.<%=Date%> REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT FUNDS ALLOWED IN INDIA SEBI in India has allowed domestic asset managers to launch funds investing directly in real estate. As per SEBI, these funds shall be close-ended with units listed on stock exchanges, and the net asset values of the funds must be made public every day. Such real estate investment funds should invest at least 35 percent of their funds directly in real estate assets and the rest in mortgage-backed securities and instruments of firms engaged in the sector. They can invest up to 25 percent of their corpus in other securities, according to the statement. "Taken together, investments in real estate assets, real estate-related securities... shall not be less than 75 percent of the net assets of the scheme," SEBI said. The asset managers should get the assets valued every 90 days.
More information: Hedge Funds in India
 IT COMPANIES MOVING TO SMALLER CITIES IN INDIA Indian IT companies are relocating to smaller cities, as the unabated rise of the rupee against the US dollar continues to eat away at their profits. More and more IT companies are relocating to tier-II and tier-III cities such as Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kochi, Varanasi, Mohali, Jamshedpur, Allahabad, Dehradun and Mysore to lower operational costs by about 15 per cent. The trend is particularly noticeable among BPO units based in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Noida, Chennai and Kolkata according to a recent report.
SEBI TAKES ACTION AGAINST COMPANIES FOR NONE-COMPLIANCE Indian market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) initiated proceedings against 20 listed companies, including five public sector entities, for violating corporate governance regulations. The regulator has started adjudication proceedings against the companies on the basis of quarterly reports received from stock exchanges regarding compliance with Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement that deals with corporate governance, a SEBI release said. SEBI began proceedings against the five public sector companies for not appointing adequate number of independent directors on their board. As per the Clause 49, at least one-third of the board of a listed company should comprise of independent directors if the chairman is a non-executive director. Otherwise, half of the board should comprise of independent directors. As far as private sector firms are concerned, proceedings have been initiated against three companies for non-compliance. India Stock Exchanges Opened to Foreign Investment
The Indian government on opened up the country's stock exchanges for foreign investment, with a cap of 49 per cent.
IRDA to permit insurance company to set up of liaison offices in India
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has been authorized to permit insurance companies registered outside India to set up liaison offices in the country. The existing procedure for grant of permission by RBI for opening of an office by an insurance company registered outside India has been revised in consultation with the Government of India and it has been decided that hence forth such permission would be granted by IRDA. In this context a “Liaison Office” would mean a place of business to act as a channel of communication between the Principal place of business or Head Office by whatever name called and entities in India but which does not undertake any commercial/ trading/ industrial activity, directly or indirectly, and maintains itself out of inward remittances received from abroad through normal banking channel. Persons desirous of opening liaison offices shall apply to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. The applicant company shall be required to comply with the terms and conditions of the General Permission granted by RBI under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and any other law in force. The permission for opening of liaison office in India by an insurance company registered outside India are subject to the terms and conditions as may be additionally stipulated by the Authority from time to time. For more information please Contact us India Tightens Data Protection Law
The Indian government this week approved amendments to the Information Technology Act (2000) aimed at making life more difficult for IT criminals. Under the new law, fines of over US$1 million can be imposed on companies and individuals who fail to stop data theft and the leakage of personal information. The amendments also aim to combat phishing (e-mail fraud), identity theft, video voyeurism and other types of computer crime. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) and leading IT companies are pleased with the amendments. According to an expert "India continues to be comparatively more secure. A research conducted in 2005 found that there were more security breaches in the UK and the US than in India."
Some Foreign Multinational Corporations found in violation of Foreign Exchange laws of India Some US Multinational Corporation Doing Business in India were among 11 multinational corporations, whose Indian operations were found guilty of violating foreign exchange regulation by an Appellate Tribunal in India. In its ruling earlier last week, Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange also confirmed a penalty of Rs 361.20 million imposed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on them, official sources said. Terming this as an important case for the Directorate of Enforcement, they said violation by the Indian arms of the foreign companies related to payment of salaries to their expatriate employees working here in foreign currency. This was done without the permission of the Reserve Bank of India. India Cyber law require compliance by companies The India Information Technology Act was passed six years ago. However most of the companies are still unaware of the strict provisions of the law. As a recent case of bazee.com showed - the CEO of the company was held responsible for, and arrested, for explicit content put up for auction on his portal - and are thus exposed to serious liabilities. The cyber law mandates all companies to have an information technology security policy. This documents the architecture of the network, the roles and responsibility of employees, security parameters and authorization required for data access, among other things. Other compliances that are required include relate to retention and authentication of electronic records and security of data. Only a handful of companies have such a policy in place. It is high time that companies comply with cyber laws. Ignorance of law is no excuse. All the Indian companies and all foreign companies doing business in India, either directly or indirectly, should comply with this law. Contact us for setting up a cyber laws compliance program | 
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