Police probe threat to India’s richest man

 

Mukesh Ambani at the India Economic Summit 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Indian police are probing a threatening letter sent by militant Islamists to India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, for supporting a nationalist politician, police and reports said on Thursday.

 

The Mumbai Mirror said Indian Mujahideen had threatened to harm the head of the Reliance Industries group for backing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who is expected to make a bid to become premier in polls next year.

 

Reliance is a major investor in Gujarat and Ambani hailed Modi as a leader with a “grand vision” as well as calling him a “brother” at a major business conference in Gujarat in December.

 

The letter, delivered to a Reliance office in Mumbai, also accused Ambani of grabbing land belonging to a state-run statutory body to build his 27-storey residence in the city, believed to be the world’s most expensive private home, according to the newspaper.

 

Police confirmed they were investigating the letter, without giving details of its contents.

 

“We got the letter yesterday and we’re verifying all the facts and an inquiry is going on,” Mumbai police spokesman Satyanarayan Choudhary told AFP.

 

Indian Mujahideen has been blamed for several recent deadly attacks in India, including the recent twin attacks in southern city of Hyderabad, which killed 16 people.

 

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• India assigns commando squad to protect its richest man (with gallery) (vancouverdesi.com)

 

Apple dumps 8 million defective iPhone5

 

Apple Inc.’s Chinese manufacturer Foxconn recently got a very expensive lesson in quality (and a rude shock too) when the Cupertino-based technology giant shipped back, with a return-to-sender note, a consignment containing up to 8 million defective iPhone 5 smartphones.

[Representation Image]

While that has triggered online speculation about another delay in the unveiling of the much-awaited and hugely rumoured transparent iPhone 6 smartphone, the rejected consignment most probably belongs to the current generation of the smartphone, the iPhone 5, and not the upcoming iteration.

Nevertheless, the rejection of the entire consignment, first reported by China Business News is estimated to cost Foxconn upward of $250 million in just labour costs, not to mention the cost of the parts and inventory that will go into replacing the defective devices.

The report (translated by Google Chrome) maintains that, on March 15, 2013, Apple returned five million mobile phones citing “non-compliant” and “dysfunction” issues with the devices. Considering that Foxconn will have been, by now, fairly adept at manufacturing the iPhone 5, this lends further credence to rumours that the rejected lot might well be of the upcoming iPhone 6 or iPhone 5S devices.

Quoting unnamed “Foxconn insiders,” the report says that the number of rejected phones could go up to as much as 8 million. It says that Terry Gou, Chairman and President of Hon Hai Precision Industry (a.k.a. Foxconn) walked onto the shop-floor of the manufacturer on April 16, and urged supervisors and workers “to enhance the yield, professional training, the promotion of morale” while announcing the setting up of a quality control office after the latest debacle.

China Business News maintains that Foxconn stands to lose 200 yuan ($32) apiece in labour costs, which would add up to $256.8 million for 8 million faulty iPhones. It adds that this would imply that two-thirds of Foxconn’s profits for 2012 “will go down the drain”.

The portal did not clarify which model of the iPhone failed Apple’s quality tests, and this is fuelling rumours about a delay in the upcoming iPhone 6. But if it’s the iPhone 5 that Foxconn got wrong, we’ll soon know because an 8 million hole in the supply chain will not go undetected at the retail front, where customers will be told to wait longer than usual for the arrival of the device.

In addition, keep an eye out on ‘scrap sales’ in China for iPhones if they can’t be salvaged to Apple’s liking by Foxconn.

U.S. Immigration Bill to Increase H1B Visa, May Hit Indian Firms

The sweeping U.S. immigration bill, likely to be unveiled, may propose a substantial increase in the much sought after H-1B visa, but the conditions imposed therein, if approved by the Congress, would prove to be a death knell for Indian-American companies.

The bill moved after months of closed-door meetings by a group of eight bipartisan lawmakers, known as the Gang of Eight, aimed at striking a balance between enforcement provisions sought by Republicans as well as Democrats, including making citizenship widely accessible to those illegally in America.

Given that India has a large pool of such IT professionals, analysts say any increase in the H-1B visas finally end up benefiting the Indian IT professionals, but unlike in the present scenario when they are hired mostly by Indian companies, it would benefit the US companies the most and prove to be a big disadvantage to companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys.

Congress has always misused CBI: Hazare

Social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday said it was wrong to presume that the CBI acts of its own volition and alleged that Congress had always “misused” the central investigating agency.

Asked about the CBI raid on DMK leader M K Stalin’s residence immediately after the party withdrew its support to the UPA government,
Mr Hazare told reporters, “Everybody knows that the CBI is under government’s control. If it is brought under the Lokpal’s control, it would help in curbing corruption.”

Mr. Hazare alleged that Congress had always “misused” the agency, even though it has some good officers in its fold.

“It is not that all people with the CBI are bad. But they are subjected to pressure as they have their jobs to protect.

Congress has always misused it,” he alleged.

When asked to comment on the UPA allies leaving Congress, Mr. Hazare said the party was losing the sympathy of the people because of the corruption associated with it.

“Congress is taking wrong steps. People have lost their sympathy for the party as responsible ministers in the government too are involved in scams,” he added.

Referring to the support of Samajwadi Party (SP) to the Congress-led government, Mr. Hazare said, “Regional parties pose a threat to the country as they bring pressure (on the government).”

He said although he had parted ways with his erstwhile colleague Arvind Kejarwal, there was no conflict between them and he wished him well for their cause through political means.

Mr. Hazare said he had not instituted any core committee of his own after breaking away from IAC. “It is difficult to get selfless workers for a cause. I am at present associated with ’Janatantra Morcha’ along with former Army Chief V K Singh, which is a non-political organisation,” he added.

Later, addressing a gathering, the activist said he was confident that the Lokpal would be a reality. “We have seen part one of the Lokpal bill,” he added.

He also noted with satisfaction that the provision of a fine for civil servants, who delayed their work beyond the stipulated period under Citizens’ Charter.

“When the elections are declared, I would be once again be at the Ramlila maidan to press for the demand for Right to Reject as part of electoral reforms to keep anti-social elements out of Parliament and the state legislatures,” Mr. Hazare asserted.

ICICI suspends 18 employees in money laundering issue

ICICI Bank on Friday suspended 18 employees, a day after the lender and two of its peers were accused of indulging in money laundering activities.

The suspension is pending the bank’s investigation into money laundering charges, sources in ICICI told PTI. The probe is expected to be completed in two weeks.

Country’s three largest private banks, including ICICI Bank, were yesterday accused of indulging in money laundering both within and outside, with an online portal Cobrapost claiming that a sting operation conducted by it has revealed a scam.

The portal Cobrapost had yesterday played the contents of purported video recording of officials of private banks including ICICI Bank, allegedly agreeing to receive unverified sums of cash and put them in their investment schemes and benami accounts in violation of anti-money laundering laws.

The footage taken in ‘Operation Red Spider’, purportedly shows a number of senior executives of the three banks verbally agreeing to take huge amounts of cash from the undercover reporter and putting them into a variety of long-term investment plans so that the black money ultimately is converted into white.

However, no account was opened nor any cash deposited in these banks.

After the sting operation was played out, ICICI Bank had said they have constituted a high-level inquiry and a report in this regard will be submitted in two weeks.

“ICICI group conducts its business with the highest level of compliance to legal and regulatory requirements. All employees of the group are trained and required to adhere strictly to the Group Code of Conduct, including AML and KYC norms,” the bank had said.

Related articles

• ICICI Bank suspends 18 employees (thehindu.com)
• HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank involved in money laundering: Report (ibnlive.in.com)

Big Blow to BJP in Karnataka Local Polls

The Congress dealt a massive blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka urban local body elections by winning four major city corporations. The Congress not only made huge gains by winning the highest number of wards across the state, but the party also routed BS Yeddyurappa‘s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) and ended the rule of Reddy brothers in Bellary by decimating their BSR Congress across central Karnataka.

Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s KJP failed to make a big splash while the ruling BJP could only secure third place by winning just 876 wards while the Congress was way ahead with 1881 seats. The Janata Dal Secular (JDS) managed to hold on to its strength in the Old Mysore region and managed to win 890 wards to take the second place in the state.

The Karnataka local polls, which have been billed as semi-finals before the state elects a new Assembly in a couple of months, show that the BJP is finding the going tough and has not been fully able to counter the Yeddyurappa effect.

There are a total number of 4976 seats for which counting took place. The Congress won Bellary, Mangalore and Davanagere city corporations. The party is leading in four out of seven city corporations and is also doing very well in Dakshin Kannada.

The BJP is ahead in Hubli-Dharwad while there is close fight between Congress and JDS in Mysore. Yeddyurappa’s party has put up a dismal performance in Shimoga while the BJP has suffered a huge defeat in its stronghold of coastal Karnataka where the Independents have come third. The trends and results show that urban voters have rejected BJP and its offshoots KJP and BSR Congress.

The Bellary brothers, who had launched the BSR Congress, have been routed in their stronghold. The Congress is also leading in areas dominated by the JDS.

The results are crucial since they could be an indicator of what will happen in the state elections coming up in two months. Over 200 municipalities including seven city corporations went to the polls on March 7.

In the last urban local bodies polls in 2007, of the total 5007 wards, the Congress had come first winning 1606, followed by JDS 1502 and BJP 1180.

[Exclusive] AgustaWestland scam: Setback for SP Tyagi, CBI to file FIR against the former Air Chief and kin

In a development which could spell bad news for the Former Air Chief Marshall (retd) SP Tyagi, CBI has decided to file an FIR against him and his cousins in the AgustaWestland chopper scam. According to sources in the CBI, SP Tyagi, his cousins Julie and Docsa, Gautam Khaitan and Parveen Bakshi will be booked under charges of bribery and cheating.

Sources say that CBI’s investigation is pointing towards the fact that SP Tyagi has accepted a bribe from his cousins to help AugustaWestland in the now infamous VVIP Chopper scam. The kickbacks in excess of 350 crores were allegedly routed through fake engineering contracts and paid to Tyagi brothers.

In another development, Satish Bagordia was also questioned by the CBI in the VVIP chopper scam. Satish Bagrodia is the younger brother of former MOS Coal, Santosh Bagrodia, and is a director in Chandigarh based IDS Infotech Ltd, which Italian investigators are alleging, was used to route bribe money in India.

The scam in the 4,000 crore helicopter deal would have gone unnoticed if Italian investigators had not arrested Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of Finmeccanica, parent company of AgustaWestland, to be guilty of having paid kickbacks to seal the helicopter deal in India. The Italian report had named cousins of former Indian Air Force Chief S P Tyagi – Julie and Docsa alias Rajiv Tyagi – as having received cash through middlemen and companies in London,Tunisia, Switzerland and Mauritius. The said helicopters (three out of 12 have already been delivered) were meant for VIPs like the Prime Minister.

As TEHELKA had reported earlier, a 64-page prosecution report filed by the Italian authorities, had detailed how Italian nationals Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa and UK-based consultant Christian Michel connived to push the deal through nefarious means. Bribes amounting to 51 million euros were paid and fictitious orders were raised through IT companies in Chandigarh. Junk helicopters were bought in order to mask the money trail. The bombshell in the report was the part where it said that middleman Haschke admitted that he had met former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi six-seven times and that Tyagi’s three cousins were instrumental in swinging the deal.

In a factsheet put up on the PIB website, the defence ministry admitted that in “November 2012, a letter was received in MoD from the director, income tax investigations, regarding allegations against Indians possibly involved in the deal as middlemen and seeking information about them”. After sitting on this information for two months, the MoD wrote to the Income Tax (IT) department that “it had no such details and if the IT has any such credible information, it should share with them”.

BRIJESH PANDEY – TEHELKA

Budget 2013: 4 Factors Which Will Affect Small Businesses

A country’s economy do not only depends on the larger enterprises alone. The small scale enterprises including the medium and the micro enterprises (MSME) also play an important role in the nation’s development.

India has a larger number of these kinds of enterprises. However, all these enterprises are not lucky enough to taste success. Most of these enterprises have to undergo a heavy amount of loss due to various reasons and finally they get shut down.

Here is the list of four factors that the Indian government will adopt in the future to encourage the growth and progress of the MSMEs as reported by ‘yahoo’.

1. Encouraging the growth of the MSMEs

Most of the micro, small and the medium enterprises fail to grow due to the fear of bearing losses in the market. Their main obstacle is the ‘investment’. They are not strong enough to invest a huge amount of money for a longer period of time, expecting profit.

To overcome this, the government has proposed the non-tax benefits for the MSMEs in this year’s budget. Once an MSME qualifies to the next higher category, it can take advantage of this non-tax benefit for three years.  

2. Extended alimony to the MSMEs

The capability of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has been raised to 10,000 crore from 5,000 crore. From this amount, 100 crore will be vested on the India Microfinance Equity Fund.

This year’s budget will allot 500 crore to the Small Industries Development Bank of India as Credit Guarantee Fund for distributing.

3. Including the MSMEs on the SME Exchange

All the MSMEs will be included in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Exchange. The MSMEs would not have to make any offers in the public. Like the large scale enterprises, they will also get an extended number of investors. However, the inclusion of the MSMEs in the SME exchange will be kept limited to certain categories of investors.

4. New Investment

From the new investment grant for new high value investments, the Finance Ministry has estimated “enormous spill-over benefits to small and medium enterprises”. The Budget recommends that any company investing Rs 100 crore or more in plant and machinery from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2015 will be allowed to subtract an investment allowance of 15 percent of the investment. This will be subjected to the existing rates of depreciation.

 

10 Women Friendly Industries of India

The modern day’s empowered women are on a mission to conquer the world and are giving stiff competition of men in every possible field. But unfortunately, not all the industries are female friendly and offer the same perks for greater work-life balance.

Here is a list of female-friendly industries that offers flexible working hours, good maternity policies, help with child care and most of all, healthy working environment, as listed by Ankita Shreeram on ItsMyascent.

#10. Education:

Teaching is a career that screams out for women’s touch. It is a line of work that is easy to get into and in addition offers utmost flexibility in terms of schedules. The demand for quality education and the subsequent rise in the number of schools and colleges across the world is bound to create new opportunities for women who aspire to utilize their time effectively.

#9. Sports:

Sports may seem like a dubious choice for many, but the fact is that, it is a highly lucrative career option that offers stardom and fame. With the emergence of youth icons such as Mary Kom or Saina Nehwal, and increased backing by Government, a large number of women definitely ought to be encouraged to take up this field as a viable career option.  

#8. Human Resource:

This industry has been traditionally dominated by women. The percentage of men working in this profession is very little, with most of them occupying the top notch positions, while the lower level is predominantly under the control of females.

HR is a profession that craves for the ability to understand the underlying issues, face the challenges, and respond to them rationally, that are traits most women are intrinsically born with. The ability to apply their inherent skills to take tough decisions and manage emotions can be an added bonus for women in this profession.

#7. Food & Hospitality:

This field provides an opportunity to unleash women’s touch and creative potential to the highest degree. It is a good career that offers a high degree of flexibility and autonomy, and in addition, does not require much investment.

Women’s inherent flair to establish constructive relationships with the customers and management capabilities can prove its worth in this line of work. 

#6. Health & Fitness:

This field is in fact the best line of work for the women. Opportunities in this field are plenty, especially in health related sectors such as beauty, physiology or fitness. Kindhearted, intuitive and people centric nature of women can be a big plus in this industry. Though the initial years can be quite challenging, the flexible and accommodative nature of this field makes it an ideal and the most desirable career option for women.

#5. Social Work:

Women are generally caring, loving and compassionate by nature, which makes them a perfect-fit for this profession. Here they get do a lot of service to the humanity, especially the underprivileged.

Over the past decade the number of women in this field has risen drastically and the rise is primarily attributed to the higher intensity of social service needs. This trend towards sharp employment growth is expected to continue in the coming years.

#4. Entrepreneurship:

Presently, an increasing number of women are turning to entrepreneurship in a pursuit for greater flexibility. Artistic entrepreneurship is currently the booming line of work for women that are offering autonomy and good income opportunities.

Women have a greater chance of being successful in this field due to the fact that most women have a strong academic background, tend to be neither pushy nor rude and most of all, have a strong drive for initiating activities.

#3. Fashion and Style:

Fashion and style has always been and shall continue to be the most desirable field for women.

This field demands artistic flair and creativity that comes naturally to most females. This is an ideal option for women, since it is something they generally enjoy and understand to minute details. Flexibility and work-life balance are other perks of this field, which most women are craving for.

#2. Public Relations and Marketing:

This is an ideal profession for women because they have a natural flair for keeping others happy. The work-life balance, huge pay packages and most of the autonomy make this the most sought after field by women in the job market.

#1. Media:

Media is a glamorous and promising field, especially for women. This field demands creativity, intelligence, good communication and most of all, the artistic flair, which most women are inherently born with. Huge pay packages and the added perks are some of the factors that are luring women into this field.

 

I’m not interested in becoming PM: Rahul Gandhi

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he was not interested in becoming the prime minister and wants to focus on his party instead.

“The party is my priority. I believe in long-term politics,” Gandhi was quoted by TV channels as saying in Delhi.

“I am not interested in becoming the prime minister,” he was quoted as saying.

Gandhi, who is the second-in-command in the Congress, told reporters there was a need to end the “high command culture” in the party.

The Congress party has not announced a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but Gandhi is a clear favourite.

Gandhi has been working on improving the party’s grasroots and has convened a meeting of all general secretaries and central leaders in charge of states on March 6.

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