TNA unsure about Lankan President’s call for dialogue
25122013
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Updated on : 25-12-2013 01:55 PMEdit : Edit
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Categories : Business, Politics, Uncategorized
25122013
TRAI imposed Rs 50 lakh fine on nine telcos for poor service
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Telecom regulator TRAI has imposed cumulative penalty of Rs 50 lakh on nine mobile operators for failing to meet quality of service benchmarks in the second quarter ended June 2013, official sources said.
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The regulator has imposed maximum penalty of Rs 14.5 lakh on state-run telecom company BSNL for failing to meet 13 quality of service parameters, they said, adding that no penalty was imposed on Videocon, Loop Mobile and state-run MTNL.
TRAI imposed Rs 12.5 lakh penalty on Aircel and Reliance Communications (including Reliance Telecom) for failing to meet certain parameters.
The regulator imposed a penalty of Rs 3 lakh on Idea Cellular, Rs 2 lakh each Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, Rs 1.5 lakh each on Uninor and Vodafone, sources said.
A fine of Rs 50,000 was imposed on CDMA operator MTS. Under existing regulations, TRAI can impose up to Rs 50,000 penalty on telecom operators for failing to meet any quality of service parameter for mobile services and up to Rs 1 lakh for repeating such failure.
For example, if call drop rate benchmark of (less than) two per cent is not met by an operator in the first quarter after coming into force of these regulations, a financial disincentive not exceeding Rs 50,000 would be imposed.
In case, in any of the subsequent quarters the benchmark for the same parameter i.e. call drop rate benchmark is not met, financial disincentive not exceeding Rs 1,00,000 will be imposed by the authority.
The regulator, however, can impose a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh if it finds that telecom operators have submitted false compliance report on quality of service benchmark.
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Updated on : 24-12-2013 07:25 PMEdit : Edit
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Categories : Uncategorized
SEBI board approves new norms for exercise of enhanced powers
25122013
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To ensure greater efficacy in exercise of its new powers, market regulator Sebi’s board on Tuesday cleared new norms for its search and seizure operations, settlement proceedings, refund to investors and crackdown on illicit money-pooling schemes.
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The new norms also seek to ensure that sufficient safeguards are put in place to avoid any misuse of its new powers and the required privacy of individuals is granted while conducting search and seizure operations.At the same time, detailed regulations have also been put in place for settlement of admistrative and civil proceedings in a transparent manner, while ensuring that serious offences like insider trading are kept out of settlement window.
The decisions were taken at a board meeting of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday, which is also believed to have discussed matters like new Corporate Governance Code for listed companies, revision of insider trading norms and a new framework for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).
However, a final decision is yet to be taken on corporate governance code, REITs and new insider trading norms, sources said.
The seven decisions announced by Sebi after the board meeting also included doing away with mandatory IPO grading, prospectus being valid for one year for multiple draft offers, and a tax treatment similar to FIIs being accorded to FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors), a newly created class of overseas investors.
As many as four decisions are related to the promulgation of an ordinance by the government for grant of greater powers to Sebi to check mushrooming of illegal money-pooling schemes across the country and to take strict actions against fraudsters and market manipulators.
Among others, Sebi board approved an amendment to Sebi’s Investor Protection and Education Fund (IPEF) Regulations, enabling utilisation of such amounts primarily for restitution to investors and in case of failure of identification of investors, for the credit of disgorged amounts to this Fund.
Besides, the board also approved an amendment to the Sebi Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) Regulations. The government ordinance, promulgated in September for second time, provides for regulation of pooling of funds under any scheme or arrangement, involving a corpus amount of Rs 100 crore or more, to be deemed to be a CIS activity.
Accordingly, a proposal to amend Sebi’s CIS norms was been approved to provide for a framework for regulation of all activities deemed to be CIS schemes. The changes also provide for additional requirements for continuous compliance by a registered CIS entities.
The ordinance also confers direct powers to Sebi Chairman to authorise an Investigating Authority or any other officer of Sebi to search any premises where incriminating documents are lying and seize such documents for investigation purpose.
The ordinance also empowers Sebi to make regulations for executing the search operations and to ensure safe custody of any books of account or other documents that are seized.
In this respect, the board approved Sebi (Procedure for Search and Seizure) Regulations, 2013, which is on the lines of the provisions in the Income Tax Act and provides detailed procedures for such search and seizures by the regulator.
The board also approved Sebi (Settlement of Administrative and Civil Proceedings) Regulations, 2013, which have been framed, keeping in view the provisions of the Ordinance and public comments received by Sebi in this regard.
The key features of this new regulation include a common substantive procedure for settlement of administrative and civil proceedings under all the securities laws, while it also formalises the already existing settlement process.
The new norms also provide for guiding factors for dealing with the settlement process, while serious offences such as insider trading are excluded from the scope of settlement.
In order to impart transparency in the process, the roles of the internal committee and high powered advisory committee are specifically defined, while the regulations also provide for terms of settlement in monetary as well as non-monetary terms or combination of both.
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Updated on : 24-12-2013 07:04 PMEdit : Edit
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Categories : Funds, Trade, Uncategorized
25122013
NO RIFT IN PARTY: AAP KEJRIWAL
AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday played down reports of a rift in the party over the issue of cabinet berths and said party MLA Vinod Kumar Binny was not upset over his non-inclusion.
A day after Laxmi Nagar MLA Binny, a ministerial hopeful walked out of a meeting at Kejriwal’s house after coming to know that he was not among the probable ministers, Kejriwal said the legislator was not interested in a ministerial berth.“Binny came to me last evening. He told me he does not want a ministerial berth and that he was here for a mission. Binny said he has conveyed to the media that he was not upset,” said Kejriwal.
Binny on his part stated that he was not angry and that there was no rift in the party.
“There is no rift between me and the party. There is nothing that I was angry about after being denied a post in the ministry,” he said.
As Binny walked out of the party meeting on Tuesday, senior party leaders Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas went to his residence late last night and held parlays to pacify him till wee hours of the day.
After a long meeting, Singh and Vishwas came out and said, “There was no dissent and it was all created by the media.”
“It was our regular meeting and we have been meeting on various occasions,” they said.
Kejriwal had on Tuesday finalised his team of ministers that includes his trusted associate Manish Sisodia and five others.
Kejriwal, who is likely to be sworn-in as Chief Minister on Thursday, had sent to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung a list of six ministers, including the names of Sisodia, a former journalist who won from Patparganj constituency, Rakhi Birla, who defeated PWD Minister Rajkumar Chouhan, Somnath Bharti (defeated Women and Child Development Minister Kiran Walia) Saurabh Bhardwaj, Girish Soni and Satendra Jain.
Playing down reports of a rift in the party, Binny said his meeting with Singh and Vishwas was a “routine” one.
“I am not angry with the party. Sanjay and Kumar came to meet me and they spent some time discussing routine issues,” he said.
Denying that he was miffed over not getting a ministerial berth, Binny said, “There is no demand and I do not want any post. I will work wherever and whatever responsibility is given to me.”
He said, “Kejriwal is the Chief Minister and it is his prerogative to choose his council of ministers.”
Asked if he was offered the post of Parliamentary Secretary as a deal, Binny said, “There is no deal.”
Questioned whether his Congress background worked against him, Binny said it is “unfortunate” if this works against somebody becomes almost everybody has come from either the Congress or BJP as AAP is a new party.
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India hopeful of early resolution of diplomatic row
25122013
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“Something will happen”, said External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on the prospects of an early resolution of the stand-off arising out of the arrest of senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the US.
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As India and the US continued to make efforts to resolve the issue, Khobragade, who has since been transferred as Counsellor in the Indian Mission to the UN to give her full diplomatic immunity, has sought waiver from attending the pre-trial process.
A decision on her plea will be known Monday.
Asked how hopeful he was of a resolution of the issue soon, Khurshid on Sunday said “World keeps moving forward, world never dies, world never stops. Something will happen.”
On the US State Department welcoming his remarks on Indo-US ties, he said “They (the US) must do something. Welcoming is not enough”.
Khurshid had termed the US as a valuable partner emphasising that both sides need to preserve the extremely exceptionally valuable relations.
39-year-old Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer posted as Deputy Consul General in New York, was taken into custody last week on visa fraud charges as she was dropping her daughter to school before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.
India had demanded that the case against Khobragade be dropped unconditionally but it was rejected by the US.
Meanwhile, the deadline for the US diplomats and families in India to turn-in their IDs will expire Monday, with government not extending it.
It was among the measures taken by India to downgrade privileges of US diplomats in the country after Khobragade was arrested and put through both strip and cavity searches, procedures normally used for criminals.
In New York, India’s Ambassador to the UN Asoke Mukerji said he had written a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon around December 18-19 informing him of Khobragade’s transfer as Counsellor to the Indian mission here and requested that she be accorded the same privileges and immunities as a diplomatic officer.
Mukerji said the papers are being processed and the UN has to send Khobragade’s documents to the US Office of Foreign Missions, which is part of the US State Department protocol for clearance.
“Now it is between the UN and the US State Department,” he said
Publicly their common refrain was that the bilateral relationship was extremely valuable, though Washington continued to harp on their line that Khobragade would not enjoy diplomatic immunity “retroactively”.
She has since been transferred to the Indian Mission to the UN to give her full immunity. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid maintained his conciliatory tone when he termed the relationship “extremely exceptionally valuable”, a sentiment reciprocated by the US State Department which said, “it is important to preserve and protect our partnership”.
Khurshid told reporters in New Delhi, “We are in a conversation at different levels. Let the conversation go to its logical conclusion.”
In Washington, a State Department Spokesperson said the US was “continuing the conversation with our Indian counterparts privately” to resolve the situation arising out of the arrest and strip search of Khobragade in a visa fraud case.
Asking the US to “understand the value of the relationship”, Khurshid asked whether it was “unreasonable” for India to expect Washington to allow its diplomat to serve with dignity.
The State Department maintained that even if there was a change in the status of Khobragade from being Deputy Consul General with limited immunity to being posted to the UN mission where she gets full immunity, there would not be a “clean slate” from the past charges.
However, the US assertion that retroactive immunity is not possible flies in the face of precedents such as the one involving a Saudi prince in 1982 when he was accused of holding an Egyptian woman against her will in Dade County in Florida state.
Observers say that at the time of the incident, Prince Abdulaziz had no diplomatic credentials. But three weeks later, the State Department granted Abdulaziz and his family full diplomatic immunity.
The Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Dade County’s counter claims and held that the Prince had been eligible for diplomatic status at the time of the incident even if he had not received it. The Court ruling, in effect, endorsed the concept of retroactive immunity.
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Updated on : 24-12-2013 12:45 AMEdit : Edit
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Categories : Media, Politics, Uncategorized, world News
Arvind Kejriwal to be sworn-in as Delhi CM on Dec 28
25122013
Media awaits on 23 Dec for press Conference at Constitution club New Delhi but there was no arrangements and entire Delhi media waited for more than ten hours and could get moving bite. Some of the media in waiting.President Pranab Mukherjee accepted Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung’s proposal on government formation by Aam Aadmi Party. Home ministry thus sent the President’s communication to Najeeb Jung. “It is up to the L-G to decide the date of swearing-in after holding consultation with Chief Minister designate,” the Home Ministry said. Media reports Arvind Kejriwal to be sworn-in as Delhi chief minister on December 28 at noon. The ceremony will take place at the Ramlila maidan in New Delhi. Congress with second thought and various deliberations has accepted to grant outside support in formation of the Delhi government headed by Arvind kejriwal who is placed in Catch 22 situation and will do his utmost to show his idealistic intention to run the government, his move shall chart out the history of AAP and new era or the hooliganism joined activist turn politicians who look upon the solid society as their volunteers reach an interesting point of gamesmanship which begins on Dec 28 noon . People of Delhi are excited about this new show so is India but the move is bed rocked with one man showmanship .
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi Chief Minister on Saturday at Ramlila Maidan.Kejriwal will take oath alongwith 6 ministers. Aam Aadmi party has finalised names of six MLAs to be inducted in the Kejriwal cabinet. These are Manish Sisodia, Rakhi Birla, Satendra Jain, Girish Soni, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Somnath Bharti. The date of swearing in ceremony was finalised soon after the Delhi LG Najib Jung invited Kejriwal to form government on Wednesday. Delhi Chief Secretary D M Spolia met Kejriwal at his residence and conveyed the invitation by the LG to him for forming government. Earlier the LG had received the formal communication by the President Pranab Mukherjee regarding AAP’s government formation in Delhi.Kejriwal had on Monday met the LG and staked claim to form government in Delhi.
Kejriwal had proposed Ramlila Maidan as the venue for his swearing in ceremony.Arvind Kejriwal has said he will start implementing his party’s manifesto from the day his government takes charge. Kejriwal met AAP supporters and party workers and deliberated on a future strategy on Wednesday. Later speaking to news persons, he said MLAs who want to support AAP on its 18-point charter are welcome to do so. AAP on Wednesday reiterated it is not in any sort of coalition or understanding with the Congress and expects “support of the majority” on the floor of the House for its 18 issues.
Party leader Yogendra Yadav said Aam Aadmi Party will go to the floor with its 18 point agenda and 28 MLAs.
He added the party expects the support of the majority in the house on these points. If they failed to get it, they would move out.
Discontent was also visible within the Congress over its support to AAP.
A section of the party is opposing the decision and some people have even taken to the streets to protest against it. The party has however, accepted the divide within over supporting AAP.
Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal said the party had decided to support AAP after much consideration.
Meanwhile, BJP said AAP’s talk of alternative politics was a sham after the reported rifts over ministerial berths.
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Janko Tipsarevic withdraws from Aircel Chennai Open 2014
25122013
Defending Singles Champion Janko Tipsarevic withdraws from Aircel Chennai Open 2014
Rupture on the heel tendon forces 29-year-old player to pull out of tournament in which he participates on a regular basis
CHENNAI, DECEMBER 25, 2013: Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic, the 2013 Singles Champion, has withdrawn from the tournament due to a rupture on the heel tendon he sustained in Valencia in October this year. The World No. 36 today said that he is still to recover fully from the two-month-old injury.
The 29-year-old is a regular at Aircel Chennai Open and one of the tournament’s favorites. Tipsarevic had earlier confirmed his presence at the US $450,000 tournament to stake a claim to the crown and kick-start his new season at the Aircel Chennai Open for the seventh year. The upcoming contest, known to be India and South Asia’s premier ATP World Tour tennis event, will mark the tournament’s 19th edition and is scheduled to be played at Chennai’s SDAT Stadium from December 30th 2013 to January 5th 2014.
At Aircel Chennai Open 2013, Tipsarevic had a dream start to 2013 when he captured the fourth ATP World Tour title of his career, defeating Bautista Agut (Spain) in three sets 3–6, 6–1, 6–3 here in Chennai.
While the top player continues to participate in top events around the world, niggling injuries have cut short his smooth runs at tournaments. The injury he sustained at the Valencia Open forced him to pull out after just three games against Marcel Granollers. Following this, the Serb was also forced to withdraw from the Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic.
Speaking about his withdrawal from the Aircel Chennai Open 2014, Janko Tipsarevic said, “I have had a difficult three months after injuring my heel. I felt I would recover well in time for the Aircel Chennai Open but regret to say that I will not be able to take part in the tournament. I apologize to fans who have always supported me and waited to watch me play during matches there. Chennai was always my favourite tournament to start the new season. I always felt very well in Chennai and love this tournament. I really look forward to recovering quickly and getting back to playing tennis soon.”
The Title Sponsor for the tournament is Aircel and the event is supported by a consortium of sponsors in the Platinum category headed by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
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