MCA
MCA21 system will be
intermittently unavailable from Saturday, 9th Mar 2019 08.00 am to Saturday,
9th Mar 2019 6.00 pm IST due to maintenance activity. Stakeholders are
requested to plan accordingly.
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ANDHRA PRADESH AND MADHYA PRADESH GET NEW NCLT BENCHES
The Government has approved
establishment of two new benches of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), one
at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh and the other at Indore in Madhya Pradesh. This
step has been taken keeping in view the increasing case load, especially under
the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code 2016. The jurisdiction of the Bench at
Amaravati will be the state of Andhra Pradesh and that of Indore will be the
state of Madhya Pradesh. At present Andhra Pradesh comes under the Jurisdiction
of NCLT Bench at Hyderabad and Madhya Pradesh comes under the jurisdiction of
NCLT Bench, Ahmedabad. It is expected that creation of new benches will enable
faster disposal of cases. The NCLT, which has been set up under the Companies
Act, 2013, has provided an effective and time bound adjudication mechanism to
deal with matters related to the Companies Act, 2013, the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 and the LLP Act, 2008. The Act provides for appointment
of a President and such number of Members as the Government may deem necessary.
As on date there are 17 Judicial Members and 10 Technical Members. Presently,
14 numbers of NCLT Benches have been established, including the Principal Bench
in New Delhi, and three recently set up benches at Jaipur, Kochi and Cuttack.
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NCLT ALLOWS ICICI BANK'S INSOLVENCY PLEA AGAINST PUNJ LLOYD
OVER RS 854 CR DEFAULT
In a setback to
engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd, the National Company Law Tribunal
(NCLT) has admitted an insolvency plea against the company filed by ICICI Bank.
A two-member Principal Bench headed by President Justice M M Kumar has admitted
the lender's plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Punj Lloyd for a
default of Rs 853.83 crore.
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NCLT AHMEDABAD CLEARS ARCELORMITTAL'S RS 42,000 CRORE
RESOLUTION PLAN FOR ESSAR STEEL
National Company Law
Tribunal (NCLT) Amedabad bench cleared ArcelorMittal's Rs 42,000 crore
resolution plan for Essar Steel takeover plan. Clearing ArcelorMittal's bid,
NCLT said it cannot impose judicial view over banks' wisdom. The NCLT had said
that Rs 54,389-crore offer by Essar Steel Asia Holding, which is much higher
than the ArcelorMittal's Rs 42,000 crore bid, is not maintainable as the only
way to make a proposal is through Section 12A. After NCLT’s decision, NCLAT
would hear the matter from 14 March onwards.
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INITIAL EUPHORIA OVER IBC IS OVER, SAY EXPERTS
The initial euphoria over
the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Act has now faded, though the IBC has changed
the way promoters looked at their liabilities according to top industry. The
IBC cases were just being resolved, with the first dozen at the fag end of this
process. A lot more realism has now set in, said Kikani. Things have not
resolved as fast as people had predicted, but one should not judge IBC based on
these last 12 months, said Kikani. The fact that section 29A is here to stay
has indeed played out how promoters approached the post-IBC era and, therefore,
pre-IBC deal-making has increased. Banks are working towards recovering the
maximum from their assets through the IBC process, said others. Banks are able
to recover maybe ₹60 where they have lent ₹100 in case of good
companies, but much less in the case of other companies, said Vishal Gupta.
First you have to discover the price and then run a Swiss challenge method and
we are doing this in quite a few cases—a fair and transparent
process. Each case is different and, therefore, you cannot have a standardized
process and will have to tweak it, he said. Under the Swiss challenge method,
an initial bidder gets a chance to match later bids. Shantanu Nalavadi, saying
it was a phenomenal step to push banks towards recognizing stress. That coupled
with section 29A of IBC has shown results, said Nalavadi. He pointed out that
in a few of these cases, there are a number of operational challenges. If one
goes back to the start of the IBC, everyone had predicted that the first year
would be historic and the second and third would see some suspect judgements,
said Aniruddha Sen. Most of the stress in India is more in the capital
intensive sector that is where you need somebody to run and operate. This is
not a passive investor role and section 29A makes it more complex, said Manish
Agarwal.
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TIME TO REDEEM INVESTORS’ CONFIDENCE IN KEEPING SHARES IN
E-FORM
KS Badri Narayanan Sending
shock waves across investment fraternity, Odisha Cement on February 27 revealed
that certain mutual fund units worth about ₹344 crore have been
transferred illegally and without its authorisation by a depository participant
from the demat account held by its erstwhile subsidiaries, OCL India and Dalmia
Cement East. The culprit is SEBI-registered broking firm Allied Financial
Services Pvt Ltd (AFSPL), its five directors and four other entities. Similarly,
Novjoy Emporium Pvt Ltd was also duped of ₹21.7 crore worth of mutual
fund investments by AFSPL. In an interim order, the Securities and Exchange
Board of India has banned these entities and persons from the securities market
for misappropriating client securities and other violations. The misdeeds by
the broker and its associates came to SEBI notice after the NSE conducted a
forensic audit for the period May 1, 2017 to February 22, 2019. The NSE sent
the report to SEBI on February 23. The market regulator had also received
separate complaints from the victims in early February. The findings of the NSE
audit report disclose that AFPSL has ticked all the wrong boxes such as
misappropriating client securities, not maintaining the requirement of
continuous net worth, wrong reporting to stock exchanges, not doing segregation
of client funds from own funds, offering assured returns to clients and giving
disproportionate exposure to clients. Using the swindled amount, AFSPL and
others have made investment in properties at Lodha Excelus, Apollo Mills
Compound, NM Joshi Marg, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai, and New Delhi, the NSE said. The
market regulator has also barred 10 individuals and entities from disposing of
or alienating any assets, or create or invoke any charge on their assets,
without prior permission and directed them to provide a full inventory of all
their assets, including their bank and demat accounts and mutual fund
investments within five days (it must have reached SEBI by now). Odisha Cement
has filed a criminal complaint with the Economic Offence Wing, New Delhi. SEBI
has asked the brokers and its associates to file their objections, if any,
within 21 days. At a time when SEBI is driving all investors to have compulsory
demat accounts (March 31, 2019 is the deadline), this development could cause
some embarrassment as AFPSL had moved the units (that were in demat form)
seamlessly to its cohorts without the knowledge of the holders. The most
important thing for SEBI is to make investors comfortable in keeping the
securities in electronic form and show that the system is foolproof with
various checks and balances. Though the SEBI move of banning the entities from
the market is a first step in the right direction, the real big challenge,
however, is how quickly the victims get back their funds/units. Besides,
finding out whether any other brokerages have done these types of illegal or
unauthorised transactions kept in their DP accounts is a herculean task. Currently,
around 3,500 stock brokers are registered with SEBI. The market regulator can
even consider pruning the list, ensuring that only big, fit and proper ones
remain in the business. This may make its supervisory role easier. The probe
should also throw light on how the clients’ funds, shares and mutual fund units
were used as collateral in F&O for proprietary trading. The punishment
should also be telling on the culprits so that others will fear to even fancy
their chances with such a move.
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MF ASSET DOWN A TAD AT RS 23.16 LAKH CRORE
Asset under mutual fund
industry was down marginally in February at Rs 23.16 lakh crore against Rs
23.37 lakh crore, largely due to outflow from liquid and income funds. Inflow
into equity funds including equity-linked saving schemes also slowed down 17
per cent last month to Rs 5,122 crore against Rs 6,158 crore logged in January
on the back of turbulent market condition, according to data released by
Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). Liquid fund witnessed an outflow
of Rs 24,509 crore against an inflow of Rs 58,637 crore in January while outflow
from balanced fund was higher at Rs 1,077 crore (Rs 952 crore). Mutual funds
have acted as a counter balance to foreign portfolio investors pull-out by
pumping in Rs 1.19 lakh crore in last one year and Rs 1.10 lakh crore in this
fiscal, said Venkatesh. In last one year, inflow through Systematic Investment
Plans (SIPs) alone was at about Rs 95,000 crore, said Venkatesh. The asset
mobilised through SIP was up two per cent at Rs 2.43 lakh crore (Rs 2.39 lakh
crore). Other ETF (exchange traded fund) saw higher inflow of Rs 5,234 crore
against Rs 721 crore largely due to inflows into follow-on Bharat-22 ETF
launched by the government. The total number of folios in mutual fund industry
was up at 8.91 crore against 8.17 crore in January.
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KERALA: 13 DISTRICT BANKS SUPPORT MERGER RESOLUTION
With the amendment of the
Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, 1969, 13 out of the 14 district cooperative
banks (DCBs) have voted for merger with the proposed Kerala Bank. The state had
amended the Act to bring down the consensus required for the amalgamation of
cooperative banks and societies from a two-third to a simple majority. The
resolution for the proposed merger received only 25% votes at the general body
meeting held at Malappuram DCB, while the resolution secured simple majority in
the meetings held at all other DCBs on Thursday. As per Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) directive, the state government has to submit a report by March 31 after
complying with all the clauses put forth by RBI and National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). With Thursday's voting, Malappuram
DCB will exist separately even after the formation of Kerala Bank. One of the
clauses was to comply with the cooperative rules and Acts of the state. The
requirement of two-third majority as per the Section 14 of the Act was a major
hurdle, which the state government overcame through the amendment passed in
assembly in the last session. In fact, the resolution for merger was passed
with a two-third majority only in nine DCBs. The resolution failed to get a
two-third majority in Ernakulam, Kottayam, Idukki and Wayanad DCBs, besides
Malappuram. However, the resolution was passed with above 60% votes in 12 DCBs,
while it received 58% votes in Idukki DCB. Meanwhile, Sahakarana Janadipatya
Vedi chairman Karakulam Krishna Pillai said in a statement that the proposed
Kerala Bank still required two-third majority as per one of the conditions put
forth by Nabard for merger of DCBs. In the related pending cases in high court,
Nabard's counter petitions clearly demand two-third majority for the merger
resolution in DCBs, he said.
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PENNY STOCK PRODUCES FLASH IN THE PAN WITH BIZ REJIG, BUT
BOOKS DO NOT INSPIRE
Penny stocks are super
risky bets. And they often show a flash in the pan to draw investors only to
drop soon after leaving investors trapped Yet, there have also been instances
when smaller businesses have suddenly got things right and ended up scripting a
big value creation story. If you have looked at return charts of penny stocks
recently, this particular stock is bound to have caught your attention as it
has climbed some 950 per cent in just eight months. The company is Vikas
Proppant & Granite, formerly known as Vikas Granaries. The scrip traded at
Rs 8.70 on March 7 rising from Rs 0.80 on July 6, 2018. A closer look at the
business showed the company recently entered a new, niche business segment,
which could be the reason why the stock is on a high. The company with Rs 450
crore market capitalisation recently entered proppants manufacturing business.
Proppant is used in fracking or hydraulic fracturing in petroleum production,
the same process in which guar bean is used to create a gel-like ingredient to
thicken the fracturing fluid, which suspends frac sand and carries it to the
cracked rock. The shift appears to be working. For the nine months ended
December 2018, the company saw net profit soar to Rs 32.90 crore against a net
loss of Rs 1.36 crore posted for the same period last year. The promoters held
a very small stake in the company till recently, but their recent behaviour
suggests a bullish outlook for the business. They increased holding to 24.70
per cent as of December 2018 from 6.35 per cent at the end of September
quarter. Holdings of other investors declined to 75.30 per cent from 93.65 per
cent during the same period. There is no FII or DII holding in the company, and
there in no brokerage coverage of the stock. With a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.5
times as of March 31, 2018, the balance sheet showed a lot stress in the bottom
line as well top line in last few years. The company posted a net loss of Rs
1.10 crore in FY18 and Rs 13.80 crore in FY17. It posted ‘nil’ sales last year
against Rs 3.12 crore in FY17. It reported a net loss of Rs 9 crore on gross
sales of Rs 116.23 crore in FY16.
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AZIM PREMJI TRUST SELLS OVER 26.6 MN WIPRO SHARES ON BSE,
STOCK SHEDS 4.5%
IT major Wipro Friday said
one of its promoters, Azim Premji Trust, has sold 26.6 mn shares of the company
in a block deal on the BSE. The company however, did not disclose further
details of the transaction. Following the said block deal, the shares of the
company closed at Rs 256.50 Friday, down 4.58 per cent from its previous close
on the BSE. Azim Premji Trust, is part of the promoter group that held
3,36,19,97,805 shares amounting to 74.30 per cent stake in the company as of
the quarter ended December 31, 2018. On March 7, Azim Premji Trust had sought
pre-clearance for selling equity shares of the company and was granted
permission for the aforesaid proposal on the very same day, Wipro said in a
regulatory filing
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FOREX RESERVES SOAR PAST USD 400 BN-MARK AGAIN
The country's foreign
exchange reserves increased by USD 2.599 billion in the week to March 1 to
reclaim the USD 400 billion-mark, RBI data showed. The forex reserves stood at
USD 401.776 billion in the reporting week. In the reporting week, foreign
currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, swelled by USD
2.061 billion to USD 374.060 billion. Gold reserves rose by USD 488.7 million
to USD 23.253 billion in the reporting week, according to the data. The special
drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund also rose by USD 3 million
to USD 1.463 billion. The country's reserve position with the Fund too
increased by USD 6.2 million to USD 2.999 billion, the apex bank said.
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WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
It is universally
acknowledged that a society cannot prosper without making women educated and
empowered A nation’s competitiveness in the long run, inter alia, depends
significantly on how it educates and trains half of its talent base. Hence, in
recent years, the focus of many countries has shifted from equipping women for
their traditional roles of housewives and mothers to recognizing their worth as
producers, partners and partakers making a major contribution to the family
income and welfare. Research evidence reveals that women reinvest up to 90 per
cent of their earnings in their families and communities leading to the
realization that increasing women’s economic participation contributes to the
improved health and well-being of future generations. With the advent of
women’s economic empowerment and changes in socio-cultural aspects today, women
have proved their strength of managerial and entrepreneurial skills They have
played and continue to play vital roles in society and economy- from family
matriarch to caregiver, to wage earner, to political leaders, to policy and
decision-makers. International Trade FORUM reports that, in the coming decade,
one billion women around the world could enter the mainstream economy as
producers, consumers, employees and entrepreneurs. Pertinently, corporations
like Goldman Sachs, Coco Cola and Google have established initiatives to
promote women’s economic empowerment.
THE GLOBAL SCENARIO
The women of the world have
been affected more by poverty, lack of opportunities and facilities owing to
the innate discrimination prevalent in almost all societies. They do not have
an equal status with men The disparity between men and women is reported to be
so glaring that women perform about 60 per cent of world’s work; they earn just
10 per cent of the world’s income. On an average, women all over the world are
paid 30 to 40 per cent less than men for same work. According to a study while
women are joining the workforce in increasing numbers in many countries, their
wages are between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of men’s wages in most cases.
There continues to be growing recognition that in the economic and job creation
arena women represent one of the last pillars of untapped potential. Reportedly,
more than 80 per cent resources of the world are accessible to only 25 per cent
of the world population, that is, the developed countries. On the contrary, 75
per cent of the world population has access to only 20 per cent of the resources.
The main reason behind this disparity is the disparity of access to knowledge.
This is more so because, over the years, many regions across the globe have
failed to promote the participation of women as equal partners with men in
achieving educational progress and access to knowledge. During the past four
decades, there has been a global effort with a string support from the world
bodies like the UNO to understand and eliminate discrimination against women
and restore a status to them. The United Nations General Assembly declared 1975
as the International Year of Women, which brought about a great renewal of
interest in women’s status and development. It also organized four
International Women’s Conferences-- in 1975 at Mexico, in 1980 at Copenhagen,
in 1985 at Nairobi and the last one in September 1995 at Beijing; this was
followed by a series of five-year reviews. All these conferences have sharply
brought to the focus the gender issues. However, the Beijing Conference
emphasized that no enduring solution to the society’s most threatening social,
economic and political problems can be found without the full participation and
full improvement of the issues concerning women like economy, governance, human
rights, peace, security, science, technology, religion and education. It may be
noted that the review held in the year 2015 studied progress made in the 20
years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action;
concluded implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and crafted a new
development agenda--the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, while drawing
on data provided by 164 UN member states, the report of the UN Secretary
General to the omission on the Status of Women identified four major trends in
government action to address gender inequalities since 1995:
• _Increasing gender equality in employment through law and
practice;_
• _Supporting women farmers and other women living in rural
areas;_
• _Addressing the needs of self-employed women and women
entrepreneurs;_ and
• _Enhancing women’s voice in economic governance._
Notably, in 2015, world
leaders participated in the Special Summit on Sustainable Development at the UN
and were as determined as the delegates in Beijing were in 1995. They agreed
and put women’s rights and empowerment at the centre of the new global
development agenda. Despite such laudable efforts on the part of the
world-body, it is distressing that the declared policies and programmes are not
implemented and a good majority of women, especially in the developing
countries, are not aware of the benefits conferred on them by these
declarations. However, it is gratifying that since the Fourth World Conference
on Women in Beijing 23 years ago; many countries have taken significant steps
to advance women’s rights and empowerment New laws, initiatives and campaigns
are helping to curb discrimination and violence against women and girls. Most
countries have achieved or are close to achieving gender parity especially in
primary education. Many have gone further laying the ground for women’s equal
participation in government, economies and societies. The Beijing Conference
and the Platform for Action it established, have inspired many more to act.
That outcome marked a significant turning point for even the global companies
for gender equality agenda. Indeed, there is now a strong business case for
Women in Corporate Governance. Several countries such as Norway, Belgium,
France, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands,
Austria, Israel and Finland have made it mandatory for induction of women
directors on corporate boardrooms However, many countries are yet to have any
gender quota systems.
THE INDIAN SCENARIO
As stated earlier, in
recent years, momentum has been gathering all over the world demanding gender
equality and push for equal representation of women in all spheres of activity
including political, cultural, educational, economic and corporate governance.
In India too, women’s active participation in varied and numerous social,
political, economic and business activities has been of interest for several
years. This has been reflected in the reports of various Commissions,
Committees, Missions, Policies and Acts. The Indian constitution enshrines with
provisions which deal with the importance placed for women in workplaces too
and that women do have equal means of livelihood as compared to that of men. Other
recognition includes provision for equal pay for equal work carried out by a
woman, maternity relief and such other provisions. In spite of these concerted
and policy proclamations, the country has low female participation in all
spheres of social and economic activities especially in giant business and
corporate houses. However, it is a matter of great satisfaction that there are
now an increasing number of national and multinational corporations exploring
how their policies and programmes can empower women as a core part of their
business strategy/policy. This being so, an important development in recent
times has been to empower women in Indian ‘Listed Corporations’ by ensuring
their sufficient participation in decision-making and governance at Board
levels. Gender diversity in boardrooms is being strongly advocated by many
simply because of the difficult economic climate of financial crisis, corporate
scandals/scams and poor corporate governance that plagued the financial
sector’s reputation in recent past and adversely affected our corporate houses.
There is ample research evidence that women are more assertive on corporate
governance issues. Studies have found that companies run by women outperform
others. The other reported benefits of talent/thought diversity in the
Corporate Boards are:
·
Better business results;
·
Strong financial performance;
·
Ability to attract and
retain top talent;
·
Heightened innovation;
·
Enhanced client insight;
·
Strong performance on
non-financial indicators; and
·
Improved board
effectiveness and efficiency.
Promoting better gender
representation at board level is expected to go a long way in bringing
transparency, accountability, efficiency, effective governance and improved
business performance thus curbing corporate frauds, scandals and contain
Non-performing Assets (NPAs) to a larger extent. The US-based management consultancy
‘Catalyst’ reported that companies with a significant participation of women in
top management achieved 34 percent higher returns Studies have also shown that
women tend to be more risk aware than men and are also the primary decision
makers for consumer goods in 85 percent of households. A study about the
‘Return on Equity (ROE)’ data of 100 top Indian Companies has shown that
companies with women on their boards have a positive impact on their ROE. It is
also argued that greater board diversity increases a company’s competitive edge
when compared to those with less diversity in their boardrooms.
THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
India is perhaps the first
country among the developing nations that has chosen to make representation of
Women on Company Boards mandatory through the regulators- the Ministry of
Corporate Affairs (MCA) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). In
an effort to improve corporate governance and correct imbalance in the
boardrooms, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in the Companies Act, 2013
(Chapter XI, Section 149) introduced the concept of appointment of a Woman
Director in the Company Boards. The Act requires that one-third of a company’s
board comprise independent directors and that atleast one board member be a
Woman. According to Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors)
Rules, 2014 (Rule 3), the following class of company shall appoint atleast One
Woman Director
·
Every listed company;
·
Every other public company
having
(a) paid up share capital of Rs 100 Crores or more; and
(b) turnover of Rs 300 Crores or more.
The Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in February 2014, announced that all listed
companies to have mandatorily at least one Woman Director on the Board as early
as September 1, 2014. Subsequently, the time limit was extended to March 31,
2015 and again later to September 30, 2015 (now under the Kotak Committee
Report and new norms by April 1, 2019 the top 500 companies and by April 1,
2020, the top 1,000 companies will have to appoint at least One Woman
Independent Director). According to Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement the
Board of Directors of the company shall have an optimum combination of
executive and non-executive directors with atleast One Woman Director and not
less than 50 per cent of the Board of Directors comprising non-executive
directors. Thus, the law has obliged Indian listed companies to put Women into
Directors’ seats previously occupied by men. Prime Database and NSE, according
to which there are 11,227 persons occupying a total of 15,178 directorships in
NSE-listed companies. Of these, 2,426 positions are held by women, a
significant 15.98 per cent compared to December 2014, when it was only 8.9 per
cent. Thus, the diversity position seems to have improved over the last four
years.
THE J&K SCENARIO
In our State, J&K Bank
till recently being the only listed company, has already instated a ‘Woman
Director’ on Bank’s Board thus complying with the provisions of the Section 149
of the Companies Act 2013 and in pursuance to Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement
governing Corporate Governance. In fact, while conducting the Secretarial Audit
for the financial year 2014-15, the issue of appointing a Woman Director was
raised and taken up by the auditors with the key managerial personnel of the
Bank. Naturally, the Bank Management woke up to the issue and fulfilled the
statutory requirement. It may be indicated here that many women in banking
entities have risen to the top by dint of their hard work essentially because
the banking sector is conducive for growth of women executives. The same is
true of J&K Bank. Many competent and professional females are currently
associated with this Bank. In future, therefore, while making the appointment
of a ‘Woman Director’, the purpose should be to find the best, most capable,
dynamic, committed and qualified woman, especially female chartered
accountant/company Secretary, who could help bring the organization to greater
heights. Recently, another Jammu-based company ‘Sarveshwar Foods Ltd’
(registered in 2016 and engaged in the business of processing and marketing
basmati rice among other products) also became the first small and medium
enterprise (SME) from the state to make its debut on the capital market by getting
listed on the National Stock Exchange. The Company reportedly is also having
Woman Director/s on its Boardroom. In short, numerous policies and enactments
during the past few years have guaranteed meaningful representation to women at
all levels of decision-making: educational, social, political, financial and
now in corporate governance. The objective of incorporating ‘Women Directors’
in Indian Companies is a means to empower them by ensuring sufficient
participation of women in decision-making and governance at Board levels.
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DOORSTEP GOLD LOAN DELIVERY IN DELHI, MUMBAI; MANAPPURAM
FINANCE KICK-STARTS THIS SERVICE
Manappuram Finance Friday
said it would offer door-step delivery of gold loan to customers in Delhi and
Mumbai. The company will offer the doorstep facility across 50 branches each in
Mumbai and in Delhi, it said in a release. The service was piloted and launched
successfully last year in Chennai and Bengaluru where it is available across
107 and 183 branches, respectively. Customer centricity has been one of the
foundational pillars. With this launch, we address the convenience and security
factors in one go, as customers don’t have to commute with gold or cash, and
the money gets transferred directly to their accounts, said Joshy V K.
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RELIANCE TO BOOST TRENDS FASHION STORES, CHALLENGE AMAZON AND
FLIPKART
Reliance Industries Ltd
plans to grow the number of low-cost Reliance Trends fashion stores across India
to 2,500 from 557 over the next five years and integrate them with its online
business, two people briefed on the plans said. The expansion is the latest
move by the conglomerate's billionaire owner Mukesh Ambani to grab a dominant
share of Indian consumer spending in a struggle with rivals, particularly
e-commerce giants Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc's Flipkart. Reliance's plans
to diversify into e-commerce and expand in fashion come on the heels of India's
new foreign investment curbs that have dealt at least a temporary blow to
Amazon and Flipkart. Ambani, Asia's richest man, founded Reliance Retail Ltd in
2007 to transform his petroleum behemoth into a consumer-facing conglomerate. Expectations
that Ambani will increase bets on retail have been growing and the latest plan
was presented at meetings earlier this year, the sources said, citing proposals
the company shared with retail advisors. The expansion plan should allow
Reliance Trends, which sells accessories as well as clothing, to rapidly grow
its private labels--the retailer's own brands--the sources said. Reliance
Trends would be in 300 cities in five years, from 160 now, said the second
person briefed on the plan. A Reliance executive, said integrating the
availability of private labels with its e-commerce venture and penetrating
deeper into smaller, tier 3 and 4 cities is the next level of growth for
Reliance Trends. With the new commerce venture that we have planned, it will
even be easier to sell our private labels from even third-party stores, the
executive said. India has the world's largest population in the 18-35 year age
group at 440 million people, constituting nearly half of its workforce, global
consultancy Deloitte said in a recent report. With rising use of the Internet
and smartphones, e-commerce retailers have doled out discounts to lure people
to shop online for goods as varied as basic groceries and large electronic
devices. The millennial opportunity is what every retailer is looking at.
Reliance is no different, said a retail industry veteran and independent
advisor to several retailers. Reliance Trends' aggressive expansion will see
products such as private labels available across multi-brand outlets and
smaller format stores as well, said independent retail consultant Govind
Shrikhande. Almost 80 per cent of Reliance Trends' revenue comes from private
labels. A team of designers work across seven centres in India and one in
London to design items such as jeans, trousers, shirts and t-shirts, the
company executive said.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
INSTAGRAM TESTING USER-FILTER TOOLS, INTERFACE TWEAKS
Facebook-owned photo
messaging app Instagram may introduce some new tools user-filter options,
co-watching in video calls and minor interface tweaks on the app. Instagram is
testing chronological sorting options for users along with a search bar in the
'Likes' list, tech tipster Jane Manchun Wong tweeted on Thursday. The
user-filter option would let users sort their Following and Followers lists by
most recent additions or the opposite. The capacity could make it easier to
locate your most long-serving brand supporters, which may provide new
opportunities for connection. It would also make it easier to engage with your
most recent additions, and track locations and details, which you could
corelate with campaigns, reported web portal Social Media Today. Instagram is
testing for lyrics while choosing music in Stories. Helps users choose specific
parts of songs for now. I wish they'll make it karaoke style though, Wong
further tweeted.
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YOUTUBE TO SHOW INFO PANELS TO FLAG MISINFORMATION
YouTube on Thursday said
it will start showing ‘information panels’ - flagging misinformation and
offering correct insights - for news-related videos on its platform as part of
its efforts to curb spread of fake news YouTube currently offers features like
‘Breaking News’ and ‘Top News’ - available in India in English - to promote
verified news sources when a major news event happens in the country. The
information panels would be available when a user seeks information about the
accuracy of a claim related to a news item in Hindi and English language.
YouTube would then match that query with a relevant article marked as fact
check by an eligible publisher. As part of our ongoing efforts to build a
better news experience on YouTube, we are expanding our information panels to
bring fact checks from eligible publishers to YouTube, a YouTube spokesperson
told PTI. The spokesperson added that the feature is being launched first in
India and planned to be rolled out in more countries later.
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FACEBOOK HOLDS THE CITIZENS’ TOWN HALL FOR FIRST-TIME VOTERS
IN BENGALURU
Facebook has an incredible
potential to be a positive force for democracy around the World. A number of steps
are being taken by us to protect the integrity of the upcoming elections in
India, said Shivnath Thukral. Thukral said, We also believe that Facebook has
an important part to play in creating an informed community, and help people
access information they need to take part in the democratic process. The
Citizen’s Town Hall, initiative is being organized to empower youth with the
knowledge they need that will drive an effective participation during the
upcoming elections. The Citizens' Townhall has been conducted in eight states
and have received active participation from the audience.
#For Source of Information copy and paste the heading in google.
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
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