Centre blocks 232 foreign apps The apps, some of them Chinese, allegedly facilitated betting, gambling and unauthorised loan services, according to sources The apps posed a threat to India’s economic stability, an offcial said. They had materials “prejudicial to the sovereignty” of the country The ban comes amid complaints of extortion by representatives of lending apps with links to China bhubaneswar l monday l february 06, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l jeypore EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI RBI to hike rate by 25 bps before pausing: Experts Softening retail inflation to weigh in February 6-8 MPC meeting D i pa k M o n da l @ New Delhi express read Novel biowaste startup gets Israeli investment push Bhubaneswar: City-based startup Insectika Biotech Pvt Ltd has received a big investment push from an Israeli serial entrepreneur for commercialisation of its novel product of churning out insect larvae from household waste that can be used as fish and poultry feed. The startup has developed India’s first autoclimatized and decentralised insect farming bioreactor to up-cycle municipal bio-waste and industrialise the insect farming with affordability | P2 AS the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India is set to meet during February 6-8 to decide the benchmark lending rates, most experts see another 25 basis-point (bps) increase in the short-term repo rates. However, some see chances of a ‘pause’ in rate hike given the slowing down of inflation, and recessionary outlook going forward. The banking regulator has been on a rate hike spree since May 2022 when it increased the repo rate, the rate at which RBI offers short-ter m loans to banks, by 40 bps for the first time in two years. Ever since, it has jacked up the repo rate by 225 bps in all. As for retail inflation, it has moderated after peaking at 7.8% in April 2022. It fell to 5.88% in November and 5.72% in December, going below RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6% and giving hope to analysts that the rate hike cycle is likely to end. Now, however, most experts feel the MPC won’t let its guard down against inflation and will go ahead with a hike before hitting the pause button. “We believe RBI is at the end of its policy tightening cycle. A combination of rate hikes and liquidity normalisation has already resulted in an effective tightening in policy rates by nearly 300 bps, and we expect a final 25 bps hike in the February 8 policy meeting to 6.50%,” says a note from Nomura, a global financial services group.Nomura expects RBI to take a pause after February and even start cutting , interest rates from August 2023. Yuvika Singhal, economist with QuantEco Research, also says RBI will raise the repo rate by 25 bps before pausing. “At this week’s meeting, we are looking at possibly one last rate hike by the RBI MPC in its current hiking cycle,” says Sreejith Balasubramanian, Indian Economist at IDFC AMC. The 225 bps hike in repo rates since May 2022 has seen both lending as well as bank deposit rates going up significantly. Home loans are now attracting over 9% interest from the lows of 6.5% last year. Bank deposit rates have also gone up, albeit at a slower pace, to 7-7.5% for 2-5 year tenure. According to Pankaj Pathak, fund manager (fixed income) at Quantum AMC, there could be a pause in the February MPC given the ease in external factors and inflation, and growth in the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves over the last few months. Y e s h i l s e l i @ New Delhi Gopal fears for life, seeks shifting from Jharsuguda Former Pakistan ruler General Pervez Musharraf survived many assassination attempts but succumbed to a rare disease on Sunday . He was 79 and suffering from amyloidosis, an incurable disease that occurs when an abnormal protein called amyloid builds up in organs. He had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dubai. Musharraf, a cunning military officer who was the architect of the 1999 Kargil war, was living in self-imposed exile in the UAE to avoid criminal charges back home. In December 2019, a special court had handed him a death sentence in a treason case. However, the sentence was nullified later by a higher court. Born in Delhi, Musharraf rose to prominence when he was made a four star general and the head of armed forces in 1998 by the then Pak prime minister Nawaz Sharif. He led the Kargil infiltration that brought India and The assistant sub-inspector of police (ASI) Gopal Krushna Das who shot minister Naba Kisore Das dead in Brajrajnagar on January 29 has reportedly expressed fear for his life and has sought his shifting from Jharsuguda sub-jail to another prison once his Crime Branch (CB) remand ends. The CB on Sunday started questioning him again after taking him in fresh four-day remand. The accused reportedly told the investigators that he may face a life threat if he is lodged in Jharsuguda sub-jail. Sources said, he had served 12 consecutive years in the district. He has expressed fear of reprisal by supporters of Naba Das or others arrested by him in the past, who are lodged in the same jail. Sources said, he may be moved out of Jharsuguda as Odisha Police is already under tremendous pressure after the minister was gunned down in broad daylight and would not want any further controversy related to Continued on P5 the case.  architect of kargil war, musharraf dies A s i s h M e h ta @ Bhubaneswar Pervez Musharraf 11 August 1943  5 February 2023 Pakistan to the verge of a fullfledged war in 1999. This strained relations with Sharif, who finally dismissed him. However, the wily general overthrew the Sharif-led government in a bloodless coup and took over as the 10th president of Pakistan in 2001. During seven years in office, Muharraf oversaw a stint of economic growth while dodging three assassination attempts. His visit to India in 2001 for the Agra summit led to one of the most significant meetings between leaders of the two countries.