'The first professional Indian boxer to ever win a world title.'

Foreign direct investment in India jumped 47.8 per cent to $16.17 billion in April-June this fiscal on healthy inflows in services, computer, telecom and pharma sectors, according to government data. FDI inflows were at $10.94 billion in April-June 2023-24. The data showed that overseas inflows in May rose to $5.85 billion and in June to $5.41 billion from $2.67 billion and $3.16 billion, respectively, in the year-ago period.

Amid intense scrutiny from short-sellers and regulators, Adani group stocks have seen a significant shift in their shareholder base: Relatively opaque foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have given way to more recognisable investors and broad-based funds. The list of large public shareholders - those directly holding at least 1 per cent - is now dominated by entities, such as the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), US-based GQG Partners, Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company, and Qatar Investment Authority's INQ Holding.

Veteran industrialist and former Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata is looking to sell all 77,900 shares of Brainbees Solutions Ltd, which owns omnichannel baby and mother-care product platform FirstCry, in the upcoming IPO. Tata became an investor in the company in 2016 by infusing Rs 66 lakh initially. He was allotted preference shares of the company.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows in India declined 24 per cent to $20.48 billion in April-September 2023, dragged by lower inflows in computer hardware and software, telecom, auto and pharma, according to government data. FDI inflows stood at $26.91 billion during the first six months of the last fiscal. Inflows during January-March 2023 also contracted 40.55 per cent to $9.28 billion.

Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, declined by 11 per cent in 2022 to 3.42 billion Swiss francs (nearly Rs 30,000 crore), annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday.

It is high time the Indian government signalled discomfort with the UK providing refuge to those accused of financial crimes in India, states Jaimini Bhagwati.

India has received the fourth set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and organisations as part of an annual automatic information exchange under which Switzerland has shared particulars of nearly 34 lakh financial accounts with 101 countries.

About 300 fintech firms are under investigation by the ED for allegedly partnering 38 non-banking financial companies for predatory lending practices to charge borrowers high interest rates.

Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to a 14-year-high of 3.83 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 30,500 crore) in 2021 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments while customer deposits rose as well, annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows into India contracted by 16 per cent to $43.17 billion during the April-December 2021 period, according to data from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The inflows had stood at $51.47 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year. The total FDI inflows (which includes equity inflows, re-invested earnings and other capital) aggregated at $60.34 billion during the nine month period of the current fiscal year as against $67.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Since arraignment under money laundering is a tougher offence, the CBDT hopes it will also overcome its dismal score sheet to prove satisfactorily to the courts that these cases were genuine ones of tax evasion.

Mandarin Oriental New York, the premium luxury hotel a subsidiary of Reliance Industries is acquiring, is known for its much-in-demand ballroom, five-star spa and eating and drinking venues, including MO Lounge. Liam Neeson and Lucy Liu are among regular guests. Set up in 2003, 248-rooms-and-suites hotel towering over Central Park is an iconic luxury hotel located at 80 Columbus Circle, directly adjacent to the pristine Central Park and Columbus Circle.

A series of steps taken by the government to promote ease of doing business and liberalisation of foreign direct investment norms have helped India receive record FDI inflows so far this year, and implementation of measures like PM Gati Shakti, single window clearance and GIS-mapped land bank are expected to further push investments in 2022. Notwithstanding the global slowdown and the COVID-19 pandemic, total foreign direct investments into India rose to a record $81.72 billion in 2020-21. During April-July this fiscal, FDI (foreign direct investment) into the country increased by 62 per cent to $27.37 billion.

The money stashed away in tax havens is estimated at between $5.6 trillion and $32 trillion, numbers to make your eyes pop, asserts T N Ninan.

Vodafone further said it has "always been confident" that no tax is due on the company. The government in August enacted a law to end all retrospective taxation imposed on indirect transfer of Indian assets. The rules under the law seek to withdraw tax demands made using a 2012 retrospective legislation to tax the indirect transfer of Indian assets and also refund the amount paid in these cases without any interest. Asked if the company has filed an application with the Indian government to settle the retrospective tax dispute, a Vodafone spokesperson said, "We can confirm we have filed an application".

Marking a key milestone in the Indian government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad, India will get this month the complete information on flats, apartments and condominiums owned by Indians in Switzerland as also on earnings made from such properties to help it look into tax liabilities associated with those assets.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has initiated discussions with banks to address financial stress in the telecom sector, particularly Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) that urgently requires fund infusion to stay afloat. There was a meeting of DOT officials and senior bankers on Friday on the issue of Vodafone, sources said, adding that banks have been asked to look for a solution within the prudential guidelines. According to sources, senior officials from the country's biggest lenders State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were also present among others in the meeting. More such meetings are expected to take place in the coming days, they said.

Faced with prospect of its assets across the globe being seized just like Pakistan and Venezuela, the government decided to scrap retrospective taxation but the international embarrassment could have been avoided had 'attached' shares of Britain's Cairn Energy Plc not been sold, according to tax and legal experts. On Thursday, the government introduced a Bill in Parliament to scrap the tax rule that gave the tax department power to go 50 years back and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India. The 2012 legislation was used to levy a cumulative of Rs 1.10 lakh crore of tax on 17 entities, including UK telecom giant Vodafone, but substantial punitive action was taken only in the case of Cairn.

Valuers have found almost no assets to pay for their claims against the Videocon group that entered the insolvency process in 2018. But the dissenters suggest that the money is elsewhere, possibly in the group's oil and gas assets, which are not part of the group's bankruptcy case.

Indian government's appeal against a verdict of an international arbitration tribunal that overturned its demand for Rs 22,100 crore in back taxes from Vodafone Group Plc has been transferred to a senior court in Singapore and hearings are scheduled in September, sources said. An international arbitration court had on September 25 last year rejected tax authorities' demand for Rs 22,100 crore in back taxes and penalties relating to the British telecom giant's 2007 acquisition of an Indian operator. The government in December applied in Singapore to set aside the award primarily on jurisdictional grounds.

Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to 2.55 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 20,700 crore) in 2020 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments, though customer deposits fell, annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday. The increase in aggregate funds of Indian clients with Swiss banks, from 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore) at the end of 2019, reverses a two-year declining trend and has taken the figure to the highest level in 13 years. It stood at a record high of nearly 6.5 billion Swiss francs in 2006, after which it has been mostly on a downward path, except for a few years including in 2011, 2013 and 2017, as per the Swiss National Bank (SNB) data.

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has issued a show cause notice to the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange for undertaking transactions worth over Rs 2,790 crore in alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). WazirX, registered under the company named Zanmai Labs Pvt Ltd, was incorporated in December, 2017 as a domestic cryptocurrency start-up and its directors Nischal Shetty and Hanuman Mhatre, along with the company, have been named in the notice issued by the central probe agency after completion of investigation. The agency issued a statement saying that it stumbled upon the transactions of the company during an ongoing money laundering probe into the "Chinese-owned" illegal online betting applications.

The US replaced Mauritius as the second largest source of foreign direct investment into India during 2020-21 with inflows of $13.82 billion, according to government data. Singapore remained the top source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country for the third consecutive fiscal at $17.41 billion. During the last financial year, India attracted $5.64 billion in FDI from Mauritius, according to the data by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Properties worth over Rs 150 crore of real estate firm Unitech Group have been attached in a money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Tuesday. The assets include a dozen of land pieces measuring a total of 48.56 acres in Gurgaon near Delhi.

India is believed to have challenged in a court in The Hague an arbitration tribunal verdict that overturned its demand for Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes from Cairn Energy Plc -- the second time in three months that it has refused to accept an international award against retrospective tax.

British oil firm Cairn Energy Plc on Tuesday said it has identified Indian sovereign assets overseas, which it can seize in the event of New Delhi failing to return over USD 1.7 billion that an international arbitration tribunal has ordered after rescinding a retrospective tax demand.

Courts in five countries including the US and the UK have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc - a step that now opens the possibility of the British firm seizing Indian assets in those countries if New Delhi does not pay, sources said. Cairn Energy had moved courts in nine countries to enforce its $1.4 billion arbitral award against India, which the company won after a dispute with the country's revenue authority over a retroactively applied capital gains tax. Of these, the December 21 award from a three-member tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has been recognised and confirmed by courts in the US, the UK, Netherlands, Canada and France, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

A senior company executive said the company waited for seven years for the verdict and its shareholders needed to know when it would be concluded.

India has challenged in a Singapore court a verdict of an international arbitration tribunal that overturned its demand for Rs 22,100 crore in back taxes from Vodafone Group Plc, sources said on Thursday. An international arbitration court had on September 25 rejected tax authorities' demand for Rs 22,100 crore in back taxes and penalties relating to the British telecom giant's 2007 acquisition of an Indian operator. Two sources privy to the development said India had 90 days to file an appeal against the tribunal award, and the same was done in a Singapore court earlier this week.

Vivek Doval had filed a defamation case against Jairam Ramesh and Caravan Magazine for their alleged defamatory statements and articles against him. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta heard the matter on Saturday.

The government may be waiting for the outcome of an arbitration initiated against its levy of Rs 10,247 crore retrospective tax on UK's Cairn Energy Plc before deciding on appealing against losing a tax case against Vodafone Group, sources said. An international arbitral tribunal is expected to give a decree within next few days on Cairn Energy Plc's challenge to the Indian government seeking Rs 10,247 crore in retrospective taxes. If the arbitration award in the Cairn cases goes against India, the government has to pay the British firm over Rs 7,600 crore to reverse the dividend and tax refund it had ceased and shares it sold to recover part of the tax demand.

The manner in which India has allowed the rule of law to be subverted for over eight years is tragic, notes former additional solicitor general of India Bishwajit Bhattacharyya.

India has got the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities under the automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, marking a key milestone in the government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad.

'An explanation perhaps lies in the culture of revisions that has grown deep roots in the government data collection system,' notes A K Bhattacharya.

Similarly, FDI from Cyprus too increased by about three-times to $879 million in the last financial year from $296 million in 2018-19.

The inflows came higher in March than in February of 2019-20 despite the lockdown for a week, reports Indivjal Dhasmana.

Equity inflows worth $3.7 billion came from the sunny Caribbean jurisdiction in 2019-20, a 267 per cent increase from the $1 billion registered in 2018-19 making it India's 10th largest source of FDI.

Australia have moved to the top of the Test and T20I rankings for men while England continue to lead the men's ODI rankings after the annual update carried out on Friday, which eliminates results from 2016-17. In the latest update, that rates all matches played since May 2019 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent, Australia (116) have taken over from India as the top ranked side in the MRF Tyres ICC Men's Test Team Rankings with New Zealand (115) remaining in second place. India are now third with 114 points.

Looking to suck out every dollar available, cricket was suffering from an overkill and the coronavirus-forced break should be used to introspect whether the game is heading in the right direction, says West Indies fast bowling great Michael Holding. The 66-year-old cricketer-turned-commentator personally believes hitting the pause button for a while was necessary amid excessive commercialisation of the sport.