Monday, January 2nd, 2012

HEADLINES

• Trinamool rules out compromise on lokpal bill
• Earthquake of a magnitude of 7 on the ritcher scale hits Japan.
• Cyclone Thane devastates Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
• No fast, no andolan for a month says doctors to Anna Hazare

NATIONAL NEWS

• Government opens domestic equity market to qualified foreign investors.
  • Qualified foreign investors(QFI) can directly invest in indian equity market in order to widen the class of investors, attract more foreign funds, reduce market volatility and deepen the indian capital market.
  • The QFIs also have direct access to Indian mutual fund schemes
  • Till now only foreign portfolio investments, foreign institutional investors and non resident indian are allowed to invest in Indian equity market.
  • QFIs would be individuals or groups or associations residing in a foreign country that will be complaint with the Financial Action Task Force(FATF) and that is a signatory of the International organisation of securities commissions multilateral MoU
  • Under this scheme the RBI would allow QFIs to invest under the portfolio investments scheme like the FII
  • The individual and the aggregate investment limit for the QFIs shall be 5% and 10% respectively of the paid up capital of an Indian company
  • The QFI are allowed to invest through SEBI registered Qualified Depostitory Participant(DP) with the QFI required to open only one Demat account and a trading account with any of the qualified DP and trade using that DP only.

• First week of January is celebrated as the road safety week
  
  
• India pakistan exchange nuclear lists
  • India and pakistan exchanged the lists of the nuclear facilities and installations, under a pact prohibiting attack on each other's nuclear assets.
    
    
• Government tables electronic delivery of services bill.
  • The bill seeks to provide government services and certificates to people electronically on their doorstep, sparing them, “exploiation by the officialls”.
  • Once the bill is passed and becomes an act all the central government and the state government departments will be mandated to publish a list of services that are electronically available within the first 180 days and then should start rolling them in 5 years
  • Though e-governance as a cocnept is not new to India, the bill tries to bring e-governance services in to legal committments

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Pakistan Joins the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as a non member on a two year contract.
  
  
• Tough US sanctions on Iran
  • The sanctions require the foreign firms to make a choice between doing business with Tehran's oil and financial sectors or the central bank or the mighty US ecomony and the financial sector.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• A editorial on criminalizing forced marriages in UK
• Editorial on the lokpal bill.
• An must read article on the trade ministerial meeting in Geneva under the aegis of WTO

BUSINESS NEWS

• A nice article on the implications faced by the IT industries due to the depreciating rupee