SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY

Upgrading The CEPA With South Korea Why in news? India has decided to upgrade its existing trade pact with South Korea. The domestic industry has flagged concerns over the agreement. What is CEPA? Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement - CEPA, was a trade deal signed between India & South Korea in 2009 . The CEPA has increased bilateral trade volumes by over 50%. Many Korean companies have penetrated deep into the Indian consumer goods market and have directly benefitted from CEPA. Recently in a review meeting, both countries have decided to upgrade the CEPA at the earliest – possibly by 2018. This has angering domestic exporters, who claim the pact has disproportionately helped Korean exporters. What are the concerns about CEPA? Trade Deficit –  India’s trade defict with South Korea is continuously worsening with time. While India imported $12.58 billion worth of goods from South Korea in 2016-17, its exports totalled only $4.24 billion. Misuse ...

Listing Of NHAI Why in news? Union ministry of Road transport is planning for initial public offering or IPO of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). What is an IPO? An initial public offering, or IPO, is the very first sale of stock issued by a company to the public. Until a company’s stock is offered for sale to the public, the public is unable to invest in it. Prior to an IPO the NHAI has shareholders made up primarily of early investors i.e. government itself or its authorised firms. By now any individual or institutional investor who wasn’t involved in the early days of the NHAI’s capital, can buy the shares. What is the need for such proposal? Roadways ministry has long argued that there is “no shortage” of money but due to changing economic trends, it came up with the plan of IPO. Due to bad debts and NPAs the government is not so confident in investing on infrastructure projects. Banks are taking too long to approve the financial closure of highw...

How To Deal Shell Companies Why in news? Recently union government has initiated action against more than two lakh shell companies as part of Operation Clean Money. What is operation clean money? Operation Clean Money was initiated by Income Tax Department (ITD). Initial phase of the operation involved-verification of large cash deposits made after demonetization. Second phase of the operation involves is identification of high risk persons for detailed investigations by the ITD. What are shell companies? Shell companies are typically corporate entities which do not have any active business operations or significant assets in their possession. The government views them with suspicion as some of them could be used for money laundering, tax evasion and other illegal activities. Some laws helpin curbing illegal activities to target shell companies are Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2016 The Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 The Companies Act,...