BREAKING: India assures it would honour a trade pact with Britain and resolve a dispute over Scotch tariffs, sources say. Pernod, Diageo, Radico, ABD to benefit Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal told attendees necessary steps being taken "so that the duty concession on bulk Scotch whisky is not impaired". In the first major dispute linked to the landmark India-UK trade pact, implemented in July, New Delhi in recent weeks launched investigations into major liquor companies and told them bulk Scotch imports were ​not eligible for the tariff cut to 75% from 150% agreed under the deal, Reuters has reported. With @Acharya0122, @Reuters

A Reuters Explainer: Why is India investigating bulk Scotch imports, and why is it rattling liquor companies from Pernod Ricard and Diageo to Radico Khaitan and Allied Blenders? It’s the first significant dispute over the pact since it took effect. The India-UK trade pact, which took effect in July, halved India’s tariff on Scotch to 75% from 150%. Bottled Scotch is getting the cut. But Indian tax officials argue bulk Scotch, used to make popular Indian whiskies, does not qualify, and should pay the old 150%. That matters because about 80% of Scotch shipped to India arrives in bulk. In our explainer🔹 The fine print of the pact 🔹 India’s position on bulk Scotch, and the industry’s counter-argument Why bulk imports matter for brands like Blenders Pride🔹 How Britain and Indian liquor makers are pushing back

“Newsrooms will shut down, if we have to ask for permission...it’s then a complete regime of pre-censorship.” That’s what India’s biggest news publishers told the Supreme Court today, as they took on Modi’s government over its privacy law. Digital News Publishers Association lawyer, Madhavi Goradia Divan, argued the law is “changing the whole concept of what is news.” She told the judges that earlier versions of the law exempted journalists, but the final one did not. The publishers, whose group includes Ambani’s Network18, Adani’s NDTV, the Indian Express and Times Internet, say the law would force reporters to seek consent from the very people they investigate; people named in stories demand erasure, forcing publishers to unpublish reports; Let New Delhi demand information from newsrooms without court approval, putting sources at risk The court will hear the case next month. Today's story:

EXCLUSIVE: India’s biggest news publishers including Ambani's Network18, Adani's NDTV, Indian Express, Times Internet & others mount the most high-profile challenge yet to Modi’s privacy law, warning it would “render investigative journalism a benign and neutered recorder of events.” DNPA (@publishers_news) has taken the law to the Supreme Court. They argue it would trample investigative work and let New Delhi identify journalists’ sources. The provisions “constitute pre-censorship which is anathema to any democracy worth its name,” the group’s 698-page filing says. The key concerns: 🔹 Consent: requiring a journalist to notify the subject of an investigation and seek consent “would allow that subject to destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses” 🔹 Erasure: people can withdraw consent and demand their data be erased, which the group says could force publishers to unpublish or heavily redact news reports 🔹 Sources: a “nakedly unguided” power to demand information that “can extend to privileged communications in possession of a reporter or the informant” In a letter to the government, the group said India “has chosen to grant broad exemptions to the state, while failing to extend any corresponding protection to the press.”

🚨 BREAKING. Indian tax officials are investigating Pernod Ricard and Diageo for allegedly misclassifying bulk Scotch imports to pay lower tariffs under the India-UK trade pact. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Government of India visited both companies’ offices last week, reviewed documents. Inspectors argue the pact’s duty cut from 150% to 75% does not apply to the bulk Scotch concentrates the companies import and blend into brands such as Royal Stag, Blenders Pride and McDowell’s. The companies say they have imported them in line with Indian law for years.

India has banned the sale of internet-connected CCTV cameras that lack testing clearance. But hundreds of unlicensed CCTVs, including Hikvision and Dahua models, are listed on Amazon and Flipkart in India, Reuters found. Following questions from us, the e-commerce firms have launched a review. Over 700 internet cameras lacked BIS certification, mandatory since April. Unapproved online sales are a "serious concern," former cybersecurity chief Gulshan Rai said. Dahua's Imou even has a dedicated page on Amazon. Since Tuesday, at least a dozen listings have been removed from the e-commerce platforms, including at least two models from Hikvision's EZVIZ brand, which Amazon now shows as "currently unavailable". Other listings included Maizic Smarthomes, which describes itself as India's best-selling AI security brand. None of its 138 "wifi camera" offerings on Amazon, including some slotted inside bulbs, had an Indian approval, the standards bureau's website showed. With @MunsifV, edits @kate_mayberry

BREAKING: Fake photos of e-waste trucks showed “bright daylight” 29 minutes after sunset -- and one recycler admitted adding “a few clouds”. Indian tax authorities have faulted Haier, Godrej and Blue Star, for failing to detect that one of their recyclers was fabricating records. They used its compliance certificates to meet green goals. India has been concerned about fake compliance certificates, and the case has alarmed the industry. Haier, Godrej & Boyce and Blue Star "admitted that they had not independently verified the actual collection, transportation, receipt, dismantling or recycling of the e-waste", which is necessary to claim tax credits, the notice added. "The foundational activity of procurement, receipt and processing of e-waste itself is not established." Officials say the three companies wrongly claimed $714,000 in tax credits as the recycling work was never actually done by vendor With @Nikunj_Ohri

Red Bull sues India's food regulator for banning the words "energy drink" on its cans, in the first legal challenge against New Delhi's decision. The Austrian company says the FSSAI Home order "introduces substantial regulatory uncertainty and adversely affects" its existing and planned investments, and is against India's stated policy of facilitating "international trade, promote investment and provide greater certainty to businesses."

"What did you do in the last four years?... Why do you want to waste so much time?" India Supreme Court pulls up food regulator over timeline for warning labels. Judges ask why fresh consultation is needed before red warning labels appear on food packets. Separately, food companies have asked the court to reconsider the colour -- Indians associate red with the non-veg dot.

India wants junk food out of children's hands. It's moving to ban sales to kids within 50 metres of each school. Rules could hit Mondelez & Nestle, who count children as key consumers, and will reach grocery stores, ice cream carts and samosa shops 🧵

🚨 BREAKING: India is investigating LG and Samsung for allegedly paying lower tariffs on imported display parts of high-end OLED TVs... 📺 Officials allege the companies wrongly claimed a concessional 5% tariff on imported OLED glass screens called open cells -- a rate they say has for years been reserved for older LCD and LED technologies that dominate mass-market sales. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence believes the duty should have been 15%. 📺 Both companies are privately contesting that position, arguing OLED is nothing but an advanced form of LED and the same tariffs should apply. DRI officers visited Samsung's India headquarters in Gurugram to question officials in recent weeks. LG was sent written questions and has responded, along with a voluntary monetary deposit to cover any extra duty authorities may request. 📺Samsung said it is "reviewing the matter and cooperating fully with the relevant authorities." 📺Meanwhile, industry groups Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) and MAIT wrote nearly identical confidential letters in August pushing India's IT ministry to extend the 5% rate to OLED parts, calling the current rules an "anomalous situation" that leaves advanced OLED manufacturers "denied the same benefit." With @Nikunj_Ohri

BREAKING: India's Serious Fraud Investigation Office has recommended a detailed investigation into Xiaomi's business model, saying its compliance with the 2020 foreign investment restrictions should also be looked at. Revelation comes ahead of BRICS Summit. This could become the latest headache for Xiaomi in the country. "The most important part of the proposed investigation should be examination of the beneficial ownership," it says. Calls for collaboration with other agencies. SFIO also wants scrutiny of whether Xiaomi had "de facto control" over Indian sellers while launching products exclusively online.

INDIA WARNINGS LABELS & BIG FOOD -- A box of Kellogg's Chocos in India is 27% added sugar by weight. Under India's proposed pack warning labels, it would potentially carry no warning at all. That is what has health activists upset. Food companies are upset for the opposite reason. "Everything will be red," one Indian chief executive told us. Why? The design at the heart of it is the reason -- A red hexagon appears only when a product is high in two of three nutrients — sugar, salt, fat. High in just one? Nothing. Chocos keeps its fat and salt within the limits, so the sugar alone doesn't count. Chile does it differently. Each nutrient gets its own black octagon. "It will be meaningless. No other country uses the double nutrient approach," Barry Popkin of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health told us. Industry's objection runs the other way. Seven executives told us the thresholds are among the world's strictest, and that judging a product per 100 grams is absurd. "Nobody consumes 100 grams of a pickle or ketchup," one said. Nor is this only about the multinationals. @FirozNaqvi of India's Federation of Sweets and Namkeen Manufacturers says its 5,000 members are deeply concerned, because sugar, salt and fat are intrinsic to mithai and namkeen. "A substantial majority of packaged traditional sweets and namkeen could attract warnings...It could negatively affect consumer perception and demand."

A warehouse was raided in Mumbai by food safety officers. They were shocked. Inside, machines that helped fake expiry dates and nutritional info on PepsiCo, Nestle, Coca-Cola & Unilever packs They were for exports. Reuters had exclusive access. Read.

A can of Fanta sold in London has 63 calories. Buy the same brand in India, and it contains three times as much sugar. The bottle of Fanta soda retailed in India, left, contains artificial dye that is not present in the similarly-branded product sold in Britain. This is a story of Big Food's fight against Indian government's front-of-pack labelling. Read For this report, Reuters reviewed the audio recordings, hundreds of pages of government and corporate documents, and interviewed 11 industry executives and health experts. Several food companies have filed legal complaints against social-media influencers who have criticized how they market their products in India.

How Big Food fought India's warning labels -- while selling the world two recipes. For a decade, India tried to put red warnings on packs high in sugar, salt and fat. Big food giants pushed back and won. With @Richa_Writes, edits @katerinareports

Tukaram Mundhe -- an Indian bureaucrat with a chevron moustache and, unusually, a fan following. Mundhe, 51, has torn through Mumbai's food businesses -- Domino's, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, court canteens, cricket clubs -- nobody has been spared. His raids go viral daily as his team releases pictures of stained walls, cockroaches, rats, expired food. Mundhe has touched a raw nerve -- Indians have long been frustrated with unsafe food. Fear of Mundhe is spreading. "Those who try to not comply will face what is expected from the regulator," he told Reuters. A NEWSMAKER.

India food safety regulator inspected a Pernod Ricard factory, collected liquor samples, sources said, as part of an investigation into the $40 billion sector in which Diageo has faced scrutiny. Blenders Pride/Royal Stag samples collected

Indian food safety officer in news, Tukaram Mundhe, strikes again. This time - it's Bollywood In a warning to Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay ​Devgn and Tiger Shroff, made public over the weekend, the state said the actors were promoting Vimal's ​cardamoms but the brand is associated largely with a prohibited betel nut mix - called pan masala - sold in tiny 3.5 rupees ($0.0366) packs and considered harmful, especially when mixed with tobacco.

This is a story about E20 contamination warning by Indian automakers, which was withdrawn last week hours after Modi's government said the petrol is safe. Auto body SIAM said some numbers "need authentication." Behind the scenes, executives had been worried. Nobody questioned the data. Reuters has seen emails between Maruti, Tata and Mahindra from just days earlier. In them, executives call contamination a concern and push to warn the government urgently. What their own testing found: 250+ fuel samples tested across 21 states; High chloride in 18 states; A Mahindra engineer wrote organic chloride can spoil an engine "within 200 km." Read the details. With @aditishahsays Edits @SonaliPaul2