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| Saturday, February 19, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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RBI forum to evolve code
for NBFCs SC grants bank executive’s
LPA
Manmohan Singh pleads for safety
net |
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Rs 11,000 crore worth
NPAs caused by industries MUL holds road safety workshops E Merck net dips CS results on Feb 25 Electrocution worries participants
RBI forum to evolve code for NBFCs MUMBAI, Feb 18 (PTI,UNI) — The RBI has set up a forum to discuss and develop a self-regulatory mechanism for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), RBI Governor Bimal Jalan said today.“NBFCs are an important component of the financial sector and they should be part of any initiative to build a multiplicity of institutions to insulate the economy against the risks arising out of failure of any one of these institutions”, Jalan said at a seminar organised by Bombay Chartered Accountants Society here. The risk must be spread across institutions like capital, money and debt markets, mutual funds, NBFCs and foreign institutional investors, he said Japan suffered due to reliance on banking sector and not spreading out the risk across a broad spectrum of institutions like in the USA, he added. Banks and financial system should be run strictly according to the rules of the game and “there is no possibility of hiding ourselves in a corner, after liberalisation”, he said referring to protectionist tendencies of the past. “We have to move to best world standards in accounting, not just the generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) of the USA to make India an investment destination of the future”, he said. Corporate governance principles such as transparency and accountability are as important for the banking and financial sector, as they do for the corporate sector, he added. Jalan called for toughest accounting and auditing procedures and asked the Indian system of accounting to switch over to the world practices in a phased manner. “Take some time, say five years or six years, but over a period of time move to the toughest of accounting and auditing practices’’, Dr Jalan said. “Worldover we should be known for having the toughest standards, and this is a challenge before all of us’’, the Governor suggested to the gathering of Chartered Accountants. The RBI feels that the Chartered Accountants and auditors should confound to and help in formulating toughest norms. He also called for strict “disclipinary standards” and said it should be the duty of the accounting and auditing community to see that they adhere to toughest of disclipinary mechanism. “It is a matter of utmost importance and there should be a method of deterrence so that people follow disclipinary standards’’, he said. Dr Jalan pointed out
that what was urgently needed is to develop a system to
strict internal auditing also. “The asset-liability
management and the balance sheet should be upto the mark
and this is possible with strict internal
mechanism”. He described adherence to strict
internal audit norms as one of the major challenges of
the financial sector.
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SC grants
bank executive’s LPA CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — The Supreme Court has granted an SLP preferred by Mr D.C. Aggarwal, a senior executive of the State Bank of India, questioning the judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on an LPA filed by the bank. Mr Justice D.P. Wadhwa and Mr Justice D.P. Mohapatra, who constituted the Bench, heard the special leave petition on February 16. Earlier, Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi, a Judge of the High Court, had allowed two petitions filed by Mr Aggarwal. While one petition related to his claim for retrospective promotions to the rank of General Manager, Chief General Manager and Deputy Managing Director. The second petition was for an extension in service. The State Bank of India
had, however, assailed Mr Justice Singhvi’s
judgements through an LPA. The Division Bench which heard
the LPA reversed the judgements of Mr Justice Singhvi,
except to the extent that it directed the bank to pay him
full salary and allowances for the period he had not
joined at Hyderabad by holding that Mr Aggarwal’s
transfer to Hyderabad was illegal. |
Manmohan
Singh pleads for safety net NEW DELHI, Feb 18 — The International Labour Organisation has advised the Indian Government to bring job creation in the informal sector to the forefront of the national economic agenda as the formal sector provides limited scope to overcome the worsening employment situation in the country. Speaking at a national workshop on strategic approach to job creation in the urban informal sector, organised jointly by the ILO, Institute of Labour Development and the Ministry of Labour at Surajkund today, a Director of ILO, Mr A.S. Oberoi said the problems faced by informal sector workers and producers would not be overcome merely through stimulating economic growth or through a more favourable climate for employment creation. He said specific measures were needed to help the informal sector improve its productive capacity, break out of its marginalised, vulnerable and semi-legal position in society and overcome the obstacles to ultimate integration into the rest of the economy. Presenting the UN organisation’s perspective, Mr Oberoi said if the overall conditions of the informal sector are to be transformed in aspects such as improving its access to credit, technology and skills levels, enhancing labour productivity, shifting to higher value added products and a more diversified product range, gaining higher prices for its products and strengthening demand linkages to the formal and export sectors, then macro policy interventions are needed. He said policy interventions would require a significant reallocation of resources towards the informal sector. In his presidential address, former Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh said the preoccupation of the Government with macro-economic management to the exclusion of creation of job opportunities, safety nets for displaced workers and absence of a mechanism for countering the urban pull of job seekers has conspired to perpetuate inequity and social disharmony. Dr Singh called for a relook at the strategy for industrial and agricultural development as the reliance on import substitution, neglect of export opportunities, excessive subsidy on capital employed, depressed interest rates coupled with rigidities in the labour market had failed to address the fundamental issue of labour absorption. The Union Labour
Minister, Dr Satyanarayan Jatiya called for closer
linkages between the formal and informal sectors amongst
Government, industry and trade unions and an end to the
mismatch between the demand and supply of labour. |
Rs 11,000 crore worth NPAs caused by industries CHENNAI, Feb 18 (PTI) — Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal today said a greater level of transparency in the banking sector was essential if the issue of non-performing assets has to be tackled and favoured making public the names of wilful corporate defaulters. “The time has now come that if we want to strike at the root of NPAs, we should bring in greater transparency in the entire operations of banks”, Vittal said inaugurating a seminar on “non performing assets - are they avoidable or inevitable?’, organised by ASSOCHAM and MCCI. Out of Rs 51,000 crore NPAs in the banking sector, industries constituted Rs 11,000 crore, Vittal said adding that “if we want to check NPAs, it is necessary we publicise the names of the companies which are wilful defaulters”. Vittal said “In India industry becomes sick but the industrialists do not become sick at all. It is possible to make an industry sick through corrupt collusion between bankers and borrowers and then refer the issue to BIFR’’. While all over the world, banks might face a certain degree of bad loans as a normal occupation risk, the risk increased if the banking decisions were influenced by external considerations. He felt that NPAs were part of the normal banking system and was an occupation hazard if there were no effective systems and intelligent strategies to check NPAs, the situation might go out of control and “moral hazard” would substantially enhance NPAs and threaten the entire banking system. “While NPAs are inevitable and part of the banking operations, they can be avoided to a great extent. Departures from the banking safety practices should be avoided if we want to have a healthy banking practice”. Vittal emphasised the need for “predictive and preventive mechanisms to avoid NPAs, instead of going in for “break down mechanism”. The problem of NPAs,
which was the result of past legacy, could be solved only
if all concerned accepted their responsibility and
changed the system. |
MUL holds
road safety workshops CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — To create awareness about road safety among students, Maruti Udyog has organised workshops in five schools. Ms Pragati Gandhi, a child counsellor, and her team held interactive sessions, including a quiz in five schools in the first phase. The schools covered are St Annes Convent, Sector 32, Guru nanak Public School, Sector 36, Sanjay Public School, Sector 44, Mount Carmel, Sector 42 and YPS, Sector 51. Students of Classes VI
to XII were apprised of traffic rules and provided with
relevant material by MUL. |
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THE Board of Directors of E Merck (India) today recommended a dividend of Rs 4.20 per share even as its net profit dipped by 33 per cent to Rs 18.13 crore on a 7 per cent increase in sales at Rs 277.95 crore for the year ended December 31, 1999, over the same period last year. Glaxo India: The Board of Directors of Glaxo India has recommended a special additional one-time dividend of 20 per cent, making a total of 60 per cent (Rs 6 per equity share) in view of the company’s platinum jubilee year. This 20 per cent dividend is an addition to earlier 40 per cent, recommended by the Directors. Burroughs
Wellcome: The Board of Directors of Burroughs
Wellcome (India) Limited has recommended an increased
dividend of 60 per cent for the year as against 50 per
cent of the previous year. — agencies |
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NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (UNI) — The results of foundation, intermediate and final examinations of Company Secretaries held in December 1999 will be declared on February 25. The results will be
displayed at the headquarters of the institute at Lodhi
Road,, and simultaneously at regional offices at Delhi,
Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta, including 36 chapter
offices and 50 examination centres spread all over India
and an overseas centre at Dubai, a press release said
here. The results would also be available over the
telephone at the ICSI headquarters and on the Internet
through the institute’s website www.ICSI-India.com. |
Electrocution
worries participants CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — A meeting of the Central Power and Telecom Coordination Committee was held here today. The meeting was hosted jointly by the Punjab State Electricity Board and the Central Electricity Authority. As Mr R.N. Shrivastva, Chairman of the authority, who was to inaugurate the meeting, did not turn up. It was opened by Mr A. Velayutham, Chairman of the Central Board and Telecom Coordination Committee (PTCC). Representatives of the Railways and the defence forces also attended the meeting. Talking to TNS, Mr Velayutham said inter-department disputes, especially pertaining to state power boards and the Telecom department were resolved at meetings of the committee. The last meeting was held in August, 1999, in Aurangabad. Participants raised the issue of electrocution of employees while carrying out repairs. Because of lack of proper investigation and fixing up of the responsibility, such cases remain pending for years and compensation is not paid to the dependants of victims. Delegates from West Bengal said though there were several cases of electrocution, compensation had not been paid by the authorities. Mr Velayutham stressed on the need of taking proper safety measures while erecting transmission lines. He said the need of the hour was to do away with unguarded power crossings in various states at the earliest to ensure safety of citizens and workmen carrying out repairs. The number of disputes in northern states was insignificant. There was a demand for updating the rules and regulations for resolving the electrocution cases and to finalise the norms for using high voltage power cables. As there would be an additional 50,000 MW in each of the subsequent plans, the demand for having such lines would be very high in the coming years. Mr G.P. Singh, Director
(Design), PSEB, welcomed the delegates to the meeting. |
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SBI inks MoU Awarded Ford Ikon Kothari fund HUDCO |
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