Andhra CM shows the way
Kudos to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and his cabinet for taking the initiative to see that the strong ‘Disha bill ‘ pass the assembly at the earliest reassuring the citizens, especially women, that they will be protected and their woes are being heard. The bill especially meant for protection of women and children has more teeth as it mandates disposal of cases of atrocities against them within 21 days and also handing out the death penalty for rape. In addition to the AP criminal law (now called the AP Disha Act ) necessary provisions and changes have been made in the existing laws to safeguard women and to focus and deal cases of atrocities against women and children in a very strong manner and the trials to be made faster. When existing law permits trial in such cases in four months the amended law will see that the trial is completed within 21 days. This indeed is a good move by the Jagan government and can be emulated by the other states. At a time when people have started losing faith and belief in the law the AP government has shown that if the legislative and the judiciary work hand in hand in dealing with such cases with an iron fist it will not only deter wrong doers but also reassure the common man that the government stands with the right and is their saviour.
M Pradyu
Stop using onions completely
With the price of onions soaring high every second day, we should either completely stop or minimise using onions just for a month or for 15 days. This will have a demoralising effect on the hoarders of onions. Not only that, it will also bring down their prices within one week or ten days. Try it, it might work.
Jubel D’Cruz
Extend live webcast facilities to AGMs of 500 top listed companies
SEBI has mandated that all the top 100 listed companies based on market capitalisation should live webcast their Annual General Body Meetings. The mandate is as per the recommendations by Uday Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance and is proposed with an objective to ensure fairness and transparency in AGMs.
The decision to allow live webcast is highly appreciated which is an investor friendly step, contributes to carbon offsetting and ensures a fair and transparent mode of conduct of the company’s AGMs. The 100 listed companies based on market capitalisation have also adopted environment friendly e-voting system during AGMs as recommended by the Committee.
Further SEBI should now extend the facility of live webcast of AGMs even to all the 500 top listed companies based on market capitalization. The current trend followed by these companies is to conduct AGMs either at the Registered office or a designated locations but without any facility of live webcast for the benefit of investors.
Hence to protect the investors interests and to promote investor inclusive policies, SEBI is thus suggested to make necessary arrangements to enable even the top 500 listed companies based on market capitalization to live webcast the Annual General Body Meetings (AGMs) held regularly every year. The suggestion will also promote carbon offsetting while cutting down physcial travel to AGMs and instead provide an opportunity to the investors to mark their presence through live webcast of AGM.
Varun Dambal
A three line verdict
The much awaited review petition turned out to be a verdict upheld in 3 lines and gave the opposition food for thought. The 5 judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice has passed a 3 line verdict dismissing the Ayodhya review petitions, as against 1045 page long landmark judgement. Nothing more is known of the order since all this happened in an in camera hearing rather than in an open court. The terse order merely reveals that the review petitions are dismissed and the pending applications stands disposed off, without further hearing.
Nikhil Mani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
