Mumbai, December 20
Markets regulator SEBI today said it would soon come out with new corporate governance norms.

"We have already placed documents for consultation. Our consultation is almost over and we are now going to promulgate our rules very soon," SEBI chairman UK Sinha told reporters at a corporate governance summit organised by CII here.

"For listed companies, we will like to tell you, if we are going to do something over and above what is specially mentioned in the Companies Act, in the interest of corporate governance of the large corporates, it would be after consideration with all of you (stakeholders)," he added.

As several companies have operations outside India and many more would be venturing in foreign territories, there is a need to align rules with the best in the world, Sinha said.

"We don't only have the problems of foreign guidelines and standards, we also have to deal with extra-territoriality of foreign laws...we have to cope with them," he said. The SEBI chief pointed out that of the listed companies, more than 1,100 are non-compliant of clause 40A of the Listing Agreement and over 900 firms don't follow clause 49.

"I hope you all will agree if enforcement action is taken, we will be doing the correct thing," he added.

Clause 40A deals with minimum level of public shareholding, while clause 49 deals with corporate governance, with focus on the constitution of board and top management.

"My request to all of you (corporates) is to help SEBI to ensure that we reach a level that is much higher and which is in keeping with the best in the world," he said. — PTI

New guidelines for listed companies The formulation of the new set of rules for listed companies will be done in consultation with all stakeholders Out of the listed companies, more than 1,100 are non-compliant of Clause 40A of the Listing Agreement and over 900 entities don't adhere to Clause 49 Clause 40A deals with minimum level of public shareholding, while Clause 49 deals with corporate governance, with a focus on the constitution of the board and top management

New Delhi, December 20
In the eighth top-level exit at India's second-largest software exporter in the past six months, V Balakrishnan, a member of the Infosys Board, has resigned.

Balakrishnan, who joined Infosys in 1991, was considered by some as the next CEO after current CEO SD Shibulal retires in 2015.

Infosys has witnessed an exodus of senior-level executives since the company brought back founder NR Narayana Murthy to oversee operations in June.

Balakrishnan was head of Infosys BPO, Finacle and India Business Unit chairman of Infosys Lodestone. He had also served as the firm's chief financial officer earlier.

"V Balakrishnan has conveyed his intention to resign as a member of the Board and from the services of the company. The resignation is effective December 31, 2013," Infosys said.

The company announced the induction of UB Pravin Rao as a full-time director and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairman and managing director of Biocon, as an independent director.

Rao is currently a member of the executive council, senior vice-president and global head-retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, Logistics and Life Sciences.

Yesterday, Subrahmanyam Goparaju, senior vice-president and a member of the executive council that frames business strategy, had resigned.

Goparaju, who joined the company in 1998, was also head of Infosys Labs - the research and innovation division.

Ashok Vemuri, who led the company's operations in the Americas, resigned in August, the same month when vice-president and financial services head for Americas Sudhir Chaturvedi quit.

In November, Infosys global sales head Basab Pradhan left while Stephen R Pratt, the firm's head of Utilities and Resources for North America, had put in his papers last month. — PTI

New Delhi, December 20
Telecom operators today expressed concern at the government’s attempt to bring in the varied spectrum usage charge (SUC) regime, which they said could hurt the forthcoming spectrum auction and insisted that a uniform rate should be charged.

At a pre-bid conference here for the forthcoming auction to be held on Jannuary 23, 2014, nearly all telecom operators expressed concerns over the anomalies resulting from the slab wise charging of the SUC.

COAI, the umbrella body of GSM mobile phone operators, opposed the discriminatory SUC regime and endorsed a uniform SUC of 3% of AGR for all operators offering voice and data services in the country as suggested by TRAI.

The industry has time and again highlighted that the guiding principles governing the SUC must ensure that the total cost of spectrum is equitable for all TSPs across the entire period of the license, COAI said after the meeting.

Rajan S Mathews, Director-General, COAI said, “Failure of the DoT to clarify if they will be able to take a decision on the implementation of a flat SUC, either before the date of issuing clarification on NIA (December 28, 2013) or the auction date, will be near fatal to the success of the upcoming auctions.”

Under the present NIA, based on slab based charges, clubbing of all spectrum, that an operator holds (both old and that acquired through auction) for calculation of SUC, will result in shifting an operator from a low SUC to a high SUC slab applied on the overall AGR.

This will act as a deterrent for any operator to acquire more spectrum whether through auctions, mergers or spectrum trading/transfer, COAI said.

TRAI in its recent recommendations on SUC has correctly noted that the current policy of escalating charges, which is unique to India leads to anomalous results; creates a non-level playing field; penalises larger operators; discourages mergers and represents a significant burden on the industry.

In addition, we believe that it discourages the purchase of spectrum; perpetuates the inefficient use of spectrum; distorts spectrum auctions; skews technology choices and, ultimately, may result in lower revenues for the government, it said.

Chandigarh, December 20
The Punjab State Cooperative Bank has rebuffed the claim made by HDFC Bank alleging that the ranking of banks by the Punjab Government was arbitrary. The former has claimed that it has a wide network of branches across Punjab and was ranked on top by the state government because of high lending in the priority sector, besides having a high credit deposit ratio.

Udham Singh, additional managing director of the bank, said here today, the cooperative banks have 802 branches in the state, whereas HDFC had just 400 branches. Even in the rural areas, cooperative banks have 602 branches, whereas HDFC Bank has 172 rural branches. “It is wrong on the part of HDFC Bank to allege that the cooperative banks have a small network,” he said.

He said the total business of cooperative banks was Rs 21,101 crore, with deposits of Rs 9,923 crore and advances of Rs 11,178 crore. HDFC Bank does not figure on the list of top 10 banks ranked by the Punjab Government because its lending in the weaker sections was less than 10% of the total priority sector lending.

“On the other hand, the cooperative banks in Punjab have been aggressively advancing loans in the priority sector, including agriculture. The total advances made by the bank in agriculture sector this year was Rs 9,374 crore. Cooperative banks have advanced short-term (crop) loans of Rs 5,753.28 crore during the kharif 2013 crop and Rs 3,621.61 crore during the rabi 2013-14 crop whereas HDFC Bank’s exposure in the agriculture sector this year is Rs 584 crore,” he said.

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Naomi Ishii is MD of Toyota Kirloskar Motor
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Puneet Kumar is new secy-general of AEPC
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Vodafone to challenge IT Dept's tax demand
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GM to hike vehicle prices up to Rs 10,000 from Jan
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Hafed bags India Pride Award for 2013-14
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