Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is stepping up efforts to ease the onboarding of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and has constituted a cell for consultations with offshore investors and custodians, said whole-time member Ananth Narayan. Sebi is also working to make regulations more "light-touch" for FPIs that invest exclusively in government securities or are sovereign funds. The regulator is trying to make the registration process easier for such FPIs, the Sebi official said at the CII Financing 3.0 Summit in Mumbai.
India and the United States will finalize the contours, schedule of negotiations, and terms of reference for a proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) during a three-day meeting beginning Tuesday. The agreement is expected to be finalized in two tranches, with the first phase focusing on goods trade. The US team, led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, will be in India from March 25-29 to discuss the agreement. Both countries are aiming to conclude the first phase of the agreement by fall 2025.
Out of 3,871 recovery certificates issued by the regulator in various cases, 807 have been certified as difficult to recover.
The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-India), the national agency responsible for analysing suspicious financial transactions, has received requests from four more offshore crypto exchanges to operate in India again, said a senior government official familiar with the matter. In the beginning of 2024, India had banned nine crypto exchanges - Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, Bittrex, and Bitfenix - for non-compliance with anti-laundering law in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for enhancing trade and investment ties between their countries and committed to further deepening their engagement in the Indo-Pacific. They discussed a full spectrum of bilateral relations, including key global and regional issues, and stressed the urgent need for reform in the United Nations Security Council. The leaders also underscored their commitment to ensuring the global AI sector can drive positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes.
Tech and startup industry bodies have again pushed back against calls by telecom operators to bring over-the-top (OTT) services under a licensing regime similar to telcos, and open them up to taxation. Ahead of public consultations on the issue later this week, the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Nasscom and the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), among others, have written to the government arguing against such efforts.
United States President-elect Donald Trump's plan to overhaul the government with a new department headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk and Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will be a biggest threat for China as it has to compete with far more efficient US political system, a policy advisor to the Chinese government said.
India SME Forum, an organisation for small and medium businesses, has called for creating a dedicated fund of Rs 5000 crore for the export capacity development, promotion, and marketing of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in its Budget recommendation. The forum for MSMEs with over 98,000 members said that to enhance India's global competitiveness and increase its market share in global exports, it was "crucial to increase the number of active exporters and enable at least 3-4 lakh first-time micro, small, and medium exporters while supporting them in promoting Indian products globally."
Before framing regulations to curb 'misleading' messages and stock recommendations by finfluencers (a portmanteau of the phrase 'financial influencers'), the market regulator plans to put in place some 'building blocks' to ensure smooth enforcement. Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is of the view that the 'traditional approach may not work' to rein in finfluencers. "There are many interlinked pieces in our regulations - investment advisor regulations, research analyst regulations, the fact that we don't have algorithmic (algo)-related regulations, what brokers are permitted to do, and what is incidental advice.
India has reduced the time period for foreign investors to seek international arbitration from five years to three years as part of the recently signed investment pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a departure from its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Under the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, if the Indian judicial system is unable to resolve a dispute within this shortened period, investors can resort to international arbitration. The investment pact, signed on February 13 in Abu Dhabi, came into force on August 31, replacing the previous pact.
The judgement came on a plea of 'Forum For People's Collective Efforts' , an umbrella homebuyers association, challenging the constitutional validity of West Bengal Housing Industry Regulation Act, 2017, which is more or less identical to the Centre's RERA.
India and the US also agreed to support the efforts of the Harvard Business School and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad to develop a cluster map.
Equating 'bulldozer justice' with a lawless state of affairs where might is right, the Supreme Court on Wednesday laid down pan-India guidelines and said no property should be demolished without a prior show cause notice and the affected must be given 15 days to respond.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued pan-India guidelines on demolition of properties and said affected people need to be given some time to challenge demolition orders before an appropriate forum.
Jobs requiring AI skills carry a significant wage premium, with some roles offering up to a 25 per cent increase in wages, notes Manoj Nagpal, vice president, professional services, OpenText, an information management company.
Calling out the need for a global consultative approach towards the creation of regulations around artificial intelligence (AI), Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for information technology, said India has taken the lead in framing such regulations. He also stated that these frameworks will be presented by June-July this year. "India has taken the lead in creating this draft paper.
The TIME 100 AI list is an interesting assortment of titans. Indians make up about 20 per cent of the coveted list, which is pretty commendable, notes Sandeep Goyal.
In a relief to homebuyers, assets in a real estate project that have been handed over to the allottee would be kept out of the liquidation process of the company, the latest amendment to the rules by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has said. The notification dated February 12 said: "For the purposes of clause (e) of sub-section (4) of section 36, wherever the corporate debtor has given possession to an allottee in a real estate project, such asset shall not form a part of the liquidation estate of the corporate debtor." Real estate experts call it a "pragmatic approach" by the regulator. "However, there are many cases where possession has not been given because the property is stuck in insolvency.
Companies think they are too big to bow before regulators.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) might relax the disclosure norms around rumour verification to help smooth implementation and ease compliance amid pushback from India Inc, said people in the know. The rule has been notified following amendments to the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) by Sebi. However, its implementation has been deferred until February.
'In India, managers and the leadership almost glorify overworking.'
In a serious data breach, personally identifiable information of 815 million Indians has been up on the dark web for sale, according to a report by US-based cybersecurity firm Resecurity. Details such as Aadhaar and passport information along with names, phone numbers and addresses are available for sale online, it has said.
Madhabi Puri Buch, the first female chairperson of Sebi, doesn't plan to rest on her laurels in her third and final year in office and has set out an ambitious goal, such as moving towards a same-day and instantaneous settlement cycle for the secondary market.
'If you look at where inflation (headline and core) is today in India and where the rates are, there's clearly room to cut rates.'
In October alone, FIIs have pumped in nearly $8 billion. The flows soared after the US Federal Reserve cut a key rate on September 18. During April-July this fiscal, $6.6 billion of FDI has come into India against $3.7 billion in the same period a year ago. India targets to attract $30 billion FDI this year against $15.7 billion last year. Huge inflow of capital has pushed up forex reserves to $261 billion.
The Hinduja Group chairman, who was in Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum, however, noted that the incident might not have much impact on the reputation of India Inc in the eyes of foreigners, who are more used to such scams. Raju's confession not only shocked India Inc, but investors all over the world. Such type of wrongdoings are more prevalent in the western world and foreigners are used to this kind of happenings, Hinduja said.
Fortunes of five richest men have more than doubled since 2020 and the world could have its first-ever trillionaire in just a decade while it would take more than two centuries to end poverty, rights group Oxfam said on Monday.
Citing various aspects, the forum has appealed to the DGCA to "withdraw the harsh punishment and suspension of the PIC". it said.
A joint forum of Air India unions on Friday sought the labour department's 'urgent' intervention and initiation of conciliation proceedings in the matter of their passage policy and service conditions. On December 24, the forum comprising IPG, ACEU, AIEU and AICCA, in its demand notice to Air India managing director and chief executive officer Campbell Wilson, had protested against the changes in their service conditions. Tata Group took control of the then government-led Air India in January this year.
Indian regulators have identified certain groups as 'financial conglomerates' and they are being monitored closely for any systemic risks they may pose.
It takes 6 to 8 months after the approval for a product to hit stores.
The estimated value of the sculpture is somewhere between $10,000-20,000.
The government asked digital platforms to provide technical and business process solutions to prevent and weed out misinformation that can potentially harm society and democracy, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
The Delhi high court on Wednesday agreed with the contention of Akasa Air that the DGCA is not completely barred from taking action against pilots who violate the terms of their employment agreements. However, the court did not grant any immediate relief to Akasa Air which sought direction to the DGCA and Union Ministry of Civil Aviation to take action against its pilots who have resigned without serving the notice period, saying it will first decide the issue of jurisdiction raised by the aviation sector regulator. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said since the Directorate General of Aviation (DGCA) has contended it has no jurisdiction to consider a representation made by the airline against the defaulting pilots under the extant law as it was a contractual dispute, the court will have to first decide the issue of jurisdiction before passing any other direction.
The rumour verification process would now be triggered by changes in price or 'material price movements', as the paper defines it. What this means is that companies would need to verify rumours only if the share price moves significantly.
The government on Thursday announced new rules to curb misuse of social media platforms, as it mandated firms to appoint grievance officer, disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove, within 24 hours, content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women.
India and the US on Thursday said they are looking forward to the reconvening of the India-US Trade Policy Forum later this year to further enhance trade relationship and identify new areas for engagement.
