Foreign currency accounts by Indian entities: permitted for overseas branches to fund operations subject to remittance limits and conditions.
Authorises an Indian entity to open and maintain foreign currency accounts abroad in the name of its overseas office, branch or representative for normal business operations, subject to annual remittance caps, closure and repatriation rules where branches are not established or cease to exist, prohibition on contracts contravening foreign exchange law, and separate regulation for acquisition of immovable property; exempts EEFC-funded remittances and provides special treatment for certain export-oriented and technology park units.

Portfolio Investment Scheme restrictions: NRIs may buy shares under PIS but transactions in print media are prohibited.
Regulation 5(3) is replaced to allow NRIs to buy shares or convertible debentures on a stock exchange under the Portfolio Investment Scheme subject to Schedule 3, but bar purchases in the Print Media sector. NRIs and OCBs may buy securities on a non-repatriation basis outside PIS under Schedule 4, also excluding Print Media. Schedule 3 is amended to remove OCB references and to require the link office of the authorised dealer's designated branch to furnish daily reports of PIS transactions to the Reserve Bank in the prescribed format.

Interpretation of tribunal rules now referred to central government for decision under amended regulatory rules.
The substituted interpretation clause directs that any question as to interpretation of the Tribunal's recruitment, salary, allowances and service rules shall be referred to the Central Government for its decision, vesting interpretive authority in the executive and specifying commencement upon publication in the Official Gazette.

Foreign investment cap increase allowed - Indian company may raise preset limit to sectoral ceiling after board and special resolutions.
The amendment permits an Indian company to increase the prescribed foreign investment limit of 24 percent up to the applicable sectoral cap or statutory ceiling by first passing a resolution of its Board of Directors and subsequently passing a special resolution of its General Body; this substitutes the proviso to Schedule 2, paragraph (1), sub paragraph (4) of the FEMA (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident outside India) Regulations, 2000 and takes immediate effect under powers conferred by the Act.

Eligibility for Global Depository Receipts expanded to include knowledge-based sector companies for employee-focused share issuances.
Amendment permits Indian companies in specified knowledge-based sectors to issue Global Depository Receipts against ordinary shares to non-resident and resident permanent employees (including working directors) and to subsidiaries, provided eighty percent of turnover in the three preceding financial years is from those sectors or, for diversified companies, an alternative export-earnings eligibility threshold is met, subject to government-prescribed eligibility conditions and operational guidelines.

Exchange Earners' Foreign Currency account exemption clarified; specified current account restrictions and revised remittance thresholds for gifts, donations and consultancy.
The amendment excludes drawals from an Exchange Earners' Foreign Currency (EEFC) account from the application of rules 4 and 5 except where drawals finance purposes specified in Schedules II and III. It revises Schedule II and Schedule III entries: replacing the foreign print media advertisement entry, setting per remitter limits for gift and donation remittances, prescribing conditions and per recipient limits for maintenance remittances, specifying that certain education remittances are per academic year, increasing the consultancy remittance threshold per project, and creating a category for reimbursement of pre incorporation expenses.

Depository receipt conversion rules expanded to allow broker purchases and company-sponsored issues, with compliance and repatriation conditions.
The amendment authorises registered brokers to buy shares on recognised exchanges on behalf of non-residents for conversion into ADRs/GDRs, conditioned on Custodian permission and deposit, compliance with the 1993 Depository Receipt Scheme and sectoral caps, and limits on shares purchased to match ADRs/GDRs converted. It also permits Indian companies to sponsor ADR/GDR issues through overseas depositories with lead-manager pricing, repatriation of proceeds within one month, compliance with the 1993 Scheme and notification to the Reserve Bank within thirty days. The foreign ownership ceiling in Schedule 2 is raised to a higher threshold.

Foreign investment ceilings altered; revised limits and permissions enable additional overseas investment subject to Reserve Bank approval.
Amendments restate and modify foreign investment ceilings and conditions, substitute and delete specified sub-regulatory provisions, permit acquisitions of foreign company shares by Indian parties in exchange for ADRs/GDRs subject to listing, investment caps tied to a benchmark or export earnings, fresh equity backing, sectoral holding limits and prescribed valuation methods, authorize Reserve Bank block allocations of foreign exchange when limits are exhausted, and introduce permissions and limited prior-approval-exempt investment rules for registered partnership firms with reporting obligations.

Foreign exchange amendment: insertion of 'non' before 'whole time director' alters applicability of prior notification.
The Reserve Bank, under Section 3 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, issues Notification No. FEMA/39/2001-RB amending Notification FEMA/16/RB-2000 by inserting the word 'non' before 'whole time director' in paragraph 3; the amendment takes immediate effect and alters the descriptive qualification in that paragraph concerning receipts from and payments to persons resident outside India.

Movement of currency notes: RBI may permit persons to take, send or bring notes across borders subject to conditions.
The Reserve Bank of India may, on application and on being satisfied of necessity, allow a person to take or send out of India or bring into India currency notes of the Government of India and/or of the Reserve Bank of India, subject to such terms and conditions as the Bank may stipulate, by way of an inserted sub regulation to the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Currency) Regulations, 2000.

EEFC Account entitlement for SEZ units permits full foreign exchange credit to EEFC Accounts with specified purchase exceptions.
Regulatory amendment creates special EEFC Account rules for Special Economic Zone units, exempting them from the Schedule's general provisions and permitting crediting of their foreign exchange receipts in full to EEFC Accounts, except where the foreign exchange was acquired by purchase against rupees from a resident in India who is not a SEZ unit; paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Schedule apply mutatis mutandis to SEZ unit EEFC Accounts to govern operational and compliance aspects.

Export repatriation rule: SEZ units must repatriate full export value within prescribed period; SOFTEX filing obligations clarified.
Regulatory amendments expand eligible export locations to include Electronic Hardware and Software Technology Parks; permit re export of specified goods by SEZ units under intimation to the Development Commissioner or Customs; allow goods sent abroad for testing and defective goods sent for repair with authorised dealer certification; and permit RBI authorized exports on conditions. SOFTEX declarations for software exports must be submitted in triplicate to designated officials at STPIs or at FTZs, EPZs or SEZs. SEZ units must realise and repatriate the full export value within a prescribed period, subject to RBI extension or direction after opportunity to represent.

Foreign investment restriction: FIIs, NRI/OCBs and FVCIs barred from acquiring print media company equity or convertible debentures.
The amendment adds provisos to Regulation 5 prohibiting Foreign Institutional Investors, NRI/OCB and Foreign Venture Capital Investors from purchasing shares or convertible debentures of Indian companies engaged in the print media sector, effecting an immediate restriction on those categories of non-resident investment in print media.

Foreign currency accounts: foreign nationals deputed to India may receive part of salary abroad subject to rupee payment and tax.
A new sub regulation permits a foreign national resident in India deputed by a foreign company to open and maintain a foreign currency account abroad and receive salary for services rendered in India credited thereto, subject to conditions that no more than 75 per cent of the salary be credited to such account, the remainder be paid in rupees in India, and income tax under the Income Tax Act, 1961 be paid on the entire salary as accrued in India.