Former SEBI Chairman Ramakrishna no more

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G.V. Ramakrishna, 91, who was the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India after it became a statutorily empowered markets regulator, passed away in Chennai on Saturday.

Starting his career as a biochemist doing research in haematology, Ramakrishna joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1952 and served in several capacities in the Andhra Pradesh government before rising to the post of Chief Secretary of the State.

An administrator, renowned for his integrity and no nonsense approach to addressing issues, Ramakrishna was appointed in 1990 as the second chairman of the then two-year-old Securities and Exchange Board. During his tenure, he oversaw the transition of the Board into a legally empowered markets regulator following the enactment of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.

Formally established under the Act on April 12, 1992, Ramakrishna became its first fully empowered chairman and through the sheer force of his reputation helped create the framework for a modern and vibrant securities market. In his vision for protecting investors’ interests, Ramakrishna was convinced that the way to do it would be through setting up systems and procedures to automatically take care of problems. To that end he strove to get merchant bankers to ensure that the prospectus for any capital issue provided accurate and adequate information to investors. He also sought and pushed for increased transparency in the working of the country’s GVstock exchanges.

Ramakrishna, who served the government in several other capacities both at the Centre and abroad during his more than five-decade career in public service, was also the first chairman of the Disinvestment Commission.

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China’s top stock market regulator urges tighter IPO scrutiny, cautions against hot money risks – Times of India

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SHANGHAI: China’s top securities regulator on Saturday urged underwriters to tighten scrutiny on companies seeking to list their shares, vowing to punish those trying to bring “sick” companies to the initial public offering (IPO) market.
Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), told a forum that recent China stock market volatility is “natural”, and risks “controllable”, but cautioned against “harmful” foreign hot money flows.
Yi’s comments come amid rising fluctuations in domestic and global stock markets, as well as signs Chinese regulators are tightening the screws on IPO approvals.
“The registration-based IPO system doesn’t mean looser vetting requirements,” Yi said in the speech, which was published on CSRC’s website.
It means providing investors with “investable” companies that have more value, so “requirements on gatekeepers are actually higher,” he said.
China has adopted a US-style, registration-based IPO system on Shanghai‘s Nasdaq-style STAR Market, and Shenzhen’s start-up board ChiNext, in a bold reform designed to give market a bigger role in evaluating IPO candidates.
But since December, stock exchanges have stepped up IPO inspections, leading to a growing number of companies cancelling their IPO plans.
To justify the move, Yi said that China has the world’s biggest retail investor base of 180 million, so regulators need to make sure listing candidates make full and high-quality disclosures, and comply with China’s industrial policies.
Many underwriters “wear new shoes but walk on the old path,” and they must step up their due diligence and shoulder more responsibility, Yi said.
Commenting on stock market volatility, Yi said that risk is controllable, as current leverage in China’s A-share market is not excessive.
However, he said China should strictly control massive inflows and outflows of hot money, while continuing to encourage normal cross-border liquidity flows.
“For any market, big inflows and outflows of hot money would be detrimental to healthy development, and must be severely controlled,” Yi said.

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Apple CEO, executives on tentative list of witnesses in Epic Games case – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Apple Inc’s CEO Tim Cook, software chief Craig Federighi and other executives were named on a tentative list of witnesses in the software giant’s case against Epic Games, a court filing dated March 19 showed.
App Store vice president Matt Fischer and Apple Fellow Phil Schiller were also named on the list submitted to the US District Court Northern District of California Oakland Division, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The iPhone maker has been at loggerheads with Epic Games, the creator of the popular game Fortnite, which last year tried to avoid a 30% fee which Apple charges developers on the App Store by launching its own in-app payment system. The move prompted Apple to ban Fortnite from its store.
In a separate court filing, Epic Games listed its founder and chief executive Tim Sweeney among its own witnesses in the case.
Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, but told Bloomberg in a statement that it felt “confident the case will prove that Epic purposefully breached its agreement solely to increase its revenues.”
A direct message to Epic Games on one of its official Twitter handles did not elicit an immediate response.

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Loss-making companies can pay non-executive directors – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Loss-making companies can now pay remuneration to their non-executive directors, including independent directors, with the government amending existing rules. The amendments have been made to certain provisions under the Companies Act, 2013.
The non-executive directors of companies having no profit or inadequate profit can be given remuneration, subject to certain conditions. The remuneration limits will be one-fifth of the total amount that can be given to managerial persons or executive directors, according to a notification issued by the corporate affairs ministry. Till now, nonexecutive directors of such companies were not allowed to receive any remuneration except sitting fee. This made it difficult for them to attract talent.
For companies having negative or less than Rs 5 crore effective capital, the annual remuneration limit for non-executive directors is Rs 12 lakh. For such companies’ executive directors, the limit will be Rs 60 lakh, the notification said. In the case of companies with effective capital of Rs 5 crore and above but less than Rs 100 crore, the non-executive directors’ annual remuneration limit is Rs 17 lakh. The limit is Rs 84 lakh for executive directors.

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Unemployment, inflation, earnings of ‘friends’ increased under govt: Rahul Gandhi – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the government, alleging that under it unemployment, price rise, poverty and income of its “friends” have increased.
“What did this government increase? Unemployment, inflation and poverty. And, only the earnings of friends,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

He cited a media report that claimed 9.9 crore people were part of the middle class before the Covid-19 outbreak and they were reduced to 6.6 crore after it.
Coronavirus: Live updates

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Former Sebi chairman GV Ramakrishna passes away – Times of India

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CHENNAI: Former Sebi chairman GV Ramakrishna, 91, passed away on Saturday morning in Chennai after brief illness.
Born in 1930, in Bengaluru, he started his career as a biochemist and then opted for civil services in 1952.
He was appointed as the chairman of markets regulator Sebi in 1990 when it lacked legal status.
He headed that body till 1994 and then became the first chairman of Disinvestment Commission in 1996 when it was set up by the government to exit state owned businesses.

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Tesla would be shut down if its cars spied in China, elsewhere: Elon Musk – Times of India

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BEIJING: Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk said on Saturday his company would be shut down if its cars were used to spy, his first comments on news that China’s military has banned Teslas from its facilities.
“There’s a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information,” Musk told a prominent Chinese forum during a virtual discussion. “If Tesla used cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down.”
Sources said on Friday that the Chinese military has banned Tesla cars from entering its complexes, citing security concerns over cameras installed on the vehicles.
Those restrictions surfaced as the top Chinese and US diplomats were holding a contentious meeting in Alaska, the first such in-person interaction since US President Joe Biden took office in January.
Musk urged greater mutual trust between the world’s two biggest economies, in his remarks to the China Development Forum, a high-level business gathering is hosted by a foundation under the State Council.
He was holding a discussion panel with Xue Qikun, a Chinese quantum physicist who heads the Southern University of Science and Technology.
In China, the world’s biggest car market and a key battleground for electric vehicles (EVs), Tesla sold 147,445 vehicles last year, 30% of its global total. However, it is facing more competition this year from domestic rivals from Nio Inc to Geely.
Musk has made several high-profile appearances in China, where Tesla makes as well as sells EVs. In 2019, he discussed Mars and artificial intelligence with Alibaba’s outspoken founder Jack Ma.
At a delivery event last year for China-made Model 3 sedans, Musk danced enthusiastically on stage, stripping off his jacket in what became a social media storm.

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US jury tells Apple to pay $308.5 million for patent infringement – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: A federal jury in Texas said Apple Inc must pay about $308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) for infringing a patent associated with digital rights management.
The jurors late no Friday directed Apple to pay a running royalty to PMC, which is generally based on the amount of sales of a product or service.
PMC, a licensing firm, had originally sued Apple in 2015 alleging the tech giant’s iTunes service infringed seven of its patents.
Apple successfully challenged PMC’s case at the US patent office, but an appeals court in March last year reversed that decision, paving the way for the trial.
The iPhone maker did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment but told Bloomberg that it was disappointed with the ruling and would appeal.
“Cases like this, brought by companies that don’t make or sell any products, stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers,” Apple was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
Sugarland, Texas-based PMC has infringement cases pending against companies including Netflix Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.
The case is Personalized Media versus Apple Inc.

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TCS to give pay hikes in April, second in 6 months – Times of India

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BENGALURU: TCS will offer salary increments to its employees for the next fiscal year starting April 1, becoming the first IT services company to commit to do so. The news will likely come as a sentiment booster to employees at a time when the industry is still recovering from the pandemic downturn.
The company had given a 6-8% increment in October. So, in six months, the employees will get 12-14% average increments. Most IT companies announced hikes in October in

addition to also promoting employees. The increment signals a return to normal appraisal cycles and indicates that the havoc created by the pandemic this fiscal is perhaps well and truly behind the industry.
“We are extremely thankful to all our associates for demonstrating resilience, adaptability, and an innovative mindset to steer the company in these trying times. This step is a reflection of our steadfast commitment to our associates,” a TCS spokesperson said.

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Nokia to lay off nearly 1,500 in India – Times of India

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BENGALURU: Nokia is laying off nearly 1,500 employees in India after it announced a plan to reset its costs. Nokia is repositioning itself to deliver profitable growth and technology leadership including catching up in 5G. The Finnish telecom major is reducing 10,000 employees globally over the next 18-24 months as part of the restructuring plans. On a group level, this is expected to lower its costs by approximately 600 million euros by 2023-end. These savings will offset increased investments in R&D, future capabilities and costs related to salary inflation.
Talking about the impact on its India operations, a Nokia spokesperson said these plans are global and likely to affect most countries. “It is too early to comment in detail, but we expect the consultation processes to start shortly, where applicable. Business groups are looking to reduce site fragmentation, but we have no further details at this point.”
Nokia has over 15,000 people in India, growing from 3,000 in 2007. Nokia’s India presence includes customer operations, manufacturing facilities in Chennai, global delivery centres in Noida and Chennai, and R&D centre in Bengaluru. India is a global hub of innovation in telecommunication services and products for the company.
Nokia’s R&D centre in Bengaluru is one of the four main global R&D sites for the company, employing over 6,000 people undertaking research in various advanced global telecommunication technologies like 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, small cells, and Wi-Fi. Its global delivery centres in Chennai and Noida eploy over 4,000 people who provide support at various stages of the networks across 103 countries.
“We have a clear and detailed plan for how we will reset the business, accelerate competitiveness and scale up our lead in the markets we choose to play in,” said Pekka Lundmark, CEO of Nokia, at its investor day recently.

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