New Delhi: Slamming the Narendra Modi government over sliding economic growth and increasing job losses, former Union Minister Arun Shourie has likened demonetisation with suicide, saying the latter is too “a bold step”.

He also called the Narendra Modi government as “government of two-and-a-half persons”.

“This is a government by ‘ilhaam’ (revelation). The Prime Minister has the ‘ilhaam’ one night that demonetisation should be done and he does it. In any case it was a bold step. I have to remind you suicide too is a bold step,” Shourie said in an interview with NDTV when asked why in his view, the government went in for demonetisation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8 last year.

“Which argument (offered by the government in defence of demonetisation) today survives? Black money? All of it turned white. Terrorism? Terrorists are still coming into India. At the end they have nothing to say,” he added.

Shourie also took a dig at BJP President Amit Shah who has said that current slowdown is “due to technical reasons”, terming him “that famous economist?” and underscoring that official figures cannot be brushed under the carpet.

He also said those running the government do not seek any advice or hear the facts.

“This is a government of two-and-a-half persons, that is, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and one in-house lawyer. They don’t have the expertise and they have surrounded themselves by persons who don’t have the expertise.

“They are now in a sealed echo-chamber. They don’t hear what is happening. The distress the RBI has documented of small and medium enterprise. These poor fellows had been clamouring and shouting. Nobody heard them,” he added.

He said that persons like Yashwant Sinha, P. Chidambaram and several other economists have been “talking about facts”.

“And those facts emerge from official reports such as The Economic Survey, the RBI surveys, the SBI’s report etc. Is it a fact or not that GDP has collapsed to 3.7 per cent according to the old series? Is it a fact or not that index of industrial production has gone down from about 9 per cent in 2015-16 to about 1.7 per cent in April to July? Is it not a matter of concern?” Shourie said.

However, he said, despite all the red signals, there was little hope of a course change as “it all flows from the nature of the government” and the Modi government has a “sense of hustings”.

“Their core competence is event management. They are so self-satisfied with it. They are just briefing each other, not listening to others… They are concerned about 300-feet statute, bullet trains etc,” he said.

On BJP and government functionaries calling former Union Minister Sinha a “frustrated” person after he lashed out at the government, Shourie said it was “their standard operating procedure”.

“Whenever they are confronted with inconvenient facts, they try to bury it in avalanche of abuse. I have aconstructive suggestion for them. They should publish a list of persons in advance who they think are frustrated,” he said.

He said that the government’s policies must have predictability, stability and credibility — all of which is totally absent now — so that investors and industry are sure of what they can expect from the government and not taken by surprise by out of the blue announcements followed by policy flip flops as has happened under the present regime, be it demonetisation or GST implementation.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in India for defaulting on loans worth Rs 9,000 crore, has been arrested for a second time this year in London, according to state broadcaster Doordarshan.

He has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, said sources.

The details are awaited but according to reports, his arrest may be procedural and a bail order may be in place.

Mallya has repeatedly refused to appear before courts and investigators in India since he secretly fled to Britain in March, 2016, after defaulting on loan payments to state-owned banks and allegedly misusing the funds.

Mallya has been rejecting allegations by investigation agencies that he diverted most of the Rs 6,000 crore borrowed from a State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders as fabricated and baseless. This is the second arrest this year. He was arrested in April and was granted bail.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, in their yet-to-befiled chargesheet, said the funds were allegedly laundered to shell companies in half a dozen countries.

Mallya, who fled to the UK from India in March 2016, said in January the allegations of fund diversion were a ‘joke’ and that he was getting used to “witch hunts coming from all directions with no legal basis whatsoever.”

With the fresh allegations, Mallya may find the going tough when his extradition case comes up for hearing in December.

Investigative agencies including the CBI and the ED recently completed the submission of probe evidence to the British Crown Prosecution Service.

(Agencies)

Kochi: Malayalam superstar Dileep, arrested for alleged involvement in the conspiracy behind the kidnapping of an actress, was on Tuesday granted bail by the Kerala High Court.

The bail conditions include surrendering his passport, furnishing a bond of Rs 1 lakh and a pledge to stay away from witnesses in the case.

This is the third time Dileep had approached the High Court for bail. He had also sought bail earlier twice from the trial court.

Dileep was arrested on July 10. The bail comes at a time when the police are set to file a chargesheet.

The arguments on the bail plea got over on Friday.

As news spread that the actor has got bail, his fans started reaching in large numbers the Aluva sub-jail near here where he has been lodged since his arrest.

Actor Mahesh, who had been defending Dileep all through, expressed happiness.

“Every time a bail plea was moved, we hoped against hope that he would get bail. Finally, the prayers of his fans have been answered,” he said.

The abduction took place in February when the actress was on her way from Thrissur to Kochi.

She was taken around in her vehicle forcefully for about two hours before being dumped near an actor-director’s home.

The key accused — Pulsar Suni and his accomplices involved in the actual abduction — were arrested a week later. After detailed questioning, police unearthed a conspiracy angle in the abduction and arrested Dileep.

(IANS)

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today launched Mathru Purna Scheme which will provide one nutritious meal every day to pregnant and lactating poor women across the state.

The state government has allocated Rs 202 crore for this scheme. Around 30 lakh beneficiaries will avail this scheme,’’ Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.

“The supply of midday meal will make pregnant women and lactating mothers healthy. Karnataka, after Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, is implementing this scheme in the country,’’ the chief minister said.

The aim of this scheme is to provide at least one nutritious meal every day to “Pregnant women” particularly those living in rural areas of the state. The scheme will give them meals which includes, rice, dal or sambar, pulses, egg and groundnut- jaggery chikki. Those who don’t eat Non veg will be provided two varieties of sprouts.

The Department of Women and Child Development has identified around 53,812 women in the district eligible to receive the midday meal. According to the officials, while 26,797 of these women are pregnant, the remaining 27,015 have given birth recently.

The food will be provided to them at Anganwadi centres along with the midday meal scheme which has been implemented for children. The women will be served hot meals at around 2,313 such centres across the district.

The scheme has been designed to ensure the supply of food for at least 300 days from the beginning of pregnancy till 45 days after delivery. However, the food will not be served on government holidays.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The Adani Group’s entire A$3.5 billion (Rs 178 billion) debt-funded ‘investment’ in Australia is gravely at risk, the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said on Monday.

In a new report it details how Adani’s Abbot Point Coal Terminal has excessive financial leverage, negative shareholders equity and runs the risk of becoming a stranded asset if Adani’s Carmichael mine does not get a $1 billion Australian subsidy.

The Abbot Point Coal Terminal is due for a $1.5 billion debt refinancing next year and a cumulative debt refinancing of $2.11 billion by 2020.

Currently, operating at just over 50 per cent capacity, the Abbot Point Coal Terminal needs the Carmichael mine to fill the gap created as its current take-or-pay contracts progressively expire.

“Securing this refinancing is going to be a real challenge, not the least because the port value has been tied to the success of the Carmichael coal mine proposal which is itself yet to secure funding and which the ‘big four’ Australian banks have refused to touch,” an official statement quoting report co-author Tim Buckley said.

Buckley’s the IEEFA’s Director of Energy Finance Studies, Australasia.

“The potential for a loss of up to $1.5bn on any decision to walk away from Carmichael mine and rail proposal, explains why the Adani Group has been so focused on securing Australian tax payers money and royalty holidays to subsidise his loss making ventures,” he said.

“To the extent able to be analysed from Australian Securities and Investments Commission records, Adani’s entire mine, rail and port operation in Australia looks to be 100 per cent debt financed and shareholders funds now tally an unprecedented, negative $458 million combined. The value at stake for the Adani Group’s Carmichael mine proposal is far bigger than previously understood,” Buckley added.

Whilst Adani continues to search for overseas project funding, the report, “House of Cards: The Escalating Financial Risk of Adani’s Abbot Point Coal Terminal”, the report traces events that make the Carmichael project an even greater financial risk.

The events include Adani’s major proposed off-take coal customer, Adani Power Ltd’s 4.6 GW power plant at Mundra in Gujarat, is financially distressed and its equity is for sale for just Re 1 but has no buyers so far.

India’s thermal coal imports have continued the downward trend of the last two years and are down 13 per cent year-to-date in 2017 compared to the prior year.

And, in the light of new solar infrastructure projects delivering electricity at prices now 20 per cent below many Indian thermal power plant tariffs, financial analysts don’t see any imported coal demand to justify more expensive seaborne supplies.

(IANS)