FM Pranab Mukherjee submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Mukherjee, the UPA candidate for the Prez polls enjoys the support of the SP, the BSP, the JDU, the Shiv Sena, the CPI(M), Forward Block and some other parties.
Mr Pranab Mukherjee will file nomination papers for the Presidential election on June 28, 2012.
The returning officer rejected the nomination of Jeevan Kumar Mittal of Delhi for not submitting certified copy of electoral roll entry. He has also not deposited the security money of 15000 rupees.
33 nominations have been filed by 31 candidates, but 8 candidate’s nominations were rejected by the Returning Officer. Former speaker P A Sangma have also not filed his nomination for the Presidential Election yet.

The Reserve Bank of India announced a number of steps, to aid revive the currency and the economy

The measures include increasing limits for external commercial borrowings and government securities .The initiatives are in consultation with the government to liberalize capital account transactions.These measures will permit Indian companies in the manufacturing and infrastructure sector and earning foreign exchange to access External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) for reimbursement of outstanding rupee loans towards capital expenditure and/or fresh Rupee capital expenditure under the approval route.

RBI has fixed the ceiling for such ECBs at $10 billion. The current investment limit by SEBI registered Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in Government Securities (G-Secs) has been elevated further by $5 billion. This will jack up overall limit for FII in G-Secs from $15 billion to $20 billion.

To broaden the base of non-resident investor for G-Secs, it decided to permit long term investors like Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), multilateral agencies, endowment funds, insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks to be registered with SEBI, to also invest in G-Secs for the entire limit of $20 billion.

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

• Global Rating Agency, Moody’s Investment Services has kept India’s sovereign credit outlook stable.
• As per the agency a slowdown in growth and investment is expected to be transitory.
• As per its report, certain recent negative trends, lower growth, sluggish investment and poor business sentiments are unlikely to become permanent or even medium term features of the Indian economy.
• The company rated India’s long term foreign currency and local currency debt at Baa-3, the lowest grade.
• Moody’s opinion is opposite to Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor which have downgraded credit outlooks for India to negative from stable.

The West Bengal Government has decided to amend the current Panchayat Act for better performance of 3-tier local bodies. According to the Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Mr. Subrata Mukherjee the present Act will be amended after the coming Panchayat Elections in the state.