New form for Aadhaar-APY link
New Delhi: Regulator PFRDA has asked Atal Pension Yojna (APY) service providers to use a revised form to seek consent of subscribers’ for seeding Aadhaar with their accounts from Monday. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), in a circular, said subscriber registration form for the guaranteed pension scheme has been “suitably” modified to obtain the consent of the subscriber for Aadhaar seeding and subsequent authentication. After getting the Aadhaar information, the service providers will have to upload it into Central Recordkeeping Agency.
DoT notice to five telcos in January
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom (DoT) will issue notice to five telecom operators to recover `2,578 crore, in the wake of the CAG red-flagging understatement of revenues by the firms. “The DoT will raise demand of `2,578 crore from the five telecom operators as was mentioned by the CAG in its report this month. The demand will be raised after reconciling the accounts,” an official said. A Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report tabled in Parliament December 19 showed that Tata Teleservices, Telenor, Videocon Telecom, Qaudrant and Reliance Jio have understated revenues by over `14,800 crore, resulting in a shortfall of nearly `2,578 crore to the exchequer.
Sebi set to get 4th whole-time member
New Delhi: The finance ministry has accepted markets regulator Sebi’s request to have four whole time members, a move which will help broaden the top leadership at the regulatory authority to faster discharge of duties. The demand came in the wake of increased workload seen after Forward Markets Commission merged with Sebi in 2015. Currently, Sebi has two whole-time members — Madhabi Puri Buch and G Mahalingam — while Sanjeev Kaushik was appointed a whole-time member last month. However, he is yet to join the markets regulator. Sebi had written to the finance ministry recommending that a fourth position of whole time member be created and the post should be filled up on priority basis. The recommendation has been accepted by the ministry last month, officials said. As per the Sebi Act, the board comprises a chairman, one member each from the finance ministry, corporate affairs and RBI, besides, five other members of whom at least three should be the whole-time members.
China’s December factory PMI dips
Beijing: Growth in China’s manufacturing sector slowed slightly in December as a crackdown on air pollution and a cooling property market weighed on the world’s second-largest economy. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released Sunday dipped to 51.6 in December, compared with 51.8 in November. But it remained comfortably above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. Boosted by government infrastructure spending, a resilient property market and unexpected strength in exports, China’s manufacturing and industrial firms helped the economy post better-than-expected growth of 6.9 per cent through the first nine months of this year. But November economic data disappointed analysts, with industrial output, investment and the property market all backing expectations that growth momentum is starting to moderate.
‘Foreign bank ATMs fell 18% over 3 yrs’
New Delhi: The presence of foreign bank ATMs in India has declined by 18 per cent over the last three years as some of them shut ATMs, while one bank closed operations here, according to official data. There are 45 foreign banks in India, including Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, HSBC, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, DBS Bank, Credit Suisse AG, BNP Paribas, Doha Bank and Qatar National Bank among others. “The reason for this reduction in ATMs deployment by the foreign banks is the closure of ATM operations by FirstRand Bank, banking operations by RBS (ABN Amro) Bank and closure of ATMs by HSBC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank by 30 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively,” the finance ministry said citing RBI data.
Toyota to pitch for hybrids in EV drive
New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is approaching the government to consider hybrids as a key part of India’s drive towards electric vehicles (EVs), according to a top company official. “We are approaching the government and trying to explain as hybrids are also a part of electrified cars. These are not battery electric cars, but internal combustion electric cars,” TKM Director and Senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) N Raja said. The company, a joint venture between the Japanese auto major and the Kirloskar group, believes that hybrid vehicles could help the country in transitioning to full electric vehicles. “We understand that by 2040s all the cars will be electric, but till then hybrids will help in the transition to electric vehicles,” Raja said. He added that with more than 80 per cent of the electricity in India being generated by burning coal, getting a car which runs on electricity generated by burning coals doesn’t help much.
