their focus to China, the world's largest maker and seller of electric cars.

Since announcing in January that it would be cutting employees and facilities, Ford has teamed up with Volkswagen in an alliance intended to spur the development of electric and self-driving cars, as well as to cut costs.

The company said on Thursday that all its new models would have options for electrification and that it would be building electric vehicles in Europe.

"Our future is rooted in electrification," Mr. Rowley said.

Japan's Shinzo Abe says G20 leaders confirm need for free and fair trade

Group of 20 leaders have clearly confirmed the need for a free, fair and non-discriminatory trade policy, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Saturday, suggesting that members have agreed to the wording to be included in their communique.

Speaking after chairing the two-day G20 summit in Osaka, western Japan, Abe said the leaders also found common ground on climate change despite "big differences" in the members' views.

"The global economy continues to face downside risks as trade tensions persist," Abe told a news conference.

"The G20 leaders agreed on the need for member countries to spearhead strong global economic growth", while standing ready to take further action if needed, he said. Abe also said he had told US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was extremely important to engage in constructive discussion to solve their trade tensions.

The United States and China have agreed to restart trade talks and Washington will not level new tariffs on Chinese exports, China's official Xinhua news agency reported, as Trump said the talks were "back on track".

"The G20 agreed on fundamental principles backing a free trade system, which is to ensure free, fair, non-discriminatory trade," as well as open markets and a level playing field for all nations, Abe said.

In real estate, malls catch the fancy of private equity players

After a lull, malls have seen renewed interest from private equity (PE) investors since the last couple of years, with industry watchers expecting the momentum to continue in 2019.

Larger planned premium properties coupled with consolidation among smaller players have been able to boost PE investments further.

According to Venture Intelligence data, announced PE investments in malls in India rose by nearly 60 per cent in 2017 to Rs 2,299 crore against Rs 1,467 crore in 2016. Industry watchers estimate a similar growth in 2018.

The investments have come on the back of larger premium properties announced not just in Metros but also in tier 2 and 3 cities. According to Venture Intelligence data, in terms of regions, Chandigarh attracted the highest investment at Rs 1,101 crore from 2015 to year-to-date (YTD), followed by Mumbai at Rs 1,052 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 1,017 crore and Bengaluru at Rs 772 crore.

The investment trend is likely to continue in 2019 with Warburg Pincus recently announcing a $200 million or Rs 1,300 crore equity in its deal with the Runwal Group for developing malls in the country.

As such, the retail sector, led by malls, will see increased traction from investors. For instance, the latest retail report by Anarock pegs institutional investment, including PEs, at $1.9 billion or Rs 13,000 crore roughly between 2015 and the first quarter of 2019. The investment trend has also boosted new mall supply which is set to touch 65 million sq ft (msf) by 2022-end.

“This new supply is also driven by the increasing interest of institutional investors — including PE players — who invested almost $1.9 billion in Indian retail between 2015 and Q1 2019.

In fact, over 60 per cent of this investment corpus was infused in the last two years (2017 and 2018) alone, making these the best years for the retail segment in recent times.

Notwithstanding the decline in deal activity in the second half of 2018 following the NBFC-induced liquidity crisis, the retail segment attracted investments of almost $115 million in just the first quarter of 2019,” said Anuj Kejriwal, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) of Anarock Retail.

Chart This is also because retail, especially malls as a sector, have emerged one of the most favoured asset classes for institutional investors in recent times.

“PE players have moved to retail as an asset class. This has resulted in higher activity in the space. There are currently two types of investors in malls. One, who buys ready and built assets and another who partners an existing player for greenfield or brownfield properties,” said Shubhranshu Pani, MD, retail services & stressed asset management group (SAMG), JLL India.

Blackstone’s subsidiary Nexus Malls has been one such player which has been investing in existing properties in order to scale up.

“Our strategy is not to spend time in developing greenfield mall properties. Rather, our core competencies lie in acquiring existing properties and managing as well as improving them. Blackstone currently owns nine malls with a total five million sq ft space. We are now looking at buying more properties across India and aim to double in the next one year,” Jayen Naik, senior vice-president, operations & projects, Nexus Malls, had told Business Standard earlier.

Meanwhile, region-wise, new mall supply in western India tops with 25 msf, followed by south India at 21.7 msf, north India at 11.9 msf and east India at 6.4 msf, as per the Anarock Retail report. Besides Metros, prominent tier 2 & 3 cities for retail growth include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Baroda, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Cuttack, Dehradun, Goa, Guwahati, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Mysore, Surat, Rourkela, and Thiruvananthapuram.

HUL sets up end-to-end digital transformation plan for next phase of growth

The country's largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), on Saturday said it had put in place an end-to-end digital transformation plan as it sought to get future-ready.

Addressing shareholders at its 86th Annual General Meeting (AGM), Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director of HUL, said a new digital council had been set up at the company, and over 80 experiments were underway to help in the transformation.

"By 2030, India will have a large cohort of ‘Generation Z’ consumers with ubiquitous internet, smartphones, and digital media. As they start earning, they will actively use technology-enabled consumption models and have a big influence on the consumption behaviour of their households,” said Mehta.

The 58-year-old executive —appointed chairman last year after Harish Manwani retired — said HUL had devised a five-pronged strategy, which includes driving purpose into brands, enhancing societal impact, innovating for the future, nurturing talent, and leveraging data and technology (including artificial intelligence) across the value chain. “Our people data centre picks up real-time consumer signals and identifies business opportunities. We are using shopper data to drive precision marketing, and using machine learning to monitor demand in the real time,” he said, describing the digital transformation process.

The firm is also ramping up technology on the factory floor by reducing service lead time through an integrated sales and operation planning programme, thus creating a customer-focused network as well as a faster logistics and distribution footprint, said Mehta.

"Our Internet of Things (IoT)-powered digital factories are helping us leverage installed capacities. Automated warehouse robotics and guided vehicles are helping with stock accuracy, reducing truck loading time, and raising the level of customer service,” he said.

Mehta added that HUL was re-skilling its workforce, developing niche digital skills in leaders, and shifting to a culture of “always-on” learning, which focused on mentoring, peer-to-peer learning and e-learning.

SC to hear, decide sensitive cases like Ayodhya, Rafale on reopening

Upon reopening on July 1 after a six-week summer vacation, the Supreme Court will deal with very sensitive issues, including the Ayodhya land dispute, review pleas in Rafale case and the contempt case against Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the court his "chowkidar chor hai" slogan.

The top court, which would function with its full judicial strength of 31 judges under the stewardship of Chief Justice (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, is likely to deliver its verdict in the review pleas in Rafale case.

The petitions, including the one filed by ex-Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, seek review of the apex court's December 14, 2018, judgment dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.

Also, a three-judge bench headed by the CJI would decide the fate of BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi's contempt plea against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the top court his "chowkidar chor hai" jibe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Gandhi, however, has already tendered unconditional apology for it and sought closure of the case.

The outcome of the in-camera mediation proceedings, undertaken by a three-member panel headed by former apex court judge Justice F M I Kallifulla, to find an amicable solution to the politically-sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, would be watched with bated breath.

The mediation committee, which also comprises spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, is "optimistic" about finding an amicable solution to the vexatious dispute. It has been granted time till August 15 by a five-judge bench headed by the CJI.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the SC against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be divided equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

Besides these, the SC will have to deal with a PIL seeking a probe and lodging of an FIR against activist lawyers Indira Jaising, Anand Grover and their NGO 'Lawyers Collective' for allegedly violating rules relating to receipt and utilisation of foreign funds.

The PIL has been filed by 'Lawyers' Voice', a voluntary organisation of advocates.

The top court would also dealing with the PIL of lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay challenging the constitutional validity of Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament's power to make laws for the state.

The top court would also be dealing a host of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A, which provides special rights and privileges to natives of Jammu and Kashmir.

On February 11, the Jammu and Kashmir government had sought permission from the Supreme Court to circulate a letter to parties for adjourning the hearing on pleas saying that there was no "elected government" in the state.

CM Fadnavis orders an 'in-depth' inquiry into Pune wall collapse incident

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Saturday ordered an in-depth inquiry into the incident of wall collapse in Pune, in which 15 people were killed.

"Extremely saddened to know about loss of lives in the Kondhwa, Pune wall collapse incident. My deepest condolences to the families and praying for speedy recovery of the injured. Directed Pune Collector to conduct an in-depth enquiry," Fadnavis said on Twitter.

State Congress chief Ashok Chavan also expressed his grief over the incident and urged the state government to extend all the help to the families of the dead and injured.

Chavan said an inquiry should be carried out "so that the guilty can be punished".

At least 15 people, including four children, were killed when a portion of the compound wall of a housing society collapsed on shanties adjacent to it in Kondhwa area in Pune in the early hours of Saturday. The shanties were set up for labourers working in a nearby construction site.

PM Modi meets Turkey's Erdogan in Japan over anti-terror, defence ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and held talks on a host of key issues including trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism.

The two leaders, who are in Osaka, Japan, met in the morning on the margins of the two-day G20 Summit and talked about the strong development partnership between India and Turkey.

According to Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, the two leaders' discussions focused on trade and investment, defence, counter-terrorism, IT and civil aviation.

"The interactions in Osaka continue. A productive meeting with President @RTErdogan on the sidelines of the #G20 Summit. Both leaders talked about the strong development partnership between India and Turkey," the Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet.

The Turkish leader, during a two-day visit to India in July, 2018, assured India of his country's full support in the fight against terrorism.

Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi met the presidents of Indonesia and Brazil separately on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit and discussed ways to boost bilateral ties and enhance cooperation in trade and investment.

On Friday, Modi held bilateral and plurilateral meetings with many leaders, including US President Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping.

Roll out 'one nation, one ration card' by June 2020: Govt to states, UTs

The Centre has given a one year deadline till June 30, 2020 to states and Union Territories for rolling out the 'one nation, one ration card' system, under which beneficiaries can buy subsidised foodgrains from ration shops in any part of the country.

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said already 10 states -- Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharasthra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura -- are providing portability of Public Distribution System (PDS) entitlements.

"By next June 30, 2020, 'one nation, one ration card' should be implemented without fail in the entire country. We have written letters to the state government to fast track the implementation of this system," Paswan told reporters.

The new mechanism will ensure no poor is deprived of PDS entitlement if that person shifts from one place to another. The system will also help remove fake ration card holders, he added.

Paswan further said there are 11 states, including Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, which can easily implement the PDS portability within their state as Point of Sale (PoS) machines have been installed in all ration shops.

This is one of the 100-days agenda of the Modi 2.0 government, he added.

Since November 2016, the government is implementing the National Food Security Act, under which foodgrains are supplied every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 13 per kg to over 80 crore people in the country.

From trade to counter-terrorism, PM Modi's G20 visit ends with six pacts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held separate bilateral meetings with leaders of Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, Singapore and Chile, and discussed a host of key issues including trade, counter-terrorism, defence, maritime security and sports.

Modi, who was in Osaka, Japan for the two-day G20 Summit, held his first official engagement on the last day of the summit with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

The two leaders discussed ways to deepen bilateral cooperation in trade and investment, defence and maritime fronts.

"Beginning Day 2 of the #G20 Summit by meeting a valued friend. PM @narendramodi holds talks with President @jokowi on ways to deepen India-Indonesia cooperation," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) tweeted.

In a tweet, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "Taking forward the comprehensive strategic partnership. PM @narendramodi had a productive meeting with Indonesian President @jokowi on margins of #G20Summit. Discussed expanding cooperation in trade & investment, defence, maritime, space & exchanged views on Indo-Pacific vision".

Soon after, Modi met Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral relationship, specially cooperation in trade and investment, agriculture and bio-fuels in the context of climate change.

"Deepening the close & multifaceted strategic partnership. PM @narendramodi & Brazilian President @jairbolsonaro held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral relationship, specially cooperation in trade & investment, agriculture & bio-fuels in the context of climate change," Kumar tweeted.

He then met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and held talks on a host of key issues including trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism.

They talked about the strong development partnership between India and Turkey.

According to Kumar, the two leaders' discussions focused on trade and investment, defence, counter-terrorism, IT and civil aviation.

"The interactions in Osaka continue. A productive meeting with President @RTErdogan on the sidelines of the #G20 Summit. Both leaders talked about the strong development partnership between India and Turkey," the PMO said in a tweet.

In his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Prime Minister Modi had "good discussions on enhancing cooperation in sports, mining technology, defence and maritime cooperation and Indo-Pacific".

The bonhomie between Morrison and Modi was on full display when the Australian Prime Minister tweeted a selfie with his Indian counterpart and praised him in Hindi "Kithana acha he Modi!", a message which went viral.

Modi replied to his tweet by saying he was "stoked" about the energy of the India-Australia relations.

The Prime Minister then had pull-aside meetings with his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and exchanged views on strengthening bilateral relations.

On Friday, Modi held bilateral and plurilateral meetings with many leaders, including US President Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping.

Overall, Modi held nine bilateral meetings with the leaders of Japan, the US, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Germany, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and Australia; eight pull-aside meetings with Thailand, Vietnam, the World Bank, the UNSG, France, Italy, Singapore and Chile; two plurilaterals -- JAI (Japan-America-India) and RIC (Russia-India-China); one multilateral meeting of BRICS and four G20 sessions and a community event.

Dealing with fugitive economic offenders a strong agenda, says India at G20

India has pitched strongly to deal with fugitive economic offenders, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged the issue at all global forums, the country's Sherpa to G20 Suresh Prabhu said Saturday.

"We strongly put forward the need for to deal with fugitive economic offenders. It has been a strong agenda, we have been working on tax evasion, corruption, economic offences and fugitive offenders running away (from the country). We have also been very strongly championing this," Prabhu told a media conference, detailing about the deliberations of the meeting.

He said that Prime Minister Modi has raised these issues at all global forums.

"We strongly feel that we as a global community must act in unison to deal with such issues of people committing economic offences and running away from their national domicile country," he told reporters post G20 Sherpa's meeting.

On the query that why India didn't join the Osaka declaration on digital economy, Prabhu said the reasons have been communicated to the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

But, he also clarified that India strongly believes in digital economy and has taken host of measures, including a huge number of bank accounts to thrust its digital agenda.

"India has a very massive programme on digital transactions. We have opened bank accounts of a large number of people. Many transactions are happening through the digital forms," he said.

Prabhu, who was the Railways minister in the first term of the NDA government, also informed that the country's railways has almost 8.1 billion passengers per year, and many of them buy tickets through digital platforms.

"So, digital is something which we all believe in, we have a market which is growing including the e-commerce market. Therefore, we believe in that digital economy and also at the same time we have a very close relationship with our dear friend Japan but we have already communicated the reasons to them," Prabhu said.

Among others issues that India raised during the summit were on climate change, clean energy, environment protection, agriculture, tourism and systemic shift towards providing social security and financial benefits for the ageing population.

Prabhu said India also put emphasis on building a quality infrastructure that is a necessity for growth.

He also said that infusion of technology in all sphere of life will create economic opportunities for all as well as bridge the digital divide, and improve the quality of life.

"For that, quality infrastructure will play a very important role. In economy, finance will be an important issue and therefore issues related to global finance whether it is related to sustainable and modern tax system, whether related to technological innovation which can deliver benefits in financial markets...all these issues were also discussed," he told reporters.

Prabhu said India's Prime Minister Modi has been championing that "we need anti-corruption measures at global level. So, fight against corruption should be done at all levels by all the G20 members by combating foreign bribery and ensure each G20 country has a law to enforce it, that people committing economic crimes in one geography will not be able to run away to the other and escape the clutches of law".

Lyching victim Pehlu Khan's sons charged with cow smuggling in Rajasthan

Two years after Haryana resident Pehlu Khan was lynched by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan's Alwar district, police here have filed a chargesheet against his two sons and a truck operator for illegally transporting cattle.

The issue triggered a row with AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi charging that the Congress in power was the "replica of the BJP".

Owaisi was reacting to earlier reports that Pehlu Khan was also chargesheeted.

Although the case goes back to April 2017 when the BJP was in power in the state, the chargesheet is being filed months after the Congress took over.

"The chargesheet was accepted by the court on May 24 against three persons under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act. Since Pehlu Khan had died, he has not been chargesheeted," Alwar Superintendent of Police Anil Paris Deshmukh told PTI.

However, Pehlu Khan's name was mentioned in the summary of the chargesheet.

Police maintained that the case against Pehlu Khan, his sons Irshad Khan (25) Aarif Khan (22) and truck operator Khan Mohammad stood proved in the investigation.

They were charged under under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995.

Pehlu Khan and his sons were thrashed by a mob on the suspicion of cow smuggling in Alwar's Behror on Aprli 1, 2017.

Pehlu Khan died at a hospital in Alwar on April 3.

The Rajasthan Police registered a case against the people who allegedly lynched Pehlu Khan and thrashed his companions.

Six men were named in the FIR which also mentioned about 200 unidentified people.

A case was also registered then against Pehlu Khan and others under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act, which allows the transportation of cattle only after getting permission from the administration.

Police had then booked 16 people for illegally transporting 36 animals in six vehicles.

They were on their way to Nuh district in Haryana from Jaipur when the cow vigilantes stopped two of the vehicles in Behror on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway, thrashing Pehlu Khan and his sons.

Amid the row over the latest chargesheet, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Saturday distanced himself from any role in the investigation.

"Investigation into the case was done during the BJP rule. If any discrepancy is found, we will get the case re-investigated," he said.

"The Congress has not changed its stand on the issue," he added, saying those who indulge in such killings on the pretext of "gau raksha" won't be spared.

Later, the CM tweeted that this was a case separate from the one related to the lynching, and was registered and investigated under the previous government.

Since the three accused named in the chargesheet were not present at the time of its submission in December 2018, the district court accepted the "challan" on May 24, he said.

"However, our government will see if the investigation was done with predetermined intentions," he tweeted.

Earlier, former BJP MLA Gyan Deo Ahuja said Pehlu Khan and other accused were involved in the smuggling of cows, which was "proved" in the police investigation.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)