NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Elliott Davis PLLC has entered into an agreement with domestic accounting firm Ashok Maheshwary & Associates to develop, support and facilitate bilateral business opportunities between India and the US.
Teams from both sides will work together to guide clients through a wide range of complex international business, tax and regulatory matters, said Ashok Maheshwari, Founding Partner of Ashok Maheshwary & Associates.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the CPA (Certified Public Accountants) firm Elliott Davis PLLC and Ashok Maheshwary & Associates will facilitate Indian entities entering the US market as well as US businesses establishing operations in India, he said.
“The focus of this arrangement is to develop, support and facilitate US-India bilateral business opportunities that bring both outbound investment to the US and inbound investment to India,” he said.
Thiru Govender, International Practice Shareholder at Elliott Davis said the collaboration provides a gateway to assist and attract Indian capital investment to the US.
“Reciprocally, the relationship enhances our ability to guide US companies considering global expansion into the Indian market of opportunity,” he added.
Ashok Maheshwary & Associates is an international accounting firm based in Gurgaon. Elliott Davis is one of the largest accounting, tax and consulting services firms in the US. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Facebook expects to boost capital expenditure by as much as 80 per cent this year as the social networking giant expands infrastructure and support for initiatives to bring the next 5 billion people online.
The US-based company, which turns 10 this week, expects its capex to be as much as USD 2.5 billion, up from USD 1.37 billion in 2013.
“We anticipate our 2014 capEx will increase to be in the range of USD 2-2.5 billion,” Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman said last week.
“The significant year-over-year growth will be driven by an expansion of our Menlo Park headquarters, infrastructure-related expenses such as the buildout of our Iowa data centre, and by our investment plans to support initiatives like Internet.Org,” he said.
Facebook’s Internet.Org initiative is aimed at increasing Internet penetration in the developing world. The company will seek to deepen its relationships with mobile operators globally and work to develop new models for Internet access.
Over the past three years, the company has ramped up purchases of property and equipment rather and reduced leases.
In 2011, the company spent USD 1.07 billion, of which USD 473 million was on procuring property and equipment under lease, while USD 606 million was spent on purchases.
In the following year, Facebook invested USD 1.57 billion, of which USD 340 million was used for leases. Last year, only USD 11 million was used to lease property and equipment.
Facebook posted one of its best quarterly performances in the October-December quarter, buoyed by strong growth in advertising revenue and mobile traffic.
Profit jumped eightfold from a year earlier to USD 523 million, raising its annual net income to USD 1.5 billion.
Revenue in the previous quarter rose to USD 2.58 billion and USD 7.87 billion for the year.
At the end of 2013, Facebook had over 1.23 billion monthly active users. About 945 million accessed the website from their mobile phones. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Agriculture and wetlands in India and the rest of the world should be managed in unison to tackle poverty and conserve ecosystems, says a new report.
Around six per cent of the world’s landmass is classified as either permanent or seasonal wetland. Millions of people directly depend on them for food, water, and other purposes.
Researchers estimate that wetlands are worth around USD 70 billion globally each year.
However, these areas also face a number of threats, the most serious of which is agriculture, the ‘Wetlands and People’ report unveiled today said.
“Wetlands and agriculture can and must coexist,” said Matthew McCartney, a hydrologist at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR centre, and a contributor to the report.
“We need policies on wetlands that support ecosystems, sustain rich biodiversity, and simultaneously improve the livelihoods of farming communities who depend on wetlands or whose activities directly affect them. We need to find a way to have the best of both worlds,” he said in the report.
Noting that outright protection of wetlands is incompatible with farming and undermines livelihoods, McCartney said: “But there are landscape approaches and agricultural practises that can support and sustain healthy wetlands, and vice versa. Working with local communities will help us find the best solutions.”
As per the report, India has 26 wetland sites of global importance. These include well-known lakes — Loktak in Manipur, Chilika in Odisha and Wular in Kashmir.
It is estimated that in the last century alone 50 per cent of the nation’s wetlands have been lost. A similar situation prevails in Southeast Asia.
In the report, researchers highlighted a number of examples of the value of wetlands to poor, rural communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They also outlined ways to manage them sustainably for current and future generations.
IWMI said the debate around conservation of wetlands has been polarised for years, with agriculture implicated as one of the greatest threats to their survival.
It said now there is a growing consensus that a ‘people-centred’ approach that seeks to optimise e benefits for small-holder farmers and reduce poverty, while simultaneously protecting ecosystems, represents the most promising future for long-term conservation of wetlands.
CGIAR (The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) is an international body that funds and co-ordinates research into agricultural crop breeding with the goal of reducing rural poverty and increasing food security. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Continuing a programme initiated in 2012, online auctioneer eBay has said it will repurchase shares worth an additional USD 5 billion.
The US-based company, which started a stock repurchase worth USD 2 billion in June 2012, bought about USD 1.3 billion of shares.
“The stock repurchase programme is intended to offset the impact of dilution from our equity compensation programmes,” the firm said last week.
As of December 31, the company had about USD 640 million pending for repurchases of its common stock under the 2012 programme, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Last month, the company’s board of directors authorised an additional USD 5 billion stock repurchase programme.
The new stock repurchase programme, together with USD 640 million remaining, brings the total repurchase authorisation as of January to USD 5.6 billion, eBay said in the filing.
EBay also expects to make opportunistic repurchases of its common stock to reduce the outstanding share count.
“Any share repurchases under our stock repurchase programmes may be made through open market transactions, block trades, privately negotiated transactions or other means at times and in such amounts as management deems appropriate and may be funded from our working capital or other financing alternatives,” it added.
The global commerce platform and payments firm said its fourth quarter revenue rose 13 per cent to USD 4.5 billion from a year earlier. Net income in the quarter stood at USD 850 million, driven primarily by strong top-line growth.
The total company-enabled commerce volume increased 22 per cent in the fourth quarter to USD 61 billion.
Both Marketplaces and PayPal achieved record mobile results in 2013, each exceeding USD 20 billion.
Mobile users represented 40 per cent of eBay’s 36 million new users and accounts in 2013, contributing USD 35 billion to commerce volumes. (PTI)

MUMBAI, Feb 2:  Nearly 52,000 new hotel rooms are expected to be added in India over the next five years on rising demand from traverllers as global economic conditions improve, says a report.
“Hospitality sector will see a rise of over 65 per cent in total hotel inventory by 2017 as nearly 52,000 new hotel rooms are expected to come into existence,” according to the property consultant Cushman & Wakefield.
“Despite a slowdown, the sector is expected to witness better demand in the coming years on account of improved global economic conditions,” it added.
Many hotel projects which were delayed in the last two years are expected to be completed.
“Even while India is considered to be an attractive market for both leisure and business travel, there are some inherent deficiencies due to which hospitality projects have hitherto taken long to come up including aspects like funding and regulatory issues,” C&W Regional Director (South and South East Asia) Akshay Kulkarni said.
Despite a significant number of leisure travellers both international and domestic, hoteliers are seen to be concentrating on business destinations, specifically gateway markets of NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore, he said.
Delhi NCR is expected to contribute around one-third in the total expected hotel rooms supply in the period under consideration which is expected to see 17,000 keys, followed by Mumbai at 12,098 and Bangalore at 6,978 rooms.
NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata will witness almost 105 per cent increase in new rooms in the next 5 years from the current level of 3,638 to 3,813 rooms.
“The growth in Chennai and Pune is largely driven by the current paucity of branded hotels there,” Kulkarni said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Insurance regulator IRDA has set up a nine-member committee to review the 14 non-legislative recommendations made by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC).
The committee will also examine the extant legislative and regulatory framework in compliance 14 non-legislative recommendations (NLRs), IRDA said in an order.
The non-legislative recommendations are related with consumer protection, transparency and capacity building, among others.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) said the committee will submit its report by April-end.
The committee members include C R Muralidharan, G Prabhakara, and Mathew Varghese, all ex-Members, IRDA and M S Sahoo, ex-Member, SEBI.
The committee will identify the gaps and possible improvements in the extant framework vis-a-vis the 14 NLR. The panel will also suggest changes or modifications to the extant framework in compliance with the 14 NLR.
While not much progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations made in FSLRC report, which was submitted to the government in March last year, the Finance Ministry has called for early implementation of the non-legislative proposals contained therein.
The finance ministry recently asked regulators to voluntarily implement the non-legislative recommendations of FSLRC, while issuing a ‘guidance handbook’ on this matter.
According to the guidance handbook, there are a number of recommendations in the FSLRC report which are in the nature of governance enhancing and do not require legislative changes.
The implementation of the NLR made by the FSLRC was discussed by the Financial Stability Development Council (FSDC).
In its report, the FSLRC has recommended sweeping changes to the way financial sector is regulated in the country, including in areas ranging from banking and insurance to capital markets, among others. (PTI)

MUMBAI, Feb 2:  Vegit, the agro division of the Rs 950 crore Merino Group which offers ready-to-cook packaged foods, is eyeing 25 per cent revenue growth in the next financial year.
“We are expecting a growth of 25 per cent on the back of our continuous addition to product portfolio,” Merino Industries Regional head Madan Singi told.
He declined however to share the current size – in value terms – of the agro division business.
Vegit’s nine snack products are available in 20 cities. It is planning to increase the number of products to 15-16 in the near future.
“We are planning to expand our product presence to all metro cities and also extend it to tier II cities. We believe the growth will come from tier II cities in future,” he said.
The company, Singi said, has tied up with all the major retail stores.
The ready-to-cook market is over Rs 2,000 crore, of which the “aloo (potato) mash” category is worth Rs 500 crore.
Vegit is planning to begin exports from next year to countries that have high Indian population.
“We are in the process to begin exports of our products to countries like the US, which has a high Indian diaspora. We expect to begin shipping our consignment in the next financial year,” Singi said.
In the Agro Business, the Merino Group began in the cold storage business and diversified into farming, biotechnology and food processing. Vegit began with potato flakes and ready to eat snack mixes under the brand name `Vegit’.
The company has a unit in Hapur in Uttar Pradesh with a capacity of processing 50,000 tonne potatoes annually. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  With the government considering relaxing the FDI policy for railways, the Home Ministry and the Department of Economic Affairs have sounded a note of caution, citing “security” concerns, especially with regard to investments from China in this sensitive sector.
In its comment on the proposal of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the Home Ministry said Chinese investments in such a sensitive sector should be viewed with caution, sources said.
The Home Ministry, they said, has pointed out that China is India’s main rival on the economic and military fronts, with unresolved border disputes between the two nations.
On account of this, sources said, investments from the neighbouring country in this core sector may pose a danger to national security and should be viewed with caution.
The ministry clearly stated that Chinese investments should not be allowed in border areas such as Jammu & Kashmir, the North East and Sikkim.
It suggested the DIPP and the Ministry of Railways set up a core group with technical and security experts to evaluate proposals in the sector.
The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has stated that the railway ministry should keep in mind the strategic and security sensitivity of remote locations while framing specific projects in those areas, they added.
The DIPP has circulated a final note for consideration of the Cabinet for allowing foreign direct investment in suburban corridors, high-speed tracks and freight lines connecting ports, mines and power installations. The proposal will be taken up by the Cabinet soon.
However, existing passenger and freight network operations will not be opened to foreign investors. (PTI)