Government ordered Vedanta Resources not to proceed in their bauxite mining project in Orissa’s Niyamgiri hills unless untill the local tribal communities give their consent to it.

The government panel said that allowing Vedanta for mining in the proposed area by depriving two primitive tribal groups, Kutia and Dongaria Kondh, would shake the faith of tribal people in the laws of the land.

Mining permission may bring severe situation as the private company, Vedanta has repeatedly violated the law. According to the sources, the company is illegally occupying 26.123 hectares of forest land and its claim of following the state government orders is completely false.

“Since it has gone to the extent of forwarding false certificates and may do so again in future, the environment ministry would be well advised not to accept the contentions of the Orissa government without independent verification,” said the panel.Britain-based Vedanta Alumina, part of the Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources Plc, however, said that mining permission in the hills was essential for it to reduce the cost of production.

Source: oneindia news

The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is considering setting up a common defaulter database in order to provide a one-stop reference point for all types of market players such as brokerages, mutual funds, merchant banks, portfolio managers and rating agencies.

The database is being proposed to be set up on the lines of CIBIL (Credit Information Bureau India Ltd.), a repository of credit history information of all commercial and consumer borrowers which would make it easy for any market intermediary to identify a client, person or institution, that has defaulted in the past and thus avoid doing any business with the same.

All market participants, including stock brokers, portfolio managers, depository participants, merchant bankers, underwriters, asset management companies, credit rating agencies, etc would be asked to contribute the names and details of their individual defaulters to this common database.

The repository thus created would serve as a reference database of defaulter clients for the entire spectrum of market participants. SEBI could also make it mandatory for every intermediary to subscribe to such database and update the database with the details of defaulting clients such that other intermediaries may refer to the database before entering into any relationship with a new client.

Source: Hindustan Times Content Team

The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance has issued a notification amending the Securities Contracts (Regulation) (Amendment) Rules, 2010 which allows for a lower public shareholding for public sector enterprises (PSEs). The main feature of the amendment is that the minimum requirement of public shareholding for all PSEs has been lowered to 10%, as against the government’s earlier regulatory [Read More...]

In a major fillip to the success of infrastructure bonds, the government has decided to exempt them from getting the credit ratings — which are mandatory for all the other kinds of bond issuances. With an aim to encourage the investment flow to the all- important infrastructure sector, the union Budget for the current fiscal had provided for tax benefits [Read More...]

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has now been empowered to vet all non-government organisations (NGOs) and other agencies involved in the government’s social sector schemes. The Planning Commission has decided that approvals for all social sector projects undertaken by various NGOs, normally outside the purview of CAG, will come with the rider that they will be subject [Read More...]