• Nomura has lowered the country's growth estimate for this fiscal to 5.8%, from 6.7% earlier.
• Nomura has also hacked its India GDP prediction for 2013-14 to 6.6% from the earlier 6.9%.
• The government is targeting at GDP growth rate of around 7.6% this fiscal. India's economic growth plunged to 6.5% in 2011-12 from 8.4% in the previous two fiscals.
• As per Nomura, India's monetary and fiscal policies are at "loggerheads" and in impasse.
• It pointed to India government policies as inflationary which reduced the possibility for rate cuts, hurting growth and in turn intensifying the fiscal deficit.
• It has also revised fiscal deficit forecast for India increasing it to 5.8% of GDP in the current fiscal from 5.2%.
• Government aims to curtail the fiscal deficit to 5.1% in 2012-13 from 5.76% in the previous fiscal.

NOMURA:

A Japanese multinational conglomerate, or zaibatsu of financial services, financial management consulting companies and related organizations, headquartered in the Nihombashi district of Tokyo, Japan.

The Nomura Group is involved in diversified industries, such as oil and gas, construction, chemicals and FMCG, but internationally the group is known as a financial services, financial management consultancy group, through the global presence of its holding company - Nomura Holdings, Inc. & its direct, indirect subsidiaries.

Coca-Cola Company announced that it would invest $5 billion in the country between 2012 and 2020.

The company aims to double its business visualizing vast growth opportunities in the country.

The company directly hires more than 25,000 people in India creating indirect employment for more than 1.50 lakh people in related industries through its vast procurement, supply-chain and distribution system.

Google, at a conference in Sat Francisco, unveiled the Nexus 7 to contend with Apple’s iPad as well as the latest Microsoft’s Surface. It is built by and in co-branded with Taiwan’s Asus.  

Salient features of Nexus 7:

• Has a 7 inch (17.8 cm) screen
• Weighs just 340 grams, thus more portable and lighter than its main competitors
• features an Nvidia Tegra quad core processor
• allows 9 hours of video play, or 300 hours of standby
• has 1280x800 pixel screen
• will have the new 4.1 Jelly Bean version of Google’s software
• has Nvidia Tegra 3 processor
• Priced at $199

The tablet stands in direct competition with Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, which has been the most successful running on Google’s Android OS.

With Market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) decision to make it mandatory for the top 500 listed companies to provide e-voting, it will be easier for shareholders to participate in key decisions without being physically present at the meetings.

As per the SEBI:

• This step is along the lines of the budget proposal
• The decision would be put into practice in a phased manner, starting with top 500 listed companies at BSE and NSE based on market capitalization
• To enhance the quality of financial reporting by listed entities, it would set up a Qualified Audit Report Review Committee represented by accounting regulator, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI) and stock exchanges
• The committee would go through qualified annual audit reports filed by the listed entities with stock exchanges, and reports where accounting irregularities have been pointed out by the Financial Reporting Review Board, FRRB, of the ICAI. Cases wherein the qualifications are important and the explanation given by the company is unjustified would be sent to the ICAI-FRRB.If the ICAI-FRRB suggests that the qualification is acceptable, SEBI may mandate a restatement of the accounts of the entity and require the entity to put it across to the shareholders by making the announcement to stock exchanges.

SEBI has changed the minimum subscription requirements for infrastructure companies coming out with IPOs. The minimum subscription shall not be less than 90% of the offer, conditional on allotment of minimum 25 %, or 10 %, as the case may be, of the securities offered to the public

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has notified new rules for ownership and governance of stock exchanges to encourage the establishing of new bourses and facilitate exchanges to get listed. The amendments were announced following the legal battle b/w the regulator and MCX Stock Exchange, which had earlier sought approval to launch an equity platform.

As per fresh norms:

• The recognized stock exchange should have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore at all times and at least 51 % of stake has to be held by public
• The ownership of a single investor is capped at 5% with an exemption for stock exchanges, depositories, insurance and banking companies and public financial institutions, which has been allowed to posses up to 15 %. 
• The shareholders who possess stake in excess of the new limits would have to observe the new norms within a period to be decided by SEBI and such period could be of up to 3 years.
• Stock exchanges are allowed to list on any recognized stock exchange other than itself and its associated stock exchanges, within 3 years of starting operations
• Direct and indirect exposure to any stock exchange will be taken into account while calculating the preThe new scribed shareholding limit.
• For a stock exchange that is not listed, an FII may acquire shares through transactions outside of a recognized stock exchange provided it is not an initial allotment of shares.
• For listed bourses, the FIIs can transact through the exchange where the shares are listed.

The market regulator had earlier approved amendments to the Manner of Increasing and Maintaining Public Shareholding (MIMPS) in recognized stock exchanges.