Mumbai school principals laud plan to set uniform age for nursery

admissions
Richa Pinto | May 6, 2014, 11.04PM IST

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MUMBAI: Educationalists and school principals have welcomed the education directorate's proposal to
have a uniform admission age for pre-primary sections in all schools in the state across all boards from
the academic year 2015-16.

The directorate plans to fix 2.5 years as the admission age for nursery, 3.5 years for junior KG, and 4.5
years for senior KG, but the final decision will be taken after a meeting with school representatives.

At present, admission age varies from school to school, which creates a problem during the Right to
Education application processing. "Uniformity in admission age will be useful when parents want to move
their child from one board to another. Also, over time the age limit of children entering school is getting
lower, thus taking away their childhood. From the administrative point of view, it would set things very
clear," said Avnita Bir, principal of R N Podar School.
Principals said children who start school at an early age tend to suffer in higher classes as they are unable
to cope with the syllabus. "An admission age limit across boards is required so that when a child goes to
higher classes, he does not suffer as he is studying with others of his age," said Fr Jude Fernandes,
principal of St Stanislaus School.

Mohan Adtani, additional municipal commissioner in-charge of education, agreed. "We welcome the
decision as kids will not face problems when they go to higher classes."

Swapna Trilokaya, principal of Parle Tilak Vidyala, said all students develop skills at the same age if their
biological growth is right. "Most students develop motor and reasoning skills at a certain age and
sometimes, they are too young when they are asked to do or learn something."

Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for Fairness in Education, said they had received several complaints
about schools manipulating children's age for admission to pre-primary sections for their convenience.
"There is also a need to fix the syllabus till class I at least," Jain added.
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Mumbai activists' call to use Right to Service Act gathers steam
MUMBAI: A citizens' movement calling for the widespread use of the Right to Service Act is gathering
steam in the city with proponents of the Right to Information (RTI) working hard to promote the use of
this virtually unknown Act.

A year after India passed the landmark RTI Act in 2005, Maharashtra passed an equally significant, yet
virtually unknown law that complements the RTI Actthe Government Servants Regulation of Transfers
and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act, 2006, popularly called the Right to Service
Act.

Under this Act, "no file shall remain pending with any government servant in the department or office for
more than seven working days". For files that do not need to be transferred to another department, a
decision, as well as necessary action, must be taken in 45 days. For those files that need to be transferred
to other departments, action must be taken within three months.
The Act also talks of a penalty for civil servants who neglect their duties.

Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner, advocates the use of this Act alongside RTI.
"This appears to me to be an Act which may empower citizens and could help to bring accountability and
better governance. I have used it to bring accountability in matters of corruption," says Gandhi, adding
that citizens can use it with the RTI Act for better governance and the delivery of timely services.

"If an application, representation or complaint has been pending with a government office for over 90
days, complain to the secretary of the department and demand that action be taken against the officers
responsible for the delay as per the provisions of this Act. Alternatively, an RTI application could be made
and then a compliant could be filed against the officers," he adds.

The Right to Service Act also helps citizens hold the government accountable for arbitrary transfers of
government officials. The Act states that "no government servant shall ordinarily be transferred unless he
has completed his tenure of posting..." It also says that, every year in January, the "competent authority
shall prepare a list of government servants due for transfer in the month of April and May". The Act says
that, under ordinary circumstances, the transfer of government servants should take place only once a
year.
Now, BMC to form buildings safety panel
MUMBAI: In the wake of the building collapse in Mazagaon, the BMC will form a standard technical
advisory committee (STAC) to monitor building safety in a scientific manner. This committee will
function on the lines of the civic body's STAC for roads and will play a crucial role in deciding the nature
of dangerous categories for dilapidated buildings in the city.

The decision was mentioned in the minutes of a meeting that was held by municipal commissioner
Sitaram Kunte last Sunday. The move comes after it was observed that at present, visual inspection, and
no scientific method, decides a building's categoryC1 (dilapidated and in need of urgent demolition), C2
(dangerous part of building needs to be demolished and repaired) and C2A (those in need of urgent
repairs).

"Kunte has directed formation of a STAC to put in place a scientific method for classifying the buildings,"
said a senior civic official.
The committee will comprise experts from VJTI, IIT, two structural consultants, chief engineer
(development plan), chief engineer (planning and design) and officials from Maharashtra Regional Town
Planning Authority and public works' department, under the chairmanship of a retired HC judge. It will
hear grievances, will be instrumental in issuing structural stability certificates and handle other related
issues regarding repairs, restoration and eviction of C1, C2 and C3 category buildings.

The director, engineering services and planning (ES&P), will prepare a draft order to the effect for
approval by the municipal commissioner. The collapse has also brought to the fore another issue: when
opinions on a building's structural stability are sought from two structural engineers, it has been noticed
that two diametrically opposite views are submitted.

The director (ES&P) should hold meetings with the association of structural engineers and apprise them
about non-professional practices adopted by their members. The director should also expeditiously deal
with the inter-departmental problems.

"It will be the director's responsibility to ensure that the proposal for repairs to the buildings are not
unduly delayed. S/he should regularly renew utilization of FUNDS earmarked for repairs to various
civic buildings," said the official. S/he should submit minutes of the meeting, along with the action taken
report, to additional civic commissioner (western suburbs) and the civic chief every month.

"Doctors skipping rural service to lose licence"

The state's new decision was taken following the failure of the bond system where defaulters were fined anywhere between
Rs 10 lakh and Rs 2 crore.
Alarmed by the rising number of doctors who do not do their mandatory one-year stint in rural areas after graduating from
government colleges, the state has decided to punish such defaulters by revoking their medical licences.
The decision, which is sure to cause a flutter in the medical fraternity, follows the failure of a bond system under which
those who did not sign up for the rural service were fined a minimum of Rs 10 lakh. Several fresh graduates, however,
would not only skip the village duty, but also not pay the fine.
Of the 222 doctors posted in rural areas last month, 115 did not join duty. The state government had no clue where these
doctors disappeared and why they did not join their respective posts.
"The doctors have not been honouring the bonds they signed. Initial investigations have revealed that the doctors who
skipped the rural stints, started their private practices. We had to find a way to stop this and suspension of registration was
thought to be the best method. This will ensure that they cannot practice elsewhere as well," said Director of the
Directorate of Health Services Dr Satish Pawar on Wednesday.
The new rule would also apply to doctors who got their degrees from private colleges under government quota.
The logic of one-year rural stint for medicos was two pronged - one, the medical students this way repaid the state for the
subsidized education they received at medical colleges; two, the young doctors filled the gaping shortfall of trained doctors
in rural hospitals and primary health centres.
Pawar said the decision was taken last week in a meeting along with Health Minister Suresh Shetty and officer-bearers of
the Maharastra Medical Council -- the body that issues licences to doctors.
After the four-and-a-half year MBBS course, a student puts in a year of internship, which should be followed by a year of
rural posting. However, if the student plans to pursue a postgraduate diploma or a post-graduate degree, the rural posting
is pushed forward by two years in the first case and three years in the second.
A doctor wishing to skip time in a rural hospital after acquiring a post-graduate diploma is fined Rs 10 lakh. The cost of
shirking village duty after acquiring a post-graduate degree is a steep Rs 50 lakh and the same after acquiring a super-
speciality is Rs 2 crore.
Of the 3000 posts for doctors in rural Maharashtra, nearly 1300 posts currently lie vacant. These posts as spread across the
general, district, sub-district hospitals and primary health centers.
In September 2013, a group of doctors who had completed the post graduate diplomas approached the High Court asking
for their rural positing to be deferred till they apply and get through the post-graduate degree courses. While the court
granted them relief, a huge number of doctors started taking advantage and applying to the state for their rural posting to
be deferred in the name of higher studies. "In the past four days, we have got 32 applications from doctors who are posted
in rural areas stating that they want to study further. If this pattern continues, there will not be a single doctor in rural
areas," said Pawar.
Pawar said he hopes that doctors who have not reported for rural duty will return to work now. "Our aim is not to destroy
their careers but to make sure they serve in rural areas," he said, adding that the suspension will be revoked as soon as a
doctor joins his rural post.
A doctor said that rural setups lacked basic equipment such as anaesthesia tubes, X-ray machines and oxygen cylinder. "A
doctor's stint in such badly maintained hospitals is nothing, but waste of time. There is no scope for us to put our
knowledge to use in such places," the doctor, who didn't want to be named, said.

Maharashtra floats cell tower draft policy
MUMBAI: The bitter fight that ensued between the public and cellphone companies in the months leading
to the BMC's cell tower policy seems to have been pointless. The state government has decided to come
out with a new set of rules that will be uniformly applied across Maharashtra. A key change from the
BMC's policy will be that consent of 70% of a building's residents for installing a tower on it will not be
mandatory.

Another of the BMC's requirements to be done away with is that no towers should be atop buildings
housing schools, colleges, hospitals or orphanages, and specified distances should be maintained between
such buildings and towers.

The state's policy draft will be open to suggestions and objections from the public. Chief secretary J K
Banthia said the state administration wants to tide over differences in the cell tower policies of various
civic bodies. Following the BMC's policy, the people of Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivili and Pune
demanded cell tower guidelines from their municipal authorities as well.

The state draft, a copy of which is with TOI, stipulates that buildings on which cell towers are installed
need to be legal. "This condition will render many existing cell towers open to action. Mumbai has over
1,800 illegal buildings that have had cell towers for 10-15 years now. When they were installed, there were
no guidelines on towers," said a senior bureaucrat in the urban development department.

But the draft also says that cell towers are critical infrastructure and existing ones should be allowed to
remain on unauthorized buildings as long as the latter are structurally safe. "If the municipality decides to
demolish an illegal building that may have a cell tower, it will have to give a three-month notice to tower
operators, giving them enough time to shift," said a state official. "This aspect was not touched by the
BMC in its policy."
Incidentally, the telecom industry does not want the conditions of 70% residents' consent and minimum
distance between cell towers and schools, hospitals, etc. Industry sources said the central government's
radiation guidelines are among the most stringent in the world and so consent of a building's owner or its
housing society or managing trust should sufficesomething the state draft has included.

"Non-compliance with the country 's radiation norms attracts a huge penaltyRs 5 lakh per tower. In case
of continuing violations, the tower is liable to be made non-operational. So, there are no compromises on
radiation standards by the industry," said a source.

TIMES VIEW

This is one issue that has caused a lot of HEARTBURN among both citizens' groups and cellphone
service-providers. A lot of "proofs" and "data from research" have been offered by both sides, with citizens
raising questions about the authenticity of "research" that claims there is no effect of cell tower radiation
on the human body. The government needs to come out with a set of guidelines that will allay public fear
about radiation issues while ensuring service is not affected.
MUMBAI: The bitter fight that ensued between the public and cellphone companies in the months leading
to the BMC's cell tower policy seems to have been pointless. The state government has decided to come
out with a new set of rules that will be uniformly applied across Maharashtra. A key change from the
BMC's policy will be that consent of 70% of a building's residents for installing a tower on it will not be
mandatory.

Another of the BMC's requirements to be done away with is that no towers should be atop buildings
housing schools, colleges, hospitals or orphanages, and specified distances should be maintained between
such buildings and towers.

The state's policy draft will be open to suggestions and objections from the public. Chief secretary J K
Banthia said the state administration wants to tide over differences in the cell tower policies of various
civic bodies. Following the BMC's policy, the people of Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivili and Pune
demanded cell tower guidelines from their municipal authorities as well.

The state draft, a copy of which is with TOI, stipulates that buildings on which cell towers are installed
need to be legal. "This condition will render many existing cell towers open to action. Mumbai has over
1,800 illegal buildings that have had cell towers for 10-15 years now. When they were installed, there were
no guidelines on towers," said a senior bureaucrat in the urban development department.

But the draft also says that cell towers are critical infrastructure and existing ones should be allowed to
remain on unauthorized buildings as long as the latter are structurally safe. "If the municipality decides to
demolish an illegal building that may have a cell tower, it will have to give a three-month notice to tower
operators, giving them enough time to shift," said a state official. "This aspect was not touched by the
BMC in its policy."
Incidentally, the telecom industry does not want the conditions of 70% residents' consent and minimum
distance between cell towers and schools, hospitals, etc. Industry sources said the central government's
radiation guidelines are among the most stringent in the world and so consent of a building's owner or its
housing society or managing trust should sufficesomething the state draft has included.

"Non-compliance with the country 's radiation norms attracts a huge penaltyRs 5 lakh per tower. In case
of continuing violations, the tower is liable to be made non-operational. So, there are no compromises on
radiation standards by the industry," said a source.

TIMES VIEW

This is one issue that has caused a lot of HEARTBURN among both citizens' groups and cellphone
service-providers. A lot of "proofs" and "data from research" have been offered by both sides, with citizens
raising questions about the authenticity of "research" that claims there is no effect of cell tower radiation
on the human body. The government needs to come out with a set of guidelines that will allay public fear
about radiation issues while ensuring service is not affected.
Handle construction & project agreements with care
Construction contracts require quick and effective dispute resolution processes, and not lengthy
arbitrations
Construction and project contracts, and arbitration provisions in such contracts have to be drafted and crafted by
lawyers with utmost care. There exist certain protocols and different structures for such contracts. So, beware of
templates.

The key features are essentially the same - whether the contract administration is under FIDIC or Joint Contracts
Tribunal (JCT). There is the employer, who is usually also the owner or the developer or both, the architect, who may
wear more than one hat, or there could be the engineer, who is often also the first stop for dispute resolution, and in
certain situations an internal dispute resolution board. The last resorts are the arbitrators and the court, the latter is
usually reserved for appeals and interim relief purposes.

The contractor is the key figure inasmuch as being the person executing the project. The key issues in such
agreements are that of the scope of work, time frame, deployment of labour, payments which could be on the basis
of fee plus cost of labour and equipment or lumpsum.

The protocols of the JCT are probably the oldest, its members comprising Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Institute of Consulting Engineers among others. JCT contracts do not envisage
mobilisation advances and interim payments, though interim certificates for completion of an itemised item may be
released, liquidated damages for defective work, failure to execute in accordance with scope of work are allowed.

FIDIC suit of contracts are followed in most European jurisdictions, Switzerland, Italy to name a few - FIDIC's unique
selling point is that it is used in a host of standard forms of contract between employers and contractors on
international construction projects. FIDIC's Red, Yellow and Orange books cover civil engineering, mechanical works
including erection and turnkey contracts.

In 1999, FIDIC suites were upgraded taking into account project finance and dredgers contracts. The basic FIDIC
characteristic is lumpsum payment, minimum employer involvement and elimination of major unforeseen hazards.

In India, building activity is and continues to be rampant. These vary from mega infrastructure projects, ie, those
having horizontal multiplicity, such as, integrated housing projects and townships to simpler construction verticals in
which the entire suite of players are not required and a single contract suffices. For large projects, which are spread
out over years, the players are multiple and sub-contractor involvement is essential.

The architect and contractor are required for all building contracts in India for passing of plans and execution. The
architect's role is a critical one. From selection of the contractor, preparing the designs and drawings, plans,
estimates and bill of quantities and project and construction management, the architect's role requires involvement in
the entire process from inception to the point of handing over, as the owner/ employer's agent.

But the architect's duty is not just construction, it's the details, such as, measurements and elevations, as they can
be held liable for improper construction in case of failing to discharge the contractual obligations by reason of their
office such as failure to ensure proper supervision of the building process, improper certification or wrongly
withholding a certificate.

Invariably, the first major document is the advertisement for tender/ bids along with the forms and the process of
accepting and evaluation thereof. The next in line are the requirements for drawing and plans, and allocation of
duties and obligations of the key players such as, architect, engineer, contractor, designer, and employee.

The first stage is the planning, in which all the parties and agencies are involved. It involves setting the time lines,
the scope of work for each of the above agencies. In large and small contracts the architect will not be defaulted and
be held liable unless negligence can be established, and it can be demonstrated that reasonable care was taken. But
a regular, large contract usually includes and provides for the General & Special Conditions of Contract, Billing of
Quantities, in addition to the above.

The architect very often acts as an on-the -spot trouble shooter/ arbitrator to resolve disputes between the owner
and the contractor. But this does not create a situation of conflict of interests, since the owner is the one who pays
all, which is why it is important to have a distinction, particularly as the architect could also be a potential witness in
an arbitration proceeding, which is why it is not always desirable to appoint the architect.

There are multiple contracts - as sub-contracting is a feature common to most constructions and projects are spread
out over several years and usually not completed. There are no rules as such for these contracts, though there are
norms and practices. In the Indian context the biggest impediment is that of delay, which cannot always be predicted
in advance.

The legal issues that normally arise are increase or change in the scope of work and costs. Construction contracts,
therefore, require quick and effective dispute resolution processes and not lengthy arbitrations.

There could be unwarranted increase in the cost, which often renders a fixed fee contract unviable for more than one
party. To ensure that all disputes are properly addressed, it is important to provide levels of dispute resolution
mechanisms and options, with the rider that suspension of work should be permitted only by any one authority and
that also in the rarest of rare cases, and the party responsible would be liable for damages, if so warranted.
L&T judgment opens a Pandora's box
Early implementation of Goods and Services Tax can help do away with uncertainty of tax costs for the
real estate sector
Recently, the larger Bench of the apex court in the case of L&T vs state of Karnataka, held that any agreement to sell
immovable property entered into prior to construction would fall within the purview of the term 'works contract',
allowing state governments the power to levy value-added tax (VAT) on such contracts.

This issue has been a hot debate since the Raheja Development apex court judgment in 2005, which was with
respect to real estate transaction structures in south India, wherein the sale of land was separate from the sale of
flats unlike in most other parts of India.

The issue was also hotly contested in recent years by the real estate sector in Maharashtra, and in 2012, the Bombay
High Court ruled that such real estate transactions wherein an agreement to sell immovable property was entered
into prior to construction is subject to levy of VAT as 'works contract'. In fact, in recent months, states like Haryana
have sought to issue TRADE notices to bring under purview such agreements to sell immovable property, entered
into prior to construction within the purview of VAT as 'works contract'.

The L&T judgment has considered both the above judgments in arriving at the conclusion that states have the power
to levy VAT on such transactions as 'works contracts'.

In the facts of this case, the main object/substance of the tripartite agreement was to sell and convey fraction of
land with a fully constructed apartment. At no point was the construction for and on behalf of the purchaser, the
apartment was to be sold as an apartment and not as an aggregate of its component parts. Even in the Bombay High
Court case of MCHI, the agreement for sale is an agreement to transfer immovable property with no element of
works contract.

Facts and well settled arguments such as even if there is a construction activity undertaken by a developer, he does
not construct on behalf of the apartment owner; the owner of the apartment has no say in conceptualising the
project or any control; that the ownership of materials used in construction in such cases remain with developer;
and, that the accretion to the goods happens in the hand of the developer, allude to the fact that such an activity
cannot be treated as a works contract. The fact and settled arguments that in a conventional sale, property of goods
gets transferred as intended by the parties while in a works contract property in goods are transferred through
accretion, have all been negated in coming to the conclusion by the apex court.

The apex court observes that though the ultimate transaction between parties may be a sale of flat, it cannot be said
that characteristics of works contract are not involved in such a transaction. Hence, when a contract comprises both -
a works contract and transfer of immovable property - it does not denude it of its character of 'works contract' and
that Article 366(29-A)(b)) contemplates situations where goods may not be transferred in the form of goods, but
maybe transferred in some other form which can even be in the form of immovable property.

This apex court judgment would be a matter of intense debate for years and will have wide implications on real
estate transactions across states. The judgment is a challenge for the real estate industry and would bring about a
plethora of complications on the ground for an industry already reeling from a slowdown and high interest rates.

The judgment will result in VAT authorities looking for recoveries from the industry within applicable limitation period.
Further, this judgment is likely to trigger new valuation issues as the court has held that only the value addition
made post-execution of an 'agreement to sell' an under construction flat would be subject to levy of VAT giving rise
to practical difficulties in implementing at the ground level. Like in the case of Maharashtra, a practical solution can
be a composition scheme with lower tax incidence of one per cent, though this judgment can embolden states to fix
higher composition rates. Further, in situations where possession has been handed over by the developers against
full and final settlements, the taxes may have to borne by the developer. This highlights the challenges of a long-
drawn process of litigation in the country, which can produce outcomes creating a huge amount of uncertainty of tax
costs for the industry, which may not be possible to recover.

Now a sale of an apartment would suffer stamp duty and VAT, both levied by state along with service tax levied by
the Centre, making such apartments more expensive. The early implementation of the goods and service tax can be
the only solution to such multiplicity of taxes and we hope the polity at large is seized of its importance.

Foreign travel policies also cover post-hospitalisation
OPD cost
It is normal even when insurance companies pay a claim to arbitrarily disallow a part of the amount without a
justification. Anila Gupta had taken ICICI Lombard's Overseas Travel Policy for the period of July 29 to August 27,
2011. Under the policy, she was entitled to cashless treatment and other benefits while abroad.

Gupta travelled to Thailand on July 29, where she fell critically ill. She was required to be admitted to a Bangkok
hospital on August 23, 2011. The next day, her husband, who was in India, sent an e-mail to the insurance company,
intimating it. It was REGISTERED as a cashless claim. During her hospitalisation, the insurance company's officials
kept in touch with the doctors and hospital authorities. Gupta was discharged on September 26, 2011. However, as
the ailment was contagious, she could not leave Thailand and had to continue treatment as an outdoor patient.

The hospitalisation from August 23 to September 26, 2011, cost Thai baht (THB) 12.99 lakh. A substantial part of
this was paid by the insurer but the amount fell short by THB 1.14 lakh. So, Gupta was compelled to pay this. After
her discharge, she spent another THB 55,994 for treatment as an outdoor patient till October 16, 2011. Yet, she was
still not medically fit - she was on a wheelchair, required continuous oxygen support and two attendants. She called
her husband from India to help bring her back home.

Once in India, she made a claim for the expenses incurred and also for her husband's needed visit. ICICI Lombard
asked her to get a travel recommendation from the doctor. Since the claim was not settled, Gupta filed a complaint
before the Central Mumbai District Forum against the insurer and its claim processing agent, Europ Assistance India.
She claimed reimbursement for medical expenses,travel expenses incurred by her husband and son, and
compensation for mental agony/harassment.

Both ICICI Lombard and its agent did not bother to file their reply or attend the hearing, though the notice was
served by the forum. Instead, they sent a cheque of Rs 1.18 lakh (THB 76,234.49), but Gupta did not encash it since
the dispute was pending before the forum.

The judgment was delivered this Wednesday by the Forum's president, B S Wasekar, for the bench with member H K
Bhaise. It was observed that the dispute was about the short payment of THB 1.14 lakh and non-payment of outdoor
treatment expenses of THB 55,994, totalling THB 1.7 lakh. The Forum ruled this amount would have to be
reimbursed by the insurer. As regards the travel expenses of her husband and son, the forum noted the policy did
not cover reimbursement of these and rejected this claim.

The forum accordingly directed ICICI Lombard and its agent to settle the claim of THB 1.7 lakh, along with nine per
cent interest from the date of the complaint till payment. It also awarded a compensation of Rs 10,000 and costs of
Rs 5,000.

This judgment establishes that the 'happening of the event' must occur within the policy period. This means the date
of admission is relevant for a claim under a policy which covers health insurance. The policy was from July 29 to
August 27, 2011, and Gupta was hospitalised from August 23 to September 26, 2011, and continued out-patient
treatment till October 16, 2011. Though the policy expired on August 27, 2011, she was entitled to the entire cost of
the treatment till October 16, as she was admitted to hospital on August 23, while the policy was in force.

Chinese couple sold baby to pay for iPhone
Unemployed parents mastermind sinister conspiracy, auctioning
daughter for 5,000 and using proceeds to buy luxury shoes and iPhone
An unemployed couple will stand trial in Shanghai for allegedly selling their baby and using the proceeds to bankroll
an online shopping spree, including the purchase of an iPhone.
The couple, named only as Mr Teng and Ms Zhang, began posting online adverts for the child in June this year,
Shanghais Jiefang Daily newspaper reported on Friday. The adverts suggested they would be willing to part with
their unborn baby in exchange for up to 50,000 yuan (5,070).
After a home birth, designed to cover-up the crime, they handed over the baby girl and received a large cash
payment into their bank account on the very same day.
Mr Teng and Ms Zhang reportedly told prosecutors they were acting in their daughters best interests, claiming they
had hoped to place her with a FINANCIALLY stable family who could provide an education.
We did not give the baby away for MONEY but in order to give it more security, they were quoted as saying.
However, prosecutors believe the couples bank records clearly show they had in fact hatched a sinister conspiracy
to profit from the childs sale.
One credit card bill shows that immediately after TRADING the baby girl, the couple spent large amounts of cash
on the internet, it was reported. Among their purchases was an iPhone and a pair of high-end trainers.
Prosecutors also allege that the couple attempted to disguise Ms Zhangs pregnancy in order to hide their crime. In
order to explain her bump, neighbours were told she was suffering from a tumour.
Last year seven people were jailed in Chinas Hunan province for involvement in the purchase of a kidney from a 17-
year-old boy who used the MONEY to buy and iPhone and an iPad.
The teenager confessed to his mother when suffering from renal failure after the surgery, the state news agency
Xinhua reported.

Builder told to pay Rs 50,000 to Mumbai
housing society for failing to hand over
documents
Further delay in giving documents and certificates will mean Rs 500/day fine: Consumer forum
A construction firm and its partners have been asked to pay Rs50,000 as compensation to a society
they had built for failing to hand over documents and certificates as part of their statutory obligations,
a suburban district consumer forum has ruled.
R and D Associates and its partners will also have to pay Rs500 per day if they fail to deliver the
documents to the 45-member Evergreen Society in Malad in six months.
R and D Associates, and its partners Hansa Desai, DV Dodiya and D Mota formed the
Evergreen Society in 1987.
The registration was completed in September 1987, following which the builder, the partners and the
society members entered into an agreement according to which the builder was to hand over
necessary certificates, such as the property transfer certificate, building completion certificates,
original documents of the title of the property as well as occupation and conveyance certificates, to
the society within a period of two years. For decades though neither the builder nor its partners gave
the documents to the society.
The society sent two reminders to the builder and the partners in May and July 2008, both of which
were not responded to. In August 2008, the society registered a complaint with the consumer forum.
The builder and the firm contended that the society residents had forcefully taken possession of the
residences, and hence they had no obligation to hand over the certificates.
The consumer forum refused to accept this defence as the partners failed to provide evidence to
prove that the members had taken forceful possession. Instead, the forum considered the
agreement between the society and the builder and its partners to hold them guilty for not meeting
their statutory obligations.
The builder failed to comply with the statutory obligation because of which flat owners had to
undergo hardship, such as being unable to seek a redevelopment for their building, said advocate
Vinod Sampat, who appeared on behalf of the society.

How the case unravelled
The builder and the firm contended that the society residents had forcefully taken possession of the
residences and, hence, they had no obligation to hand over the certificates.
The consumer forum refused to accept this defence as the partners failed to provide evidence to
prove that the members had taken forceful possession. Instead, the forum considered the
agreement between the society and the builder and its partners to hold them guilty for not meeting
their statutory obligations.
Besides the compensation, R and D Associates and its partners will also have to pay Rs500 a day if
they fail to deliver the documents to the society in Malad in six months.
Neglected builders of modern India: Internal migrants are an
asset
In 2011, India had 400 million internal migrants, a full third of its population, according to an estimate cited in a recent UN
report, Social Inclusion of Internal Migrants in India. This represents mobility for the sake of livelihood, often seasonal.
Reports say that 70-80% of migrants are women marriage transfers them from the father's home to the husband's
likely to face harsh conditions and exploitation at work. Mobility has its advantages the promise of finding opportunities in
a city as opposed to stagnating in the ruraleconomy but there are associated risks. The most important is the loss of
identity without appropriate paperwork, which could lead to exclusion of social, medical and other state-given benefits. To
resolve this problem, the government must roll out its Aadhaar scheme, which gives a biometrically established identity to all
residents, faster. Armed with an Aadhaar identity, migrants would be free to go anywhere in India in search of better jobs
and incomes. Once physical subsidies are replaced by direct cash transfers, in combination with Aadhaar, migrants would
be entitled to their full entitlement anywhere in the country.
Migrants are often given the toughest, most hazardous or socially-looked-down-on jobs: work on construction sites, clearing
waste or working as lowly-paid domestic help or security guards. Yet, their contribution to the economy and growth is
immense. Estimates of remittances sent back home range from Rs 70,000 crore to Rs 1,20,000 crore every year. A state
like Bihar gets 10% of its state GDP from remittances sent by its large migrant labour force. Uttar Pradesh, India's biggest
state and home to 200 million people and source of large-scale migration, could get as much as 4% of its GDP from its
migrants.
As India continues down the path of diversification of economic structure and urbanisation, the number of migrants will go
up. We need policies to create new towns and new paradigms of urban planning, to provide these builders of modern
India something better than slums and ghettos to live in. But the first step towards institutional inclusion of migrants is
Aadhaar. Expedite that.

One Biological Kid From 2 Moms
BOSTON: Fertility clinics have put a new twist on how to make babies: A "two-mom" approach that lets female same-sex couples
share the biological role.
One woman's eggs are mixed in a lab dish with donor sperm, then implanted in the other woman, who carries the pregnancy.

A New York doctor described 18 of these cases this week at a fertility conference in Boston that featured other research on ways to
help same-sex couples have children. Dr Alan Copperman is medical director of Reproductive Medicine Associates, a New York
City clinic that does the "twomom" approach.

A New York couple Sarah Marshall, 40, a recruiter for law firms, and Maggie Leigh Marshall, 35, a real estate BROKER
used it to have their daughter, Graham, now 18 months old. Maggie's eggs were used to make embryos that were implanted in
Sarah, and both women are listed as parents on the birth certificate.

"It allowed us both to participate," Sarah Marshall said. "I had to mentally and psychologically give up the idea of, is she going to
look like me or my family. But from the time I started carrying her up to now, she is definitely mine."
Maggie Marshall said she had no interest in being pregnant, but "Sarah really wanted to have the experience. We also thought it
would be a great way to bond with a kid that ultimately would look a lot like me."

It wasn't cheap the couple spent nearly $100,000 on multiple failed attempts before the last one worked. A single in vitro
fertilisation attempt can run $15,000 to more than $20,000, depending on how much embryo testing is done and whether some
embryos are frozen to allow multiple attempts from one batch.

One Canadian study suggests that more lesbian couples have been seeking fertility services in Ontario since same-sex marriage
was legalised in the province a decade ago. Some doctors think interest is also up in the US. For male couples, many
clinics OFFER egg donors and surrogate moms, using one or both men's sperm.

"The modern family is created in a way that would be humbled by traditional fertility treatments," said Copperman. "We're seeing
more and more couples come in and want to share the parenting experience," and their medical forms more often say "wife" rather
than "domestic partner."

"This is something that a lot of lesbian couples choose to do" if they can afford it, said Melissa Brisman, a reproductive law specialist
in Montvale, New Jersey, who has advised many such couples. "Some doctors really have a problem doing this for nonmedical
reasons" because any medical procedures carry risks of infections or other complications, she added.

Many fertility specialists are willing, though, and see the risks as small.

"We get same-sex couples from all over the world" because some nations don't allow surrogacy or egg donation, said Roger Good,
chief executive officer of HRC Fertility, which runs nine clinics in Southern California.

In the US, "there is greater awareness and acceptability" of same-sex relationships, and "less prejudice has allowed them to look at
what their options are" for having children, he said.

A reliable legal system will attract long-term investors: Karen B
Peetz, President, BNY Mellon
BNY Mellon, the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, is the largest custodian of financial assets
managing around $26.2 trillion in 35 countries and more than 100 markets.

Its president Karen B Peetz says that as an outsider, the perception is that, culturally, India does not trust market forces. The
laws in India are designed to protect it from outside influence. But over time, this is breaking down; India has liberalised
some of its rules and regulations in a number of ways, but the overseas perception is that India has still a long way to go.
''Whether you want to have the full benefit of the global economy, or not that's a choice and at some stage you need to
figure that out," she says in an interview with ET. Edited excerpts:

India seems to be falling out of favour among international investors. Why?

I think people got more scared with the financial crisis. Foreign investors and even regular investors investing in emerging
markets pulled out from emerging markets to safer places. But that will gradually come back. Frankly, the demographics are
showing that investors are coming of age. We are still very bullish. We realise that it's very cyclical.

Is the reversal to developed markets a short-term phenomenon?

The flow of financial assets was towards emerging markets during the financial crisis because the developed markets were
in such terrible shape, while equity markets had growth opportunities in emerging markets. Today, these opportunities are
more in the US markets and even in the heart of Europe. So, it's not that money is abandoning EMs, there is just a shift in
investment pattern. I think your concern is about 5.5% growth rate but it's still good.

The great BRICS moniker has turned into 'The Fragile Five' now. What does it mean?

Each country has its own issue. In Brazil, there is a government problem and China is complaining about the same issues
that you are i.e., lower growth, which is pretty significant. Each of these countries needs to do different things. Discipline,
lack of corruption, and good market fundamentals that people can trust are the things that they should be working on. These
countries should have strong banking systems and markets that people can rely on; laws that are reliable. All this takes a lot
of time. Also, there should be a political will to do it.
How does India stack up?
India has stacked up really well. We have an office in Chennai since the past 12 years where they are innovating most of the
technologies. They are actually creating innovation in our company because they themselves are smart and well educated.
They are now into our business model. If that's what India becomes for many companies, then India becomes more
important than just being a BRICS country. They are teaching some of our other locations how to be faster, cheaper and
smarter.
There is always a complaint that India lacks a sophisticated financial market. How do you see that?
The government and banks really need to focus on getting to the same level of innovation that you are with technology and
processing. A lot of it is trust in the soundness of the CURRENCY , and law. But, you will get there. That's the focus that is
required. It seems to me that it is slow. We have been talking about India for a long time coming on stronger but it's cyclical,
like with every BRICS country.
Are regulations an issue?
The government is relaxing bank licensing. We looked at banking licence as well but there are restrictions on consumer
lending and sociallyresponsible lending. Even though it is good for the development of the country, certain banks won't
agree because they don't want to do such things. Our recommendation is to look into these regulations that are not business
and investorfriendly and make a conscious decision which will benefit India if they are relaxed.
How do you see these restrictions?
As an outsider, the perception is that, culturally, India does not trust MARKET forces. The laws in India are designed to
protect it from outside influence. But over time, this is breaking down; India has liberalized some of its rules and regulati ons
in a number of ways but the perception from overseas is that India still has a long way to go. Whether you want to have the
full benefit of the global economy or not that's a choice and there should be a stage where you need to figure that out.
How do countries like India prepare for the Fed taper?
I hope it isn't ending. I think they are being incredibly cautious. Because when you think of what happened with the
government shut down and if they would have made any jerky move, who knows what would have happened. So, I think
they are watching all the indicators like jobless claims and manufacturing and our belief is that the realisation does not have
to be very sudden, it can be very gradual. Our belief is that they will continue this kind of gradual path and this will be t he
best medicine. We have to get off the drip of low interest rates in the US and Europe. Otherwise, we are afraid we will end
up like Japan and lose two decades.

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The only way for the US now is the interest rates to go up what does that mean for the emergingMARKETS ?
It is leading money to flow back to the US market in particular, but that doesn't mean that investors are going to completely
abandon emerging MARKETS . They can't. Are they going to reduce their exposure to emerging markets and allocate that
money in developed markets like the US? Absolutely. Alternatively, those higher interest rates in the US are a good sign of
stronger economic growth in the US which, in turn, should create demand globally. A stronger US economy is a good thing
for the global economy.
What would you like to see India doing?
If you are more open and understanding about global trends and have a reliable regulatory and legal system, then you will
attract more sustainable investors than regular investors who come and go based on whether you are doing well or not. It's
super important that legal structure is reliable and if one ever got into a sticky situation, he shouldn't wonder whether he can
t get his assets back. This is why the US is reliable and predictable.
Is it the speed, or the efficiency of the legal system?
We think it's both. Knowing how it's going to work and the standards that you can rely on. Also, having to be transparent and
knowing what process to go through, if you had a problem. Also, quickness it's not viewed as being commercially
reasonable. You have English law that is quite positive and attractive but it should be reliable, predictable and transparent
too.
7 superfoods for your child
TNN | Oct 13, 2013, 12.00AM IST

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7 superfoods for your child (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)
The right kind of nutrition is extremely important, especially for a kid who is growing up.

Here are seven nutrient-packed superfoods that should be a part of your child's diet.

1. Oatmeal: Research shows that kids who eat oatmeal are better able to concentrate and pay attention
in school. Fiber-rich whole grains, like oatmeal, digest slowly, providing kids with a steady stream of
energy.
2. Spinach: Spinach is an excellent source of iron, calcium, folic acid, and vitamins A and C all great
for growing bones and brains. It has a mild flavour and gets cooked very fast. Add some spinach to hot
soups or toss it in tomato sauce and tuck it in a frankie.

3. Sweet potatoes: A great source of nutrition, sweet potatoes contain potassium, vitamin C, fiber,
folate, vitamin A, calcium and iron, to name a few. You can replace potatoes with sweet potatoes in several
recipes. They can be mashed, grilled, roasted or made into a delicious sweet casserole.

4. Berries: Blueberries, strawberries and raspberries contain potassium, vitamin C, fiber, carbohydrates
and antioxidants. Moreover, they come with very little fat and no cholesterol. Since berries are sweet,
your child will probably enjoy the taste. Add berries to oatmeal, yogurt and whole grain cereals to provide
an extra vitamin kick.

5. Egg: The high protein content in egg makes it a superfood. Besides protein, eggs are full of more than a
dozen necessary vitamins and minerals, and contain a huge concentration of choline a nutrient vital for
brain development in young children. You can cook either scrambled or fried eggs.

6. Yogurt: Rich in calcium and a good source of protein, yogurt helps build strong bones and teeth. It
may also aid digestion and fight bad bacteria in the gut. Serving yogurt with fresh fruit is a good option.

7. Basil: This herb is packed with antioxidants, vitamins A, C, and K as well as iron, potassium, and
calcium and can help improve digestion. Some research shows that basil may even ease headaches. The
next time you cook pasta, grind some basil and mix it in the sauce. That way, the green flecks will be
hidden from the kid's sight and yet make it to his/her diet.

Women put off divorce to benefit from
Marriages Law (Amendment) Bill
Marriages Law (Amendment) Bill proposal of up to 50% share in husband's property, including
inheritance, sees 23% drop in divorce cases as women direct their lawyers to go slow on
proceedings.
Ravi Jadhav DNA
Women are playing the waiting game when it comes to getting divorced.
Between January and August this year, divorce cases in Mumbai fell by 23% compared to the
corresponding period last year.
Women have directed their lawyers to slow down proceedings till the Marriages Law (Amendment)
Bill is passed in the Lok Sabha in the winter session of Parliament. The bill proposes that a woman
should get up to 50% share from her husbands inheritance and properties.
According to the Bandra family court, there were 2,826 divorces in the first eight months of last year.
The figure fell to 2,157 in the same period this year.
Lawyerspeak
Divorce lawyer Mrunalini Deshmukh says a few of her female clients, especially those from affluent
families, are adopting the wait-and-watch approach before rushing for a divorce. They stand to gain
a lot more from the husbands property if the Bill in its current form becomes an Act, she said. You
hurt the person where it hurts him the most, and MONEY plays an important role.
Shilpi Shamani, a divorce lawyer from Mumbai, said at least three of his female clients have
requested him to go slow on the divorce process. They want to see the fate of the Bill and act
accordingly.
The law says...
From 2009 to 2010, there was a 26.6% increase in divorces in the city. The numbers fell thereafter.
There was a 14.9% decline in 2011 compared to 2010 and a further 4.5% drop in 2012 compared to
2011.
The trend coincides with a long drawn out debate on the Bill before it was passed by the Rajya
Sabha on August 26. Its scheduled to come up in the winter session of Lok Sabha.
The Bill has introduced a number of amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Special
Marriage Act, 1954. The property clause in the Bill lays down that the husband stands a chance of
losing up to 50% of his property to his wife. This includes his inherited and inheritable property, apart
from what he has acquired after marriage.
Moreover, it allows divorce on grounds of irretrievable breakdown of marriage if the spouses have
lived separately for three years. It will speed up the divorce process, thus avoiding years of litigation.
It also says that while the husband cannot oppose the divorce, the wife can, claiming FINANCIAL
hardships.
Men in a fix
Men seeking divorce are finding themselves in a fix. Goregaon resident Rajiv Aggarwal, 32, (name
changed), who filed for divorce two months ago, is wishing he had done it earlier.
I am stuck. The intimidation from my wifes family was getting out of control, so I had to file for
divorce. If the Bill is passed, men like me, who belong to the salaried class, will be doomed, said
Aggarwal, who separated from his wife barely a year after his marriage.
There are several other laws to protect women in our country like section 498 (a) of the IPC
which deals with dowry. It was slapped on me the day I filed the petition.
Mens rights groups have termed the Bill biased and anti-men.
Activist Amit Deshpande said the Bill would hardly empower women as it is wife-friendly, not
women-friendly. He says the Bill takes care of the wife but not the husbands mother or sister.
Divorces have slowed down, specially after talks of inclusion of the property clause in the Bill
surfaced around December 2012.
So, if this Bill is cleared in the Lok Sabha in its current form, it could offer more returns for the same
thing, said Deshpande.
New Bill, new fears
Men like Deshpande fear that just like the anti-dowry law, the proposed law may be misused by
women. Deshmukh, too, believes many women might misuse this Bill for FINANCIAL gains.
However, womens rights groups across the country have welcomed the Bill.
Also, experts believe there could be a massive jump in divorces once the Bill becomes an Act.
According to a Save India Family Foundation survey, divorce cases increased in countries such as
Australia and China after similar laws were passed.
Deshpande said, India can face the same situation if this Bill is cleared. Only the payer (husband)
wouldnt know how much he will have to pay since prenuptial agreements are not legal in our
country.
Geeta Luthra, a divorce lawyer in Delhi, said she receives many queries about the Bill every day,
both from men and women. She said there will be further amendments to the Bill, as it is
discriminatory to men and also contradicts the Hindu Succession Act.
Its not about property
Ashima Das (name changed), an IT professional from Mumbai whose divorce case is pending in the
Bandra family court, refuses to buy that the property argument can be reason for divorce cases
going down.
It might matter to some, which is reflecting in the statistics. For me, its more important to get out of
a bad marriage as soon as possible, instead of waiting for a Bill to turn into an Act, she said.
Similarly, in Bangalore, getting out of a bad marriage supersedes the property factor for most
women, say lawyers.
Activists slam one-sided Bill
Mens rights groups have termed the Bill biased and anti-men. Mens rights activist Amit
Deshpande said the Bill would hardly empower women as it is wife-friendly, not women-friendly.
He says the Bill takes care of the wife, but not the mother or sister of the husband
Men fear that just like the anti-dowry law, the proposed law might also be misused by women.
Lawyers, too, believe many women might misuse this Bill for FINANCIAL gains.
One in 10 adults suffers from hypothyroidism, finds survey
MUMBAI: One in 10 adults suffers from hypothyroidism, with the prevalence of the condition higher in
inland cities than in coastal locations, says a countrywide study.

The seafood DIET of coastal people may help prevent the disease, said experts in reaction to the
findings.

The study, published in the Indian JOURNAL of Endocrinology and Metabolism, shows that out of the
5,376 people who were surveyed, 10.95% were found to be suffering from hypothyroidism.
Hypothyroidism is a condition characterized by abnormally low thyroid hormone production, which
affects the entire body system along with a person's lifestyle.

"Of the 1,259 people studied in Mumbai, 9.61 per cent were diagnosed with hypothyroidism," Dr Mahesh
Padsalge, the city investigator of the study, said. "Out of these, 2.86 per cent did not EVEN know that
they were suffering from it."

The study found that inland cities such as Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad had a
higher prevalence of hypothyroidism compared to coastal locations such as the city, Goa and Chennai.

"It is just a theory and not a proven fact, but we believe that people in coastal areas have a lower risk of
hypothyroidism because of iodine-rich DIET ," Dr A G Unnikrishnan, principal investigator of the study,
said. "Iodine is found in the head portion of fish and is an element required in the production of thyroid
hormone."

If left untreated, hypothyroidism can cause elevated cholesterol levels, an increase in blood pressure, an
increased rate of cardiovascular complications, decreased fertility, AND DEPRESSION . In pregnant
women, it can cause placental abnormalities and put the baby's health at increased risk.

These symptoms are often confused with other disorders, making thyroid disorders one of the most
under-diagnosed in the country.

The study revealed that women were three times more likely to be affected than men; of the affected
population, 15.86 per cent were women and 5.02 per cent men. The finding was especially true for those
in midlife, that is the age bracket of 46-54 years.

Researchers are still trying to figure out why women are more prone to the disorder.

"Thyroid disorders in India are characterized by a high prevalence, minimal diagnosis, poor awareness
and low involvement of doctors in treatment," Unnikrishnan said. "There is a growing urgency
to CREATE awareness of thyroid disorders, the need for early and regular diagnosis and the importance
of following a recommended treatment regime."

Like diabetes, there is no permanent cure for most forms of thyroid disorders, but with medication and
precise treatment, these can be controlled so that patients lead normal lives.

Legislating virtue is futile

Fear of the law, however stringent, can only be an incidental tool for social change.

Last week, this column made the point that one cannot achieve virtuous conduct in society simply by writing more
laws that make it mandatory to pursue virtue. The focus should be on working at the grassroots of society, increasing
awareness of the people, and building capacities to spread knowledge and educating society as to why a certain
conduct is virtuous. This was said in the context of "hate speech", a concept difficult to define, and even more difficult
to eradicate just by increasing the fear of law.

The point can be controversial. Many in India do believe that one can solve one's way out of any problem by writing
law. Or, that no social evil can be eradicated without writing law. Any contrary view can be easily assailed as
politically incorrect and be stripped of nuance to be labeled as advocacy of lawlessness. It is such an attitude that has
led to India being an over-legislated society with a plethora of ineffective legislation.

Take the example of dishonour of cheques. The bouncing of any cheque was criminalised in the hope that the fear of
jail would lead to cheque dishonour becoming a rarity. No thought was given to whether it would be feasible to
administer such a measure in a nation of over a billion people, and to put every issuer of every bounced cheque
behind bars.

No thought was given to the burden that such ameasure would impose on taxpayer's funds and whether just the
expenditure of the court system on trial of such offenses would be commensurate with the amounts involved in the
bounced cheques.

Likewise, no thought was given to whether there would be enough magistrates to handle such work and whether their
time could be utilised in doing other more important work. The provisions criminalizing cheque-bouncing remain in
the books, the courts remain burdened with such proceedings, and even the jails are too cramped to accommodate
convicts. Meanwhile, occurrences of cheques bouncing refuse to get eradicated.

It is this attitude that has led to India being an over-regulated society, with the excessive regulation imposing a
burden on the judicial system, thereby feeding into under-enforcement. Meanwhile there is little impact of the
legislative intent on society. Everytime a more egregious wrong occurs, we hike punishments. We often couple that
with lowering the difficulty to prove that a wrong took place. At times, we even re-define the wrong so that we can
secure more convictions and to inflict greater punishments.

The net result is that spicier annual reports with greater claims to enforcement and convictions can get written by law
enforcement agencies and law-generating governments, but as a society, would continue with the failure to achieve
the objective that drove the writing of the law.

Governments take the easy way out by proposing new laws so that they can claim to have reacted well, make it
politically incorrect to oppose the new laws, and conveniently shirk the hard work of working at the grassroots of
society to change attitudes that lead to the occurrence of crime.

If fear of the law and the severity of punishment were to be adequate to address social evil, in this day and age,
murders should never take place - at least in jurisdictions that still inflict capital punishment. After all, the fear of
death is often touted as a fantastic deterrent. Our criminal laws were amended to change the very meaning of rape
and to enable inflicting even harsher sentences following the Nirbhaya rape case. Yet, the rape at Shakti Mills indeed
took place after these amendments were brought about.

Just a few days ago, in these pages, lawyer Flavia Agnes, a doyen in the cause of women's rights in India, wrote a
brilliant piece about how the death sentence for the convicts in the Shakti Mills rape case has left her with a "bitter
taste and a sense of betrayal" rather than present her with "a moment of great jubilation". She made some simple but
powerful points. By equating rape with murder, the victim is stigmatised as a "living corpse", which would lead to
lesser number of victims being willing to report the crime. Worse, the risk of the rapist killing the victim after rape
would increase.

Now, if anyone has the credibility and moral authority to present this argument this well, it is someone like Agnes,
who is not only a lawyer and hence conversant with the impact of legislation, but also one that has actually worked
amidst those who the law seeks to impact.

All law regulates members of society, seeking to achieve an ideal state of social conduct. Fear of punishment under the
law, however stringent, can only be a tool to nudge social conduct. The primary burden has to be shouldered by
increasing awareness and educating society about the benefits of good conduct.

After all, it is no solace to society to have a spectacular conviction rate in a record number of rape cases, if the
incidence of rape continues to remain high. It is not for nothing that corruption is the single biggest issue being
debated in this year's elections despite India having an anti-corruption that can be regarded as among the world's
most stringent.
Dying declaration unreliable, HC sets murder convict free
CHENNAI: On the deathbed, a person is not expected to tell lies. It is based on this principle that courts
give importance to dying declarations and base convictions.

Not in this case. A widow, who was allegedly set ablaze by her male friend, gave three dying declarations
which led to his conviction and a sentence of seven years in jail. But Justice Aruna Jagadeesan of the
Madras high court recently set the man at liberty, citing inconsistencies in the woman's statements.

Sounding a note of caution, the judge said: "Even though great solemnity and sanctity is to be attached to
the words of a person because a dying man/woman on the verge of death is not expected to tell lies, yet
the court has to be on guard against the statement of the deceased being a result of either tutoring,
promoting or a product of his/her imagination."
The case relates to Saradha, whose husband Selvam died in the late nineties. She later became very close
to Shanmugam, who allegedly poured kerosene and set her ablaze at Vasoor village in Tiruvannamalai in
June 2004.

After she was hospitalised, Saradha gave three dying declarations before her death - one to the doctor, the
other to the investigating officer and the third one to the judicial magistrate. In 2006, the Tiruvannamalai
sessions court found Shanmugam guilty and sentenced him to seven years rigorous imprisonment.

Justice Jagadeesan, taking note of the discrepancies in the three declarations, said the final one appeared
to be an improved version perhaps due to the influence of her family. "The contradictions in the dying
declarations, coupled with the high degree of improbability of the manner of occurrence as depicted by
the prosecution, leave the court with no option but to attach little WEIGHT to these declarations. When
there are discrepancies in the account given by the witnesses, it is unsafe to rely on the evidence and the
inconsistent dying declarations brought on record by the prosecution," said the judge.

She acquitted Shanmugam and directed the prosecution to return the bail amount, if any, deposited by
him after his conviction.

Sebi may let firms raise funds via public issue, listing of convertibles
U.K. Sinha says Sebi is willing to consider a separate set of listing guidelines for convertibles

Mumbai: The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said the regulator is considering a plan to allow
companies to raise money through the public issue and listing of convertibles on exchanges. Sebi chairman U.K. Sinha said several
companies have asked the regulator to allow them to raise money through convertibles and Sebi is willing to consider a separate set
of listing guidelines for them. If pricing (of public offerings) is an issue, one particular way out could be listing requirement for
convertibles. We are looking into it and I am expecting some more suggestions from the chambers of commerce. We are willing to
consider guidelines for convertibles, Sinha said, while addressing a conference organized by industry body Assocham in Mumbai.
Sebi is currently in discussion with the exchanges, investment bankers, brokers, mutual FUNDS, lawyers and chambers of
commerce to find ways to revive Indias primary MARKET. On Thursday, Mint reported that the markets regulator is planning to
relax some norms and introduce a few changes in the existing regulations to revive the primary MARKET. A formal list of
suggestions from bankers and MARKET participants is likely to be submitted to Sebi in the coming weeks, following which the
regulator will put out a discussion paper by July. In the last fiscal year, just Rs.13,000 crore was raised through primary MARKET
issuances, Sinha said. Over the last three to four years, primary market has been sluggishSebi data says in the last three years
over 60,000 intentions by corporations to go to the market have been dropped and prospectuses were allowed to lapse, Sinha said.
Over two-third of the issues are TRADING below the issue price, he said. So pricing remains an issue. In order to protect retail
investors from losses due to any sharp fall in the STOCK price post-listing, Sebi had proposed to introduce a mandatory safety net
mechanism in initial public offerings (IPOs) two years ago. The proposal was shelved because of severe resistance from bankers
and companies. We have dropped the idea of mandatory safety net and despite that, MARKET activity has not picked up My job
is to encourage people to raise money here and not go out to do that, Sinha said. The Sebi chairman said there are also
suggestions for the regulator to think of real e-IPO (conducting IPOs online), replicating the secondary MARKET practice. There is
also a suggestion to increase the quota for anchor investors and offer tax benefits for retail investors in an IPO, Sinha said. Sebi last
year created a platform called institutional TRADING platform which allows companies to list without IPOs. However, only
institutional investors such as mutual funds, insurance companies, private equity and venture capital firms can invest in such
companies. This platform helps in smoother exit for these investors through a better price discovery, Sinha said. If the
MARKETING is done well and pricing is fair, it is not possible that an issue will not succeed.

10 things the new government must do
Here are 10 things related to the economy and business wed like to see the new government do
New Delhi: By the time you read this, the contours of Indias new government should be clear. Here are 10 things related to the
economy and business wed like to see the new government do. 10. Kick-start the INVESTMENT cycle Long before Indias much
vaunted consumption story began fraying, in the past 12-18 months, investments slowed. Theres some unanimity that the worst is
over for the economy although there is also a growing consensus that the recovery will take time (and that the road will be hard). To
really kick-start the investment cycle, the new government must encourage state-owned companies, especially the so-called
Maharatnas and the Navaratnas to INVEST. Most of these companies are cash-rich, and an edict to them to, say, double capacities,
could serve the cause of growthand also of manufacturing. 9. Reassure investors Under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA),
and especially in that governments second term, there was an air of impermanence over most policies. Still worse, new policies
were often introduced with retrospective effect. The new government should, of course, change policies that need changing (and
many do), but it must protect investors, both domestic and foreign, who have already INVESTED on the basis of existing policies. 8.
Reform tax laws, rein in the taxman Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Sure, India needs to improve its tax-gross domestic
product (GDP) ratio and all that, but raids and unreasonable tax demands are not the way to go about it. The new government
should (and must) come down hard on tax evaders, but it should codify existing tax reformssuch as the goods and services tax
(GST) and the direct taxes code (DTC)and ensure that honest taxpayers, both individual and institutional, arent harassed. 7.
Eschew dirty growth In the past 10 years, India has swung from one end of the growth-environment debate to another, depending
on the environment minister of the day. There are fears that a new government focused exclusively on development would
completely ignore the environment, paving the way for so-called dirty growth. The new government should find a middle path. 6.
Recapitalize banks Indias biggest banks (which are still not very big by global standards) are still state-owned, and they all need
capital. It is a requirement born of statutory requirements of capital, and the rising pile of bad debt on the books of banks. Sure,
growth could help address the latter, but it would also mean an increase in demand for credit. 5 Review labour laws, resource-
allocation process Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Governments have always been averse to tinkering with the countrys
labour laws out of fear of antagonizing a significant chunk of voters; but, over the past decade, it has become evident that these
moribund laws have impeded Indias efforts to expand its manufacturing sector, hurt the countrys global competitiveness and, still
worse, not served the very people they were meant to protect by forcing companies to hire temporary workers who are often not on
their rolls. Companies have also been hit by opaque rules related to the allotment of national resourcestelecom spectrum, iron
ore, and coal. These rules have favoured some companies over others and, sometimes, even over national interests. The new
government should review both sets of rules. 4. Work on a new energy policy India has done little to address the issue of energy
security, is yet to get a handle on contentious fuel subsidies, and has blown hot and cold on non-conventional sources of energy. It
is alright for an economy thats the worlds third largest in purchasing parity terms to not have enough energy; it isnt alright for it to
not have a cogent energy policy. The new government should come up with oneand implement it. 3. Create truly independent
regulators For almost two decades, India has been struggling to move from a government-dominated economy to one where private
companies take over several things that were once the exclusive domain of the statefrom provision of telecom services to running
airlines and airports to building roads and power plants. Any such transition needs truly independent and empowered regulators.
Thats one thing that has been missing from the Indian business landscape in the past decade. Yes, there are regulators, but are
they truly independent? Are they truly empowered? Has the government of the day stayed away from the temptation of undermining
their authority? The new government should aim to create such regulators. 2. Dont throw out everything the old regime did Ads by
The weDownload ProAd Options In the past 10 years, if there are two things that the UPA can be credited with, it is the launch of a
national urban renewal missionurban was a four-letter word in the political lexicon before thatand the unique identification
programme that has given 600 million Indians unique biometrically verifiable IDs. India needs more cities, and its existing cities
desperately need an overhaul of infrastructure. And the ability to directly target benefits and subsidies at individuals using bank
accounts linked to unique IDs isnt something that should be sacrificedno matter who its political progenitors are. The new
government should keep both going. 1. Lead The economy needs proactive management, not reactive firefighting. The new
government should never forget this and do what it has been elected to do: Lead

Take help from Tata,
Wadia to repair cessed
SoBo bldg: HC to Parsi
trust
Rosy Sequeira
Mumbai:
TNN


The Bombay high court has directed a Parsi trust to seek help from the community's major
corporates, including the Tatas, Wadias and Godrej, to carry out major structural repairs on a cessed
building it owns near the Princess Street junction.
The HC also expressed concern about cessed buildings belonging to city public charitable trusts
that are in a bad shape and cannot be repaired due to lack of funds.
A division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice Anil Menon heard a petition by two residents--
Jehangir Gai and Farrokh Thanewalla--of one of the five ground-plus-two-storey buildings owned by
the H B Wadia Fire Temple Charity Fund saying that neither the landlord nor the Maharashtra Housing
and Area Development Authority (Mhada) is ready to repair the building citing financial inability .
In January 2012, the courtappointed structural engineer had said that after repairs, the building
would last 35-40 years and the expense would be around Rs 75 lakh.
The residents' advocates, Raju Moray and Sagar Rane, argued that Mhada cannot shirk its
responsibility to repair the cessed building and proposed that the cost of repairs be shared by all the
stakeholders, including the occupants and the trust.
Subsequently , the judges suggested that the trust explore the possibility of taking assistance from
wealthy community corporates. We are aware that major corporate houses, like the Tatas, Wadias
and Godrej, also have trusts whose aims and objectives would justify expenditure in the interest of the
community , they noted, in their May 9 order.
At an earlier hearing, the judges had enquired if the Bombay Parsi Punchayet would be in a
position to contribute for the building repairs. The trust's advocate informed the HC that they had
written to the Punchayet and are awaiting its response. The judges then directed the trust to publish
an advertisement calling for do nations in a newspaper having wide readership among the community
. They also ordered, Respondent 2 (trust) is directed to write letters to Tata, Wadia and Godrej
seeking their help in the matter.
The judges, at one point during the hearing, said that if the Wadia trust is able to provide a list of
similarly situated buildings belonging to other trusts, they would request the chief justice to treat the
matter as a suo motu public interest litigation so that appropriate orders may be passed.
The judges said Mhada and the Mumbai Buildings Repair and Reconstruction Board cannot shirk
their statutory responsibilities for the upkeep and maintenance of buildings which are cessed, and
many cessed buildings are owned by charitable trusts, which are not financially sound enough to
contribute towards maintaining buildings in a sound and tenable condition.
The court directed Mhada and MBRRB to reply on the steps they propose to take to repair the
building and the amount lying with them, at the next hearing on June 16.



Investors of 3 more Birla group cos move company law board
The worries of the Yash Birla group are far from over. Even as the small investors of Birla Power Solutions Limited
are pressuring the company, with the help of the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai police, to get their MONEY
back, small investors who have put money in the other units of the group too are readying for a legal battle for their
money.

The Company Law Board, a quasi-judicial body, has issued orders against four Yash Birla group companies directing
them to clear all dues of small investors by the end of this month.

Besides Birla Power Solutions limited (BPSL), whose investors have already appealed to the CLB and the EOW, Birla
Cotsyn Limited, Birla Shloka Edutech and Zenith Birla India Limited have been directed by the CLB to pay off dues of
small investors who have been approaching the board over the last few days.

The first order came late in March, after 82 small investors who approached the CLB got a reprieve when it ordered
Birla Cotsyn Limited to complete repayment of dues by September this year. This order came after the company
submitted a repayment schedule in two phases, with one ending in September, and another ending after 40 months.
The total value of repayments to be done by Cotsyn is not known.

The second order in late March directed the management of Birla Shloka Edutech consisting of chairman Dilip
Deshmukh and member Ashok Kumar Tripathi to repay the entire principal and interest of 47 investors who
approached the board, within 30 days. The CLB also directed the company to file an affidavit in the first week of May
reporting compliance.

The third CLB order against Birla Power Solutions Limited was delivered on April 12, after 614 investors approached
the board saying they were not paid their dues. Although the company argued that it had made a provision of Rs 15
crore for repayment, the process was stuck as the EOW had frozen its bank accounts. The company has informed CLB
that a repayment schedule was being submitted to the court. The CLB in its order said it found the company's
explanation `not satisfactory' and directed BPSL to pay its investors within 30 days and file a compliance affidavit by
May 15.

The fourth CLB order on April 28, directed Zenith Birla India Limited to pay 223 investors their dues with interest
within 30 days and file an affidavit by June 2.

Sources said if the four companies do not honour the CLB orders, the investors could approach the Registrar of
Companies (ROC) to initiate proceedings against the companies, which might mean fine for the companies and jail
for some of their officials.

BPSL has already moved the Bombay HC against the EOW decision to freeze its accounts and has submitted a
repayment proposal. BPSL wants EOW to agree to the proposal and defreeze its accounts. Senior advocate Niteen
Pradhan, who is representing the Yash Birla group in High Court, said, "A repayment proposal is being prepared for
Zenith Birla India Limited too. The group wishes to revive its companies and honour commitments to investors."
40 families get Napean Sea Road flats 28 years after purchasing them
The families will shift into homes they bought near Napean Sea Rd for Rs 55 lakh in the 80s; they could not move in
earlier due to violations, which have now been resolved.

Twenty-eight long years after a multi-storey building in south Mumbai was supposed to be ready, it is finally
complete.

Several families who had bought flats in Om Sadan on Narayan Dabholkar Marg, off Napean Sea Road, will now be
able to move into the homes they BOOKED IN the early 80s.

Many of the home owners have completed their interior
decorating
, while others are giving final touches to their flats. All they await now is an occupation certificate from BMC, which is
expected in the next few days.

Om Sadan, which was among the first few high-rises in the island city, was planned way back in 1980 on a plot owned
by one Yashoda Mundra that used to house a few bungalows and a bank training institute.

In 1980, developer Om Navani and Mundra's son Vijay Mundra floated Om Sadan Pvt Ltd, which was to develop a
multi-storey tower. Almost all the flats were sold out in the first four years, even as construction was on in full swing.

However, before the tower could be completed as per schedule in 1986, there were several complaints of mass scale
irregularities and misuse of FSI. The BMC issued a 'stop work' notice, and the case was referred to the Anti
Corruption Bureau. Subsequently, several buyers also filed cases against the developers. The Bombay High Court then
appointed a committee of court receivers, which included an architect, the developer's representative and a
representative of the flat owners.

Insiders reveal that in the last two decades, work progressed at a slow but steady pace. The biggest challenge for the
committee was to get rid of violations committed by the developers. Sources said that two upper floors, which were to
house flats for Mundra and Navani, were the first to be demolished. Several other areas in the building which were in
excess of permissible FSI, were also demolished.

With all matters pertaining to violations now resolved, the 22-storey building - it has now been renamed Infinity
Tower - is finally complete. Each floor has two flats, while the upper four floors have four duplexes. The flat buyers
say that in the early 80s they paid Rs 55 lakh for a 2,000-odd sq ft house, which are now worth Rs 16-17 crore. "It was
one of the few high-rises in the city that promised an elite lifestyle. It also offered a breathtaking view of the sea, and
the flats were really large," said a buyer.

"With finances provided by the flat owners, the building has finally been completed," said advocate Mahendra
Ghelani, who owns a penthouse in the building. "It has come as a huge relief for the buyers who have been dreaming
of living in their own homes for years," he added.
Ambani's Antilia most expensive billionaire home
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's skyscraper residence in Mumbai, Antilia, is the world's most
expensive according to a Forbes list of billionaire homes that also includes Indian-origin steel tycoon Lakshmi N
Mittal's houses in London.

Ambani's 27-storey, 400,000-square-foot Antilia, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic, tops the list with a
value of over $1 billion. "The title of the most outrageously-expensive property in the world still belongs to Mukesh
Ambani's Antilia in Mumbai," Forbes said. The house has six storeys of underground parking, three helicopter pads,
and reportedly requires a staff of 600 for upkeep.

Putting Antilia's scale and cost into perspective, Forbes compared it to '7, World TRADE Center', a 52-storey tower
that stands near Ground Zero in Manhattan with 1.7 million square feet of office space, reportedly built for $2 billion.

Mittal's houses in London's Kensington Palace Gardens stand 5th and 18th on the list of 21 most expensive billionaire
homes. The steel magnate is believed to own three homes on the high-security street known as 'Billionaires Row',
including a neo-Georgian mansion near the Israeli embassy, rumoured to have been purchased for his son. Sold by
hedge FUND billionaire Noam Gottesman in 2008 for about $222 million, the mansion is reportedly up for sale now.

Another 55,000-square-foot mansion owned by Mittal on the upscale street was purchased for nearly $90 million in
2004 from billionaire Bernie Ecclestone. After pouring millions more into its renovation, Mittal had named it 'Taj
Mittal'. The house has 12 bedrooms, a pool and marble sourced from the same quarry as the Taj Mahal, Forbes said.

"As 2014 continues, the list of outrageously-priced homes owned by billionaires is stacking up. Though the market
cooled off a bit in 2013, with no properties TRADING hands above the $100-million mark, 2014 has kicked off with
a bang. London set a new record, and three homes have been sold for more than $100 million so far this year in the
US alone," Forbes said. The second on the Forbes list is 'Villa Leopolda', the home of Brazilian philanthropist and
social figure Lily Safra in France.

The magazine said the estate was reportedly one of several waterside homes that King Leopold II of Belgium built for
his many mistresses. Set on 20 acres, the massive home was valued at $750 million at the time Russian billionaire
Mikhail Prokhorov tried to buy it in 2008. The third-most expensive billionaire home - the most expensive in the US -
is the residence of American investor and businessman Ira Rennert in Sagaponack, New York. Its value is pegged at
about $248.5 million.
1 Antilia, Mumbai, India
Owner: Mukesh Ambani ($23.9 bn)
Value: Over $1 bn

2 Villa Leopolda, Villefranche-sur-mer, France
Owner: Lily Safra ($1.3 billion)
Purchase price: $750 mn in 2008

3 Fair Field, New York, USA
Owner: Ira Rennert ($6 bn)
Value: About $248.5 mn

4 One Hyde Park, London, UK
Owner: Unknown
Sale price: $237 mn in May 2014

5 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, UK
Owner: Lakshmi N Mittal ($16.6 bn)
Purchase price: $222 mn in 2008


Forest clearances set to go online
The Union environment ministry has given an in-principle nod to route forest clearances through an electronic
platform. On Wednesday, the ministry released a detailed project report in this regard. The report, prepared by EY,
said the e-filing system would enhance efficiency, reduce turnaround time per activity and lead to standard processes
across state and regional levels.

The move comes two months after the ministry altered regulations and announced strict deadlines against each step
of the forest clearance process, starting from the state government level.

Unlike mandatory environment clearances, forest clearances take a more circuitous route, with state governments
required to moot the proposal for handing over government land to industry. Proposals relating to more than 100
hectares are necessarily cleared by the Centre, while those pertaining to more than 50 hectares are approved by the
ministry's regional offices. At times, project appraisals take more than two years, with either the state or the Centre
sitting on files, in the absence of statutory deadlines.
THROUGH THE NET
The project report states e-filing system will
enhance efficiency, reduce turnaround time per
activity and achieve standardised processes
across state and regional levels.
Move comes 2 months after environment
ministry altered the regulations and put strict
deadlines against each step of the forest
clearance process
Department Of Industrial Policy & Promotion had
mooted an integral model of approving
environment projects through it
More clarity is needed whether the responsibility
and supervision of clearing the files would be
under the DIPPjurisdiction or not

Earlier, the ministry had agreed to a long-standing proposal of the department of industrial policy and promotion
(DIPP) that project developers route proposals through the commerce ministry's 'eBiz' platform, envisaged to provide
a single online window for industry to secure all approvals required from the Centre.

DIPP, under the commerce ministry, had recommended an integral model of approving environment projects through
it, something strongly advocated by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Documents with Business Standard show
eventually, the ministry approved the plan, after the PMO pursued the matter for about a year.

Initially, former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan seemed reluctant on the eBiz window front, wary it would
permit officials from other ministries to take up supervisory roles for tasks which forest laws mandate only the
environment ministry to undertake.

It is still unclear whether the responsibility and supervision of clearing files will be under DIPP or not.

A second set of reforms relating to monitoring clearances, once these have are handed to industry, are yet to be put
in place. It is likely this will be high on the agenda of the next government.
SC orders status quo on Supertech demolition case
Apex court order said none of the parties shall alienate, transfer or create third-party interests in the
property

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered status quo be maintained on an order to demolish Supertechs two towers in
its project, Emerald Court, in Noida. The bench, headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha, issued notices on petitions by
Supertech, Noida Authority, home buyers and the Residents Welfare Association (RWA).

None of the parties shall alienate, transfer or create third-party interests in the property, the order said.

The bench pulled up Noida (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) and expressed surprise as to how it had
permitted the construction of 40-floor buildings. If the towers are to be demolished, the authority will have to face
the consequences, it said.

Clarifying on penalty and compensation, the court said if the towers are demolished, the MONEY must be paid to
flat owners by the authority (Noida), as it colluded and participated in clearing the projects. The bench also raised
questions on how the number of floors was raised from 24 to 40 during construction.

The case will be heard after two months, when the Supreme Court reopens after vacations.

In a statement issued by Supertech, it said the court had further stayed the operation of the orders of the Allahabad
High Court, which had directed demolition of two towers Apex and Ceyane. The two towers have about 900
apartments, of which 600 were sold.

Supertech had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court for an immediate stay on the high court order.
The buyers of apartments in those two towers had filed an SLP separately against the same order. Even the RWA of
Emerald Court, on whose petition the high court gave the order, had filed a caveat in the Supreme Court.

In an order on April 11, the high court ordered demolition of the two towers in Emerald Court on the Noida-Greater
Noida expressway. The order also asked the company to refund MONEY to the buyers, with 14 per cent interest
compounded annually.

Subsequently, the towers were sealed by authority on April 15.

The counsel for Supertech, Mukul Rohtagi, argued the plan was certified by

IIT-Roorkee and approved by Noida Authority. Though the original plan was to build 24 floors, it bought more land,
and thereafter, the FAR (floor area ratio) regulations were followed. The rule regarding the distance between the two
towers was also adhered to and the home buyers are with the builder, Rohtagi said.

The judges remarked that though they were not experts on civil engineering, they wondered how a foundation
meant originally for 11 stories could bear the weight of 40 stories. They also said the costing defied all common
sense.

R K Arora, chairman and managing director, Supertech, in the statement said, The company has done the
construction according to the approved building plans conforming to the Building Regulations of Noida Authority and
the National Building Code, 2005. It has full faith on the Supreme Court that justice will be done to the company and
its customers.

The high court judgment was passed while allowing a petition of the Emerald Court Owners Resident Welfare
Association, which alleged the approval and construction of the towers was in complete violation of the UP
Apartments Act.

The petitioner claimed the Noida Authority had given permission to raise the height of the towers, which were
supposed to have only 24 floors, without maintaining the mandatory distance of 16 metres from an adjoining building
block, making it unsafe, apart from blocking air and light.

Supertech has 75 million square feet under construction across residential, commercial and hospitality segments.
RBI Asked to Vet the Way Banks Raise Tier-II Funds

Govt wants to address concerns raised by IRDA over use of questionable instruments

DHEERAJ TIWARI NEW DELHI


The government has asked the Reserve Bank (RBI) to set up a committee to look into the insurance regulators concerns
that some of the instruments issued by banks to raise tier-II capital were perpetual and illiquid.The Insurance Regulatory &
Development Authority (IRDA) has also said that some of these instruments are flouting its investment norms.The
committee will look into issue of and subscription to tier-II instruments under the new Basel-III capitalisation guidelines,a
finance ministry official said.The insurance regulator has raised concerns over certain instruments.We have asked RBI to
take up those issues, the official said,requesting anonymity.As per Basel-III norms,banks can cancel interest or dividends on
instruments raised under tier-II capital or write off such investments in times of stress.Life Insurance Corporation (LIC),the
countrys biggest insurer,has invested around.10,000 crore in Tier-II bonds of public sector banks,which are typically
unsecured and cannot be converted into equity.In February,the insurance regulator had allowed insurers to invest in debt
capital instruments and redeemable noncumulative and cumulative preference shares.An IRDA official said there are also
issues with the credit ratings of some instruments that do not meet investment guidelines prescribed for insurance
companies.In view of the substantial need for raising additional capital by banks to meet the new regulatory norms,we had
allowed certain instruments but it was observed that some of them are flouting our investment norms, the IRDA offici al
added.According to RBIs estimate,public and private sector banks will together need an additional capital of.5 lakh crore to
comply with the Basel-III regulations.Of this,equity capital requirement will be of.1.75 lakh crore and non-equity capital
of.3.25 lakh crore.Both the regulators will be able to work out a mechanism, said the finance ministry official quoted
earlier.The government is hoping to channelise pension and insurance funds in banks to meet the huge capital
requirements.Additionally,IRDA is also examining a proposal to raise insurance companies exposure limit to the banking
sector to 30% from 25%.Financial services secretary GS Sandhu had earlier told ET that the government cannot bank on
LIC alone to capitalise banks and that it will review how much further exposure the insurer can have in banks.The
government has allocated just.11,200 crore towards bank capitalisation this fiscal,which is substantially less than the amount
infused in the last few years.



Affordable housing company VBHC raises funds via rights issue
Investors, including the Carlyle Group and IFC have subscribed to the issue, along with a few other wealthy investors

Bangalore: V alue and Budget Housing Corp. Pvt Ltd (VBHC), started by entrepreneurs Jaithirth Rao and P.S. Jayakumar, has
raised Rs.65 crore through a rights issue. Investors, including the Carlyle Group and International Finance Corp., part of the World
Bank Group, have subscribed to the issue, along with a few other wealthy investors. Rao has INVESTED his own capital in this
fresh round of fund-raising, but didnt disclose further details. The MONEY will be used to forge joint development deals for new
projects in Bangalore and Mumbai, VBHC chairman Rao said in an interview. We opted for a rights issue because we didnt wish to
look outside to raise MONEY and decided to approach our earlier investors, he said. A rights issue to a companys shareholders
entitles them to buy additional STOCK from the firm in proportion to their existing holdings. VBHC, which has offices in Mumbai and
Bangalore, raised around Rs.60 crore from IFC in May 2013. Before that, it had raised $26 million from the Carlyle Group in 2011.
Carlyle Group declined comment on the rights issue. In 2010, VBHC launched its first project near Bangalore, with 1,500 homes.
We have seven projects running nowin Bhiwadi, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbaiand want to add another four to five projects
in the coming year, said Rao. We would have definitely wanted to add many more projects by now, but the overall regulatory
environment is hostile to affordable housing, making it difficult for us to add momentum. VBHC homes cost around Rs.10-25 lakh
on an average. The housing firm recently launched a high-end project in Bangalores Whitefield area in a joint venture arrangement
with apartments priced at around Rs.50 lakh each, marking a departure from its sole focus on budget homes. Rao said the
management is still deliberating on whether there will be a strategic move to build homes in the premium category, too, largely
owing to the higher profitability of this business, but the Whitefield project remains the only such in VBHCs portfolio. Low-cost
housing projects have been a mixed bag, with some of them taking off well in certain cities, said Rajeev Bairathi, executive director,
capital transactions group and north India at property advisory Knight Frank India. The key to successful affordable housing
ventures is availability of large and cheap land parcels, because its a high volume-low margin business. Bairathi says such projects
have to come up in peripheral areas of cities, so there is a need for huge infrastructure development to make them viable and
accessible.


Supertech to file petition in SC today
Supertech has received at least 100 applications for refund of MONEY from people who have bought apartments in
its two illegal towers in Emerald Court at Expressway Noida.

The Allahabad High Court had ordered the demolition of the two towers on April 11. The court also asked the
company to refund MONEY to the buyers with 14 per cent interest compounded annually. The two towers - Apex
and Ceyane - have 857 apartments, out of which 600 have been sold.

Following the order, Supertech set up an internal team to look into the issues related to the affected buyers.

The company has given three options to the buyers - take refund, shift to another project of Supertech or wait for
the legal recourse to end.

Another set of buyers had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court last week to make them a party in
the case and seeking a stay on the order till the disposal of their petition, said a buyer involved in the process.

Initially, 40 buyers signed up the petition and now, another 50-60 buyers have come forward to be made a party in
the case. Supertech also plans to file an SLP in the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the Allahabad High Court
order, company chairman and managing director R K Arora told Business Standard.

However, Arora said the company has received only a few applications for refund while some applications are for
transfer of apartments to some other project of Supertech.

The outgo from the company on the refund applications could not be ascertained immediately.

The April 11 judgment was passed while allowing a writ petition of the Emerald Court Owners Resident Welfare
Association, which alleged that the approval and construction of the towers was "in complete violation of the UP
Apartment Acts." The petitioner claimed the Noida Authority had given permission to raise the height of the towers,
which were supposed to have only 24 floors, without maintaining the mandatory distance of 16 metres from an
adjoining building block, making it "unsafe, apart from blocking air and light."

Two judgments in education
Violating individual rights while giving precedence to minority rights is reflective of the fragility of two recent judgments Anurag
Behar
On 6 May a five-member constitution bench of the Supreme Court (SC) pronounced its judgment in two separate cases on
education. In the case that will be known as Pramati, the bench upheld the constitutional validity of the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE). This was a reaffirmation of the courts earlier position, pronounced in 2012, in Society for
Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan versus Union of India and others. The second part of the Pramati judgment exempts all
minority institutions from the RTE. This is an expansion of the ambit of exemption from Society, which had limited it to unaided
minority institutions. Minority institutions here refer to both religious and linguistic minorities, as referred to within the Constitution. In
both Pramati and Society the challenge to the RTE was posed in courts by groups of private schools. The nub of the issue has been
the RTE forcing the private schools to admit 25% of their students from socio-economically backward classes. Despite the judgment
in 2012, many private schools have opposed this provision (and others) of the RTE in practice. The judgment in the second case
labelled as Associated, basically said that there are sound educational reasons for using the mother tongue of children as the
medium of instruction in schools; however this mother tongue cannot be imposed by anyonenot even the State; it must be the
choice of the parents. Specifically it states that the State cannot stipulate as a condition for recognition of the medium-of-instruction,
for private unaided schools and for minority schools. Over many years the Karnataka government had fought a battle in the courts to
protect its policy of making recognition of schools by the government contingent upon schools using Kannada (thus making it
mandatory) as the medium of instruction in primary classes. The Associated judgment invalidates this policy. Lets consider some
issues and implications of the second part of the Pramati and that of the Associated judgments. Ads by The weDownload ProAd
Options In Pramati (and in Society) the courts position rests on the idea that mandating minority institutions to admit 25% students
from socio-economically backward communities may lead to diluting the minority character of the institutions. This in itself is a
contestable point e.g. the 25% students could well be from the relevant minority. However there are two other big issues with this
judgment. The first issue is why should minority institutions be exempt from the entire RTE Act? For example, the requirement to
have trained teachers has no relationship to the minority character of institutions, why should there be an exemption from that? The
RTE has 38 sections with multiple provisions, most with direct educational and environmental (including safety) implications for
students. Blanket exemption from all these sections and clauses, when they have no relationship to the core issue as identified by
the SC itself, is not justified. Second is the issue of definition and classification of minority institutions. Already, getting classified as a
minority institution is a racket (there are bonafide minority institutions also; I am not referring to them). This judgment is likely to lead
to further abuse of this classification, because the ambiguity of the definition remains, and the privileges (exemption from RTE!) of
being a minority institution have increased manifold. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options These two specific issues are
reflective of the fragility of these judgments. Pramati should have clarified and resolved issues arising from Society, it has done the
opposite. The fragility arises from giving precedence to the notion of protection of rights of minority institutions over everything else,
including educational considerations, realities on the ground and other central features of the Constitution such as reasonable,
justifiable restrictions on freedoms to achieve ends such as social justice. The judgment in Associated has no such fragility.
Mandating schools to use a particular language as medium of instruction violates the right of linguistic minorities to choose their
language of instruction. Even more fundamentally, it violates the rights of individuals to choose their language. Also, given the deep
linguistic diversity of all regions of the country, no one language can be claimed to be the mother tongue of all students in any
region. So, the court sees no justification for a regional medium of instruction, even on limited pedagogical grounds. Despite the
soundness of this judgment, it will be contested for sure because of very important socio-cultural reasons. The reasons arise from
the legitimate desire to preserve Kannada and other regional languages, which are under onslaught on various fronts, including the
almost universal desire of parents to move children to English medium schools. We will have to figure out ways for our languages
to survive and grow in the face of this onslaught. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options This is just another episode where our
legal and political systems, deeply shape education. Associated may well be final word on the matter of medium-of-instruction, given
the weight of a five-member constitutional bench, but its not going to be final word on the overall matter of languages. I hope
Pramati is not the final word on minority institutions, for the sake of education. Anurag Behar is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation and
also leads sustainability initiatives for Wipro Ltd. He writes every fortnight on issues of ecology and education. Comments are
welcome at othersphere@livemint.com. To read Anurag Behars previous columns, go to www.livemint.com/othersphere Follow Mint
Opinion on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Mint_Opinion-

BMC may ban its docs from private practice
Civic body suspects a good many docs are busy consulting in private during their civic duty hours.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is considering a total ban on private practice by its doctors as it
suspects a good many are busy consulting in private during their compulsory civic duty hours. However, it is in two
minds about the ban as it also fears civic hospitals might lose skilled hands in the process.

BMC has sought the advice of the deans of municipal hospitals who have been asked to submit a report in a month's
time, said Mayor Sunil Prabhu. Recently six doctors from Nair, Sion and KEM hospitals were under scrutiny for
dereliction of duty; two of them who were suspended, resigned later on.

The BMC pays modest salaries to its doctors but also allows them to practise at their own clinics or at private
hospitals after their office hours of 9 am to 4 pm, provided they do not take the Non-Practice Allowance. On their
part, the doctors are also very keen to be attached to civic hospitals as the tremendous experience they get treating
unique cases enhances their work profile.

Dr Saeeda Khan, corporator from Kurla, who officially proposed the ban in the civic general body said BMC's
objective in allowing its doctors private practice was to retain good doctors for treating poor patients. "But recently it
has been found that some doctors were not available at their consulting rooms at the BMC hospitals they are attached
to. Our civic patient queues are growing longer as treatment gets delayed," she said.

Prabhu also said senior doctors at civic hospitals have been asked to track the duty record of doctors and submit a
detailed report. "As a civic body we are concerned about poor and needy patients," he said.

Dr.Suhasini Nagda, medical director of BMC and dean of Nair Dental College said it it was deplorable that a freedom
that was given to doctors so that skilled people could serve BMC was being misused. "They should be monitored
properly and the guilty punished," she said. According to a report compiled by the BMC's health department, 17
percent of its 1200 doctors practise privately.

Dr. Avinash Supe, dean of Sion Hospital said there were opposing views on the ban and that its pros and cons ought
to be considered.

In July last year, BMC had issued a circular stating that civic doctors found to be away during work hours would be
suspended, and their services even terminated.

WHAT BMC DOCS EARN

* Lecturer: Salary of Rs. 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per month

* Associate professor: Rs. 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh

* Professor: Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh

* Doctors are entitled to pension which they would never get from private practice.

* Accommodation within hospital premises also provided, but few docs move in

* (Intangible) Experience tackling unique cases

Court reunites elderly couple kept apart by Muslim body
By Sunil Baghel, Mumbai Mirror | May 1, 2014, 02.53 AM IST
An elderly Muslim couple, who had approached the Bombay High Court after a community body denied them
cohabitation, can finally reunite.

The Wadala couple, married for 32 years, had approached the Masjid Jamatul Muslimeen Dangar early in 2013, to
seek advice about their marital differences. The body asked them to get divorced. Some documents were executed
and, it is alleged, the body took Rs 3.5 lakh and 70 gm GOLD from the woman's parents as their fee. After 10
months of separation, the couple decided to reconcile but the Jamat counsellors threatened them with ex-
communication, if they went ahead. The husband (55) then filed a petition in the high court, seeking criminal action
against the body's office bearers.

On Wednesday, the division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai told the couple that the
Jamat members will not trouble them. The court also asked the advocates from both sides to make their clients
understand the importance of the issue.

The court told the Jamat's advocate that they should understand the sensitivity of such issues. "People may approach
elders, members of the society or a community body like yours for advice and the members may give certain advice,
irrespective of the fact that these bodies may not have any legal sanction. If people choose to agree to the advice, that's
fine. But if they don't, no one should be forced to do so."

The lawyer appearing for the Jamat told the court that her clients never intended to interfere in the petitioner's life
and therefore will not cause any trouble. She also made a statement that the members were willing to return the
money and GOLD to the wife, if she approaches them.
Debashis Basu: Maximum governance = rule of
law?
Narendra Modi is widely expected to be the country's next prime minister. If this happens, business people uniformly
expect "good governance" - except good governance is an undefined term; it means different things to different
people. For some, clearing files that may contain gold-plated capital expenditures or lucrative coal blocks is good
governance. For others, it could be allowing or not allowing foreign direct INVESTMENT in the retail sector.

For the vast majority of the population - especially the middle class, the poor and small-business people - good
governance possibly means sensible laws and the implementation of such laws without favour: in other words, a
regime of the "rule of law". This, when combined with a reasonable degree of freedom, allows people everywhere to
do wonders all by themselves.

Unfortunately, many of the existing laws that govern business - and our lives - have been inherited from the British
and are defunct or absurd. Some serve only one purpose now: that is, regular extortion by government officials.

There is no dearth of people who have researched this area thoroughly. They can regale Narendra Modi with
something like the East Punjab Agricultural Pests, Diseases and Noxious Weeds Act of 1949, which applies to Delhi.
According to Bibek Debroy, who has written entertainingly and extensively about Indian legal absurdities, under this
act, "if Delhi is invaded by locusts, the collector can call upon all adult males to help in destroying locusts and it is a
crime to refuse. You will be notified about locusts through beating of drums".

Mr Debroy gives many such examples, the fruits of his extensive research in the late 1990s. The Bengal Bonded
Warehouse Association Act, 1838, stipulates that only residents of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal can be its
directors and the association can sell its property only to the East India Company. The 162-year-old "association" has
not yet been dissolved. India's central bank is a temporary institution under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

Apart from such irrelevant central laws, we have tens of thousands of state laws. Then there are rules enacted by the
government under legislation; such rules outnumber the laws by 20 times. To this, you can add notifications and
circulars. Then there are decisions and individual interpretations by judges.

A brush with any of these could be depressing and debilitating. At our office in Mumbai, we are blessed with
occasional visits by petty officials of the municipal corporation who may ask to see a Lime WashRegister. Yes, you
need one, according to them. An architect told us that partitions of any kind are illegal because the law says you
need to allow free flow of air across the office. This law was enacted by the British for public health well before room
air conditioners came into use. Municipal inspectors smile and tell you that "you will not be able to comply with the
rules we have".

The Centre and states together have almost 31,000 laws. Many new central laws are added every year. The
"socialist" regimes of the Nehrus and Indira Gandhi, the "rights-based" regime of Sonia Gandhi, and the concerted
action by militant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have created many new laws with draconian provisions.
There are old laws that hinder free movement of goods and services in an era when there is a "broad consensus
about economic reforms among all the parties", as intellectuals like to parrot.

Well, the Essential Commodities Act of 1955 and the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act do not permit free
movement of agricultural produce. Politicians and officials rarely talk of removing such restrictions mainly because
they are breeding grounds for corruption - with the officials lying in wait to trap unsuspecting citizens. I have not
even gone into the huge delays in delivering justice through the existing legal system.

A bigger issue is the implementation of laws without favour. In India today, the rich and powerful can get away with
sidestepping laws that harshly penalise others. Defaulting on depositing provident FUND dues or tax deducted at
source can attract penalties, including imprisonment; some businessmen escape this treatment. If you haven't repaid
your loan, banks will take away your assets; Vijay Mallya, however, is most likely to escape the well-established rule
of law. This is not an isolated case. Indeed, the most glaring example of the breakdown of the rule of law is a
dramatic increase in non-performing assets 10 years after the government enacted the Securitisation and
Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002.

This law was enacted specifically to deal with rampant bad loans in the late 1990s that bankrupted government-
owned banks. These banks then needed to be recapitalised by drawing upon thousands of crores of
taxpayers' MONEY . The law was specifically meant to plug this problem forever. And it was easy to do so. Lending
laws can be among the simplest. Banks are supposed to lend against security and, at the same time, keep a margin,
backed by a strong law that the government gave them. There was no scope for banks to end up with large bad
loans again. So, how have we landed up exactly in the same situation 10 years later? Taxpayers' money worth Rs
14,000 crore had to be pumped into government banks last year to save these institutions. Why are successive
finance ministers and finance secretaries not responsible for this? To my mind, there cannot be a more open-and-
shut case of misgovernance, a more glaring example of the failure to implement even a new law.

Rahul Gandhi said last year that we seemed to be looking for "the man who comes in on a horse, the sun in the
background, and he is going to fix everything". If Narendra Modi becomes prime minister and can deliver governance
through the rule of law, he may end up looking like that man, at least for some time. This is because there is just too
much to be done, and plenty of it is quite easy to fix.

Forced to walk on burning coal to prove chastity, city housewife
granted divorce
The Family Court in Bandra recently granted divorce to a city housewife, after she said she was made to walk on
burning coal by her husband to prove her chastity. The court also ordered the husband to pay maintenance to the
woman and their two-yearold son.

The court, which relied mainly on the testimony of the woman under oath as the husband did not appear to defend
himself or deny the allegation, said there was no reason to disbelieve the petitioner.

The 29-year-old woman (name withheld), currently living with her parents in Jogeshwari, had been married to her
husband in Karnataka in November 2008. Two months later, the couple shifted to Dubai where the man worked.

In her divorce petition, the woman alleged that soon after the marriage, in 2009, disputes arose between her and her
husband. She told the court that she underwent an operation a year later, but instead of taking care of her she was
thrown out of the house and sent back to India in 2010.

The woman further told the court that she delivered a baby boy on December 8, 2010, but it took all of five months for
her husband to come to Mumbai to see his child for the first time. What's more, during his stay in the city, her
husband asked her to walk on burning coal to prove her chastity. She told the court that when she suffered burns due
to the act, she was the one who was blamed as her husband said it was all her fault.

Despite this, the woman said that in 2012 she took her son then two years old with her to Muscat to be with her
husband who had switched jobs by then, but was driven home once again. She filed for divorce the same year.

Though served a court notice, the woman's husband remained unavailable to defend himself during the course of the
trial. While granting the divorce Judge S N Rukme ordered that the woman and child be paid maintenance of Rs
10,000 and Rs 5,000 each.

"It is the duty of a responsible husband/father to provide all comforts as per his capacity to his wife and child.
Evidence shows that the petitioner was always willing to continue relations, but the respondent did not take proper
care of her and the child," the judge observed. "On the contrary, it appears that the respondent was superstitious as he
asked the petitioner to walk on burning coal, and when she suffered injury, he blamed her for it."

Gopal Raheja's new will bequeaths everything to daughters

MUMBAI: The Gopal Raheja family dispute has taken a new twist with the emergence of a fresh will wherein the late real-
estate mogul has bequeathed his entire property valued at Rs 11,000 crore in 2012 equally between his two
daughters, leaving nothing for son Sandeep.
The latest will had been purportedly written in January 2012, meaning it supersedes a 2007 will that said his estranged son
and daughter-in-law Durga will inherit all his estates and other assets. According to the previous will, the billionaire Mumbai
builder did not make any provision for daughtersSabita Narang and Sonali Arora because he had already provided for them.
A lawyer representing Narang said the family knows about the latest will dated on January 12, 2012.
"Through this final will, the father has passed on entire control to both the daughters," said the lawyer on condition of
anonymity. ET has reviewed a copy of what was referred to by the lawyer as the last registered will. In it Raheja has clarified
that son Sandeep's rights over shares of various companies held by them in joint names were for the 'sake of convenience
only" and that he has "no right of any nature" in respect of such shares. Sandeep Raheja did not respond to several
telephone calls and text messages. K Raheja Constructions, which is managed by him, did not reply to an email seeking
comment. The 2007 will had surprised many, because of the hostile relationship that the father and son had developed in
recent years. In 2012, the senior Raheja had accused his son of trying to usurp his entire business consisti ng of 25
companies, and moved Bombay High Court against Sandeep. However, he had later expressed his willingness to consider
an out-of-court settlement. Raheja died last at the age of 80 years. The group patriarch's death had left a question mark over
the inheritance of his fortunes.
Asource close to one of the sisters said they were not open to discussing the issue in public and that they would still like to
settle it out of court. he family is known to guard its privacy and has been maintaining a low profile. Narang and Arora, the
daughters, have been named joint executors and trustees of the latest will. One of them is likely to represent the father in the
ongoing court case. The next hearing is scheduled after court vacations. In the will that was purportedly drafted two years
ago, the late Raheja declared that the assets were created by "own self-acquired properties" and therefore he had the right
to dispose it as he "deemed fit".
Raheja's fight against his only son originated from an earlier arrangement of allotting shares to him in 2005-06. Raheja had
given his son 58 per cent control of the company shares with an understanding that the father will still retain control of the
group. In 2012, the father moved the court accusing his son of not fulfilling this arrangement. Raheja, one of the first
professional developers in the country, had been active in the business since the 1960s and is known mostly for his
residential developments across central Mumbai's Worli and the suburbs of Bandra, Khar, SantaCruz and Juhu.
The real-estate group is known as one of the biggest private owners of land in Mumbai. It also owns properties in other parts
of the country through several subsidiaries. Raheja's father, Lachmandas, was also a real-estate developer, who founded
the K Raheja group in the 1950s.
Gopal Raheja's new will bequeaths everything to daughters
Kailash Babar & Maulik Vyas, ET Bureau Apr 28, 2014, 04.00AM IST


Tags:
Sandeep Raheja|
K Raheja Constructions|
Gopal Raheja|
fresh will|
Daughters

(The Gopal Raheja family)
MUMBAI: The Gopal Raheja family dispute has taken a new twist with the emergence of a fresh will wherein the late real-
estate mogul has bequeathed his entire property valued at Rs 11,000 crore in 2012 equally between his two
daughters, leaving nothing for son Sandeep.
The latest will had been purportedly written in January 2012, meaning it supersedes a 2007 will that said his estranged son
and daughter-in-law Durga will inherit all his estates and other assets. According to the previous will, the billionaire Mumbai
builder did not make any provision for daughtersSabita Narang and Sonali Arora because he had already provided for them.
A lawyer representing Narang said the family knows about the latest will dated on January 12, 2012.
Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options
"Through this final will, the father has passed on entire control to both the daughters," said the lawyer on condition of
anonymity. ET has reviewed a copy of what was referred to by the lawyer as the last registered will. In it Raheja has clarified
that son Sandeep's rights over shares of various companies held by them in joint names were for the 'sake of convenience
only" and that he has "no right of any nature" in respect of such shares. Sandeep Raheja did not respond to several
telephone calls and text messages. K Raheja Constructions, which is managed by him, did not reply to an email seeking
comment. The 2007 will had surprised many, because of the hostile relationship that the father and son had developed in
recent years. In 2012, the senior Raheja had accused his son of trying to usurp his entire business consisting of 25
companies, and moved Bombay High Court against Sandeep. However, he had later expressed his willingness to consider
an out-of-court settlement. Raheja died last at the age of 80 years. The group patriarch's death had left a question mark over
the inheritance of his fortunes.
Asource close to one of the sisters said they were not open to discussing the issue in public and that they would still like to
settle it out of court. he family is known to guard its privacy and has been maintaining a low profile. Narang and Arora, the
daughters, have been named joint executors and trustees of the latest will. One of them is likely to represent the father in the
ongoing court case. The next hearing is scheduled after court vacations. In the will that was purportedly drafted two years
ago, the late Raheja declared that the assets were created by "own self-acquired properties" and therefore he had the right
to dispose it as he "deemed fit".
Raheja's fight against his only son originated from an earlier arrangement of allotting shares to him in 2005-06. Raheja had
given his son 58 per cent control of the company shares with an understanding that the father will still retain control of the
group. In 2012, the father moved the court accusing his son of not fulfilling this arrangement. Raheja, one of the first
professional developers in the country, had been active in the business since the 1960s and is known mostly for his
residential developments across central Mumbai's Worli and the suburbs of Bandra, Khar, SantaCruz and Juhu.
The real-estate group is known as one of the biggest private owners of land in Mumbai. It also owns properties in other parts
of the country through several subsidiaries. Raheja's father, Lachmandas, was also a real-estate developer, who founded
the K Raheja group in the 1950s.
Bombay high court to decide Century Mills land fate
Swati Deshpande, TNN | Apr 13, 2014, 11.06PM IST

inShare
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court will soon decide the fate of a property battle between the Birlas and
Wadias over a 10-acre plot of land occupied by the over-a-century-old Century Mills in Worli.

The court will decide if it has the jurisdiction to hear and decide issues raised by Century Textiles, a Birla
company, against industrialist Nusli Wadia, whose great grandfather had leased the land to the company
for running a mill.

Century Textiles and Industries Ltd, founded in 1897 and now led by Kumar Mangalam Birla, had in 2009
moved the HC, seeking interpretation of certain clauses in a 999-year lease deed issued in the late 1800s
by Wadia's father in its favour.
Wadia had in 2009 terminated the lease deed and sought eviction of the Birlas. But the Birlas' plea in the
HC, made through senior counsel Iqbal Chagla, was that they were entitled to retain the land even after
closure of the mill in 2008. Chagla said the suit did not relate to possession of land.

Wadia, represented by senior counsel Rafique Dada and solicitor Shrikant Doijode, raised a preliminary
issue of jurisdiction of the Birlas' plea to even be entertained by the HC. They denied the Birlas'
contention that they were entitled to relief and said the small causes court could hear and decide landlord-
tenant issues even when it was an ex-tenant, as in this case, due to termination of the lease deed after
violation of lease conditions. The lease said the land could only be used to construct a mill and mill-
related structures, and not other structures which the Birlas have put up. The Birlas are still in possession
of the land.

The small causes court had in December 2010 stayed new constructions on the land. A majority part of
the Century Mills is owned as freehold land by the Birlas through the Century Textiles company.

Wadia, in reply to Birla's demands in the HC, called the suit "vexatious" and said they were only trying to
protect their possession when the dispute must be decided by the small causes court, where he had first
filed a suit against Century Textiles in June 2009.

Century had also filed an appeal in the small causes court against the stay on constructions, which will
also come up for hearing soon.

Justice R D Dhanuka reserved the jurisdiction issue for orders recently in the HC. He did not fix a date for
the orders.


Minority shareholders can block related-party deals
Corporate law experts welcome change in Companies Act rules, but warn against abuse of power to
harass promoters even in genuine cases
This article has been modified. Please read the clarification at the end.

The new Companies Act rules have given a lot of powers to minority shareholders, but the one creating ripples in the
corporate sector is that promoters, who are majority shareholders, cannot vote in special resolutions in cases of
related-party transactions.

The new rules under Section 188 say any related-party transaction that is not done in the ordinary course of business
and is not at an arms length will need approval of minority shareholders by way of a special resolution. But,
shareholders who are related or interested parties in the transaction will not be able to vote in resolutions relating to
payment of brand fees or management fees to majority shareholders.

The section further says all related-party approvals will now be scrutinised by audit committees, comprising a
majority of independent directors.
VETO POWER
What are related-party transactions?
Sale, purchase or supply of goods, or materials
dealing in properties
Availing or rendering of any services
Appointment of any agent for dealing in
property, goods and services
Appointment to any office of profit in the
company, its subsidiary or associate company
Underwriting the subscription of securities or
derivatives of a company
How is related party defined?
A holding, subsidiary, sister or associate
company
Directors, key management personnel (including
relatives)
Firms/companies where directors/relatives have
interests
Appointments of senior management-level and
functional heads
Whats the threshold to qualify as related-party
transaction?
If paid-up share capital of a company equals or
exceeds Rs 10 crore
If related-party transactions exceed 5% of annual
turnover, or 20% of net worth whichever is
higher
What is an office of profit in related-party
deals?
Remuneration exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh a month

Related-party transactions include sale or purchase of goods, services and property, appointment in anoffice of profit
in a company or group company, underwriting subscriptions, etc. The definition of related party has also been
widened to include holding companies, subsidiaries and several key managerial persons and executives, besides
relatives of directors. Also, thresholds have been prescribed to determine transactions that will be treated as related-
party ones. The transactions are linked with turnover and net worth and appointments to salary levels.

Amit Tandon, managing director of Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IIAS), a proxy shareholder advisory firm,
says the new provisions strengthen the hands of minority shareholders and will improve corporate governance.

Earlier, in select cases, the Centres approval was necessary for special resolutions relating to appointment of
directors and key managerial personnel.

Yogesh Sharma, partner (Assurance), Grant Thornton India, says: Under the previous Companies Act, minority
shareholders approval or consent was not necessary for entering into related-party transactions. As a result, a
majority of shareholders could go for transactions with themselves or related parties as they deemed appropriate.
There will now be the much-needed checks and balances to protect minority shareholders, especially in companies
where promoters continue to hold a majority of shares and even subsidiaries of multinational companies where the
foreign parent holds a majority of shares.

But there is a flip side, too. Many experts say the rules could open the doors to many minority shareholders
greenmailing promoters for supporting or not supporting certain decisions. Tandon says in many companies,
smaller shareholders might greenmail promoters by asking for some favours or contracts against securing their votes
in favour of the promoter when a special resolution comes up for voting.

Grant Thornton Indias Sharma gives an example of other possible difficulties in implementing the rules. In the case
of a wholly-owned subsidiary, the rules provide that a special resolution passed by the parent entity is enough for
entering into transactions between the parent entity and the wholly-owned subsidiary. However, it is not clear by
whom and how the transactions of such wholly-owned subsidiaries with say, a sister concern or an associate, will be
approved.

Similarly, there might be cases of subsidiaries where a 99 per cent stake is owned by the single parent company.
Even in such cases, the parent would not be able to approve the transactions and have to depend on minority
shareholders, who together own only one per cent shares.

Sai Venkateshwaran, partner & head (Accounting Advisory Services), KPMG India, says the changes in the Act are
supportive of small shareholders but these could lead to abuse. It could also lead to situations where majority
shareholders find themselves unable to undertake genuine business transactions for want of minority shareholders
approval, even if the terms are reasonable. This could potentially cause hardship and disrupt business transactions.

CLARIFICATION
This article had wrongly mentioned that the threshold to qualify for related party transaction was Rs 1
crore and an office of profit in related party deals was at a remuneration exceeding Rs 10 lakh. The
threshold to qualify for related party transaction is at Rs 10 crore and an office of profit in such deals
should not have a remuneration over Rs 2.5 lakh a month. The article has been corrected. We regret
the error.
Stamp Act revamp to benefit treasury
Cap on offences in 115-year-old law to be raised to Rs 1 lakh; FinMin circulates draft
The proposed Bill to amend the Indian Stamp Act of 1899 has sought to increase the maximum penalty to Rs 1 lakh
for various offences, compared with a few hundred rupees at present.

According to the draft, circulated by the Union finance ministryfor comment, if a share warrant is issued without
being duly stamped, the penalty on those executing or signing it will increase from Rs 500 at present to Rs 1 lakh. In
the case of any other instrument chargeable with duty, such as debentures or preferential shares, the fine will be Rs
10,000.

A new section is proposed to be inserted which provides for a fine up to Rs 1 lakh on any person or association which
fails to file a duly stamped clearance list to the state government within a prescribed time and manner or makes a
false declaration.

A ministry official said once the Bill was enacted, stamp revenue would double to about Rs 60,000 crore a year, as
penalties for various offences under the Act are proposed to be increased substantially.

These penalty rates were introduced in 1899. We have tried to rationalise the amounts, said the official, who did
not wish to be identified.

In the draft Bill, now likely to be taken up by the next government, a provision has also been made to levy a penalty
of up to Rs 1 lakh for failure to provide the required cooperation in inspection of private and government premises
and providing the required information and records (paper as well as electronic).

The fine has also been increased substantially for stamp duty evasion. Currently, the maximum penalty for this is Rs
5,000. It has been proposed that for an evasion up to Rs 10 lakh, the fine can be increased to Rs 50,000 or 20 per
cent of the duty evaded, whichever is more. If the evaded amount is more than Rs 10 lakh, the punishment will
involve imprisonment of up to a year or a fine of at least Rs 50,000 or both.

There has to be some deterrent to stop stamp duty evasion and the higher penalty is fair in that sense. It will also
add to government coffers, said Rakesh Nangia, managing partner, Nangia & Co. He said the increase would also
bring uniformity and rationalisation in penalties across states.

Currently, many states levy stamp duty under their own laws. Some such as Assam, Bihar, Odisha and Kerala have
adopted the national law. The increase in penalty, if it happens, will be applicable to these states. Some such as
Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka, which have their own Stamp Acts, had already increased the penalties over the
years.

The penalties we have proposed in the draft Bill is in line with what these states have already enforced, added the
ministry official.

Supreme Court deals a body blow to IPL
Proposes axing two teams, replacing Srinivasan with Gavaskar as BCCI chief
BS Reporters | Mumbai/New Delhi
March 28, 2014 Last Updated at 00:59 IST
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IPL betting: Zee, News Nation telecast of Dhoni restrained
Taking a hard stance over the alleged irregularities in the sixth edition of
the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Supreme Court on Thursday proposed
N Srinivasan, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI),
be replaced by former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and two of the eight IPL franchises be dropped from this years
tournament.

According to agency reports, Gavaskar was ready to take the responsibility and said he would be honoured and
happy to adhere to the directives of the highest court of the land.

In what could severely affect the Rs 2,500-crore T20 cricket league, the Court said the Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
andRajasthan Royals (RR) franchises, the executives of which had been found guilty of corruption in the Mudgal
committees report on spot-fixing in IPL, should be banned from the tournament. It added no employee of India
Cements, which owns Chennai Super Kings, should hold any responsibility at BCCI. Srinivasan is vice-chairman and
managing director of the cement company.

The Courts three-point proposal was part of its observations in its hearing on the matter pertaining to allegations of
corruption in last years IPL series. BCCI was given time until 10.30 am on Friday to respond to these proposals.

Meanwhile, the cricket board, which was to hold a press conference in Abu Dhabi to launch IPL 2014, cancelled the
event, apparently in view of the Court developments.

If the Courts proposal to drop the two teams is indeed accepted, the seventh season of IPL will see participation of
only six teams and the total number of matches in the tournament will come down to 34 from 60 expected earlier.
This would raise serious doubts on viability of the cricket extravaganza, besides causing a substantial FINANCIAL
impact on franchisees, the broadcaster (Multi Screen Media, or MSM), sponsors & advertisers, as well as BCCI, which
gets a large chunk of its earnings from this mega event.

In the event of a shortened tournament, MSM, which telecasts the tournament on three channels (SET MAX, Sony
Six and
Sony
Six HD), would find it difficult to earn the Rs 900 crore which it was expecting to make through advertising this year.
It has already launched its MARKETING campaign for the season and is estimated to have spent Rs 30-33 crore on
that. According to media planners, it has already sold 40 per cent of its advertising inventory, so it has very little
scope to raise rates. But, with fewer matches, its ad inventory according to analysts will come down by more than 40
per cent.

When contacted, MSM refused to comment. We have had no communication from BCCI on this, so will wait. Since
the matter is in Court, we will wait for the court order and see how things pan out, said Rohit Gupta, chief sales
officer, MSM.

Title sponsor PepsiCo, which associated itself with the tournament last year, seems to be having a bad run. While IPL
was last year confronted with the betting scandal, this year it faces a new challenge about the future of the
tournament. The company said it would not like to comment on the matter, as it was sub judice. A spokesperson for
Vodafone, IPLs on-ground sponsor, said the company would wait for the final verdict. Officials at YES Bank, also an
on-ground sponsor, were not available for comment.

However, some regular IPL advertisers were categorical that they would renegotiate their contracts with MSM if the
number of matches was reduced. If ad rates move up because the number of matches is reduced, we will walk out
of the tournament, said B Thiagarajan, president at air-conditioning and refrigeration products group, Blue Star. We
may stay if the rates remain intact or are reduced.

Nandini Dias, CEO of Lodestar UM, a top media agency that manages the media duties of advertisers like Amul, said:
The point here is that if there are fewer matches, the reach is affected. And, advertisers come on board IPL for the
reach factor. Naturally, a decision will have to be taken accordingly, she said.

Another stream that will be hit is of gate revenues. Both CSK and RR are among popular IPL teams. If they are axed,
attendance of the live audience will be affected, say experts. Gate revenues directly affect the franchises, since they
stake claim to almost 80 per cent of ticket MONEY collected on their home grounds.

Also, a trouble lurking could be of legal tangles. At present, the franchises have to pay 10 per cent of their total
franchisee fees to BCCI annually. Many are pitching for IPL to be suspended this year. Given the context and the
current chain of events, I reckon its only right that until the faith of the people in the integrity of the game is
restored, the IPL tournament for 2014 should be suspended. Only once we have rid ourselves of the scourge, that is
fixing of any kind, should we continue. Remember that it is the intense emotional engagement of the fan that
complements the technical brilliance of a cricketer and that should never be interrupted or scarred with the corrupt
practices of people in charge, former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi wrote in his blog.

An official associated with a franchise from North India said: There is a clause that indicates that in case of a
overriding situation where the tournament does not take place in a given year, the franchises contract will be
extended by a year. This means, the teams will not have to pay the fees for the year the tournament is suspended.
However, that is the easy part. The tough part will be salvaging the brand IPL. There is already a lot of nervousness
around the tournament and that is why franchises and the broadcaster are finding it difficult to rope in sponsors.
This executive says the tournament will not be viable with six teams.

Besides, the initial franchise contracts were signed for an eight-team tournament. There is a confusion over what
happens to the players of the teams that face expulsion. CSK and RR spent a combined Rs 110 crore on acquiring
players at this years auction in February. It is too short a time to re-allocate the players to other teams. Had this
happened before the auctions or even a month ago, there was still scope of doing that. In this case, we will have an
IPL where some of the top players wont be playing. This will impact the television viewership and the attendance at
stadiums, says an official from one of the franchises in the clear.

GOING FOR A TOSS
Who was expected to get what from IPL-7

BCCI

* Rs 200 cr: From IPL sponsors, including Rs 80 crore from title sponsor Pepsi

* Rs 722 cr ($120 mn): Value estimated to come from SET MAX for broadcasting rights

* Rs 475 cr: From the eight franchises

FRANCHISES AND BROADCASTER

* Rs 900-950 cr: Estimated ad revenues for broadcaster SET MAX

* Rs 250 cr: The eight franchises estimated earnings from sponsorships and stadia advertising

* Rs 15-20 cr: The amount each franchise expects to earn from gate MONEY

* Rs 390 cr: Franchises expected earnings as their 54% share in what SET MAX pays BCCI (apart from Rs 108 cr
from what IPL sponsors pay BCCI)

HOW THE EQUATION CHANGES IF TWO TEAMS ARE AXED

* Matches The number of matches drops by 43% from 60 to 34

* Revenues To earn the same revenue as estimated from 60 matches, SET MAX will have to nearly double its ad
rates. Alternatively, it could approach BCCI and offer to pay proportionally less broadcasting fees

* Franchisee fees If axed, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals could withhold the Rs 95 cr they were to
together pay as franchisee fees to BCCI this year

* Players fees CSK and RR shelled out Rs 113 cr to buy players in this years auction. Its unclear whether or not
they will have to pay the players if they are axed from IPL

* BCCIs earnings If the board has to compensate teams, broadcaster and sponsors for fewer matches, its
earnings from IPL will take a substantial hit

* Gate fees & stadia revenue Besides the fact that many matches are to be played abroad, if the number of ties
comes down, franchisees gate money and stadia revenue will fall, since sponsors would ask for lower rates4
hnical jargon, a notified jurisdictional area), if there is lack of effective exchange of information. If a country is
notified as non-cooperative, it affects transactions entered into by assessees in India with citizens of that country.
For example, any payment made to a person of that country will attract a withholding tax of 30 per cent.

Also, if a sum is received from a person in that country, the onus is on the assessee to satisfactorily explain the
source of such MONEY in the hands of such persons, otherwise it is treated as the assessees income. Also, no
deduction in respect of any payment made to any FINANCIAL institution in that country is allowed unless the
assessee furnishes an authorisation allowing for seeking relevant information from the said financial institution.

India had invoked this provision against Cyprus and relented only after the European nation agreed to exchange
information and amend tax treaty with India.

However, officials concede, unlike Cyprus, Switzerland is a big country and there might be difficulties in declaring it
non-cooperative. Switzerlands GDP stood at $360 billion (on purchasing power parity) in 2012, while Cyprus had just
over $23 billion.

Chidambaram said Switzerland had not honoured the terms of DTAC between the two nations under which
information about Indians with accounts in Swiss banks had been sought by tax authorities.

Switzerlands refusal to provide information to India and other countries on the grounds that the source of the
information requested is based on stolen data means that, in practice, Switzerland still believes in bank secrecy and
is, therefore, not in tune with the modern era, he said in the letter.

When contacted, an official at the Switzerland Embassy in New Delhi refused to comment immediately.

Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesperson for the external affairs ministry, said: We will definitely not go against the
finance ministry. Governnment means one entity.

India wants Switzerland to provide information on bank accounts held by Indians that were part of an HSBC bank list
made available to India by the French government. French authorities had provided a list of over 500 Indian citizens
who allegedly held HSBC accounts in Geneva.

The data were called stolen by Swiss authorities because a French employee of HSBC Geneva had obtained the
information through unauthorised means before it landed with the French government in 2008-09. India had made
its request to Switzerland for details in 562 cases.

Chidambarams letter said: You would appreciate that, such a situation, where there is no effective exchange of
information between India and Switzerland despite clear legal obligation of Switzerland under DTAC is a matter of
grave concern for India.

He requested that country to reconsider its move, saying India was seriously concerned that some taxpayers might
have parked substantial unaccounted money and assets abroad.

Chidambaram also threatened to raise the issue of non-coopearation by Switzerland at international fora like G-20
and the global forum of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Akbaruddin confirmed this could be the next step. We will see when we can take it up.

The issue has become more important in the country as corruption has been one of the Opposition parties biggest
election plank against the ruling Congress party. Also, the Supreme Court had on Wednesday pulled up the Centre
for its failure in bringing back black money stashed abroad.

END OF TALKS?
* 2008: HSBC employee Herve Falciani leaks tens of thousands of Geneva bank accounts
* 2011: French govt gives that list to India, US, UK, Australia and Canada
* Jan 2012: Information-sharing pact between India and Switzerland comes into effect in Switzerland (three months
later in India)
* Later in 2012: India approaches Swiss authorities, seeks information on 562 cases
* Feb 2014: Indian and Swiss officials hold meetings; Swiss authorities inform India the request is closed
* March 13: FM writes to his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer Schlumpf

FIRM STANCE
Excerpts of Chidambarams letter to his Swiss counterpart

* Youd appreciate that, such a situation, where there is no effective exchange of information between India and
Switzerland despite a clear legal obligation of Switzerland under the DTAC, is a matter of grave concern for India

* The Swiss govt had proposed revision of the domestic law for providing information under the tax treaties... which
would have enabled Switzerland to provide information to India in the HSBC cases... However, it is learnt the
proposed revision did not take place due to strong political opposition in Switzerland

* Switzerland's refusal to provide information in serious cases of tax evasion in India is a sensitive matter in India
too.

* If information continues to be denied to India under DTAC, the Government of India will be constrained to take a
position at the global forum that Switzerland still does not comply with the standards of transparency and that the
required legal and regulatory framework is still not in place in Switzerland... India may also have to raise the issue at
fora such as G-20
Net profit of realty firms fell 41% in last 8 quarters:
Report
Consultant says operating profit of realty companies has been consistently clocking a quarterly run-
rate of Rs 2,800 cr to Rs 2,900 cr since Q4 of FY12
Net profit of top 25 real estate companies registered a fall of 41 per cent in the quarter ended December 2013,
compared to the peak period of quarter ended March 2012. Net profit margins during this period plummeted from
13.6 per cent to 9.7 per cent, said a report by global realty consultancy Knight Frank.

The report, released on Thursday, said, A tightenedmonetary policy by the central bank (RBI) increased the policy
rates which in turn pushed up the base rate for scheduled commercial banks. Rise in the gross debt levels, coupled
with the increase in cost of FUNDS were a double whammy on the real estate companies, adversely impacting the
net profits.

Knight Frank said operating profit of realty companies has been consistently clocking a quarterly run-rate of Rs 2,800
crore to Rs 2,900 crore since Q4 of FY12. This feat could be achieved primarily on account of continuous price rise
across India. Residential property prices across major cities have witnessed a double digit growth rate during Q4
FY12 to Q3 FY14, the report said. Despite steady operating profit levels, the operating profit margin (OPM) for the
top 25 real estate companies has contracted by 900 basis point (bps) from 50 per cent in Q3 FY13 to 41 per cent in
Q3 FY14. This decline in operating profit can be attributed to rise in input cost. The building construction cost index
comprising major construction material like cement, iron and steel, labour, building bricks, paints, plywood, and so
on has increased by 6.3 per cent during the last one year, it said. Sales volume of top 25 listed real estate
companies has come down by 43 per cent to 11.80 million sqft in third quarter of FY 2014 compared to their peak
of 21.85 million sqft, eight quarters ago, the report said.

High interest rate regime and high real estate prices coupled with uncertain job prospects deterred end-users from
committing themselves to the largest buy of their life. Based on the sales volume, the MARKET share of south
India-based companies has gained the most during the past eight quarters, Knight Frank said.

Characterised by affordably priced residential properties across the city and being an end-user driven MARKET ,
collectively Bangalore and Chennai witnessed the highest growth in their market share from 16 per cent in Q4 of
FY12 to 33 per cent in Q3 of FY14. While north India based companies continue to dominate the Indian realty market
in terms of sales volume, its share continuously fell from 75 per cent in Q4FY12 to 51 per cent in the latest quarter.
Major Northern India based real estate companies have been trapped by huge debt, compelling them to change their
strategy.

They went slow on new launches and instead of frenzied launches as in the past, concentrated on completion of
launched projects and sold non-core assets in order to de-leverage their balance sheet. These changes in business
strategy adversely impacted the overall share of the dominant real estate region. The west India-based realty
companies regained lost ground from the lows of Q4 FY12, it said.


Court fines woman Rs 10k for flip-flop on divorce settlement
A Virar-based woman, who turned down alimony of Rs 6 lakh saying the amount was 'not sufficient' after agreeing to
the divorce settlement earlier, has been fined Rs 10,000 by the Bandra family court, which pulled her up for
"attempting to make a mockery of the court".

The court further noted that the woman, employed as laboratory technician at a medical college since 1989, was
earning Rs 8,000 more than her husband (an accounts officer with a school), besides being allotted staff quarters and
owning a house, hence it was not believable that the Rs 6 lakh divorce settlement was insufficient in this case.

The couple, both divorcees, got married in 2005 but separated after just 8 months. The husband filed for divorce in
2009 citing cruelty and desertion, and the wife subsequently demanded maintenance. While the case was on and after
the court referred the couple to a counsellor for the third time, the couple said that it had arrived at an 'amicable
settlement'.

According to the settlement, the wife agreed to withdraw the domestic violence cases against her husband while he
would take back the allegation made against her, and pay her a final settlement of Rs 6 lakh.

However, the day the settlement was to be executed, the woman backtracked saying the amount wasn't enough.
Pulling up the woman, the court observed that the couple had been counselled 3 times, and the divorce petition had
only been partially argued when they agreed to part ways amicably.

"After the court, marriage counsellors, and the litigants spent considerable time to draw up an amicable settlement, it
will make a mockery of the Family Courts Act and the authority of the marriage counsellors if this settlement is
refused without sufficient reason," Judge I M Bohari observed while fining the woman Rs 10,000.
AG puts brake on GoM allowing homoeopaths to practise allopathy
By Yogesh Naik, Mumbai Mirror | May 13, 2014, 02.04 AM IST


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Khambata had reservations about the proposal. He will now submit a report
RELATED
As the state assembly election nears, and as the state medical education department is hurriedly trying to implement
the Maharashtra government's proposal to allow homoeopaths to practice modern medicine, the Advocate General
has thrown a spanner in the works.

The AG, Darius Khambata, has made it clear that the state must seek permission from the centre before moving on
the issue.

The state cabinet had this January, decided to allow homoeopaths to practice allopathy provided they complete a
year-long course prescribed by Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik.

A large number of homoeopaths had demonstrated at Azad Maidan demanding such a privilege. The Maharashtra
Medical Council and Indian Medical Association had opposed the proposal and are waiting for the final notification of
the state government so that they can move court.

The medical education department, under whose jurisdiction the matter fell, was earlier headed by NCP minister Dr
Vijaykumar Gavit. But after he was sacked from the post, the party handed over the department to deputy CM Ajit
Pawar. A close relative of union minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar is a member of the Maharashtra Homoeopathic
Council which has been actively persuading the state government to allow its members to practise allopathy.

Last week at a meeting attended by Ajit Pawar, chief secretary J S Saharia and medical education secretary Manisha
Mhaiskar, Khambata clearly told them that permission of the union government would be required for such a
proposal.

Sources in state government said Medical Council of India 1956 guidelines did not allow any medical course to be
initiated without prior approval from MCI and government of India. As this would take a lot of time, the state would
not able to allow homoeopaths to practise allopathy before the assembly polls.

Khambata refused to comment on the issue. Chief Secretary J S Saharia said: "Khambata had reservations about the
proposal. He will now submit a report to us."
State jail officials want judges to hear cases on Skype
MUMBAI: The state prison authorities have proposed that courts should procure laptops equipped
with Skype so that the judges can conduct hearings in cases involving high-security risk prisoners.
Besides, they have also asked the state-run JJ Hospital to start a video-conferencing facility to enable the
doctors to monitor if a prisoner is really required to be hospitalized.

The move comes after several meetings of the prison officials over issues pertaining to jail security and
shortage of escort personnel. "We have video-conferencing rooms in the jails. However, most of the courts
do not have this facility and the judges have to walk to a common 'video conferencing room' to conduct
the hearing. We have proposed laptops equipped with Skype be given to the judges and it will save time
and MONEY . The suggestion has been sent to the directorate of prosecution," said a senior prison
official.

Another problem jail officials have been facing is the installation of jammers. In the past five years, at
least five trials were conducted to place jammers within the Arthur Road jail. However, during each trial it
was found that the electronic waves of the mobile phone tower were stronger than the jammers. "Finally,
technical experts have found a solution to it and jammers will soon be installed at Arthur Road, Taloja and
Thane jails," said the official.
Last month, Arthur Road Jail authorities had recovered a mobile phone, battery and a SIM card from a
quadruple murder accused, Uday Pathak. He revealed he had been in touch with his other gang members
through the mobile phone. "While we take all the precaution to stop such illegal activities, jammers would
help us to disconnect mobile phone network within the jail premises," said a jail official.

Nearly a dozen CCTV cameras are being installed at the Arthur Road jail. "This will send a message to the
staff that they are also being monitored besides the prisoners," a police source.

Where PEs fear to tread
Cautious private equity investors evaluate whether to opt for a board seat, or be distant observers
The new company law could well trigger a change in boardroom equation between company promoters and private
equity (PE) investors. According to provisions in the new Companies Act, the responsibility, risk and liability profile of
PE directors in an investee company has gone up manifold.

This may make cautious investors choose an 'observer' status rather than a 'director' on company boards, say legal
experts and PE firms. "PE investors may exercise their affirmative rights through shareholder action instead of
seeking a board berth. This is more so when enforcement of affirmative rights may potentially be in conflict with a
director's fiduciary duties," says S M Sundaram, partner and chief FINANCIAL officer, Baring Equity Partners India.
The trigger is a key change brought about by the new company law, wherein the PE nominees on the board of listed
public companies and public unlisted companies will no longer qualify as independent directors. PE directors will have
a non-executive position on the board though they will have to fulfil all the duties and responsibilities of a director as
stated in section 166 of theCompanies Act 2013. The duties of directors are towards a diverse band of "stakeholders"
that include "the company, its employees, shareholders, community and for environment protection". There are
severe penalties, in many cases even imprisonment, for non-compliance.

The challenge, says Lalit Kumar, partner, J Sagar Associates, a corporate law firm, for the nominee director is to
strike the right balance between protecting all the diverse interests. For Pankaj Chadha, partner in a member firm of
Ernst & Young Global, higher training is the answer. "Higher training is required for such directors to effectively
discharge their duties," he explains.

Some also think that PE investors could play a more proactive role in audit committees of the company. Jamil Khatri,
global head of accounting advisory services at KPMG, says, "This empowers the PE investor to play a greater role in
the governance of the company."

Another issue galling many PE investors is the provision in the new Act for obtaining a valuation report from a
Registered Valuer. "If a start-up company, or early stage company, or a company involved in development of
intellectual property, is being FUNDED by a venture capital (VC) or an angel investor, it would be difficult for any
registered valuer to estimate the 'fair value' of shares of such a company," points out a PE player.

The change in the company law, prescribing a 12-month cooling period between two buybacks, makes this option
unviable as an exit route, say many PE and VC investors. Buyback as an option for PE/VC investors had already
become unattractive following an imposition of a 20 per cent withholding tax according to the Finance Act, 2013.
"This may result in private companies finding it more difficult to access capital on affordable terms," says Baring
Equity Partner's Sundaram.

In view of the strict restrictions on related party transactions in the new company law, however, PE investors may
not able to vote on related party. This may increase their dependence on other shareholders who may or may not be
aligned with their objective. There is, by and large, unanimity that PE FUNDS will step up their due diligence before
investing. "Once on the board, they have to be more alert and vocal on issues relating to corporate governance and
internal controls. They also have to put their dissent - if any - on record," says Sanjeev Krishnan, leader, private
equity and transaction services, PwC.

From the point of view of promoter companies looking to raise capital through the PE route, there are some
restrictions. The new Companies Act prohibits the practice of creating treasury shares under a scheme. PE investors
point out that holding treasury stock through FUNDS - without allotting fresh shares - has historically enabled
promoters to prevent hostile takeovers in certain situations. Termination of treasury shares will take away flexibility
allowed to promoters. According to the new company law, preferential issue is now applicable to private limited
companies. However, it has to be valued by a registered valuer. According to Rule 13 of Companies (Share Capital
and Debentures) Rules, 2014, all preferential issues will also have to follow the provisions of private placement. This
could be a challenge for companies looking to raise capital, says J Sagar Associates' Kumar.

Most PE/VC investors do not expect the new company law to help in curbing or resolving promoter-investor conflicts.
Speedier implementation or enforcement of legislation would be more helpful than creation of new legislation, feel
many in the investor community. It is early days yet for the new company law, and both, promoters and investors,
are keeping a cagey watch on how the rule of law unfolds.

WHERE IT HURTS PE INVESTORS

PE nominees on the board of listed public company and public unlisted companies will not qualify as
independent directors

Impact: Risk and liability profile of PE directors will change, penalties are more severe for directors

Minimum gap of one year between two buybacks of securities

Impact: Exits through buyback will have to be planned

Prohibition on forward dealings and insider TRADING by director and key managerial personnel

Impact: Applicability on unlisted public company and private company will pose challenges for INVESTMENTS

Insurance premium for directors and officers restricted to MD, whole-time director, manager, CEO, CFO
and company secretary

Impact: Need to factor in risk of litigation through class action suits

Restriction on multi-layered structure could erode flexibility of PEs

Impact: New company law restricts the holding structure to two levels of holding companies, may impact
investment through downstream subsidiaries

Preferential issue applicable to private limited companies

Impact: Preferential issue has to be valued by a registered valuer

WHAT WORKS FOR THEM

Articles of Association can contain "entrenchment provisions"

Impact: Shareholders can contractually agree on restriction on transfer of shares in a public company

No distinction between cumulative and non-cumulative preference shares

Impact: Preference shareholders will have voting rights on all matters on which equity shareholders can vote

Sub judice is a convenient, self-serving alibi
In India, jury trials were abolished in 1960, but its vestige, sub judice, is still lingering
Leave alone common folks, even legal-eagles take shelter behind the legal principle of sub judice when asked to offer
their comments on an ongoing court trial or scam that has freshly broken out. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines
sub judice as a matter under judicial consideration and therefore prohibited from public discussion elsewhere. Does
this prohibition hold sway in India? The answer is in the negative.

Sub judice is a salutary law in countries where jury trials take place. In India jury trials were abolished in 1960 but its
vestige, sub judice, seems to be lingering on if as a self-serving alibi. The prohibition against public discussion when
a matter is pending before a jury is commonsensical - its members must not be swept off their feet or confused by
the cacophony of views on the issues involved in the trial given the fact that jury members are not well-versed in
legal principles, drawn as they are from the cross-section of the society often as randomly as from telephone
directories. It takes a judicial mind to be stern and impervious to media and other discussions impinging on the fate
of the accused. Members of jury, on the contrary, are impressionable and thus vulnerable to being influenced by
discussions outside the courtroom, be it newspapers, television channels or elsewhere.

In India, the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) vide section 10 prohibits through its maxim res sub judice forum shopping.
In other words, if a matter is pending before a court or forum of competent jurisdiction, the same matter cannot be
taken before another court or forum till it is pending. Likewise, section 11 of the CPC through its maxim res judicata
prohibits the matter which has been judicially resolved from being agitated again. There are two relaxations to the
rigour of this second rule - statutory and Constitutional appeals as well as taxation matters where the courts have
said the rule of res judicata does not apply because a matter of one particular year can be agitated the next or
subsequent years. The thaw in favour of tax matters is the dawning realisation that the facts of two years may vary
in details. Be that as it may.

In the event, the Indian law on sub judice does not gag the media much less the chatterati. To be sure, there has
been some disquiet over extensive media trials of economic scandals involving politicians and industrialists as well as
of crimes committed by individuals. Viewers revel in the salacious details. Television channels get higher television
rating points (TRPs).

Barring one or two cases where the courts had interjected to prohibit media discussions, by and large the Indian
judiciary has been generous in permitting free discussions and airing of views on matters pending before it. This is as
it should be. The Indian judiciary has won universal acclaim. It stands out as an island of incorruptibility by and large
amid all-round decay and degeneration. To be sure, the process may be grindingly slow and painful but the reasons,
therefore, are outside the scope of this article. To be sure again, the trial court verdicts have been upturned many a
time in the past by higher courts on appeal but that does not even remotely cast aspersions on the fairness of trial.

The trial courts have by and large maintained their independence and dignity by not allowing themselves to be
influenced one way or the other by the animated debates and synthetic anger of the anchors.If anything healthy
debate outside the court has the effect of the judges getting an eclectic mix of views on the issue, enabling them to
make a more informed judgment while retaining independence.

The short point is juries may be vulnerable to influence, not the judges.

While on the issue, it may also be useful to examine whether discussions elsewhere when the matter is pending
before courts amount to contempt of court. It would be contempt of court if the media and others continue their
discussions despite the court having prohibited them in the interest of fair trial.

Thus free public discussion of an ongoing trial is neither contempt of court nor hobbled by the sub judice principle.
That politicians and others refuse to take questions on such matters is a convenient, self-serving alibi, nothing more.

Cancer is like a detective story: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Pulitzer Prize-winning oncologist says there is a need to acquire more knowledge about carcinogens and detect them efficiently

New Delhi: Cancer is like a detective storyyou solve it using not one piece of evidence, but you combine pieces of evidence in
order to solve the puzzle and you have to be intelligent about using that combination effectively, said Pulitzer Prize-winning
oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee at a public lecture in New Delhi last week. There is no single clinching argument, but a confluence
of arguments. There has to be vigilance about it, sophistication about it, and there needs to be guilt and preponderance of evidence.
The link is always there, he said. Every year, organizations around the world list substances or exposures called carcinogens
that can cause cancer, but there are many substances that make the list of carcinogens without adequate evidence, while some
escape detection. Dr Mukherjee, who received the Padma Shri award on Saturday, talked about the need to acquire more
knowledge about carcinogens and detect them efficiently. Preventable carcinogens are one of the leading causes of cancer. Around
14 million people are affected by cancer annually, and at least a third of the cases are caused by preventable carcinogens or
lifestyle problems. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Carcinogens are increasingly present in peoples daily lives. From
mobile phone radiation (which Dr Mukherjee disputes) to atmospheric pollution and tobacco smoke, the World Health Organizations
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has currently listed at least 900 carcinogens. Periodically, agencies like IARC,
the US National Toxicology Study and the US Environment Protection Agency classify various substances as carcinogenic, but
scientists like Dr Mukherjee believe much more evidence needs to be stacked up before agents are declared carcinogenic. Theres
never been an illness with this kind of genetic diversity. Hence the problem of identifying carcinogens demands a solution that is
congruent to its complexity; hence involving disciplines from physics on the one hand to molecular biology, computational biology,
mathematics [on the other] have all started to work on this problem, said Dr Mukherjee. He cited the example of wireless phone
radiation. On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer listed radiofrequency
electro-magnetic fields (EMF) emitted by wireless devices, including mobile phones, as possibly carcinogenic to humans. The last
word has not been said about cancer and EMF from wireless phones, and I have to say that the issue increasingly begs credibility
as the weight of evidence has shifted quite far against the link between EMF and brain cancer, said Dr Mukherjee. If there is a link
between EMF and cancer, I think it must be occurring outside any standard mechanisms that we know about carcinogenesis and we
have to invent a novel method of carcinogenesis in order to understand how radiation in that part of the spectrum can cause
cancer. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Dr Mukherjee added that major studies, including the Interphone study which
concluded that wireless phone EMF could be responsible for brain cancer, were plagued by recall bias of the participants of the
study who had to recall their usage of wireless phones. In a press release by IARC, scientists themselves said that for a small
proportion of study participants who reported spending the most time on cell phones, there was an increased risk of glioma (a kind
of tumour that starts in the brain), but the researchers considered this finding inconclusive. The Oxford Universitys Million Women
Study states that the evidence linking brain cancer to mobile phone use is conflicting and a particular problem has been that most
previous studies have involved patients who had been diagnosed with a brain tumour before they were asked about their mobile
phone use. This is not ideal, because we know that people who have a tumour may report their mobile phone use (or other
information) differently from people who have not been diagnosed with a tumour, it said. Detecting preventable carcinogens The
hunt for preventable carcinogens goes back to 1775 when English surgeon Percivall Pott coined the term carcinogens or chemicals
that generate cancer. He deducted that scrotum cancer which had become prevalent among chimney boys was caused by exposure
to soot. This was the first discovery of an environmental carcinogen. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Today, tobacco use is
the most serious risk factor for cancer, causing over 20% of global cancer deaths and about 70% of global lung cancer deaths. Viral
infections such as Hepatitis B and C, and human papillomavirus (HPV) are responsible for 20% of cancer deaths in low- and middle-
income countries. The hunt for preventable carcinogens is important because the epidemiology of human populations is changing,
the structure of our lives is changing, and we are ageing in a way that the age structure of the human population has changed
dramatically, Dr Mukherjee says. Some believe that although the number of carcinogens in human surroundings are increasing as
a result of growth and industrialization, especially in developing countries, monitoring and regulation of such toxins remain poor. As
we know, there are a range of carcinogenic toxins in the air, but very few are added as carcinogenic by our government agencies.
There is very limited monitoring and we should be able to understand the cancer risk these air pollutants pose, says Anumita
Roychowdhury, executive director at the New Delhi-based not-for-profit Centre for Science and Environment. The difference
between toxins and other air pollutants is that they are dangerous even at small levels. Its important to manage and control these
toxins, which requires specially focused technologies. Our air quality programme is not mature enough to build regulatory capacity
to manage the risks associated with growth in our country, Roychowdhury added. There is also the problem of filling the gaps in
methodologies to find carcinogens. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Cancer prevention today depends on two polarised
strategies: one is to find preventable carcinogens, through extensive human studies and, second, with refined lab studies using
animals, explains Dr Mukherjee. Because important preventable carcinogens might escape detection by either standard, there
might be a hole between refined animal lab studies and carcinogen studies. He said the Million Women Study initiative in 2007 by
Oxford University in the UK establishing that oestrogen-only hormone replacement therapy for five years can increase risk for
ovarian cancer was an embarrassment to the scientific community which had missed this link. We have to fill the gaps to find the
preventable carcinogens that escape detection. Traditional epidemiology, molecular biology and cancer genetics will come together
as a triad to create a resurgent version of epidemiology that is vastly more empowered to prevent cancer, said Dr Mukherjee.

Should you buy OPD cover?
Rising healthcare costs and inadequate cover for out-patient treatment can erode your
savings. Here's a cost-effective alternative

Do you really need health insurance to pay for your treatment? Agreed, healthcare costs are going through
the roof and there are gaps in your health plan since even a comprehensive policy will not pay for a tooth
filling or a broken finger. Besides, the cost of dental treatment, diagnostic tests, periodic doctor
consultation, preventive check-ups, medicines and medical equipment, which are usually out-of-the-
pocket expenses, can burn a hole in your pocket. Still, are you willing to pay 20,000 more every year
towards your health policy to get an additional OPD (out-patient department) benefit of just 17,000? This
is where health cards come in as a better alternative. Here's how.

Insurance is expensive
Apollo Munich's Maxima Complete health plan covers both hospitalisation and OPD treatment costs on a
cashless basis in network hospitals and clinics. This plan also offers coverage for pharmacy bills,
diagnostic tests, outpatient dental treatment, contact lenses, spectacles and health check-ups. However,
while a 3 lakh cover under the company's standard health plan, Easy Health Family Floater, costs 8,258
for a family of four (two adults and two children, with the eldest member being 35 years), a similar
coverage under the Maxima plan would cost you a whopping 29,000. This, in spite of the riders that come
with itdoctor consultations are limited to eight per year and a sub-limit of 7,000 on various expenses,
including diagnostic tests, pharmacy bills, dental treatments and eye care (spectacles and contact lenses).
Health check-ups are also limited to two per year. If you take all this into consideration, according to the
company brochure, the total benefit adds up to 17,200 per year, in case you avail of the optimum limits
under the policy.

Similarly, Bajaj Allianz's Tax Gain Plan, a health policy with OPD benefits will cost you and your spouse
15,000, but the OPD benefits have a yearly sub-limit of just 7,500. Moreover, the exclusions list is pretty
extensive for this plan.

In short, an OPD cover is expensive. Why? Health insurers say out-patient healthcare services and their
coverage typically involves smallticket, high-volume transactions. "The numbers make the insurer
vulnerable to fraud and misutilisation and, therefore, the products have to be priced accordingly," says
Anuj Gulati, managing director and CEO, Religare Health Insurance. Antony Jacob, chief executive officer
of Apollo Munich Health Insurance, agrees. "The propensity for a person to use the cover multiple times
throughout the policy period is also greater. Hence, the FINANCIAL value that a customer can avail of
from such a policy is higher than a basic health insurance policy," he argues.

"Due to the higher assumption on incidence rates (nearly 100%), the OPD premium is often more than
50% of the sum insured and, with increasing age, becomes more than or equal to the sum insured," says
Sevantika Bhandari, director (MARKETING ), Max Bupa Health Insurance.

Most insurers, therefore, offer it along with the base indemnity plan. Moreover, there is lack of substantial
data pool on OPD treatments, on which the underwriting is based. "An insurance product pricing depends
on data as well as experience, both of which are scanty for this product at this stage," says K K Mishra,
chief executive officer, Tata AIG General Insurance. Also, the treatments under OPD are yet to be
standardised.

This is where healthcare cardsprovided by a few companies as well as established hospitalscan be a
more cost-effective alternative.

Cheaper alternative:

Discount cards or health cards are not a substitute for hospitalisation cover, but are special schemes that
typically give you discounted rates on medical, health and drug expenses for a monthly or annual
membership fee. Also, unlike a health plan, there are no caps or sub-limits in a health card plan.

"Health cards cover overall healthcare expenses, including cosmetic treatments. It is also of great help to
high-risk people, such as those with pre-existing conditions, and those who are denied health insurance,
especially senior citizens, who face prohibitions or have to pay extremely high premiums for a policy
loaded with too many clauses and exclusions," says Sunando Sen, director and CEO, Indian Health
Organisation (IHO), a part of Aetna Inc, US, which provides healthcare products and related services to
customers worldwide.

While a loyalty programme from a hospital chain, such as Apollo, Max or Fortis, will limit your options to
the concerned group's facility, a health card from an independent company that has a tie-up with multiple
hospitals, nursing homes, individual medical practitioners, pharmacy chains, pathology labs and
diagnostic centres gives more flexibility of choice.

Apart from IHO, the companies that provide these cards, include WizzCare, Sharak Healthcare and
EasyLife Care (operates only in Delhi/ NCR). In July 2013, E-Meditek Global, in association with
Ratnakar Bank and Visa, had launched a reloadable prepaid card, 'Medicash Plus Card', which offered an
automatic discount of up to 40% for availing of medical services, along with a few additional services,
such as access to gyms, spas, beauty salons, restaurants and lifestyle centres.

The membership fee of these cards varies from 1,000 to 8,000 depending on the plan you choose and the
number of members registered. A basic plan offers a 15-30 % concession on consultations and 10-20%
concession on OPD treatments and procedures at hospitals. For dental care, you get benefits of free check-
ups and up to a 50% discount on the total cost of treatment. IHO also offers up to 50% discount on doctor
consultations at a few network clinics. There are some special add-on benefits as well, including 24x7 dial-
a-doctor and chat service, free second opinion before a major surgery, discount on AMBULANCE
charges and online tools like symptom tracker and health records log.

Most variants of the plans offer preventive health check-ups as part of the product. Therefore, the
members are eligible for tax benefit of up to 5,000 under Section 80D.

Caveat:

Unlike insurance, which is a regulated industry, any dispute with the health card provider would have to
be contested before a consumer court. So, do due diligence on the company's background before buying a
membership. Is it a registered company? For how many years has it been in business? Trawl the Internet
for feedback on consumer complaints forums to ensure you are buying the right product. Don't forget to
check the network quality and number of partners the health card provider has. Make sure it has tie-ups
with a few reputed names in your city. If the company is not upfront in disclosing the network size and
partnerships, check out a customer loyalty membership of the hospital in your vicinity.


Five tips on spending your annual bonus
If you have just received your bonus, don't just splurge it. Sanjay Kumar Singh tells you
how to use this windfall judiciously

1. Treat yourself and your family first

A well-documented behavioural phenomenon called 'mental accounting' suggests that people
treat MONEY from different sources differently. They tend to be more loose-fisted with 'found' money,
such as bonuses, gifts and money returned by the Income Tax Department, than 'EARNED' MONEY
like the monthly salary. To avoid this pitfall, FINANCIAL planners suggest that you go ahead and
spend the first 10% of the bonus on the family and yourself. This will fulfill the pent-up desire to consume,
while ensuring that the balance 90% is invested or used wisely. What you do with this 10% should be
decided by your family and you collectively. You could go on a vacation, buy a big-ticket item or jewellery
for your wife. While pleasing her, it will also act as a store of value that can be used in an emergency.
2. Spend on skill enhancement

We live in perilous times as far as job security goes. In the past couple of years, as growth slowed down,
many workers were laid off in sectors like real estate, construction, broking and media. Given our tenuous
hold on jobs, everyone needs to do a lot more to upgrade their knowledge and skills. You may also be
languishing in the lower or middle ranks and need some re-tooling to move to higher ranks. To expect
your employer alone to spend money on training you is not going to suffice. So, spend 10-15 % of your
bonus on an executive training programme, books, learning CDs, and other such resources.

3. Repay high-cost debt

This is the order in which you should repay your high-cost debt: credit card, personal loan, auto loan and
home loan. There is an argument that the home loan comes at a relatively low cost and also offers tax
benefits and, hence, it should not be prepaid. However, sometimes the interest is much higher than the
tax deduction available: `1.5 lakh, in case of a selfoccupied property, and the entire amount in case of a
leased property. In case of the former, prepaying makes sense. Also, the benefit will be higher if you
prepay at an early stage of the loan, when the outstanding principal is high, than in the later stages. Don't
prepay a loan if you might have to take another one at a higher cost in the near future. Use the bonus
amount instead.

4. Fill the gaps in your FINANCIAL plan

One of the best times to review your FINANCIAL plan is when the bonus is around the corner. Find out
the gaps in your portfolio and use the amount to fill these. Is a child going to join college in the next
couple of years, and is there a shortfall in the amount you have accumulated? Use a short-term debt fund
to fund the goal. Is the desired retirement corpus running low on funds? This is your chance to bring
yourself closer to this long-term goal by channelising some of the bonus money in equities.

5. Use the FUNDS to meet tax-saving goals

Your employer has probably asked you to spell out the tax-saving investments you intend to make in the
financial year. If you have made the declaration, but don't have the money to make the investment, use
the bonus. By investing in tax-saving instruments partly through your bonus and partly from your regular
salary, you will not find yourself cash-strapped at the end of the financial year.

Developer cant transfer building conveyance to another firm,
society is real owner: HC
MUMBAI: Three decades after a building came up on a portion of a land in the city, the bid by its owner to
convey the property to another firm for developing another part of the plot has come under the scanner of
the Bombay high court. In an interim order, Justice Roshan Dalvi restrained the developers from
constructing or redeveloping the plot except an area of 324 sq m, which has two outhouses.

The judge also directed the firm that it would not create any third party rights on the property except
allowing the existing tenants of the two outhouses to reside there. "(The firms) seek to put up construction
far in excess of the area of the two old structures (outhouses). They seek to utilize the FSI of the entire plot
of land, which belongs to the society. They also seek to load TDR upon the new construction. This they
cannot do. The society has rightly sought to restrain such construction," the judge said.

The dispute relates to a plot of land in Bandra spread over 1,310 sq m owned by Paresh Associates. In
1984, a building was constructed by demolishing an old structure. Another portion of the land, which had
two outhouses with five tenants, did not opt for redevelopment. The new flat owners in the main building
formed Ashadeep housing society and the agreement with the builder specified that the land beneath the
two outhouses will be leased to the Paresh Associates, who will have to become a member of the society.
Since 2008 the society has sought conveyance of the property and has even filed a case to seek its rights.

The judge observed that the society was "deemed to have been conveyed the entire property within the
statutory period under Section 11 of the MOFA (Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act). The fact that a part of
the construction of the two outhouses remained would not make a difference to the entitlement of the
society in law". The court said the society was the only owner of the land. "The benefits of ownership
cannot, therefore, accrue to (Paresh Associates). It cannot, therefore, convey any part of the plot of land
under any agreement or indenture," said the judge listing the original suit for hearing on June 11.


Metro I gets CRS certification

One more clearance required before Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar route is thrown open to public.

The Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar metro route received a clearance from the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) on
Friday. The metro now needs one more certificate before it is inaugurated.

Speaking to Mirror, Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) P S Baghel said, "As part of the safety norms, the trains
cannot travel over 50 kmph."

Mumbai Metro now requires approval regarding the coaches for which the documents were submitted to the railway
board on April 22.

Patient-friendly law is now open for debate in state
The state-specific Clinical Establishment Act allows patients to choose pharmacists, pathologists, even while
hospitalised, and standardised rates at private hospitals.

In what could result in a huge setback to private hospitals and clinics, the draft of the Maharashtra-specific Clinical
Establishment Act has now been put out on the state government website (www.mahaarogya. gov.in) for a public
debate, paving way for its implementation.

The Act, which has been in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and all Union Territories since March 1,
2012, lists the guidelines to be followed by private hospitals and clinics (see below).

Doctors in the state have been opposing its implementation for the past two years saying the Act was framed such that
patients could misuse it, and that it was not at all in favour of the private medical establishments. Last year, the state
appointed a 19-member multi stakeholder committee to formulate the Maharashtra-specific Clinical Establishment
Act.

"The draft was put up on the state government website last week and we have already received over 600 responses," a
committee member said, adding that the members will be touring across the state from Saturday to speak to the
doctors.

What the draft says

One of the clauses in the draft - which is being protested by majority of private hospitals and clinics -- empowers
patients to choose their own pharmacists, pathologists and radiologists while hospitalised. "If such move is allowed,
who is supposed to take the responsibility of the accuracy and authenticity of the reports if something goes wrong," a
doctor questioned.

Another clause empowers patients to file a compliant against the clinical establishment if they feel their rights have
been violated or if they feel they haven't been treated properly, and the impact of the complaint could result in the
closure of the clinical establishment.

The Act also calls for standardising the rates across private hospitals and clinics, which the doctors said was
"impossible to implement". Dr Sudhir Naik, president-elect, Association of Medical Consultants, said: "It is not
feasible to have uniform charges in all cities and areas of the state. Also, it is beyond the purview of the Act to
standardise rates." Another doctor added, "We will be happy to protect patients' rights but at the same time, the rights
of the clinical establishments should also be considered," another doctor said.

The committee members, however, said "all contentious clauses" have been removed. "The initial draft said that all
medical establishments must be spread over 500 sq ft land, which we have not included in this draft. Another clause
made it mandatory for all clinics to attend to an emergency case or face fine up to Rs 5 lakh, which hasn't been
included in the new draft. The third clause of police inspection of clinics was also not included as it would call for
unnecessary checks from the cops," a member said.

Naik, however, said that government should simplify registration and licensing process through single window
clearance. "The rules should be framed by all stakeholders," he said.

THE ACT

More than 80 per cent patients in Maharashtra seek treatment in private hospitals and clinics, and many often
complain of being overcharged.

The Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 was created by the Centre to provide for
registration and regulation of all clinical establishments in the country with a view to prescribing the minimum
standards of facilities and services provided by them. The Act, which calls for standardised rates across hospitals and
clinics in the states, is applicable to all clinical establishments (public and private), with the establishments run by the
Armed forces the only exceptions.

PE firm Avenue Venture invests Rs 40cr in
Vastushodh's affordable housing project
Vastushodh to launch affordable housing project in Boisar Mumbai
Pune-based Vastushodh Projects today announced that it has received FUNDING of Rs 40 crore for two of
its affordable housing projects from PE firm Avenue Venture Partners Real Estate FUND .

The Mumbai-based PE firm will INVEST in Vastushodh's affordable housing projects AnandGram, spread over 22
acres plot on Pune-Solapur highway and the rest will be disbursed in a project that is yet to be announced.

The first tranche of the total INVESTMENT , that is, about Rs 20 crore, has been invested in AnandGram project.
The capital raised from Avenue Ventures has been invested for land procurement and the PE firm will get equity
holding of 80 per cent in the project.

We have been approached by several institutional investors and FUNDS for investment but we decided to go with
Avenue Ventures. Though Avenue Ventures has 80 per cent stake in the project they will be invested in the project
for 36 months or we buyout them in that period, said Sachin Kulkarni, MD, Vastushodh Projects.

This is the second investment by a private equity FUND in an affordable housing project. In 2011, PE
player Carlyle had announced investment of $26 million in Value and Budget Housing Corp set up by Jaithirth (Jerry)
Rao and P S Jayakumar.

Vastushodh that focuses on affordable housing segment, has projects in Pune, Kolhapur and Baramati, is also
entering Mumbai. The company in a joint venture has acquired 1.1 million square feet of land at Boisar and invested
about Rs 10 crore for the same. The company declined to comment on the JV partner for the project.

Mumbai will be an interesting place. We have already acquired the land and also have the sanctions in place. The
project will have 2,500 units and will be in the price range of Rs 500,000 to Rs 30 lakh. And the flats will not be less
than 325 sq.ft, said Kulkarni. Vastushodh projects come under two brandsAnandGram and UrbanGramfor lower
and middle income group customers. AnandGram offers homes in the range of Rs 500,000 to Rs 1,500,000 and
UrbanGram flats are available in the range of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. So far Vastushodh has completed
construction of 1,700 housing units at multiple locations in Pune and is currently in the process of developing about
7.5 million square feet with over 13,000 units of affordable housing. We will deliver these homes over the next three
to four years, said Kulkarni.

For Kulkarni, the investment by Avenue Venture is a step closer to its aim of an initial public offering (IPO). We are
in talks with several PE players and as we go forward we may look at raising further funds for our projects. This will
be helpful for us as we are aiming for an IPO by 2018-19. This will allow investors to see value in the business,
added Kulkarni.

Avenue Venture Partners was founded in 2012, and earlier this year had raised Rs 250 crore with an aim to invest in
residential projects across Pune, Bangalore and Chennai. So far the fund has committed its entire corpus over eight
transactions spread across these three cities. In September it had announced an investment of Rs 55 crore in Pune-
based Rohan Builders project in Bangalore.


Is the old Kishore Biyani back?
Recent moves indicate that the need to raise MONEY to pay off debt isnt as big a priority now as it has been in the past years
Mumbai: Last week, Kishore Biyani called off the sale of his 50% stake in the insurance joint venture Future Generali to Larsen and
Toubro Ltd s ( L&T s) insurance unit. The 52-year-old, once touted as Indias Sam Walton, said he is willing to hold on to the
business for another two years or so to get a better price for it. Thats a strange move for someone who, for four years now, has
been selling assets and restructuring operations, all with one singular objectivereducing debt. Then, maybe it isnt all that strange
a move for someone who once used to start and acquire businesses with elan. Which begs the fundamental question: is the old
Biyani back? It would seem so, even if the numbers arent yet showing it (although the MARKET seems to have taken come
cognizance). We are in the mood to acquire now. We will soon make an announcement of a large fashion acquisition. We are
looking at INVESTING in the baby-care segment and (making) acquisitions and (forming) joint ventures in the consumer business
as well, Biyani said in a 24 April interview, hinting that the need to raise money to pay off debt is not as big a priority now as it has
been for the past few years. Old problems linger In the past year, Biyani has restructured the erstwhile Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd
to form three companies, Future Retail Ltd, Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd and Future Consumer Enterprises Ltd. He has
successfully sold apparel brands AND and Biba that came under Future Lifestyle. Future Consumer Enterprises, his integrated
consumer products business, has a cash surplus of Rs.400 crore, he claims. Ahead of the restructuring, Biyani sold the Pantaloon
retail format to Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd in April 2012. About a month later, he also sold his stake in Capital First, formerly known as
Future Capital, to private equity FUNDWarburg Pincus India Pvt. Ltd. Biyanis big problem is Future Retail. Interest costs of the
company, which had Rs.5,700 crore of debt on its books as of 31 December and a debt-to-operating-profit ratio of 5.5, account for
two-thirds of the overall operating profit, according to a 27 March report by brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd. Biyani is
convinced the worst is over. What we said nearly a year ago still holds true In the next 6-12 months, Future Retails debt-to-
operating profit ratio will be at 3.5-4 and after that there is an opportunity to even go debt-free. Analysts arent convinced this will
happen easily. We estimate that debt-to-operating profit will be in the range of 5.5-6 over FY14-16, analysts Amnish Aggarwal and
Gaurav Jogani of Prabhudas Lilladher wrote in their report. The analysts said they see little probability of Future Retail achieving its
target of lowering the debt-to-operating profit ratio even if it exits its non-core INVESTMENTS. Kishore Biyani talks about calling off
the L&T stake sale deal, e-commerce plans and debt levels in his company. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options The stake in
Future Generali was one such, and its sale would have fetched Future Retail Rs.400 crore. The deal value was decided two years
ago. It can give us substantial value two years down the line, said Biyani. It took around 18 months for Biyani and L&T to get the
deal to the stage where they needed regulatory approvals. That would have taken another seven-eight months. Meanwhile, the
insurance business, once in the doldrums, has witnessed a revival. Growth in the insurance business has started to show signs of a
pickup, said T.S. Vijayan, chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. New business premium in the life
insurance segment increased by 12% in the year ended 31 March 2014, while growth in the non-life sector was around 13%, The
Hindu Business Line reported on 19 April. In two years, Biyani says he may be able to raise Rs.1,000 crore by selling the insurance
business. Who knows? For the quarter ended 31 December, Future Generali recorded a net profit of Rs.28 crore and revenue of
Rs.660 crore. It lost MONEY in 2011-12 and 2012-13, but is expected to have ended 2013-14 with a net profit. Competitors gain
Biyani would have people believe that Future Retails prospects have been helped by less competition. The competitive intensity is
much lower now, said Biyani, explaining that while growth rates have come down, the business is still growing. But experts and
analysts say Future Retails peers have done better. In the past nine months, Shoppers Stop Ltds revenue grew at close to 20%
while Trent Ltds revenue rose 15%, said Abhishek Ranganathan, vice-president at PhillipCapital (India) Pvt. Ltd while explaining
there are no comparable numbers for Future Lifestyle and Future Retail. Shoppers Stop has seen the best revenue growth
performance among listed retail companies whereas profitability growth was the highest for Trent, which expanded its operating
profit margins by 300 basis points in the first nine months of the FINANCIAL year, said Ranganathan, who believes that these firms
have performed better than Future Retail and Future Lifestyle. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Even Reliance
Retail Ltd, the retail arm of energy giant Reliance Industries Ltd, recently announced that it had become the MARKET leader in most
of the segments in which it operates. Reliance Retails revenue grew by 34% to Rs.14,496 crore in 2013-14. Biyani has worked hard
to reduce debt and make the retail business more efficient in the past couple of years, said Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak
Advisors Pvt. Ltd, a retail consulting firm, but a big positive swing is still to come. Still, the MARKET has taken note of Biyanis
efforts In the fiscal year ended 31 March, Future Retails shares rose 2.75%, underperforming the BSE Sensex, which gained
18.85% and Trent, which advanced 2.99%. They did better than Shoppers Stops shares, which fell 4.7%. Since 31 March 2014,
shares of Future Retail have gained 47.44% and Future Lifestyle, 29.74%. In the same period, shares of Trent have lost 5.31% and
Shoppers Stop, 7.1%. Biyani said the shares were undervalued. Buy and sell In the past three-four months, Biyani has INVESTED
in around half a dozen firms through Future Lifestyle. The investments, which he said cost him Rs.150-200 crore, include those in
footwear firms Tresmode and Famozi Shoes, a designer wear chain called Mineral and apparel brands Desi Belle, Giovani and
Coupons. His plans for Future Consumer include new joint ventures with multinationals for introducing personal care products and
acquisitions in India to get into the dairy and bakery businesses. On 14 April, The Economic Times reported that the company is in
talks to buy Nilgiris Dairy Farm Pvt. Ltd, a south India-based supermarket chain known for its dairy and bakery products. But even
as he goes about acquiring companies and building businessesthe kind of thing that made him a pioneer in modern retail in the
countryBiyani is clear that he is open to selling some of the businesses. The Clarks, Celio, Mother Earth, Turtle, Desi Belle,
Tresmode, and Mineral businesses under Future Lifestyle all fall under this. Then there are Foodhall, an upmarket food and
groceries format under Future Retail, and Central, a department store chain under Future Lifestyle. There is no dearth of
businesses. Anything can be sold at a price, said Biyani. What is the big thing (about selling)?

ICICI Bank latest to file winding-up petition against SKNL
S Kumars Nationwide had a consolidated debt of Rs.4,483.98 crore at the end of March 2013

The weak FINANCIAL position of the company is reflected in the proportion of pledged shares, which made up 93.7% of the
promoter group holding at the end of March, compared with 66.86% four years earlier. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint Mumbai: A
bunch of creditors is breathing down the neck of S Kumars Nationwide Ltd (SKNL), a textile maker that owns the Reid and Taylor
suits brand, as ambitious expansion plans have left the company saddled with debt. ICICI Bank Ltd, the nations second-largest
bank by assets, joined this group on 15 April when it filed a winding-up petition against SKNL in the Bombay high court, according to
the courts website. India Debt Management Pvt. Ltd, Ningbo ETDZ Holdings Ltd and ANZ Banking Group Ltd have also moved
court seeking winding up of SKNL. IL&FS FINANCIAL Services Ltd has filed a monetary suit against the company. SKNL had a
consolidated debt of Rs.4,483.98 crore at the end of March 2013, according to corporate database Capitaline. The companys
consolidated net sales dropped 21.5% to Rs.4,990.1 crore in fiscal 2013 from Rs.6,355.25 crore in the previous year. It made a
consolidated net loss of Rs.353.95 crore in fiscal 2013 against a profit of Rs.470.84 crore in fiscal 2012. Earnings in fiscal 2014 are
yet to be released. The company has received winding up notices from the lenders mentioned in your email. The company is
dealing with them suitably by settling their dues commercially and is in dialogue with them, said J. S. Shetty, director-finance and
group chief financial officer, in response to an emailed questionnaire. ICICI Bank doesnt comment on client specific issues, a
spokesman said in reply to an email seeking comment. An ANZ spokesperson, too, refused comment. Mint couldnt ascertain the
amount at stake in the petitions of these two banks. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options The suit filed by India Debt
Management relates to non-payment of debentures issued by S Kumars, said a lawyer familiar with the development. Despite
several notices the company till date has not returned the MONEY. In fact, the IDM nominee director on the board of S Kumars quit
because of the dispute, the lawyer said, declining to be identified. That nominee was Susheel Kak, who heads India Debt
Management, an unit of ADM Capital. SKNLs 2012-13 annual report says Kak quit on 10 January 2013. We have filed a case
against S Kumars Nationwide in the high court. But we cannot divulge details of the case as the matter is sub judice, Kak said. The
2012-13 annual report states SKNL had issued non-convertible debentures worth Rs.264.06 crore to India Debt Management at an
annual interest rate of 19%. Mint couldnt ascertain if SKNL has repaid part of this sum. The case involving Ningbo ETDZ, a Chinese
firm, involves a lower amount. In its petition, Ningbo said it had not received payment for an order of garments worth $632,566.53
(Rs.3.8 crore at Tuesdays exchange rate) delivered to SKNL in 2012. According to Darshan Mehta, a lawyer from Dhruve Liladhar
& Co., representing Ningbo ETDZ, SKNL has only been seeking for extensions from the petitioners (Ningbo ETDZ) to repay them.
An order passed by Justice G.S. Patel of the Bombay high court on 25 April said SKNL did not file its reply to Ningbos plea in time.
This is a delaying tactic, and a practice that needs to be most firmly discouraged. Court-set schedules are not to be ignored. They
will be adhered to. The petitioners understand that the respondent company (SKNL) is in tremendous FINANCIAL difficulties and is
in the process of disposing of its assets. If the respondent company is permitted to dispose of its assets, nothing would remain in the
respondent company to the benefit of its creditors, Ningbo ETDZ said in its plea seeking the winding-up of SKNL. Mint has
reviewed copies of the petition filed by Ningbo. SKNL has denied non-payment to Ningbo ETDZ. The winding up petition filed by
Ningbo ETDZ Holdings Ltd is misconceived and not bonafide and is being dealt with accordingly. Since the matter is sub-judice, we
do not wish to comment any further, said Shetty of SKNL. SKNLs problems While S Kumars stand-alone debt-to-equity ratio of
1.78 times at the end of September 2013 may not look threatening, it doesnt take into account the other current liabilities of the
company worth Rs.2,025.52 crore, a large part of which is likely to be debt-related if one extrapolates from their 2012 13 balance
sheet. The companys earnings are also under pressure, denting its ability to service debt. SKNLs interest coverage ratioearnings
before interest and tax as a proportion of interesthas consistently been less than 1 for the past five quarters. At the stand-alone
net profit level, the company has been making losses in the last six quarters. Debt over-leveraging is the biggest drag on the
company, said a person close to the companys promoters, requesting anonymity. S Kumars has expanded like any other textile
company, encouraged by capital goods subsidies, he said. However, following the debt servicing issues, it lost good talent and
slipped into mismanagement of affairs, he said. The weak FINANCIAL position of the company is reflected in the proportion of
pledged shares, which made up 93.7% of the promoter group holding at the end of March, compared with 66.86% four years earlier.
Nitin S. Kasliwal, chairman and managing director of S Kumars, was ambitious like any other textile manufacturer and led the
company into distribution, brand and manufacturing, said a former employee of SKNL. He was thinking big after selling a stake to
the sovereign wealth FUNDGovernment of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC) in Reid and Taylor. He was expecting big valuation as
the most stringent wealth fund in terms of valuation had given him a great deal, he said. GIC INVESTED Rs.900 crore in Reid and
Taylor in 2008 for a 25% stake. However, later, the company couldnt go through with its initial public offering of Reid and Taylor.
Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options While part of the companys troubles can be blamed on the slowdown in domestic and
overseas demand for textile products, some analysts arent buying the argument. About 60% of the problems are company-
specific, said S.P. Tulsian, an independent STOCK MARKET analyst, adding that a revival looks difficult at this point of time.
Narayan K. Seshadri, chairman, Tranzmute Capital and Management Pvt. Ltd, a business advisory firm, believes a revival is
possible. S Kumars story is similar to any other Indian corporates that bought companies overseas without taking the cashflows
into account before the economic slowdown hit the MARKET, he said. Still there is a hope for revival as Reid and Taylor brand is
strong in the Indian market. But it all depends on what sort of sacrifices that the company is making to revive. A stronger rupee is
hurting the prospects of Indian textile firms. In February, India Ratings and Research Pvt. Ltd cautioned that sizeable debt-funded
projects could lead to a rating downgrade across the sector in the near-term/gestation period, while maintaining a stable outlook on
its rated textile companies. Early last month, SKNLs board approved issuing 97.4 million preferential shares to the promoter group.
At a face value of Rs.10, it would fetch the company Rs.97.4 crore, which could alleviate some of the companys problems. SKNLs
share price, however, is languishing at less than Rs.5 a unit, far from the highs of about Rs.80 seen in mid-2010. On Tuesday, the
stock closed 3.94% lower at Rs.4.63 on BSE, while the Sensex fell 0.73% to 22,466.19 points.

Indian companies scout for women directors
Man shoots four teens for looking at his girlfriend (BWNToday) Companies are looking in places they didnt look before in order to
meet Sebis guidelines of having at least one women director on their boards by 1 October
Experts say the change in the regulatory environment is going to play a major role in improving the gender ratio by leaps
and bounds, and change the way women have been entering the workforce. Photo: ThinkStock Male-dominated boards of
Indian firms are opening doors to talented women from non-corporate backgrounds, as companies try to meet the 1
October deadline to have at least one women director on their boards while admitting that options of women directors
from within the corporate sector are limited. RPG Enterprises Ltd, Essar Group, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd are among the
large conglomerates who are looking at bringing in women from government agencies, academic and research
institutions, non-profit organizations, and audit firms, as most of the eligible women in the corporate world are already part
of many boards. All listed companies must have at least one woman director on their board, according to new corporate
governance norms finalized by capital MARKET regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in February,
which come into effect from 1 October. While the deadline is still six months away, companies have started evaluating the
skills they need on the board and are looking for talented women in places they didnt before. Ads by The weDownload
ProAd Options We look at specializations that are relevant to the business. In some companies, such as infrastructure,
having exposure to government and experience in the domain can be useful because they would have experience in policy
setting, said Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Group. The conglomerate plans to have at least one woman board member
across group companies such as Ceat Ltd, KEC International Ltd and Zensar Technologies Ltd in the next two months. In
trying to meet this demand, executive search firms too are broadening their search horizons. Based on the requirement of
the board, we try to find women with the relevant skill. But given the limited pool of women candidates from the corporate
sector, we are looking at women candidates from academia, law firms, government organizations and social sectors as
they bring a different perspective, says Pallavi Kathuria, co-lead (diversity and inclusion practice) at Egon Zehnder, a
global executive search and board consulting firm. A handful of firms have been successful. In March, Gita Piramal,
managing editor of The Smart Manager magazine, was made an independent director on the boards of Bajaj Holdings and
INVESTMENT Ltd, Bajaj Finserv Ltd and Bajaj Finance Ltd; Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd appointed Rekha Sethi,
director general of All India Management Association; and Sudha Pillai, former Planning Commission member was
appointed by Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd in September. The promoters of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Hindustan Times
and Mint, and Jubilant are closely related. There are no promoter crossholdings. Though the examples are few, the number
of women hired from non-traditional backgrounds is bound to rise, says Egon Zehnders Kathuria. Ads by The
weDownload ProAd Options Women accounted for only 7% of directors on the boards BSE 100 companies, according to
the Spencer Stuart 2012 India Board Index. Some large companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd, Tata Consultancy
Services Ltd and Larsen and Toubro Ltd are still without a woman independent director. This already small proportion of
directors can be only on the boards of seven listed companies, which further restricts options for companies on the
lookout for women directors, according to Sebis guidelines. The other factor compounding the problem, as RPGs Goenka
points out, is that while many women from the banking, FINANCIAL services and insurance sector could be excellent
board members, they have restrictions on joining boards due to conflict of interest, limiting the pool further. To be sure,
the norms are forcing companies to work around these problems and change the way they think of boards. The earlier
mandate was to get a collection of experienced people with similar backgrounds, which is not a great strategy because it
only means duplication of skills, says Adil Malia, Essar Groups president for human resources, which is also scouting for
women directors for all its group companies. The challenges a business can face can range from legal to environmental
issues, that is where diverse backgrounds of the board members will help, says Malia. Agrees Jyoti Kumar Sarma,
communication consultant at HelpAge India, a non-governmental organization (NGO). The customer-manufacturer
relationship is that of profit. NGO professionals can help bring sensitivity towards the customer and change the
perception to customers being beneficiaries rather than COMMODITIES, says Sarma. Also, with the new companies law
mandating a corporate social responsibility spending of 2% of average net profit before tax for the past three years, and
with the increasing need for transparency, NGO heads can play a crucial role, says Manjira Khurana, country head of
HelpAge India. However, Adi Godrej, chairman of Godrej Group, who maintains a list of potential women candidates, says
there is no dearth of talent in the corporate sector. We would prefer to have women from corporate backgrounds, as they
would understand the business better, he says. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Interestingly, it is not just India
that is working overtime to bring women on their boards. In 2012, the Italian government introduced a law requiring that
one-third of boards of listed companies and state-owned firms be made up of women by 2015. The response to the law has
resulted in an increase of board-level women from 6% in 2011 to 17% in 2013, according to a Wall Street Journal report
dated 1 November 2013. The change in the regulatory environment is going to play a major role in improving the gender
ratio by leaps and bounds, and change the way women have been entering the workforce. If you dont have this insistence,
the change will take its own sweet time, says Rajiv Krishnan, partner and leader (people and organization) at audit and
consulting firm EY.


Need tenancy rules for unsafe bldgs: HC
MUMBAI: The Bombay HC suggested that the state and BMC consider framing guidelines on dilapidated
buildings.


"There are many such cases before the court. The state and the BMC should come up with guidelines on
how to protect tenants and other parties involved in the dispute," said a division bench of Justice Anoop
Mohta and Justice M S Sonak. The court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed in the matter relating to
the collapse of a seven-storey building in Vakola that killed seven people in March.

The court in an interim order had earlier directed the police not to take action against the lawyer, who had
refused to move out of the dilapidated building, as well as civic officers and the advocates appearing in the
case. Sindha Sridharan, the lawyer, who refused to move out, lost her sister in the collapse while her
brother was seriously injured.

Sridharan on Friday sought a CBI inquiry into the crash. She had earlier filed a criminal application
seeking action against the landlord, the local corporator and BMC officials claiming that she was being
harassed and forced to vacate the flat at Shankar Lok building in Vakola.
Market regulator Sebi proposes new delisting norms
MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) plans to overhaul the delisting process in an attempt to reduce
manipulation of STOCK prices ahead of the delisting.
The capital MARKET regulator on Friday said it is reviewing rules as market participants have raised concerns over the
entire delisting process both in the cases where the offer has succeeded or failed. Sebi has proposed to allow companies to
make a delisting offer at a fixed price, shorten the timeframe and restrict the TRADING of their shares during the last few
days before the closure of the reverse book-building (RBB) process. In most developed markets, RBB mechanism is not
followed.
The regulator said an OFFER at a fixed price would be either at a fixed premium to the floor price or a fair price as
determined by merchant bankers to the offers. This is among the other price discovery mechanisms that was proposed by
Sebi in the discussion paper released on Friday "However, in a scenario where MARKET sustains a declining trend over a
long period, such a method is bound to give a low exit price. This would be unfair to the investors.
Under depressed market conditions, the exit price arrived on the basis of this principle does not adequately compensate the
shareholder for the permanent loss of investment opportunity, especially in a company whose shares are regarded as value
investment," Sebi said, inviting feedback from public until the end of the month.
Currently, there is no restriction on TRADING activities of shares during the delisting OFFER . The regulator noticed that
delisting offers which succeeded were due to tacit understanding between promoters and a set of investors. While the offers
that failed, the discovered price through reverse book-building process has been unduly influenced by a set of investors who
are mainly speculators.
At present, delistings are done through the reverse book building (RBB) method, which helps in determining a fair exit price
for public shareholders. Under the existing RBB process, the highest price at which the maximum number of shareholders
place their bids would be the offer price.
The acquirer is not required to accept the said offer price unless the price matches his business consideration. But, the
regulator observed that the mechanism is not necessarily leading to genuine price discovery as some minority shareholders
holding significant stake exercise disproportionate powers in determining the exit price which in turn affects the interest of
the larger set of public shareholders.
"Some of the bids are placed at a price which is much higher than the floor price determined as per the said regulations.
These bids are generally placed by some investors who have INVESTED in the company close to the delisting process
with a view to make unreasonably large gains in the process.
Such bids destabilise the delisting process and adversely effect the interest of other minority shareholders who have
undertaken the risk of INVESTING with a longer time horizon and are denied a fair exit," Sebi said.

Besides, concerns have been raised that acquirers are finding ways to side-step rules by either parking their own shares by
way of offer-for-sale or through informal arrangements with a set of investors, they acquire such shares at a predetermined
price and successfully delist the company at a price favourable to them which impacts true price discovery.
Bombay High Court grants bail to former CEO NSEL Anjani Sinha
MUMBAI: Anjani Sinha, the former MD and CEO of scam-tainted National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), was granted bail by
the Bombay High Court six months after the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai policearrested him for his role
in the fiasco.
"He (Sinha) has been granted bail on surety of Rs 5 lakh, but will have to present himself periodically before us," said Arvind
Wadankar, EOW's investigating official in the NSEL case.
Sinha's bail comes closely on the heels of a recent affidavit in which he alleged that Jignesh Shah, chairman of Financial
Technologies (FT) group, promoter of NSEL, was fully aware of the affairs at NSEL which led to its collapse.
Shah, who was arrested on Wednesday by EOW, has consistently held that he was unaware of the goings-on that
culminated in the Rs 5,600 crore fraud. Before his arrest, Sinha had taken the blame for the scam on himself, but in a
subsequent affidavit alleged he was coerced by the promoter into owning up responsibility.
Sinha was arrested on charges of fraud, forgery and cheating when he looked after affairs of NSEL, which went belly up in
July last year after two dozen counterparties failed to meet their payment obligation to 13000 investors.
The exchange could not fulfil its role as a guarantor of counterparty risk as the collateral against which the two dozen
defaulters ostensibly raised FUNDS from investors was virtually non-existent.
Two of Sinha's colleagues - Amit Mukherjee (business development head) and Jai Bahukhandi (warehousing in-charge) who
were arrested before him on similar charges - were also granted bail by the HC.
MCX seeks to amend articles
The COMMODITY futures bourse promoted by FT has initiated the process of amending its articles of association, which,
according to Regulation 6 of COMMODITY market regulator Forward MarketsCommission's (FMC) revised norms on
shareholding, fit and proper person, etc, empowers an exchange to cancel the voting rights of a person found by it (FMC) to
be not 'fit and proper' to own shares in a commex.
The regulation also empowers a commodity exchange to take steps to remove an unfit shareholder, which fails to divest its
stake. The regulator found FT unfit to be a shareholder of MCX, which it promoted, following the NSEL scam.
FTIL has put its shares on the block, but has so far not managed to divest its 26 per cent shareholding inMCX due to certain
conditions of bidders which include getting access to a full forensic report of the bourse by PwC. The shareholders of the
exchange will have to approve the amendments to the articles.
The board has also proposed to remove the words "securities" and "ready" from the bourse's main objects of MoA and
incorporate the words "including related ecosystems" to ensure MCX focuses only on its current and related line of activity.
It also accepted the resignation of Manoj Vaish, the MD & CEO, and constituted a committee of senior executives to
manage the day-to-day affairs of the exchange under the supervision of the Committee of Board of Directors, till a new MD
and CEO is appointed.
Jignesh interrogation
The EOW would begin the interrogation of Jignesh Shah, chairman of FT Group, and Shreekant Javalgekar, former MD and
CEO of MCX, on Friday night, EOW officials said.
How rude are you?
Are you polite but a pushover or supremely selfish? Add up (and be honest) to find out.

Men have the knack of forgetting to say, 'please' and 'thank you' while women don't mind answering their phones
while sharing a meal with friends. But just how rude are you?

1 Your phone rings in a packed car. You...

A Immediately send it to voice mail.
B Answer it in a whisper, telling the caller you will ring when you are done commuting.
C Answer the phone and loudly demand to know what's for dinner then tell a long story about your meeting tedious
meeting with the boss.

2 A man pushes past you into the elevator. You...

A Say nothing but quietly despair about society.
B Politely say, 'Please don't push'.
C Kick his ankles out from under him.

3 You are having dinner with the in-laws and are desperate to break wind. Do you...

A Make an excuse to leave the table.
B Do a one-cheek sneak and hope it doesn't smell or make a sound.
C Let out a rip roarer, turn to the mother-in-law and say, 'How's that for dessert?'

4 Your best friend has just been dumped and calls you while you are watching your favourite TV
show. You...

A Turn the TV off immediately
B Keep the TV on and half listen to both.
C Tell them not to be selfish (don't they know Pretty Little Liars is on, and ask them to call you back.

5 Someone at work you don't like is leaving and the collection comes round. You...

A Meekly put in a few coins
B Quietly decline.
C Pretend to put in a note but pull out a tenner instead.

6 Your waiter in a restaurant is rude and incompetent. He brings you your main course and it's
lukewarm. You...

A Say nothing but moan about it for the rest of dinner.
B Quietly call the waiter back and ask for it to be warmed, receiving a shrug and a grunt in response.
C Shout 'Oi ullu' at him across the room, then berate him for the cold dish, throwing the odd chip at him for good
measure.

7 You are with your partner in the pub but a group text chat about a coming night out with friends is
more interesting. You...

A Turn the phone off and try to appear interested in his/her professional problems.
B Sneak a look once in a while when you get a chance.
C Tap furiously into the phone during the entire evening. Socialising is crucial.

8 You are seated in the 'elderly and disabled' seat on a bus and an old lady comes onboard. You...

A Immediately stand up, OFFERING her your seat.
B Try to avoid eye contact and hide behind your newspaper as she stumbles to a seat further away.
C Refuse to get up when she asks.

9 You are in a long queue to pay at a supermarket and another cashier opens a till next to you. You...

A Wait and let people in front of you go first in the new queue.
B Walk towards the till hoping you can gain a little advantage.
C Sprint like Usain Bolt to the new till, elbowing other customers out of the way. It's all about first-mover's advantage.

10 You are given an awful present by your partner. You...

A Thank him/her profuse ly. It's the thought that counts.
B Say, 'Oh I love it but...'
C Be upfront, say, 'You don't know me at all', and demand the receipt so that you can get it exchanged.

ANSWERS

Mostly iAs
You are polite and thoughtful. In fact, consider being a little more assertive.

Mostly iB s
You are often polite, but you can let yourself down sometimes.

Mostly iCs
You are rude, supremely selfish and uncaring about those around you.
Watch your snore score

Hollywood
superstar Tom Cruise reportedly snores so loudly that he converted a spare room into a sound-proof snoratorium so that ex-wife Katie Holmes could
get some sleep, a UK paper reported (right) Katie Holmes
Find out the cause of your snoring before you opt for a quick fix from our guide

While nearly half of all middle-aged men snore, it's not solely a male problem. It affects women too, particularly after
menopause. The key, say sleep specialists, is to work out what type of snorer you are before buying devices and opting
for remedies. Here's our guide:

BEING OVERWEIGHT

Weight gain is linked to a host of health problems and is a main trigger for snoring in men because, unlike women,
they tend to put on weight around their necks. The fatty tissue around your neck squeezes the airway and prevents air
from flowing in and out freely when sleeping. The airway is more likely to vibrate, say doctors.

Solution: Lose weight sensibly through diet and exercise.

ALCOHOL ALERT

Alcohol is a sedative and depressant so it relaxes you. The downside is that is can cause the muscles in the back of the
throat to collapse another key cause of snoring. Sleeping pills and sedative medication, such as antihistamines, also
produce a similar effect.

Solution: Reduce your alcohol intake. Have your last drink at least four hours before you go to bed.

KICK THE BUTT

Smokers are approximately twice as likely to snore as non-smokers, say studies. Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of
the nasal cavity and throat, causing swelling and catarrh. The resulting congestion of nasal passages makes it difficult
to breathe through your nose. Passive smokers also run the risk of snoring.

Solution: Quit! Or try to have your last cigarette at least four hours before bed to reduce the effects of the smoke.

SLEEPING POSITION

If you sleep on your back, you are more likely to snore because of the effects of gravity on the upper airway. This
happens since the tongue and soft palate fall back into the throat, narrowing the airway.

Solution: Sleep on your side. A mandibular advancement device is more beneficial for this kind of snorer. These are
mouthpieces that hold the lower jaw and tongue forward, making more space to breathe. Another option is a shaped
pillow which puts your head in a slightly tilted position and opens the airway at the back of the throat.

ALLERGIES

Allergies, such as hay fever can cause nasal congestion, contribute to snoring and affect sleep quality. Swelling in the
lining of the nose and throat affects breathing through the nasal airway particularly at night.

Solution: Treat the allergy.

MOUTH BREATHING

If you usually sleep through the night with your mouth open you probably snore, suggest experts. When we breathe
in through the nose, the air passes over the curved part of the soft palate in a gentle flow into the throat without
creating unnecessary turbulence. But, when we breathe in through the mouth, the air hits the back of the throat 'head
on' and can create enormous vibrations in the soft tissue.

Solution: Try mouth breathing devices that prevent the mouth from falling open.

SMALL NOSTRILS

Small or "collapsing" nostrils make it harder to breathe through the nose when sleeping. This means you're breathing
through your mouth and will snore.

Solution: Wearing nasal dilators can help. This is a springy, flexible plastic device that "holds" the nostrils open.

TONGUE BASE SNORER

If you've been a heavy snorer for some time, damage to the nerves and muscles of the upper airway mean they're more
prone to collapse. This restricts the airway and vibrates the tissue of the tongue, causing it to block the airway.

Solution: Clinical studies show that a mandibular advancement device can help keep the tongue away from the back
of the throat.
Multiples PE plans to raise new $500 million fund
So far, Multiples has invested about 71% of the $405 million it raised in its maiden FUND in 2010
Multiples was founded by PE veteran Renuka Ramnath, who stepped down from the position of managing director and
chief executive at ICICI Venture to start her own firm. Mumbai: Renuka Ramnaths Multiples Alternate Asset Management
Pvt. Ltd is looking to raise a new FUND with a corpus of about $500 million, a senior official at the firm said. This will be
the second FUND raised by Multiples since its inception in 2009. So far, Multiples has invested about 71% of the $405
million it raised in its maiden FUND in 2010. Multiples has a diversified portfolio, which includes investments in South
Indian Bank Ltd, film exhibitor PVR Ltd, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd and Cholamandalam Investment and Finance
Company Ltd, among others. The second FUND will also be sector-agnostic. The firm is exploring investment
opportunities in the information technology and restaurants space actively, Prakash Nene, managing director and chief
FINANCIALofficer at Multiples, said. Nene added that Multiples will also explore opportunities in consumer businesses.
We have been evaluating quite a few deals in the food and beverage space for a while now. Ads by The weDownload
ProAd Options Multiples was founded by private equity veteran Ramnath, who stepped down from the position of
managing director and chief executive at ICICI Venture, the PE arm of ICICI Bank Ltd, to start her own firm. As head of
ICICI Venture for over eight years till 2009, Ramnath led some of the landmark investments in the Indian PE industry
including Indias first buyout transaction. In 2003, ICICI Venture acquired about 50% stake in Tata group-owned Tata
Infomedia and later increased its stake to 63% in the firm. Multiples decision to raise a second fund comes amid a revival
in investor sentiment in anticipation of a new, MARKET- and business-friendly government being sworn in after 16 May,
when results of the general election will be announced. It is also a possible sign that fund-raising activity is picking up.
Still, Nene said he remains cautious. We are still being cautious despite the extremely bullish MARKET sentiment. So, far
we have been well-placed as most of our investments are only a few years old and we do not have any pressure to exit
unlike a lot of other PE (private equity) firms who are at the end of their FUND cycle. Multiples has soft-launched the new
FUND and reached out to existing investors . Multiples has not started its roadshows. We have started discussions with
our LPs (limited partners) and only a soft launch of fund has been done so far, Nene said. LPs are investors who put
money in venture capital and private equity FUNDS. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Multiples first fund was
anchored by global institutional investors including the UKs CDC Group, Canada Pension Plan INVESTMENT Board
(CPPIB), Dutch pension fund PGGM and pension and sovereign FUNDSfrom Europe and West Asia. Domestic institutional
investors including Life Insurance Corp. of India contributed about 25% to the fund. Nene said that the firm expects to tap
more domestic investors for its second fund. Many large sovereign and pension funds have been looking to India for long-
term investment opportunities. For instance, CPPIB formed a joint venture with Shapoorji Pallonji Group in November 2013
to tap opportunities in the India real estate market. In February, CPPIB announced a strategic alliance with the Piramal
Group to create a $500 million real estate finance company in India. UKs CDC invested around Rs.328 crore in Ratnakar
Bank Ltd in April and $200 million in IDFC Ltds infrastructure fund last year. Experts say having institutional investors
who are keen on the India growth story will make it relatively easier for Multiples to raise FUNDS. Multiples has the track
record, and it has also timed its FUND-raising activity with an improvement in Indias macro-economic story, said
Siddharth Shah, a partner at Khaitan and Co. Shah added that having institutional investors as LPs makes it easier for a
PE company when it seeks to raise a fresh fund. Most funds dedicated or focused on India have found it difficult to raise
money over the past few years on account of slowing economic growth, depreciation of the rupee, and policy and
regulatory issues. That would appear to be changing. Since the beginning of 2014, 13 India-focused FUNDS have finished
raising money for their funds, compared with 14 funds for the whole of last year and 25 funds in 2012. According to data
provided by deal tracker VCCEdge, since January, 25 India- focused funds have already raised about $5 billion from LPs
against 49 PE firms raising $8.4 billion during the whole of last year. Most of these funds are global ones that have a
substantial focus on India. There are few India-based funds that have raised large sums for their funds. In September 2013,
IDFC Alternatives Ltd, the PE arm of IDFC Ltd, raised $644 million. Multiples is looking to close its fund over the next 12
months.

Remove regulatory overlaps in real estate: Rajeev
Talwar
The new central government should primarily look at making life easier for home buyers and real estate developers.
It should focus on lowering interest rates for buyers and not only for companies, as the residential segment is largely
financed by buyers. The former National Democratic Alliance government had kick-started economic development
with house loan for as low as six to 6.25 per cent interest. Even in 2009-10, when the impact of the global meltdown
had to be avoided by India, the State Bank of India provided teaser home loans at a fixed rate of eight per cent for
two years. We can very well imagine the spurt in economic and construction activity such a measure will provide. It
will be the first step towards replicating the development of infrastructure and towns and cities, as has been
witnessed in China over the past three decades.

Obtaining environment clearances has become a notorious exercise. Most cities and urban areas have a master plan,
which is already approved by all authorities but permission has to be taken for construction of any building. Disposal
of building applications given to the ministry of environment and forests/state pollution control departments is time-
consuming and results in duplication. So, make these mandatory for all buildings and do away with the no objection
certificate. Wherever there are large buildings/complexes/townships to be made, a time-bound process to prescribe
any additional condition could be set in the same department, which otherwise would be relieved of most of its work.

It will need to address land acquisition. While there are many details in the new land acquisition Act, which can be
fine-tuned, the basic need is to do away with the schedule of a minimum of 50 months or five years (the Act says it
will take four to five years to complete all procedures to acquire land).

Not fresh, yet healthy
Fermented foods can be the deciding factor between good gut health and lackadaisical digestion
Whats not fresh and yet is really good for you? We are talking fermented foodsfoods that have been kept around for a while,
smell weird but are packed with nutrients. Fermentation has been used to preserve food in the absence of refrigeration, canning,
preservatives and irradiation. But with the advent of modern techniques of preserving food, fermentation took a back seat. Here, we
explore some facts about fermented foods and their health benefits. How did it all start? According to the 2012 book, The Art Of
Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration Of Essential Concepts And Processes From Around the World by Sandor Ellix Katz,
Fermented foods were not exactly human inventions; they are natural phenomena that people observed and then learned how to
cultivate. In each geographic location, this depended on the plants and crops that grew in abundance and the different microbial
communities that thrived in that environment. Places with difficult winters fermented foods during summer for winter and those with
tropical weather conditions used fermentation as a way to save food that would otherwise spoil quickly in the hot weather. Tempeh
The process Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options Fermentation is the process where sugar/ starch in the food is broken down
into alcohol or acid. Yeast fermentation involves a breakdown of sugar into alcohol, while bacterial fermentation converts
carbohydrates to lactic acid. A few strains of organisms multiply quickly, outnumbering the other bacteria by producing bacteriocins
which prevent the growth of other closely related bacteria, thereby preventing the food from spoiling. Food scientist and fermentation
expert Keith Steinkraus writes in his 1995 book, Handbook Of Indigenous Fermented FoodsSecond Edition, Revised And
Expanded: The process of acidic fermentation: (1) they render foods resistant to microbial spoilage and the development of food
toxins, (2) they make the foods less likely to transfer pathogenic microorganisms, (3) they generally preserve the foods between the
time of harvest and consumption, and (4) they modify the flavour of the original ingredients and often improve the NUTRITIONAL
value. The process of fermentation takes 2-21 days, depending on the food used and the temperature of the surroundings. The end
point depends on the effect or the taste one is looking for. For example, idli batter takes around 8-10 hours to double in volume in
moderate Indian weather. Common fermented foods Fermented foods are all around us. Dahi or yogurt is the most quintessentially
fermented food found throughout the country. Rice and urad dal (black gram) batter is kept regularly in most south Indian kitchens to
ferment, quietly harnessing the power of yeast to make fluffy idlis and crisp dosas. Black or purple carrots, which make an
appearance in winters in north India, are used to make a fermented drink called kanji, which gets its kick from coarsely ground
mustard seeds. Baton carrots are added to a pot of water in which spices (ground mustard, chilli powder, black salt) are added and
kept on a sunny windowsill to ferment for five-six days, after which the drink is ready. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options
Pakhala bhaat in Odisha, called panta bhaat in West Bengal, is a rice porridge where leftover rice is covered with water and left
overnight to ferment. This lightly fermented rice is eaten the following morning with salt, lime and chillies. A similar preparation in
rural Tamil Nadu is called pazhedhu saadham, which means old rice. Rice is immersed in water overnight to prevent spoilage and
the next day, it is mixed with buttermilk and salt, and mashed to make a gruel. Keralas toddy is made by fermenting the sap of palm
trees. The sap turns into toddy, a drink with 4% alcohol, within 2 hours. If left for over 2 hours,the toddy turns into vinegar. Toddy is
used instead of yeast in appams and other such dishes from this region. Pakhala bhaat Outside India, kimchi (a Korean fermented
cabbage with spices) and sauerkraut (salted and fermented cabbage from Germany) are some of the well-known fermented foods.
Tempeh, a fermented by-product of soybean originally from Indonesia, is an excellent source of protein, dietary fibre and vitamins. It
is widely used as a meat substitute, given its texture. Health benefits Fermented foods eaten raw, such as sauerkraut, kimchi and
yogurt, are rich in probiotics. A 2006 paper published in the Journal Of Applied Microbiology lists some of the beneficial effects of
probioticsthey improve gut health and immune system, synthesize and increase the bioavailability of nutrients, reduce symptoms
of lactose intolerance, decreasing the prevalence of allergy in susceptible individuals; and reduce risk of certain cancers. Ads by
The weDownload ProAd Options New Delhi-based food and NUTRITION consultant Sangeeta Khanna, who blogs on healthy food
at Healthfooddesivideshi.com, says that clients for whom such fermented foods have been made a part of their daily DIET, notice
better digestion and bowel movement, and alleviation and even disappearance of allergies. IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME is
mostly tackled by supplementing probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics are live good bacteria present in fermented foods like yogurt
but die when exposed to heat (cooking). Prebiotics are the insoluble fibre found in food that reach the colon unchanged. It acts as
food for the probiotic bacteria in the colon. One can see improved skin and hair if there is improvement in the gut flora. A study
published online in 2006 in the European Journal Of Clinical NUTRITION found that batters for idli and dosa with a rice-urad dal
ratio of 2:1 and 3:1, respectively, had increased levels of iron and zinc. A document published on Guidelines For the Use of Iron
Supplements To Prevent And Treat Iron Deficiency Anemia on the World Health Organization website recommends germination
and fermentation of cereals and legumes to improve bioavailability of iron by reducing the phytate levels. Phytate is an anti-nutrient
that prevents absorption of many vital nutrients such as iron. Ads by The weDownload ProAd Options According to Mumbai-based
Shonali Sabherwal, chef, macrobiotic nutritionist and author of The Beauty DIETEat Your Way To a Fab New You and The Love
DIET, fermented foods strengthen the inner ecosystem. They help combat candidiasis, a common condition caused by overgrowth
of yeast in the system due to poor eating habits and erratic lifestyle, which weakens the immune system and gives rise to health
issues ranging from the common cold, migraine, allergies, skin problems and lethargy to bloating. Eating fermented foods helps
break down meals daily for compromised digestive systems, and also helps strengthen the digestive system in general. They
provide beneficial digestive enzymes, and also a good strain of beneficial bacteria in the gut, says Sabherwal. How much is
enough? Sabherwal allocates 10% of the calories to fermented foods as a part of the daily DIET prescribed for her clients. She
recommends miso soup, pressed salad (see box for recipe), idlis and sauerkraut. Khanna, who is a stickler for local produce and all
things desi, recommends kanji, seasonal pickles of radish or leafy greens pickle, yogurt, buttermilk, soaked poha with yogurt, panta
bhaat or fermented rice gruel in summers. Nandita Iyer is a NUTRITION expert who blogs on Saffrontrail.com Pressed salad
Consume 2-3 times a week Serves 1 Ingredients uHalf a cup sliced cucumber uHalf a cup sliced cabbage uHalf a cup red radish
uOne fourth a cup celery uOne fourth a cup red onion u1 tsp salt (sea salt or rock salt) Method Mix all the vegetables with sea salt in
a large bowl, and gently press and mix the vegetables until they wilt. Place a heavy lid on the vegetables and press down with a
heavy WEIGHT. Allow to stand for 45 minutes to let water release from the vegetables. Discard the water and rinse with fresh filter
water and eat.

HC refuses to bail out voters with deleted names

Shibu Thomas TNN

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday refused to interfere with the Lok Sabha election process over deleted voters
names.The HC also reminded the petitioners,including actor Amol Palekar,to be vigilant citizens and keep tabs on their electoral
lists.
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice M S Sonak was hearing petitions filed by residents and NGOs of Mumbai and
Pune,alleging deletion of names of half a million voters from electoral lists.The HC rejected a challenge to the constitutional validity
of the law that bars a citizen,whose name has been deleted,from voting.But the judges took on record the assurance by state
advocate general Darius Khambata that the election commission (EC) would revise the rolls before the assembly polls in October
2014 and decide on any individual application for including a name on the voters list in 30 days.
The petitioners had sought interim relief,which ranged from special elections for the deleted voters to re-election in case the margin
of votes between two candidate was less than the number of deleted voters.
Stating the EC seemed to have followed proper rules,the judges asked if the citizens had taken steps to ensure that their names
were on the rolls.It is very well to submit that the democratic polity is at stake.But as in the case of liberty,the price of democracy is
the internal vigilance of its citizenry, said the HC.The petitioners contended it was indicative of negligence on the part of electoral
authorities.But there is no adequate explanation from the petitioners,who are neither poor nor illiterate,on the steps they took to
verify that their names continued to be on the electoral lists or to include their names... The court said Palekar complained only in
April 2014,though the draft rolls were published in September 2013 and January 2014
Khambata who,with assistant government pleader Milind More represented the EC,said 6.57 lakh names were deleted in Mumbai
and over 7.39 lakh added in 2013-2014 while the list was updated.

Decide on pre-arrest bail plea quickly: HC
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has held that the hearing of an anticipatory bail plea can be adjourned
without passing an order, giving relief from arrest, but only for a short period.

Justice Mridula Bhatkar gave her verdict on a couple's plea for interim bail until the sessions court
decides on their application for anticipatory bail. Their advocates, Abad Ponda and Sujay Kantawalla,
argued the court will either reject it or pass an interim order, but there is no third option to adjourn the
hearing without granting interim relief to the applicant or accused. They also submitted an application of
pre-arrest bail cannot be kept pending for a long time and the applicant must be informed, at the earliest,
if he is protected or his application is rejected.

Opposing the application, the prosecutor and the complainant's advocate argued in serious offences when
a short notice of a day is given and the prosecutor is unable to contact and take instructions from the
investigating officer, granting of interim protection will amount to miscarriage of justice as it may hamper
investigation or cause tampering or destruction of evidence. They argued the court can adjourn the
hearing without either rejecting or granting interim relief.
Justice Bhatkar, in her May 8, 2014, judgment, though, said it is not mandatory for the court to decide
"this way or that way". She said the power of anticipatory bail is to be carefully used as the court has to
achieve a balance between protection of an individual's liberty and effective and unhampered
investigation by the state machinery. "Thus, when a case cannot be classified as black and white but there
is a grey area or a borderline case that needs some time for a judge to get the correct picture, though
prima facie, to decide fairly the application for pre-arrest bail.'' Justice Bhatkar said law permits to
adjourn or postpone any inquiry or trial but it is to be heard expeditiously. She directed that the interim
protection granted to the accused couple may continue till the sessions judge hears their anticipatory bail
plea.

PF denial costs bank Rs 3 lakh
MUMBAI: The state consumer commission recently ordered the Bank of Baroda to pay compensation of
Rs 3 lakh to a former employee for refusing to pay its contribution towards his provident FUND . The
commission also directed the bank to pay P Unnikrishnan Rs 1.33 lakh of the provident FUND amount
due to him.

Unnikrishnan filed the appeal in the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in
2005 after a district forum, while directing the bank to pay interest on the provident FUND , rejected his
plea with respect to the contribution of the bank towards the provident FUND .

In his appeal, the complainant said that he was an employee of the bank and his services were terminated.
His provident fund as far as his contribution was concerned was given by the bank, but it was delayed.
The officials refused to disburse the contribution of the bank towards his provident fund.
Unnikrishnan filed a complaint for interest on the amount which was given late by the bank. He also
sought the contribution of the bank towards the provident fund.

The bank cited the forfeiture clause covered by the Bank of Baroda Provident Fund Rules that says an
employee's contribution can be forfeited if it is established that the employee committedFINANCIAL
misconduct and caused large FINANCIAL losses.

Unnikrishnan's lawyer pointed out that the final order of removal passed by the assistant general
manager, disciplinary authority, was to the effect that his removal should not be a disqualification for
future employment. The lawyer said there was no observation about financial loss.

"We find that forfeiture clause in the Bank of Baroda Provident Fund Rules cannot be invoked in the
present case, which was wrongly invoked by the district forum," the commission said.

It held that Unnikrishnan was entitled to the contribution and the interest amount.

HC: Husband may not be arrested for not paying maintenance
MUMBAI: In what comes as a relief to a man who had defaulted on payment of maintenance to his
estranged wife, the Bombay high court quashed a non-bailable warrant issued against him by a
magistrate. The HC said such warrants were unsustainable in law without resorting to other remedies to
recover the amount.

Justice M L Tahaliyani recently held that the magistrate was to first issue a warrant to recover the amount
by attaching any movable property of the man and selling it. Had the MONEY been recovered that way,
the question of putting the defaulter in prison did not arise, the court said.

A 36-year-old businessman from Gondia had moved the Nagpur bench of the HC to challenge the non-
bailable warrant, under which he could be arrested. Saying the wife could not be left "high and dry", the
magistrate issued the NBW for non compliance of an interim maintenance order in a plea by the wife
under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.
But the HC said the law made it clear that the magistrate had to "follow the procedure laid down in the
Code of Criminal Procedure for recovery of maintenance, final or interim. The CrPC provisions are
analogous to the reliefs available under Section 20 of the DV Act and empowers the magistrate to
sentence a defaulter up to a month or until payment is made". Given that the CrPC lays down how
maintenance has to be recovered from recalcitrant husbands, the HC said the magistrate "could not have
issued an NBW directly".

The other remedy was to issue a warrant to the collector, authorising him to realise the amount as arrears
of land revenue from the defaulter's movable or immovable property, or both .

Get ready for single-window payment for all bills
RBI's proposed centralised bill payment system is set to revolutionise how you pay your bills. This is
the way it will work
Clifford Alvares
May 5, 2014 Last Updated at 00:28 IST
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Are you still paying your bills the old way? Still writing cheques and having these delivered to your biller for
clearance? Or standing in long queues and MAKING CASH payments? All that will change soon. When the new
system of bill paymentmooted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) goes on stream, users will be able to pay bills - of
all kinds - by the click of a button or anywhere through other third-party vendors.

RBI is in the process of setting up an Indian Bill Payment System, a centralised payment gateway to make all kinds
of bill payments smooth. The payments process will be instituted through a GIRO (government internal revenue
order)-based system, where all the billers such as utility payments, taxes, university fees, examination fees and
insurance premiums, among others, come on a common platform that will enable payers to make payments directly
to billers.

Bill payers typically have to make multiple bill payments by either setting individual online accounts on billers
website, using cards, visiting billing companies or dropping cheques, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming.
Besides, billers have to set up multiple options for accepting all kinds of payment methods. This makes it difficult to
keep tabs on bills that are paid, both for the billers and the payers.
PAYMENTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
RBI is setting up Bharat Bill Payment Services, a
not-for-profit organisation which will list all the
billers in one place
Individuals can make all the payments of all
billers from one place anywhere in the country.
Billing for various services such as subscriptions
and educational institutions will also be allowed
Individuals will not have to remember passwords
and payment due dates of various billers; at the
same time the history of payments will be
updated automatically

A committee set up by RBI called the GIRO Advisory Group has given a report which proposes to set up two
organisations - the Bharat Bill Payment Services and the Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units.

Says Pramod Saxena, founder and managing director, Oxigen Services, a payment solutions company: "The new
entity will have connectivity to all billers through a single standardised platform. We don't have to use multiple
interfaces. This will increase bill payments online and make it real time, a very small amount today."

This entails setting up a centralised infrastructure, by bringing all the billers and banks to the new bill platform. This
new organisation will be created on the lines of the National Payments Corporation of India, which handles inter-
bank transfers.

The new centralised bills system allows all bills to be listed at one location, where you can go and pay. This is a part
of the ongoing effort of the central bank to improve the payment and settlement systems as laid out in the Payment
Systems Vision (2012-15).

RBI wants to develop this system because a lot of bills are paid through cash or cheques at billers' locations, while
bill payment centres are not easily available in rural areas. There is also no single website where all bills can be
accessed and paid.

How it will help
At the moment, to pay your bills, you have to visit multiple vendors such as insurance or telephone companies and
multiple agencies. In the new system, people will have access to all utilities and all the bill payment operating units.
You can make payments to all utilities and education institutions across the country through a single platform.

Paying online at individual billers' websites is tedious - you have to remember the website addresses and different
passwords. Besides, you also have to provide your bank account or credit card details to multiple billers, which
increases your risk online. In the new bill pay service, you can pay all your bills with one user name and one
password.

Some banks have tied up with individual bill payment gateways where you can pay many different billers through
your individual bank account. Facilities such as Bill Pay, have listed various billers. However, most of these billers are
either telephone, insurance or utility companies. Educational institutions, universities, maintenance bills, school fees,
and subscriptions are not a part of the system, especially where bills are paid once a year or so.

Paperless and hassle-free
Further, banks bill for such payment facilities. Fees vary between banks, depending on the number of billers, which
could range from a fixed monthly fee to variable fees. One mode of payments banks encourage is setting up of an
electronic clearance system or ECS, where the biller directly debits your bank account of the charges towards your
bill.

Says Saxena: "For payments of bills in Delhi, you have only in 20-30 outlets. A lot of service points can open that are
serviced by us, accepting cash towards bill payments. One can also pay bills across cities. And, many other different
types of billers can come online as this system progresses. The bulk of the bill payments happen in cash, and you
can bring all of these into this new system."

The new system will also help you and the billers to keep things electronically safe and essentially reduce hassles.
While how the consumer will be charged is not known, more and more types of payments could be added. It will also
help keep a history of your payments to various billers and tabulate your payments for future reference. Your credit
and payments history will be easily available to you, while it will reduce your paperwork.

Don't panic if documents are lost
File a complaint, place newspaper announcements and approach the authority concerned for a
duplicate

Last month, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi lost tax-free bonds of Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) worth Rs
10 lakh. She informed IRFC about and requested it for duplicate bondcertificates. Also, a public announcement was
placed in newspapers, informing the public about the loss.

This is the procedure if one misplaces important documentssuch as bond or share certificates, life insurance
policies,property papers and tax papers. While saving documents in a bank locker or digitising these is advisable,
these processes aren't followed by many.

Follow the right procedure
If you lose a document, first file a police complaint. Second, place announcements in an English newspaper and a
vernacular one circulated in the state where the document has been lost. Third, approach the authority concerned
and apply for a duplicate copy. You will also have to execute an indemnity bond and get it affirmed before a notary,
undertaking to protect and indemnify the company in case a claim is made by any other person. In some cases, you
might have to pay a fee for a duplicate, as well as stamp fee. These vary from state to state.

Though the cost of placing a newspaper announcement might, at times, exceed the value of the security, this is a
technical requirement, says consumer activist Jehangir Gai, adding unless this is done, one might not be able to
secure a duplicate.

After the public announcement, if anyone has any claim to the document, it should be conveyed to the issuer within
15 days. In some cases, banks or housing finance companies misplace the documents of those who take loans from
them. The borrower discovers this only after the loan has been repaid and the lender has to release the documents.

Though misuse of these documents isn't common, as most documents have individual names, without original
documents, it is difficult to claim proceeds when the INVESTMENT matures or for nominees to claim proceeds in
case of insurance policies.

Approach the right authority
If you lose share certificates, you have to approach the company's REGISTERED office, even if it is in a different
city or location. If you lose property documents, you have to approach the sub-registrar of that city. If a Kisan Vikas
Patra is misplaced, one has to approach the local post office. And, if your insurance policy or bank fixed deposit
certificate is lost, you have to approach the branch servicing your policy or in which you have a fixed deposit.

Sumeet Vaid of Ffreedom FINANCIAL Planners says while most people file police complaints and place newspaper
announcements, they don't follow up with issuers to secure a duplicate, a reason behind the substantial unclaimed
money in bank fixed deposits and insurance policies.

If a bank has misplaced your papers, you also have the right to seek compensation for deficiency of service and
harassment, says V N Kulkarni, debt counsellor, Abhay.

In 2011, after a bank had misplaced property documents, the banking ombudsman had stated it had to issue
a duplicate copy and bear all the costs required, including those for placing announcements in newspapers. The bank
was also asked to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation to the complainant. In case property papers are misplaced by a
bank, the borrower should also approach the registrar of co-operative societies and give it in writing. This will ensure
there is no forgery in future. In such cases, the complainant can also approach the consumer court.
Protecting your documents
Many of us keep important documents in safe deposit lockers. But this means every time we need
the documents, we have to visit the bank branch concerned. A safer and easier way to protect
documents is to digitise these. Record management companies OFFER facilities to store both
physical and digital documents for Rs 200-2,000. Such companies create separate accounts for
each customer, with a login ID and password. Storage spaces vary, depending on the package.
Customers can also ask for physical documents to be delivered to them. Some banks, too, OFFER
this service, albeit for select customers. The biggest advantage of digitising documents is you
need not worry about carrying copies of these with you. With most having access to the internet
through smartphones and tablets, we can access the documents anywhere, anytime. And, since
these files are encrypted, they are secure. Many of us laminate important documents to protect
them from physical damage. "When you submit a photocopy, it is always verified against the
original. In some cases if the original is laminated, the authority might refuse to accept it," says
consumer activist Jehangir Gai.