Mandatory CSR requires qualifying companies to create committees and allocate prescribed funds for social initiatives; reporting framework pending.
Companies Bill 2012 requires qualifying companies to constitute a CSR Committee to recommend and oversee CSR activities and mandates baseline spending tied to the company's average net profits of the preceding three years, while allowing project based interventions; reporting, eligible activities and procedural definitions are to be developed after enactment in consultation with stakeholders.

Director Identification Number requirement enhances director traceability and supports criminal and company law action against vanishing companies.
Criminal proceedings and FIRs target vanishing companies and their directors for non filing and misstatements, while Director Identification Number requirements mandate verified personal particulars and photographs to ensure director traceability. Professionals must physically verify premises and furnish proof of registered address at incorporation or address change, and Registrars are instructed to verify registered offices and scrutinise balance sheets and records of public issue companies to monitor fund utilisation.

Chit fund enforcement: statutory bans on prize chits and money circulation prompt criminal and corporate investigations.
Allegations of fraud and cheating by companies conducting chit fund operations are subject to criminal and regulatory action under the Chit Funds Act and the Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, which mandate investigation by state law enforcement authorities, while alleged contraventions of corporate law are investigated by agencies under the corporate affairs ministry including specialised corporate fraud investigatory mechanisms.

Foreign Direct Investment policy remains liberal with automatic route, expanded control definition and Invest India single-window facilitation.
India's liberal Foreign Direct Investment policy allows FDI in most sectors on the automatic route with limited prohibited/restricted sectors; no central record exists for permissions or office relocations. There is no proposal to raise media FDI limits; however, the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008 proposes higher foreign participation in insurance. The policy's definition of control has been broadened to include managerial, shareholding and shareholders agreement mechanisms to align with related regulatory and legislative definitions, and the government has launched Invest India as a single window facilitator for overseas investors.

Recognition of Company Secretaries as Key Managerial Persons strengthens corporate governance role and accountability under the new companies law.
The Companies Bill, 2012 is expected to strengthen corporate governance through enhanced disclosure, transparency and accountability, protect investors, and facilitate corporate social responsibility. The law formally recognises Company Secretaries as Key Managerial Persons, positioning them as Chief Governance Officers with expanded roles in secretarial audit, restructuring, liquidation, valuation and other governance functions.

Corporate governance reform strengthens director accountability, audit oversight and investor protections under the new companies framework.
The new companies statute modernises corporate regulation by strengthening board accountability through defined roles and liabilities for Independent Directors, mandating key board committees including a CSR Committee, instituting vigil mechanisms and account re opening provisions; tightening audit oversight via auditor rotation, limits on non audit services and establishment of the National Financial Reporting Authority; streamlining certain merger procedures while retaining Tribunal oversight for others; enhancing investor protections on deposits and class actions; and revising the National Company Law Tribunal's composition and appellate route.

Legalization of corporate lobbying not pursued, government confirms no current proposal to legalize company lobbying.
Government policy on the legalisation of corporate lobbying remains unchanged: no proposal to legalise lobbying by companies is under consideration, as officially confirmed in a ministerial written reply to a parliamentary question.

Investor protection through coordinated awareness, multilingual outreach and an online portal enabling claims search and complaint tracking.
Protection of investor interests is advanced through targeted investor education and a grievance redress framework emphasizing partnerships with professional bodies, multilingual publications, mass media outreach and alerts. The MCA21 portal provides searchable access to unpaid and unclaimed investor amounts, an online complaint lodging facility and complaint tracking, forming an integrated preventive and remedial investor protection system.

Early warning system for corporate fraud detection announced, with investigations and prosecutions for alleged Ponzi schemes to follow.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is establishing an Early Warning System to detect early signs of fraud and pilot testing is expected to be completed in 2013-14; separately, investigations into alleged Ponzi schemes have been ordered under the Companies Act to be conducted by a specialized investigative agency, with prosecutions to follow for Companies Act violations and related criminal offences.

Complaints against companies trigger statutory inspections and investigations and drive a pilot early warning system for fraud detection.
Complaints against companies received by the Ministry led to statutory inspections, investigations and scrutiny of balance sheets under the Companies Act, and the Ministry is developing an early warning system for earlier identification of fraud, with pilot testing expected during the current financial year.

Merger filing clarity: guidance urged on Form I/II applicability and pre merger consultations to streamline approvals.
CCI reported imminent orders in major cases and a marked rise in filings, and EPAG recommended reducing paperwork, promoting Competition Compliance and considering autonomous certification. EPAG sought clarification on the applicability of Form I & II in merger filings and on sequencing of approvals from other regulators, while flagging concerns about government price fixation and the Administered Pricing Mechanism and urging attention to competition issues in unregulated sectors like sand mining.

Revision of rehabilitation terms: postponement of share redemption and extension of government guarantee to aid corporate revival.
Revision of HOCL's revival package postpones redemption of 8% Redeemable Non Cumulative Preference Shares into four equal installments beginning in 2015 16 and extends the Government guarantee for a working capital facility for five years, with the guarantee remaining valid even upon referral to industrial sickness mechanisms; these measures aim to support short term revival amid accumulated losses and erosion of net worth following prior rehabilitation and intermittent profits.

Minimum public shareholding requirement addressed by transferring government shares into a special fund for managed sale and social sector use.
A Special National Investment Fund will receive government shares required to meet the minimum public shareholding threshold in six financially weak CPSEs by irrevocable transfer without consideration; independent professional fund managers will sell those shares within five years, with proceeds directed to social sector schemes and sale modalities to be determined by the empowered group of ministers as a compliance measure under securities regulation.

Disinvestment of Public Sector Equity approved via offer for sale, reducing government shareholding under SEBI rules.
Approval of a 10 percent paid-up equity disinvestment in Indian Oil Corporation Limited will be executed through an Offer for Sale in the domestic market, reducing the Government of India's shareholding from 78.92 percent to 68.92 percent and conducted in compliance with SEBI rules and regulations.

Regulatory expansion: enhanced securities regulator powers to oversee large pooled investment contracts and enforce compliance swiftly.
The Ordinance expands the regulator's enforcement reach to regulate pooling of funds under investment contracts meeting the prescribed corpus threshold, to attach assets on non-compliance, to authorize search and seizure operations, and to compel production of information including telephone call data records; it also enables establishment of Special Courts and amends the SEBI Act, securities contracts framework and the Depositories Act to address regulatory gaps in novel fund raising methods.

Investor awareness programmes expanded to rural areas using public-private delivery and professional institute collaboration.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs expanded Investor Awareness Programmes into rural areas by engaging CSC e Governance Services India Limited and conducting outreach in several states; in the prior financial year the Ministry ran 1,986 such programmes through three professional institutes with an allotted budget, combining ministry oversight, budgetary provision, institute collaboration and a public-private delivery model to operationalise investor education.

Company registry expansion masks compliance gaps as many registered firms are closed, liquidating, or classified dormant.
The corporate registry total exceeds thirteen lakh entries, but many are non-operational: companies closed by court order or voluntary winding up, a separate group in liquidation, and entities classified as dormant for failing to file Annual Returns/Balance Sheets for three consecutive years; after excluding these categories, the number of active companies is significantly lower, with a portion recently incorporated and not yet due for statutory filings.

Public shareholding compliance: disinvestment approved to meet SCRR public holding requirements for two listed CPSEs.
Approval was granted for the partial disinvestment of Government equity in two listed CPSEs to secure compliance with public shareholding norms under the Securities Contract (Regulation) Rules by authorising the sale of five percent of paid up equity in ITDC and 1.02 percent in STC so each attains the mandated minimum public shareholding threshold of at least ten percent of total paid up equity.

Investment promotion talks to focus on US companies' investment in India and related tax and policy measures.
The Finance Minister's official US visit aims to promote US investment in India by presenting government policy measures, addressing tax-related matters, and engaging with US business leaders and financial policymakers, including a keynote at the US-India Business Council leadership summit and bilateral meetings on infrastructure and investment promotion.

Disinvestment via Offer for Sale completed; non promoter public shareholding meets SEBI listing requirement.
Disinvestment executed by the Government of India involved sale of a portion of its equity in Hindustan Copper Limited through the Offer for Sale mechanism on stock exchanges; bids exceeded shares on offer, the issue was oversubscribed above the floor price and generated approximate gross receipts on allotment. The post-transaction shareholding pattern yields a non-promoter public float that satisfies the SEBI listing requirement for minimum public shareholding, aligning the company's capital structure with regulatory listing norms.