The Competition Commission of India consists of a Chairperson and not less than two and not more than six other Members. Under Section 18 of the Competition Act, the functions of the Commission inter-alia are to eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants, in markets in India.

Insurance regulator IRDA today made it mandatory for insurers to seek prior approval in case of stake transfer to domestic entities or financial institutions and set guidelines for seeking approval. As per a IRDA circular, the regulator will carry out the requisite due diligence of the proposed transferee or shareholder prior to grant of approval for registration of transfer of shares under the provisions of section 6A(4) of the Insurance Act, 1938 and for issue of shares to the proposed transferee or shareholder.

Expressing concern over rising cheque bouncing cases, a Delhi court has sentenced a businessman to six months in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on him, saying no leniency is called for in such cases. Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja jailed Delhi-based cloth merchant Ravinder Kumar, rejecting his plea for release on probation after payment of fine, saying that cheque bouncing cases consume a lot of time of the court.

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Shri R.P.N. Singh today informed the Rajya Sabha that the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises have issued comprehensive guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in April 2010. In these guidelines, CPSEs have to create mandatorily through a Board Resolution, a CSR budget as a specified percentage of net profit of the previous year, Expenditure range for CSR in a Financial year 3-5% of the net profit of previous year in case of CPSEs having profit less than Rs.100 crores; 2-3% (subject to minimum of Rs. 3 crores) in case the profit ranges from 100 crores to Rs.500 crores and 0.5-2% in case of CPSEs having a net profit of more than Rs.500 crores in the previous year. CSR guidelines for CPSEs further provide that loss making companies are not required to earmark specific funding for CSR activities. So far comparable directions have not been issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Shri R.P.N. Singh today informed the Rajya Sabha that 33 cases have been investigated by SFIO during the last 3 years i.e. 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 (till date 05.08.2011). The Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Shri R.P.N. Singh today informed the Rajya Sabha since its inception on 20th May, 2009, the Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT) has received 36 appeals against decisions of the Competition Commission of India. CAT functions out of New Delhi and has no benches outside.

The Ho’ble Supreme Court held that students have the right to inspect and photocopy their answer sheets after their evaluation under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. The apex court bench of Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice A.K. Patnaik allowed the disclosure of the answer sheets of the examination conducted by boards, universities, institutions and public service commissions, when it upheld the Calcutta High Court judgment that permitted the students to inspect their answer sheets.

The Union Government has framed new rules, viz., the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011 under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 for monitoring receipt and utilization of foreign contributions by any person in the Country. Both the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 and foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules 2011 have come into effect with effect from 01.05.2011. Both the Act and the rules are available in this Ministry’s website www.mha.nic.in

Pending Trademark Disputes The number of trademark dispute applications/files, which are under opposition and pending in the various offices of the Trade Marks Registry, is as under:-

The Government has informed the Rajya Sabha that it is seized of the matter arising out of the judgement of the Supreme Court delivered on 11.05.2010 in the Civil Appeal No. 3067 of 2004 (Union of India Vs. R. Gandhi ) wherein the Court has affirmed its observations made in L. Chandra Kumar’s case (1977) 3 SCC 61 that uniformity in administration of tribunals may be brought in and there is a need of a nodal authority to oversee the functioning of tribunals and authorities set up by the Central Government.

The government is considering a proposal to extend Employees Provident Fund Scheme to all companies with over 10 employees, the Parliament was informed today. The proposal is under examination and consideration of the government, Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said in a written reply.