Today's Hot Stories - March 06, 2014 - PT education

Today's Hot Stories - March 06, 2014

10 Headlines for Today

(1) Delhi clashes: 14 AAP workers held, Kejriwal apologizes
(2) SC split over length of prison term for Ansals
(3) EU freezes assets of Ukraine's ousted leader, others
(4) Govt approves 8.75% interest on EPF deposit
(5) AI sacks 7 more airhostesses for coming late
(6) Walmart closes store in China
(7) Saina in 2nd round, Sindhu out of All England Open
(8) Harris bowls Aus to SA series win
(9) Ronaldo helps Portugal beat Cameroon
(10) Laxmi, acid attack survivor in 2005, now TV anchor

5 Stories for Today

(1) No restriction on opinion polls: EC
(2) Venezuela breaks ties with Panama over 'conspiracy'
(3) The man who nailed Sahara
(4) International Monetary Fund unveils investors behind emerging market debt boom
(5) Bad loans, the biggest challenge for public sector banks: FM

(1) No restriction on opinion polls: EC


There will be no restriction on dissemination of opinion polls in the run-up to the general elections, barring the limited period of 48 hours before end of polling in each phase. The Election Commission on Wednesday clarified that it has no powers to ban opinion polls, and that it was for the government to act on its long-standing proposal to disallow dissemination of poll surveys from the date of notification of elections.

"We never hesitate to use a power that is available to us ...(but) you cannot expect the Commission to use a power that is not available to it. Our view with regard to opinion polls is (that) this is something which falls within legislative competence," CEC V S Sampath told newspersons when asked if media organizations could publish or broadcast opinion polls.

As per existing norms, there are restrictions on broadcasting of opinion poll results during 48 hours prior to the end of polling. Experts pointed out that, technically, these restrictions need not apply to the print media.

Unlike opinion polls, exit polls will be banned until half an hour after the end of last phase of polling on May 12. Sampath on Wednesday also proposed making 'paid news' an electoral offence, even as EC tackles it by monitoring the expenditure of candidates.

EC had recently made a fresh appeal to the government to ban opinion polls after a news channel claimed that nearly 11 opinion poll companies, secretly approached by it during a sting operation, were willing to tweak their poll projections, purportedly for a fee. The EC wrote to the law ministry noting how its stand that opinion polls could be misused had been vindicated and sought an immediate ban on opinion polls during elections.

Interestingly, the Congress had moved EC seeking a ban on opinion polls in the wake of the "sting", even though its own government has been dragging its feet over the proposal.

Source: The Economic Times

(2) Venezuela breaks ties with Panama over 'conspiracy'


Thousands of Venezuelans mourned the passing of President Hugo Chavez on the first anniversary of his death on Wednesday, while National Guard troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at anti-government activists who pressed on with street protests despite the commemorations.

Chavez's successor, President Nicolas Maduro, angrily announced that he would break off relations with Panama, which he accused of being a "lackey" of the US in what he has repeatedly called a conspiracy to topple his government through the daily protests that have left at least 18 dead since mid-February.

Maduro said he made the move because Panama asked for the Organization of American States to study the situation in Venezuela. Maduro considers the OAS to be dominated by the US government, which has denied his claims that it is acting against Venezuela's government.

"We don't accept the interventionism of anyone, because our international policy is a policy of peace, of cooperation, of respect, of the anti-imperialist Latin American union," Maduro said.

Panama's foreign ministry issued a statement expressing "astonishment" at Maduro's action and called his comments "unacceptable insults." It denied that the request for the OAS to discuss Venezuela was interference in Venezuelan affairs, saying the proposal had the "sole purpose to assist in bringing together the different actors in that sister country."

Venezuela is mired in economic crisis and daily anti-government demonstrations, and Wednesday was no exception as protests erupted in at least six cities.

"The National Guard attacked with a lot of fury against the guys and used tractors to violently take down the barricades," said Mari Marcano, a protester on the tourist island of Margarita. "They launched a lot of tear gas, shot rubber bullets."

In restive central Lara state, the leader of a small center-left opposition party, Hector Alzaul Planchart, was shot dead by unknown assailants as he left his party offices in Barquisimeto, according to media reports.

Despite the protests, the pomp-soaked anniversary of Chavez's passing was a time for sadness and nostalgia for many Venezuelans. Thousands gathered at the capital's parade grounds to honor the socialist leader who died of cancer on March 5, 2013.

"This isn't like an anniversary; it's like we're mourning," said Gledis Hernandez, 43, who took her daughter and niece to the memorial parade in Caracas. She said Chavez gave her an apartment when her home was washed away in floods, but "right now we're living in a sad situation."

Vendors hawked Chavez T-shirts, pins and hats. Visitors were given a newspaper upon entering the area with the headline "Chavez lives!" on the front and a cardboard cutout of Chavez riding a bike tucked within. Inside, tanks and soldiers paraded before a waving Maduro and military jets screamed overhead.

The military parade, attended by Chavez friends Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuban President Raul Castro among others, kicked off a 10-day commemoration. Afterward, they participated in a ceremony at Chavez's hilltop mausoleum, and that was followed by the television premier of Oliver Stone's documentary "My Friend Hugo."

Maduro seems in a stalemate with the political opposition. His administration shows no sign of crumbling, but he appears unable to stop the student-led protests. Instead, he moves ahead with a peace effort that the opposition calls farcical while his foreign minister rebuffs offers for outside mediation.

Inflation in Venezuela hit 56 percent last year, slashing the buying power of the poor who Chavez lifted above the poverty line using the state's oil profits. Simple grocery shopping has become a daily odyssey as residents hunt for scarce items like flour, cooking oil and toilet paper, and wait hours in line when they're lucky enough to find them.

Luisa Teresa Guzman, 64, said she still cries over Chavez. Wearing a red beret, red shirt and red pants at the entrance to the parade grounds, she said Maduro can carry the revolution forward. "That's why Chavez left him there."

But a month of protests has drawn international attention to the country's struggles.

In San Antonio de los Altos, in Miranda state, protesters blocked roads, but were driven off by hundreds of National Guard troops, national police and other authorities with tear gas and rubber bullets. Protests were also reported in Valencia, San Cristobal, Merida and Barinas.

Ruben Velasquez, 44, making his way from the parade grounds, said the protests are simply an expression of the situation people are living now in Venezuela.

He said life had worsened in every way since Chavez's death, particularly with regard to the economy and crime. He supports Maduro, because he works in the government customs agency, but only to a point.

"If things escape from his (Maduro) hands I don't think he's going to have support from anyone," Velasquez said.

Source: The Times of India

(3) The man who nailed Sahara


When the Supreme Court castigated Sahara Parivar chief Subarata Roy, and sent him to judicial custody on Tuesday, one man must have finally permitted himself a smile — K. M. Abraham, former board member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the man who investigated the Sahara scam.

If the case survived the numerous obfuscations, dilatory tactics and twists and turns of the last three years, it was entirely due to Dr. Abraham’s watertight order of June 2011. The 99-page order that he put together under conditions of extreme pressure and stress was scholarly and extremely well-researched at one level even as it brilliantly demolished all the false defences put up by Sahara’s lawyers.

Without saying so in so many words, the order highlighted that the two companies — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing and Investment Corporation (SHIC) — may actually have been laundering money in the names of fictitious investors. The Supreme Court alluded to this in its observations on Tuesday. Sahara questioned SEBI’s power to regulate optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs), and also contended that the funds were raised through private placements and, therefore, not under the market regulator’s purview. SEBI’s order pointed out that the definition of ‘securities’ under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act is an inclusive one and not exhaustive and that OFCDs would come under its purview.

Dr. Abraham’s order also held that an offer made to 50 or more persons ceases to be a private placement under the Companies Act. SIREC alone had about 6.6 million investors in its OFCD scheme. Complete details of these investors were not available with SIREC, and Dr. Abraham’s random test of four addresses of ‘investors’ in Mumbai revealed that only two existed and even these two had nothing to do with the Sahara group. This revelation was important to demolish Sahara’s argument that this was a private placement meant for people associated with the group.

Dr. Abraham’s job was not easy because the data provided by SIREC was in the form of scanned images that were not amenable to analysis on a computer. The other company, SHIC, failed to share any information with SEBI. Not surprising then that he commented in his order: “There seems to be an unstated resolve on the part of the two companies not to part with data in any meaningful manner. The thrust seems to be on concealment and obfuscation rather than openness and transparency.”

It must have been gratifying for Dr. Abraham, who is now Additional Chief Secretary, Kerala, when the Supreme Court quoted extensively from his order in its judgment of August 2012, ordering Sahara to refund its investors. After all the hard work, the pressures that he had to endure and the controversies, it is now vindication time for him.

Source: Hindustan Times

(4) International Monetary Fund unveils investors behind emerging market debt boom


Big institutional investors account for 80 per cent of the half a trillion dollars foreigners have plowed into emerging market sovereign debt in the last few years, according to an analysis by International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists.

Investors such as hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds held $768 billion in emerging market government bonds as of June 2013, the paper showed. Foreign central banks held at least $40 billion more.

The makeup of a country's investor base is important in gauging whether investors will stick around when times get tough or run for the exit, pushing bond yields up and currencies down. Central banks and pension funds are seen as stable investors, while hedge funds can be changeable.

The paper found about half the foreign holdings of emerging market debt, worth nearly $500 billion, were accumulated during the three years from 2010, as emerging markets rebounded from the financial crisis more quickly than developed countries.

Many also regained investment-grade credit ratings, such as Colombia and Indonesia, burnishing their appeal in the eyes of yield-hungry investors flush with cheap cash.

"Rising foreign participation in government debt markets can help reduce borrowing costs and spread risks more broadly among investors, but it can also raise external funding risks for countries," authors Serkan Arslanalp and Takahiro Tsuda wrote in a blog post.

"The more you know your investors, the better you understand the potential risks and how to deal with them."

Data prepared for the paper, "Tracking Global Demand for Emerging Market Sovereign Debt," shows institutional investors held relatively steady during the second quarter of 2013, when jitters about the U.S. Federal Reserve starting to unwind stimulus hit financial markets worldwide.

Overall, holdings of institutional investors fell less during the second quarter or 2013 than foreign debt holdings overall, a turnaround from earlier periods of outflows.

The 24 countries used in the research cover $9 trillion of outstanding government debt and more than $1 trillion of debt securities held by foreigners.

Tests of how sensitive countries would be to a cold shoulder from foreign investors showed Egypt, Lithuania and Poland would likely be among the first to feel the pinch, followed by Argentina, Hungary, Mexico and Ukraine.

But countries with lower debt, lower financing needs, strong local banking systems and good liquidity buffers had a better chance of withstanding a reversal in investor sentiment, the authors said, pointing to the experience of Mexico and Poland, which suffered less in the emerging market sell-off of mid-2013 than many peers.

Although domestic investors own the bulk of outstanding debt in many countries, foreign institutional investors' share in overall debt holdings rose by more than a third from 2010 to 2013, the data showed.

The paper, which does not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, showed institutional investors are a particularly significant presence in Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Lithuania and Hungary.

For their part, foreign central bank investments were largely concentrated in Brazil, China, Indonesia, Poland, Malaysia, Mexico and South Africa.

Source: The Hindu

(5) Bad loans, the biggest challenge for public sector banks: FM


Worried over a further rise in bad loans, especially among large companies, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday, exhorted public sector banks to effectively deal with non-performing assets (NPAs), their biggest challenge.

Addressing a press conference here after reviewing the performance of public sector banks, the Minister said “The biggest challenge facing the public sector banks is NPAs and asset quality... NPAs are high in large corporate sector as well as in the SSI and MSE sector.”

Without providing NPA data of PSU banks for this financial year, Mr. Chidambaram said it was ‘likely to be a little higher’ over 2012-13, when NPAs stood at 3.84 per cent.

Stressing the importance of addressing NPAs, the Minister said, “We have told them (banks) to focus on recovery and banks are focusing on recovery.” He said the efforts had yielded some results as PSU banks recovered Rs.18,933 crore of bad loans during the nine months through December, 2013.

Bad loans

Bad loans of PSU banks rose by 28.5 per cent to Rs.1.83 lakh crore in March, 2013, over the preceding September.

To a query on the bad loans of United Bank of India, he said the issue would be discussed separately with Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Friday.

Kolkata-based United Bank posted a net loss of Rs.1,238 crore in the three months ended December, 2013, during which its gross NPAs surged to Rs.8,546 crore from Rs.2,964 crore at the end of March last year.

Mr. Chidambaram said United Bank had managed to recover Rs.1,200 crore in January and February.

To a query on gold import curbs, the Finance Minister said the government would review the customs duty on the metal after the final current account deficit (CAD) numbers for this financial year were out.

“We will revisit the import duty on gold only after the CAD figures become clear for the end of the year. Let’s see what the CAD figures are,” he said.

Source: The Hindu

Disclaimer: All news stories and content sourced from freely available material on the internet. All sources are acknowledged.