CA Online

India’s Pace of Growth Likely to Accelerate in 2018-19: RBI Guv The Indian economy gave a resilient performance in 2017-18 and the country’s growth is expected to accelerate next fiscal, RBI Governor Urjit Patel has said. “Several factors are expected to help accelerate the pace of growth in 2018-19,” Patel said at IMF Committee meet on Saturday The Business Standard, New Delhi, 23rd April 2018

Sebi proposed as regulator for spot commodity exchanges for gold, metals Govt agreeable in principle to this suggestion, though Sebi itself is not Spot commodity exchanges for gold, metals and even energy products like natural gas could see the light of day under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as the regulator. This has been recommended by a committee on the subject. It was appointed by the finance ministry under NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand. The panel also suggests the “existing institutional infrastructure of commodity exchanges may also be utilised, to the extent possible, to create a spot exchange for commodities”. Regulation for spot commodity exchanges has been a contentious issue for some years. Especially after the National Spot Exchange fiasco, where a Rs 56-billion fraud was revealed in 2013. Since 2016, the BSE exchange and Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association have proposed an online nationwide spot gold exchange. Later, commodity derivativ

 FinMin examining issues in converting GSTN to govt Firm The Finance Ministry is examining various issues including overhaul of procurement procedures and the salary structure of employees as part of the proposal to convert GST Network (GSTN) into a government company. These two issues, along with other transitional and operational nuances, would be placed before the Union Cabinet for consideration once the GST Council clears the proposal of turning GSTN into a majority or fully-owned government entity, a source told . Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier this month asked Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia to "examine the possibility" of converting GSTN into a majority government company or a 100 per cent government company. GSTN provides the IT backbone for the new indirect tax regime. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 23rd April 2018

Biometric Check Mulled for Stock Trading via Apps Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed biometric authentication for traders and investors when they access mobile applications to buy and sell stocks. Aimed at improving cyber security, this is part of a long list of recommended dos and don’ts compiled by the markets regulator in a note recently shared with stock exchanges and brokers. “The draft note says that in case of applications installed on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, a cryptographically secure biometric twofactor authentication mechanism may be used,” a person familiar with the subject told ET. The proposal, if implemented, would require retail investors use touch ID-enabled smartphones for trading and sharing biometric features like fingerprint or eye-scan to access their trading and demat accounts. Offered as an option to accountholders by some of the private sector banks, the mechanism involves the handheld device carrying out

Social Security Plan Gets PMO Nod, Rollout Likely in 3 Phases Workers will be classified into four categories with the poorest being the first beneficiaries The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has given its approval to the labour ministry proposal on universal social security cover for 500 million workers, including those in the farm sector, seeking to start the process of putting in place a more secure welfare net a year before the general election. The finance and labour ministries will work out the details of the scheme that will require nearly ?2 lakh crore when fully rolled out for the lower 40% of the country’s total workforce. The remaining 60% of the workforce is expected to make contributions out of their own pocket, either fully or partially. “PMO has asked labour ministry to go ahead with the social security cover at the recent high-level meeting with them where labour ministry officials made a presentation on the universal social security code,” a senior government of

Govt to Assess Viability of Employees Pension Scheme The labour ministry looks to appoint an actuary to assess if the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) is sustainable over a long term. The EPS, 1995 is one of the three schemes meant for old-age social security of employees run by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The other two schemes are Employees' Provident Fund Scheme, 1952 and Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976. Earlier, the labour ministry had conducted actuarial valuation of EPS for fiscal ended March 2014 The Economic Times, New Delhi, 23rd April 2018

 Investment Reviving, Growth to Speed Up in FY19: RBI Guv Clearer signs that revival in investment activity will be sustained, Patel says at IMFC meeting The Indian economy gave a resilient performance in 2017-18 and the country's growth is expected to accelerate in the current fiscal, RBI governor Urjit Patel has said. Although the real GDP growth was moderated to 6.6% from 7.1% a year ago, there was a strong rebound in the second half of the year on the back of a turnaround in investment demand, the Reserve Bank of India governor said. Patel was addressing the International Monetary Finance Committee here on Saturday. The Indian economy gave a resilient performance in 2017-18, Patel said. This was supported by an acceleration in manufacturing, rising sales growth, a pickup in capacity utilisation, strong activity in the services sector and a record agricultural harvest, the RBI governor added. “Several factors are expected to help accelerate the pace of growth in 2018