Month: February 2019

S&P 500’s best month since 2015 ends on a high note

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Wall Street ascended on Thursday, with the S&P 500 wrapping up its biggest monthly increase since 2015 after strong earnings from Facebook Inc added to optimism after the Federal Reserve’s dovish remarks.

Facebook jumped 10.82 percent, its strongest daily rise since January 2016, after its quarterly profit topped expectations and showed that advertisers were still flocking to the social network even after a series of high-profile embarrassments.

General Electric Co soared 11.65 percent after the industrial conglomerate beat estimates for quarterly sales and cash flow and said it sees industrial revenue rising modestly in 2019.

Investors took heart from the Fed’s pledge on Wednesday that it would be patient in raising interest rates further this year, easing concerns about tightening financial conditions crimping economic growth.

“There was a severe lack of trust in the Fed a month ago, and that has been relieved,” said Craig Callahan, chief executive officer of Icon Advisors in Denver.

Better-than-expected results from many US companies reporting in recent days are also fueling optimism on Wall Street, Callahan added.

The S&P 500 rose 7.9 percent in January, its best monthly performance since October 2015 and its best January since 1987.

Of the 210 S&P 500 companies that have reported fourth-quarter results, 71 percent have topped profit estimates, according to Refinitiv data.

Investors were awaiting the conclusion of the high-level talks between the United States and China, aimed at easing a six-month-old trade war that has battered financial markets.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, told US President Donald Trump in a letter that he hopes both sides will be able to meet each other halfway to reach a trade agreement before a March 1 deadline, Trump said.

The S&P 500 gained 0.86 percent to end at 2,704.1 points, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.37 percent to 7,281.74.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.06 percent to end at 24,999.67, hurt by DowDuPont Inc.

DowDuPont dropped 9.23 percent after the chemical maker’s revenue fell short of expectations. The S&P materials sector declined 1.54 percent.

The Nasdaq has gained 9.7 percent in 2019, while the Dow is up 7.2 percent.

After the bell, Amazon.com Inc forecast quarterly sales below Wall Street estimates and its stock dipped 2.5 percent.

The S&P communications services sector surged 3.74 percent during Thursday’s session, leading gains among the 11 major S&P sectors, thanks to Facebook, Alphabet Inc and Charter Communications Inc.

Charter jumped 14.19 percent after topping quarterly revenue estimates as the cable operator attracted more customers for its internet services.

Microsoft Corp declined 1.83 percent after its Azure cloud computing sales grew at a slower pace than a year earlier, although its quarterly results and forecast topped Wall Street estimates.

Intel Corp slipped 0.88 percent after the chipmaker named interim Chief Executive Officer Robert Swan to the role on a permanent basis.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.40-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, a 1.80-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 46 new highs and 24 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 9.5 billion shares, compared with the 7.7 billion-share average over the last 20 trading days.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Budget 2019: Here’s what different sectors are expecting with regards to GST

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Interim finance minister Piyush Goyal today present Narendra Modi government’s sixth and final Budget, which will be an interim one, keeping up with established tradition.

The Budget will seek Parliament’s nod for spending for four months till a new government is sworn-in.

The government has also been actively slashing the Goods and Services Taxes (GST) rates for various sectors. Here are some of the expectations of the different sector with regards to GST.

Education Sector

Present situation: According to reports and various studies, education in India is in a “sorry” state. Prakash Javdekar, HRD minister, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, said that in India at the elementary level, 17.51 percent posts for government teachers were vacant and for secondary level, 14.78 percent posts were vacant.

In another report published by the World Bank about managing the teaching workforce in India, there are nearly 130,000 single teacher schools in India.

The report titled “Getting the Right Teachers into the Right Schools” throws light on the number of teachers in the workforce in both government and private schools and their educational qualification.

Budget Expectations:

Reduction in tax rates levied by coaching institutions

The government stresses the importance of education for the youth, and it being a fundamental constitutional right there should be reforms to exempt educational and associated services from GST. The cost of education increased by 7 percent after the implementation of GST, according to a report issued jointly by the StratFirst Group and Assocham.

GST exempts few educational services from the tax net. When students go for the higher educations at private institutions, 18 percent GST is levied. It is also levied at coaching institutions that train students for competitive exams.

The expectation is the government may reduce the GST rate. Further, minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla in a pre-Budget roundtable discussion said, “The government is open to reconsider the GST rates on certain components in the education sector based on strong reasoning”. Lowering GST rates for the entire education sector including government, public and private bodies will fuel the job creation in India.

Aviation Sector

Present situation: Indian Aviation sector is growing tremendously. In 2018, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released a report claiming that in 2010, 79 million people travelled to/from/or within India. By 2017, that count doubled to 158 million.

Further, this number is expected to manifold by more than three times to 520 million by the year 2037. Aviation in India generates directly/indirectly more than 7 million jobs — 390,000 directly, 570,000 in the value chain, and 6.2 million in tourism.

The sector is growing, however, aviation companies are not. In 2018, higher cost of ATF (air turbine fuel) was the major concern for airlines.

Naresh Goyal’s Jet Airways openly blamed the ATF price for its cash crunch. For aviation companies, ATF, lease rentals, maintenance and employee benefits account for over 65 percent of their total cost. IndiGo’s fuel cost rose by 84.3 percent in Q2FY19, whereas Jet Airways witnessed an increase of 54.9 percent.

Budget Expectation:  Bringing ATF under GST net

Under GST, there was some tax relief given to the travellers. The government has lowered service tax to 5 percent from 6 percent for domestic travellers.  However, airlines such as Jet Airways, IndiGo had to face higher operating expenses, especially when prices of crude oil crossed $90 per barrel in international market.

Bringing ATF under the GST net has always been a much-debated topic since its introduction. After the financial crisis of Jet Airways and debt-laden Air India, aviation ministry approached finance ministry on the same. Aviation ministry had asked finance ministry to bring union and states to a consensus over the same issue.

In the interim Budget, the government is expected to accept the request of industry to bring ATF under GST. If it happens then this move is supposed to bring cheerful days for major Airlines.

Agriculture Sector

Budget expectation: Decrease in the rates on agricultural necessities

The government announced many reforms in the agricultural sector such as an increase in Minimum Support Price (MSP), crop procurement export policy etc… in recent times. However, there are still many steps to be taken which may be initiated with the help of GST.

Pesticides and fertilisers attract GST rates as high as 18 percent. We may expect that the government will bring down the GST rates on pesticides and fertilisers to give long due relief to farmers.

Automobile Sector

Present situation

It is the dream of the current government to have electric mobility. They want the number of electric vehicles to be 30 percent of the total vehicle by the end of 2030. Due to this, the electric vehicle industry is growing sharply. Currently, the industry attracts 12 percent GST.

However, to make it more attractive, the government should lower GST rates. It is expected that the government may announce tax benefits for the electric vehicle buyers and industry as well.

Budget expectations: Uniform tax rate for all auto components

First and foremost a proposal of uniform GST rate of 18 percent should be accepted for all auto components.

Reduction of import duty on aluminum and steel

Steel and aluminum alloys attract a basic customs duty of 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively. The sector, largely dominated by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), is struggling with the high cost of raw materials.

Reducing customs duty on raw materials, especially steel and aluminum alloys, which account for over 60 percent of the industry’s inputs, will enable the sector to deal with increasing costs.

This will be the last budget of present government before the 2019 general election and it is expected that masses would be pleased using the element of tax concessions and tax breaks.

In the next few days, markets likely to be volatile and risky due to the budget. Keeping fingers crossed for a non-political budget.

Rajat Mohan is partner, AMRG & Associates.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Budget 2019: 8 things the government can do to make the tax system more efficient

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The tenure of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government is coming to an end in this May. Before that, they have to present an interim budget.

Industry and the common man are expecting some big-bang announcements in form of heavy tax cuts, rebates, discounts etc… In a recent speech, Arun Jaitley hinted that there would be some big reforms in the budget.

He made it clear that priority will be given to economic issues that need quick resolutions.

Here is a look at some expected sops for the industry.

Rationalisation of tax rates for foreign companies

In recent times, the US carried out tax reforms. It has slashed corporate tax rates dramatically by 14 percent bringing down effective tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, abolished Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax etc…

Such reductions in tax rates have attracted foreign companies to the US. In India, foreign companies are taxed 40 percent making the country non-favored destination for foreign companies to enjoy a decent Return on Investment (ROI). Although reducing tax rates for foreign companies is a logical step, but it would be a politically unpopular step. In the last few months of the current regime, we generally should not expect such bold steps.

Extension of sops for new investments

Make in India is a flagship programme of the current government. To make India more attractive as an investment hub and to boost Make in India, the government might consider deferring sunset clause of various tax holidays given in the law, especially with regard to section 32 AC. This provision gives a tax break for industries investing in new plant and machinery.

Expecting a reduction in MAT rate

Currently in the case of a company, if income tax payable does not exceed 18.5 percent of their book profits, then minimum alternate tax at the rate of 18.5 percent on book profits is charged. In the last budget, the government has increased the number of years to set-off MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) credit. This time the government may accept the demand from companies to reduce the rate of MAT applicable to 15 percent in this budget.

Tax breaks for long-term capital gains

In his budget speech of 2018, finance minister Arun Jaitley stunned everyone by reintroducing Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) on equity and mutual funds. This move was a major setback and markets didn’t appreciate at all.

LTCG from the equity and mutual funds were taxed at the rate of 10 percent in excess to the Rs 100,000. LTCG upto Rs 100,000 were exempt. The major disadvantage of the LTCG tax is that it reduces the overall profits from the sale of the assets. Corporates are expecting the government will get rid of this embargo, which will fuel the growth of stock markets.

Angel Tax Controversy

Angel Tax likey to be the top priority of this government. Startups are receiving income tax notices on funding received by them, and such notices are giving nightmares to startups. Angel Tax is the tax which is payable by companies other than listed companies or roughly called “closely held companies” on the funding amount where the share price exceeds its fair market value.

This tax was introduced by in 2012 by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. Section 56(ii) of the Income Tax act states that the money received by unlisted companies whether it is through equity issue to friends, family and angel investors is deemed as taxable income at the rate of 30 percent.

This has caused a lot of problems for startups as initial funding works like oxygen to them. The government gave an exemption to startups if the total funding amount including amount received from angel investors does not cross Rs 10 crore.

Considering the problems faced by startups, recently Suresh Prabhu, union minister of commerce and industry, said he has taken up the matter with the finance ministry to find an appropriate solution.

Taxing a startup at the nascent stage is outrageous. In simple terms, we can say that if a startup receives any amount from investors even from family members which exceed the fair market value, then one-third of that amount is taxable. This is extremely harsh on them and this needs to be resolved immediately.

The government is expected to address the issue which will woo millions of young hearts before the 2019 general elections.

Income tax exemption threshold limit might be doubled

Individual’s tax slabs have not changed since 2014. In its first budget, the Narendra Modi government had raised the basic exemption limit to Rs 250,000 from Rs 200,000. However, the government is expected to double the threshold limit to Rs 500,000 in this budget. The move will help bringing tonnes of cash in the white economy resulting in higher GDP and lifting millions out of poverty.

Sops for salaried person

Last year, a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 was introduced for salaried taxpayers, however, at the same time they got away with the deductions of medical reimbursements and conveyance allowance. In nutshell not much benefits were given to the salaried class.

Salaried persons have to bear the burden of higher taxes as they do not have much scope for tax planning. Therefore, there is a demand to increase such limit considerably to at least Rs 100,000.

Increase in investment linked deduction under section 80C

Indian middle class is slowly getting attracted towards share markets and have started investing still in nascent stage. Another big expectation from this budget is that the government might consider it to increase investment-linked deductions under section 80C of Income Tax act to Rs 250,000 from Rs 150,000. This move will affect millions of people directly and motivate middle class to invest in equity markets further.

If the government goes for a populist budget keeping the election in the mind, it will be an extremely challenging task for it to meet its fiscal deficit target. At the moment, when the India is already the fastest major growing economy and about to surpass the UK as the fifth largest economy in the world, anything off the track may derail everything.

On the one hand, the government is encouraging entrepreneurship, on the other, taxmen are sending notices to startups on their funding sources.

Individuals and corporates are expecting some big-bang benefits. But the government says it is committed to meet its fiscal deficit targets keeping it to the level of 3.3 percent. Let’s see how the government goes about dealing with the number of issues waiting to be resolved.

Rajat Mohan is partner, AMRG & Associates.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Do you know why finance ministers flash ‘briefcase’ before budget? Read here.

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, addressed both the houses of the parliament on Thursday, commencing the budget session for the current fiscal year.

The interim finance minister Piyush Goyal is set to table the interim budget on Friday in what is regarded as the sixth and final budget presentation of the Narendra Modi-led government before the nation goes for the Lok Sabha elections due in May.

As has been the tradition since the independence of the country, the finance minister posses with a “briefcase” outside the parliament for photographers before delivering his budget speech. The tradition began when the country’s first finance minister R K Shanmukham Chetty presented the country’s first ever budget in the parliament on November 26, 1947.

It has been largely influenced by our colonial rulers who first started the tradition back in 18^th century when Chancellor of the Exchequer or the counterpart of the modern day finance minister was first asked to ‘open the budget’ while presenting the annual statement.

In 1860, British budget chief William Ewart Gladstone used a red suitcase, similar to the one used by England’s Queen. The red suitcase used by Gladstone had Queen’s monogram embossed in gold to carry his bundle of papers.

The word ‘budget’ derives from the French word ‘Bougette’ which means a leather bag, thereby making the budget a metonymy – a figure of speech (about a speech, as it turns out) in which a thing (the budget exercise) is referred to by the name of something (the leather bag) closely associated with the former.

While Gladstone’s red box was in use for a very long time by British parliamentarians, only retiring in 2011, finance ministers in India have used their own set of bags, experimenting with colours, to present the budget speech in the parliament.

In 1998-99, then finance minister Yashwant Sinha used a black coloured leather bag with straps and buckles, while the former prime minister and then finance minister Manmohan Singh carried a plain black budget bag during his famous budget in 1991.

Former President Pranab Mukherjee used a bag that was similar to the Gladstone’s “red box” during his tenure, while former finance minister P Chidambaram maintained a low key profile with what appeared to be a bag with a lighter tone and softer leather.

However, present day finance minister Arun Jaitley used three different briefcases in his last three budgets and was similar to that used by Chidambaram.

The tradition of carrying a leather bag or a “box” to the budget speech by the finance minister has become synonymous to that of a bandhgala and a Nehru jacket of a politician.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Microsoft to accelerate digital transformation in North-East

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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To accelerate the digital transformation drive in the North-East, Microsoft on Thursday announced its plans on investing in the education transportation and utilities sectors in the region.

By leveraging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and data, the tech giant aims to enable better citizen service s in North East India, Microsoft India said in a statement.

As part of the initiative, the software giant has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Sikkim promising help to build new age tech capacity among students and faculty in government schools of the state.

Under the MoU, Microsoft will integrate IT content in the state board curriculum, conduct whole school reforms, grow digital literacy and build teacher capacity through the company programmes like Innovative Schools Programme, Educator Network and Innovative Educator Programme.

“E-governance is the best way to get the benefits of technology to all the residents of North East India and we believe the next step of growth will be to leverage the power of the Cloud, AI IoT and data,” said Manish Prakash, General Manager, Public Sector, Microsoft India.

Microsoft has been deploying AI and Cloud computing solutions to transform services in different areas including education, agriculture and healthcare in India.

Microsoft is the only provider of services across all three clouds in the country – private, public and hybrid cloud and close to 150 government departments in India are powered by the Microsoft Cloud, the company added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Constitutionality of the bankruptcy law: Defaulters’ paradise lost

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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It is not often that an order of the Supreme Court (SC) contains an epilogue and prologue. But the judgement deciding the constitutionality of the insolvency and Bankruptcy (IBC) does precisely that.

It traces the end of an era replete with feeble enforcement rights and intransigent borrowers to a legal regime which revitalises creditor protection and relegates rights of defaulting promoters. In the prologue the court has analysed various studies, statistics and the magisterial report of the Bankruptcy Law Reform Committee (BLRC) to denote the pitiful state of recoveries for lenders under laws prior to the IBC. The SC then goes on to reject each of the grounds for challenging the IBC.

The first major challenge related to the perceived inferior treatment of operational creditors. In bankruptcy laws globally, the axis of distinction is between secured and unsecured creditors. In a radical departure from all precedents, the BLRC proposed to categorise creditors as financial and operational.

Financial creditors are typically banks and bondholders whereas operational creditors include trade counterparties, employees and tax authorities. On the face of it, under IBC the financial creditors clearly have the upper hand. They constitute the committee of creditors, which takes all key restructuring decisions and may even get a higher payout in liquidation.

The petitioners argued that there was no intelligible basis for this categorisation since the company essentially owes dues to both sets of creditors. The Supreme Court found a clear and rational basis for this differentiation.

First, financial creditors are in the business of providing credit. They are adept at credit analysis and evaluating financial prospects of a business – at the time of sanctioning debt as well as through its life cycle which makes them better equipped to judge the viability and feasibility of a resolution plan. Secondly, financial creditors generally are long term providers of finance and will be more amenable to complex restructuring terms.

Operational creditors, on the other hand, are providers of goods and services and are neither inclined to look beyond their payment cycles nor do they have the financial sophistication to restructure a distressed company. At the same time, the IBC also contains safeguards for operational creditors.

For instance, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has held that operational creditors should be roughly treated at par with financial creditors under a resolution plan. Moreover, all dues to operational creditors under a resolution plan must be paid before any lenders are paid.

In any event, the IBC guarantees operational creditors a minimum amount – being the sum they would have recovered on liquidation. On this basis, the SC concluded that though the distinction between creditors is unique it is not devoid of sound reasoning.

In practice, IBC has been a terrific negotiating tool for operational creditors who have been prolific in filing IBC cases with the aim to settle with the borrower prior to the commencement of formal insolvency.

The second challenge was on section 29A – the section which bars defaulting promoters from regaining control of insolvent companies. At its inception, the IBC was meant to offer a respectable restructuring tool to not only creditors but also to the distressed borrowers.

The promoters were expected to play a key role in revival of sick companies by submitting resolution plans just like other bidders. The aim was to remove the stigma attached to bankruptcy and encourage sick companies to file for bankruptcy voluntarily – much like the practice under the US Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.

However, soon it was realised that resolution plans for highly distressed companies entailed large haircuts for lenders and extremely low recoveries for operational creditors. Owners who ran the company into the ground on borrowed funds could win their companies back while whitewashing associated liabilities.

Not only was this a clear moral hazard but could become politically unpalatable at a time of absconding robber barons. Section 29A was introduced to allay fears of abuse of the IBC process.

The section essentially has two parts. The first past sets out eligibility criteria for potential bidders of the company. It contains the broad set of disqualifications applicable across the world on the basis of the past criminal record, SEBI and Companies Act violations, willful defaults etc… – but most contentiously, it disqualifies a bidder if it had a record of being in control of an NPA. While the debarment on the basis of wrongdoing is justifiable, it was contended that a company could turn into a non-performing asset (NPA) for macroeconomic reasons with no ill intent or willful default of the promoters.

It was passionately argued that the NPA ground caught out innocent and industrious promoters suffering from a downturn in the economy. The SC, however, looked at the fine print of this section. The section sets out that only promoters who have been in control of an NPA for more than one year shall be debarred.

The SC observed that by this time, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would have classified the account as a ‘substandard account’ requiring higher provisioning by lenders. This means that even if the original default was for extrinsic reasons, the promoter had ample time to restructure the debt but failed to do so. This clearly showed malfeasance at worst and ineptness at best – both being highly undesirable attributes for a bidder of an insolvent entity.

The second part of section 29A was more problematic. In an economy rife with benami transactions, it was felt that if a bidder directly suffered from disqualifications, she could route the bid through group companies or relatives. To plug this gap, section 29A contained a large list of relatives and connected persons whose antecedents would also matter.

If any of the connected persons suffered from the ineligibility under section 29A, such taint would automatically attach to the bidder regardless of whether the connected person was acting in concert with the bidder. To take a bizarre example, if I was bidding for a company but my estranged brother had an NPA for more than a year, it would debar me even if my brother had nothing to do with my business or my bid. It was correctly argued that this provision would unfairly punish Abel for the sins of Cain.

To SC’s credit, instead of striking down the edifice of section 29A, it merely read it down. The SC said that a bidder would be debarred only if the tarnished connected party was actually involved in the business of the bidder. Absence a business connection, section 29A would not unfairly penalise the bidder.

The SC is silent on questions of whether there is a presumption of an existing business nexus between relatives and group companies with the bidder, which entity has the onus of proving the nexus and the applicable standard of proof required. This is likely to spur litigation in the near future. But retention of section 29A in principle is a body blow to defaulting promoters hoping to assume control in a clandestine manner.

The apex court also reiterated a cardinal principle of judicial review. Laws challenged for impinging on personal liberties and human rights are subjected to a heightened judicial scrutiny. But when it comes to commercial laws, the SC reaffirmed that courts must adopt a hands-off approach since such laws are technical in nature and drafted after due consideration of socio-economic conditions.

The courts are unelected guardians of the constitution and must not arrogate to themselves the role of technical experts or policymakers. The SC held that absent patent arbitrariness or grave breach, there must be judicial deference towards upholding complex economic laws. This principle underscores the line beyond which judicial review descends into judicial activism.

Most importantly, it portends which side the SC may be leaning towards later this month when deciding the constitutionality of another crucial economic legislation – the RBI’s Revised Framework for Resolution of Stressed Assets – released on February 12 last year – the outcome of which will be of great significance for the ailing power sector companies.

Thankfully the epilogue of the order is not an obituary of the IBC as many promoters would have hoped, but a toast to its success. To quote the last paragraph of the SC order – defaulters’ paradise has been lost and in its place, the economy’s rightful position has been regained.

Suharsh Sinha is partner at AZB and Partners.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow