Business Today 22-Apr-2018

THE US President Donald Trump has threatened to wage a trade war against countries he perceives to have an unfair trade advantage to correct the trade deficit of his country. He wants to throw up protectionist barriers so that manufacturing returns to the US, and more Americans get jobs that are currently being outsourced. So far, he has imposed steep tariffs against imports of steel and aluminium, and slapped additional tariffs on 1,300 goods imported from China. He has complained about India’s trade policies and made it more difficult to get a H1B (temporary work) visa, which was used heavily by the Indian IT services companies. He has also threatened to wage trade wars against the European Union (EU), and other countries. In turn, China has retaliated by imposing its…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday@BT_India PERSPECTIVES Cognizant’s Bank Freeze Raises Spectre of Tax Terror The positions taken by the Income Tax Department are contrary to law and without merit, says the company businesstoday.in/cognizant-bankfreeze Is DTH Losing Steam? Most of the DTH companies today are profitable, but growth is pretty much stagnant businesstoday.in/dth-market Why the Old Guard Is Leaving Tata Mukund Rajan's new move indicates that he would re-emerge as an entrepreneur with a business venture businesstoday.in/tata-mukund.rajan Is Urjit Patel's Demand for Greater RBI Control Over PSBs Fair? For reforming the PSBs, the government must make sure that rules and regulations are same for both private and public sector banks businesstoday.in/rbi-psb UltraTech Offer: Will the Insolvency Law Crumble? It is a testing time for the much-hyped bankruptcy law, as there…

THE FACEBOOK-Cambridge Analytica affair, the Aadhaar case currently being heard by the Supreme Court and the controversy over data collected by NaMo and other apps have brought privacy concerns of individuals into sharp focus once again. The five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, during the Aadhaar hearings, has said that there is a need for a robust law to protect the sensitive information of the citizens. Many people have pointed out that India is moving rapidly on its digital journey without adequate laws and regulations to protect its citizens. So far, the only protection available is under the Privacy Rules framed under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The privacy rules framed in the IT Act are badly worded, and overlook a lot of loopholes that companies can exploit. The maximum…

AN ELABORATE statement by ICICI Bank Chairman M.K. Sharma defending the embattled MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar against allegations of conflict of interest has not left observers any wiser. The statement detailed how robust the bank’s credit appraisal process is but failed to address the key issue of conflict of interest between ICICI Bank’s loans to the Videocon group companies and Videocon promoter family Dhoots’ relationship and transactions with Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar and her family. The controversy pertains to two loans (₹3,250 crore and ₹660 crore) extended by ICICI to Videocon companies and coincidentally, Deepak Kochhar’s company NuPower Renewables receiving an amount equivalent to 10 per cent of funding (₹325 crore and ₹64 crore, respectively), as noted by whistleblower and investor Arvind Gupta. Later, in a hurried conference where…

WILL THE government accept a key recommendation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) review committee? It suggests that homebuyers and financial creditors be given equal status. It means if a company defaults and its assets are sold, the homebuyer and the financial creditor will have equal claim. The pressure is mounting from agitated homebuyers with whom the courts are inclined to be sympathetic, but the move will be a big climbdown from what began as a dispassionate commercial law. Moreover, the law has already been tinkered with, diluting many of its powers when the government banned all promoters from bidding for their companies in the resolution process. Frequent meddling by the government, RBI and other courts have already diluted the discretionary power that financial creditors had throughout the process.…

FROM APRIL 2020 the top 500 companies in India have to split the posts of chairman and MD/CEO as recently mandated by capital markets regulator SEBI. PRIME Database, in an analysis of 1,670 companies, found that 640 of them had the same person serving as Chairman and MD/CEO. Family-owned businesses have a more serious problem with ‘the family’ calling the shots even when the firms employ professionals as CEOs/MDs, experts say. Although these new guidelines are a step forward, sceptics think that actual implementation is likely to be cosmetic. It now boils down to how much freedom or power will be granted to the new CEO/MD. And what is there to prevent family members from assuming the roles of both chairman and MD/CEO or calling the shots from outside the…