• 10-yr ‘lock-in’for violators of clinical test norms
• Regulator, monitoring units to oversee projects under PPP
• Delhi to have centralised registrar for all companies
• TDSAT issues notice to TRAI on termination charges
• DoT asked to explain concerns raised by CVC
• Fight for Asarco heats up
• According to sources, govt plans to amend the Drugs & Cosmetics Act to slap up to 10 years of imprisonment and cancellation of licence for violating norms for testing drugs on humans in India. Ministries of law and health are learnt to have approved the norms proposed by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting clinical trials of experimental drugs in India. The new guidelines would ensure that those who do not follow the norms approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for conducting clinical trials on humans are brought to book and punished. The move comes in the wake of the drug regulator’s failure to take action against several companies even after finding gaps in their clinical trials during audits, due to the absence of legal provisions. (ET)
• According to sources, projects being executed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model will soon be put under an independent regulator which will monitor these projects as per the model concession agreement (MCA) — agreed upon between private developers and the government — that entails norms, timelines and revenue-sharing mechanism. The proposed regulator will have the power to penalise private contractors and cancel projects if need be, will ensure that public assets such as land transferred to the private developer are not used for purposes other than as specified in the contract and will make it mandatory for the developers to return dues to the exchequer as per the contract. Apart from the regulator at the Centre, it has also been proposed to set up a PPP project monitoring unit (PMU), headed by an officer in the rank of superintendent engineer/director, to ensure a check mechanism at the project level itself. Each PMU may oversee 2-3 PPP projects. However, if the project cost is above Rs 2,500 crore, the PMU would look after only one project. (ET)
• According to sources, the corporate affairs ministry is planning to have a single registrar of companies (RoC) in Delhi for the registration purpose of all companies in India as the common problem often faced in case of different RoCs is that many companies end up having the same name. The ministry feels that name blocking would thus become easier and the overall registration of companies across the country at just one place will help in standardising operating procedure and also optimal manpower utilisation. (FE)
• The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has issued a notice to Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) over reducing mobile termination charges - money paid by an operator to another on whose network the call ends - to 20 paise per minute. The notice was issued in pursuance of a petition filed by the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India. (Mint)
• The Prime Minister’s Office has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to submit facts relating to concerns raised by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) against DoT’s decision to give new telecom licences on a first-come first-served basis. The PMO has asked DoT to explain allegations of irregularities by Telecom Department officials in giving out licences to a few companies. (BL)
• Grupo Mexico’s attorney has informed the US bankruptcy court that Grupo has suggested an all-cash $1.3-billion bid to counter Sterlite’s recent offer to buy out the assets of Asarco for a cash-cum-deferred payment bid. The Grupo offer comes nearly a month after Asarco agreed in principle to sell its assets, including three copper mines and a smelter in Arizona, to Sterlite Industries. As of now, the Grupo offer is a preliminary one and not strictly comparable with Sterlite’s. Grupo Mexico is the largest mining corporation in Mexico and the world’s third-largest copper producer. (ET)
