Politics of Convenience

Politics can often lead to funny and uncanny alliance.  Arvind Kejriwal became the youngest Chief Minister of Delhi. But this happened after a lot of permutations and combinations were worked out at various levels. The just a year old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has finally formed the government in Delhi with external support from the Congress. That surely calls for a lot of introspection from all political parties on whether declaring their allegiance or otherwise at an early stage should be put on hold. You never know who you would have to align with in case of fragmented vote. All we believe in is that, as far as it bodes well for the nation, all alliances should not be a problem. Well, the voter too needs to learn a lesson, to avoid any ambiguity and a feeling of being let down it would be better to vote decisively than ambiguously.  

Jayanti Paves The Way. Really? 

Policy makers are probably getting cracking on those who have been impeding growth. Environment and Forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan's exit gives you a sense of this. The high profile exit is expected to pave the way for the clearance of various projects that are pending on environmental issues. There is nothing to get euphoric over this. Remember that these are huge projects that we are talking about. Even if cleared now, they would take atleast six to eight months before they get off the ground. This essentially means that the projects will get off the ground in the new regime. The incumbent will probably not take the risk of letting the credit go to someone else by clearing these projects now. The think tank will in all likelihood decide on waiting it out until May of 2014. We hope our judgement on this front turns out to be wrong. Project clearances are a must if the Indian economy is to pick steam from hereon. 

Lok pal, Finally 

It took another threat of a fast unto death to get the government to clear the Lokpal bill. The Lokpal and Lokayukta (amended) Bill, 2013 was passed on Wednesday (18/12/213). The bill aims to establish an anticorruption watchdog that will have power to investigate corruption charges against a wide spectrum of public functionaries including the Prime Minister. According to Anna Hazare, the father of this bill, it is a good step though only partial towards achieving good governance. However, other stakeholders who claim to be a part of this crusade against corruption have been crying foul. Well, lets laud the effort in the right direction for now and wait to see some results before being judgemental on its efficacy. 
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SEBI Gets Cracking

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has cleared new norms for its search and seizure operations, settlement proceedings, refund to investors and crackdown on illicit money-pooling schemes. 

The new norms seek to ensure any misuse of its new powers and the required privacy of individuals is granted while conducting search and seizure operations. At the same time, detailed regulations have also been put in place for settlement of administrative and civil proceedings in a transparent manner, while ensuring that serious offences like insider trading are kept out of settlement window.

Beware Of The Bitcoin Fad

The Reserve Bank of India has warned the public against the use of virtual currencies (VC) including the Bitcoin. This may expose them to potential financial, operational and legal risks. The Central Bank is presently examining the issues related to the usage, holding and trading of VCs under the current legal and regulatory framework of the country. Meanwhile do you really know what virtual currencies mean? Watch out for this space to learn about virtual currencies. 

Apollo tyres

Apollo Tyres has hit a 52-week high of Rs 101.80 in Tuesday’s (24/12/2013) trade and is up by 23 per cent since December 16, 2013 after Cooper Tire & Rubber Co lost its court bid to force Apollo Tyres (ATL) to complete their proposed USD 2.3 billion merger. In June 2013 ATL had announced the acquisition of Cooper Tire (approximately 2.5x its size) for a consideration of USD 2.5 billion (about Rs 15470 crore) to be funded entirely through debt. Since the announcement, Cooper Tire has faced opposition from its workers in the US plant (the workers are demanding higher wages) and its Chinese joint venture is protesting against the deal.

Amount raised through IPO and Offer for sales hit ten year low

Money raised through IPO and Offer for sale in 2013 has hit lowest in last ten years. Last time we saw such low activity in the IPO market was in year 2003, when the