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The NCLT benches have become the weak link of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) There have been inordinate delays at the NCLT, mainly due to inconsistent application of law, lack of institutional capacity and the tendency to entertain frivolous cases by promoters and disgruntled creditors Supreme Court has conclusively ruled on contentious issues under the IBC such as supremacy of commercial wisdom of financial creditors, subordinate status of operational creditors and bar on promoter participation.  Yet the NCLT continues to entertain petitions questioning settled positions.  It is commonplace to find contrarian orders passed on emotive grounds bereft of legal reasoning which defy statutory provisions and the Supreme Court’s orders Erroneous decisions are set aside at the NCLAT and the Supreme Court but it needlessly waste time  If the NCLT is taking unreasonably long to approve a plan then it must submit a report to the NCLAT, justifying the delay. Failure to ref...

Leaders of Indigenous tribal groups in Canada have found more than 600 unmarked children's graves at the site of a former Christian residential school for Indigenous tribal children that was run by the Christian Church  The history of such schools is as follows: From the 19th century, more than 150,000 Indigenous tribal children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to forcibly assimilate them into White Canadian society.  They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages or follow their culture.  The children were beaten and verbally abused, and up to thousands are believed to have died.  The true death toll is unknown but is likely to be in the tens of thousands.  The Canadian government admitted in Parliament in 2008 that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant.  Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages; they also lost touch with thei...

Singapore's plan for a post vaccination world in which Covid is unlikely to be eliminated and will continue to circulate especially in the unvaccinated population  The plan is roughly as follows: Instead of daily infection numbers, the focus will be on outcomes: How many fall very sick, how many in ICU A fully vaccinated person can recover at home if infected as symptoms will be mostly mild with vaccination. Risk of transmission will be low as others will also be vaccinated. There’ll be less worry about healthcare system being overwhelmed. No need for massive contact tracing, quarantining with each new infection. Those with positive results from regular fast and easy tests can confirm with a PCR test and then isolate themselves. Large gatherings allowed at major events, like the National Day Parade Businesses will have certainty that their operations will not be disrupted. Travel will restart, at least to countries that have achieved high level of vaccination and controlled the vir...

Only 0.05 per cent of vaccinated healthcare workers got severe Covid that required intensive care, showed a recent study released by Fortis Healthcare. The study covered over 16,000 healthcare workers across Fortis hospitals in the country, who were administered both first and second doses of the vaccine between January 2021 and May 2021.  Fortis said that this period included the period when India was recording 350,000-400,000 daily Covid-19 cases and these healthcare workers were treating Covid patients. Since healthcare workers by the nature of their job are at highest risk of exposure to the virus, the performance of the vaccines will be even better in case of the common man who is not exposed to such conditions. Read more: https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/only-0-05-fully-vaccinated-healthcare-workers-got-severe-covid-fortis-121061701236_1.html

Data from several countries like Chile, Bahrain, Mongolia suggest that the Chinese vaccines may not be very effective at preventing the spread of the Chinese Virus  These countries are using vaccines made by two Chinese vaccine makers, Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were the first two countries to approve the Sinopharm shot, even before late-stage clinical trial data was released Since then, there have been extensive reports of vaccinated people falling ill in such countries The Chinese have also not been transparent about the clinical trials of their vaccines  Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/business/economy/china-vaccines-covid-outbreak.html

After the Asian financial crisis, China set up dedicated bad banks for each of its big four state-owned commercial banks. These bad banks were meant to acquire non-performing loans (NPLs) from those banks and resolve them within 10 years. In 2009, their tenure was extended indefinitely. In 2012, China permitted the establishment of one local bad bank per province. In 2016, two local bad banks were allowed per province. By the end of 2019, the country had 59 local bad banks. However researchers have found that the Chinese bad banks effectively help conceal NPLs.  As India gets ready to operationalize  a new bad bank, the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. (NARCL), we need to learn the following important lessons from the bad experience of the Chinese: A centralized  bad bank has a temporary purpose, and need not exist in perpetuity. Transferring NPLs to a bad bank is not a solution in itself. There must be a clear resolution strategy and the...

Unvaccinated people accounting for 99.2% of the over 18,000 confirmed Covid deaths in America in the month of May The data once again confirms that the vaccines are very effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths  CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Tuesday that the vaccine is so effective that “nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.” She called such deaths “particularly tragic.” Read more: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-941fcf43d9731c76c16e7354f5d5e187

 A vast majority of low-income people in the country often couldn’t afford to stay at home and maintain social distance. Every day spent at home meant a day without pay. Their cramped and poor living conditions didn’t help even when they stayed put. But many in India’s middle- and high- income classes had the means, and the choice, to abide by the guidelines.  And yet, they didn’t.  This is the story of how affluent Indians became Covid super-spreaders Read More: https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/how-affluent-indians-became-covid-superspreaders-111619175848141.html

Dr. Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist of Apollo Hospitals said in a statement issued on Wednesday that,  "There were only two hospital admissions for minor symptoms, zero ICU admissions and deaths in the 69 healthcare workers working with the Apollo Hospital in Delhi who have tested positive for COVID-19 These findings are significant because more than half of the cohort were found infected with the B1.617 strain that is known to be highly infectious  Yet these workers were saved from the severe illness without vaccination coverage,” Now see how the Hindu has worded their headline which will serve to sow doubts about getting vaccinated in the minds of the common man who will read the headline and not the details Read More: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/69-healthcare-workers-of-apollo-hospitals-got-covid-19-even-after-vaccination/article34655072.ece

Apple has given control of their Chinese customer's data to the Chinese Communist Party who have full access to the emails, photos, documents, contacts and locations of all Apple users in China whenever they want it. U.S. law has long prohibited American companies from turning over data to Chinese law enforcement. But Apple and the Chinese government have made an unusual arrangement to get around American laws. In China, Apple has ceded legal ownership of its customers’ data to Guizhou-Cloud Big Data, or GCBD, a company owned by the government of Guizhou Province, whose capital is Guiyang. Apple recently required its Chinese customers to accept new iCloud terms and conditions that list GCBD as the service provider and Apple as “an additional party.”  The terms and conditions included a new provision that does not appear in other countries: “Apple and GCBD will have access to all data that you store on this service” and can share that data “between each other under applicable law.” ...

 The NCLT benches have become the weak link of the IBC  There have been inordinate delays at the NCLT, mainly due to inconsistent application of law, lack of institutional capacity and the tendency to entertain frivolous cases by promoters and disgruntled creditors Supreme Court has conclusively ruled on contentious issues under the IBC such as supremacy of commercial wisdom of financial creditors, subordinate status of operational creditors and bar on promoter participation.  Yet the NCLT continues to entertain petitions questioning settled positions.  It is commonplace to find contrarian orders passed on emotive grounds bereft of legal reasoning which defy statutory provisions and the Supreme Court’s orders Erroneous decisions are set aside at the NCLAT and the Supreme Court, but it needlessly waste time  If the NCLT is taking unreasonably long to approve a plan then it must submit a report to the NCLAT, justifying the delay. Failure to reform the NCLT will bl...