Accountancy
Hiring foreign nationals -- The legal underpinning
THE LEGAL framework for appointment and remuneration of foreign nationals still remains complex, despite the liberalisation post Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The heterogeneous legal positions in different laws have to be given a careful though
t before engaging the services of foreign national to facilitate repatriation and effective tax planning.
Home truths
THE CA Institute has been trying hard to position itself as an also-ran in the I-T race by plugging in techie contents into its syllabus, announcing a systems audit course, dabbling with WebTrust or SysTrust, and generally standing on toenails to level w
ith anything that looks hot and cyber-y.
The lease tease
THE ACCOUNTING Standard 19 (AS 19), on leases, is mandatory and comes into force for accounting periods commencing on or after April 1, 2001. The mandatory character of the Standard places an onerous duty on auditors of companies in that they have to, wh
ile discharging their attest function, examine whether the Standard has been complied with or not, and if not, they will have to not only bring this fact to the notice of the shareholders but also quantify the impact of the non-compliance on the bottomli
ne as well as on the balance-sheet.
Economy
Re-activating economy: A mundane approach
HAS the global economic slowdown impacted the economy? National income or GDP declined to 5.2 per cent in 2000-01, well below the annual average growth of above 6 per cent during the previous three years. The prospects for this year are more disappointin
g. Industrial growth declined sharply to 2.1 per cent during the April-June first quarter, as against the growth of 6.1 per cent the corresponding previous quarter. Even optimistic forecasts of industrial growth for 2001-02 place the growth at 5 per cent
as against the target of 8 per cent. The performance of exports reveals a more dramatic fall from 28 per cent in April-June 2000 to a mere 1.76 per cent in April-June 2001.
Embarking on a voyage of rediscovery -- A-governance for India and the States
EMPIRICAL analyses contribute significantly to economic policy-making in the long run. They enable policy-makers to review the impact of past policies. Such reviews, when conducted with reasonable objectivity and experimental integrity, lead to the valid
ation or invalidation of policies. Empirical analysts nurse the hope that the resultant validation would lead to the continuance and reinforcement of governance and policies that produce the desirable and intended impact on investment, production, income
s, consumption and taxes.
Catching up with the wireless wave?
THE rate cuts by the American Fed Chief have failed to energise the slowing US economy. The situation is getting worse with more and more companies announcing profit warnings and lay-offs. As a result, the Indian IT industry is facing serious problems. W
ith a steep slide in tech spending, the short-to-medium term outlook for software companies does not look bright. Those who hoped to get a bigger pie of the outsourcing software development work from the US companies are now disappointed, as the latter a
re facing problems of glut and over-investment by their buyers.
Editorial
Project North-East
IT IS PERTINENT to ask if the Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, realised the implications of what he said at the 45th meeting of the North-Eastern Council (NEC) in New Delhi on September 3 about utilisation of Central funds for the development of the North
-Eastern States.
Information Technology
The IBM way
UNTIL `benching' forced HR heads to stand up and fight, what worried them was how to make them `sit in their seats' and avoid attrition! Many spent their time in office scanning employment opportunities and e-mailing applications to the US. `Walk-in inte
rviews' knocked out many. Some years ago, the CII recognised HP as the best-run Indian company and the CEO, Mr Suresh Rajpal, was asked what challenges lay ahead. Pat came the reply ``employee turnover''.
Miscellaneous
Ratings: Tainted as well
IT IS tough being a media planner. Here you are, with dozens of television channels to choose from, scores of soaps that bubble over and vanish, and game shows that collapse into nothing.
