Intra-Bank Deposit Accounts Portability

RBI has clarified (that is the right word, in this case) that in case of transfer of bank accounts from one branch of a bank to another branch of the same bank, there is no need to undergo full KYC at the new branch, because in view of the CORE banking successfully carried out by all the banks there is no need for fresh KYC and the new branch can access the KYC from the system. The account holder however will have to produce fresh address proof. This clarification was necessary because many banks notably ICICI was insisting on opening new accounts at the new branch in case of transfer of accounts intra banks which was obviously cumbersome for customers. To access copy of the RBI circular, please go here

Just a Matter of Time

Just a Matter of Time by James Hadley Chase is a volume I serendipitously unearthed at a ramshackle flea stall near Churchgate station, parted from its previous owner for the princely sum of twenty rupees. Being a confirmed aficionado of Chase’s oeuvre, I knew instinctively that my meagre investment would yield rich narrative dividends—and I was not disappointed.

At a svelte 190 pages, the novel conforms to the quintessential Chasean template: taut, brisk, and unrelenting in pace. Chase, the consummate raconteur of the seamy underside of society, once again demonstrates why he remains unparalleled in his métier. His fictional universe is habitually populated by the morally bankrupt and the socially disreputable, embroiled in crime, deceit, blackmail, carnality, and intrigue—and this work is no exception.

At the novel’s heart is Mrs. Morley Johnson, an almost-blind widow whose considerable wealth is matched only by her vulnerability. Possessing vast reserves of money, jewels, paintings, and investments, she has but one presumptive heir—a feckless nephew whom she contemptuously disinherits, consigning the lion’s share of her estate to charitable causes and a portion to her astute investment banker. Into this fraught milieu enter an assortment of dubious characters: a chauffeur with ambiguous loyalties, a nurse whose voluptuous charms belie ulterior motives, and a master forger capable of alchemising deception into profit.

The narrative pirouettes breathlessly from stratagem to stratagem—some dazzlingly successful, others fatally flawed—hurtling inexorably towards a denouement that is as enthralling as it is unforeseen.

For devotees of Chase, recommendation is superfluous; they will, like myself—already fifteen novels into his prodigious canon—seize upon this with relish. On my part, I accord it an unreserved 5/5, a scintillating exemplar of why Chase endures as the bard of the noir underworld. Goodreads 5/5

Picture taken from the internet not with an intention to violation of copyright. 

Mumtaz Qureshi conquers the distance - 100 kms

Mumtaz Qureshi and Apurba Dass two runners from Mumbai completed an arduous feat of running 100 kilometres across Mumbai and parts of Thane on Sunday, 8^th April 2012.

Starting off on Saturday at 11.00 p.m. from the Bisleri junction at Andheri east on the western express highway, the duo started with Kavin, Atul Tuli for company alongwith Mahesh Gune on the bicycle. Mayank and Aishorjyo were on a car which was carrying supplies like water, Gatorade, bananas, oranges, wafers, boiled eggs, chikkoos along with ice. They ran the whole night upto NCPA in South Mumbai where they were joined by Anand. There was a brief half at NCPA for recouping supplies of water, refreshments etc. and then they started running back along the same route back to Sidhivinayak Mandir. At the Mandir, Mumtaz got the divine presence of his coach Giles Drego who joined him at Prabhadevi along with Mehamood Anwar. From the Mandir, they took a right turn to go past Plaza cinema, Tilak Bridge and Dadar T.T.

At Dadar T.T. which they reached in the early morning on Sunday, they were joined by Mani Iyer, P.V. Subramanyam, Jitendra and Kartik Suresh and here the second car with Mohan Kumar gave company. The second car was also similarly stocked with supplies. By this time the team were running at least 90 minutes late as per the scheduled chart and route map which was carefully planned and made into a nice little booklet by Vikas.

Running down the Eastern Express highway now, they went past Sion and Chembur where they were joined at Chembur by Kshitij Sharma, Sunil Gwalani, Haridasan Nair and a couple of their friends. Giles Drego was running barefoot on that day and being his coach, was constantly encouraging him and guiding Mumtaz. Apurba of course was an old hand at running 100 kms and this was to be his 4^th 100 kms run.

I joined at Chedda Nagar, Chembur at around 6.30 a.m. when the weather was still okay and the sun was not out yet. By then the duo had already completed 50 kms and looking fresh as ever. Mani’s mother had got up at 3.00 a.m. on a Sunday morning to prepare a big tinful of delicious idlis with chutnies. This was savoured by the runners at this junction. There were also vadas, wafers, boiled eggs to carbo load for the runners.

Mani had arranged with few of his office friends to come at specified venues at specified timings with fresh supplies of lime juice, water, dates, Gatorade etc., and the first of his friends Pandarinath Savanur and Satyadev Singh came at Kanjur marg junction with fresh & cool lime juice.

The sun was out by then and early morning highway was replete with Sunday cyclists who were puzzled to see a bunch of runners determinedly running – one of them enquired what this was all about and when told that a 100 kms run was on, he said he would have joined the run for 20 kms but not for 100 kms. Mumtaz was looking good at this stage while Apurba was going strong with a good pace.

The lead vehicles were stopping at every 2 kms to give the runners refreshment which was required at this stage because of the heat and humidity. Mayank who was driving the car all night long expressed and got his wish fulfilled of cycling a while on Mahesh Gune’s cycle which refreshed him a lot from the all night stress. It was a good team work going all around.

When we entered Thane, Dinesh Langauni had come with a photographer from Thane Plus to click some pictures and he enquired whether we needed anything specific in terms of supplies and quickly went round and bought a block of ice. The pace had dropped by then because of longish stretches of road with very little tree cover or shade whatsoever along the highway.

When we entered the dreaded Ghodbunder road it was choc-a-bloc with traffic and the space for running was very less what with lots of construction activity going on in the beginning portion of the GB road. By then Varun Joshi had joined us on his bicycle after doing an arduous 60 kms the previous day at Kharghar. Swami joined somewhere along the GB road with Venkat Krishnan for company and he had fresh supplies in his car. So now we had three cars going along and Swami decided to keep the cars at 1 kms distance each because the conditions for running at GB were very tough to impossible. But impossible is not a word which runners understand so there they were running along at slowish pace but the breaks at each water station were getting shorter. There were again few gentle enquiries from people and stares from few others because it was past mid-day and people were probably wondering what we were upto.

Sridhar B came on GB road with lime juice water, dates and brought his mother along for blessings, which was very kind of him. GB road took its toll on the runners because coupled with the hot noonday sun, there was no tree cover anywhere along the road and the road was brutally climbing at few places and to top it all, macadam work was being carried out on one section of the road which was emitting hot fumes from the tar being burnt.

When the runners finally hit the Western Express highway there was relief all round but it was another 16 kms to go for the finish line. W.E. highway again teeming with traffic on a Sunday afternoon but the going was okay at this stage. There was a determination to complete the distance against all odds which prompted both Mumtaz & Apurba to keep going on their feet by taking short breaks.

Pramod Pai appeared somewhere along the Mira Road with fresh supplies of water and most importantly beer cans which was for savouring after the run. So now we had four cars along with the runners. Another of Mani’s friend Nitin More and his brother came at BNP gate with orange Gatorade. There was only 7 kms to go for the finish line and the urgency of the runners were apparent in the determined looks on their faces.

Finally at 4.30 p.m. Mumtaz Qureshi and Apurba Dass reached Aarey check naka at distance of 100 kms from the starting point at Andheri, a staggering 17 ½ hours on their feet. It was a feat of endurance of unparalleled proportions in the deadly heat of April in Mumbai. Both the guys had showed that they were made of steel and the grit, composure and determination showed by both the runners was worth emulating.

The support for this run was magnificient right from the planning stage to vehicles, supplies, co-runners, friends, well wishers etc. coming out to support them. It was a daring plan to run across Mumbai and parts of Thane, so the logistics were to be meticulous, which it was. Exemplary efforts by the entire team of support runners for this event.  

Rink football at Malad

ECB for Civil Aviation Sector

Considering the bad conditions in which the civil aviation sector is in India these days, RBI has thrown a lifeline to the sector by allowing them to avail ECBs for working capital purposes. Each airline company can avail USD 300 million each subject to a cap of USD 1 billion for the entire sector in itself. The ECB will be on approval basis. There are few other conditions as well, prominent among them is that repayment of ECB should be out of the foreign exchange earnings, and not from borrowing from the Indian market. A copy of the circular can be found here

ECB Liberalisations

RBI has vide two notifications both dated 20th april 2012 further liberalised the ECB regime.

In the first notification, which can be accessed here the infrastructure sector has been given the sops. Power sector is allowed to use 40% of the ECB loan availed for refinancing costly rupee loan, but this will be on approval basis and also subject to the condition that the balance 60% is to be used for capital expenditure.

In the second notification which can be accessed here a new ECB can be raised at a higher rate than the existing ECB and that second ECB can be used for refinancing/ rescheduling an existing ECB on approval basis. The all in cost ceilings should not be broached.

I wonder why should anybody borrow at a higher rate in order to reschedule a ECB taken at a lower rate, unless I am missing something. 

Government payments on e-payments mode

The Government of India, Ministry of Finance has issued a press release which stipulates that all government payments above Rs.25,000/- from the government to its vendors, suppliers, loanees, grantees etc. will be made by direct credit to the payee's bank account instead of by cash or cheque. All payments to government employees other than salaries above this limit will also be similarly made by direct credit. Even the government employees can opt to have their salaries credited by direct credit to their bank accounts. However, the limit of Rs.25,000/- fails logic - why not make the entire government payments spectrum on e-payment basis from Re.1 onwards.

Government press release

Consolidated FDI Policy

The Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy (DIPP) under the Ministry of Commerce has published the latest edition of the Consolidated FDI Policy effective from April 10, 2012. The DIPP undertakes to issue revised Consolidated FDI Policy every six months in April and October every year. Now onwards they will issue it on a yearly basis i.e. the next consolidated FDI policy will be issued in March 2013.

Simultaneous to the consolidated FDI policy which makes for ponderous reading because it is more than 100 pages, the DIPP has also issued a press release detailing the changes that were carried out in the FDI policy from October 2011. Some of the changes in the policy is highlighted below:

i)                    In Commodity Exchanges, government approval is required only for the FDI component, not for the FII investment;

ii)                  In case of NBFC, FDI is allowed only on financial lease activity, not on operational leases;

iii)                In case of conversion to equity on the value of imported machinery etc. Second hand machinery, capital goods etc. Will not be allowed to be converted into equity, only first hand imported state of the art technology;

iv)                Investment by Foreign Venture Capital Investors and Qualified Financial Investors in permitted securities;

v)                  FDI in single brand retailing upto 100%,

Among others

The copy of the press release can be found here

A copy of the consolidated FDI circular can be found here

Category II Authorised Dealers

Category II Authorised Dealers have been given certain additional powers vide RBI circular dated 4th April 2012 on the subject. They have now been allowed to issue forex pre-paid cards to residents travelling out of India on personal/ business visits subject of course to adhering to KYC norms. However the settlement of forex pre-paid cards can be made only through category I Authorised Dealers.

Further they have also been allowed to open Nostro accounts subject to some conditions such as (1) only one nostro account per currency, (2) Balances in the nostro accounts to be used only for making remittances which are permissible and not for settlement of forex pre-paid cards, which can be done only through Category I Authorised Dealers, (3) No idle balance should remain in the account (4) Reporting requirements.

Category II authorised dealers are travel agents such as Thomas Cook, Cox & Kings and other finance companies which are not banks.

Copy of the RBI circular can be found  here

International Debit Cards

RBI has vide its circular no. 102 dated 2nd April 2012 relaxed conditions for redemption of international debit cards/ store value cards/ charge cards/ smart cards which is used by resident Indians while on a visit out of India. Hitherto there was a condition that the unutilised balance lying in the card would be redeemed only after 10 days of the last transaction. Now they can redeem the unutilised balance in the card immediately on arrival but the Authorised Persons shall retain some amount for (a) amounts that are authorised by the traveller but remaining unclaimed from the AP on the date of request for redemption, (b) a sum not exceeding $100 for any pipeline transactions, and (c) transaction fees/ service tax payable in India. A copy of the said circular can be accessed here

Echoes in the Darkness

To read Joseph Wambaugh’s Echoes in the Darkness is to descend into a chiaroscuro of moral squalor and psychological labyrinths, a world where ostensibly respectable figures of pedagogy metamorphose into grotesque caricatures of depravity. Wambaugh, himself a former Los Angeles police officer turned chronicler of crime’s more lurid theatrics, wields his pen with both prosecutorial precision and novelistic flourish, unraveling a tale that is as much about the frailties of human character as it is about the mechanics of murder.

At its narrative core lies the tragic figure of Susan Reinert, a divorced schoolteacher whose life ended with brutal suddenness on a grim June day in 1979. Her two children, Karen and Michael, disappeared into the abyss of history, their absence lingering like an eternal wound upon the collective conscience. It is around her murder and their haunting vanishing that Wambaugh orchestrates his symphony of duplicity, lust, and betrayal.

Enter William Bradfield: a schoolteacher whose reputation as a womanizer is rendered almost mythic within the provincial microcosm of Upper Merion High School. Bradfield is no mere libertine but a veritable impresario of infidelity, conducting a harem of lovers with the aplomb of a maestro. While entangled in a clandestine liaison with Reinert herself, he simultaneously courted Sue Myers, another colleague, whilst still pursuing affairs with two of his students—one a minor at the inception of the affair. In a grotesque irony, these women, victims of his duplicity, nonetheless swore fealty to his dubious affections, testifying to the mesmeric sway of his charisma.

Hovering like a malevolent shadow over this drama is Jay Smith, the school’s principal, an ex-military officer whose veneer of discipline concealed a psyche riddled with bizarre sexual fantasies, petty kleptomania, and darker insinuations of familial tragedy. The disappearance of his daughter Stephanie and her husband Eddie Hunsberger—rumored victims of Smith’s homicidal hand—only adds to his enigmatic infamy. In Wambaugh’s portrayal, Smith emerges not as a man but as an emblem of the grotesque: a figure at once ludicrous and sinister, whose life is a catalogue of aberrations.

Wambaugh structures his narrative less as a linear recounting of fact than as a psychological excavation. The first half of the tome dwells almost obsessively upon the peccadilloes and degeneracies of Bradfield and Smith, their lives sketched with the lurid detail of a carnival sideshow. One senses Wambaugh’s fascination with the elasticity of human morality, the way otherwise ordinary individuals, entrusted with the education of youth, could be consumed by appetites so rapacious and delusions so grotesque.

Yet beyond the tawdry personal melodramas lies the more sobering reality of American justice. The prosecution, confronted with a paucity of forensic certainties, was forced to weave its case upon the fragile scaffolding of circumstantial evidence. In this lies the book’s true darkness—not merely in the barbarity of Reinert’s fate, nor the vanishing of her children, but in the unsettling recognition of how tenuous truth becomes when shrouded by duplicity, rumor, and human frailty.

What Wambaugh offers is not merely a true-crime narrative but a meditation on the theatre of human weakness. His prose oscillates between clinical detachment and novelistic flourish, suffusing the tale with both reportage and resonance. By the time one emerges from his account, the “echoes” of the title reverberate not merely as reminders of lives extinguished but as unsettling whispers of the abysses that lurk within ostensibly ordinary souls.

In sum, Echoes in the Darkness is less a conventional whodunit than a cautionary saga of human corruption and moral decrepitude, recounted with the verve of a novelist and the acuity of a detective. It leaves the reader not with the satisfaction of closure but with the disquieting sense of having peered into the abyss—only to find, as Nietzsche once warned, the abyss peering back.

Picture taken from the internet not with an intention to violation of copyright. 

Promoters' exemption from holding their shares in demat form

SEBI has vide its circular dated March 30, 2012 exempted certain categories of cases from the mandatory requirement of 100% shareholding of promoters of companies in demat form. A list of four such categories is given in the circular appended below. The companies/ promoters have to approach the stock exchanges with proper documentary evidence as to matters falling within the said four categories.

http://www.sebi.gov.in/cms/sebi_data/attachdocs/1333096925164.pdf


CIRCULAR
SEBI/Cir/ISD/  1  /2012
March 30, 2012
To,
All the Recognized Stock Exchanges,
Dear Sir/Madam,
Sub: Exemptions from 100% promoter(s) holding in demat form
1. This is further to SEBI circulars SEBI/Cir/ISD/3/2011  dated June 17, 2011 and
SEBI/Cir/ISD/05/2011 dated September 30, 2011 regarding 100% promoter(s)
holding in demat form.
2. While reviewing compliance, it is noticed that promoters of a large number of
companies have complied with the requirements stated in the above mentioned
circulars. SEBI has also received representations from various companies
bringing out issues relating to dematerialization of holdings of promoters and
have accordingly sought exemption from compliance with the above mentioned
circulars.
3. In light of these representations and in consultation with Stock Exchanges, it has
been decided that following exemptions shall be taken into consideration while
arriving at compliance with 100% promoter(s) holding in demat form. Such
exemption shall be applicable in cases where :-
a. Promoter(s) have sold their shares in physical mode and such shares have
not been lodged for transfer with the company; or
b. Matters concerning part/entire shareholding of promoters/promoter group
are sub judice before any Court/Tribunal; or
c. Shares cannot be converted into demat form due to death of any
promoter(s); or
d. Shares allotted to promoter(s) that await final approval for listing from stock
exchange and such pendency is less than 30 days or shares that upon
receipt of final listing approval from stock exchange are pending conversion
to demat and such pendency is less than 15 days.

4. For availing such exemption under Para 3 (a) to (d) above, companies shall
approach Stock Exchange(s) along with necessary documentary evidence.
5. Provisions of SEBI circulars SEBI/Cir/ISD/3/2011 dated June 17, 2011,
SEBI/Cir/ISD/05/2011 dated September 30, 2011 and this circular shall come
into effect from April 30, 2012.
6. The Stock Exchanges are advised to:-
a) Put in place adequate systems and issue necessary guidelines to the market
for implementing the above decision; and
b) Make necessary amendments to the relevant bye-laws, rules and regulations
for implementation of the above decision; and
c) Bring the provisions of  this circular to the notice  of the market and also to
disseminate the same on its website; and
d) Communicate to SEBI the status of implementation of this circular through the
Monthly Report.
7. This circular is being issued under Section 11(1) read with Section 11(2)(a) of the
Securities and Exchange Board of India  Act, 1992 to protect the interests of
investors in securities and to promote the development of, and to regulate the
securities market as well as to regulate the business in stock exchanges.
8. This circular is available on SEBI website at www.sebi.gov.in
Yours faithfully,
Avarjeet Singh
Deputy General Manager
Integrated Surveillance Department
022-26449262
avarjeets@sebi.gov.in

ODI - liberalisation

RBI has vide its circular no. 101 dated 2nd April 2012 liberalised the Overseas direct investments regime by allowing an Indian party to open, hold, maintain and operate Foreign Currency Account in an overseas account in a foreign country without taking prior permission from RBI provided some conditions are fulfilled.

The conditions and the circular can be accessed here

Overseas Direct Investments – Liberalisation / Rationalisation

RBI/2011-12/481 A. P. (DIR Series) Circular No.101 April 02, 2012 To All Category-I Authorised Dealer Banks Madam / Sir, Overseas Direct Investments – Liberalisation / Rationalisation Attention of the Authorised Dealer (AD - Category I) banks are invited to the Notification No. FEMA 10/2000-RB dated May 3, 2000 [Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) Regulations, 2000] (the Notification), as amended from time to time. 2. As per the extant provisions of FEMA, an Indian party (as defined under Notification No. FEMA 120/RB-2004 dated July 07, 2004, as amended from time to time) is required to obtain prior permission of the Reserve Bank to open, hold and maintain Foreign Currency Account in a foreign country for the purpose of overseas direct investments in that country, in case the regulation of the host country requires that the investment in the country is to be made through a particular account to be opened with the commercial bank of the country. 3. To provide operational flexibility to the Indian party, it has been decided to liberalise the regulations pertaining to opening / holding / maintaining the Foreign Currency Account by Indian party outside India as under: An Indian party will now be allowed to open, hold and maintain Foreign Currency Account (FCA) abroad for the purpose of overseas direct investments subject to the following terms and conditions: The Indian party is eligible for overseas direct investments in terms of Regulation 6 (Regulation 7, if applicable) of Notification No. FEMA 120/RB-2004 dated July 7, 2004, as amended from time to time. The host country Regulations stipulate that the investments into the country is required to be routed through a designated account. FCA shall be opened, held and maintained as per the regulation of the host country. The remittances sent to the FCA by the Indian party should be utilized only for making overseas direct investment into the JV / WOS abroad. Any amount received in the account by way of dividend and / or other entitlements from the subsidiary shall be repatriated to India within 30 days from the date of credit. The Indian party should submit the details of debits and credits in the FCA on yearly basis to the designated AD bank with a certificate from the Statutory Auditors of the Indian party certifying that the FCA was maintained as per the host country laws and the extant FEMA regulations / provisions as applicable. The FCA so opened shall be closed immediately or within 30 days from the date of disinvestment from JV / WOS or cessation thereof. 4. Necessary amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) Regulations, 2000 are being issued separately. 5. AD - Category I banks may bring the contents of this circular to the notice of their constituents and customers concerned. 6. The directions contained in this circular have been issued under Sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999 (42 of 1999) and are without prejudice to permissions/approvals, if any, required under any other law. Yours faithfully, (Dr. Sujatha Elizabeth Prasad) Chief General Manager

Revision of interest rates for small savings schemes w.e.f. 1.04.2012

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=81733 Revision of Interest Rates for Small Savings Schemes with Effect from 1st April 2012

Based on the decisions taken by the Government on the recommendations of the Shyamala Gopinath Committee for Comprehensive Review of National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), the interest rates for small saving schemes are to be notified every financial year, before 1st April of that year.  Accordingly, the rate of interest on various small savings schemes for the financial year 2012-13 effective from 1.4.2012, on the basis of the interest compounding/payment built-in in the schemes, shall be as under: Scheme Rate of Interest w.e.f. 1.12.2011 Rate of Interest w.e.f. 1.4.2012 Savings Deposit 4.0 4.0 1 year Time Deposit 7.7 8.2 2 year Time Deposit 7.8 8.3 3 year Time Deposit 8.0 8.4 5 year Time Deposit 8.3 8.5 5 year Recurring Deposit 8.0 8.4 5 year SCSS 9.0 9.3 5 year MIS 8.2 8.5 5 year NSC 8.4 8.6 10 year NSC 8.7 8.9 PPF 8.6 8.8 Necessary notifications, including those requiring amendments to rules of small savings schemes will be notified separately. DSM/SS/Hb (Release ID :81733)

Murder in Mesopotamia

Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) is that rare concoction of archaeological exotica and cerebral sleuthing, a tale in which the dust of antiquity mingles seamlessly with the darker sediments of the human heart. Transported to the sun-scorched expanses of an Iraqi dig site, we encounter Louise Leidner—an alluringly enigmatic figure whose beauty and caprice ensnare all around her. Her violent demise, occurring within what ought to have been the impregnable sanctum of the excavation house, transforms a scholarly enterprise into a theatre of suspicion and dread.

Enter Hercule Poirot, summoned as much by providence as by plot, whose fastidious gaze and psychological acuity peel back the veils of secrecy, vanity, and simmering animosity among the excavation team. Christie, in her inimitable manner, interweaves the claustrophobic tensions of an isolated community with the grandeur of an ancient landscape, reminding us that human passions, whether in drawing rooms or desert outposts, remain timelessly combustible.

If the dénouement verges on melodrama, it nevertheless underscores her consummate skill at marrying ingenious plotting with acute psychological insight. Murder in Mesopotamia thus endures not merely as a detective yarn, but as a meditation on jealousy, fear, and the treacherous undercurrents of human desire. Goodreads 4/5