Today Sector News – 26.04.2018
* BANKING: Reserve Bank of India is expected to hike key policy rates by 25 basis points in June, largely on account of sharp increase in crude oil prices over the last few months, Deutsche Bank Research said in a report. The RBI's recent diktat barring banks from supporting cryptocurrencies could lead to massive illegal trading in these digital currencies in the grey market.
* FINANCE: Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said the government is examining merits and demerits of sovereign bonds. In the same breath, however, he said that currently, the government does not have any plan to go for such an issue.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Top seven Indian information technology companies experienced a whopping 43% drop in H-1B visa approvals between 2015 and 2017, a US think-tank has said.
* OIL AND GAS: In what would give a modicum of relief to the high-tax-paying hydrocarbon exploration companies including RELIANCE INDUSTRIES and CAIRN INDIA, the government has withdrawn a decision to virtually deny these firms their contractual right to recover full costs, before sharing profits with it.
-The empowered committee of secretaries has declined the petroleum ministry's proposal to delegate
complete power to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons in providing excess cost claims by New
Exploration Licensing Policy oil and gas block operators.
* PHARMACEUTICALS: The health ministry plans to bring in new regulations for online sale of medicines, under which e-pharmacies will need to be registered with a central authority and would not be allowed to sell narcotics, tranquilisers and psychotropic drugs.
* REGULATORY: Foreign and local custodians, which function as the vital link between foreign portfolio investors and the Indian stock market, have rushed to the markets regulator to figure out the fate of several offshore funds linked to non-resident Indians.
* STEEL: A forensic audit report by Kroll, a corporate investigations and risk-consulting firm, has said both ArcelorMittal and VTB Bank-backed NuMetal were ineligible to bid for Essar Steel. The committee of creditors for Essar Steel may appeal against the order of the bankruptcy court questioning the lenders' decision to call a second round of bids and directing them to give existing applicants 30-days to correct the problems in their bids.
* TAXATION: In a major relief to e-commerce retailer Flipkart, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal is learnt to have rejected the Income Tax Department's tax demand of 1.10 bln rupees on the company. Several Tata Trusts, including Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, have moved the Bombay High Court to challenge a show-cause notice issued by the income tax commissioner to cancel the trust's registration under a provision of the Income Tax Act, which would result in withdrawal of tax exemption.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: Unique Identification Authority of India, through its counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, conceded that it was not the Supreme Court that had mandated linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers, but this was done on the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
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* FINANCE: Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said the government is examining merits and demerits of sovereign bonds. In the same breath, however, he said that currently, the government does not have any plan to go for such an issue.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Top seven Indian information technology companies experienced a whopping 43% drop in H-1B visa approvals between 2015 and 2017, a US think-tank has said.
* OIL AND GAS: In what would give a modicum of relief to the high-tax-paying hydrocarbon exploration companies including RELIANCE INDUSTRIES and CAIRN INDIA, the government has withdrawn a decision to virtually deny these firms their contractual right to recover full costs, before sharing profits with it.
-The empowered committee of secretaries has declined the petroleum ministry's proposal to delegate
complete power to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons in providing excess cost claims by New
Exploration Licensing Policy oil and gas block operators.
* PHARMACEUTICALS: The health ministry plans to bring in new regulations for online sale of medicines, under which e-pharmacies will need to be registered with a central authority and would not be allowed to sell narcotics, tranquilisers and psychotropic drugs.
* REGULATORY: Foreign and local custodians, which function as the vital link between foreign portfolio investors and the Indian stock market, have rushed to the markets regulator to figure out the fate of several offshore funds linked to non-resident Indians.
* STEEL: A forensic audit report by Kroll, a corporate investigations and risk-consulting firm, has said both ArcelorMittal and VTB Bank-backed NuMetal were ineligible to bid for Essar Steel. The committee of creditors for Essar Steel may appeal against the order of the bankruptcy court questioning the lenders' decision to call a second round of bids and directing them to give existing applicants 30-days to correct the problems in their bids.
* TAXATION: In a major relief to e-commerce retailer Flipkart, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal is learnt to have rejected the Income Tax Department's tax demand of 1.10 bln rupees on the company. Several Tata Trusts, including Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, have moved the Bombay High Court to challenge a show-cause notice issued by the income tax commissioner to cancel the trust's registration under a provision of the Income Tax Act, which would result in withdrawal of tax exemption.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: Unique Identification Authority of India, through its counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, conceded that it was not the Supreme Court that had mandated linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers, but this was done on the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
