Today's Hot Stories - February 28, 2014
10 Headlines for Today(1) Sahara chief Subrata Roy arrested in Lucknow
(2) AAP not different from other parties: Hazare
(3) 52 people killed in blasts in Iraq
(4) Moily: IOC stake sale priced at 10 per cent discount
(5) Sahara Housingfina falls over 4 per cent as Subrata Roy surrenders
(6) Bitcoin owners find safe place for digital currency: on paper
(7) Akmal’s gritty knock bails out Pakistan
(8) National basketball: Pratham does the star turn for TN
(9) Djokovic, Federer and Kohlschreiber in semifinals
(10) 39 cockroach species discovered in US, Mexico
5 Stories for Today
(1) Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: It’s of our making; we’ll solve it in a week: CJI Sathasivam
(2) Improve human rights, stop harassing activists, outgoing top US envoy tells China
(3) Centre excludes political funding from CSR ambit
(4) eBay leads Rs.830 crore fund infusion in Snapdeal
(5) Narendra Modi 'abandons' Indian traders, backbone of Bharatiya Janata Party 'vote
(1) Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: It’s of our making; we’ll solve it in a week: CJI Sathasivam
Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam on Thursday indicated that the issue of release of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case would be solved within a week.
The CJI, who heads a three-judge Bench hearing the Centre’s writ petition to stop their release, told senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government: “We are responsible for this problem. We will solve it within a week.”
“In our judgment, we could have simply said we are commuting the death sentence to life sentence. We need not have observed anything on remission; we did it only for clarity, subject to the appropriate government following the due procedure. Do you know [that] under the procedure, the convict will have to make a request and the State government will have to seek a report from the trial court concerned and thereafter take a decision?” the CJI asked.
The court said: “Every State must be aware of the procedure. Which is the appropriate government for taking decisions, for all these things, we will lay down guidelines. We will take up maintainability first.”
The Centre said the Tamil Nadu government was not the appropriate government to consider the issue of remission as mandated under Section 435 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The powers of the State government had been taken away as the case was investigated by the CBI and the offences came under the Central List such as the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act, the Foreigners Act, the Wireless Telegraphy Act and the Passport Act. There was no occasion for the State government to consider grant of remission to the seven convicts, the petition said.
The Centre said the assassination was one of the gravest cases, with the brutal killing of the former Prime Minister and injuries to several others.
At no point of time did the seven convicts express any remorse for their act, and the consideration of remission was passed by the State government without regard to the Cr.PC provisions, the petition said. Stating that this was not a fit case for granting remission, the Centre sought quashing of the February 19 Tamil Nadu order.
Source: The Hindu
(2) Improve human rights, stop harassing activists, outgoing top US envoy tells China
Urging Beijing to improve its human rights track record, outgoing US Ambassador Gary Locke on Thursday said that rights were universal values that represented more than economic growth.
Locke said China had experienced great prosperity and improvement in the quality and standard of life but had to improve its record in the area of human rights.
“But human rights is more than economic prosperity and the economic conditions of people, but also fundamental universal rights – freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the ability to practice one’s own religion,” Locke was quoted by agencies having told journalists at the US embassy on Thursday.
The first Chinese-American to hold the top US envoy post, Locke is the son of Chinese emigrants from southern China.Senator Max Baucus has been appointed to replace him.
Referring to the recent cases of arrests of activists and harassment of journalists, Locke said the US was concerned about the detention of those engaged in peaceful advocacy.
“We’re very concerned about a recent increase in arrests of activists and journalists ... and we very much are concerned about the arrests and detentions of people who are engaged in peaceful advocacy,” he said.
On the issue of the ongoing China-Japan dispute, he urged Beijing to ease tension in the region before it leads to serious if unintended consequence.
“The last thing we need is some unintended incident that leads to unintended consequences, very severe consequences,” Locke said, adding that it was important that both sides lower the temperature and focus on diplomacy.
The US, he said, has not taken any side in the territorial dispute that flared in 2012 over a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea.
Locke’s remarks are not likely to please Beijing.
On Wednesday, at an address at the American Centre here, he said that Washington was “deeply concerned over a recent pattern of harassment, arrests and prosecutions of good government advocates, of public interest lawyers, of activists, internet journalists, religious leaders, and others in China.”
Locke’s tenure, which began in the middle of 2011, had its share of dramatic and delicate diplomatic moments including the episode of the former police chief of Chongqing city, Wang Lijun – who was once the close aide of jailed Communist leader Bo Xilai -- taking refuge at the US consulate in Chengdu in south-west China in 2012.
It was followed by blind activist Chen Guangcheng escaping from house arrest in eastern China to take shelter the US embassy in Beijing.
Source: Hindustan Times
(3) Centre excludes political funding from CSR ambit
The new CSR rules, which would come into effect from April 1, 2014, mandate companies to spend at least 2% of their three-year average annual profit on social welfare activities.
The much-awaited rules for the new ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) regime were notified on Thursday, under which companies with sizable businesses would need to spend a minimum 2 per cent of net profit for the benefit of the society.
The CSR activities will have to be within India, and the new rules will also apply to foreign companies registered here.
However, funds given to political parties and the money spent for the benefit of the company’s own employees (and their families) will not count as CSR.
Listing out the permitted CSR activities, the government said that they needed to be undertaken as per approval of the company’s board in accordance with its CSR Policy and the decision of its CSR Committee.
The CSR rules will take effect from April 1, as part of the new Companies Act. They will apply to companies with at least Rs 5 crore net profit, or Rs.1,000 crore turnover or Rs.500 crore net worth.
Such companies will need to spend 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit on CSR activities in each financial year, beginning the next fiscal, 2014-15.
For the purpose of deciding the CSR spending eligibility of a company, profit from overseas branches and dividend received from other companies in India will be excluded from the net profit criteria.
Besides, contributions made ‘directly or indirectly’ to any political party have been excluded from CSR ambit.
The CSR policy of a company should also specify that “surplus arising out of the CSR projects or programmes or activities shall not form part of the business profit of a company.’’
A company can also carry out CSR works through a registered trust or society or a separate company.
As per the rules, a company may also collaborate with other companies for CSR activities, provided they have to separately report about spending on such projects programmes.
“The CSR activities shall be undertaken by the company, as per its stated CSR policy, as projects or programmes or activities (either new or ongoing), excluding activities undertaken in pursuance of its normal course of business”, according to the notification by the Corporate Affairs Ministry.
In an official release, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot said the rules had been finalised after extensive consultations with all stakeholders.
A wide range of activities, including livelihood enhancement projects and steps for the benefit of armed forces veterans have been brought under the CSR ambit.
When it comes to having manpower for CSR works, the government has said that companies can spend only up to 5 per cent of total CSR expenditure for them in a single financial year.
This would be applicable for own personnel as well as those of their implementing agencies.
Among other activities, livelihood enhancement and rural development projects, promoting preventive health care and sanitation as well as making safe drinking water available would be considered as CSR activities.
Source: The Economic Times
(4) eBay leads Rs.830 crore fund infusion in Snapdeal
One of the world's largest digital marketplaces eBay Inc is leading a $134 million (Rs 830 crore) investment in Snapdeal in a deal that suggests investor appetite for the potential winners in Indian e-commerce remains intact.
The domestic online retailers such as Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong and Snapdeal have raised more than $600 million in the past nine months. The leaders are getting a bump up while laggards are falling out of the race even as domestic online shopping is expanding at over 80% annually.
India's e-commerce market, excluding online travel, is estimated at $3 billion. The country's internet users have swelled to 200 million with over 20 million of them transacting online. eBay is investing $100 million and the rest $34 million coming from smaller existing investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Intel Capital.
TOI was the first to report about eBay leading an large investment round for the Delhi-based Snapdeal on October 17 last year. eBay had initially picked up just under 10% stake in the company 15 months ago. With the latest deal, eBay's shareholding in Snapdeal rises to about 20%, sources privy to the matter told TOI.
The just concluded fund-raise has valued Jasper Infotech, which runs Snapdeal, at about $1 billion. Rival Flipkart raised $360 million in two tranches last year attracting $1.5 billion valuation.
Devin Wenig, president, eBay Marketplaces, tweeted post the announcement: "We are excited to grow eBay India under a great management team, and to invest in the complimentary marketplace Snapdeal." Founded by Wharton alumnus Kunal Bahl and IIT-Delhi graduate Rohit Bansal in 2010, Snapdeal moved from being a daily deals site modelled on the likes of Groupon to an online marketplace for products in 2012.
"We see eBay's second round of investment in Snapdeal as an endorsement of our strategy and progress," Snapdeal Co-founder and CEO Bahl said. Snapdeal which competes head on with Bangalore-based Flipkart has recently diversified in to offering services by launching an education marketplace and expects 20% of its revenue to come from services commerce over the next couple of years.
A decade long economic buoyancy and changing lifestyles of a large demography makes India one of the last potentially big frontiers for global giants like eBay. The world's biggest e-commerce engine Amazon has made quiet moves in the domestic market and step up aggression, including buyouts, once regulations allow foreign direct investment into online retailing.
The announcement today was in the making for long and comes in the backdrop of a shareholder controversy with Wall Street investor Carl Icahn, who holds a 2% stake eBay, is pushing for two board seats along with spinning off the money making PayPal.
eBay has had India operations since 2004 when it acquired Baazee.com. "Phase one of Indian e-commece is coming to an end as finalists have emerged and have to fight it out to be the winners. This phase was fraught with mistakes made by all players. Now, in phase two, the real value creation and realization for investors will depend on how well these companies execute going forward," said Baazee co-founder Avnish Bajaj, who went on to start operations for Matrix Partners in India.
"The penetration of e-commerce as a percentage of retail is low which is attracting players like Amazon and eBay to participate in the India's e-commerce story. It's also a vindication of the fact that internet infrastructure, which hitherto was spotty, is coming of age," said Sanjeev Aggarwal, senior managing director, Helion Advisors. "I think investors had a big belief in the potential of e-commerce which outweighs the scepticism previously attached to the sector," Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel Partners, an investor in Flipkart, added.
Source: The Times of India
(5) Narendra Modi 'abandons' Indian traders, backbone of Bharatiya Janata Party 'vote
Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, told small traders at a rally they have to accept the presence of large retail chains instead of “running away” from the challenges posed by them.
Traders are traditionally considered to be the 'backbone' of the Bharatiya Janata Party''s 'vote bank'.
The Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's comment is the first clear statement in favour of big retail and e-commerce from the party that has publicly opposed foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in multi-brand retail.
“There is no need to fear global challenges, try to convert the situation into an opportunity. Make the most of this situation. We are a powerful nation and have taken a lead in information technology. This is the age of online marketing, accept modern science and make use of it,” Modi said.
Modi surprised small traders with his inaugural speech at the Traders National Convention as they have expressed fears of being swamped by organised retail and had expected Modi to highlight those concerns.
While Modi made no direct mention of FDI in any of his three speeches in Delhi Thursday, he said his party supports the roll-out of national Goods and Services tax, a major demand from industry for the next Central government.
Instead, he said small traders must learn to build brands and go online, creating virtual malls to take on large and multinational retailers. “Customers from even small towns are now going for branded stuff. They are going to malls to buy them. Small traders can build a virtual mall by getting into agreements with brands. You can have a virtual mall in small shops at the click of a button,” he said.
Just weeks ago, Rajasthan’s BJP government became the second state after Delhi to roll back the permission given to foreign direct investment of up to 50 per cent in multi-brand retail. Other BJP ruled states have not permitted such FDI and analysts said Modi’s views could force a rethink.
Global retailers such as Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour who had shown interest in India have since gone slow on their plans while even single-brand retailers such as Ikea have decided to pause despite getting all clearances.
Modi’s statements were lapped by big retailers.
“This looks like a strategic direction which is being set ahead of the elections and it’s a very welcome one. These comments and clarity will help everyone in the industry and foreign players to take decisions,” Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, told The Indian Express.
Modi used the three different platforms to give some indicators of the economic policies the BJP could follow if elected to power.
“In the last 10 years we have lost out...We talk about fiscal deficit but we have governance deficit, deficit of vibrancy in democratic institutions, ease of doing business deficit, security deficit,” he said at the India Economic Convention.
“We need to restore the faith of common people. We don’t have direction, dedication and determination. Bad governance is like diabetes. More than policies we need governance...What we need is a complete overhaul of the departmental system. Laws should be made simple,” he said.
Economic decisions, Modi said, should not be taken under the influence of politics. “If the purpose for which the government has been constituted isn’t served, there is no point in running the government,” he said.
Modi said GST introduction was delayed as the Centre had not been able to prepare for it and had not listened sympathetically to the states.
“I have met the finance minister and told him if the IT backbone is not created GST cannot come through,” Modi said, without specifying why Gujarat has been opposing the Bill despite the Centre’s compensation offer.
Source: The Indian Express
Disclaimer: All news stories and content sourced from freely available material on the internet. All sources are acknowledged.
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