Competition regulation must broaden as economy grows, requiring strengthened oversight of mergers, cartels and abuse of dominance.
The address stresses expansion of the Competition Commission of India's remit as the economy grows, requiring strengthened Competition regulation and a robust Mergers & Acquisitions regulatory mechanism to detect and address cartelisation, vertical and horizontal tie ups, and abuse of dominant position that can distort prices and competition.

National Guidelines update invites public comment on revised business responsibility principles and reporting framework before a fixed deadline.
Invitation for public comments on the updated National Guidelines (renamed from NVGs) prepared by an Expert Committee to reflect legislative and global developments. The five chapter draft with four annexures seeks targeted feedback on Chapter 2 (Principles and Core Elements) and Chapter 5 (Business Responsibility Reporting Framework). Respondents must use the prescribed response form and submit comments to the designated email by the stated deadline; all submissions will be analysed by a Review Committee for incorporation into the final Guidelines.

In-house E-adjudication to address routine corporate defaults and preserve rigorous processes for serious corporate offences.
Restructuring of corporate offence adjudication is recommended to shift routine, primarily technical or procedural, compoundable defaults into a transparent in-house E-adjudication process administered by the Registrar of Companies while preserving rigorous criminal processes for serious offences including fraud. The report further recommends enlarging compounding jurisdiction to de-clog the Tribunal and proposes corporate governance measures such as declaration of commencement of business, enhanced public deposit disclosures, stricter charge filing timelines, transfer of shares with unresolved beneficial ownership to the Investor Education and Protection Fund, deregistration for missing registered office, director disqualification for excess posts, and a cap on independent director remuneration.

Corporate Social Responsibility mandate prompts national awards nominations with category, MSME provisions and nomination deadline.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs invites nominations for the National CSR Awards from specified nominating organisations, each allowed up to ten entries; companies may apply through those organisations on the online portal by the stipulated deadline. Awards comprise three categories: Corporate Awards for Excellence in CSR across four bands by eligible CSR spend with honourable mentions; Corporate Awards in Challenging Circumstances by region with an MSME earmark and honourable mentions; and up to eleven awards for contributions to National Priority Schemes with MSME reservations and honourable mentions.

Ministerial portfolio assignment: resumption of charge by Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, prompting meeting with senior officials.
The President, on the advice of the Prime Minister, assigned the ministerial portfolios of Finance and Corporate Affairs to Shri Arun Jaitley; upon resumption of charge he convened an initial meeting with the Finance Secretary, Secretaries for Expenditure and Financial Services, Secretary (Corporate Affairs), and the Chairmen of central tax boards to coordinate continuity of administration.

Business Responsibility Reporting: public consultation invited on updated National Guidelines, focused inputs sought on principles and reporting framework.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has released draft updated National Guidelines (replacing the 2011 NVGs) and invited public comment, focusing specifically on Chapter 2 (Principles and Core Elements) and Chapter 5 (Business Responsibility Reporting Framework). Respondents must use the prescribed response form and submit comments to the designated contact; all comments received by the deadline will be analysed by a Review Committee for incorporation into the final Guidelines.

Fiduciary duty in securities market: proposed rules require non registered advisers to ensure reports are materially true.
Proposed amendments impose fiduciary obligations on non registered entities performing third party assignments under securities laws, defining fiduciary to include professionals such as chartered accountants and valuers, and requiring that certificates and reports they issue be true in all material respects. The paper provides that the Board, after inquiry or investigation, may take regulatory actions if a fiduciary submits false reports or violates SEBI regulations, including directions, adjudication for penalties and prosecution, thereby enhancing accountability and compliance by such fiduciaries.

Serious corporate fraud allegation prompts arrest under investigatory powers and probes into diverted funds and concealment.
Arrest was effected under statutory investigatory powers on material alleging serious corporate fraud: promoters allegedly used complex fraudulent schemes via associate companies to divert and siphon off funds raised from public sector banks, causing wrongful losses; accused persons failed to cooperate and concealed material facts, and the investigation remains ongoing following insolvency-driven transfer of company control.

Public procurement platform enables transparent, integrated e procurement with MSME preferences and real time price discovery for government buyers.
GeM is a centralized online procurement platform for government buyers that centralizes procurement of common goods and services, integrates with national registries and financial systems for robust registration and cashless transactions, and reports broad adoption with significant seller onboarding and MSME participation. The platform operationalizes procurement policy and savings through catalogue standardization, advanced search, real time multisource price comparison, multi cart and product bunching, analytics, buyer-seller ratings, service bidding, automation of MSME/startup exemptions, bank integrations for electronic guarantees and State Government Pool Accounts.

Corporate Social Responsibility enforcement prompts notices to companies under a centralised scrutiny and prosecution mechanism.
A Centralised Scrutiny and Prosecution Mechanism has been established as a pilot enforcement program to examine records of the largest companies with mandated CSR spending, to identify potential breaches of CSR duties and to issue preliminary notices following inquiry where non-compliance appears indicated.

Serious fraud investigations: SFIO, RDs and ROCs pursued multiple corporate probes with prosecutions, fines and compounding fees.
The Government established the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) to probe significant corporate frauds; SFIO was assigned 23 investigations (184 entities) in 2015-16, 25 (111 entities) in 2016-17, and 21 (225 entities) in 2017-18. Regional Directors and Registrars of Companies were assigned 2, 3 and 119 matters in those respective years. Over the three years courts disposed of 94 complaints/prosecutions, levying fines, ordering compounding fee payments, imposing one custodial sentence of one year and four months, and imposing ''punishment till rising of courts'' with fine in three cases.

Companies Cost Records and Audit amendment open for public comments to align rules with GST; submissions required by stated deadline.
Draft amendment to the Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules has been published on the Ministry website to incorporate changes arising from GST; stakeholders are invited to send comments and brief justifications via the specified email address using the prescribed format identifying contact details, serial number, rule/paragraph/clause/sub clause, suggestion and justification, by the deadline stated in the notice.

Transparency in public procurement: a centralised online marketplace uses e bidding and reverse auctions to streamline government buying.
GeM creates a centralised, paperless, cashless and contactless online procurement platform that uses e bidding, reverse e auction and demand aggregation to enhance transparency, efficiency and value for money in government procurement; multiple States have entered memoranda of understanding to mandate procurement through the portal.

Regulatory intervention: Order to constitute PID committee and conduct forensic audit after whistleblower allegations at exchange.
As an interim measure, directions were issued to the Governing Board to constitute a Committee of Public Interest Directors to examine all whistleblower allegations and recommend suitable action; the exchange has engaged a forensic auditor to assess the magnitude of alleged fraud, allegations against brokers are separately investigated, and the MD & CEO has been directed to proceed on indefinite leave to ensure an uninterrupted examination.

Company strike-off for non-filing: procedural removal and ownership probes follow sustained failure to file annual returns and statements.
Authorities identified large numbers of companies failing to file financial statements and annual returns for successive years and initiated strike-off proceedings, with Registrars of Companies required to follow prescribed procedural safeguards before removing names. Concurrently, targeted investigations into true ownership and exceptional bank account transactions during the demonetization period have been ordered to probe irregular financial conduct.

Regulatory inquiry into real estate compliance leads to inspections and investigations under Companies Act audit requirements.
The Ministry carried out inquiries, inspections of books and papers, and investigations into entities engaged in real estate, applying powers to examine corporate compliance across companies and certain LLPs; the Companies Act, 2013 governs the record keeping and compliance requirements for all companies and mandates statutory and internal audit, with no separate provisions specific to real estate firms.