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The Hindu, December 13, 2017 Hours before polling to start for the second phase of the Assembly election in Gujarat, the BJP on Wednesday came up with fresh allegations against the Congress, saying that “non-state actors” were allowed to run the UPA government. Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal released e-mail exchanges purportedly between the then Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan and Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi to allege that the latter used his clout to “overrule” the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on policy decisions. The e-mails show Ms. Natarajan informing Mr. Gandhi about several projects and seeking his and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s guidance. ‘Rahul Tax’ Mr. Goyal also said the phrase “Jayanthi Tax” coined by the BJP during election campaigns to flag corruption in her Ministry was actually a “Rahul Tax”. Reading from these e-mails, Mr. Goyal said Ms. Natarajan wrote to Mr. Gandhi about Dr. Singh’s direction to ensure that h...

The Indian Express, By Pranav Mukul, New Delhi, December 14, 2017 At the meeting between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) and chiefs of IT and software sector on Thursday, the government is expected to unveil a vision document detailing a roadmap for the industry to achieve $1 trillion in revenues by 2022. The meeting comes as a follow up to the June meeting between the government and industry leaders including from companies such as Wipro, Google, Tech Mahindra, Intel, Panasonic India, NIIT, Quickheal, Practo, Hike, Lava International, and associations such as Indian Cellular Association, Nasscom and IAMAI. While in the previous meeting, initiatives such as new policies for electronic manufacturing, software products and data security were discussed, in Thursday’s meeting, according to a senior government official, the ministry’s delegation led by law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, will discuss potential “lighthouse projects” to help t...

The Indian Express, By Rahul Tripathi, December 14, 2017 At a time when bank credit growth has hit a low on the back of bad loans from previous years turning into non-performing assets (NPAs), Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) K V Chowdary has said “banks and organisations” are “not taking decisions” due to “fear of Vigilance”, and the Central Vigilance Commission is holding “talks every month” to allay such fears. “There is a general belief or general allegation (that) because of fear of Vigilance, people are not taking decisions. But I, my colleagues at the Commission, and CVOs (Central Vigilance Officers) make a conscious effort to address groups of officers or organisations. For example, most banks call us, and we go and talk to them, saying that the myth that if you take decisions you will get into trouble, so the best thing is not to take a decision, or any decision which has gone wrong in hindsight leads to Vigilance… We try to tell bank officers that these are myth...

The Economic Times, BY Divya Rajagopal , ET BUREAU | DEC 14, 2017, Competition Commission of India has initiated an investigation on drug makers Abbott, Novartis, Emcure Pharma and USV Pvt Ltd over alleged price fixing of the blockbuster anti-diabetic drug Vildagliptin, people aware of the development said.  The fair play regulator has sent notices to the four drug makers, asking them for trade details of this drug in an attempt to find out if the companies colluded with each other to keep the price of the drug at certain levels, they said.  Competition Commission of India (CCI) is also looking at the involvement of senior executives from these companies over price fixing, sources said.  Swiss drug maker Novartis confirmed it has received a notice from CCI and has responded to it. "Given that the matter is sub-judice, you will appreciate that we are unable to comment any further," a company spokesperson said in an email response to ET.  Abbott ...

By Economic Times, By Kirtika Suneja, December 13, 2017, ET Bureau, BUENOS AIRES India managed to protect its farmers' interests and ensure food security for its poor even as the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is unlikely to yield much progress. A series of work programmes on issues such as agriculture, domestic support, fisheries subsidies, e-commerce and services are expected, increasing the chances of some progress in next ministerial meet in 2019.  "India's food security programmes are protected because we have a peace clause of 2014. India's ability to provide procurement at minimum support price to farmers is intact," said JS Deepak, India's permanent representative to the WTO.  India wanted to amend the Agreement on Agriculture to get a permanent solution over and above the existing peace clause to give stronger legal strength to its programme to purchase, stockpile and distribute food. However, the US' stanc...

The Economic Times, By Deepshika Sikarwar,  Dec 14, 2017, The government may remove the blanket ban on corporate guarantors of failed businesses bidding for stressed assets during the resolution process as it seeks to soften some of the rigidities in a recent ordinance amending the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). It may also create a carveout for smaller insolvent firms to allow their promoters to bid during the resolution process.  These changes are likely to be made when the ordinance is introduced in Parliament in the upcoming winter session. Issued last month, the ordinance barred guarantors of insolvent companies from bidding for the assets for which they had provided a guarantee, irrespective of whether this had been invoked and respected or not. "Changes are being examined.. Some issues have been raised, so these would be addressed," said a government official.  The ordinance was aimed at preventing wilful defaulters from getting their assets ba...

The Economic Times,  By Gulveen Aulakh, Rajat Arora, ET Bureau, December 14, 2017 Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic devices such as iPhones, is looking to invest Rs 6,000 crore to set up a 200-acre plant in the special economic zone (SEZ) of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) near Mumbai, said people with knowledge of the matter.  The Taiwanese company, which is the largest supplier to Apple, has told port authorities that the JNPT project will provide employment to about 40,000 people.  Shipping and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari confirmed to ET that the company had sent a proposal to the government for setting up the plant.  "They've reached out to us requesting to provide land at JNPT," Gadkari said, without giving any further details. It isn't clear whether Foxconn will use the unit to manufacture iPhones or other products but given the location, it's likely to be used as an export base. Foxconn T...

The Economic Times, By Sachin Dave, ET Bureau, December 14, 2017 The government is keeping a watch on some banks, insurance companies and technology and telecom firms after it announced that errors in tax credit claims should be rectified, according to two people aware of the matter.  "There are instances where the transitional credit has jumped by more than 50% from the period before GST (goods and services tax). The government want these companies to return transitional credit either erroneously claimed or inflated," one of the persons said, requesting not to be named. A few companies in FMCG and consumer durables sectors are also under the scanner, the person said.  Tax credit is the amount that can be set off against a taxpayer's liability. When India moved to GST, many companies faced a situation where they had paid tax on old stock and availed credit but had to now set it off against the GST liability.  Transitional credits are tax credits accumulat...

The Indian Express, December 13, 2017 In less than a month after publication of the Paradise Papers  ( November 5, 2017), investigation units of the Income Tax Department have begun issuing summons and questionnaires to persons named in the global media offshore leak. Top officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) told  The Indian Express  that summons have been issued under Section 131 of the Income Tax Act which ensures the appearance of persons called to give evidence. Officials said the first set of summons with specific questions for each were sent in end-November. The Paradise Papers are a cache of 13.4 million documents published 18 months after Panam a Pape rs. Both sets of data were obtained by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and were investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) working in partnership with 96 news organisations, including   The Indian Express . The Paradise Papers is the fou...

The Indian Express, December 13, 2017 The BSE has filed proceedings against seven companies before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for defaulting on payment of annual listing fees and indicated it might take similar action against more such companies. These seven firms are Neo Corp International Ltd, S Kumars Nationwide Ltd, Asahi Infrastructure & Projects  Ltd, Mavi Industries Ltd, Tricom India Ltd, Twinstar Industries Ltd and Sezal Glass Ltd. The proceedings have been filed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. “BSE has already filed proceedings against the seven defaulting companies before the NCLT, Mumbai on account of their failure to pay annual listing fees over a period of time. Similar action is being envisaged against other companies, too,” the exchange said in a statement. Further, the exchange may take similar action against more companies as many of them have failed to pay annual listing fees to the BSE in spite of advance intim...

The Economic Times, December 14, 2017 NEW DELHI: Over 14 crore Permanent Account Numbers (PANs) have been linked with Aadhaar till now, official sources said today.  With this, about 41 per cent of PANs are now linked with Aadhaar numbers.  There are about 33 crore PAN cards, while Aadhaar has been issued to about 115 crore people.  "Over 41 crore PANs have been linked with the Aadhaar till now. The linkages are ongoing," a senior official said.  The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy- making body for the Income Tax Department, last week extended the deadline for this linkage to March 31 next year.  "It has come to notice that some of the taxpayers have not yet completed the linking of PAN with Aadhaar. Therefore, to facilitate the process of linking, it has been decided to further extend the time for linking of Aadhaar with PAN till March 31, 2018," the CBDT said.  The government has made the PAN-Aadhaar linking mandato...

The Times of India, December 13, 2017  Sugar millers in Uttar Pradesh are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea this year. While on the one hand they are looking at the highest ever sugar production along with vital gains in the overall recovery of sugar and yield of sugarcane, on the other hand they are already witnessing a free fall in sugar prices, which is cutting into their margins in a big way. Within almost 5 weeks of starting the season, the prices have tumbled by approximately Rs 300 per quintal at the wholesale market, setting millers on a panic already. The Uttar Pradesh Sugar Millers Association has, in a letter to the state government, drawn its attention to the difficulty being faced by them and has requested it for early remedial measures. “Sugar prices continue to fall at an alarming rate and are today just around Rs 3,400 per quintal (ex-factory) and market analysts do not see any betterment and further downfall is highly probable,” says the letter, ...

BY REUTERS | UPDATED: DEC 12, 2017, London Oil rose above $65 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 on Tuesday as an unplanned shutdown of the UK's biggest North Sea oil pipeline supported a market already tightened by Opec-led production cuts.  The Forties oil pipeline helps set global oil prices. It was scheduled to pump 406,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December, but was shut down on Monday after cracks were found in what traders believe is the first unplanned outage for some years.  Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up by 90 cents at $65.59 at 0915 GMT, after breaking above $65 for the first time since June 2015 and trading as high as $65.70. US crude rose 49 cents to $58.48.  "Such a reaction indicates that supply disruptions can no longer be ignored in tight markets," said Hussein Sayed, analyst at FXTM.  The Forties pipeline is important for the global oil market because the crude it carries normally sets the price of dated Brent...

The Telegraph,  December 13, 2017, Mumbai Sebi is "seriously" looking into the issue of prescient messages on company results circulated by market insiders in private WhatsApp groups, its chairman said on Tuesday, a sign the investigation is gaining momentum. Ajay Tyagi, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), on Tuesday confirmed that the regulator has come to know of instances wherein price-sensitive financial data of reputed companies were leaked right before the earnings were formally made public. "We are taking that (WhatsApp leaks) very seriously. How come such messages about reputed listed companies are leaked quite close to the financial results is something we are not going to sit quietly on," Tyagi told reporters here. Tyagi's comments come at a time there are reports of a dozen such cases pertaining to listed entities. The market regulator has reportedly summoned officials of some of these companies to find o...

Business Standard, Press Trust of India  |   New Delhi,  December 13, 2017 A special   court   on Wednesday held former   Jharkhand   chief minister   Madhu Koda   and ex-coal secretary H C Gupta guilty of corruption and other charges in a coal scam case. Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar held Koda, Gupta and other accused persons, including ex-Jharkhand chief secretary A K Basu and private company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL), guilty of varying offences including criminal conspiracy in the case pertaining to irregularities in allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to the Kolkata-based VISUL. The court will hear argument on quantum of punishment on Thursday. It, however, acquitted four persons VISUL's Director Vaibhav Tulsyan and two public servants Basant Kumar Bhattacharya and Bipin Bihari Singh and chartered accountant Navin Kumar Tulsyan...

The Economic Times,  By Mateen Hafeez, TNN, December 13, 2017, Mumbai In perhaps the biggest-ever investment cheating case in the city, the economic offences wing (EOW) took over the probe in PanCard Clubs (PCL) case where more than 50 lakh investors were allegedly duped of approximately Rs 7,035 crore.  Earlier, markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had asked PCL, a timeshare company, to not sell its properties. It had also appointed retired Judge R M Lodha for selling PAL's properties and to use the sale proceeds to refund investors who had put in their money in the company's schemes.  An EOW officer said the agency has registered a case of cheating under the Indian Penal Code and also invoked sections of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act against PCL and its six directors.  "Their head office at Prabhadevi is now shut," said a police officer. It was Narendra Vataukar (42), a Dadar resident, w...