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The Hindu November 05, 2017 Essential to go further up in Ease of Doing Business rank Days after India jumped 30 positions in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, Law Ministry officials said the Union government proposed to establish commercial courts in districts to further improve the parameters. Legal remedy to commercial disputes and enforcement of business contracts are parameters of the World Bank ranking. In terms of ease of enforcing contracts, India jumped from 172 to 164. “Though the jump in the ranking sounds small, it is substantial given the diversities of laws in our country and the complex demography,” said an official of the Law Ministry familiar with the process. Varying performance India’s performance has been varied within the legal framework. For example, the World Bank’s ranking marked “court system and proceedings in India” 4.5 out of a total of 5, but in management of cases, it was 1.5 out of 6. India also fared well in alterna...

The Hindu Dinaker Peri November 05, 2017 The Navy is likely to go with an advanced catapult-based aircraft launch mechanism (CATOBAR) from the U.S. for its second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-II), which is on the drawing board. For some time, India has been exploring the possibility of installing the U.S. electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). “IAC-II will have a CATOBAR launch. However, the kind of propulsion is yet to be decided,” a senior officer said.The U.S. has offered India its latest EMALS technology, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., which has just been installed on the Gerald Ford carrier. While the older generation of CATOBAR was powered by a steam catapult, EMALS uses an electric motor-driven catapult instead, which allows the launch of much heavier aircraft and also reduces the stress on the aircraft. However, the system is expensive, something that needs to be factored in. “EMALS will allow us to operate heavy s...

The Indian Express Sandeep Singh November 06, 2017 HEADQUARTERED IN Bermuda, Appleby is not a tax adviser but the 119-year-old firm is a leading member of the global network of lawyers, accountants, bankers and other operatives who set up and manage offshore companies and accounts for clients who want to avoid taxes or keep their finances under wraps. Records investigated by The Indian Express show that while Appleby does not have an office in India, its officials made several business trips to Mumbai, Delhi and other major metros to “build relationships” with Indian intermediaries and to market offshore destinations. An email talking about one such trip made by Appleby executives says: “Visited Indian intermediaries (law firms, accountants and banks) in Delhi and Mumbai between the 5th and the 11th November 2009 in order to build relationships with the intermediaries and to gain intelligence on the Indian market place.” Must Read | Biggest data leaks reveals trails of ...

The Indian Express Ritu Sarin , Jay Mazoomdaar , Sandeep Singh November 07, 2017 Two days before the Government observes “Anti-Black Money Day” to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation, comes the largest ever leak of financial data. Of two firms Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti with 19 tax havens across the world which help the global rich and powerful, including from India, to move their money abroad. This cache of 13.4 million documents named “Paradise Papers” tumbled out 18 months after Panama Papers: both sets of data were obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and were investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) working in partnership with 96 news organisations. In India, The Indian Express, just as it did with the Panama Papers, investigated these records for over 10 months to come up with the India findings which will be published in a series of over 40 investigative reports that begins tonight. A bu...

Dawn Hassan Belal Zaidi November 06, 2017 Nearly a year and a half after the Panama Papers leaks shook the world elites by revealing the offshore holdings of some of the most powerful political players, the Inter­national Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released another treasure trove of data late on Sunday. Dubbed the Paradise Papers, the leaks consist of 13.4 million files from “a combination of offshore service providers and the company registries of some of the world’s most secretive countries”. The documents include loan agreements, financial statements, emails, trust deeds and other paperwork from Appleby, a leading offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda, as well as files from a smaller trust company, Asiaciti. The most prominent Pakistani name that emer­ged from the fresh leaks was that of Shaukat Aziz, the Musharraf-era finance minister who also remained prime minister from 2004 to 2007. Mr Aziz worked for Citibank before entering pol...

The Financial Express Indronil Roychowdhury November 06, 2017 Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) will acquire new dredging vessels to conduct offshore dredging in the riverine channels of Haldia under the Kolkata Port Trust despite the fact that dredging revenue from KoPT is on a decline because of lower maintenance dredging. Almost 55% of DCI’s revenue derived from KoPT’s dredging, which started declining after KoPT opted ship’s movement using the Eden Channel instead of the Auckland channel. DCI has decided to procure a new dredger for KoPT to save on time and operational cost. KoPT’s newly-appointed chairman Vinit Kumar said as of now DCI dredgers pick up silt from the river bed and carry it up to the Nayachar island to dispose it. Earlier, the dredged materials were disposed out of the shipping channels into the river only for which the dredged materials flowed back to the channels with the tide. Therefore, there was no depth guarantee achieved. Later, KoPT started off...

Dawn November 06, 2017 Millions of pounds from the private estate of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth have been invested in offshore tax haven funds, a huge new leak of financial documents — dubbed the Paradise Papers — revealed on Sunday. Around 10 million pounds of the Queen’s private money was placed in funds held in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, according to a new leak by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which was behind the 2015 Panama Papers release. The ICIJ reported the funds reinvested the money in an array of businesses, including controversial rent-to-buy retailer, BrightHouse, which has been accused of exploiting the poor, and a chain of alcohol stores which later went bankrupt. The investments, which were entirely legal, were made through the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the monarch with an income and handles investments of her vast estate and remain current, the media outlets said. There is no suggestion that the...

The Hindu Himadri Bhattacharya November 05, 2017 Addressing the recently held 19th congress of the communist party of China, president Xi declared that China had entered a ‘New Era’. In political terms, the message is amply clear: more absolute power in his hands for a longer tenure. The economic prospects are not that certain, though, with the steadily increasing prospects of a turmoil in China's financial markets triggered by a debt crisis and a sharp depreciation in the exchange rate of the yuan. And, in good measure, the government-owned funds in China, the so-called 'National Team', remained active to curb volatility in the equity market during the congress. It is commonly agreed that China built trade and current account surpluses over successive decades by keeping the yuan artificially weak, which facilitated its emergence as a global manufacturing powerhouse. Between 2000-2014, Chinese authorities allowed the yuan to appreciate about 27% agains...

The Hindu November 06, 2017 The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) , late on Sunday night, released a slew of documents dubbed the ‘Paradise Papers’. The papers “reveal offshore activities of some of the world’s most powerful people and companies,” the ICIJ website said. The leaked files, of which there more than 13 million, detail investment figures, tax plans, loan agreements and more, of major international figures including United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth, donors of U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Jordanian Queen Noor al-Hussein among others. Most of the documents are from offshore law firm Appleby, who have responded to The Guardian saying that there was “no evidence of wrongdoing, either on the part of ourselves or our clients”. The files lay out Mr. Ross’s links with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s family as well as the investment of Queen Elizabeth’s private...

TOI November 06, 2017 18 months after the Panama Papers exposed secret and illegal offshore investments by corporates and individuals across the globe, another set of files, called the 'Paradise Papers', have surfaced, shedding light on the trillions of dollars that move through offshore tax havens. The latest haul contains 13.4 million documents mainly from Appleby, a Bermuda-based law firm which helped prominent clients, including Indians, evade taxes and obscure ownership of assets. The firm also created huge offshore trusts that in some cases held billions of dollars. Much of the new trove of files includes bank statements, emails and loan agreements from Appleby. Paradise Papers, just like the Panama files, were first obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and partner media outlets. In addition to its Bermudan headquarters, Appleby has offices in tax havens around the w...

The Economic Times Sugata Ghosh November 06, 2017 Over the weekend, several Indians, including some based abroad, have been alerted that their confidential financial information has been compromised by data theft at a large law firm that held the records in its offices in tax havens such as Isle of Man and Channel Islands.  The data hack at Appleby, the law firm in question, could release a torrent of carefully hidden information on bank accounts and offshore companies similar to the Panama Papers — a collection of leaked documents  from Mossack Fonseca, a legal services firm.  Many resident as well as non-resident Indians have been forewarned by their advisers and service providers about the possible consequences of their names popping up in the Appleby data leak.  A leak of this nature is likely to reveal the structure of trusts, and shareholdings and directorship of companies with accounts in tax havens such as Bahamas, Bermuda and Virgin Isl...