India shrugs at yet another scam in the country that involves people who represent honor and integrity and who rather chose to act on the contrary. However their lack of etiquette has not only cost India big sum of money but it has also cost the people the trust they have invested in the system. The scams in India that involve politicians, financial moguls, defence personnel, corporate honchos are many.
Here are the ten scams that knocked India off its feet, as reported by Apoorva Sripathi and Mowna Ravikumar for Yahoo.com
1 Chopper Deal Scam
The most recent of all scams in the country dealing with Rs 74.5 crore, is the Chopper deal scam. As per Reuters, the investigation which started more than a year ago against the Italian firm Finmeccanica has finally culminated to the arrest of the Italian firm head, also the former IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi confessed meeting the middle man, however he did claim to be innocent.
2 Tatra
Over 7000 trucks were manufactured by Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) in collaboration with Tatra Vectra Motors in 2010. It was disclosed by the retired General VK Singh that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore in his office in order to clear the purchase of 1,676 substandard Tatra BEML trucks. The estimated amount of the scam is 750 crore.
3 Coalgate
Coalgate is the political scandal involving the government’s allocation of the nation’s coal deposits to public sector entities and private companies between 2004 and 2009, also called the coal allocation scam. It is one of the most infamous scams in India that estimated a loss of Rs 185,591 crore. The comptroller and Auditor General (CGA) has accused the government of India for distributing 155 coal acres to companies in an arbitrary manner instead of auctioning it out to the highest bidder.
4 Antrix Devas Deal
The former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair and three other scientists were responsible for controversies created over the deal between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and commercial arm Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia, which was signed in 2005. The scam involved ISRO leasing the S-band transponders on two satellites, GSAT6 and GSAT6A, for broadcasting purposes to Devas Multimedia. The controversy led to G Madhavan Nair being barred from holding any government jobs in January 2012, until further review.
5 The 2G Scam
The Telecom Ministry in 2008 under the supervision of A.Raja sanctioned about 122 Licenses of the 2 G Spectrum to 85 companies which also included many new Telecom Companies with non or little experience at a price set in the year 2001.This illegal undercharging to various telecom companies of the allocated 2G licenses for cell phone subscriptions gave way to the 2G spectrum scam. The report prepared by the CAG estimating the scam amount to about Rs 176,000 crore, however, the CBI report estimates it to be Rs 30,984 crore.
The satyam scam, considered to be the biggest scam in Indian corporate history came out in the early 2009 which shook the Indian stock market. Satyam Computers Chief B. Ramalinga Raju manipulated the accounts which he later confessed. The misrepresentation of the accounts included showing of company’s balance sheet as Rs 5,040 crore and non- existent interest of Rs 376 crore in September 2008. Ultimately the scam that began with misappropriate books and inflated figures led to a loss of
Rs 8000 crore suffered by the Satyam chief.
7 CWG
CWG is another one of the major political scams in India. In the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) Suresh Kalmadi the former chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth Games was accused for the CWG scam. There were number of corrupt deals involved including overstated contracts. For the timing equipment from Swiss Timing, Kalmadi handed out a contract of Rs 141 crore, which was inflated by Rs 95 crores. The athletes were asked to relocate into shabby and unkempt apartments just 10 days before the games.
8 Adarsh Housing Society
In 2002, the chief minister of Maharashtra allotted land to construct a cooperative society in the heart of the Mumbai city for the ‘welfare of serving and retired personnel of the Defence Services’. Instead of the defence personnel getting flats in the society, top politicians, bureaucrats and military officials took the flats at low prices. It was found by the CBI, IT department and the ED that among the involved in the scam were Ashok Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Late Vilasrao Deshmukh.
9 Vanishing Companies Scam
In 1998, Over 600 companies on the Dalal Street disappeared after raising money from the public. A probe was ordered by P Chidambaram to look into the matter. The SEBI probe revealed that at least 80 of the companies had raised Rs 330.78 crore. Later the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) was asked to start investigation and penalize the scamming company. The investigation still remains open.
10 Hawala scam
The scandal that involved Indian politicians allegedly receiving payment through four hawala brokers, the Jain brothers. An estimated Rs 1000 crore was involved in the bribery scandal implicating some India’s leading politicians like L K Advani, Sharad Yadav, Madan Lal Khurana, V C Shukla, Balram Jakhar and P Shiv Shankar. The arrest of militants in Kashmir in 1991 led to a raid on hawala brokers which revealed evidence of heavy payments made to many politicians in the country. The court case on the scandal ultimately collapsed without convictions.
Since independence the number of scams and scandals India has witnessed can leave anyone dumbstruck, with the amount of money involved India could have boosted its economy. As Gandhi said, “There is enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed,” only if the people scamming the country could understand.
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25-crore in the next six months.
