Economy News Notes:

The government's fiscal deficit may exceed the targetted level in the current fiscal despite a proposed pledging of the assets of SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of the United Trust of India), as it would only provide a "bit of fiscal relief".
The government is considering to pledge the assets of SUUTI, or the the specified undertaking of UTI, to raise funds for buying the government equity in state-owned companies.
The move is expected to fetch the government enough money for meeting its disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore in FY12.
The government is now looking at cross-holdings and buy-back as means to meet the target and cut the fiscal deficit. Besides, the government has made many attempts to decontrol the oil and fertilizer industry, in an effort to cut subsidies and improve its fiscal deficit

Any property or proceeds of crime can be attached even without conviction once the amendments in the Prevention of Money-laundering Act get approved in Parliament.
It introduces the concept of ‘corresponding law' to link the provision of Indian law with the laws of foreign countries.
It provides for transfer of the proceeds of the foreign predicate offence in any manner in India
With the amendment, the Government aims to widen the definition of ‘financial institutions'.
- Now the definition will include a chit fund company, a housing finance company, a payment system operator, a non-banking financial company, the Department of Posts and intermediaries such as a stock broker, sub-broker or share transfer agent, besides others.
- The new definition of persons carrying on designated business or profession will include casino operators, real estate agents along with dealers of precious metals and stones. It will also introduce the concept of reporting entity to include banks and financial institutions.
Now the designated directors on the board and employees of the reporting entity will be responsible for omissions and commissions in relation to the reporting obligations.
The Act was enacted in 2002 and then amended twice in 2005 and 2009.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed new rules for investment advisors that will require them to be registered with a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) before undertaking such a role.
The proposed framework intends to regulate investment advisory services in various forms, including independent financial advisors, banks, distributors and fund managers.
Its duties would include registering and setting minimum professional standards, including certification of investment advisors, laying down rules and regulations and enforcing those; informing and educating the investing public; setting up and administering a disputes resolution forum for investors and registered entities, etc,
The services will include financial advice, financial planning service and actions which would influence an investment decision.

The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday directed all banks to issue cheques conforming to the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) 2010 standard with uniform features from April 1, 2012, onwards.
The homogeneity in security features is expected to act as a deterrent against cheque frauds, while the standardisation of field placements on cheque forms would enable straight—through—processing both under CTS and MICR clearing
The introduction of new cheque standards ‘CTS-2010' was warranted on account of several developments in the cheque clearing namely growing use of multi-city and payable-at-par cheques at any branch of a bank, increasing the popularity of speed clearing for local processing of outstation cheques and implementation of grid based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) for image-based cheque processing and the like