Foreign Direct Investment In India

FDI in LLP (India)

2011-05-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

Nod to FDI in LLPs in calibrated manner

BS Reporter / New Delhi May 12, 2011, 1:19 IST

But no LLPs in plantation, print media or real estate.
The government on Wednesday allowed foreign direct investment (FDI) in Limited Liability Partnership companies but only in sectors like mining, power, roads and highways, manufacturing activities, drugs and pharmaceuticals.

These are the sectors where 100 per cent FDI is allowed for companies through automatic route. But LLPs engaged in agricultural and plantation activities, print media or real estate business are not allowed to have FDI, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decided on Wednesday.
LLP is a new business structure that has hybrid features of a partnership firm and a corporate body — a company’s limited liability and the flexibility of a partnership firm.
The LLP structure was introduced from April 2009. As on May 2 this year, as many as 4,679 LLPs were registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The Cabinet further decided that foreign institutional investors and foreign venture capital investors would not be permitted to invest in LLPs.
LLPs will also not be permitted to avail of external commercial borrowings. Besides, LLPs with FDI will not be eligible to make any downstream investments. Also, the Cabinet decided to allow claimants to seek assets of a deceased up to Rs 10 lakh against the present ceiling of Rs 2 lakh.
For this purpose, the Cabinet approved amendment to the Administrators-General Act. The Administrator General appointed by states certifies claims to properties of individuals who die without a legal heir. The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure approved a Rs 1,060-crore project for building a dry bulk terminal at the Kandla Port Trust on build, operate and transfer basis.

INVESTMENTING IN INDIA

2010-01-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

The growth of Indian economy in last one decade has been remarkable as compared to any other (except China) Asian country. When the current of recession shook most of the developed econmies of the world Indian economy still managed to absorb the shocks of economic down turn and showed a stable growth.

Year 2009 was not that bad for foreign direct investment coming into Indian market and I expect a lot more FDI to come into Indian market in year 2010 - 2011 which should be relatively higher than FDI flowing into CHINESE Economy. To attract good amount of foreign direct investment into Indian market the Indian government has taken investment friendly initiatives like allowing foreign investors to form limited liability Partnership (LLP) as a business enetity in India. The biggest ad-on of doing business in India through LLP as a business enetity is the reduction in paper work with government authorities, lowering of taxes and easy way mode of online incorporation of your LLP.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON LLP AND DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA MAIL ME at vikas@dezshira.com
Dezan Shira And Associates
www.dezshira.com
Mumbai.

NO FDI IN INDIAN NUKE SECTOR

2009-08-21T01:56:00.000-07:00

The Indian government on Wednesday, 19th August categorically said no to the foreign direct investment in its nuclear power sector. However, it gave a nodding yes for FDI in carrying out manufacturing of nuke equipments and construction plants by foreign private companies in India. As per the chairman, Mr. Anil Kakodkar, of Atomic Energy Commission (ACE) India aims to become a technological leader in building thorium based Fast Breeder reactors (FBRs) , so the sector wants to go alone without any help of foreign companies in developing new designs. Moreover, the chairman is also against Economic Survey which suggested for greater private participation including the sensitive sectors like nuke. The survey called for allowing FDI upto 49 percent in the nuclear power sector and amending the Atomic Energy Act to allow private companies to participate in this sector

AAI to be converted into a public company

2009-08-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

The Civil Aviation Ministry of India plans to convert Airport Authority of Indian (AAI) into a public company for raising fund. This will take place by amending the laws contained in Airport Authority of India Act which is the principal Act governing various airports in India. By converting AAI into a public company the funding will become easier and the AAI can raise money from the primary and subsequently from secondary market. The amendment is expected to be placed before the parliament by the year 2010. At present AAI is modernizing major airports in Kolkata and Chennai and 35 non metro airports within the country and has a huge property which includes land and other assets across the country. The authority is also planning to spend INR 12,434 crore for modernizing airports and air traffic services during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12) and the financing for these developments will be done through internal resources and borrowings by AAI. Out of 125 airports managed by AAI only 86 are operational but only 15 airports in India are profit making one for the year 2007-08. By converting AAI into a public company the government plans to bring a major up-gradation through public money.
Source – Business Standard.

Amendment in Copyright Law

2009-08-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

India to amend copyright laws
The government plans to amend the copyright laws under which software piracy will be an offence and punishable with up to two years imprisonment or monetary penalty. The bill to amend the 50 year old Copyright Act was proposed by the HRD ministry and copyright office and is like to be tabled in Parliament soon. It is projected that due to the software piracy the country makes a loss of $ 2 billion every year. Another major proposed change in the Act is on erasing or altering information about “rights management information” also called as ownership rights which will attract monetary penalty and imprisonment upto two years

India to implement UIC for its citizen

2009-07-01T02:29:00.000-07:00

The Government of India plans for implementing and allocating Unique Identification Cards for its citizens. This is one of the most ambitious step taken by the GOI for the people of India. It is expected that this huge and cumbersome plan will cost around INR 1.5 lakh crore to the government but at the same time this project will put in India in line with approximately 56 other countries which all ready have some form of national identity cards for its citizens like China, Brazil, Japan and Europe (excluding U.K)

The main purpose of this project is to speed up the languishing programmes especially for the citizens also to keep records of tax, address proof, driving license number and other data of the citizens.

The project will be carried out in several phases or steps , first step in issuing ID cards is building a complete computerized record of all citizens above the age of 18.It needs to be computerized so that it is accessible and it can be updated constantly. This task is being done by the Registrar General of India (RGI) under the home ministry, since the RGI carries out the census every decade. In fact, this database is going to be generated along with the next Census, slated for 2011. It will be called the National Population Register.

However, the technical and main challenge is to create a tamper-proof smart card, which can function in Indian conditions and sophisticated software called SCOSTA will reportedly be used for creating the cards. The cards would contain as many as 16 pieces of personal information. The information will be stored in micro-chips embedded in the card and it will be accessible only to authorized users, like police officials. Apart from carrying personal details like photo, age, address and fingerprints, the MNIC will contain a National Identity Number, which will be unique to the individual.

Indian government may open coal mining for private companies.

2009-06-16T03:26:00.000-07:00

A positive sign for foreign direct investment in coal mining sector for foreign and domestic private companies has been indicated by the Indian government. The Government of India is planning to open the mining sector for private companies with an intention of reducing the gap between demand and supply of coal. At present only state-owned companies like Coal India Ltd (CIL) are allowed to mine coal in India but private companies are allowed only to mine only for their captive consumption.
In furtherance of this, a bill was earlier introduced in Rajya Sabha by NDA government in year 2000 which is still pending and the bill is likely to be revived by the government after the passing of Union Budget next month. With the passing of this bill the Indian coal sector may see and experience its first overhauling as foreign companies like Rio Tinto and domestic companies will be allowed to enter this sector which may lead to a good competition among them and shooting up the ending economy. It will also reduce India’s dependence on coal imports to meet the need of domestic market. India produces approximately 450 million tonnes of coal annually which is less than 50 million tonnes as per the need of domestic consumption. It is expected that the coal requirement can shoot up to 1,000 million tonnes by 2030.

INDIA RANKED SECOND FOR CDMA MARKET

2009-06-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

In past few years India’s Telecom sector has grown rapidly with increase in number of mobile phone subscribers aggregating to higher figure of millions and billions year by year. With such a rapid growth in mobile phone subscriptions, India now stands next to United Sates with higher number of CDMA mobile phone subscribers. At present, India is the second country in the world having more than 100 million CDMA – based mobile phone subscribers. Reliance Communication which is one of the leading CDMA service providers is now in competition with United States Verizon Wireless and Tata Tele services stands on fourth position in comparison with the top global service providers. After the introduction of CDMA technology in India in year 2002 it took six and half year and cut throat competition with GSM technology service providers to achieve this gigantic number of subscribers for CDMA technology based mobile phone service providers.

India to enact strict environmental laws

2009-06-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

India to enact strict environmental Laws

The Indian government proposes bill for constituting an Independent environment Regulatory Authority Agency to strictly enforce as many as 20 environmental laws. In the proposed law Central Pollution Control Board would get statutory powers to take direct action against the polluters. The Board will consist of representatives of the government, industry and civil society. Along with the enforcement, the new authority will also conduct research on environment issues and give “sustainable” solutions to the government. Presently, the Board is not a statutory body and does not have powers to prosecute the polluters. However, it can recommend action against violators under different environmental laws to district administration for further action.