SEBI
seeks US help for regulating investment
advisers..
NEW DELHI, Apr 15: Seeking to rein in
the growing crop of investment advisers
dishing out "hot" market tips
through various media that include SMS,
sector regulator SEBI has turned to its
US counterpart for some regulation
advice.
Worried
about the proliferation of unregistered
entities acting as self-proclaimed
investment advisers on stocks and other
investments, Indian regulator is looking
for the "experience and
expertise" of its US counterpart -
Securities and Exchange Commission - for
overseeing these advisers.
A team
from SEC was in Mumbai late last month to
conduct a four-day training programme on
Investment Company Regulation,
Examination and Enforcement, which was
attended by more than 60 officials from
SEBI as well as domestic securities
exchanges and depositories.
This was
SEC's first ever foreign regulator
training programme focused on regulating
and examining investment companies and
investment advisers.
According
to a SEC statement, Securities and
Exchange Board of India Chairman M
Damodaran said after the completion of
the training programme that SEBI was
looking "forward to benefiting from
the considerable experience and expertise
that the US SEC has gained over the years
-- especially in matters related to
regulatory oversight, monitoring and
examining of investment advisers and
investment companies."
Incidentally,
SEBI has also mooted the idea of creating
a private sector Regulatory Organisation
(RO) as a first-level regulator for
investment advisers and is inviting
public comments and suggestions on the
issue of regulation of investment
advisers till the end of this month.
(PTI)
Bhutto
says she is committed to return to Pak,
contest polls.....
LONDON, Apr 15: Vowing that she
would go back to Pakistan and contest
polls, former Pakistan Premier Benazir
Bhutto has said that she wanted to reach
a political deal with President Pervez
Musharraf which, she claimed, would be in
the interest of the country.
Fifty
three-year-old Bhutto, speaking to
‘The Sunday Times’ from her
home in exile in Dubai, said that she
wanted a deal with the President but that
it would be "premature" to say
one was imminent.
She vowed
to go back despite the danger of
assassination by Islamists whom she
accused of bringing "Taliban
campaigns" to Islamabad.
The
Oxford-educated Bhutto, the Chief of
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said
she was not afraid: "I don’t
worry about it. When it’s time to
go, it’s time to go. I’m
committed to contesting the
elections."
Bhutto is
the PPP’s only candidate for Prime
Minister and the report quoted aides as
saying that Musharraf will be obliged to
let her take the post if she triumphs at
the polls.
According
to the paper, she confirmed that PPP was
in negotiations with supporters of
Musharraf to secure free elections for
National Assembly and to reach an
understanding on how the two leaders
would work together if she won.
Bhutto,
the paper said, is convinced that
63-year-old Musharraf will secure a
second term as President by seeking
re-election from the current Parliament,
where his supporters have a majority. She
claimed it would be in Pakistan’s
interest for them to reach an accord.
Bhutto’s
supporters are looking for
"confidence building" measures
to convince them that Musharraf is acting
in good faith. Top of their list is a
demand that corruption charges against
her are dropped along with a
constitutional ban on any -one serving
over two terms as Prime Minister, the
paper said.
Bhutto,
who was twice the Prime Minister, claimed
that Musharraf changed the Constitution
to prevent her or Nawaz Sharif, PML-N
chief and her erstwhile rival who was
deposed by Musharraf in his 1999 coup,
from returning to power.
She
admitted that her relationship with the
President would be difficult and insisted
that Musharraf was guilty of blowing
"hot and cold" towards the
Taliban in Waziristan tribal agency near
the Afghan border. "My party would
not have allowed the Taliban to become
such a huge force."
Bhutto,
however, praised Musharraf for his
protection of minorities and for the
Women’s Protection Bill, which aims
to end the criminalisation of rape
victims as adulterers.
But, she
claimed, he had not been a consistent
champion of women’s rights, saying
that his treatment of Mukhtaran Mai, who
was gang-raped on the orders of village
elders, had damaged Pakistan’s image
overseas.
Bhutto
alleged that Musharraf had banned Mai
from travelling abroad to tell her story
because he did not want her to portray
the country in a negative light.
She said
Musharraf’s Government seemed
powerless in the face of Islamic
militancy, allowing extremists in some
madrassas to extend their influence.
"We feel the lack of governance is
leading to social problems and that the
madrassas are moving in to fill the
gap."
"The
ruling party has failed to check the
madrassas. They’re forcing barbers
to stop shaving beards. They’ve
raided music shops and they’re
bringing Taliban campaigns into
Islamabad, while the state watches. The
Government has got to take control,"
Bhutto said.
She said
the Government could start by sacking the
Government-appointed cleric at
Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, who has
threatened a suicide bombing campaign if
Musharraf confronts radical students
using Taliban tactics to close brothels
and DVD shops. (PTI)
India's
online lottery Playwin closes in
Bhutan....
THIMPHU, Apr 15: India's popular
online lottery game Playwin has been
closed in Bhutan following imposition of
high taxes by the kingdom's authorities
in a bid to discourage gambling.
Managing
Director of All Stars Entertainment,
Sangay Dorji, who operates the popular
game in Bhutan, said the decision was
taken as the amount of taxes imposed on
the business by the revenue and customs
department was too huge.
"The
compound tax, which calculates to about
Nu 7.8 million a week, was too high to
pay," Dorji was quoted by state-run
Kuensel as saying.
Revenue
and customs officials said in keeping
with the National Assembly resolutions
they wanted to discourage online gambling
and imposing tax was one of the only ways
to do so.
Playwin,
promoted by the Mumbai-based Essel Group,
was introduced in Bhutan in October 2005.
Revenue
and Customs Director, Sangay Zam, said
the tax was imposed based on the number
of draws.
"We
charge Nu. 25,000 as tax for each
draw," she said, adding the idea was
to reduce the number of draws.
"More
number of draws, higher the tax,"
Zam said.
The
department recorded about 175 draws a
week in the online game, which added up
to a total tax amount of more than Nu.
4.3 million a week.
"That
is a lot of draw for an online lottery
business," she said, adding the
department would stand by the levy
imposed.
Dorji, on
the other hand, appealed to the
ministries concerned for a little more
time so that he could wrap up his
business. (PTI)
'More
troops in Iraq only viable option to
avoid failure'....
NEW YORK, Apr 15: Senator John
McCain, a Republican hopeful for
presidential election, has said the
buildup of US forces in Iraq represented
the only viable option to avoid failure
in that country and that he had yet to
identify an effective fallback if the
current strategy failed.
"I
have no Plan B...If I saw that doomsday
scenario evolving, then I would try to
come up with one. But I cannot give you a
good alternative because if I had a good
alternative, maybe we could consider it
now," McCain told the New York Times
in an interview.
In a
discussion of how he would handle Iraq if
elected president, he said the success of
the Bush administration's strategy, which
seeks to protect Baghdad residents so
that Iraqi leaders have an opportunity to
pursue a programme of political
reconciliation, was essentially a
precondition for a more limited American
role that could follow.
"I am
not guaranteeing that this
succeeds," said McCain, who has long
argued that additional troops are needed.
"I am just saying that I think it
can.I believe it has a good shot."
McCain
methodically dismissed as unrealistic
every other plan that had been proposed
by Democrats as a substitute for
President Bush's strategy, including
those from Senators Hillary Rodham
Clinton, Joseph R. Biden Jr. And Barack
Obama.
He said
that if the Bush administration's plan
had not produced visible signs of
progress by the time a McCain presidency
began, he might be forced -- if only by
the will of public opinion -- to end
American involvement in Iraq.
"I do
believe that history shows us Americans
will not continue to support an overseas
engagement involving the loss of American
lives for an unlimited period of time
unless they see some success," he
said. "And then, when they run out
of patience, they will demand that we get
out. " (PTI)
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