Reserve Bank of India

27.02.2019

Banking

Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) (Amendment) Regulations, 2019

MANU/RFEM/0004/2019

In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 9 and clause (e) of sub-section (2) of section 47 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999), the Reserve Bank of India makes the following amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) Regulations, 2015 [Notification No. FEMA 10(R)/2015-RB dated January 21, 2016], namely:-

1. Short Title and Commencement.-

(i) These regulations may be called the Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) (Amendment) Regulations, 2019.

(ii) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Amendment to Regulation 4.-

In Regulation 4, the existing sub-regulation (G)(2), shall be substituted as follows:-

"(2) An authorized dealer in India may, subject to the directions as may be issued by the Reserve Bank, allow ship-manning / crew managing agencies in India and re-insurance and composite insurance brokers registered with IRDA to open and maintain non-interest bearing foreign currency accounts in India for the purpose of undertaking transactions in the ordinary course of their business."

Tags : Foreign Currency Amendment Regulations

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Ministry of Finance 

27.02.2019

Civil

Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment (Amendment) Regulations, 2019

MANU/CUSN/0018/2019

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 157, read with sections 30, 30A, 41, 41A, 53, 54, 56, sub-section (3) of section 98 and sub-section (2) of section 158 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs hereby makes the following regulations further to amend the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018, namely: -

1. Short title and commencement.--

(1) These regulations may be called the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment (Amendment) Regulations, 2019.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018, in regulation 1, in sub-regulation (2), for the words, figures and letters "the 1st March, 2019", the words, figures and letters "the 1st August, 2019" shall be substituted.

Tags : Regulation Amendment Sea Cargo

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Press Information Bureau

27.02.2019

Power and Energy

Shri Dharmendra Pradhan hands over 100th Letter of Intent under SATAT scheme

MANU/PIBU/0382/2019

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Skill development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today handed over the 100th Letter of Intent (LOI) to the Compressed Bio-Gas(CBG) Entrepreneur (producer) under the SATAT scheme. SATAT is an initiative aimed at providing a Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation as a developmental effort that would benefit both vehicle-users as well as farmers and entrepreneurs.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan hailed the occasion as a breakthrough in realizing the vision of a clean and green India as envisaged by the Government of India. He also reiterated that spreading the gas grid fed by CBG from thousands of such plants across the country would significantly reduce India's import burden and provide an economical and environment-friendly alternative to conventional petroleum fuels. Shri Pradhan said that it is a waste to wealth venture. He said that the scheme is lucrative for the prospective entrepreneurs, as it provides guaranteed rate of return, assured take-off by Oil marketing companies, there is availability of abundant raw material, and with no condition of any technology. The Minister said that the banks are ready to provide support to such projects due to their good viability. The Government is in talks with the UN environment Fund and Japanese Government for providing soft loans for such projects. The Minister said that CGD system will be available in 400 districts, providing ready market for the Compressed Bio-gas. Lauding the efforts of PSUs involved in the project, he said that within 5 months of its launch, over 100 LOIs have been issued. He expressed the hope that within a short period, thousands of such plants will be operational in the country, providing employment, reducing import dependence, helping in garbage management, and also enhancing the income of farmers.

SATAT was launched with a four-pronged agenda of utilising more than 62 million metric tonnes of waste generated every year in India, cutting down import dependence, supplementing job creation in the country and reducing vehicular emissions and pollution from burning of agricultural / organic waste.

Bio-gas is produced naturally through a process of anaerobic decomposition from waste / bio-mass sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, sewage treatment plant waste, etc. After purification, it is compressed and called CBG, which has pure methane content of over 90%.

Compressed Bio-Gas is exactly similar to the commercially available natural gas in its composition and energy potential. CBG can be used as an alternative, renewable automotive fuel. Given the abundance of biomass in the country, CBG has the potential to replace CNG in automotive, industrial and commercial uses in the coming years.

There are multiple benefits from converting agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste into CBG on a commercial scale:

Responsible waste management, reduction in carbon emissions and pollution

Additional revenue source for farmers

Boost to entrepreneurship, rural economy and employment

Support to national commitments in achieving climate change goals

Reduction in import of natural gas and crude oil

Buffer against crude oil/gas price fluctuations

Compressed Bio-Gas plants are proposed to be set up mainly through independent entrepreneurs. CBG produced at these plants will be transported through cascades of cylinders to the fuel station networks of OMCs for marketing as a green transport fuel alternative.

Tags : Letter of Intent SATAT scheme

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Press Information Bureau

27.02.2019

Media and Communication

Signal chip unveils India's first indigenous semiconductor chips for 4G/LTE and 5G NR modems, Places India on the global map for its silicon-chip technology

MANU/PIBU/0380/2019

Secretary, Telecom, Mrs. Aruna Sundararajan said that Data Security is the paramount concern in the World today and India cannot remain secure in terms of data, unless it manufactures its own chips. She was speaking after unveiling of India's first Indigenous Semiconductor Chips by Bengaluru based semiconductor company "SIGNALCHIP" for 4G/LTE and 5G NR MODEMs in New Delhi today. Terming the launch of the Chip as tremendously significant, Mrs. Sundarajan said that India is just breaking into the elite club of the world and this will have huge implications for India's data security and data sovereignty, besides the positive economic implications. She informed that at present only 8 companies and a few countries can design and build semiconductor chips and launch of Indigenous Chip is in a real sense Make in India for the World. She said, the pioneering work will lead to a whole new architecture of tower building mainly in the light of emission complaints and growing environmental concerns.

Mrs. Sundararajan said that when US and China are battling it out for the core ICT technology, India cannot lag behind. She said, even the high powered Committee formed by the Government of India and headed by Stanford University professor A.J. Paulrajto outline a road map for 5G telecom services has suggested breaking into the IPRs of 5G. She said, the launch of a world class product by SIGNALCHIP is start of the Third Wave, after Software and India Stack as First and Second wave.

She also congratulated the Founder and CEO of SIGNALCHIP Mr. Himanshu Khasnis and CEO of global company ZOHO, Sridhar Vembu for joining together to write India's most amazing success story.

Mrs Sundararajan unveiled four chips at the event designed by SIGNALCHIP.

SCBM3412: a single chip 4G/LTE modem including the baseband and transceiver sections in a single device

SCBM3404: a single chip 4X4 LTE baseband modem

SCRF3402: a 2X2 transceiver for LTE

SCRF4502: a 2X2 transceiver for 5G NR standards

The RF sections cover all LTE/5G-NR bands upto 6GHz. These chips also support positioning using India's own satellite navigation system, NAVIC. The Agumbe series builds up on SCRF1401: India's first RF transceiver chip for high performance wireless standards like 3G/4G and WiFi, created by Signalchip in 2015.

The combined multi-standard system-on-chip (SoC) can serve as a base station chipset for a wide range of form factors from low-cost indoor small cells to high performance base stations. These are optimally designed to support evolving network architectures like Open RAN/CRAN with flexible interface configurations. Through the IPs created for this device, the company now has the potential to design products for multiple related fields and is currently forging ahead with additional chipsets for advanced 5G NR features. With India having more than 1.1 billion mobile phones in use, one of the highest in the world, Signalchip has created high performance and cost-efficient systems to enable densification of the network.

Tags : Signal chip Silicon-chip technology

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Press Information Bureau

26.02.2019

Civil

Commerce Minister interacts with FPOs on Agri Export Policy

MANU/PIBU/0378/2019

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Suresh Prabhu, held an interaction with Farmer Producers' Organizations (FPOs) through video link in 81 locations of the country in New Delhi today. Around twelve locations from the North East were part of this interaction with the Minister.

Commerce Minster discussed with the FPOs about measures that may be implemented by them in order to boost exports of products from specific regions of the states. In order to implement the Agriculture Export Policy 40 clusters have been formed across the country and through NABARD, APEDA, MPEDA and Plantation Boards farmer's organizations will be given all assistance in order to ensure that farmers get adequate market price and are able to export their produce.

Commerce Minister suggested that FPOs must form federations which can become engines of growth in the districts. Minister informed that he is writing to all FPOs to take the lead and ensure that the object of the Agriculture Export Policy of doubling farmers income is implemented.

While interacting with FPOs Minister heard problems faced by farmers in areas like Nasik in Maharashtra, Idduki in Kerala, Rayagada in Odisha, Dahod in Gujarat, Vijay Wada in Andhra Pradesh, Gangtok in Sikkim and FPOs from Himachal Pradesh. Most of them face difficulty in accessing value chains and suffer from lack of access to markets. Commerce Minister assured all FPOs that he will look into each of their problems and ensure that these are solved at the earliest.

The agri export policy is aligned with the vision of doubling of farmers' income by providing the farmers the benefit of export opportunities through a stable trade policy regime. The policy gives focus on developing clusters with potential for export-oriented production of specific products and greater thrust on value added products, promotion and branding of produce of India. The main aim of the policy is to double agriculture exports to USD 60 billion by 2022.

Several initiatives have been taken to boost agricultural exports which include lifting of prohibition on export of Edible Oils and Pulses and provision of MEIS on a number of agricultural products.

Export duty on sugar has been removed and high-level delegations have visited Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Bangladesh to explore export prospect of raw and refined sugar during this sugar season. Special efforts have also been made to boost agricultural exports to China. General Administration of Customs of the PR of China (GACC) has registered five plants for export of Rapeseed Meal to China. A GACC team is visiting India to inspect Soyabean Meal plants. India has signed a new protocol with China for export of rice, both Basmati and non-basmati, in June, 2018. GACC has approved total 24 Indian rice mills for export of rice to China. A protocol for export of fish meal to China has also been signed on 28.11.2018 with GACC China to pave the way for export of Indian fish oil and fish meal to China.

Tags : FPOs Interaction Agri Export Policy

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Reserve Bank of India

26.02.2019

Banking

Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) Framework

MANU/RPRL/0046/2019

The Board for Financial Supervision (BFS), in its meeting held on February 26, 2019 reviewed the performance of banks under PCA and noted that the Government of India has infused fresh capital on February 21, 2019 into various banks including some of the banks currently under the PCA framework. Of these banks, the BFS noted that Allahabad Bank and Corporation Bank had received Rs. 6896 crore and Rs. 9086 crore respectively. This has shored up their capital funds and also increased their loan loss provision to ensure that the PCA parameters were complied with. The two banks have also made the necessary disclosures to the Stock Exchange that post infusion of capital, the CRAR, CET1, Net NPA and Leverage Ratios are no longer in breach of the PCA thresholds. The banks also apprised RBI of the structural and systemic improvements put in place to maintain these numbers. Accordingly, based on the principles adopted by the BFS in its earlier meeting dated January 31, 2019, it was decided in the meeting held on February 26, 2019 that Allahabad Bank and Corporation Bank be taken out of the PCA Framework subject to certain conditions and continuous monitoring. It has also been decided to take Dhanlaxmi Bank out of the PCA Framework, subject to certain conditions and continuous monitoring, as the bank is found to be not breaching any of the Risk Thresholds of the PCA Framework.

RBI will continuously monitor the performance of these banks under various parameters.

Tags : Banks Performance Review

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Ministry of Finance 

26.02.2019

Customs

Amendment in notification No. 50/2017-Customs, dated the 30th June, 2017

MANU/CUST/0006/2019

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962) and sub-section (12) of section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby makes the following further amendments in the notification of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No. 50/2017-Customs, dated the 30th June, 2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide, number G.S.R. 785(E), dated the 30th June, 2017, namely:-

In the said notification, in the third proviso for the words and figures "2nd day of March, 2019", the words and figures "1st day of April, 2019" shall be substituted.

Tags : Amendment Notification Public interest

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