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Handle With Care
2008-04-03 16:28:00
That the Sixth Pay Commission’s (SPC) recommendations would be a bonanza for government employees was never in doubt; the debate was only about how big (read fiscally irresponsible) the bonanza would be. Since the SPC is yet to submit its report and the details are not yet known, it is admittedly a little early for this paper to make an informed comment. However, initial reports suggest the report has been fairly circumspect in the quantum of increases recommended at the higher levels, where both the work load as well as the level of responsibility makes a strong case for generous hikes.   Where it seems to have erred is in according roughly the same treatment down the line to C and D category employees. The latter are not only much better paid than their private sector counterparts but also do not bring any specialised skills to the table. In such a scenario, the case for an across the board hike to these two categories is weak.     This was as true at the time o...
More About: Culture , Finance , Care , Handle

Export duty no solution
2008-04-03 16:24:00
THE reported move to roll back domestic steel prices by slapping a 10% export duty on all grades of finished steel is retrograde and worse. The plan to penalise exports could well discourage production across the board. So, instead of dampening prices, this could stem output and needlessly make our fledgling steel exports dearer. The proposed game plan can actually harden prices. It would be akin to shooting oneself in the foot, in policy terms. In fact, the idea of export levy as an instrument of price control is perverse; it needs to be nipped in the bud. It just does not make sense in a supposedly liberalizing economy which is globalising with much gusto.   The fact is steel exports account for a very small part of the total output. To suggest exports are jacking up steel prices is to thoroughly ignore the ground reality. The point is that there’s strong demand for steel on the back of buoyant economic growth. It’s also true that steel prices have considerably f...
More About: Finance , Export , Solution , Duty

SEHWAG LEAPFROGS AHEAD OF THE 2ND TEST
2008-04-02 18:14:00
Virender Sehwag ?s careerbest 319 against South Africa catapulted him to the 12th spot in the ICC Test Rankings, making .him the highest ranked Indian in the batting chart. Sehwag, whose triple ton was the fastest in Test history, jumped 13 places to 12th spot after a massive 17 per cent rise in his rating that saw him leapfrogging compatriots Rahul Dravid (13th), Sachin Tendulkar (15th) and VVS Laxman (18th). On current form, Sehwag has a realistic chance of returning to the top 10. He is within touching distance of 10th place Kevin Pietersen of England who is just behind ninth-placed Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies. Dravid himself rose two places to 13th following his 25th Test century, while Tendulkar dropped three places to 15th position after a fifth-ball duck .in the Chennai Test against South Africa. Besides Sehwag, South African batting duo of Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie have also made significant upward movement. Amla, who made scores of 159 and 81, rockete̵...
More About: Sports , Ahead

Reverse outsourcing
2008-04-02 16:16:00
The opening of the 1,000-seat delivery centre by India’s largest software developer TCS in the mid-western state of Ohio could not have come at a more opportune moment. It comes when the US economy is going into a tailspin and politicians there have upped the ante against US jobs being outsourced to India. Hopefully, the new centre will help dilute some of the resentment against export of high volume, low margin jobs to India.   The significance of the “reverse outsourcing” is not lost on the people or the politicians - especially with US jobs shifting to India becoming a talking point among the presidential candidates. The inauguration of the TCS’s delivery centre got a rousing reception from locals. And it is not because of the 1, 000 jobs the centre will add, but due to the symbolism; after a decade of jobs being “Bangalored”, India’s top three IT companies are now creating jobs for locals in the US. Of course, the number of new jo...
More About: Culture , Finance , Outsourcing

BEHING THE BIG CITY LIGHTS
2008-04-02 16:13:00
Over the years, Delhi has transformed itself from being a sleepy administrative capital of the nation to a bustling metropolis. To be sure, it still remains the bastion of power - much like Washington DC or Tokyo - but its functions have transformed to embrace business and industry as well. Not surprisingly; it is one of the fastest growing big cities with a real growth rate of 12 per cent that is much higher than the national average. At first glance, the latest Economic Survey; released by Delhi’s planning department, puts out numbers that will definitely impart a feel-good factor to its citizens.   For starters, the income of the average Delhiite for 2006-07 is pegged at Rs 66,728 that is more than double the national average of Rs 29,642. A higher per capita income indicates higher purchasing power and higher standards of living. Delhi’s per capita income has crossed the inflection point to make it one of the nation’s biggest markets for automobiles, cons...
More About: Culture , City , Lights , City Lights

A NEW BARGAIN TOOL
2008-04-02 16:10:00
Conducting business often requires negotiating with multiple parties. You could be discussing the price of raw material with your suppliers, or trying to minimise the margin you have to pay to trade while selling your finished products. You could even be haggling with your bankers for reducing the working capital interest rate. In the meantime, pinstriped consultants walk into your office holding out the promise of improving your business model and you do think it’s a good idea, but they’re asking too friggin’ much. The next day, the local goon barges in, claiming to represent the workers and demanding you pay him a hefty amount or else he’s going to extract a severe wage hike from you. Every day life in business is a series of negotiations, conducted to maximise economic benefit for all parties.   In fact, negotiations are the cornerstone of any democratic, free economy. In a state-controlled or autocratic regime, the very mention of negotiations-whic...
More About: Finance , Tool , Bargain

Advani deserves Nobel!
2008-04-01 16:21:00
Leader of the Opposition L K Advani deserves to be commended not just for writing one of the longest autobiographies ever. After dashing off 986 pages in just eight months, the 80-year-old Advani still had enough stamina left to break the ice between him and Sonia/Manmohan, neither of whom turned up for the release of the book on March 19. The BJP leader celebrated Holi by calling on the UPA chairman and the PM to present them with autographed copies of My Country, My Life. Not that there are flattering references to Sonia in the book, which dwells on her foreign origin. Manmohan had been earlier described by Advani as the weakest PM India has seen. But, then, any author worth his salt will tell you writing is all about telling it like it is! And Indian political commentators will add that Advani’s attempt to mend fences with Sonia/Manmohan deserves a Nobel , even it is for peace and not literature!   That My Country, My life was also used to improve intraparty ties is i...
More About: Culture , Finance

A DRY RUN
2008-04-01 16:19:00
Here again is the summer of discontent. After a round of water crises in parts of Delhi earlier this month, it’s, now Gurgaon’s turn. The problem, however, is not restricted to these northern cities. Come summer, such scarcity will be seen in other parts of the country too. The recent shortage in Gurgaon was caused by a breach in a canal that supplies water to nearly 70 per cent of the city, forcing residents to buy water from tankers at Rs 500700 per 5,000 litres. But the root cause of this scarcity lies elsewhere: farmers living near Gurgaon breached the canal because they desperately needed water for their farmlands.   The erratic electric supply had made it difficult for them to extract fast-depleting groundwater to irrigate their fields. Such inequities in water availability are a sure-shot recipe for civic unrest and could lead to - who knows future water riots. If inequity is one side of the story, mismanagement and reckless extraction of this finite resourc...
More About: Culture

Get a Regulator in Place
2008-04-01 16:17:00
The delay in commercial opening of the new Bangalore and Hyderabad airports underscores the urgent need for policy clarity and, of course, an independent regulator. Much of the debate and behind-the-scene lobbying over user charges, passenger levies, fate of existing airports in these cities is farcical. The concession agreement signed between the government and developers talks about the various levies and clearly says existing airports in these cities would cease commercial operations once the new ones start working. Should the government have agreed to such terms? In hindsight, maybe not.  Most big cities have multiple airports, with some sort of specialization - corporate/leisure airports, cargo airports, city airports for smaller carriers and so on. Besides, these new airports would start operating at full capacity almost from the start. A bit of competition would also have helped check passenger levies and airport charges. Tempting as these considerations are, the governmen...
More About: Place , Indian History

THE TRAGEDY OF A QUEEN
2008-03-31 10:17:00
March 31, 1972. It was Good Friday. The world was mourning the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Inside a city hospital, she screamed, “I don’t want to die,” clawing at the tubes surrounding her. Then she slumped in the arms of her sister Madhu. Meena Kumari, born Mehjabeen Bano, was dead at the age of 39.   Addiction to alcohol killed her. It is said that she had started drinking, while she was still married to Kamal Amrohi. Amrohi’s German cinematographer, Joseph Wirsching, on being told about a pleurisy patch on her lungs, had recommended a shot of brandy before dinner. Within months she was hooked. On separating from Amrohi, she hit the bottle with a vengeance. Amrohi and she had married on February 15, 1962. He was already married and a father of three. She had come across a magazine photograph of his and had resolved that he was the man of her dreams. Meena Kumari and the movie producer-director were together for 12 years. One day, she went to Ranjit Studio ...
More About: Bollywood , Tragedy , Queen

Living with inflation
2008-03-30 16:35:00
The wholesale price index (WPI) has climbed to an 11 month high of 5.92 %. If the high international oil prices had been fully passed through, the inflation rate would have gone way beyond 7 %. The WPI has clearly entered a highly sensitive zone, politically speaking. As the opposition parties begin to up the ante on food prices, the government?s focus is expected to remain firmly on bringing inflation under control. But there is only so much the government can do if global prices of food, oil and other commodities are firming up.   You can ban edible oil exports, drop import duties on palm oil; put an export tax on steel, but there is a limit to which India can insulate itself from global price trends. Every growing economy is facing these supply constraints. Food supply cannot increase substantially in the near term. Oil prices have been rising for quite a while. The inflation rate for manufactures too has climbed to 5.4%. In fact, few realise core inflation in India has been abov...
More About: Living , Finance , Inflation

FINANCIAL REFORMS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
2008-03-29 08:21:00
Less than eight months ago when the Planning Commission set up a committee under Raghuram Rajan to suggest next generation financial sector reforms it could not possibly have envisaged how incongruous it would be to talk of reform when government is engaged in the very antithesis of reform: loan waivers. In such a scenario, the committee’s recommendations can be best described as an eloquent reminder of the contrast between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’. To its credit, the committee seems to have a keen awareness of the political economy considerations that govern any reform process in India. Hence, unlike previous committees on financial sector reform, the Gen-Next committee has taken care to suggest a broad macroeconomic framework within which its recommendations need to be anchored. This is important because many of the reforms needed to transform the financial sector into one befitting a 21st century economic powerhouse that India ho...
More About: Finance , Financial , Generation , The Next Generation

BOLLYWOOD IS ENJOYING THE BOOM.
2008-03-29 08:14:00
It was the summer of 1988. A young man keen to become a writer and director was doing the rounds of producers in Mumbai, walking into offices that thousands had walked into before, and thousands would later. His name was Salman Khan and he was about to become one of India’s biggest movie stars. Not too far away in the same neighborhood of Bandra, Aamir Khan had just zoomed to new stardom. Two other New Delhi men, outsiders in Bollywood , were preparing to begin their journey as actors. They were called Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar. Years later, those four men are still the crown of the small clique of stars of Hindi cinema. But the whirlwind of change in Bollywood has not left these icons of entertainment - untouched. They are adapting as well. Actors are turning producers. Actors are turning directors. Actors are also writing films. They are turning businessmen - devising new, innovative ways to own the intellectual property of their films, from ownership of ...
More About: Boom

A New Model for Sustainability
2008-03-29 08:09:00
In the last century Milton Friedman wrote, “There is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits. . .” With today’s growing global population’ changing climate and mounting stress on natural resources, business leaders who continue to define social responsibility so narrowly risk leading their businesses and our planet - down an increasingly unsustainable path. The 21st century brings a new set of expectations. It is no longer sufficient to profitably provide a quality product or service. We need a new business model that puts business in a broader context. Beyond making a profit, serving a market and obeying the law, a successful business must, at a minimum, do three things. First, a business should help support the sustainability of the communities it serves. A 21st century company understands that if the communities it serves are not sustainable, then its ...
More About: Culture , Model , Sustainability

Basketcase awards
2008-03-28 18:30:00
The political cycle is certainly alive and kicking in the Indian context. As elections draw closer, pressures are rising by the day to step up aam admi giveways to ensure that the UPA government can score at the hustings. If the Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver was targeted at rural vote banks, the Sixth Pay Commission award, the report of which is likely to be submitted to the government next week, targets the urban middle-class, especially the 3.9 million-strong regular central government employees. According to reports, they are set to receive a substantial raise of up to 52 per cent of what they are getting now. The new scales are to be effective from January 1, 2006. Clearly, political rather than economic considerations will dictate the timing of e the UPA government’s decision to implement the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations. If the initial beneficiaries are central government employees, those employed in state governments will also demand parity in salari...
More About: Culture , Awards

WHO WAS JODHA BAI?
2008-03-28 12:30:00
Alal and Jodha have a certain lilt, certain chemistry. They’re Hrithik and Aishwarya after all. Not so, Akbar and Heera Kanwar, Jodha, Harka Bai, Maryam Zamani….or any other name. It’s a Bollywood movie, for Chris sakes, not a docu-drama. So, directors have a generous artistic licence. That’s why there never was any protest at the historicity of the K-serial-like royal household presented in K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam with grandee father and mother (Akbar and ‘Jodhabai’), feckless son (Salim, aka Jehangir) and misunderstood angel (Anarkali) etc. We happily accepted the mummy-daddy characters played by the portly Durga Khote and Prithviraj Kapoor, but now want poor Ashutosh Gowarikar to prove the authenticity of the smoldering protagonists of the eponymous film Jodhaa-Akbar. Do we think real romancing couples actually warble their love or anxiety to the accompanied of background music? Of course not; that only happens in Bollywood. ...

SWINGING MARKETS ACROSS THE WORLD
2008-03-28 12:27:00
The market made some large swings in both directions last week, but the Sensex finished just 1.35% or 215 points lower. The Nifty closed a modest 0.54% down, and the CNX Midcap lost 1.65%. New entrant Jaiprakash Associates was the biggest winner among the Sensex stocks with a 14.2% gain. It was followed by ACC, Ranbaxy Laboratories, NTPC and ONGC, with gains between 5% and 9%. Wipro was the biggest loser among the Sensex stocks with an 11 % fall. Other casualties were Sat yam Computer Services, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and State Bank of India (SBI), with losses between 6 % and 11 %. The newly listed GSS America Infotech was the biggest winner among the more heavily traded non -Sensex stocks with a 24.5% gain. Shree Renuka Sugars, Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals, Bajaj Holdings, Tata Communications, Cairn India and Punj Lloyd followed, with gains between 8 % and 21 %. GTC Industries was the biggest loser among the more he...
More About: Finance , World , Markets , The World , Swinging

USER FRIENDLY AIRPORTS
2008-03-27 12:24:00
In a major relief to domestic passengers, the civil aviation ministry has told developers of the new international airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore to restrict user development fee (UDF) to Rs 200 instead of the initially-proposed amounts that were three times higher. However, the ministry is open to the idea of higher airport charges for international passengers. UDF is in addition to passenger service fee (PSF) of Rs 225 levied at airports across the country. The ministry’s intervention means the GMR Malaysian Airports teams, developer of the Hyderabad airport, and Siemens-Zurich airport consortium, developer of the Bangalore airport, have to restrict UDF to Rs 200 in the case of domestic passengers till the proposed Airport Economic Regu1atory Authority of India (AERA) is set up for regulating airport charges. In the first four months of operation, the new airports are free to levy airport charges of their choice. However, they have to seek government ...
More About: Culture , User , Friendly

STRESS RELEASE-DOOR TO JOY
2008-03-27 12:20:00
Why is it that while some hardly encounter any resistance or hurdle, certain others seem to be pursued by problems and unfavourable developments in all they take up? Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s explanation in this regard is strikingly original and noteworthy. He notes that the crux of all effective living lies in the exhortation of the Bhagawad Gita, to base oneself in clarity and inner power (yoga) and thereafter perform all actions (yogastah kuru karmani). This is the state, where the aspirant translates into action the three definitions of yoga, as they figure in the Bhagawad Gita-being equanimous (samatvam), being skilful in every action karmasu kaushalam) and being dissociated from all pain (dukha samyoga viyogah). This also is the process of being in harmony and fulfilled with all aspects within (atmaratih), whereby one also is in harmony with all aspects without too, and the nature all around. Naturally so, he obtains support from all over in the form of co...
More About: Release , Stress , Door , Religions

Savarkar surfaces
2008-03-27 11:56:00
Once lived on this mortal earth of mother India the great revolutionary Swatantraya Veer Savarkar who not only fought the British yoke but also wrote with a pen smeared in blood and pain. And this pen now blazes once more, thanks to Chandigarh-based publishing house Abhishek Publications that has only recently published four volumes of Savarkar’s writings titled Selected Works of Veer Savarkar. Shares the publisher Bharat Bhushan: “I was recommended to browse through Savarkar’s The Indian War of Independence and could you believe it, I just couldn’t lay my hands on the book, not even in most libraries, only to find one rare copy at the library in Lala Lajpat Rai Bhawan”. As he read the book with great interest and fascination, he felt it was imperative to share it with others. So he decided to publish the same. The search led him to Savarkar’s brother’s daughter-in-Law. He sought that the copyright be granted not only for In...
More About: Indian History

HOW TO PAY FAT SALARY BILL?
2008-03-27 08:40:00
The series of proposals made by the 6th pay commission, if implemented would cost the government Rs 12,561 crore -in 2008-09. In addition it would involve an additional one-time burden of Rs 18060 crore on payment of arrears.   “The Government may pay the arrears in two installments in different years which will mean that the expenditure on this account will be of Rs.6321 crore in Central Budget and Rs.2709 crore in Railway Budget for each of the two years,” the report said. Savings of Rs 4586 crore is likely to accrue on account of various measures suggested in the report. The net financial implication in 2008-09 is estimated to be Rs 7975 crore. Total cost of implementing the revised pay bands is expected to be Rs.5468 crore per annum. This includes the annual expenditure of Rs.3828 crore on revised pay bands for civilian employees and expenditure of RS.1640 crore per annum for revised pay bands in the Defence Forces. The biggest saving of Rs 1,800 crore could come fro...
More About: Culture , Salary , Bill

ONLINE TRADING: A FEW TIPS
2008-03-26 16:32:00
Online Trading offers lot of investment opportunities. You can trade or invest in Equities, Commodities, Futures, Derivatives, IPOs, Mutual Funds, Tax Saving Certificates and Forex Markets through paperless online transactions.   However, you need to thoroughly understand your service provider’s onscreen trading window, before carrying out any such transactions. A slight negligence may cost you a huge monetary loss. There are two types of basic transactions namely ‘buy’ and ’sell’ orders. Again, ’sell’ orders are classified into ’selling long’ and ’selling short’ orders. While there is no confusion as far as a ‘buy’ order is concerned, one needs to understand ’sell’ order(s) properly before carrying out such transactions. When you are selling shares that you own in your Demat Account, you are selling ‘long’. In this case, shares owned by you will be sold out and the profit earned wi...
More About: Finance , Tips , Online

Bed and breakfast
2008-03-25 12:38:00
The Bed and Breakfast scheme (B&Bs) is to provide a clean and affordable place for foreign and domestic tourists alike, including an opportunity for foreign tourists to stay with an Indian family to experience Indian customs and traditions and relish authentic Indian cuisine. The bed and breakfast (registration and regulation) ordinance 2007 allows people, who intend to offer their house to guests, through a system of registration by a prescribed authority. The condition is that there should be adequate space to house the guests. The owner should be able to provide quality food prepared in hygienic conditions and proper sleeping arrangements to the guests. The scheme is different from the paying guest accommodation scheme, which provides for long-term and medium-term stay. Any residential premises with one to five rooms with attached bath and toilet, having adequate supply of electricity and water with parking facilities can register under this scheme. Hygienic food and privacy...
More About: Culture , Bed and Breakfast

AGRICULTURE BASED SERVICE SECTOR
2008-03-24 15:49:00
The Mahindra & Mahindra group is exploring growth opportunities in the fresh produce supply chain space through its agri-business initiative - Mahindra Shubh Laabh Service s (MSSL). It is close to finalising a JV with an international supply-chain heavyweight. MSSL is already supplying fresh produce to global retailers like Carrefour and Tesco, Albert Heijn and Sainsburry’s and may consider a cash-and-carry JV with one of the players, sources said. MSSL is positioning itself as a back-end supply-chain partner for organized retail, sources said. It currently supplies fresh produce to retailers like Subhiksha, Reliance and others.   MSSL CEO Vikram Puri said: “We are considering the supply aggregation space for organised retail. We will offer a bouquet of supply-chain services and are developing capabilities for strong supply chain, logistics support and the infrastructure to back a successful retail venture.” MSSL currently procures fruits and vegetables fr...
More About: Culture , Agriculture , Service Sector

LESS THAN WE SURVEY
2008-03-24 07:56:00
The fast growing, globalizing Indian economy is expected to slow down to a pace of 8.7 per cent this year, according to the latest Economic Survey 2007-08. The strong message that it sends out is that maintaining overall growth rate at 9 per cent - that has been the experience of the last two years - is a challenge and raising it further to 10 per cent is a greater one. This deceleration or “some degree of cyclical fluctuation” is occurring against the backdrop of heightened global economic uncertainties, including the prospect of full-blown recession in the US economy. The fast globalizing economy has also attracted record inflows· of capital. Portfolio and foreign direct investments have been booming and have resulted in a sharp appreciation of the rupee vis-a-vis the US dollar. This has, in turn, affected the competitiveness of India’s exports, with manufactured exports to the US slowing down this year. Some of this has affected industrial perform...
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THE SENSEX
2008-03-24 05:30:00
Being the oldest stock exchange in Asia with a rich heritage, BOMBAY STOCK EXCHANGE, is popularly known as BSE. It was established as ?THE NATIVE SHARE & STOCK BROKERS ASSOCIATIONS? in 1875. It was given permanent recognition in 1956 by the GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, the first stock exchange in the country to get this status, under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956.   The Exchange’s pivotal and pre-eminent role in the development of the Indian capital market is widely recognized and its index, SENSEX, is tracked worldwide. Earlier an Association of Persons (AOP), the Exchange is now a demutualised and corporatised entity incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, pursuant to the BSE (Corporatisation and Demutualisation) Scheme, 2005 notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The BSE Sensex or Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index is a value-weighted index composed of over 4000 stocks with the base April 1979 = 100. It consists...
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TECHNOLOGICAL COOPERATION IS REQUIRED
2008-03-23 15:41:00
In early February, the US National Academy of Engineering released a report on ‘Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century’. The goal is to focus attention on the potential of technology to help the world address poverty and environmental threats. The list includes potential breakthroughs such as low-cost solar power, safe disposal of CO2 from power plants, nuclear fusion, new educational technologies, and the control of environmental side effects from nitrogen fertilisers. The report, like the Gates Foundation’s similar list of ‘Grand Challenges’ in global health, highlights a new global priority: promoting advanced technologies for sustainable development.   We are used to thinking about global cooperation in fields such as monetary policy, disease control, or nuclear weapons proliferation. We are less accustomed to thinking of global cooperation to promote new technologies, such as clean energy, a malaria vaccine, or drought-resistant...
More About: Culture , Cooperation

WE NEED A SUSTAINED GROWTH
2008-03-23 15:34:00
The last few years have been momentous for the Indian economy, growing at an average pace of about 8.5%. An important factor directly contributing to this growth momentum is the overdrive of the governments -central as well as the states-in inviting investments, both foreign and domestic. There is no denying that investment remains one of the most important ways to tackle the scourge of unemployment and consequently to take the people out of the crass of poverty. However, a major question that arises is whether capital inflows are sufficient to take a country to the path of all round economic development.   A litmus test for economic progress is not the extent of investment that a country can absorb, but whether it has a business environment that nurtures entrepreneurship and is free from heavy handed political and bureaucratic intervention. The prosperity of a nation is reckoned not only by the material well-being of its people but whether there exists elements which ensure t...
More About: Culture , Growth

WHAT IS THAT GOVERNMENT CAN BANK UPON?
2008-03-23 07:52:00
Corporate houses worried about the Competition Commission of India (CCI) potentially slowing down their inorganic growth plans can take heart. India’s competition regulator is unlikely to finalise its merger control provisions before it becomes full-fledged, which, according to the current scheme of things, would take a year, at least. This means that the draft regulations framed by the existing set-up (of one member, a few experts and supporting staff) which does not have the legal sanction to be a regulator with authority can be thoroughly rewritten by the full commission later when it finalises these regulations. As per the CCI Act, the commission acquires legal authority when it has a chairman and at least two members. India Inc has of late been a strident critic of the merger control provisions - which are essentially contained in the act and supplemented by the regulations - for their potential to scupper -mergers, amalgamations and acquisitions. The inve...
More About: Government , Culture , Finance , Bank

THE FRINGE BENEFIT TAX
2008-03-23 07:48:00
The government introduced fringe benefit tax (FBT) on employee stock options (ESOPs) in the 2007 Budget. FBT is payable by the employer on the ESOP benefits granted to the employees, upon exercise of the option by the employee. While enacting the law, a provision was introduced enabling the recovery of the FBT from the employees: In December 2007, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) came out with its circular, providing some important clarifications.   Employees who work in different countries incur personal tax liabilities in the respective countries, including ESOP benefits. The CBDT has stated in the circular that where the employer has paid FBT on ESOPs provided to an employee based in India and subsequently recovered the FBT from him, the employee can claim credit for such FBT against the tax payable in his home country on such ESOPs. FBT paid by the employer and recovered from the employee, according to the CBDT, amounts to a surrogate tax on the employer...
More About: Culture , Fringe , Benefit