The Ministry of Corporate Affairs notified the leniency plus regime under the Competition (Amendment) Act 2023 in a move that will incentivise companies already under investigation for one cartel to report other cartels. The CCI will have the discretion to decide the reduction in penalty based upon the quality of the information and overall circumstance of the case.
Under Leniency Plus, a cartelist cooperating with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for leniency can disclose the existence of another cartel in an unrelated market during the original leniency proceedings, in exchange for an additional reduction in penalty. The current Act already contains a leniency provision.
The applicants for this process, as per the draft regulations, refers to a company or an individual who is or was a member of a cartel including enterprise as well as associations of enterprise or persons who participate or intend to participate in furtherance of a cartel.
The CCI may grant an additional reduction in monetary penalty up to thirty per cent of the penalty imposed with regard to the first cartel besides reduction in penalty up to one hundred percent to a cartelist for a newly disclosed cartel.The Leniency Plus model is recognised in countries such as the UK, US, Singapore, and Brazil.
American payments gateway service provider PayPal has registered its operations with the Financial Intelligence Unit of India, about six years after a protracted legal battle ensued between the two entities. It has completed the formal procedure of being designated as a reporting entity under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act recently and submitted documents to FIU.
The FIU is a national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions in Indian economic channels to various enforcement agencies and foreign FIUs. The federal anti-money laundering agency had slapped a Rs 96 lakh penalty against the global online payments giant in December 2020.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 forms the core of the legal framework put in place by India to combat money laundering. PMLA and the Rules notified there under came into force with effect from July 1, 2005 . Director, FIU-IND & Director (Enforcement) has been conferred with exclusive and concurrent powers under relevant sections of the Act to implement the act
Whirlpool said it has executed a sale of 24% of its stake in its India unit for about $468 million.
Whirlpool conducted the sale through its subsidiary in Mauritius, reducing its stake in the entity from 75% to 51%. SBI Mutual Fund, Societe Generale and Nippon India Mutual Fund were among the six buyers who picked up a stake in Whirlpool of India at 1,277 rupees apiece.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will officially inaugurate the 12th edition of MILAN 2024, the flagship naval exercise hosted by the Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam. He will also inaugurate the MILAN Village at the Eastern Naval Command base to mark the occasion. It is a nine-day mega naval exercise in Visakhapatnam with the participation of around 50 navies.
The previous edition of the exercise took place in 2022 in Visakhapatnam.
Navies from US, Japan, Australia, France, Bangladesh, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia & Malaysia, among others, are participating in the exercise that aims to bolster maritime cooperation among like-minded nations. It is a biennial multinational naval exercise started in 1995 with the participation of Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand as part of Look East policy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 9th edition of Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi. Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will join the inaugural session as the Chief Guest, and deliver the keynote address. The Raisina Dialogue is India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics.
It is committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the international community. The theme of this edition is "Chaturanga: Conflict, Contest, Cooperate, Create”. Over the course of three days, decision-makers and thought leaders of the world will engage each other across conversations in various formats, over six thematic pillars.
These include Tech Frontiers: Regulations and Realities, Peace with the Planet: Invest and Innovate, and War and Peace: Armouries and Asymmetries.
International Mother Language Day is observed globally every year on February 21 to recognise and promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. According to UNESCO, the idea to celebrate this day was the initiative of Bangladesh and was approved in 1999 at UNESCO General Conference.
Theme for 2024: "Multilingual education is a pillar of intergenerational learning".
Japan has committed a 232.21-billion-yen (about $1.55 billion) Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan for nine projects across various sectors in India such as road connectivity, climate change response, and horticulture, India’s finance ministry said.
The loan will fund infrastructure projects in North East India, including the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge (34.54 billion yen) and the Phulbari-Goeragre section of NH 127B (15.56 billion yen), apart from the construction of the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (49.85 billion yen) and the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project (40 billion yen).
The loan will also fund projects to promote startups and innovation in Telangana (23.7 billion yen), sustainable horticulture in Haryana (16.21 billion yen), and climate change response and ecosystem services enhancement in Rajasthan (26.13 billion yen). Some of it will be used to establish a medical college hospital at Nagaland and improve urban water supply in Uttarakhand
Malta became the 119th country to join the International Solar Alliance, the Ministry of External Affairs said. The ISA is an alliance of more than 120 signatory countries that aims to reduce the dependence on non-renewable sources of energy like fossil fuels. ISA was conceived as a joint effort by India and France. Currently, 116 countries are signatories to ISA Framework.
India has contributed 1 million US Dollars to the Poverty and Hunger Alleviation Fund established by India, Brazil, and South Africa. The fund is aimed at alleviating poverty and hunger. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj handed over the cheque to the Director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) Dima Al-Khatib.
The IBSA Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (IBSA Fund) was established jointly by grouping in March 2004 and it became operational in 2006. The purpose of the fund is to identify replicable and scalable projects that can be disseminated to developing countries on a demand-driven basis.
Union Minister for Education and Skill Development Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated India’s inaugural Skill India Centre (SIC) in Sambalpur, Odisha, affirming its role in enhancing the nation's workforce. The introduction of low-cost courses in the SIC will empower large youth and make them a part of the evolving job market.
Eminent jurist and Senior Supreme Court Lawyer Fali S Nariman passes away at the age of 95. He served as the additional solicitor general between 1972 and 1975 and resigned from the post during emergency. Nariman was appointed a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court of India in 1971. He was also a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from 1999-2005.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2007.
IT services and consulting firm Tech Mahindra, announced that it has completed the acquisition of a 100% stake in Philippines Orchid Cybertech Services (OCSI) through its wholly-owned subsidiary for a total of $3.27 million. Orchid Cybertech Services, a provider of customer experience solutions and serves TPG Telecom
Merchant-led digital payments provider Mswipe Technologies said it has been granted a payment aggregator (PA) licence by the Reserve Bank of India. The company had received an in-principle nod from the central bank to operate as a payment aggregator in August 2022. PA is provided under Section 7 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
