More than 120 eminent citizens, including retired high court judges and former bureaucrats, have written to President Droupadi Murmu opposing what they called "highly objectionable attempts" to legalise same-sex marriages.
The Enforcement Directorate's (ED's) chargesheet in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) illegal phone-tapping case points to insider trading during the tenures of Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain as managing director and chief executive officer of the bourse. The federal agency will soon be sharing the details with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for further inquiry, two people aware of the findings told Business Standard. The ED, which filed its prosecution complaint (commonly known as chargesheet), alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna were the "key conspirators" and had assisted iSec Services to generate money to the tune of Rs 24 crore for exchanging crucial information, the people said.
With auditing under the scanner and two of the Big Four firms stopping non-audit services for audit clients, auditors will now be subjected to a more stringent standard of reporting.
Even as cyber threats continue to rise in India - the second-largest global active internet user base - the country is currently facing a big skill gap in the cybersecurity domain and represents just six per cent of global cybersecurity jobs, finds a report. As of May 2023, the industry had about 40,000 open opportunities, indicating the growing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals. However, the demand-supply gap stood at 30 per cent, projecting a major skill challenge in the industry, finds the study by tech staffing firm TeamLease.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said data is information and it will dictate history in the future as he exhorted for strong and scientific audits to make systems strong and transparent. Speaking at the Audit Diwas event of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), he said in the past information was transmitted in form of stories.
When asked about Ajit Pawar being upset, Sule said, "This is all gossip. Dada (Ajit Pawar) is Leader of Opposition in the state (Assembly). His position is equivalent to that of the chief minister. BJP is trying to target Ajit Pawar...sometimes they target me."
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Aadhaar is falling behind on technology, missing out on confidentiality and has gaps in its data archiving policy and preserving confidentiality in delivery of the cards to people, says a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The performance report, 'Functioning Of Unique Identification Authority Of India', tabled in Parliament on the last day of the budget session notes, assigning a unique identity to all resident Indians was supposed to be the key feature of Aadhaar. But "There were instances of issue of Aadhaar with the same biometric data to different residents indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issue of Aadhaar on faulty biometrics and documents". It says close to half a million such records had to be cancelled by the Unique Identification Authority of India up to 2016.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said swift and transparent decision-making and availability of optimal resources were needed for a country's combat readiness.
Bernard Madoff's accountant for nearly two decades was on Wednesday charged with securities fraud as US prosecutors widened their investigation into one of the biggest investment frauds in history.
The railways has spent more than Rs 1 lakh crore on safety measures between 2017-2018 and 2021-22 with a steady growth in expenditure on track renewal, according to an official document.
The average time lag between the date of occurrence of a fraud and its detection is 23 months; for large frauds (Rs 100 crore and above), it was 57 months.
The central bank's tough new rules spell major changes in the competitive landscape for financial services audits.
There has been an exponential increase in the use of technology to validate financial numbers, with a greater reliance on electronic evidence, use of live videos where possible, data analytics, and project management software to overcome the physical limitations in verifying transactions and accounts.
The Adani group will have understood the fragility of investor trust in the group. The group needs to improve transparency including in areas like share-ownership (which they have long and mistakenly believed can be side-stepped) and related-party transactions, among others, Amit Tandon and Hetal Dalal point out.
In his first response to the issue, Stalin, president of the ruling DMK, said Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) has already responded to the matter twice.
The billionaire Mistry family's estate is likely to soon change hands. The assets in the name of Cyrus Mistry, who died in September last year, may soon be divided equally among his wife Rohiqa and sons Firoz and Zahan, according to sources. The reorganisation will also include the 9.2 per cent stake in Tata Sons, which is currently in Cyrus Mistry's name and held through his investment company Cyrus Investments.
In its reply to the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said urgent action was warranted against the promoters of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) in the alleged fund diversion case to safeguard the management and protect investors and other stakeholders. It termed the applications made by Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra and ZEEL managing director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Punit Goenka as "completely false and misleading" in its response submitted to SAT on June 17. "We have a situation before us where the chairman emeritus and the MD and CEO of this large listed company are involved in a myriad of different schemes and transactions through which vast amounts of public money belonging to listed companies are diverted to private entities owned and controlled by these persons.
Stock exchanges have increased scrutiny of investors domiciled in Sikkim, following reports of illegal routing of investments through the Northeast state to evade taxes. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has directed its trading members (brokers) to re-verify and certify investors who have declared their permanent address as Sikkim. Further, brokers have been told to maintain a vigil on the location of devices used by Sikkim-based clients for trading to ensure these are genuine investors from the region.
The veteran politician accused the BJP of breaking duly elected governments in opposition-ruled states even as it boasted about providing a stable government at the Centre.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has overtaken Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani to become the richest Indian in the world with a net worth of $84.3 billion, according to Forbes Real-time billionaire list for 2023. Ambani overtook Adani after the Reliance Industries chairman's assets went up 0.19 per cent with an increase of wealth by $64 million while Gautam Adani's assets went down by 4.62 per cent with the industrialist's weath pegged at $84.1 billion according to the real time tracker of Forbes of 5 pm EST on Tuesday. Adani who figured among the top three billionaires in the world has dropped in the ranking to number 10 just below Mukesh Ambani.
The Union home ministry has recommended the special CAG audit taking note of a May 24 letter by Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena which pointed out 'gross and prima facie financial irregularities' in the 'reconstruction' of the chief minister's official residence, they claimed.
He also launched a strident attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was 'globe-trotting', afraid of facing questions over the Manipur violence.
The churn in Indian labour markets will be led by technology-driven sectors like artificial intelligence and machine learning (38 per cent), followed by data analysts and scientists (33 per cent) and data entry clerks (32 per cent).
Clubbing in multiple weddings in one go dilutes some of the conversation. Conflicts are resolved too neatly and grey areas of complicated equations are left on a note of ambiguity, observes Sukanya Verma after watching the second season of Made in Heaven.
Populism gains momentum during election periods, and this trend is evident in at least four states: Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The reports also claim that the same beneficiary had been found to avail treatment at two hospitals at the same time.
Sebi's move will help curb the illicit practice of keeping the parent company's account clean while maintaining debt in its subsidiaries.
ITC's first foreign venture in the hotel space - a premium and luxury mixed-use development - has been "adversely impacted" by Sri Lanka's economic crisis, the firm said. The $300-million project under WelcomHotels Lanka (Private) Limited (WLPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC, comprises a luxury hotel and a super-premium residential apartment complex on 5.86 acres of prime sea-facing land in Colombo. In its latest annual report for financial year 2021-22 (FY22), ITC mentioned that the project's construction was running on schedule till the third quarter (Q3) of FY19, but was adversely impacted due to disruptions in the aftermath of the terror incidents in 2019 and thereafter by recurrent waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Banks do extensive investigation before declaring an account fraud; they owe it to us as they deal with our money. Why would they try to fix an innocent borrower? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The decision to seek tie-up details from CA firms, especially those associated with the Big 4 -- PWC, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte -- follows a report by an Institute of Chartered Accountants of India committee on the multi-crore Satyam scam.
Believe it or not, the regulator is even stretching its arm to identify stressed borrowers and gauge the 'distance to default' as a measure of a particular bank's fragility, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Catamaran, the family office of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, is targeting 15 per cent returns on its portfolio investments per annum as it shifts focus from early-stage investments to growth and late-stage bets. This would double the firm's assets under management (AUM) from the current $1 billion to $2 billion over the next five years. "For direct investments, we are focusing on growth-stage investments and very selectively on early stage," Deepak Padaki, president, Catamaran, told Business Standard. "(This is) primarily because the early-stage space in India, in the last three-four years, has completely changed. "There has been a huge influx of capital in the last two years. It has become a very crowded space for early-stage investment," he said.
The RBI on Friday asked Paytm Payments Bank to stop opening new accounts amid "material supervisory concerns" observed in the bank. "Reserve Bank of India has today, in exercise of its powers, inter alia, under section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, directed Paytm Payments Bank Ltd to stop, with immediate effect, onboarding of new customers," the central bank said in a statement. The bank has also been directed to appoint an IT audit firm to conduct a comprehensive system audit of its IT system.
'Elections in Madhya Pradesh have so far largely avoided freebies.' 'But this time both the Congress and BJP are making such announcements.'
Special audit report conducted by the PricewaterhouseCoopers on Multi Commodity Exchange has met with another opposition. Earlier FTIL, the promoter of MCX had opposed its contents and now Venkat Chary who is FTIL's non-executive chairman has sent a notice to PwC. PwC report submitted to the FMC in last April mentioned the names of Key Management Personnel of MCX and the name of Venkat Chary was mentioned in that list. Chary was Chairman, MCX, during that period. Chary who had in past also served as Chairman of FMC objected to the PwC mentioning his name as the key management personal of MCX. He wrote to the audit firm saying that he was FMC-nominated Non-executive Independent Director and Chairman on the Board of Directors of MCX till July 13 when he resigned following revised FMC guidelines which laid down 70 years as the maximum age for Chairman/Director. Chary sighted provisions of Companies act and Section 2(51) of the Companies Act, which defines " key managerial personnel" in relation to a company include CEO or MD, whole time director, CFO, company secretary and other officer as prescribed. "As non-executive independent director and Chairman nominated/approved by the FMC, I did not fall within any of the above categories," said Chary and hence blamed PWC for not showing due diligence in your special Report to the FMC. Chary has sent a notice to PWC asking it to take immediate steps to rectify this error. Since PwC Report was placed in the public domain, "it has caused serious damages to my reputation as a practising Advocate of the Bombay High Court." Chary has asked PWC if remedial action are not taken he will report the case to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for professional misconduct under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, by showing gross negligence in the in professional duties. Chary has said, "I also intend to resort to the civil and criminal courts for damages/action against PWC." When contacted PwC spokesperson said that, "Our work has been executed to the expected professional standards and we stand by the content of our report submitted to the Forward Markets Commission". Chary is not the first to oppose PWC, FTIL it self had said the report was prepared without giving them chance to respond and have not accepted contents. Recently, Riddhi Soddhi Bullion, had sent a legal notice for mentioning its name as 'indulging in wash trades on MCX.' The leading bullion trader had claimed damages in their defamation suit.
Chahal was facing multiple allegations with the primary one being, the enrolment of illegal voting members without consent from the Apex Council.
Despite the hope that lessons will be learnt, the next accident invariably shows that nothing has been learnt -- or if learnt, they have been ignored, observes Prosenjit Datta.
Kavitha has asserted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP-led Centre was "using" the ED as the saffron party could not gain a "backdoor entry" in Telangana.
