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Rather than blaming auditors for lapses, it may be worth shifting focus to improving regulation and conduct in the field An auditor is a watchdog, not a bloodhound. This time-tested statement, which was perceived as the gospel truth for several decades, is now being put to its toughest test by regulators, the media and the society at large. Recent alleged audit lapses have led to a hue and cry, and seem to have launched a virtual surgical strike on one of the most trusted professions in this country. This raises a million-dollar question — Is this an overreaction of sorts or has discontent been brewing over time, now resulting in an explosion? Lawyers, teachers, doctors and auditors have been the backbone of our society from time immemorial. The fabric of the family system and its businesses was stitched effectively by some outstanding lawyers, exemplary teachers, workaholic doctors and meticulous auditors. All problems of a family were solved by the sagacious advice of these...

Mumbai: Fears of a bad loan spike in the banking sector have returned with a likely surge in defaults in NBFCsand lower-rated companies, amid tight credit conditions. Debt of Rs 2.4 lakh crore is currently being put through the central bank’s June 7 framework to resolve stressed assets but what is worrying analysts is that at least 70 per cent of this is chronically stressed and could lead to another wave of bad loans. Bank NPAs declined from 11.7 per cent in March 2018 to 9.6 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. But a Credit Suisse analysis sees stressed loans again exceeding 12 per cent as 2.8 per cent of bank loans are likely to see fresh wave of intercreditor agreements (ICA) being signed. “ICAs reflect (a) second wave of stress. It is the only restructuring framework available to banks. Debt of Rs 2.4 lakh crore across 16 stressed corporates is being put through this, partly as IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code) outcomes have also slowed,” said Ashish Gu...

 The RBI earning a robust net income and write back of excess provisions in the contingency fund have led to the massive pay out. This may not recur BL Research Bureau The Bimal Jalan Committee-recommended surplus transfer by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has offered a much-needed respite to the Centre, in the current fiscal. Excluding the Rs 28,000 crore interim dividend already paid by the RBI to the Centre last fiscal, the Rs 1,48,051 crore of transfer in the current financial year, could make up for the shortfall in tax collections to a great extent. True, the market had already pencilled in some windfall gains by way of RBI’s higher than the usual dividend, but what has come as a surprise is the one-time bonanza, rather than a staggered pay out as was broadly expected. While the Centre dipping into the RBI’s coffers, to meet its fiscal deficit, has not gone down well with many economists and market players, what offers some comfort is the fact that the commit...

ANJU GUPTA Updated: 28 August, 2019  As conflict enters its ninth year in Syria, let us take look at how a failed Arab Spring, geopolitics and competing jihad have made Syria a base for global violence. And even though the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham –ISIS – control over the country has shrunk, Syria hasn’t seen the end of terrorism yet. The Syrian Spring, which started in March 2011, led to the balkanisation of Syria – making it a jihadi cauldron. It is now a theatre for radicalisation and actual training of fighters – under anyone from al-Qaeda (AQ) to ISIS networks – who can carry out attacks anywhere in the world, without it being traced back to Syria. Apart from the Bashar al-Assad regime, other states, extremists and violent jihadis exercise control over different parts of Syria and are fighting for greater influence. While the current military campaign of the Assad regime in the northern province of Idlib and the threat of imminent military campaign of ...

By Team PGurus - August 28, 2019  Another day, another scam involving the UPA government - The Tatra Truck scam Another day, another scam involving the UPA government - The Tatra Truck scam PGurus have accessed a lot of materials from our well-wishers based in London about the big frauds in the Defence deals in India linked to Tatra Trucks scamsters and the late Ravi Rishi who passed away in mid-2016. It is shocking to know that his companies, now controlled by his family members are still engaged in many deals with India’s Defence Ministry, with the help of politicians cutting across political lines and uncouth bureaucrats. Today onwards we are running a series titled as – Shoddy Defence Deals – to expose the London based operators looting India’s public exchequer. Shoddy Defence Deals – Part 1 Tatra Trucks scam hit the headlines in 2012 after the then Army Chief General V K Singh revealed that one Lt. Gen Tejinder Singh offered a bribe to him for approving the pur...

ABHEEK BARMAN Between 1997 and 2003, Bimal Jalan’s signature appeared on every currency note issued by India — because Jalan was the boss of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), housed in Bombay’s Mint Street. Born in Rajasthan, but a native of Calcutta, where he graduated in economics from Presidency College, Jalan was – and continues to be – among India’s consummate economic policy insiders. Policy czar in Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi’s governments from 1981 to 1988, the Central Bank governor during the post-Rao interregnum and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime, and nearing 80 today, Jalan is the go-to man for any government in search of instant economic wisdom. It was inevitable that the Narendra Modi administration, hollowed out by economic follies, would have to run to Jalan for a ‘Band-Aid’ to patch a gunshot wound in its relations with the RBI. The shot was fired by the recently-deceased Arun Jaitley, in the second half of 2018, when he was finance minister. Jaitley, scrou...

Moneylife Digital Team 27 August 2019  6    Even as the prime minister's office (PMO) has reportedly suggested to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) that it should discontinue constructing roads and monetise assets, Brijeshwar Singh, former chairman of the Authority told a news channel that NHAI is piling a huge debt of Rs1.78 lakh crore by 2019, up from Rs40,000 crore in 2014. LiveMint, quoting from a letter sent by Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the prime minister, to Sanjeev Ranjan, secretary, ministry of road transport and highways, says, "NHAI was 'totally logjammed by an unplanned and excessive expansion of roads and it is mandated to pay much higher costs for land acquisition and construction'." “Road infrastructure has become financially unviable; private investors and construction companies are withdrawing from green-field projects," the letter says. To solve this, the newspaper report says, the PMO has suggested that...

By Ram Singh On Monday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) transferred Rs 1.76 lakh crore to GoI. It’s a much-needed shot in the arm of the finance ministry that, last Friday, had announced a raft of measures to revive the economy. These measures — recapitalisation of banks, refund of input tax credits to businesses and exporters, clearing of dues of public sector undertakings (PSUs) — are aimed at improving liquidity in the system. By reducing the fiscal deficit, the RBI transfers will further help improve availability of funds for the private sector. But the real problem isn’t a shortage of liquidity. Money hasn’t disappeared from the system. It’s just that nobody wants to use it for investment. Interests are low, and expected to fall further, and global debt with negative yields has ballooned to $17 trillion. With plummeted cost of debt, one would expect investors to queue up to borrow to invest. But that’s not happening. The debt-equity ratio is at an all-time low. Consequently,...

APOORVA MANDHANI Updated: 27 August, 2019 10:31 pm IST New Delhi: A study released in the national capital Tuesday stated that 72 per cent of police officers have experienced political pressure while investigating cases involving influential persons. The chief guest at the event, former Supreme Court judge Jasti Chelameswar, also alluded to political pressure on the justice system, saying: “We were talking about police officers being transferred… how many of us know why chief justices are being transferred in this country?” The study, titled ‘Status of Policing in India Report 2019: Police Adequacy and Working Conditions’, has been conducted by the NGO Common Cause, and the Lokniti programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). It relies on a survey of 11,834 officers from police stations across 20 states and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It also includes responses from 10,535 family members of police officers. Chelameswar ref...

ARUNDHATI ROY 26 August 2019 Security personnel on the streets of Srinagar after the lockdown began in early August. ATUL LOKE / THE NEW YORK TIMES AS INDIA CELEBRATES her seventy-third year of independence from British rule, ragged children thread their way through traffic in Delhi, selling outsized national flags and souvenirs that say, “Mera Bharat Mahan”—My India is Great. Quite honestly, it’s hard to feel that way right now, because it looks very much as though our government has gone rogue. On 5 August, it unilaterally breached the fundamental conditions of the Instrument of Accession, by which the former princely State of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India in 1947. In preparation for this, at midnight on 4 August, it turned all of Kashmir into a giant prison camp. Seven million Kashmiris were barricaded in their homes, internet connections were cut and their phones went dead. On 5 August, India’s home minister proposed in parliament that Article 370 of the Indi...

26/AUG/2019 New Delhi: An annual report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pointed out that India delayed the release of data in several categories during the calendar year of 2018. The IMF’s Annual Observance Report of the Special Data Dissemination Standard for 2018 has found that India fell short of adhering to the time limits prescribed by the IMF in all data categories.  For various data points, the IMF standards require weekly, monthly or quarterly dissemination. India has underwhelmed in every category for at least one relevant time period.  For instance, the government delayed the release of price index data based on consumer prices for the months of April, May and June of 2018, according to the IMF. In the subsequent months, the delay stretched to as many as 72 days.  In some categories where the standards require quarterly release, India has delayed putting up data by more than four months.   The other countries compri...

Senior financial journalist, Puja Mehra, questioned in an opinion piece in The Hindu on 22 August, as to whether “a task force report that recommended a new law to replace the Income Tax Act, 1961” was “suppressed because it inadvertently provided factual evidence for the debilitating impact of demonetisation on the formal corporate sector”. Puja Mehra tells The Quint what she learnt from the task force report originally drafted to push for a new I-T law to replace the old, outdated one that currently exists. Below are excerpts from her video op-ed. What Does the Task Force Report Say About Impact of Note Ban on Economy? A report not at all on demonetisation, this is a report that was being drafted by a task force that was appointed in 2017 by the Finance Ministry, to recommend a new I-T law. In September 2017, PM Modi had announced that India needs a new I-T law because, as you are aware, the I-T law in India, was written in 1961. So, it is now more than 50 years old, and no ...