'These firms do not contravene provisions of Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, which bar members of the countries not allowing Indians to practice accountancy in their jurisdiction to become chartered accountants in India,' said the committee, headed by Anurag Agarwal, a joint secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs, and such Indian audit firms cannot be equated with multi-national corporations.
The company said the committee, headed by independent director D Sundaram and assisted by independent legal counsel Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that the "allegations are substantially without merit".
Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance said that PWC cited the companies' failure to convene audit committee meetings within the expected time, despite multiple letters of intent sent to them, as one of the reasons for the resignation.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday claimed there is no report approved by the Supreme Court-appointed Oxygen Audit Committee about Delhi exaggerating its oxygen requirement by four times during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned former Indian cricket team captain and Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin for over nine hours in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association, official sources said.
Nandan Nilekani said one board member had received two anonymous complaints on September 30, 2019 - one dated September 20, 2019, titled 'Disturbing unethical practices' and an undated note with the title, 'Whistleblower Complaint'.
In FY24, the net income generated from Waqf properties fell to about Rs 1.26 crore from Rs 150 crore in FY20.
Most of the pharma units are failing in documentation, and validation processes, and many don't have full-fledged quality control laboratories.
Deloitte, MCX's is learnt to have objected to PwC pointing out several irregularities in the exchange's expenditure, donations, etc, in its audit report.
A plea that the banking regulator's stress should be on the strategic role of boards and an increase in the remuneration of independent directors were among the issues put forward to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) top brass in its interaction with the full boards of state-run banks held on Monday. The meeting, the first leg of first-of-its-kind interactions with the boards of state-run banks, will now be followed by those of private banks in Mumbai on May 29. The RBI's press release, issued late on Monday, did not refer to the specific points that found mention in the deliberations, but top sources told Business Standard the twin concerns were taken up in the open-house interaction with the banking regulator's brass.
'The focus of the legislation will be to minimise user harm and increase the accountability of platforms, while also promoting innovation.'
The talk of governance reforms at public-sector banks seems to remain on paper, as a majority of them continue to be working with just a handful board members. Half of the board seat at these banks have been vacant. Ten of the 12 public-sector banks, even large ones like Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India - all except State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda - don't even have a chairman. In 2014, while splitting the post of chairman & managing director (CMD), the government had decided to appoint non-executive chairmen at these banks. SBI, which has an executive chairman and four managing directors, was an exception.
Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe on Sunday slammed Sri Lanka Cricket for bidding for a ban from the ICC, calling it a "big betrayal of the country".
The committee will consist of retired Supreme Court judges S I Imam and Rohini Marasinghe, and Irangani Perera, retired High Court judge.
The Delhi Police on Friday filed a first information report (FIR) under sections related to death by negligence after the collapse of the roof of Delhi airport's Terminal-1 killed one person and injured six others.
Infosys on Tuesday said the US Securities and Exchange Commission has concluded the investigation into the whistleblower allegations made last year, and that it does not anticipate any further action by the regulator. In October last year, Infosys had informed stock exchanges of having received anonymous whistleblower complaints alleging certain unethical practices by the top management. It then started a probe into the matter and roped in external investigators.
Given the gap between budgetary allocation and use, a parliamentary standing committee has asked the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) to take steps to prevent underutilisation of funds under the National Ayush Mission (NAM) scheme. According to the data, the ministry was allocated Rs 1,200 crore for the mission in the Budgetary Estimate (BE) for FY24. The Revised Estimate (RE) for the year fell to Rs 815 crore, of which Rs 589 crore, or 74 per cent, has been spent till January.
But it does not mention its views on the government demand to ban these two auditors for five years from business.
The Centre on Monday made public the rules under the recently-notified anti-paper leak law, mandating the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to prepare norms, standards and guidelines for the computer-based tests among others.
Outlining the role of chairmen and chief executive officers in the fraud risk management system, the RBI further stated that the audit committee and special committee of the board should also own responsibility for systemic failure of controls or any absence of key controls or severe weaknesses in existing controls which facilitate exceptionally large-value frauds.
Dalmia Bharat Ltd on Monday announced the acquisition of the cement assets of Jaypee Group's flagship company Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and its associate firms at an enterprise value of Rs 5,666 crore. In a regulatory filing, Dalmia Bharat informed that its wholly-owned subsidiary Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited (DCBL) has entered into a "binding framework agreement for the acquisition of clinker, cement and power plants from Jaiprakash Associates Limited and its associate company." The deal includes a total cement capacity of 9.4 Million tones (MnT) per annum, along with clinker capacity of 6.7 MnT and thermal power plants of 280MW at an enterprise value of Rs 5,666 crore, it added.
The International Cricket Council's (ICC) chief executive Manu Sawhney will step down with immediate effect, four months after he was sent on leave following an investigation into his style of working.
This would bring between 20,000 and 25,000 firms under the ambit of cost audit. At present, only 44 industries and specific products within an industry come under cost audit. This covers around 6,000 firms but cost audits are conducted in only about 2,200 of these. The proposed change will have a major positive impact on the profession because more firms will have to mandatorily appoint a cost auditor and have cost accounting records audited on an annual basis.
Following the end of the grandfathering period given to India Inc to replace their independent directors who had already served for 10 years, certain companies have come up with unique ways to replace the old guard.
Auditors seem to have developed a heightened sense of risk and are not content to tick the boxes and sign the papers.
The bank board had decided to launch an enquiry to be headed by an "independent and credible person", to examine and enquire into an anonymous whistle blower complaint alleging that the bank MD & CEO had not adhered to code of conduct
Tata Steel is to form a committee to undertake a social audit of its Kalinganagar project in Orissa, in a bid to counter allegations on the negative impact of industrialisation.
Companies are looking to combine risk management with strategy.
The high court also said that Kejriwal's absence cannot allow students to go through the first term without free text books, writing material and uniform in schools under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
The Naresh Chandra Committee has laid down stringent guidelines defining the relationship between an auditor and its client.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has amended the equity listing agreement, asking companies to set up an agency to monitor the utilisation of issue proceeds.
Thackeray said the probe will ascertain if the fire was an accident or was the fallout of ignoring an earlier safety report.
US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to the independent directors of Future Retail Limited (FRL), including Gagan Singh, Ravindra Dhariwal and Jacob Mathew, and its audit committee, providing data and alleging that there have been significant financial irregularities to the prejudice of public shareholders, banks, creditors, and third-party suppliers. Amazon has said this warrants a thorough and independent examination of all relevant facts and related-party transactions, including of past financial years, by an independent agency. Separately, Amazon has written to Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi, seeking the withdrawal of the regulator's conditional approval granted to FRL related to the merger deal between the Future group and Reliance.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday indicated radical changes in auditing norms including disqualification of auditors if they are found to have 'financial relationship' with companies as suggested by the Naresh Chandra panel.
The big four global accountancy firms -- PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte -- are circumventing laws to provide auditing services in the country, says a report of an Institute of Chartered Accountants of India's committee.
The penalty collected from Mazumdar-Shaw will be donated to a charitable organisation of her choice.
Infosys said it is also "aware of a securities class action lawsuit" that has been filed against the company in a federal court in the US, based on the generalised allegations in the anonymous complaints. The company intends to defend itself vigorously in such a lawsuit.
"The company has been in touch with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the anonymous whistleblower complaints (anonymous complaints) and has learnt that the SEC has initiated an investigation into this matter. The company will cooperate with the SEC's investigation," Infosys said in a statement.
Leading exchange BSE on Wednesday asked Infosys to explain why it did not make a disclosure about a whistleblower complaint which alleged that the company's top executives were following "unethical practices" to shore up profits through irregular accounting ways.