COAL INDIA LIMITED/SOUTH EASTERN COALFIELDS LIMITED AS THE OFFICIAL PARTNER FOR HOCKEY WORLD LEAGUE FINAL

OCTOBER 23, 2015 | EDIT

NARESH KUMAR SAGAR

New Delhi, 23rd Oct. 2015: Hockey India, the apex organisation governing field hockey in India, has secured an official partner in Coal India Limited (CIL)/South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) for the much awaited Hockey World League Final 2015. The Hockey World League Final is organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and this year will be played at the Raipur International Hockey Stadium, Raipur, India from the 27th of November – 6th December 2015. This year India along with Argentina, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Australia, Germany and Netherlands will vie for top honours at this global event.
India under the guidance of chief coach Roelant Oltamns has just returned from New Zealand after winning the series, is expected to enter the tournament high on confidence. The Netaji Subhash Southern Centre, Bengaluru will host 26 probables for the national camp from the 26th of October 2015, ahead of the World League Final in Raipur. India is currently ranked 8th in the FIH world rankings.
An elated Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra, President, Hockey India said, “We are delighted to see Coal India Limited/South Eastern Coalfields Limited come on board as the official partners for World League Final. It reinforces my faith in the fact that the sport is not going unnoticed in India and both the private and public bodies are equally keen to help the growth of Hockey in the country. Keeping in mind our recent series win against New Zealand last month I am confident of seeing a more confident and improved team India at the Hockey World League final. I would like to wish luck to the participating teams and hope to see some quality hockey on the field.”
“CIL/SECL is happy to partner with the Hockey World League final. We have been actively involved with grass-root sports talent development in the past and this partnership is just an extension of our long standing commitment to sports in India. We are glad to be associated with our national game, Hockey and wish all the very best to the participating teams”, said Mr. Om Prakash, CMD, SECL.
SECL, a miniratna company, is the largest coal producing subsidiary of Coal India Limited. This association is in continuation to CIL/SECL’s long-term commitment towards promoting sports and developing a sporting ecosystem in the country.
About Hockey World League
Hockey World League is a fast-paced and action-packed tournament comprising of four rounds played over a period of two years. The tournament doubles up as the qualifying event for the World Cup and Olympics, hence allows participating country’s gain FIH world ranking points too. Open to all members of FIH the Hockey World League gives every hockey playing nation a unique opportunity to compete with the best in the world and write their own story. The Final round is an 8 team event, for both the men’s and women’s teams. This year the men’s final is being hosted by India from 27th Nov – 6th Dec 2015 and the women’s final will be played at Rosario, Argentina from the 5th – 13th December 2015.

HOCKEY INDIA TEAM PARTNERS
Sahara
Cairn
Shiv Naresh

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OCTOBER 23, 2015 | EDIT

Goodbye Banjul, India set to intensify relations with Africa

 

ASHOK B SHARMA

 

India’s engagement with Africa is set enter a new phase with the hosting of the 5-day summit meeting with the leaders of the continent. The first summit level talks were held in 2008 in New Delhi and the second in 2011 at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Though the links between India and Africa are millennia old and New Delhi had supported the continent’s struggle for independence and fight against apartheid, China could score points on having more intensive engagement with the continent. Comparatively, India structured institutional engagement with Africa as a whole had a late start. But better late than never. Prime Minister Narendra bhai Damodardass Modi has rightly seized the opportunity for deepening relationships with Africa, picking up the thread from 2008.

Prime Minister Modi intends to give a new direction to India’s institutional relationship with Africa. The earlier Banjul formula of inviting only 15 heads of state or government through the African Union has been done away with. Now all 54 heads of state and government have been invited to the 5-day Third India-Africa Summit scheduled towards the end of this month in New Delhi, and almost all the African leaders have given consent for participation, making it the largest international summit to be hosted by India after the 1983 NAM and CHOGM summits. This led Prime Minister Modi to tweet “Level of engagement for @indiafrica2015 has been tremendously scaled up”.

Turkey, Japan, European Union, China, South Korea and lately US have regular institutional arrangements with the natural resource-rich continent. Competition in engagement should not be a policy as in a multi-polar world there is enough space for every country to develop relationships suitable to its convenience and to the needs of Africa. India needs to develop its relationship with Africa in its own unique way. Since the Banjul formula has been done away with, India needs intensify its relationship with African countries through bilateral, regional and pan-African formats. There are several economic and political groups in the vast continent catering to regional interests and India needs to directly engage with these groups. At the same time, we must continue our relations with the African Union.

So far, India’s development assistance was routed through the African Union. But the vast continent has countries with varied needs and priorities for development. Therefore it is necessary that India engage with these countries directly or through regional groups. Other venues of engagement are include the Economic Commission for Africa, Afro-Asian Rural Development Organisation (AARO), Pan African Parliament, and the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

Recently, South Africa hosted the 5th BRICS Summit with focus on partnership for development, integration and industrialisation of Africa. BRICS countries agreed to set up a Development Bank to meet the needs of developing and least development countries.

India’s basic approach of development cooperation is a three-pronged strategy – technical assistance, line of credit (LoC) and grants. Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) was launched as early as in 1964 to share its development experiences with fellow developing countries, but the continent of Africa as a whole was not much in focus then. To give focus to the country’s development cooperation programmes, a separate Development Partnership Administration (DPA) was set up in the External Affairs Ministry in January 2012; the Investment and Technology Promotion (ITP) Division was also created to promote economic diplomacy.

Since the First India-Africa Summit, India committed $7.4 billion Line of Credit (LoC), out of which $6.8 billion have been approved and $3.5 billion has been disbursed, which created 137 projects in 41 countries. Total grant element in the LoC was $500 million. Though the pace of capacity building and training has been satisfactory, that of setting up of projects and institutions has been slow due to delay in preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs) by African countries. India, with the help of AU, could set up Pan-African e-network for education and health in 48 countries. Since the first summit, New Delhi extended 40,000 scholarships for study in India. Indian pharma companies supplied cheap medicines to contain HIV AIDS in Africa, but its role in containing Ebola outbreak was limited.

It is an irony that while Africa seeks closer engagements with India, New Delhi’s response has not kept pace. There are 43 African Missions in New Delhi while India has set up permanent missions in only about 25 countries.

Some of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. It is a continent with large swathes of arable land and rich in natural resources including oil and gas. It is a demographically young continent – 65 per cent of the African population is under the age of 35 years. It has a long coastline, very important in trade and strategic terms, of 26,000 km. There are, however, several landlocked countries.

Africa has adopted 2063 Agenda for sustainable development, good governance, rule of law, democracy, gender equity, renewable energy, sustainable fisheries. The UN adopted Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 with 17 goals and 169 targets. Will India be an active partner in Africa’s development? Can India be a leader of the developing world, including the landlocked countries and small island states in the global fora, particularly in the context of the upcoming G-20 summit, Paris conference on climate change and WTO Ministerial in Nairobi? Africa represents 28% of UN membership and its support is crucial for India getting a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

The UAE, Singapore, UN Coordinator for Africa, UN Global Head for HIV AIDS and President of the African Development Bank are special guests at the summit as they are interested in financing projects addressing health and social issues.

Apart from the development of the continent, there are areas of win-win for both sides. Bilateral trade has reached $ 70 billion and needs to be scaled up. Indian corporates’ investment in the resource-rich continent is in the range of $30-35 billion. There is a 2.7 million Indian diaspora in Africa. There is ample scope for setting up fertiliser plants in Africa with buyback arrangements. New Delhi depends on import of pulses from countries like Tanzania to meet its shortages. Nigeria exports oil to India. Mozambique has huge gas potential and there are new hydrocarbon discoveries in North Africa, including Somalia. A 400-strong business delegation will be coming for the business forum meeting and the trade ministers’ meeting is likely to sort out problems in trade and investment.

Finally, development needs peace and security. Africa faces terrorist threats from Boko Haram and Al Shabaab. India has joint working groups on counter-terrorism and defence training arrangements with several African countries, which need to be extended to others. India is already in the UN peacekeeping mission in Africa. Countries on the east coast of Africa are crucial for maritime security in the Indian Ocean and New Delhi has offered them a package of maritime security and sustainable blue economy. All awaits the finalisation of the joint action plan with the African Union after the summit meeting, which would pave the way for 2.3 billion people of India and Africa working together.

(Ashok B Sharma is a senior Columnist writing on Strategic & Policy Issues in several Indian and international newspapers and magazines. He frequently writes in The Daily Observer, Bangladesh and the Diplomatist magazine. He can be reached atashokbsharma@gmail.com Mobile phone no +91-9810902204) 

ICC partnership with UNICEF

NEW YORK, 21 October 2015 – The International Cricket Council (ICC) and UNICEF today announced a five-year partnership to advocate on behalf of the world’s most disadvantaged children.

Every year 5.9 million children die before their fifth birthday from mostly preventable causes; over half a billion children live in extreme poverty; and 59 million primary school-aged children do not go to school. The partnership aims to raise awareness of these challenges and encourage cricket fans to speak out for the children whose lives are these statistics.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was the most watched event in the history of Indian television, drawing over 635 million viewers. The partnership will use the ICC’s platform to advocate for children in India and other countries where cricket is a popular sport.

An initial focus will be to improve sanitation in India, which has the largest number of people still defecating in the open: more than 595 million. Poor sanitation can cause diarrhoea, which accounts for 9 per cent of the 1.2 million under-five deaths each year in India. The partnership will also engage with children and young people to inspire them to take up sport.

ICC Chief Executive, David Richardson said “Investing in initiatives that will improve the health, education, nutrition, protection and sanitation of children is so important to the lives of us all and we are proud to work with UNICEF in bringing these projects to life. ICC and UNICEF together will engage the broader cricketing community in work to empower children and adolescents and will, in particular, during the many ICC Events over the next five years, develop and implement various community outreach programs and initiatives in collaboration with coaches, cricketers and cricketing personalities.”

“Our new partnership will brighten a spotlight on the challenges children face, like hunger, poor sanitation and lack of education, and help transform awareness into action,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “We are harnessing the power and reach of one of the world’s most popular sports behind the most important cause of all: the lives and futures of children.”

• Naresh Kumar Sagar
• October 23, 2015

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Netanyahu arrives in Berlin

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Berlin and meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Video: GPO

• Naresh Kumar Sagar
• October 23, 2015

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Twin bomb blast at a mosque in Nigerian city of Maiduguri

Nine News Australia ‏@9NewsAUS 

#BREAKING: Witness says twin bomb blasts kill at least 18 people at a mosque in Nigerian city of Maiduguri. #9News

• Naresh Kumar Sagar
• October 23, 2015

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Urban Planning and the Production of Violence on the Urban Periphery:

Dear All,

As part of our Urban Workshop Series, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), Delhi, are delighted to invite you to a Workshop on Urban Planning and the Production of Violence on the Urban Periphery: The Case of Bombay Hotel, Ahmedabad byRenu Desai, urban researcher and Coordinator at the Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University.

Date:               Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Time:               3.45 p.m.

Venue:             Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021

• Naresh Kumar Sagar
• October 23, 2015

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Sonia Gandhi added 6 new photos to the album: Dussehra Celebrations at Red Fort.

16 hrs ·

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• Naresh Kumar Sagar
• October 23, 2015

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Racist masked man’s knife attack at Swedish school in Trollhättan

OCTOBER 23, 2015 |EDIT

An adult male teacher died at the scene. The second person died while undergoing surgery at 2:30 p.m. local time, DN newspaper cited police as saying.“A single man went into the school building…and he injured four persons – two male adults and two boys,” police media officer Stefan Gustafsson told RT

Police Chief Niclas Hallgren told Swedish public service radio said that the man who killed two people at a school in Trollhättan “was driven by racist motives.”

“We are convinced that the assailant was driven by racist motives when he carried out the act,”he said. “We have reached this conclusion based on what we found when we searched his apartment and his behavior during the act, and also on the basis of how he selected his victims.”.

The press secretary of NAL hospital, Niklas Claesson, told RT by phone that “two kids (11 and 16 years of age), one teacher and the suspect” were brought in for medical help.

The attacker was shot and injured by police and later succumbed to his wounds at the hospital, Aftonbladet newspaper reported.RT news

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17 EU states sign agreement

OCTOBER 23, 2015 |EDIT

17 EU states sign agreement to counter foreign terrorist fighters

Seventeen EU members, including Britain, France and Germany, signed an agreement to counter “foreign terrorist fighters” on Thursday. The document makes it an international crime to travel abroad – or to plan a trip – to join militant groups, AFP reported. The amended Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism makes it a criminal offense to plan or raise money for a trip abroad, if the person intends to participate in any “terrorist offense, or the providing or receiving of training for terrorism,” according to the legislation. The agreement must now be ratified by national parliaments.

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5.6-magnitude quake hits Pakistan

OCTOBER 23, 2015 |EDIT

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Pakistan’s second largest province, Punjab, on early Friday morning, the United States Geological Survey said. The quake hit at 5:27 am local time and could be felt in neighboring provinces. The closest cities to the quake were Dajal and Jampur. There have been no reports of casualties or damage resulting from the incident. The depth of the earthquake was registered at about 29.4 kilometers (18.3 miles). Locals said the tremors woke them up.

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OCTOBER 23, 2015 |EDIT

Newsweek ‏@Newsweek 

Sweden doubled its estimates of refugees arriving in 2015http://bit.ly/1LPJVWs  (via @NewsweekEurope)

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“Myanmar Elections: Why Do They Matter?”

OCTOBER 23, 2015 |EDIT

​

presents
Session on “Myanmar Elections: Why Do They Matter?”
EVENT DETAILS
DATE		Monday, November 2, 2015
TIME		4:30 PM  – 6:00 PM (Registration: 4:00 AM)
LOCATION		WWF Auditorium, 172-B, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi – 110003
SPEAKERS		Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, Author, Commentator and Former Ambassador to MyanmarDr Sanjoy Hazarika, Director of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research at Jamia Millia IslamiaMs Suhasini Haider, Diplomatic Editor, the Hindu
CHAIR		Ambassador S K Lambah,  Chairman, Ananta Aspen Centre; and Former Special Envoy of the Prime Minister
ABOUT THE EVENT
The upcoming Parliamentary elections in Myanmar will determine the nation’s future trajectory. Marking a major inflection point in the process of political transformation, the elections will be held five years after the present semi-civilian reformist government came to power. The broader political environment is freer and fairer; giving rise to the hope that this time the process will be credible, inclusive and peaceful. However, major challenges stand in the way- the periphery of the country is affected by armed conflict; rising Burmese nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment threatens to explode into violence; and minority Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine have been disenfranchised and persecuted. The result of the elections will determine the country’s response to longstanding issues and the pace of further reforms. Its impact would be felt beyond Myanmar’s borders as it would have consequences for the region, including India and its Northeast. For India, Myanmar is a strategically important country that can link it to Southeast Asia and open new vistas in the region.The Session will focus on current challenges and future possibilities the nascent democracy of Myanmar faces, and its implications for India, Myanmar’s other neighbors, and the region.
Please respond by clicking one of the buttons below
SPEAKERS Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, Author, Commentator and Former Ambassador to Myanmar ​ Ambassador Rajiv Kumar Bhatia was Director General of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) during 2012-15. As a career diplomat, he served India with distinction for over thirty-seven years. He was India’s Ambassador/High Commissioner in Kenya, Myanmar, Mexico and South Africa. He served as DCM in the Indian Embassy, Jakarta from 1985-89 and has since followed developments in Indonesia with deep interest. He writes and lectures regularly on ASEAN and East Asian affairs. Known for his intellectual inclinations, Ambassador Bhatia enjoys writing and speaking on a wide range of foreign policy-related issues. Since his retirement from the Indian Foreign Service in 2009, he has published over 150 articles on international affairs in India’s national dailies, journals and periodicals. He has delivered lectures at the National Defence College, Foreign Service Institute, universities and other institutions in India. He has been interviewed by BBC, Bloomberg News, AP, NDTV, Doordarshan and Lok Sabha TV. Since mid-2012, Ambassador Bhatia led ICWA delegations to Russia, China, Belgium, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar.  He also addressed Track-II conferences in Beijing, Shanghai, Port Louis and Paris, and interacted with leading academics in London, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. His book India-Myanmar Relations: Changing contours has been published recently by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. Highly successful launches of this book were organized in New Delhi, Yangon and Bangkok in September-October 2015. A series of positive reactions to the book were noted.   Dr Sanjoy Hazarika, Director of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research at Jamia Millia Islamia ​ Dr Sanjoy Hazarika is the director of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research at Jamia Millia Islamia, the first such centre in a Central University. He founded the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research which works on health interventions through boat clinics in Assam in partnership with NHM, which reaches 3 lakh people with regular health care on islands of the Brahma-tura. He has been a correspondent for the NYT, columnist, editor and documentary film maker, including 15 films mostly on North East, whose work has been screened in London, Washington, New York, Gottinghein, Dhaka, Vienna and across India. He is currently working on another one. He has travelled through Burma by road from Manipur to Yangon with a film unit for over 2 weeks. Author of several acclaimed books on the North East, including Strangers of the Mist, Rites of Passage and Writing on the Wall, he is now working on a new book on the region. He has been a member of numerous government committees and non-government organisations, including the Jeevan Reddy Committee to Review AFSPA;  NSAB; IIAS; and was the chairman of Down to Earth Governing Board.   Ms Suhasini Haider, Diplomatic Editor, the Hindu ​ Suhasini Haidar is the Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu, one of India’s oldest and most respected national dailies (www.thehindu.com). Prior to this, Suhasini was Foreign Affairs editor and prime time anchor for India’s leading 24-hr English news channel CNN-IBN (2005-2014), where she presented the signature show “WorldView with Suhasini Haidar”, and Correspondent for CNN International’s New Delhi bureau before that. In 2015, she was the recipient of the most prestigious Indian print journalism ‘Prem Bhatia’ award, and has won a series of awards for her work in Television as well. Over the course of her 20-year reporting career, Suhasini has covered the most challenging stories & conflicts from the most diverse regions including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Libya, Lebanon and Syria.  In India, she has covered the foreign affairs beat for over a decade and her domestic assignments include political profiles and in-depth reportage from conflict zones including Kashmir, where she was injured in a bomb blast in 2000. Suhasini Haidar worked with CNN International from 1995-2005, regularly reporting from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. She was part of the CNN team that won the Columbia-Dupont Broadcast Journalism Award in 2005 for coverage of the tsunami in India, and worked for CNN.com in New York for a month during its 9/11 coverage. Suhasini began her career in journalism as an intern at CNN’s United Nation’s bureau in New York in 1994, after which she joined CNN New Delhi bureau as a producer in April 1995. Suhasini earned a Bachelor’s degree at Lady Shriram College in Delhi, and then completed her Masters in Broadcast Journalism at Boston University’s College of Communication, USA. She lives in Delhi with her husband Nadim and her two daughters Ava Mumtaz and Maya Mehr. CHAIR   Ambassador S K Lambah,  Chairman, Ananta Aspen Centre; and Former Special Envoy of the Prime MinisterSatinder K Lambah was the Special Envoy to the Prime Minister of India from 2005-14 with the rank of Minister of State from 2010 onwards. He was the Co-Chairman of the Task Force on National Security 2011 – 2012.  Ambassador Lambah was the President of Association of Indian Diplomats in 2005. He was a Convener of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) in 2004-05 and the President of the Federation of Indo-German Societies in India from 2005-2014. He was the Special Envoy of the Government of India for Afghanistan and led the Indian delegation to the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan in 2001-02. In 2001, Ambassador Lambah Chaired a Committee on the Re-organization of Ministry of External Affairs and Indian missions abroad. Ambassador Lambah has served in several Missions abroad including as the Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation, Ambassador of India to the Federal Republic of Germany, High Commissioner of India to Pakistan, Consul General of India, San Francisco, and Ambassador of India to Hungary. He was Deputy Secretary General of the 7th Non Aligned Summit held in Delhi in 1983 and later Coordinator of the Commonwealth Heads of Governments meeting in India. His specializations include Economic Diplomacy and dealing with India’s neighbours. He opened the Indian Embassy in Bangladesh after liberation. He has been involved in many successful economic ventures. For instance, the first Export of an Indian Car (Sale of Maruti Cars) took place when he was Ambassador in Hungary. India’s largest investment ever upto that time of over $2 Billion in Sakhalin-I was made in 2001 when he was Ambassador in Russia. For this, in March 2015, he was conferred the “Urja Energy Security Award”. During his tenure as Consul General of India in San Francisco (1989-91) he was conferred a “Trustees’ Citation” by the University of California, Berkeley in 1991 for his initiating, coordinating, and spearheading the campaign which generated over US$2 million in a short span of four months for Indian Studies, resulting in the creation of two Chairs of  India Studies, a bi-annual lecture by a distinguished scholar from India, and an annual scholarship at the Graduate School of Journalism at U.C Berkeley. He is married to Nilima Lambah, author of “A Life Across Three Continents – Recollections of a Diplomat’s Wife”.

Having trouble with the link? Simply copy and paste the entire address listed below into your web browser:http://www.cvent.com/d/1Ivo3uXM4keqDoi4m44jKw/njf0/P1/1Q?

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Sunita Sagar :· Va fan händer!!!!!

OCTOBER 23, 2015 |EDIT

Sunita Sagar

 Aftonbladet ·

Va fan händer!!!!!

What the heck is going on!!!!!

Automatically translated

En död – och fyra skadade efter skolattacken

En person har dödats och fyra har skadats, varav två barn, efter att en man i 20-årsåldern gått till attack på skolan Kronan i Trollhättan. Gärningsmannen, som var maskerad och bev…

WWW.AFTONBLADET.SE

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The inauguration of 2015-16 ACG NBA JUMP at Thyagaraj Sports Complex

OCTOBER 22, 2015 |EDIT

 

Cordially invites you to witness the inauguration of 2015-16 ACG NBA JUMP

at

Thyagaraj Sports Complex
INA Colony, New Delhi

On Monday, October 26, 2015

At 01:30 PM

Present at the occasion would be:

Yannick Colaco, Managing Director, NBA India

Karan Singh, Director, ACG

Satnam Singh, first Indian player to be drafted in NBA

RSVP:  Gautam Sheth +91 98692 33393

               Brinda Iyer       +91 98205 06845

               Shivashish Chanda- 9811327887

• Naresh Kumar Sagar
• October 23, 2015

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RBI invites feedback on report of the Working Group on Implementation of Ind AS by Banks in India

Naresh Kumar Sagar

Just now ·

RBI invites feedback on report of the Working Group on Implementation of Ind AS by Banks in India

The Union Budget for 2014-15 emphasised the urgent need for convergence of the current Indian accounting standards with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India notified the rules for IFRS converged Indian accounting standards (Ind AS) along with its implementation road map for corporates in a phased manner from 2016-17 onwards. The roadmap for convergence of insurance companies, banking companies and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) is expected to be announced by MCA in due course. The Reserve Bank recommended to the MCA a roadmap for implementation of Ind AS by banks from 2018-19 onwards and NBFCs in a phased manner (2018-19 and 2019-20).

Considering these developments, a Working Group was constituted to look into the issues in implementation of Ind AS by banks. The Working Group has structured its recommendations into the following key areas with focus on financial instruments.

· Classification and Measurement of Financial Assets–The Working Group reviewed the requirements of Ind AS 109 with regard to the classification and measurement of financial assets which are similar to the requirements laid down in IFRS 9 issued by the IASB. The Working Group also took cognizance of the fact that there were a number of RBI circulars containing guidance and instructions on accounting matters which may not necessarily conform to the requirements of Ind AS 109. Therefore, a review of the important RBI circulars was carried out to identify areas requiring attention.
· Classification and Measurement of Financial Liabilities–The IASB finalised the requirements relating to financial liabilities in October 2010. Most of the requirements for financial liabilities were carried forward unchanged from IAS 39 with some changes made to the fair value option for financial liabilities to address the issue of own credit risk. The Working Group reviewed the Ind AS 32 and Ind AS 109 and also compared these requirements with the existing accounting practices and RBI guidelines on the matter to identify and assess potential issues as well as suggest solutions. The key issues identified by the Working Group pertain to the following areas (a) Initial recognition (b) Subsequent measurement (c) De-recognition of financial liabilities (d) Offsetting/ netting (e) Classification: Equity versus liability

· Hedge Accounting and Derivatives–Hedge Accounting formed Phase III of IASB’s project to replace IFRS 9 in its entirety. The IASB has segregated the overall hedge accounting broadly into two components i.e. (a) general hedge accounting and (b) macro hedging. In November 2013, the IASB added to IFRS 9 a new hedge accounting model in respect of component (a) above. The new general hedge accounting model represents a substantial overhaul of hedge accounting model and corresponding disclosures that will enable entities to better reflect their risk management activities in their financial statements. However, as at May 2015, the prescriptions in relation to component (b) i.e. Macro Hedging are still a work in process and the IASB has issued in April 2014 a Discussion Paper titled ’Accounting for Dynamic Risk Management: a Portfolio Revaluation Approach to Macro Hedging’ with public comment period which ended on October 17, 2014. The Working Group therefore did not consider the discussion paper and its propositions as they have yet to be translated into an accounting standard even internationally and instead focussed on the interaction of current RBI prescriptions on derivatives and hedge accounting with Ind AS requirements contained in Ind AS 109.

· Fair Value Measurement–As the Indian banking sector moves towards reporting under converged International Financial Reporting Standards, one of the key issues facing the industry would be the application of fair value measurement, in view of the very nature of banking business and the preponderance of financial instruments on a bank’s balance sheet. Challenges in migrating to fair value measurement arise on account of the absence of active markets for corporate bonds and loans, differences with extant RBI instructions and practices on valuation, absence of an established body of accredited valuers and lack of adequate historical experience in the use of fair values by banks.

In deliberating its recommendation with respect to Fair Value Measurement, the Working Group was guided by the following objectives: (a) Valuation in accordance with the accounting standards and international best practices with departures only in exceptional cases (b) Transparency in the application of the valuation methodology and the inputs to the valuation process (c) Valuation to be determined on an independent and objective basis (d) Consistency in valuation of identical or similar instruments and (e) Ease of regulatory supervision.

· Impairment of Financial Assets–Given the business of banking, ensuring that the recoverable value of impaired financial assets is properly reflected and such financial assets are adequately provided for is of critical importance. One of the lessons of the financial crisis was that the pre-crisis accounting model for impairment waited for the impairment to be incurred before requiring a loss allowance thereon and was criticised for being a “too little, too late” approach. In order to address this issue, as a part of its project to replace IAS 39, the IASB developed a forward looking “expected credit loss” (ECL) framework for recognising impairment on financial assets. Unlike IAS 39, where an entity only considers those losses that arise from past events and current conditions, IFRS 9 broadens the spectrum by requiring an entity to base its measurement of expected credit losses on reasonable and supportable information that is available without undue cost or effort, and that includes historical, current and forecast information. The IFRS 9 ECL requirements, which have been incorporated without any significant change in Ind AS 109, also represents a paradigm shift from current practice in the Indian banking industry which follows income recognition, asset classification and provisioning (IRACP) norms prescribed by the Reserve Bank.

· Presentation of Financial Statements and Disclosure–As a part of designing the formats, the Working Group considered several alternative approaches possible. Some of the key considerations, besides the Ind AS requirements, included the changes in the business of banking over the years through the introduction of new products, increase in offbalance sheet items, need for enhanced disclosure relating to impairment, extent of guidance to be given for presentation and disclosure, etc. During the course of deliberations particularly while reviewing the financial statements of banks based in the EU, the Working Group also arrived at the conclusion that minimum formats for financial statements need to be specified to promote comparability. Accordingly, the Working Group has suggested the formats as below:

Balance Sheet13, including statement of changes in equity (Annex I, Form A, to be prescribed under the Third Schedule to the BR Act) (b) Profit and Loss Account (Annex I, Form B, to be prescribed under the Third Schedule to the BR Act) (c) Notes (Annex II, to be prescribed by way of RBI circulars) (d) Guidance for preparation of financial statements (Annex III, to be prescribed by way of RBI circulars)

· Derecognition, Consolidation and Other Residuary Issues–In the course of deliberations with bankers and a review of extant RBI instructions, the Working Group identified areas where the extant instructions may not be consistent with Ind AS and may need to be reviewed or withdrawn. These recommendations are discussed under the following heads. (a) Derecognition (b) Consolidation (c) Residuary issues