The cabinet has approved the introduction of a new Companies Bill that will replace the Companies Act of 1956. The Companies Bill 2008 paves the way for the formation of a one-person-company (OPC) that would help start-up entrepreneurs operate as a company without facing the liabilities attached to a sole partnership firm. The process to revamp this act had started in 2004 when the government formed the J.J. Irani Committee to help draft the new law for which it held consultations with professional bodies like ICAI and ICSI. This bill aims at cutting down many of the approvals that companies need to take from the government at present. These include matters like remuneration of directors, related party transactions, attachment of balance sheet of subsidiary companies etc. The bill does away with promoters buying shares at a discount and lays down higher stringent penalties for corporate offences.

The Bill also states that 33% of the directors of the company had to be independent thereby providing relaxation to the earlier norm of at least 50% of the directors having required to being independent as per SEBI guidelines. Unlisted companies can have one-third independent directors while for listed companies, it has to be 50%. The Bill has proposed to raise the number of partners in a partnership firm from 20 to 100, while not recommending any restrictions over the number of subsidiaries that a company can have.

SEBI has decided to amend clause 41 of the listing agreement. Under this amendment, a listed entity in addition to submitting quarterly and year-to-date standalone financial results within one month of the end of the quarter may also submit consolidated financial results to the stock exchanges within two months from the end of the quarter. A listed entity opting to submit consolidated financial results in addition to standalone financial results will be required to publish consolidated financial results only. A listed entry would also be required to place the limited review report on unaudited financial results before its board of directors or committee before submission to the stock exchanges only if the variation between unaudited financials and financials amended pursuant to limited review for the same period exceeds 10 per cent.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice K.G.Balakrishnan put on hold a Bombay High Court order which had reduced the working hours of the pilots and asked the pilots to comply with the DGCA circular which specifies that they can operate three flights within nine hours instead of two flights in nine hours which was ordered by the High Court. The hon'ble apex court agreed with the contention of DGCA that lower working hours would result in increase of the requirement of pilots by nearly 40% especially at a time when global fuel prices were skyrocketing and the aviation industry was facing stiff global competition.

The logistic industry has opposed the amendments to the 110 year old Indian Postal Act, which is likely to be introduced in the monsoon session of the Parliament. As per these amendments, posts and parcels weighing up to 300 gm should be sent only through the postal department and there would be introduction of registration fees of the companies. Apart from this, small and mid-sized will have to pay a registration fees of Rs. 25,000 in addition the annual renewal fees of Rs. 10,000. This major setback will also affect investment from foreign players such as DHL, FedEx, TNT and UPS among others as the proposed amendments also provide that international companies will have to pay Rs. 10 lakhs apart from the annual renewal fees of Rs. 5 lakhs and as part as part of Universal Service Obligation (USO), have to also pay 10% of their annual total turnover as USO fees.

An apex court bench comprising of Justice C.K. Thakker andJustice L.S. Panta gave a decision whereby after listening to a child as to whether she wanted to be with her mother or father and she said that she wanted to be with her mother, which overrode an order given by a US court which said that the child should be given back to her father. It directed that the mother would have interim custody of her daughter after doing a grandfatherly chat with the daughter. It also said that the father had access to his daughter via a webcam for from 11 AM IST for two hours everyday. This is the first time a father will have access to his child via a webcam in India's judicial history. The Bench stated that the allegation of flouting the orders of a US court was one thing but the wishes of the child were of equal importance.

Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong have topped the list of global exchanges for corporate IPOs in the first five months of 2008, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Although there were only four deals done on the Saudi exchange, their size puts the Gulf country just ahead of Hong Kong. The Mumbai and the National Stock Exchange come in at fifth and sixth place. The top two IPOs this year so far have both been in Asia, with China Railway Construction leading the pack and India's Reliance Power coming in at number two.

Member of the World Health Organization (WHO) have made a breakthrough on the issue of managing intellectual property and helping developing countries get more access to important medicines. The World Health Assembly meetings, held at the end of May 2008, resulted in an intellectual property resolution requesting that WHO finalize a plan to improve incentives for drug companies to tackle diseases that mainly afflict the poor. Critics had being complaining from a long time that the WHO's patent system makes essential medicines unaffordable for many developing nations. The group eventually issued a draft proposal "on public health, innovation and intellectual property," which was adopted by WHO members in their May meeting.

The International Trade Mark Association (INTA) recently held its 130th Annual Meeting in Berlin. The issue of emotional intelligence and its relationship with mediating disputes was one of the topics that were discussed at INTA's Panel of Neutrals. The session discussed mediation and how its non-binding procedures are a factor that separates it from arbitration and puts greater emphasis on the role of the mediator. However, the primary goal for both mediation and dispute resolution is the same, and that is to encourage parties to be creative and think of a mutually beneficial way of solving a dispute. Other issues discussed included World Intellectual Property Organization officials being quizzed in relation to the tight deadlines in China, and strict classification requirements in Korea.

The British Home Office is set to announce measures that will result in tighter laws to deal with child sex offenders. The measures come as the 1970s glam-rock start Garry Glitter heads London after serving a 33 month sentence for molesting two girls in Vietnam. The singer, who was told that he would be arrested if he tried to enter Thailand and whose requests to fly to Singapore or Hong Kong were denied, was travelling on a passport issued by the British consulate in Ho Chi Minh City last November. He said that he had the same rights as any British citizen to travel to any country that does not require a visa.

Under the Home Office's proposed measures, child sex offenders would have to renew their passport annually and new rules would make it easier for police to seek an order restricting an offender's movements. The ministry also wants to extend the length of time which is currently six months that child sex offenders can be barred from travelling abroad. The proposals came after the disclosure that police were powerless to impose a sexual offences prevention order on Glitter on his return to Britain. At present police require recent evidence that a person is at risk of re-offending. In future there would be no timescale on the evidence. Registered sex offenders will also have to give more than the present seven days' notice of their intention to travel abroad, making it easier for police to seek an order to ban them from going overseas and for their passports to be confiscated.