Author: Contributor
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A Recent, Welcome Decision on Arbitration Agreements
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (The following post is contributed by Venugopal Mahapatra and Gautam Bhatia) The case of Great Offshore Ltd. v. Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company, decided by a single judge bench of the Supreme Court as recently as August 2008, is a very important shot in the arm for arbitration in India.…
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Some thoughts on the NBFCs Auditors Report Directions 2008 – II (concluded)
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] (second and concluding part) Having considered some basic concerns, let us consider a few areas relating to the 2008 Directions. Essentially, the requirements are just a few if one groups them. The Auditors are required to report on compliance generally relating to registration. For example, has the NBFC registered itself with…
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Some thoughts on the NBFCs Auditors Report Directions 2008 – I
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] Recently, as briefly referred to an earlier post here, the Reserve Bank of India has notified the NBFCs Auditors’ Report (Reserve Bank) Directions 2008 (“2008 Directions”) (full text available here). These replace similar directions issued exactly a decade back, i.e., in 1998. Both these Directions require auditors of non-banking financial companies…
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Now even non-deposit accepting NBFCs of asset size of Rs. 50 crores subject to reporting to RBI
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] Reserve Bank of India issued on 24th September 2008 (see here) certain reporting requirements for certain non-deposit accepting non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). What is important though is that these will be applicable to such NBFCs of asset size Rs. 50 crores but less than Rs. 100 crores. Though such entities are…
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FCEB Scheme Operationalised
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] In February this year, the Government (Ministry of Finance) had issued a notification introducing Foreign Currency Exchange Bonds (FCEBs) that offered Indian companies an additional avenue to raise finances from overseas. We had discussed the implications of FCEBs in a post at that time. Now, the RBI has issued a circular…
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Recent Comprehensive Directions by RBI to Auditors of Non-banking Financial Companies
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] The Reserve Bank of India has issued, vide its circular dated 23rd September 2008, comprehensive and updated directions to auditors of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) (posted here on the Reserve Bank of India website) requiring them to specifically answer many questions relating to NBFCs. These 2008 Directions replace the decade old…
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Liberalisation of ECB in Infrastructure Sector
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] RBI has allowed infrastructure companies to raise external commercial borrowings (ECB) under the automatic route up to a maximum of US$ 500 million (compared to the erstwhile limit of US$ 100 million). The RBI notification is available here.
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Nationalisation of Large Corporations
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] An interesting column in the Economic Times by Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar looks at the biggest government takeovers in history: “Socialists, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or Indira Gandhi in India, are famous for nationalising the biggest corporations. But the US government has taken over three of its biggest corporations within…
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History Repeats Itself: Whither Governance? (Part 3)
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] In two previous posts (here and here), we discussed the several corporate governance issues that have been accentuated on account of the current financial turmoil emanating from the U.S. In this post, we examine some of the differences between corporate structures and governance in the U.S. and India. In India, companies…
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History Repeats Itself: Whither Governance? (Part 2)
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] In the background of the boardroom failures discussed in the previous post, it is useful to explore some of the factors involving U.S. corporate governance that may have led to this situation. 1. Dispersed Shareholding and Lack of Oversight One of the key problems involving a dispersed shareholding model (that is…