Partners Column – June, 2016

Dear Friends, India is on work-in-Progress. Mr. Narendra Modi who took charge on May 26, 2014 as the Prime Minister of India has recently celebrated his party’s two years’ journey. Though lot needs to be done yet, the progress achieved so is far by keeping Aam Aadmi hopeful of Ache Din. Industry lobbying body ASSOCHAM rated NDA government as work-in-progress and gave an overall performance rating of 7 on a scale of 10. I feel this report card is a positive sign for any government. Major achievements by the Government are, e-auction of coal blocks, The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, Jan Dhan Yojana, LPG subsidy reform, reforms in Indian railways, legislative reforms, etc to name a few. These reforms saved large sums of money to the exchequer. Modi has made an unprecedented visit to the US last week with his spellbinding speech at both the houses of US Congress. The entire house applauded his visionary and thoughtful speech with standing ovation. Entire nation has cherished this visit. It was big breather for the ruling NDA government when it achieved  an unprecedented victory in Assam and entry into Kerala assembly during recent state legislative elections. They will now march ahead with vigour to conquer the other states. NDA government has shifted its gears to bring pace in the legislative reforms. Legislative changes are being made with a time-bound approach to achieve ease of doing business and transparency in the regulatory environment. These measures will bring positive outlook which will help in attracting global investors. Major legislative / administrative measures include the following, -

• The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016
• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016
• Establishment of NCLT and NCLAT
• Moving Name Availability and Incorporations to CRC
• Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was referred to Parliament Standing Committee with a time-bound schedule of 3 months to gives its report.
• National Intellectual Property Rights Policy
• Standard Operating Protocol - for mediation process for settlement of pending cases before the Registrar of Trademarks.
• The Repealing and Amending Act, 2016 – repealing the obsolete legislations.

SEBI has tightened the P-note regulations seeking stricter disclosure norms for P-notes, an offshore derivative instrument, effective from July 1, 2016. This is being done to ensure that P-notes route is not used for money laundering. In a major clean-up exercise, SEBI has decided various plans to delist the suspended companies and advise the Stock Exchanges. BSE has already decided to delist 1000 Companies; where trading is suspended for more than 7 years. Hoping these measures will bring positive outlook and confidence to the investors, thus improving the investment climate in India. Taking a clue from the Prime Ministers’ initiative “Start up, Stand-up India”, the ICSI has launched a new initiative “CS Acceleration Centre”. It has opened its first centre at Chennai on 8^th June, 2016 at SIRO office. I sincerely feel that this is an excellent initiative intended to benefit the members to use this facility for their professional advancement. To strengthen auditing practise areas, ICSI has recently set-up Auditing Standards Board (ASB) to provide guidance to the members on “Secretarial Audit”. I am pleased to inform that I was nominated as a member of the Board. I take this opportunity to urge the entire professional fraternity to provide your valuable inputs, suggestions, views, etc. for improving the guidance to the members in Secretarial Audit. With Best Regards, CS R. Ramakrishna Gupta Partner www.rna-cs.com