New Delhi: Unauthorised tapping of telephones will soon be a matter of past as the government has decided to operationalise a "foolproof" Central Monitoring System (CMS) which will put an end to all illegal interception. The CMS, which enables security agencies to monitor phones and internet communications of suspected persons, will ensure that monitoring of phone calls, text messages and internet use of citizens will be done only by government agencies after taking due permission from designated authority.
"We will soon operationalise the CMS. It will be a fool-proof monitoring system," Union Home Secretary RK Singh told reporters. The CMS will put an end to the involvement of telephone operators in phone tapping and if any agency wishes to monitor any particular number will have to keep all record online -- taking permission, duration of monitoring, what did they found and the persons involved in the whole process -- so that the person concerned could be brought to task if there is any irregularity.
The Home Secretary will soon chair a review meeting on the CMS and its operationalisation along with all stakeholders - the Ministry of Telecom and Department of Information Technology. The government has been maintaining that it is setting up CMS to safeguard citizen's privacy from mobile operators and protects national security.
Phone-tapping powers are restricted only to nine agencies in the country, including CBI and the Income Tax department. The government is, however, planning to give market regulator SEBI the powers to get
05:55 PM, Jun 17, 2013
New Delhi: Market regulator Sebi has sought clarifications from Infosys regarding its June 1 board meeting in which the company re-appointed NR Narayana Murthy as its Executive Chairman. Infosys said it has provided the information sought by the Sebi. "Sebi has sought certain clarifications from us relating to the board meeting held on June 1 and we have provided the same. We will fully co-operate with Sebi and provide all...
08:13 PM, Jun 14, 2013
New Delhi: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has ordered the freezing of the voting rights and corporate benefits of over 105 private firms. These private firms have failed to meet the minimum public shareholding requirement. The private firms, have faltered in attaining the minimum 25 per cent public shareholding requirement. The SEBI said the companies failed to meet the norms within the stipulated deadline of June 3,...
08:46 AM, Jun 05, 2013
New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel looking into chit funds and ponzi schemes in the backdrop of Saradha scam in West Bengal, will give its recommendations on preventing recurrence of such incidents to Parliament in the forthcoming Monsoon session. "We have completed deliberations on the ponzi schemes and will submit our recommendations to Parliament in the next Monsoon session," a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance said after the...
05:21 PM, May 31, 2013
New Delhi: Jet Airways on Friday said market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed its promoters to sell further 1.54 per cent stake and relaxed the conditions for undertaking the sale through OFS route to help the company meet minimum 25 per cent public shareholding norm. Jet Airways, on Thursday, offered to sell nearly 43 lakh shares via Offer-for-sale (OFS) mechanism and got bids for around...
01:57 PM, May 31, 2013
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said on Thursday it would increase the number of stocks that are allowed to be used for borrowing and lending, thus relaxing short-selling rules. SEBI said it would allow stocks that meet several criteria, including average monthly turnover of at least RS 1 billion, to be used under the country's securities lending and borrowing (SLB) programme. The SLB programme was launched...
07:10 PM, May 30, 2013
Mumbai: The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill, which aims to overhaul the over 50-year-old I-T Act, is almost ready and will be taken up in the Monsoon session of Parliament, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday. "I am just writing the Direct Taxes Code. We will introduce it in the Monsoon session. We have another week's work on that," he said. The Finance Minister was in Mumbai to attend...
08:38 PM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will on Friday attend the silver jubilee celebrations of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in Mumbai. A commemorative postage stamp and a book on the history of the Indian securities market will be released on the occasion. Singapore Deputy Prime Minister T Shanmugaratnam, who also holds the finance portfolio, will be the guest of honour. He is scheduled to deliver...
06:23 AM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad's Rs 2,058-crore stake purchase in Jet Airways has hit a regulatory air pocket, as regulators are seeking more clarity on the deal to ensure overall competition in the aviation market is not affected and interests of public shareholders and consumers are protected. Separate clarifications have been sought on the deal, which involves a 24 per cent stake purchase in Jet by Etihad and is...
01:59 PM, May 23, 2013
SEBI Chairman UK Sinha said, "If you look at SEBI act section 11 AA, it has several exemptions - chit funds, cooperatives, Nidhi are exempted. ...
10:09 AM, May 21, 2013
Kolkata: In the backdrop of the chit fund scam, the State Bank of India on Saturday said Reserve Bank of India or Securities and Exchange Board of India should take up major campaigns to create awareness among investors being lured to ponzi schemes. "RBI...or SEBI should begin a major campaign in line with Jago Grahak Jago, woolmark or hallmark (gold) to create awareness among the investors about these ponzi schemes,"...
08:20 AM, May 19, 2013
Mumbai: Jet Airways on Tuesday said it has got regulatory extension to meet the mandatory 25 per cent public shareholding norm in the private airline. In a filing to BSE, Jet said Sebi, on May 13, relaxed the requirement of 12-week cool-off period after the proposed inter se transfer of shares to enable the company to undertake the offer for sale through stock exchange mechanism to achieve the minimum level...
11:26 PM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: In the high profile Sahara case involving over Rs 24,000 crore raised through "various illegalities", market regulator SEBI has begun the process of refund to individual investors who have been verified by it. The money is being refunded only in those cases where SEBI has not found any multiplicity during its verification process. Refund for others will have to wait till the next direction from the Supreme Court,...
05:17 PM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea which had challenged the validity of the Cairn-Vedanta deal and said there was nothing malafide in the transaction. The court was hearing a petition challenging the validity of the $8.5 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal and had sought a CBI probe into it. "There were no extraneous considerations involved in the deal and it should not be interfered with by the court....
11:59 AM, May 09, 2013
New Delhi: The SEBI should come out with a mechanism to verify the genuineness of investors, who had invested in the Sahara Group, and start refunding money to them, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday. A bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar also sought an affidavit detailing their assets from Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIREC) and Sahara India Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHIC), the two companies...
10:48 PM, May 08, 2013
New Delhi: Amid a large-scale usage of smartphone messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and WhatsApp by manipulators to spread sensitive information about their target stocks, market watchdog SEBI is mulling over steps it can take to check risks being posed by these new-age mobile applications. To strengthen its probe and oversight on stock market transactions, SEBI has already got software tools in place along with IT experts to analyse...
12:59 PM, May 05, 2013
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed proceedings on pleas filed by Sahara group and its chief Subrata Roy against refunding Rs 24,000 crore to investors and attachment of their properties after the SEBI accused them of approaching different forums for delaying the process. A bench comprising by Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar also issued notice to them on SEBI's plea seeking transfer of all cases filed by...
12:25 AM, May 03, 2013
Bhubaneswar: A scam as big as the chit fund fraud in West Bengal has been exposed, but this time it is in Odisha. A CNN-IBN exclusive shows how fraudulent investment companies are duping investors in the state. Investors have been swindled off nearly Rs 20,000 crore by 40 finance companies in Odisha. Seashore Group, one of the companies being probed by Odisha police, has duped over 80,000 investors and collected...
06:38 PM, May 01, 2013
New Delhi: With lakhs of investors believed to have been defrauded by Ponzi schemes in West Bengal, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman UK Sinha on Wednesday said there should be a single regulator for all collective investment schemes, including chit funds. "Within the powers given to us, SEBI is working extremely hard to ensure that savings of small investors are not put to risk," he added. Sinha,...
12:28 PM, May 01, 2013
Bhubaneswar: With investors hitting the streets across Odisha demanding return of their deposits with Saradha Group, the state government on Monday asked the police crime branch to take up the matter with their West Bengal counterparts. The government also instructed the police to take help of RBI and SEBI to nail the ponzy scheme outfits. "The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the crime branch of police will take up the...
02:19 AM, Apr 30, 2013
