Daily Financial News Analysis – 31st Jan’20 – Free PDF Download

Data Protection Bill

• Justice BN Srikrishna chaired the high-level panel that drafted the original Bill.
• Questioned the legal viability of the proposed Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill.
• The government-introduced provision of state being exempted for certain obligations of the proposed law can be challenged in the Supreme Court on the grounds of violating right to privacy.
• He said that the proposed law won’t be constitutionally valid because it does not adhere to Supreme Court’s Puttuswamy judgment on privacy.
• The new Bill has weakened the independence of the Data Protection Authority.
• The ideal thing would be that DPA become a constitutional authority like the Election Commission.
• There is a probability of it becoming a government stooge.
• In the universe of data, there is personal data, and then everything else is non-personal data.
• The processing of personal data is also exempted for the state from provisions of the Bill for certain purposes like prevention, investigation or prosecution of any offence and personal, domestic or journalistic purposes.

PSU banks strike

• Operations of public sector banks are expected to be hit beginning Friday.
• Unions will go on a two-day nationwide strike.
• Reason: failure of wage revision talks with managements.
• Private sector lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank would be operational.
• Cash deposit, withdrawal, cheque clearances, instrument issuance and loan disbursement operations would be affected.
• The three-day break in banking operations could also lead to drying up of ATMs.
• The wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017.
• During the recent period, prices have gone up steeply and the workload on the banking workforce has also gone up enormously, UFBU said, adding that bank staffers expect a fair and reasonable hike in wages in the current settlement.
• Unions are demanding 20% hike on pay slip components with adequate loading.

Panelty: Apple, Broadcom

• A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday ordered Apple and Broadcom to pay $1.1 billion to a California university for infringing wifi technology patents in what is thought to be one of the largest patent verdicts ever.
• Apple was ordered to pay $837 million and Broadcom must pay $270 million to the California Institute of Technology.
• Caltech had sued both tech giants in 2016, alleging that Apple products including iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches used Broadcom components that infringed on its patents related to wireless data transmissions.
• While Broadcom made the chips at issue in the trial, jurors may have hit Apple with a bigger tab by because it makes billions of dollars selling iPhones and other devices that incorporate the technology.
• Think of the patented technology as a piece of property that was stolen and sold to someone else.
• Broadcom was the main target of the lawsuit but Apple was also named as it is one of Broadcom’s biggest customers.
• Caltech welcomed the ruling.

Panelty on Facebook

• Facebook Inc. agreed to pay $550 million to resolve claims it collected user biometric data without consent in one of the largest consumer privacy settlements in U.S. history.
• The users alleged that the company’s photo-scanning technology violated an Illinois law by gathering and storing biometric data without their permission.
• The company has come under particularly harsh scrutiny in recent years, both in the U.S. and in Europe.
• Facebook reached a historic $5 billion deal in July with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to settle an investigation into its privacy practices stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that came to light in early 2018.
• The company is also facing probes by New York, California, Massachusetts and others over its third-party data practices.
• Facebook has for years encouraged users to tag people in photographs they upload in their personal posts and the social network stores the collected information.
• Facebook contended that its collection of biometric data didn’t cause users to suffer any concrete injury such as loss of money or property.

EVs will be cheaper

• Electric vehicles will become cheaper than combustion vehicles in three years as the price of battery packs of EVs is expected to fall by almost 51 per cent per unit.
•  Mobility Talk Corporate Conclave at the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) 2020, TERI’s annual flagship event being held in the capital.
• Reaffirming the national vision towards moving to clean mobility, Kant said, given its size and scale of growth potential, Indian industry must be the biggest driver of change to make the country the centre for manufacturing EVs.

1. To ensure new form of urbanisation which is based on public transportation.
2. To ensure India doesn’t lose out among global manufactures of tomorrow.

• Representatives from the auto industry in the session welcomed the direction given by the NITI Aayog CEO, and sought clarity on pathways and policy that the government is looking to take on EVs.
• They urged the government to quickly develop a road map, whether to focus on hybrid or fully electric mobility, and policies that can promote indigenous research and development.

Small firms could be shut without NCLT nod

• Small firms such as those with paid-up capital of up to Rs 1 crore can soon be wound up without the approval of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as the government has amended norms for the procedure.
• The new rules for winding up of small firms will be effective April 1, 2020.
• Through this move, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) not only intends to reduce the burden on NCLT but also make the norms simplified.
• Till the advent of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, (IBC), winding up a company was under the purview of Companies Act, 1956, and later Companies Act, 2013.
• At present, a firm can be wound up either under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) or under the Act.
• However, winding up under the Companies Act is possible only for reasons other than inability to pay off debts.
• There are more than 9.18 lakh companies (till FY15), which have a paid-up capital of up to Rs 1 crore. Of this majority have a paid-up capital of up to Rs 5 lakh.
• An official source said the notification not only simplifies the procedure and reduces the NCLT’s burden, but also reduces
  the compliance cost for small companies.
• The firms, however, would still have to comply with the procedures applicable to other companies.
• It is still not clear whether this would help fast-track the overall liquidation process.
• AMRG & Associates chief executive Gaurav Mohan said “This move will bring a sigh of relief to the small companies who will now be able to wind up their business without knocking the door of NCLT,”

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