PAK VIOLATED CONVENTION ON JADHAV, SAYS ICJ PRESIDENT

NEW DELHI: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that a bilateral consular access agreement between India and Pakistan did not exclude the applicability of the Vienna Convention in the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, ICJ president Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf has said.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Wednesday while presenting ICJ’s annual report for 2018-19, Yusuf described the matter of Jadhav – currently on deathrowinPakistanafterbeing convictedofallegedinvolvement in espionage – as one of five contentious cases heard by the court during the period.

ICJ ruled in July that PakistanhadviolatedJadhav’srights undertheViennaConventionon Consular Relations and upheld its earlier decision that his death sentence should be held in abeyance till his trial and conviction by a military court was reviewed.

NEW DELHI: The core infrastructureindustries’output—measuring a basket of eight sectors accountingfortwo-fifthofIndia’s factoryoutput—contractedtothe lowest in at least 14 years, pointing to a deepening industrial slowdown.

The gauge contracted by 5.2% in September from a growth of 4.3% in the year- ago period, accordingtodatareleasedbythe commerce and industry ministry. The development strengthens the case for the central bank to continue its monetary stimulus, experts said. With inflation likely to remain within the central bank’s target range in the nearterm,anotherratecutinthe December monetary policy review is a near certainty, said Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist, India Ratings. “Such