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Power regulatory bodies must have a judicial member: SC  The Supreme Court ordered that one of the members of electricity regulatory commissions should be a person of judicial background, quashing orders of various high courts that the chairperson of such bodies in states should be a high court judge. The top court also said the judicial member should be part of the quorum in adjudicatory matters.  The union government has yet to ascertain whether last week’s verdict will apply to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission as well, sources said.  “Section 84(2) of the said (Electricity) Act is only an enabling provision to appoint a high court judge as a chairperson of the state commission of the said Act and it is not mandatory to do so,” the verdict said.  “It is mandatory that there should be a person of law as a member of the commission, which requires a person, who is, or has been, holding a judicial office or is a person possessing professional qua...

RBI cutting note order may have led to crisis The shortage in fresh ink and supplies, critical to boosting supply of banknotes amid reports of a cash crunch in parts of the country, is being attributed to a decision by the central bank to cut orders to currency presses in June 2017. The decision prompted the presses to stop fresh orders for raw materials, two officials at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on condition of anonymity. The contracts to supply ink and security threads ended in March, said the officials, bringing the printing presses to a near-halt at a time supply isn’t keeping pace with the sudden spurt in demand. Procuring fresh raw materials could take some more time, the people cited above said, extending the current cash shortage, estimated by former RBI deputy governor R. Gandhi at nearly Rs5 trillion. Based on pre-demonetization trends, currency in circulation should have been close to Rs23 trillion now, compared with Rs18 trillion as on 6 April, Gandhi ...

RBI’s Acharya suggests shift in monetary policy stance, show minutes One member of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) rate-setting panel suggested starting the process of shifting the monetary policy stance from neutral to “withdrawal of accommodation”, increasing the odds of a rate hike this year. Noting the upside risks to inflation, Viral Acharya, RBI deputy governor, said he is likely to shift decisively to vote for a beginning of “withdrawal of accommodation” at the next Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in June. “Reinforcement of inflationtargeting credibility that such a shift would signal is crucial in my view for prudent macroeconomic management, on both the domestic and external sector fronts,” he said According to Gaurav Kapur, chief economist at IndusInd Bank, a combination of risk factors, both on the demand and supply side, should play out for changing the monetary policy stance to restrictive from neutral. “Such a shift is unlikely in June because there ...

I-T department seizes Rs4 crore in drive against cash hoarders   New Delhi: In a drive against cash hoarders, the income tax (I-T) department has seized currency worth Rs4 crore from people in states, including Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which have reported cash shortages. The drive is part of the tax department’s efforts to track down currency hoarders suspected of gaming the formal banking system to mobilize currency for making unaccounted payments. The search operations were conducted over the last few days, said a government official who did not wish to be identified. The Mint, New Delhi, 20th April 2018 ---------------

Govt to continue talks with RBI on easing non-performing asset norms Officials said the Prime Minister's Office and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had been apprised of the matter A day after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor N S Vishwanathan ruled out easing new norms for non-performing asset (NPA) resolution, the government doubled down on its stance that a strict application of these norms could send too many cases to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and clog the insolvency pipeline. Business Standard has learnt from senior government sources that the finance ministry will initiate a fresh round of communication with the RBI once Governor Urjit Patel returns to India. Patel, along with Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, is in Washington, DC for the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Spring meeting, which is slated to end on April 22. Officials also said the Prime Minister’s Office and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had been apprised of the matter. A so...