Uniform retirement age for tribunal chairpersons favoured

The Law Commission has recommended that the Centre fix a uniform retirement age of 70 years for chairpersons of tribunals and 65 years for members against the present limit of 68 for chairpersons and 62 years for members.
In its 232nd report, the Commission, headed by Chairman Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, has said: “It needs no mention that an enhanced age of retirement is prescribed in the higher echelons of the administrative and judicial services because the professional experience gained by those working in them needs to be fully tapped for the good of society.”
“In the present liberalised economic era, the experience gained by government employees is being fruitfully tapped after their retirement by many multinational companies. These private enterprises pay the retired government employees hefty salaries because the valuable professional experience they gained during their government service is put to a profitable use. In such a scenario, the government should utilise the services of its retired employees to the fullest extent possible.”
It said: “The practice being followed for fixing the age of retirement for chairpersons and members of various tribunals reveals that there exists no rationale for fixing different retirement age limits. It may be seen that there is neither any uniformity in the age of retirement, nor have any cogent reasons been given in the Acts, justifying the criteria.”
The Commission said the question of increasing the retirement age of judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court from 62 to 65 and from 65 to 70 respectively was a matter of serious discussion at different levels of the government. Retirement age in many government departments, especially educational and scientific and research institutions, had already been increased.
The Commission said a High Court judge was considered for appointment as chairperson or member of a tribunal after he retired at the age of 62.
If an incumbent was to retire within two-three years of his joining a tribunal, he could not contribute much to its functioning. Therefore, the retirement age of chairpersons and members should be fixed at 70 and 65 respectively.

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Norms soon to make banks UID-ready

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) would draw up standards for banks in the next six months to make them UID-ready. Based on the standards, the banks should put their systems in place by the time the first UID numbers are rolled out in the next 12-18 months, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI, said.
“UID and financial inclusion go hand-in hand. It will help banks reduce financial costs while reaching out to the poor,” he said in his address at the FICCI-IBA seminar.
Banks will be the enrolling partners and the users of the authentication service, he said.
The UIDAI has initiated talks with the Indian Banks’ Association, the RBI, SEBI, IRDA, LIC, TRAI and PFRDA to get their feedback.
Database
UIDAI plans to use the databases of a wide range of organisations for building its master database. The issuances will be demand led. It is looking to issue unique identification numbers to 60 crore Indians in the next 4-5 years.
The registrars will have to agree to a standardised authorisation process. The Authority will have a different strategy to reach out to the poor, as demand-led issuance will not be very effective here.
“UIDAI will issue numbers, not cards. It will be ensured that the numbers are not duplicated. That is one person will get only one number,” Mr Nilekani said.
Information The authority will issue a number based on two kinds of information — demographic information such as name, address, date of birth and so forth and biometric information such as fingerprints that can uniquely identify the person. When a new user comes in for a number, his/her biometric information will be screened to check if a UID number has already been issued to the person. This will help to control the duplication at source.
The database will just be a master database and will have no transaction records. It will not have information such as income details, religion etc.
All Indian residents will get this number, including infants and students. For infants and students, the UID of the guardian will be the legal ID number.

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RBI Deputy Governor’s term extended by two years

The RBI Deputy Governor, Ms Shyamala Gopinath, has been given a two-year extension till June 20, 2011. She was appointed as Deputy Governor in 2004 for five years, and her term was to expire this year.
Ms Gopinath handles, among others, the Internal Debt Management Department, the Foreign Exchange Department, the Department of Non-Banking Supervision, the Department of External Investments and the Operations and Financial Markets Department.

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RBI to introduce 100 crore Rs 10 plastic note

Soiled notes may soon be a thing of past with the Reserve Bank planning to introduce Rs 10 polymer banknotes whose life span would be 4


times the normal currency notes and would be difficult to imitate.

The apex bank has initially decided to introduce 100 crore pieces of Rs 10 polymer notes, for which it has floated a global tender, a senior central bank official said.

Explaining the rationale for introduction of polymer notes, the official said, these notes would have an average life span of 5 years compared to one year for the currency notes.

Besides, the official said, these notes are cleaner than paper notes and it would be difficult to counterfeit the currency.

The polymer notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting of currency.

Besides Australia, other countries which have introduced plastic notes include New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Bermuda, Brunei and Vietnam

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High capital base needed for banks with PE arm: RBI

Soon banks such as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India with a private equity (PE) arms may have to keep enhanced capital base to mitigate risks arising from such exposures.
The private equity business of banks involve reputational risk as people putting money (into private fund) look at credentials of those banks.
“So you have to recognise that this requires some capital. So some capital need to be provided for that,” RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat told reporters on the sidelines of the Ficci-IBA Banking Summit here today.
It meant banks would have to maintain additional capital if they were sponsoring and floating private equity funds, she added. She said that RBI would shortly be issuing a draft discussion paper on prudential issues on banks’ floating and managing a private pool of capital.
The purpose of the exercise was to sensitise banks about risks inherent in such activities (PE business) and limit such exposures commensurate with their risk management and available capital, she added.
While ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank already have active private funds, SBI has floated an infrastructure fund in collaboration with Macquarie.
Regarding steps to improve the regulation of financial conglomerates, Thorat said the central bank recently reviewed the regulatory and supervisory framework for them. RBI would shortly issue enhanced norms reflecting an improved regulatory framework.
Similarly, the central bank will issue a draft circular on modalities to adopt the integrated liquidity risk management system.
A guidance note on ‘Liquidity Risk Management’ based on the Basel Committee’s principles and other international best practices will be put on the RBI website by October 31.
Similarly, additional guidance on minimum lock-in period and minimum retention criteria for securitising loans originated and purchased by banks would be issued shortly, she said.
For the development of the financial market infrastructure, RBI has prescribed capital adequacy norms for central counter party (CCP). Clearing Corporation of India’s role is being gradually extended to the over-the-counter interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives segment. Initially, it will work as a reporting platform and, later, to cover the settlement aspect.

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