CBI files fresh case against FTIL, MCX-SX, SEBI members

This is development is significant because apart from the fact that the CBI has named these individuals, it has let off former Sebi chairman CB Bhave and KM Abraham, who had come under the CBI scanner.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a fresh First Information Report (FIR) against FTIL , MCX-SX, and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) members Vishakha More, Rajesh Dangeti, SV Muralidhar Rao, former Sebi member JN Gupta and Jignesh Shah.

This is development is significant because apart from the fact that the CBI has named these individuals, it has let off former Sebi chairman CB Bhave and KM Abraham, who had come under the CBI scanner. Their names have not been included in this FIR. The CBI however has recommended departmental action against Abraham. The claim according to sources in the CBI as far as Bhave is concerned is that his role in granting permission to the private exchange was what they say was not of serious nature, which warranted registering of an FIR against him.

The CBI has found enough reason to file an FIR Jignesh Shah, who is also under the Economic Offences Wing scanner. Other probing agencies like the Enforcement Directorate are also carrying out investigation. This irregularity was about Rs 5,600 crore and it remains to be seen where the CBI goes this point onwards.

 

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2G, Coal…The Clean-Up Has Begun?

Published on Mon, Aug 25,2014 | 20:53, Updated at Mon, Aug 25 at 21:12Source : Moneycontrol.com 

Spectrum, Coal…The Clean-Up Has Begun?

By: Menaka Doshi, CNBC-TV18

Maybe it began with the 2G order. But I found that judgment made some wild leaps. And was vaguely worded…finally requiring a Presidential Reference to decode it. Laws may sometimes be ambiguous or seem that way in particular circumstances but judgments ought to be crystal clear. Or else they serve less than the full purpose of a justice system. In that aspect I was a bit disappointed with the 2G scam order, with due respect to the judges that delivered it.

The cancellation of over 100 telecom licenses handed out in that round of allocation, seemed extreme to many. Especially companies like Idea that claimed to be innocent victims of collateral damage. While courts must look at matters of legality objectively, some consideration of commercial consequences is welcome.

In that the Supreme Court decision on the coal block allocations matter differs from the decision on the 2G telecom licenses & spectrum matter. 

Make no mistake, this time too the Supreme Court has not minced any words…

154. "To sum up, the entire allocation of coal block as per recommendations made by the Screening Committee from 14.07.1993 in 36 meetings and the allocation through the
Government dispensation route suffers from the vice of arbitrariness and legal flaws. The Screening Committee has never been consistent, it has not been transparent, there is no proper application of mind, it has acted on no material in many cases, relevant factors have seldom been its guiding factors, there was no transparency and guidelines have seldom guided it. On many occasions, guidelines have been honoured more in their breach. There was no objective criteria, nay, no criteria for evaluation of comparative merits. The approach had been ad-hoc and casual. There was no fair and transparent procedure, all resulting in unfair distribution of the national wealth. Common good and public interest have, thus, suffered heavily. Hence, the allocation of coal blocks based on the recommendations made in all the 36 meetings of the Screening Committee is illegal."

But having said that, the Supreme Court has not also rushed to de-allocate any of these illegally granted coal block…yet. Instead it will hear further arguments on the same, giving affected companies a chance to make their commercial arguments.

157. "As we have already found that the allocations made, both under the Screening Committee route and the Government dispensation route, are arbitrary and illegal, what should be the consequences, is the issue which remains to be tackled. We are of the view that, to this limited extent, the matter requires further hearing."

So if the 2G order started the clean up in national resource allocation, the coal order is yet another important step forward. But it has maybe (I can only speculate) learned from the tumult following the 2G order and not rushed into 'consequences' yet.

So 5 quick takeaways at this point…

1. The Supreme Court order on coal allocation includes no punitive measures attached to the determination of illegality of allocations. Consequences will be determined here on. That means the SC has left the door open for affected companies to argue why the blocks must not be de-allocated, hence it has left the door open for commercial wisdom to also prevail in some measure?

2. In the interim will affected companies be certain on whether they can continue using coal from the illegally allocated blocks? As of yet I have found nothing in the SC order that stops them from doing so. Will be interesting to see how corporate lawyers interpret this.

3. The SC sends out a powerful message - no matter how far back we have to go - if a process was illegal it was illegal. And doesn't matter how much time has lapsed, how many Governments have come and gone..one can always attempt to correct it.

4. The stock market may crib and moan, corporate profits will probably be hurt (depending on the 'consequences') and that fragile thing called economic sentiment may wilt for a while…but in the long term this can only be good news for a more fair, objective and equitable national resource allocation policy.

5. This is a big win for prolific PIL filer ML Sharma - wonder if this will make him more prolific? Is that even possible?

More once I finish reading it…and on The Firm on Friday! Stay tuned…

(Here's the link to the SC judgment: http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/outtoday/wpcrl120.pdf )

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Book some profits, upside seems limited: Baliga

Watch independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga interview to CNBC-TV18's Anuj Singhal where he says the upside is limited from current levels and investors should use today's correction to book some profits.

Watch independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga interview to CNBC-TV18's Anuj Singhal where he says the upside is limited from current levels and investors should use today's correction to book some profits.

23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Govt to move quickly after SC final order on coal blocks

Welcoming Supreme Court judgement as ending of uncertainty, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said the government is ready to act quickly once the court delivers its final view on the coal mines allocation, which it has declared illegal.

The government is awaiting Supreme Court to deliver its final view on how the mines "illegally" allocated between 1993 and 2010 should be treated, Goyal told reporters.

Later, Goyal went to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The fact that this has brought to finality and closure a dispute or problem that has been for many years ... (It is) a big plus for the Indian economy. I think in fact they should have been immensely pleased that the economy can now move forward rapidly rather being cast with the shadow of uncertainty," he said.

He said the clarity of law in policy and certainty of future are the "hallmarks of a good economy and will be liked by the investor community", with coal sector poised for progress after being in "limbo" for long.

His remarks follow the Supreme Court ruling that all coal block allocations between 1993 and 2010 had been done in an illegal manner by an "ad-hoc and casual" approach "without application of mind".

"I would look forward to finality in the matter of coal block allocations, which have for several years now kept the sector in limbo, and with the finality that one can expect very soon, I hope that the sector can start progressing," he said.

"I respect the judgement of the Supreme Court and am also happy that they have set a date for further hearing," he added.

Goyal said economy can now move forward rather been cast in shadow of uncertainty and the government is ready to act quickly post the apex court's final order.

"I am happy that the Supreme Court has been pleased to announce part of the judgement today. We were eagerly waiting for the judgement for the last eight months ... I hope the work to start acting on the judgement and delivering coal to increase electricity generation in the country and reduce the imports can be expedited," Goyal said.

He said coal is "very critical" and as the judgement very rightly states "coal is king and paramount lord of industry and I am pleased the court has recognised that."

He expressed confidence that the government would be able to fulfil its promise of "twenty four by seven power supply" to the masses and the judgement will go a long way in helping it achieve its goals.

Goyal dismissed questions regarding if the apex court will decide for "de-allocation" saying it "hypothetical" to assume what the court would decide but said it "it is important that there is finality to this dispute".

"Whatever the court decides will be respected and will only help us to move forward", he said adding, whatever decision it took would be "in the interest of the country."

The apex court bench said as allocation made both under the Screening Committee route and the Government dispensation route, are arbitrary and illegal, further hearing was needed to determine the consequences for which it would hear the matter on September 1.

When asked about the Supreme Court's stay on electricity appellate tribunal Aptel's interim order on compensatory tariff, Goyal said, "Those plants were allotted on the basis of International Competitive Bidding and that process should be respected."

Aptel in its order had allowed Tata Power and Adani Power to charge hiked tariff from March 2014.

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Here are some stock picks from Sudarshan Sukhani

Watch the interview of Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com with Anuj Singhal & Menaka Doshi on CNBC-TV18, in which he shared his readings and outlook on market and specific stocks.

Watch the interview of Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com with Anuj Singhal & Menaka Doshi on CNBC-TV18, in which he shared his readings and outlook on market and specific stocks.

23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Deja Vu: Coal blocks headed the 2G way?

The 263-page order by the apex court indicts both BJP and Congress-led governments who were in-charge for the 16 year period. The court goes on to say the screening committee has never been consistent or transparent resulting in unfair distribution of national wealth.

Metal stocks went into a tizzy after the Supreme Court pronounced that coal blocks allocated between 1993 and 2009 are illegal and unconstitutional.

The 263-page order by the apex court indicts both BJP and Congress-led governments who were in-charge for the 16 year period. The court goes on to say the screening committee has never been consistent or transparent resulting in unfair distribution of national wealth.

However, court stopped short of scrapping the allocation for the moment. It will hear arguments on September 1 to decide on the consequences of the illegality.

Remember, the CAG report in 2012 alleged windfall gains of Rs 1.8 lakh crore to private companies in coal block allocation.

The government seems to believe that auction is the best way forward and they want the Supreme Court to expedite its verdict. CNBC-TV18's Sapna Das gives us a sense of what the finance ministry is thinking at the moment.

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27th Conference of the State Finance Secretaries

The 27th Conference of the State Finance Secretaries was held at Mumbai today. Chief Secretaries of 15 states and finance secretaries of 27 states and 9 Union Territories participated in the conference which was inaugurated by Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India.  Shri U.K. Sinha, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also addressed the conference. Shri Harun. R. Khan, Shri R. Gandhi and Shri S.S. Mundra, Deputy Governors, senior officials of the Ministry of Finance, Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Planning Commission, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and Executive Directors / other senior officers of the Reserve Bank and SEBI attended the conference.

Addressing the conference, Governor Dr. Rajan, highlighted the challenges faced by the country last year in tackling the serious issues relating to Current Account Deficit (CAD), growth slowdown, fiscal consolidation and inflation management and steps taken to restore confidence in the macro economy of the country. The Governor referred to the decline in financial savings and consequential challenges to debt management when growth and private sector credit would pick up. He cautioned against debt waiver schemes announced by State Governments pointing out at their adverse impact on the financial health of the banks whose capital needs have gone up due to enhanced prudential requirements and deterioration in asset quality and the macro economy in general. The Governor emphasised the need to strengthen the State Level Coordination Committees (SLCC) by ensuring participation at the higher level, conducting meetings at more frequent intervals and ensuring and sharing of quality information among all the stakeholders including the state government agencies, RBI, SEBI and MCA. "SLCCs should focus on financial inclusion for flow of public savings to the formal channels and protection of deposits of public mopped up by unauthorised and unscrupulous entities", he concluded.

Addressing the conference, Shri U K Sinha, Chairman, SEBI, informed the gathering about some recent changes in the SEBI Act to control unauthorised deposit schemes. He sought cooperation of the State Governments in this initiative by conducting concerted investor awareness programmes and imparting training to the officials. He suggested that States should enact depositors' investor protection act and strengthen the enforcement mechanism. He further sought co-operation of the State Governments in curbing "dabba trading".

Chief Secretaries and Finance Secretaries shared their experience and made valuable suggestions in improving the co-ordination mechanism for sharing and acting on information on unauthorised deposit taking activities under different garbs. It was also suggested that for sharing the developments and best practices and information on dubious entities, a dedicated website for SLCC members may be created.

Earlier, welcoming the participants, Shri Harun R. Khan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank focussed on channelising financial savings with the formal financial system like bank deposits, equity, fixed income securities and insurance products for efficient financial intermediation. He stressed that more concerted and coordinated measures would be needed by the State Government along with the national regulators to prevent flow of peoples' savings into unauthorised, illegal and unviable schemes by dubious entities. He also highlighted the need for maintaining the fiscal correction path adopted by the States for reducing GFD/GDP and Debt/GDP ratios for their benefit and the benefit of the macro economy.

The conference, among other things, discussed setting up of an Advisory Committee on revision of ways and means advances to the states; projecting of market borrowings of the State Governments for 2014-15; trends and issues in State finances, valuation of State Development Loans (SDLs), increasing spread for SDLs despite their sovereign character without any default history, investment of Consolidated Sinking Fund (CSF) and Guarantee redemption Fund (GRF) corpus and power sector reforms at the states. The Conference also focussed on e-banking for Government business, creation of an Implementation Task Force to bring uniformity and standardisation in procedures/data structure of e-receipts/payments in respect of state government transactions and establishment of an IT enabled integrated treasury portal. Issues related to strengthening the capabilities of the Business Correspondents, establishment of more brick and mortar bank branches and simplification of KYC norms for financial inclusion were also discussed. Drawing attention to the rampant incidence of unauthorised deposit collection in the recent past, it was suggested that public awareness campaigns against deposit mobilisation in different forms by unauthorised entities and fraudulent offers of large sums of prize money by fictitious mails/SMSes should be intensified besides strengthening the Economic Offence Wings (EOWs)/Cyber Cells and training of state officials.

The Reserve Bank holds the conference of State finance secretaries every year to discuss and arrive at pragmatic solutions to the problems relating to State finances including raising of SDL, cash management, risk assessment of contingent liabilities, fiscal consolidation at the level of states, electronic mode of receipts and payments and other banking related aspects of the State government transactions, financial inclusion, mechanics of central government's transfers to States, and other related issues of interest to them, Central Government and the Reserve Bank of India. This year's conference was special in terms of participation of the Chief Secretaries of State Governments in view of increasing focus on role of states in curbing the activities of unauthorised entities amassing deposits from gullible public.

Alpana Killawala
Principal Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2014-2015/401

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Here's more on Shree Cement-JP Associate deal

Shree Cement will acquire the 1.5 million tonne cement grinding unit of Jaiprakash Associates at Panipat in Haryana, for Rs 360 crore. CNBC-TV18's Pragya Bhardwaj has more details on the contours of this deal.

Shree Cement  will acquire the 1.5 million tonne cement grinding unit of  Jaiprakash Associates at Panipat in Haryana, for Rs 360 crore. CNBC-TV18's Pragya Bhardwaj has more details on the contours of this deal.

Shree Cements stock price

On August 25, 2014, Shree Cements closed at Rs 7862.00, down Rs 177.5, or 2.21 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 8160.00 and the 52-week low was Rs 3412.65.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 228.07 per share as per the quarter ended March 2014. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 34.47. The latest book value of the company is Rs 1103.32 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 7.13.

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SP 500 topples another record; benchmark hits 2,000

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 101.63 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,102.85.

US stocks rose on Monday, with the S&P 500 hitting the 2,000 milestone, lifted by a round of corporate deals and optimism that the European Central Bank would embark on further moves to stimulate the European economy.

Stocks held gains after a report had new-home sales in July coming in below estimates.

Remarks Friday by ECB President Mario Draghi at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, meeting of central bankers heightened expectations of additional policy easing.

Read More 'Groundbreaking' Draghi brings cheer to markets

Burger King Worldwide is in talks to combine with Tim Hortons, the Canadian seller of coffee and doughnuts. Switzerland's Roche Holding has agreed to acquire U.S. biotechnology company InterMune for USD 8.3 billion in cash.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 101.63 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,102.85.

Furthering its climb into uncharted terrain and topping the 2,000 mark, the S&P 500 was lately up 10.60 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,999.00, with financials pacing sector gains.

The Nasdaq gained 26.16 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,564.71.

For every share falling, more than two rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where 86 million shares traded as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern. Composite volume topped 357 million.

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Delhi breaks ten-year-old record, observes highest maximum temperature

The record breaking spree of maximum temperatures in Delhi in August continues with the Palam Observatory recording 40.7oC as the maximum on Monday. This is the highest day temperature recorded in Delhi in the month of August in last ten years. Previous highest was 40.1oC, recorded on 11th August, 2009.

The Safdarjung Observatory also recorded 39.1oC as the maximum temperature, breaking the ten year high of 38.2oC. Delhi has been observing some very hot and uncomfortable weather for the past many days. This is this fifth consecutive day when the maximum temperature has settle close to 6 degrees above normal.

Meanwhile, the situation is expected to remain the same as there isn't any significant weather system or rain in sight very soon.

By: Skymetweather.com

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