New Delhi, Feb 13,2023: The Centre on Monday agreed for a committee which will examine the existing regime and regulator’s role in preventing meltdown situation of shares, as happened to Adani, after Hindeburg Research report, but it stressed that the SC could choose the composition of experts committee from names suggested by the Centre.
The Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, senior law officer appearing for the UOI (Union of India) told the Supreme Court that the SEBI is competent to handle the Hindenburg Report fallout. The Centre agreed before the Supreme Court that the SC may constitute a committee to protect investor interests and requested it to that the SC should consider the names/members for the committee, as suggested by it to deal with the issue.
Mehta also said that the composition would be in such a manner made, it doesn’t affect the flow of money and investments.
The Supreme Court bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chadrachud, asked the Centre to submit a note on the proposed terms of reference by Wednesday, and fixed the matter for further hearing on February 17, Friday.
A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court by Manohar Lal Sharma seeking directions to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Union Home Ministry to conduct a thorough probe and register a First Information Report (FIR) against founder of Hindenburg Research, Nathan Anderson, and his associates in India for “exploiting innocent investors”, of its recent report on Adani Group.
The petition of Sharma, filed before the Supreme Court, said that Anderson and his associates in India hatched an alleged criminal conspiracy by short selling Adani stocks in hundreds of billion dollars before ‘concocting’ a research report related to the Adani Group in order to crash the stock market and square up their short sell position at the lowest rate.
Sharma’s petition, filed before the Apex Court sought directions to conduct an enquiry to prosecute and register an FIR against Anderson and his associates under sections 420 (Cheating) and 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for ‘exploiting innocent investors via short selling under the garb of artificial crashing via short selling’.
“They secured billions of profits by butchering citizen of India. However, SEBI did not suspend trading in the stock specially qua to the Adani group of the companies and allowed short sellers to exploit innocent investors,” the plea of Sharma said.
He also sought recovery of Anderson’s alleged turnover with penalty to compensate investors in the interest of justice.
Sharma also prayed to the Supreme Court for a declaration that short selling is an offence of fraud against the investors to be prosecuted under section 420 of the IPC read with section 15-HA (Penalty for fraudulent and unfair trade practices) of SEBI Act.
Feb 13,2023:NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says Russia’s feared new offensive in Ukraine has already started, with Moscow deploying more troops and weapons for its war effort.
Ukraine’s energy minister says the country’s power system is meeting people’s “electricity needs” despite the latest wave of Russian attacks on critical infrastructure.
NATO’s secretary-general says a feared new major Russian offensive in Ukraine has already started.
“We see no sign whatsoever that [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is preparing for peace … What we see is president Putin and Russia still wanting to control Ukraine,” Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at a news conference in Brussels.
“We see how they are sending more troops, more weapons, more capabilities,” he added. “The reality is that we are seeing the start [of a new offensive] already.”
Moldova’s president has accused Russia of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her country’s leadership, stop it joining the European Union and use it in the war against Ukraine.
Tehran, Iran ,Feb 13,2023: Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to depart from Tehran late on Monday as he leads a large delegation to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.
The three-day trip is Raisi’s first state visit to the Asian economic giant and the first by an Iranian president in 20 years, according to Iranian state media.
Raisi and Xi had first met as presidents on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan in September. China had supported Iran’s now-successful bid to become a full member of the organisation.
The Iranian president, who assumed office in August 2021, is accompanied by a wide-ranging team, including the new central bank governor, pointing to his priorities during the trip.
Six members of Raisi’s cabinet, including ministers of economy, petroleum, foreign affairs, trade, transport and urban development, and agriculture are also part of the delegation.
An op-ed by Raisi was published on Monday in a leading Chinese publication, in which he welcomed expanding bilateral ties. Raisi will hold a meeting with Xi, followed by negotiations between delegations that are expected to lead to the signing of several agreements in the presence of the presidents.
ANTAKYA, Turkey/JANDARIS, Syria, Feb 10,2023: Rescue crews saved a 10-day-old baby and his mother trapped in ruins of a building in Turkey on Friday and dug several people from other sites as President Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to this week’s huge earthquake.
The confirmed death toll from the deadliest quake in the region in two decades stood at more than 22,000 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria four days after it hit.
Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in bleak winter conditions and leaders in both countries have faced questions about their response.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made his first reported trip to affected areas since the quake, visiting a hospital in Aleppo with his wife Asma, state media reported.
His government also approved humanitarian aid deliveries across the frontlines of the country’s 12-year civil war, a move that could speed up the arrival of help for millions of desperate people. The World Food Programme said earlier it was running out of stocks in rebel-held northwest Syria as the state of war there complicated relief efforts.
Erdogan on Friday visited Turkey’s Adiyaman province, where he acknowledged the government’s response was not as fast as it could have been.
“Although we have the largest search and rescue team in the world right now, it is a reality that search efforts are not as fast as we wanted them to be,” he said.
He also said looting of shops had taken place in some areas.
Erdogan is standing for re-election in a vote scheduled for May 14 and his opponents have seized upon the issue to attack him. The election may now be postponed due to the disaster.
Feb 10,2023:The United States has issued a six-month sanctions exemption for all transactions related to providing disaster relief to Syria after earthquakes killed more than 22,000 people in the war-battered country and neighbouring Turkey.
“I want to make very clear that US sanctions in Syria will not stand in the way of life-saving efforts for the Syrian people,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said after the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued the exemption on Thursday.
Adeyemo pointed out that US sanctions already provide exemptions for humanitarian efforts, and according to Karam Shaar, a Syrian economist and non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, the most recent exemption will have “a limited positive impact”.
“This makes it easier still to send humanitarian funding to Syria,” Shaar told Al Jazeera. “Now you don’t have to prove to OFAC that your transaction is exempt from sanctions. You do the transaction, and then if you’re asked to, you need to prove it.”
Simply put, this means that donors and organisations don’t need to spend resources and time proving an exemption from sanctions before sending aid.
It was unclear, however, whether it will do much to assuage the fears of private institutions making money transfers, which often avoid working with Syria out of fear they will run afoul of sanction rules, the analyst said.
Feb 03,2023:The definition of broadband now requires a minimum speed of 2Mbps from telecom operators, after previously requiring a fourth of that bandwidth, 512Kbps, since 2009. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notified the change in a January 25 gazette notification published on Thursday.
“Broadband is a data connection that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and has the capability of the minimum download speed of 2 Mbps to an individual subscriber from the point of presence (POP) of the service provider intending to provide Broadband service,” the new definition says.
While broadband is generally understood to mean home WiFi connections, government statistics include faster mobile internet connections in the category. Wired broadband and wireless broadband will both be subject to this 2Mbps limit.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had formally recommended the new speed to the DoT in September 2021. By the previous definition, there were 825.38 million broadband users in India in November 2022, according to TRAI data.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 2,2023: The suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people at a mosque in a police compound in the Pakistan city of Peshawar this week wore a police uniform and entered the high security area on a motorbike, a provincial police chief said on Thursday.
The bomber behind Monday’s attack had been identified as a member of a militant network, Moazzam Jah Ansari, police chief of Khyber Pashtunkhwa province, told reporters without giving further details.
“I admit this was a security lapse. My men could not stop it. This is my fault,” Ansari said.
The bombing was the deadliest in a decade to hit Peshawar, a northwestern city that has suffered decades of Islamist militant violence and is located near the restive Pashtun tribal lands bordering Afghanistan.
It took place as hundreds of worshipers gathered for noon prayers at a mosque that was purpose built for the police and their families inside the high-security Police Lines district.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 on Wednesday.
This is the 11th annual budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government, and the fifth for Sitharaman as Finance Minister.
The new budget includes a few significant decisions amid a series of economic challenges, especially the steep inflation.
Here’s more on the Budget for 2023.
Key announcements by Sitharaman
For the fiscal year (FY) 2023, growth has been estimated at 7%.
Sitharaman also announced spending Rs. 2,200 crore for the horticulture sector.
The agricultural credit target has also been increased to Rs. 20 lakh crore.
She also proposed a capital expenditure of Rs. 10 lakh crore for the next FY.
The outlay for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna will be Rs. 79,000 crore.
Government to bear Rs. 2 lakh crore under foodgrain scheme
According to the finance minister, the entire expenditure of about Rs. 2 lakh crore under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana will be borne by the central government under new budget outlays.
She said the free food grain scheme has already been implemented in the country.
Sitharaman added that the scheme would be a top priority for the government next year as well.
Big boost to the investment sector
Sitharaman said the capital investment outlay would be increased by 33% to Rs. 10 lakh crore (3.3% of GDP).
The provision for interest-free 50-year loans to state governments had been extended for another year.
She said this would be done with an increased budget of Rs. 1.3 lakh crore to encourage infrastructure investment and to reward complementary policy initiatives.
Railway outlay increased nine times since 2013-14
Railway outlay is now at Rs. 2.40 lakh crore, as per the finance minister. She announced that the total outlay for the Indian Railway budget will be Rs 2.40 lakh crore, which is nine times more than the total outlay in 2013-14.
Green energy comes under priority sector
Sitharaman said the government will focus on green energy in the next fiscal year.
She said green hydrogen, clean energy storage, and transmission are the key drivers of the government’s “Green Growth” priority sector.
She announced the inter-state transmission system of 13 GW of renewable energy from Ladakh with an investment of Rs. 20,700 crore including Central support of Rs. 8,300 crore.
ICMR labs, 157 new nursing colleges announced
According to Sitharaman, the country would get 157 new nursing colleges and additional Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) labs to get more trained nurses as well as boost research and innovation.
She said a mission to eliminate sickle cell anemia by 2047 would be launched soon. It will include raising awareness and universal screening of seven crore individuals in afflicted areas, she noted.
Major relief under new income tax regime
The government announced significant changes in the new tax regime and extended rebates on income up to Rs. 7 lakhs.
The tax slabs have been made more flexible under the new tax regime.
The new tax rates are 0-Rs. 3 lakh (nil), Rs. 3-6. lakh (5%), Rs. 6-9 lakh (10%), Rs. 9-12 lakh (15%), Rs. 12-15 lakh (20%) and above 15 lakh (30%).
Fiscal deficit cut significantly
The fiscal deficit target for FY24 has been cut from 6.4% of GDP to 5.9%. “I reiterate my intention to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5 percent of GDP by 2025-26,” the finance minister said.