India wants to let NRIs vote by proxy, experts are concerned

The Ministry of External Affairs pegs the number of overseas Indians at over 3 crore. It’s not clear how many of these people would be eligible to vote.

SK Mendiratta, a former legal counsel to the Election Commission of India for over five decades said the proposal was a positive move to “enable legitimate voters to exercise their franchise”.

But permitting a proxy to cast a vote on behalf of an NRI has raised concerns regarding the secrecy of the ballot. “The secrecy of the vote will be lost,” former Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishnamurthy told BloombergQuint in an interview.

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Fly-by-night NRI grooms' passport to be impounded

Tightening the noose around fly-by-night non-resident Indian (NRI) grooms, the regional passport authorities in Chandigarh have cancelled the passport of at least 50 such NRIs who deserted their spouse after marriage.

Read the Deccan Herald report here

Sebi mulls allowing NRIs through FPI route after meeting specific KYC norms

The move could open a new source for foreign inflows into the country, as NRIs are currently not big investors because of regulatory curbs.

NRIs usually take the mutual fund route. However, this does not allow them to make company-specific investments.

Although Indian capital market activity is regulated by Sebi, NRI investments coming into the country are administered by the RBI through Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema). Some of the existing provisions in the Act place NRIs at a disadvantaged position both compared to domestic investors and foreign portfolio investors.

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Govt plans NRI bonds: How will they help?

The RBI does have a number of instruments it can use to support the currency, including selling dollars in foreign-exchange markets and by raising interest rates.

Another tool at its disposal is to raise capital through NRI bonds, a measure implemented by the RBI during 2013 when rupee fell to 67.85. It has become a go-to in times of currency stress.

Find out what they are and how it will help here

Kerala Government takes over 117 vacant NRI seats

The 117 NRI seats in the self-financing medical colleges, that fell vacant after the spot admission, have been converted into merit seats and all these seats were filled by Friday evening. Meanwhile, the managements have come forward against converting the NRI seats to merit seats. Stating they would approach the court against this, they alleged the Entrance Commissioner did not have any right to do so. They said the SC had directed to complete the admission procedure on August 31 and the continuation of the process for the next day was illegal. 
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Call to make Aadhaar available for NRIs

The UAE-based Pravasi Bandhu Trust has urged the Centre to make Aadhaar available for all citizens, including Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).

Though only resident Indians were eligible for Aadhaar, many NRIs were applying for it because of its requirement for many services in India, Trust chairman K.V. Shamsudheen said in a statement here on Tuesday.
Read the full report in The Hindu

DCW seeks public opinion on NRI marriage disputes

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women has sought suggestions from public on issues concerning disputes arising in NRI marriages. The commission has released a special e-mail ID — nri.dcw@gmail.com — for people to file their responses, the last date for submission of which is July 23.
READ the full report in ToI