HENCY R SHAH AND ASSOCIATES

Professionals under PMLA On May 3rd, 2023, the Central Government issued a notification bringing practicing professionals in the field of Chartered Accountancy, Company Secretaries, and Cost and Works Accountants under the ambit of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) if they execute any financial transactions on behalf of clients. This notification has been issued under sub-clause (vi) of clause (sa) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (15 of 2003). The following financial transactions carried out by a relevant person on behalf of his or her client, in the course of his or her profession, will be considered an activity for the purposes of the PMLA: 1. Buying and selling of any immovable property. 2. Managing of client money, securities, or other assets. 3. Management of bank, savings, or securities accounts. 4. Organization of contributions for the creation, operation, or management of companies. 5. Creation, operation, or managemen...

Does India Need Green Revolution 2.0? India needs a second green revolution along with the next generation of reforms to make agriculture more climate-resistant and environmentally sustainable. Observing that Indian agriculture has exhibited remarkable resilience during the COVID-19 period, new emerging challenges warrant a second green revolution along with next-generation reforms. Despite the success in terms of production that has ensured food security in the country, food inflation and its volatility remain a challenge, which requires supply-side interventions such as higher public investment, storage infrastructure and promotion of food processing. Indian agriculture scaled new heights with record production of various foodgrains, and commercial and horticultural crops, exhibiting resilience and ensuring food security during the COVID-19 period. The sector, however, confronted various challenges, mitigation of which requires a holistic policy approach. For instance, ...

Digital Rupee is the future of money Almost nine months after the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman first spoke about the digital currency in parliament, the digital rupee was launched in India. The pilot project launched by the RBI is for wholesale transactions in the bond market. The retail phase for the customers, however, will be launched sometime later. Digital Rupee or CBDC is a new digital form of money issued by central banks. The digital rupee rollout is a big step ahead in India’s digital transformation. It will be an excellent opportunity for India since it will potentially increase the ease of doing business, as well as improve resilience and security of the entire payments infrastructure. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that the first pilot in Digital Rupee - Retail segment is planned for launch within a month in select locations. The central bank said that nine banks -- State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank,...