Blog Posts
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Dispute Resolution under the New Company Law
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The establishment of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has been mired in controversy right from the start. Although the Companies Act was amended as early as 2002 to pave the way for the NCLT, the body is yet to be established (and the relevant provisions of the Amendment Act of…
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Consolidation in the Indian Financial Sector
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The financial services sector in India (both in the banking and non-banking finance industry) has witnessed consolidation over the last few years through various mergers & acquisitions. This trend will perhaps continue in the future as well. A recent speech by V. Leeladhar, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India…
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Short Selling is Here
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] We had carried an earlier post commenting on the proposed introduction of short selling on the Indian stock exchanges and discussing the broad implications of that move. Short selling is now being implemented with effect from Monday, April 21, 2008, and the Bombay Stock Exchange as well as the National Stock…
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Regulating Companies: Whose Role is it Anyway?
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] In the case of listed companies, when it comes to corporate governance, there is a classic dichotomy in regulation. On the one hand, it is the Ministry of Company Affairs that is largely responsible for the implementation of the Companies Act, 1956, while it is SEBI that is responsible for implementation…
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Directors’ Duties During Times of Crises
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The unexpected market conditions in recent times have rocked corporate boards world over. Healthy companies have begun to declare less satisfactory results, while the unlucky one’s face extinction. Companies are increasingly being exposed to liabilities towards shareholders, creditors and other counterparties, and consequently, directors of such companies are having to face…
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SWFs and Capital Flows
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The Indian Government’s latest position on sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) can be gathered from a recent speech delivered by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Y.V. Reddy at a session on ‘The Role of Government-owned Investment Vehicles in Global Capital Flows’ in the International Capital Markets and Emerging…
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More on the Indian Derivatives Saga
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] While the legalities of several derivative transactions entered into between banks and corporates are pending consideration of courts, it appears that these matters have ended up in court in the first place because of unexpected market movements over the last few months which defied all prior indications and past market history.…
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Amendments to Clause 49
[Posted by Pramod Rao] SEBI has on April 8, 2008 issued a press release and circular amending certain provisions of Clause 49 relating to corporate governance, and can be viewed here: http://www.sebi.gov.in/Index.jsp?contentDisp=WhatsNewScroll&FilePath=/press/2008/200895.html The composition of board of directors has been required to be as under:(a) where chairman is an executive chairman, atleast half the board…
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Draft Report of the High Level Committee on Financial Sector Reforms
[Posted by Pramod Rao] The Draft CFSR report is up on the Planning Commission website for public view and can be accessed from the following link: http://www.planningcommission.gov.in/reports/genrep/report_fr.htm A commentary which appeared in Business Standard is available at: http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?autono=319612&leftnm=4&subLeft=0&chkFlg=