HDFC AMC, INDIGO, JINDAL STEEL AMONG 212 FIRMS STILL WITHOUT A
WOMAN INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR
More than 200 firms in
India have failed to comply with a key initiative of the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to enhance corporate governance at listed
companies Data compiled by NSEinfobase.com showed that 212 companies have not
appointed a woman as independent director by the 1 April deadline set by Sebi.
Of these companies, 52 rank among the top 500 companies in India. These include
HDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo), Jindal Steel
and Power Ltd, Union Bank of India (UBI), Indian Overseas Bank, and BSE Ltd.
Most of the non-compliant companies are public sector enterprises, according to
NSEinfobase.com, an offering of PRIME Database, a primary market tracker. In
the past, we have seen that larger-sized companies tend to take regulations seriously
and are compliant. The second issue is that the consequence of non-compliance
is generally very small. It is usually negligible monetary penalties, said Amit
Tandon. Four years ago when faced with a similar issue of having at least one
woman director, Sebi helped out companies by extending the deadline by six
months. A financial penalty was imposed on companies that were non-compliant
even after the extended deadline. It is surprising that many of the top 500
firms are not compliant. The biggest surprise is about directors who continue
to be on the board of listed firms despite attaining the age of 75 There are 342
companies who are yet to propose a special resolution for the removal of these
ageing non-executive directors, said Pranav Haldea, managing director, PRIME
Database Group. As of Tuesday, 1,026 non-executive directors in 614 listed
firms were at least 75 years old, the age set by Sebi for retirement. Of these,
257 companies have passed special resolutions for removing 463 directors. However,
the result of special resolutions for 15 other companies having 26 directors
are still pending. These include Reliance Industries Ltd, Maruti Suzuki India
Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd, Berger Paints India Ltd and TVS Motor Co.
Also, at least 35 firms are still to meet Sebi’s mandate of having at least six
directors on their boards. Many companies are banking on getting an extension
on the date of compliance. However, no communication has come from Sebi on
extending the deadline, said a lawyer who is consulting with companies on
compliance with the governance norms. Another important change recommended by
Sebi was to split the role of the managing director and chief executive officer
The companies have time till April 2020 to comply in this regard, but as of
Tuesday at least 154 companies were still to do so.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SC QUASHING RESERVE BANK CIRCULAR NOT TO DILUTE THE INSOLVENCY
LAW, SAYS GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
The Supreme Court's
decision to quash the RBI circular on referring defaulting companies for
insolvency proceedings does not in any manner dilute the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a senior official said Thursday. Corporate Affairs
Secretary Injeti Srinivas also said a generic instruction, one size fits all,
that if the resolution does not take place within 180 days then on the 181st
day, the banks have no other option but to go to the NCLT has been declared
ultra vires. Under the Code, insolvency proceedings can be initiated only after
getting approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The Supreme
Court's judgement in no way dilutes the scope or efficacy of the Code It does
not in any manner dilute the Code, he said on the sidelines of an event here.
Srinivas said building trust is the core issue for governance. Corporate
scandals in the past few years have raised issues of corporate governance.
Building trust is the issue for governance, and trust is a cross-cutting issue
in the internal and external environment, he was quoted as saying in a release.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
DAIICHI-RANBAXY CASE: WILL SEND SINGH BROTHERS TO JAIL IF
GUILTY OF CONTEMPT, SAYS SC
The Supreme Court Friday expressed
dissatisfaction over the replies filed by former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder
Singh and Shivinder Singh in response to its March 14 direction, asking them to
submit a concrete plan for paying ₹4,000 crore to Daiichi
Sankyo as directed by a Singapore tribunal. A bench headed by Chief Justice
Ranjan Gogoi said it will now straightaway hear the contempt petition against
the Singh brothers for non-payment of arbitral award amount to Japanese firm
Daiichi Sankyo and send them to jail if violation of its orders is established.
The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, has now
fixed the contempt petition of the Japanese firms against the former Ranbaxy
promoters for hearing on April 11. You may be owning half of the world but
there is no concrete plan as to how the arbitral amount would be realised. You
said that somebody owed you ₹6,000 crore. But this is neither here nor there, the bench
said. The Japanese firm's contempt plea against the Singh brothers seeks recovery
of ₹4,000 crore from them as directed by the Singapore tribunal.
Daiichi had bought Ranbaxy in 2008.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
NCLAT CAN'T FORCE US TO CHANGE APPROVED RESOLUTION PLAN: ESSAR
STEEL COC
The National Company Law
Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) or the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) cannot
force the Committee of Creditors (CoC) of Essar Steel India Limited to change
the terms of the resolution plan after it has been approved under Section 3 of
the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), lenders said in their plea before the
Supreme Court. The lenders to debt-ridden Essar Steel had approached the apex
court on Monday challenging the NCLAT’s March 18 and March 20 orders in which
it had asked the Resolution Professional (RP) of the company to call a fresh
meeting of the CoC to consider redistribution of funds among the financial and
operational creditors. The matter will be heard on April 8. Essar Steel lenders
have also challenged the NCLT Ahmedabad’s March 8 judgement in which it had,
while approving the resolution plan of ArcelorMittal, suggested that the CoC of
the debt-ridden Essar Steel reconsider the distribution of funds among the
operational and financial creditors. In their plea before the apex court, the
CoC of Essar Steel said that once the plan was approved by the NCLT and the
NCLAT, any variation in payments to the financial and operational creditors of
the company would amount to variation in the consent given by the members of
the lenders’ committee. In the aforesaid circumstances, the directions to reconsider
manner of distribution of proceeds under a resolution plan in light of the
adjudicating authority’s (NCLT’s) suggestions and recommendations is completely
unwarranted, unjustifiable, and equally without jurisdiction, the CoC said in
its plea.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
IL&FS CRISIS RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT RATING AGENCIES:
INJETI SRINIVAS
The unravelling of
IL&FS, the debt-laden infrastructure financing and construction company,
has hurt the credibility of rating agencies said Corporate Affairs Secretary
Injeti Srinivas Thursday. India Ratings & Research, ICRA, and Credit
Analysis and Research Ltd gave IL&FS the highest rating of AAA when the
company's subsidiary, IL&FS Transport Networks, defaulted in June, said
Srinivas at the annual summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry in New
Delhi. Bonds went from high investment grade--AA+ in some cases--to default or
junk. Market regulator Sebi's has criticised rating agencies for their role of
IL&FS accounts and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office is probing them
too. Srinivas expressed concern over corporate governance standards in the
country. There have been companies where directors have been office boys. When
we went looking for the company, it was not to be found, he said. Srinivas said
that the government plans to link databases so that details of the companies
are available to regulators like the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the
Reserve Bank of India. He said if companies are transparent in disclosures the
government will not need to regulate them.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
GOVT AND RBI WILL WORK TOGETHER FOR SMOOTH IMPLEMENTATION OF
SC RULING: CEA SUBRAMANIAN
The Government and the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will work together to ensure smooth implementation
of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the RBI’s 12 February 2018 stressed
assets circular, a top Finance Ministry official said. The apex court ruling in
Dharani Sugars vs Union of India and others does not impact ongoing cases or
resolutions or the credit culture in the country itself, Krishnamurthy
Subramanian, said. Subramanian said that he does not see any change in
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Code on account of the Apex court ruling. I
don’t think it (change to IBC) should be necessitated, but it’s too early to
say, he added.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
RBI TO WORK WITH BANKS FOR EFFECTIVE TRANSMISSION OF RATES:
SHAKTIKANTA DAS
Reserve Bank of India
would nudge bank chief executives to pass on the benefit of lower policy rates
like it did after the previous policy as lenders had done little in
transmitting RBI’s policy actions without verbal persuasion, raising doubts
over effectiveness of rate actions as monetary policy tool. It has been decided
to hold further consultations with stakeholders and work out an effective
mechanism for transmission of rates, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said. We are
conscious of the fact that there has to be effective and appropriate
transmission of the rates After the last meeting, I had held meetings with
public sector and private sector banks. The banks have cut MCLR by up to 10
basis points. But more needs to be done, Das said. No bank had lowered
marginal-cost-based lending rate (MCLR) after February policy before RBI brass
persuaded banks to do so. State Bank of India had made a token 5 basis point
home loan rate cut but it kept the benchmark MCLR intact. Many say repo rate is
now a blunt tool. We believe that despite an additional cut in policy rates,
the transmission in banks’ lending rate will remain incomplete as the
incremental build-up in their deposits continues to lag the credit growth and
the interest rates on small savings continue at elevated levels, Anil Gupta.
Das said RBI had taken several measures to enable better management of interest
rate risk by banks, for instance, by allowing non-residents to participate in
the rupee interest rate swap market.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ADHUNIK LENDERS ISSUE RS 40 CRORE SHARES, BONDS TO LIBERTY
HOUSE AS RESOLUTION STEP
Lenders to Adhunik
Metaliks have issued shares and debentures worth Rs 40 crore to Liberty House
as a first step for the UK-based company to take control of its first-ever
asset in India after protracted litigation The company’s monitoring committee
has approved issuing 20 million equity shares of Rs 10 each and 20 million
compulsory convertible debentures (CCDs) of Rs 10 each in line with the
resolution plan approved by the NCLT, Kolkata bench on July 17, 2018, Adhunik
Metaliks told the BSE. The move comes after an NCLAT order last month refused
to recognise a Rs 108-crore outstanding claim by MSTC, an operational creditor
to Adhunik, as the resolution process cost. The claim was the reason behind
Liberty House's refusal to pay the Rs 410-crore it had offered for Adhunik even
after the plan was approved in July last year. It had argued that it was not
liable to pay the amount as part of the resolution plan. With MSTC's claim set
aside, the same NCLAT order has given LHG time until April 14 to pay the entire
upfront amount of Rs 410 crore it offered for Adhunik. The next step will
likely be the de-listing of the company, said a person aware of the
development.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
PVR FILES COMPLAINT WITH SEBI AGAINST RONNIE SCREWVALA’S
ALLEGATIONS
Leading multiplex operator
PVR on Thursday filed a complaint with SEBI against film maker Ronnie Screwvala
for propagating false information to the detriment of the investors and the
securities market. This comes after Screwvala reportedly filed a complaint with
the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the four leading multiplex
operators — PVR, Inox Leisure, Carnival Cinemas and Cinepolis India, for
charging discriminatory virtual print fee (VPF) from movie makers. In its
complaint to SEBI, PVR termed Screwvala’s statements as slanderous and malicious
allegations with respect to the matter that he has allegedly filed before the
Competition Commission of India. Till date there is no official communication
by the CCI addressed to us about either the existence of any complaint or the
exact nature of the allegations, PVR said, adding that it only became aware
about this development through social media and media reports. We request SEBI
to enquire into the above matter and take appropriate action under Section 11
and 12A of the SEBI Act 1992, read with Regulation 4 of the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices
Relating to Securities Market) Regulations, 2003, it said. It also urged SEBI
to issue appropriate directions to Screwvala to cease and desist from providing
misleading and false information on the business of PVR, which could further
result in stock price volatility and adversely impacting shareholders of the
company.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
M&A DEALS IN INDIA DECLINED 17% TO $25.8 BILLION IN
JAN-MAR: REPORT
Indian merger and
acquisition (M&A) deals for the first quarter of 2019 reached $25.8 billion
declining 16.9% in value compared to the corresponding quarter of 2018.
However, it was elevated compared to historical levels, according to a report
from Thomson Reuters. The number of deals, too, fell 12.9% from a year ago, the
report said. The financial sector contributed 43.6%, or $11.3 billion to the
M&A deals in the first quarter. This is an increase of 5.9% compared to the
year-ago period and is the highest-ever quarterly period for the sector.
Bandhan Bank Ltd’s merger with Gruh Finance Ltd for $3.165 billion in a stock
swap transaction has been the biggest M&A transaction in India so far this
year. Power Finance Corp. Ltd’s (PFC's)acquisition of a majority stake in REC
Ltd from the government for $2.1 billion was the other billion-dollar deal
announced this year. Private equity-backed M&As saw the best ever start to
a year, with $4.2 billion in deal value, a 41% increase from a year ago.
PE-backed M&A in industrials at $1.6 billion accounted for 37.3%—a 10-fold
increase in value from a year ago when it was $155.1 million. An investor group
comprising Tata Sons Ltd, GIC Pte. Ltd, and SSG Capital Management Ltd agreed
to acquire a 45% stake in GMR Airports Ltd for $1.1 billion in the biggest deal
for the sector. Inbound M&As rose 17% year-on-year, with deals involving
foreign firms acquiring Indian firms reaching $7 billion, the highest since
2017. The Carlyle Group acquired a 9% stake in SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd for
$735 million, propelling the financial sector to capture 24.5% of India’s
inbound M&A activity. Outbound M&As, however, fell 32% compared to the
first quarter of last year to stand at $1.2 billion. India’s outbound
acquisitions focused on the healthcare sector with a deal value of $355
million.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SEBI TO RECRUIT 44 DGMS
The Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is in the process of recruiting 44 deputy
general managers (DGMs). The regulator has sent interview calls to 140
candidates and interviews will begin from April 16, sources said. This is the
second major recruitment-drive after SEBI had called for filling 120 vacancies
last September. This apart, SEBI has promoted its staff to the rank of chief
general manager and above in the past few months. The regulator has been in the
process of up-scaling its workforce in several departments.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FINTECH CHEERS SEBI'S CALL FOR MF RULES
The proposal from Sebi
(Securities and Exchange Board of India) to create a selfregulatory
organisation (SRO) to regulate the mutual fund industry has opened up new
opportunities for fintech startups trying to drive investments online.
Entrepreneurs, who want to take mutual fund investments to the next 100 million
users using technology, are hoping to get ample representation in the industry
regulatory bodies since the future of investment distribution is digital, they
say. With the number of players selling mutual fund products swelling everyday,
there was an urgent need for the regulator to step in and prevent any potential
misselling that could happen, said Nithin Kamath. There is a need to have
separate representations from each of the stakeholders of the distribution
business, agents, investment advisors and fintechs and its governance should be
driven through participants, said Mukesh Kalra. A separate body can be formed
which represents fintechs.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FINANCE MINISTRY WARY OF MFS' ENTRY INTO COMMODITY DERIVATIVES
SPACE
The Union finance ministry
is at odds with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) over the
foray of mutual funds (MFs) and portfolio managers into the commodity
derivatives space. Sebi board approved such participation to provide investors
an additional tool to hedge against inflation. The guidelines are awaited. The
objective was to also facilitate efficient price risk management, and price
discovery in a transparent and orderly manner. It is learnt the department of
economic affairs (DEA) has expressed disagreement over the move. It worries
this could lead to speculative bets in the commodity markets, posing risks for
the investors. Further, none of these players has direct exposure to underlying
commodities, says a government source. The ministry feels the platforms will
not be used for hedging, defeating the purpose of allowing these entities. And,
speculative trading by these players could induce excessive price volatility,
the source added. The government's priority is to enhance the participation of
farmers and genuine hedgers to reduce their risk, rather than giving
speculators the whole eco-system to play around. Sources say this is not the
appropriate time to allow these players in, until there is a proper risk
management and efficient physical delivery infrastructure. Experts suggest a
clear segregation between hedgers and speculators. Sebi says many investors are
not able to directly access commodity derivatives, because of the lack of
knowledge and expertise. So, institutional participants such as MFs and others
could be used as a vehicle for the participation of such investors in the
segment. Sebi had constituted a Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee to
advise it on regulations, and development of this segment. It had suggested
this market be opened to domestic and foreign institutional participants, in a
phased manner.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SEBI PANEL FOR MORE PLAYERS IN COMMODITIES
A panel constituted by the
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recommended opening the
commodity derivatives segment to all categories of institutional investors in a
phased manner, to enhance the depth and liquidity of the commodity market The
Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee (CDAC), which has been formed to
review the commodity segment and suggest measures to improve the depth and
efficiency of the market, has suggested that the capital markets regulator
should adopt a ‘calibrated approach’ before opening up the segment to overseas
investors. The panel is of the view that in the next phase, institutional
investors like foreign portfolio investors, banks, insurance companies and
pension funds should be allowed in the commodity derivatives segment. Commodity
derivatives would be a new asset class for the investors and can be used as
hedge against inflation. Investment in commodity derivatives in a portfolio may
also benefit the investors in terms of better portfolio diversification,
according to a SEBI paper presented to the board of the regulator ahead of its
meet on March 1. According to the panel, a substantial number of investors,
including retail investors, are not able to directly access the commodity
derivatives markets due to lack of knowledge and expertise.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
RBI TWEAKS LCR NORMS TO BOOST LIQUIDITY
In a bid to further
improve the cash position of banks, the RBI on Thursday provided additional 2
per cent liquidity window to the lenders by tweaking liquidity coverage ratio
(LCR) norms. The LCR indicates the proportion of highly liquid assets held by
banks to ensure their ability to meet short-term obligations. We have allowed
additional 2 per cent of LCR to reckon as Level 1 high quality liquid assets
for the purpose of computing the LCR of the banks. While this move will
harmonise the liquidity requirements of banks with LCR, it will also release
additional liquidity for lending by banks, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said.
He also said it has been decided that non-deposit taking systemically important
non-banking financial companies (NBFCs-NDSI) in the category of Investment and
Credit Companies (ICCs) will be made eligible to apply for Authorised Dealer
Category II licence. The decision has been taken with a view to improve the
ease of undertaking forex transactions by increasing the last-mile touch points
of regulated entities to sell foreign exchange for non-trade current account
transactions. A detailed instructions in this regard would be issued by the end
of April 2019, he added. Well-functioning securitisation markets can enable
better management of credit and liquidity risks on the balance sheets of banks
as well as non-bank mortgage originators and, in turn, help lower the costs of
mortgage finance in the economy. In view of the benefits brought in by the
standardisation of asset securitisation practices as also their role in
enabling superior management of credit and liquidity risks as alluded to
before, the RBI has decided to constitute a committee that will assess the
state of housing finance securitisation markets in India, he said. It is now
proposed to commence the process of implementation of international settlement
of Government securities by ICSDs. This would open up a new channel for
non-residents to undertake Government securities transactions, he said.
Operational details in this regard will be worked out with ICSDs in
consultation with the government and the Securities and Exchange Board of India
(SEBI), he added.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
RBI TO ENSURE STRICT TURNAROUND TIME FOR CUSTOMER PLAINTS
The Reserve Bank Thursday
proposed to put in place a turnaround time (TAT) framework to resolving
customer complaints without much delays by the end of June. The central bank
will also come out with a compensation framework across authorised payment
systems by June 2019. The central bank said it has directed authorised payment
systems to put in place an appropriate customer grievance redressal mechanism.
For some payment systems, RBI has issued guidelines prescribing compensation to
be paid to customers for delay in resolving failed transactions. It is,
however, observed that the time taken for resolving customer complaint varies
across payment systems. To have prompt and efficient customer service in all
the electronic payment systems, it is necessary to harmonise the TAT of
resolution of customer complaints and charge-backs, and to have a compensation
framework in place for the benefit of customers, RBI said. The central bank
will also come out with a report on benchmarking the payments systems by the
end of May. Benchmarking payments systems is necessary to gauge our progress
against payment systems and instruments in major countries and give further
impetus to the planned efforts for deepening the digitisation of payments, the
RBI said.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
BANKS, OTHERS MAY LOSE OVER RS 90,000 CRORE AS VIDEOCON SINKS
The beleaguered Videocon
Group has admitted to stupendous outstandings to various lenders - public and
private - amounting to over Rs 90,000 crore, making it perhaps the biggest corporate
bankruptcy case in Indian banking history, official sources said on Thursday.
The two main group companies - Videocon Industries Ltd (VIL) and Videocon
Telecommunication Ltd. (VTL) - owe Rs.59,451.87 crore and Rs.26,673.81 crore,
respectively or a staggering Rs.86,125.68 crore to Indian banks, led by the
State Bank of India (SBI). Besides, 731 other Operational Creditors have made
separate claims of Rs.31,117, 971,029 (VIL) and Rs.12,669,978,507 (VTL) for a
total of over Rs 90,000 crore, the sources said. Interestingly, even the Group
promoters - Venugopal Dhoot, Pradipkumar Dhoot and Rajkumar Dhoot - have also
filed claims of Rs.57,823.24 crores on the basis of personal guarantees
provided by them for various facilities availed/guaranteed by VIL, which are
under evaluation. The VTL has also claimed Rs.17,86,94,69,659 from VIL on which
there is no dispute and has been accepted in toto. Industry sources say this
will be the biggest private sector bankruptcy in India after the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Code was introduced in 2016 for debt resolution - with wide-ranging
ramifications for both the corporate world and the banking sector. Revealing
the figures of claims, VIL has named a whopping 54 Indian and foreign banks,
financial institutions and even a cooperative bank to whom it owes a staggering
Rs 59,451.87 crore. Against this, claims of Rs.57,443.62 crore have been
admitted while claims of Rs 1,149.57 crore have been rejected and those worth
Rs.782.24 crore are being verified. There's the ICICI Bank with a claim of Rs
3,318.08 crore on VIL and another Rs 1,439 crore on VTL. Among the claims of
VIL's 54 lenders are 34 banks with SBI making the biggest claim of Rs.11,175.25
crore; from VTL's total 34 lenders, SBI has claimed the highest amount of Rs
4,605.15 crore.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FOR RBI, OFFICIAL DATA IS FINAL WORD; SHAKTIKANTA SAYS AMID
GDP ROW
Governor Shaktikanta Das
Thursday said the Reserve Bank goes with the official statistics while making
its assessments on the economy and formulation its policy responses Das, the
bureaucrat-turned-central banker, told that the RBI goes with the official
statistics prepared by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). When asked about
his meeting with finance minister Arun Jaitley ahead of the policy, Das said
there is nothing unusual about such a move. It can be noted that his
predecessor Urjit Patel, along with his five-member Monetary Policy Committee,
had once declined to meet the finance minister earlier. Das said such meetings
have been on either physically or otherwise, even after the move to MPC-led
rate setting. The central bank is monitoring the fiscal situation and will
continue to watch the space closely, Das said. Meanwhile, to a specific
question on the delay in the Jalan committee report on the economic capital
framework for
the central bank, which
will define how much the idle capital the RBI can keep with itself and how much
of it can be parted with, Das said the panel requires a few more days to come
out with its recommendations. The RBI keeps a capital buffer of over Rs 9.4
lakh crore now, which a section in the government feels is too high and thus
should be parted with for better productive deployment like funding the
cash-starved state-run banks or cash-crunched power distribution companies. And
many of them feel that RBI can easily share at least Rs 1.7 lakh crore to Rs 3
lakh crore with the government. Jalan and I had some discussions. Their
deliberations are at an advanced stage and require a few days more days to
finalise he said. Das said even though some banks have cut rates recently, more
needs to be done for effective transmission of rates to the end-borrowers. He
also said the RBI has infused liquidity into the
system through various
instruments and affirmed to use every other instrument available with it in the
future as well.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SEBI BARS CAT TECHNOLOGIES, 7 COS DIRECTORS FROM SECURITIES
MARKETS FOR 5 YRS FOR GDR MANIPULATION
Markets regulator Sebi
Wednesday barred CAT Technologies, seven company directors and promoters from
capital markets for five years in a matter related to manipulation in issuance
of global depository receipts (GDR). According to a Sebi order, the firm issued
GDRs in 2007 and 2009 which were subscribed by only Vintage FZE, now known as
Alta Vista International FZE, on both occasions and CAT Technologies did not
submit correct list of GDR subscribers to the regulator. Sebi observed that the
subscription amount for GDR was paid by Vintage after obtaining loan from
European American Investment Bank (EURAM). However, the loan paid by Vintage
was secured by pledge agreement between CAT and EURAM Bank. Regarding
directors, the regulator said they were aware of the arrangements entered into
by the company with Vintage and Euram through the pledge and loan agreements,
which violated Companies Act as well as PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and
Unfair trade Practices) Regulations.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
BSE, INDIA INX BECOME FIRST INDIAN EXHANGES TO JOIN HANDS WITH
MOSCOW EXCHANGE
The leading Indian
exchange BSE and its wholly-owned arm India INX have entered into a memorandum
of understanding or MoU with the Russian bourse Moscow Exchange (MOEX), a move
that will help both the countries in connecting their investors and facilitating
a capital formation platform on a larger scale. This is the first time when any
Indian exchange has entered into an agreement with a Russian exchange. The
purpose behind entering into this MoU is to develop a greater understanding of
each other’s markets which will also lead to further collaboration between the
exchanges, called the India-Russia initiative. BSE, India INX and MOEX are
collaborating together to facilitate the development of channels of
communication. We strongly believe together we would foster a continuing
relationship for the benefit of the financial services industry in India and in
Russia, Ashishkumar Chauhan said. The MoU between the three countries will help
in understanding each other’s markets which will eventually become the foundation
for bilateral investment. The three exchanges will use the initiative announced
on Wednesday as a portal for professional intermediaries to share their
experience in order to expand their client network, both within their country
and abroad.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ABB INDIA BOARD NOD FOR DEMERGER OF POWER GRID BIZ
Board approved the
demerger of the company's power grids (PG) business to ABB Power Products and
Systems India (APPSIL). After the demerger, the minority shareholders will be
issued one share of APPSIL, which will be listed on the stock exchanges, for
every five shares held in ABB India. The demerger is subject to necessary
approvals, including from the shareholders and creditors of the company and the
National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
IF VOTED TO POWER, HOME LOAN EMIS WOULD BECOME CHEAPER THAN
HOUSE RENT: FINANCE MINISTER ARUN JAITLEY
Arun Jaitley said
government wants to further reduce the burden of interest rates on the common
man to a level where paying equated monthly installments (EMIs) for home loans
will be cheaper than paying house rents Jaitley said the Narendra Modi
government has not increased tax rates in the last five years, but has still
been able to double the tax base and increase tax collection. He said, if voted
to power, the government would pursue policies to enable further reduction in
interest rates and also continue with fiscal consolidation. Low interest rates
will make borrowings cheaper, particularly for homebuyers, and boost consumer
demand that will boost economic growth, Jaitley also said. Jaitley claimed that
When Vajpayee was the prime minister, home loans had become so cheap that EMIs
were less than renting a house. I think that’s where we need to take interest
rates, he added. Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had introduced income tax
deductions in lieu of interest payments on home loans, which lowered the cost
of borrowing and boosted that housing sector. He said that the Modi government
have consciously tried to strengthen India’s middle class With every budget,
the government has tried to increase the spending capacity of middle-class by
liberating it from taxes. We brought indirect taxes – GST [Goods and Services
Tax] down. For housing , we have brought it down to negligible level, he added.
The future of the Indian economy is the middle class and the neo-middle class
and today’s poor should eventually become a part of that, Jaitley said.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
RBI PLANS COMMITTEE TO AID HOUSING FINANCE SECURITISATION
MARKET
The RBI said on Thursday
it would set up a committee that will suggest ways to develop the housing
finance securitisation market by studying best international practices. We are
aware that well-functioning securitisation markets can enable better management
of credit and liquidity risks in the balance sheet of banks as well as non-bank
mortgage originators, and, in turn, help lower costs of mortgage finance in the
economy, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said. According to Karthik Srinivasan,
the proposal would help long-term development in credit-supply mechanism This
would attract wider set of investors, given the current model of the
credit-supply in both these segments is largely to originate the loan and hold
till maturity, Srinivasan said. The composition and terms of reference of the
committee would be announced shortly and the report would be out by the end of
August. Market liquidity and balance sheet liquidity are the endemic challenges
for shadow banking. Globally, the rise of shadow banking has been largely
enabled by the development of a healthy securitisation market. In India, to
ensure a sustained growth of NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) and HFCs in
a non-disruptive manner, developing a securitisation market is necessary, said
Jatin Nanaware. According to ICRA, in the first nine months of FY19, the
domestic securitisation market hit volumes to the tune of Rs 1.44 trillion,
with a monthly run-rate of Rs 16,000 crore. In FY18, it was Rs 84,000 crore,
with a monthly run-rate of Rs 7,000 crore. The spike was particularly evident
in December quarter of FY19 because of the liquidity situation that the NBFCs
and HFCs faced after the IL&FS fiasco, with market volumes at Rs 78,000 crore
and a monthly run rate of Rs 26,000 crore. Of this, around Rs 73,000 crore was
raised by NBFCs and HFCs through sell-down of their retail and SME loan
portfolios.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
NEW CUSTOMER-PROTECTION MEASURES ON CARDS FOR ELECTRONIC
PAYMENTS
The central bank would soon
come up with a new set of customer-protection measures aimed at improving user
confidence in electronic payment channels, helping achieve the federal
objective of reducing the use of cash in business transactions The proposed
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations include having a common timeframe for
all authorised electronic payment systems to respond to customer complaints and
setting up a compensation framework for failed transactions. To have prompt and
efficient customer service in all the electronic payment systems, it is
necessary to harmonise the turn around time (TAT) on the resolution of customer
complaints and chargebacks, and to have a compensation framework in place for
the benefit of customers, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday in his
speech after the monetary policy review. The Reserve Bank proposes to put in
place a framework on TAT for resolution of customer complaints and compensation
framework across all authorised payment systems by the end of June 2019. The
governor said that despite the central bank prescribing appropriate redressal
mechanisms for customer grievances and issuing guidelines to various payments
system operators on paying users in case of failed transactions, the lack of a
common industry-wide mandate is resulting in non-uniformity in complaint
resolution. Currently various payment systems have various redressal
mechanisms. We have found them to be not uniform across the industry, Das said.
The RBI also said that it is in the process of benchmarking Indian payments
systems and instruments against global standards. The findings of this study
would be published in May 2019. Efficient payment systems reduce the cost of
exchanging goods and services and are indispensable to the functioning of the
financial markets. The past decade has witnessed several innovations in retail
payments across the globe, the governor said. Benchmarking is necessary to
gauge India’s progress against payment systems and instruments in major
countries and give further impetus to the planned efforts for deepening the
digitisation of payments.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
BOI TO SELL 25% STAKE WORTH $160 MN IN STAR UNION DAI-ICHI
LIFE INSURANCE
State-run Bank of India
Ltd on Friday offered to sell a 25 per cent stake in its joint venture company
with Union Bank Of India Ltd and Japan's Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc for up to
Rs 11.06 billion ($159.87 million). Bank of India is looking to sell 64.9
million shares, or 25.02 per cent stake, in Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance
Co Ltd at a floor price of 170.50 per share, it said in a filing. Bank of India
has a 28.96 per cent stake in the joint venture, while Union Bank of India and
Dai-ichi Life owns 25.10 per cent and 45.94 per cent, respectively.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
GOVT SELLS RS 1.1K CR WORTH OF ‘ENEMY SHARES’ IN WIPRO
The central government sold
over Rs 1,100 crore worth of Wipro shares on Thursday, shares that were lying with
the home ministry's Custodian of Enemy Property of India (CEPI). The sale
appears to be the first such by the government. The shares, belonging to
Pakistani nationals, were seized by India under the Enemy Property Act passed
in 1968, following the conflicts with Pakistan and China in the 1960s. CEPI
sold 4.3 crore shares in the Azim Premji-owned company for Rs 258 apiece. Most
of it, 3.9 crore, was bought by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
An estimated Rs 3,000 crore in shares and over Rs 1 lakh crore in immovable
property (mostly land) are said to be with the Custodian of Enemy Property. The
sale of Wipro shares became possible following an amendment to the Enemy
Property Act in 2017 to ensure that successors of those who migrated to Pakistan
and China during partition would have no claim over the properties left behind
in India. The amendment was done to overcome a Supreme Court clarification of
2005 that said that the Custodian was merely an administrator and the ownership
of the assets rested with the owner. The court said that on the death of the
enemy owner (the person who moved to Pakistan or China), the property should be
inherited by their legal heirs (who may be Indian nationals). This had prompted
some of the heirs in India to lay claim to the assets. Totally, some 6.5 crore
shares in 996 companies of 20,323 shareholders are under the custody of CEPI.
Of these 996 companies, 588 are functional/ active companies, and 139 of these
are listed.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SBI SETS OPERATING PROFIT TARGET OF ₹70,000 CRORE FOR FY20
Rajnish Kumar, has
exhorted his bank’s 2.60-lakh-odd employees to roll up their sleeves to deliver
an operating profit of about ₹70,000 crore in FY2020. In view of the volatility caused by
one-off income, India’s largest bank intends to focus on operating profit in
general, and, in particular, operating profit from core operations. SBI clocked
a lower standalone operating profit of ₹38,503 crore in the first
nine months of FY2019, against ₹43,628 crore in the year-ago period. Referring to the
operating profit earned by the bank in the last two years, Kumar, in a
communication to the bank’s staff, said some part of this has been contributed
by one-time items such as disinvestment/initial public offer of SBI Life, and
sale of non-core assets/strategic disinvestment, among others. But growth in
operating profit from core banking operations has been slightly lower. The SBI
chief underscored that one-time items, or exceptional items, tend to distort the
comparison of the profitability trend, where profit should be a function of the
core operating performance, rather than from exceptional items. The bank wants
to target a higher core operating profit to take care of unexpected exigencies
resulting in higher provisioning. Further, a robust operating profit will also
lead to improvement in efficiency parameters, such as return on assets, return
on equity, cost to income ratio, and net interest margin, among others. Among
profitability parameters, the bank is eyeing return on assets (net profit/
average total assets) of 0.70 per cent for FY2020 (against 0.001 per cent for
the nine months of FY2019); bringing down the cost to income ratio
(non-interest expenses/net total income) to less than 50 per cent (against
56.97 per cent as on December-end 2018); and optimisation of net interest
income (by focussing on increasing current account deposits and considering
increase in interest charged to borrowers, especially those enjoying below-card
rates).
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
BANDHAN BANK GETS BOURSES’ NOD FOR GRUH AMALGAMATION
Our Bureau Bandhan Bank
has received approval from the BSE and the NSE for the proposed scheme of
amalgamation of Gruh Finance with the bank. In a notification to the stock
exchanges, the bank said, BSE and NSE, have by their respective letters dated
April 3, have issued their observation letters with no adverse observation and
no-objection respectively, to the proposed scheme of amalgamation. The bank,
had recently received RBI nod for the merger. The scheme would be subject to
receipt of other regulatory approvals including from National Company Law
Tribunal and Competition Commission of India. It usually takes anywhere between
nine and 12 months for such (merger) process to be complete, CS Ghosh, had said
recently. The bank is hopeful of completing its merger with Gruh Finance within
the timeframe.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
HEALTH COVER POLICYHOLDERS MAY SOON BE ABLE TO RECEIVE CLAIM
AMOUNT IN INSTALMENTS
You may soon be able to opt
for receiving personal accident and benefit-based health cover policy claims in
instalments In a first-of-its-kind proposal, a working group constituted by the
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), has suggested
that a policyholder may be provided the option to receive the amount in lumpsum
or in equated instalments. However, this will not be a default mode, but should
be implemented only if a customer opts for it. A policyholder shall have the flexibility
to choose the option of settlement option of the claims at all stages of the
policy contract – at the time of buying the policy, during renewal, and during
the policy terms or at the time of claims, the committee said in its
recommendations. The periodicity of instalments could be monthly, quarterly,
bi-annual, and annual. The claim payment period could be up to a maximum of
five years, and instalments should be spread over the payment period. On the
pricing front, the panel suggested that the premium should be the same for both
options of lumpsum settlement of claim as well as instalments. Linkage of
interest rate for payment of claims in instalments will not be permitted Pricing
aspects should be incorporated by the appointed actuary at the final stage
while deciding the terms and conditions to be offered to the policyholders, the
report said. The regulator is likely to come up with the final guidelines on
the matter over the next one month, according to sources. The objective of such
a facility is to offer income to policyholders for a reasonable period of time.
The option may also enable policyholders of benefit-based health insurance
policies get a stream of income over a predetermined period of time after
triggering of the claim, according to Suresh Mathur. There are diverse views on
the efficacy of the facility. While the idea looks good on the face of it, it
may not click well with customers.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
MUKESH AMBANI, SUNIL MITTAL CONSIDER COMPETING FOR STAKE IN
ZEE: REPORT
Mukesh Ambani and Sunil
Bharti Mittal are considering competing bids for a stake in Zee, the troubled
television network, people with knowledge of the matter said, as their telecom
carriers race for content in the world’s second-biggest mobile market. Mittal’s
Bharti Airtel Ltd. has started due diligence of Zee Entertainment Enterprises
Ltd. and is expected to make a formal proposal soon one of the people said.
Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. is also considering a bid, the people said.
Deliberations are preliminary and may not lead to a transaction, they said. A
successful deal would help the winning bidder add a slew of video services in
the scramble for user revenue as the government prepares to auction 5G airwaves
this year. Some of the world’s largest telecommunications companies including
AT&T Inc., Vodafone Group Plc and KDDI Corp. have been buying film and
television production and cable TV assets to bolster earnings as subscribers
level off.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
EQUITIES EXTEND LOSSES AS RBI RATE CUT FAILS TO DISPEL MACRO,
MONSOON WORRIES
Markets nursed losses for
the second straight session Thursday after the RBI slashed the interest rate
but lowered the GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 and kept its monetary policy
stance 'neutral' amid uncertainty over monsoon. Lacklustre services data,
depreciating rupee and weak overseas cues also weighed on trading sentiment,
brokers said. Investors turned cautious about the downward revision in GDP
growth to 7.2 per cent for FY20 while premium valuation and concerns over
monsoon further impacted the sentiment, said Vinod Nair. Meanwhile, the
country's services sector activity eased in March, with the slowest pace of
output growth in six months due to a slower expansion in new work. The
seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index fell to 52 in
March from 52.5 in February. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pulled out
Rs 1,040.48 crore Wednesday, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold
equities to the tune of Rs 80.83 crore, provisional data available with stock
exchanges showed.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
HOUSING SALES UP 58 PER CENT IN JANUARY-MARCH ON GOVT SOPS:
ANAROCK
Housing sales rose 58 per
cent to 78,520 units in seven major cities during the first quarter of 2019
driven by positive market sentiment on various incentives offered by the
government in the last few months, property consultant Anarock said. Sales
stood at 49,800 units during January-March 2018 in the seven cities -- National
Capital Region (NCR), Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Bengaluru, Pune,
Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. While we anticipated a negative spillover
impact of the NBFC crisis in the first quarter of 2019, housing sales and new supply
assumed an upward trajectory, Anuj Puri said. The sector is currently riding on
a new wave of optimism following the triple benefits it received from the
government in the first three months of 2019. These sops have not only
increased homebuyers’ sentiment but will also boost the confidence of builders
and long-term investors, he added. Anarock attributed the rise in demand to
sops in the interim budget, goods and services tax (GST) rate cuts and lowering
of home loan rates post RBI’s February repo rate cut. In the interim budget,
the government announced various incentives for purchase of second homes.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
GROSS LEASING ACTIVITY IN INDIA TOUCHED 11 MN SQ FT IN Q1 OF
2019: COLLIERS
Total gross leasing
activity in India touched almost 11 million sq. ft. during the first quarter of
2019, as tech and IT companies continue to expand along with the rapid
expansionary mode of flexible workspaces. Occupiers continued to expand across
cities led by a robust business ecosystem, undeterred by the upcoming General
Elections. The leasing activity, although robust, declined by 10% from the
corresponding quarter last year due to delay in quality supply in top markets
such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, etc. Bengaluru accounted for the highest
share in leasing (31%) followed by Mumbai and Chennai, which had a share of 19%
and 14%, respectively. The southern cities continued to outperform, with
leasing in Hyderabad doubling, while Chennai recorded a 60% jump in leasing.
Companies are still in the expansion mode led by a robust business support
ecosystem, said Ritesh Sachdev. Tech & IT-BPM sector accounted for the
lrgest share at 38%. Flexible workspaces (co-working) have contributed close to
30% of office leasing. The demand for space was not only led for foreign
players, but also home-grown operators who are rushing to capture a pie of this
space. The absorption by flexi-operators will pick up pace in the wake of
developers jumping onto the bandwagon. New supply during the quarter declined
by 17%, to 7.7 million sq. ft. About 58% of the supply (3.0 million sq. ft.)
was seen in Bengaluru market, followed by Mumbai at 0.8 million sq. ft.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
64 PER CENT EMPLOYMENT SEEKING HOUSEHOLDS HAVE FOUND A JOB
SINCE 2014
During 2014-2018, around 64
per cent of the employment seeking households have found a job at least for a
member of their respective families, according to a survey. According to the
survey study, 75 per cent of the household respondents were in search of a job
of which 64 per cent were able to find a suitable job for them. The findings
mentioned that the majority of the respondents found jobs in banking sector
(12.5 per cent) and education and training (12.1 per cent) followed by IT and
ITeS (11.6 per cent). On the other hand, sectors such as tax, data analytics,
consulting, legal services, police services, teaching, fashion designing were
also the major employers in the last five years. It is inspiring to know that
the youth in the country have been able to find jobs in the last five years, as
86 per cent of the respondents who found the jobs were aged between 18-35 years
at the time of joining of their jobs, said Rajeev Talwar. The survey revealed
that the private sector was the major employer in the last five years, creating
60.4 per cent of the jobs, followed by government sector (21.2 per cent), self
employed (5.2 per cent), public sector (5.1 per cent), Public Private
Partnership (3.3 per cent) and others (4.8 per cent). It further revealed that
the new entrants in the job market were earning well as 60 per cent of the
respondents were drawing monthly salary in the range of between ₹
10,000 to ₹ 50,000. The survey added that the median salary of the
respondents was ₹ 31252.28.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
MOODY'S ASSIGNS B2 RATING TO VEDANTA'S PROPOSED SENIOR
UNSECURED NOTES
Moody's Investors Service
Thursday assigned B2 rating to Vedanta's proposed senior unsecured notes and
said the outlook was negative. B2 is a speculative grade rating and is subject
to high credit risk. Moody's has assigned a B2 rating to the proposed senior
unsecured notes guaranteed by Vedanta Resources and issued by its wholly-owned
subsidiary, Vedanta Resources Finance II Plc. The proposed notes will rank
pari-passu to Vedanta's existing senior unsecured notes, and are rated at B2,
two notches below the Ba3 corporate family rating (CFR). The rating outlook is
negative, Moody's said. Vedanta's Ba3 CFR is supported by the company's
large-scale and diversified, low-cost integrated operations, with strong market
positions across the broad suite of its product offerings, spanning oil and
gas, base metals and energy assets. Vedanta's proposed issuance constitutes a
proactive step in refinancing its amortising term debt maturities with a
long-term bond with bullet repayment and further reducing its cost of debt,
Kaustubh Chaubal, said.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
JIO RETAINS LEAD OVER OLDER TELCOS ON AGR
Reliance Jio consolidated
its lead over India’s older carriers on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the
quarter to December, a period when licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC)
collections looked up sequentially after nine quarters, indicating the start of
a revival for the telecoms industry. Mukesh Ambani-led Jio’s adjusted gross
revenue (AGR), or revenue from licensed services, climbed 14.63% on-quarter to
Rs 9,482.31 crore at the end of December, according to data collated by the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Access services contributed
72.31% of total AGR of telecom services. By contrast, Vodafone Idea, the
country’s largest telco by subscribers, suffered a 4.05% sequential fall in AGR
to Rs 7,223.72 crore, while Bharti Airtel’s slipped 4.18% on-quarter to Rs
6,439.65 crore at the end of December. Jio had become the largest telco by AGR
in the September quarter, when it had raced ahead of Vodafone Idea on that
score. The telecom sector’s AGR shrank by a tiny 0.24% sequentially to Rs
36,054 crore in the December quarter. Access services contributed 72.31% of
total AGR of telecom services. But licence fee and SUC collections in the
October-December period have both risen after nine quarters, signalling that
the prolonged turmoil in the telecom sector may finally be easing after more
than two years of bruising price wars sparked off by Jio’s disruptive entry.
Licence fee and SUC collections had last risen together sequentially in the
quarter ended June 2016. The two components are paid by telcos to the DoT on
the basis of their AGR. Licence fee mop-up by the government in the December
quarter rose 0.03% sequentially to Rs 2,890 crore, while spectrum usage charge
(SUC) rose by 2% to Rs 1,064 crore, the Trai data showed. The sector regulator
also said the industry’s blended monthly average revenue per user — a key
performance metric — from wireless services increased over 4% sequentially to
Rs 70.13 in the December quarter.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
CARVED IN WOOD: SAHARANPUR'S HANDICRAFT TRADERS SAY
DEMONETISATION, GST MAJOR POLL ISSUES
Once upon a time not so
long ago, Abdul Salam Road was abuzz with the sights and sounds of prosperity
as buyers from all over India snapped up furniture, frames, filigreed panels
and all things wooden. But that happy tale ended on November 8, 2016, when high
value currency notes were demonetised, dealing a body blow to the industry that
sustained 1.5 lakh artisans in this western Uttar Pradesh town, say artisans
and traders. Now the street, the once beating heart of the Rs 400 crore wooden
handicraft cottage industry, is deserted with shops empty of customers but full
of unsold items. Demonetisation followed by imposition of GST (goods and
services tax) turned Saharanpur's pride into a curse, said Zakir Hasan, a
trader. The unorganised sector of Saharanpur is still struggling to recover
from the aftershocks of demonetisation. It will clearly reflect when the
election results are announced, he told PTI. Why should I? I earn more by pulling
rickshaws. It (restoring the art) would anyway die a quicker death with such
policies of the government. Raees Ahmed, the owner of National Handicraft, a
shop in Qutub Sher market in the city, agreed. The rate at which the workforce
is leaving this profession, it will disappear in 25 years, he said.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG TELLS ABC NEWS `STILL LOOKING INTO’
DATA ACCESS
Facebook Inc.’s Chief
Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the company is still looking into a
report that millions of users’ data was publicly accessible on Amazon.com
Inc.’s cloud servers. In general we work with developers to make sure that
they’re respecting people’s information and using it in only ways that they
want, Zuckerberg said. Researchers at cybersecurity firm UpGuard said Wednesday
they found troves of user information hiding in plain sight, inadvertently
posted on Amazon’s public servers. The records were accessible and downloadable
for anyone who could find them online. In one instance, Mexico City-based
digital platform Cultura Colectiva, openly stored 540 million records on
Facebook users, including identification numbers, comments, reactions and
account names. That database was closed on Wednesday after Bloomberg alerted
Facebook to the problem and Facebook contacted Amazon. Zuckerberg told
Stephanopoulos that he was proud of the progress Facebook has made to stem
privacy breaches and combat the spread of misinformation. I think in a lot of
ways over the last few years, we have changed significantly how we run the
company, he said. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made. There’s a lot more to
do in each of these areas. There’s a question of what decisions should be left
to a private company to make, especially around things like speech and
expression for so many people around the world.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
MACKENZIE BEZOS TO BE WORLD'S 4TH-RICHEST WOMAN AFTER
DIVORCING AMAZON CEO
MacKenzie Bezos is set to
become the world’s fourth-richest woman after her divorce from Amazon.com Inc.
founder Jeff Bezos is finalized. She’ll receive a 4 percent Amazon stake,
currently worth about $36 billion, as part of the settlement, according to a
filing Thursday from the Seattle-based company. The divorce is expected to be
completed in about 90 days. Her stake in Amazon ranks her behind the $54
billion fortune of L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the $44
billion held by Alice Walton and the $37 billion net worth of Jacqueline Badger
Mars, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Happy to
be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and
75 percent of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares, MacKenzie
Bezos, 48, said in a tweet. Jeff Bezos said in a tweet that he was grateful to
all my friends and family for reaching out with encouragement and love. It
means more than you know. MacKenzie most of all.
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
A NEUTRAL BODY SHOULD MONITOR CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook’s decision to take
down over 1,000 pages and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic
behaviour or spam, exposes the systemic flaws when it comes to policing social
media platforms. The action was based on Facebook’s assessment that the people
behind the activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to
misrepresent themselves with the objective of manipulating people. On the face
of it the move by the social media platform looks like a credible step to deal
with fake news and communal propaganda; but the problem with this approach is
that it could trample on the right to free speech. While taking down the pages,
Facebook has based its action on user behaviour, not the content they posted. This
could set a disquieting precedent, as pages related to political dissent or a
social campaign could be taken down just because they do not comply with
Facebook’s rules. While platform owners can argue that they have the right to
decide what goes in and what’s taken down, the reality is that social media
outlets like Facebook cannot be treated like any other private entity. Neither
can this job be left to governments. Armed with draconian powers such as
defamation and sedition laws, free speech has taken a hit. India, both under
the UPA and NDA, has been among the top countries in blocking politically
inconvenient websites, including those of foreign NGOs, UN organisations and
activists. In China, for instance, the government lays down the rules for
social media, and this hasn’t exactly been conducive to free speech. In this
context, the argument by UK communications regulator Ofcom’s chief executive,
Sharon White, to set up an independent regulatory oversight of social media
platforms assumes importance. If Facebook is allowed to increase its censorship
powers on its own, it could lead to inconsistency and duplicities. It took a
lot of pressure from media and policymakers before Facebook banned the
notorious far-right news site Infowars. If Facebook is really serious about
fighting spam and fake news, the one thing that it should do is to remove the
cover of anonymity of users. The shroud of anonymity gives anti-social elements
the courage to spread hate and disharmony. There should be no ambiguity
regarding the grounds for taking down an account These guidelines should be
spelt out in the interest of transparency and consistency. The challenge of the
day is to strike a balance between free speech and hate speech. Such a task is
best entrusted to a statutory, independent agency.
#For Source of Information copy and paste the heading in google.
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
No comments:
Post a Comment