1. Sahoo panel for opening IDR window to other instruments too
i. The Finance Ministry-appointed Sahoo panel is all set to make a case for expanding the scope of Indian Depository Receipts for Indian investors.
ii. In its report to be submitted to the Finance Ministry later this week, the panel is likely to recommend that IDRs be allowed not only against equity shares, but also against all financial instruments.
iii. The current legal framework on IDRs stipulates that such instruments can be issued only against underlying equity shares.
iv. If the Government accepts this recommendation, then an Indian investor will get to invest in any IDR which has corporate bonds or exchange-traded funds as underlying equity.
v. IDRs are receipts denominated in Indian rupees, created by a domestic depository against the underlying equity shares of an issuing company.
2. Devyani Khobragade arrest: India launches massive diplomatic backlash
i. In an escalating diplomatic row, India has asked the US to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country. This follows growing protests in the country on the treatment meted out to India's Deputy Consul General in New York, Devyani Khobragade.
ii. Government has asked the US to return the ID cards given to their consular officers posted in India," Government sources told .
iii. The government stopped all import clearances for the US embassy including liquor even as it looked set to remove all traffic barricades near the embassy on Nyaya Marg in Delhi. The picket, however, would stay.
iv. What’s more, the government also sought visa and other details of all teachers at US schools and pay and bank accounts of Indians in these schools.
v. Khobragade was strip-searched, confined to a cell with drug addicts and also subjected to DNA swabbing, sources confirmed to IANS.
vi. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid termed the treatment meted out to Khobragade “completely unacceptable”.
Note: i. Devyani Khobragade, 39, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody last week on a street in New York as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a $250,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) bond after pleading not guilty in court.
ii. Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was accused by Manhattan's Indian American US Attorney Preet Bharara of visa fraud and exploiting her babysitter and housekeeper.
3. Pietersen’s international career ended by ECB
i. England batsman Kevin Pietersen’s international career on Wednesday came to an abrupt end after he was dumped from the team for the upcoming tour of the West Indies and the subsequent World Twenty20 Championships in Bangladesh.
ii. The 33-year-old swashbuckling batsman, who played 104 Tests and 136 ODIs, is set to end as England’s highest run-scorer in all formats of the game after a career spanning nine years.
iii. The dramatic announcement was made by the ECB after a disastrous Ashes series in Australia which the English team lost 0-5.
iv. Newly-appointed ECB managing director Paul Downton said it was a “tough decision” to drop Pietersen as part of a rebuilding process with the focus on next year’s World Cup.
v. “Therefore we have decided the time is right to look to the future and start to rebuild not only the team but also team ethic and philosophy.”
vi. Pietersen, a player of South African origins, had a controversy-marred run with the national team, and was often criticised for having an “ego”.
vii. Kevin Pietersen’s said:“I feel extremely fortunate to have played at a time of great success for England cricket alongside some of the best cricketers the country has ever produced. I want to thank everyone for their fantastic support and I wish the team the very best of success going forward.
4. Andy Coulson gets 18-month jail for phone hacking
i. Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, a onetime aide to British Prime Minister David Cameron, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for participating in a conspiracy to hack the phones of celebrities, politicians and crime victims.
ii. Three other former journalists and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire all received shorter sentences on Friday.
iii. Coulson was convicted on June 24, 2014 after an eight-month trial stemming from revelations of illegal eavesdropping at the now-defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid.
iv. Another former editor, Rebekah Brooks, and four others were acquitted.
v. Coulson faces a retrial on two charges of bribing police officers for royal phone directories.
vi. The defendants have said they did not know phone hacking was illegal, though the judge said they knew it was “morally wrong”.
i. The Finance Ministry-appointed Sahoo panel is all set to make a case for expanding the scope of Indian Depository Receipts for Indian investors.
ii. In its report to be submitted to the Finance Ministry later this week, the panel is likely to recommend that IDRs be allowed not only against equity shares, but also against all financial instruments.
iii. The current legal framework on IDRs stipulates that such instruments can be issued only against underlying equity shares.
iv. If the Government accepts this recommendation, then an Indian investor will get to invest in any IDR which has corporate bonds or exchange-traded funds as underlying equity.
v. IDRs are receipts denominated in Indian rupees, created by a domestic depository against the underlying equity shares of an issuing company.
2. Devyani Khobragade arrest: India launches massive diplomatic backlash
i. In an escalating diplomatic row, India has asked the US to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country. This follows growing protests in the country on the treatment meted out to India's Deputy Consul General in New York, Devyani Khobragade.
ii. Government has asked the US to return the ID cards given to their consular officers posted in India," Government sources told .
iii. The government stopped all import clearances for the US embassy including liquor even as it looked set to remove all traffic barricades near the embassy on Nyaya Marg in Delhi. The picket, however, would stay.
iv. What’s more, the government also sought visa and other details of all teachers at US schools and pay and bank accounts of Indians in these schools.
v. Khobragade was strip-searched, confined to a cell with drug addicts and also subjected to DNA swabbing, sources confirmed to IANS.
vi. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid termed the treatment meted out to Khobragade “completely unacceptable”.
Note: i. Devyani Khobragade, 39, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody last week on a street in New York as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a $250,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) bond after pleading not guilty in court.
ii. Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was accused by Manhattan's Indian American US Attorney Preet Bharara of visa fraud and exploiting her babysitter and housekeeper.
3. Pietersen’s international career ended by ECB
i. England batsman Kevin Pietersen’s international career on Wednesday came to an abrupt end after he was dumped from the team for the upcoming tour of the West Indies and the subsequent World Twenty20 Championships in Bangladesh.
ii. The 33-year-old swashbuckling batsman, who played 104 Tests and 136 ODIs, is set to end as England’s highest run-scorer in all formats of the game after a career spanning nine years.
iii. The dramatic announcement was made by the ECB after a disastrous Ashes series in Australia which the English team lost 0-5.
iv. Newly-appointed ECB managing director Paul Downton said it was a “tough decision” to drop Pietersen as part of a rebuilding process with the focus on next year’s World Cup.
v. “Therefore we have decided the time is right to look to the future and start to rebuild not only the team but also team ethic and philosophy.”
vi. Pietersen, a player of South African origins, had a controversy-marred run with the national team, and was often criticised for having an “ego”.
vii. Kevin Pietersen’s said:“I feel extremely fortunate to have played at a time of great success for England cricket alongside some of the best cricketers the country has ever produced. I want to thank everyone for their fantastic support and I wish the team the very best of success going forward.
4. Andy Coulson gets 18-month jail for phone hacking
i. Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, a onetime aide to British Prime Minister David Cameron, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for participating in a conspiracy to hack the phones of celebrities, politicians and crime victims.
ii. Three other former journalists and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire all received shorter sentences on Friday.
iii. Coulson was convicted on June 24, 2014 after an eight-month trial stemming from revelations of illegal eavesdropping at the now-defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid.
iv. Another former editor, Rebekah Brooks, and four others were acquitted.
v. Coulson faces a retrial on two charges of bribing police officers for royal phone directories.
vi. The defendants have said they did not know phone hacking was illegal, though the judge said they knew it was “morally wrong”.
