NEW YORK: The US government quietly agreed to forgo about $38 billions in potential tax payment from troubled financial giant Citigroup as part of a deal that help the company repay bailout funds, a media report has said.
"The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout that helped it survive the financial crisis," the 'Washington Post' reported.
The government had injected $45 billion in the entity, hit by global financial crisis in 2008. Citi has to pay back $20 billion bailout money to the US government, since the government got a 34% stake in Citi for $25 billion.
According to the publication, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Friday issued an exception to long-standing tax rules for the benefit of Citigroup and a few other companies partially owned by the government.
The move would allow Citigroup to retain $38 billion tax breaks that otherwise would decline in value when the government sells its stake to private investors.
The decision essentially gave up a longstanding rule that disqualified certain tax breaks if a significant ownership stake changed hands in an effort to discourage outside investors from buying tax benefits.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Delhi HC gets India’s first e-court
NEW DELHI: With gavel-hammering judges moving over to touchscreen handbooks, Delhi high court created history on Tuesday by showcasing the first e-courtroom in the country.
The court of Justice S Ravindra Bhat looked unlike any other courtroom, with a sleek, wide LCD screen on the wall and a touchscreen handbook replacing the bulky files as the HC launched its first eco-friendly initiative to go paperless and also bring about speedy justice.
Cumbersome paperwork has been replaced by digitalized files and judges can directly access them on a display monitor. With a target of digitalizing all documents within two years, the court has launched a pilot project which went on smoothly on the first day.
Though 33 matters were listed for the day, around 18 cases were disposed of within the first two hours, which on a routine basis take the entire day. The judge used his special LCD touchscreen to make corrections and his digital signature to certify the copy.
The lawyers gave the concept a thumbs-up, saying there were no glitches during the proceedings. ‘‘We will be able to get rid of our bulky files. Now we have to carry only a USB device or CD of our case, which is much easier,’’ said Swagat Sharma, a lawyer who appeared in the e-court. Some counsel, however, still preferred to use their paper files, an option given to them for the time being to enable them to adjust to accessing case files from their laptops.
The court has already digitalized around 5.5 crore papers pertaining to various cases upto 2007. It is also considering recording the statement of witnesses through video-conferencing to avoid procedural delays.
The court of Justice S Ravindra Bhat looked unlike any other courtroom, with a sleek, wide LCD screen on the wall and a touchscreen handbook replacing the bulky files as the HC launched its first eco-friendly initiative to go paperless and also bring about speedy justice.
Cumbersome paperwork has been replaced by digitalized files and judges can directly access them on a display monitor. With a target of digitalizing all documents within two years, the court has launched a pilot project which went on smoothly on the first day.
Though 33 matters were listed for the day, around 18 cases were disposed of within the first two hours, which on a routine basis take the entire day. The judge used his special LCD touchscreen to make corrections and his digital signature to certify the copy.
The lawyers gave the concept a thumbs-up, saying there were no glitches during the proceedings. ‘‘We will be able to get rid of our bulky files. Now we have to carry only a USB device or CD of our case, which is much easier,’’ said Swagat Sharma, a lawyer who appeared in the e-court. Some counsel, however, still preferred to use their paper files, an option given to them for the time being to enable them to adjust to accessing case files from their laptops.
The court has already digitalized around 5.5 crore papers pertaining to various cases upto 2007. It is also considering recording the statement of witnesses through video-conferencing to avoid procedural delays.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Cash is king for the holidays
Holiday shoppers are going green this year...paying for gifts with greenbacks, that is.
One in four consumers plan to pay with cash this holiday season, according to a new survey by the National Retail Federation. That's up 9.1% from a year ago.
That's not too surprising considering both credit card companies and consumers have reined in usage during the Great Recession.
Another 42.5% of holiday shoppers plan to use primarily debit or check cards, a 2.5% increase from last year, the survey found.
Credit card usage, meanwhile, is expected to fall by 10.1% to 28.3%.
One in four consumers plan to pay with cash this holiday season, according to a new survey by the National Retail Federation. That's up 9.1% from a year ago.
That's not too surprising considering both credit card companies and consumers have reined in usage during the Great Recession.
Another 42.5% of holiday shoppers plan to use primarily debit or check cards, a 2.5% increase from last year, the survey found.
Credit card usage, meanwhile, is expected to fall by 10.1% to 28.3%.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Celebrity MPs among top absentees from Parliament
NEW DELHI: A pretty face does not amount to much in politics. Celebrity Members of Parliament may draw crowds but if parliamentary participation is any indicator, they have a long way to go. A study has shown that famous MPs were found wanting both in attendance and participation in debates in Parliament.
None of the 12 MPs tracked attended more than 20% of the total number of days in each session. The absentees were led by Congress MP Govinda who did not attend Parliament on a single day followed by BJP MP Dharmendra. BJP leaders Vinod Khanna and Navjot Singh Sidhu were the other two MPs who had low attendance. National Social Watch's `Citizen's report on governance and development 2008-2009' analysed attendance of MPs in the 11th and 12th sessions of the 14th Lok Sabha and the 210th and 211th session of the Rajya Sabha.
Seven members attended Parliament for less than 10% of the total days. In the Lok Sabha, members did not participate more than four times in 2007, and five members (in both LS and RS) did not participate in the debates even once.
With regard to the number of questions, the pattern is equally dismal. Out of the 12 celebrity MPs, five including Shyam Benegal, Govinda, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Bimal Jalan did not raise a single query. No member has raised even 1% of the total questions in both Houses.
The report notes that MPs who held corporate positions were more efficient. On an average, all eight members raised a fair number of questions and five of them excluding Vijay Mallya and Rajeev Dhoot attended 50% of parliamentary sittings.
Parliamentary record on an average was nothing to boast about and only indicated a fall in standards. Only 173 MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha actually spoke on legislative issues while the House passed nearly 40% of bills with less than one hour of debate. The average hours of working of Parliament was not even 50% of the total time.
Slogan-shouting, walkouts, boycotts and adjournments were increasing over the years. The 11th Lok Sabha lost 5.28% of its time due to pandemonium which went up to 22% by the 14th Lok Sabha. Incidentally, each minute of Parliament costs the exchequer Rs 26,035. "There was not a single session of Parliament during 2008 and 2009 that has not lost valuable man-hours on account of unruly incidents. The year 2008 even witnessed the virtual abrogation of a whole session of Parliament," John Samuel, NSW convener, said.
The report also found increasing absenteeism among MPs with more than 75% of MPs featuring below the median point of 16 or more days of attendance, according to the report.
None of the 12 MPs tracked attended more than 20% of the total number of days in each session. The absentees were led by Congress MP Govinda who did not attend Parliament on a single day followed by BJP MP Dharmendra. BJP leaders Vinod Khanna and Navjot Singh Sidhu were the other two MPs who had low attendance. National Social Watch's `Citizen's report on governance and development 2008-2009' analysed attendance of MPs in the 11th and 12th sessions of the 14th Lok Sabha and the 210th and 211th session of the Rajya Sabha.
Seven members attended Parliament for less than 10% of the total days. In the Lok Sabha, members did not participate more than four times in 2007, and five members (in both LS and RS) did not participate in the debates even once.
With regard to the number of questions, the pattern is equally dismal. Out of the 12 celebrity MPs, five including Shyam Benegal, Govinda, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Bimal Jalan did not raise a single query. No member has raised even 1% of the total questions in both Houses.
The report notes that MPs who held corporate positions were more efficient. On an average, all eight members raised a fair number of questions and five of them excluding Vijay Mallya and Rajeev Dhoot attended 50% of parliamentary sittings.
Parliamentary record on an average was nothing to boast about and only indicated a fall in standards. Only 173 MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha actually spoke on legislative issues while the House passed nearly 40% of bills with less than one hour of debate. The average hours of working of Parliament was not even 50% of the total time.
Slogan-shouting, walkouts, boycotts and adjournments were increasing over the years. The 11th Lok Sabha lost 5.28% of its time due to pandemonium which went up to 22% by the 14th Lok Sabha. Incidentally, each minute of Parliament costs the exchequer Rs 26,035. "There was not a single session of Parliament during 2008 and 2009 that has not lost valuable man-hours on account of unruly incidents. The year 2008 even witnessed the virtual abrogation of a whole session of Parliament," John Samuel, NSW convener, said.
The report also found increasing absenteeism among MPs with more than 75% of MPs featuring below the median point of 16 or more days of attendance, according to the report.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Integration Server Admin not working
If, even after starting the Integration Server, your integration server administrator (http://localhost:5555) is returning a page cannot be displayed or not accessible, then mostly it could be because the sql server is not running on your server.
Try starting your ms sql server. Goto DOS (type cmd in RUN) and "net start mssqlserver". If it says it's already started, try stopping and then restart.
net stop mssqlserver
net start mssqlserver
Then, delete the LOCK file previously created (\webmethods7\integration server\) and then click on Integration server (program files -> webmethods7 -> servers -> integration server) and wait for a couple of minutes and then check now.
Try starting your ms sql server. Goto DOS (type cmd in RUN) and "net start mssqlserver". If it says it's already started, try stopping and then restart.
net stop mssqlserver
net start mssqlserver
Then, delete the LOCK file previously created (
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