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Shimla/New Delh: The Himachal Pradesh Excise and Taxation Department inspected an Adani Group company, scrutinising records and checking the stock at the Adani Wilmar warehouse in Parwanoo, officials said on Thursday.

The department was apparently investigating possible Goods and Services Tax violations by the company, a 50:50 joint venture between the Adani conglomerate and Singapore-based Wilmar.

The inspection on Wednesday evening in the Congress-run state comes when the group finds itself in the middle of a political row at the Centre, triggered by a scathing report by US-based Hindenburg Research.

But a Himachal Pradesh excise department official told PTI that it was a “routine” exercise, a point also made by an Adani Wilmar statement later.

Adani Wilmar sells cooking oil and other food products like rice, wheat flour, sugar, besan and soya chunks under the Fortune brand. In Himachal Pradesh, it is a major source of these products for the Civil Supplies and police departments.

A state excise department official said the company’s entire GST input was adjusted through tax credit but no payment was made in cash. But, in its statement, Adani Wilmar cited the Goods and Services Tax rules and claimed “the company is not required to pay tax liability in cash”.

An excise official said the Adani Wilmar recorded a turnover of about Rs 350 crore during the last three years. It disclosed a GST liability of about Rs 20 crore and claimed refunds amounting to a little under Rs 2 crore for that period, according to the official.

During the inspection no variation was found between the physical stock and the stock according to the records maintained by the company, the official said.

Another Adani company, which produces cement, has been facing a tough time in Himachal Pradesh.

Two cement plants, in Solan and Bilaspur districts, remain closed since December 14 following a dispute with truckers over freight rates.

The new government in the state has intervened, trying to break the stalemate.

The Adani Wilmar statement claimed that officials who visited the warehouse did not find any irregularities. All operations by the company are in full compliance with the relevant laws and regulations, it said.

It said depot operations are functioning normally after the inspection.

“This was a routine inspection carried out by the relevant authorities and there was no raid as previously stated or reported in the media,” it said.

The staff extended their support during the inspection, fully cooperating with officials and local authorities, the company spokesperson said.

Adani Group stocks took a severe beating after Hindenburg Research accused it of share price manipulation and other irregularities last month. The conglomerate has dismissed the allegations as lies.

Parliament has been repeatedly disrupted over the row, with the Opposition questioning the rise of the Adani Group over the past decade and demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the allegations in the Hindenburg report.

New Delhi: The IT ministry has given 48 hours to banned websites and apps to prove their genuineness, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Another senior official from the ministry said the ban has been imposed on the platforms because their businesses were not genuine.

“Why would there be any ban if they were genuine? Action has been taken on them,” the ministry official said.

The government last week ordered blocking of 232 apps operated by overseas entities, including Chinese, for being involved in betting, gambling and unauthorised loan services.

“They have been given 48 hours under the rule to submit documents. The decision will be taken based on their presentation. It is going on now,” another senior official said.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued blocking orders on Saturday, based on an emergency request issued by a nodal officer of the home ministry, against 138 betting and gambling websites and 94 loan apps that were engaging in illegal money laundering and posing a threat to financial security of the country.

Fintech firms LazyPay, IndiaBulls Home Loans and Kissht are among the list of blocked websites.

As per the list, MeitY issued orders to block lazypay.in, which is a subsidiary of Dutch investment firm Prosus.

The website www.indiabullshomeloans.com is operated by housing finance company Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd, while Kissht.com is operated by RBI-registered NBFC ONEMi Technology Solutions Private Limited.

Fintech firm mPokket said an app impersonating it has been blocked by the government and it has no link with the blocked platform.

“The domain in the list issued by MeiTY this week,, is a clear instance of impersonation and has no affiliation with mPokket whatsoever. Aptoide is a third-party app store with which we have no official or unofficial partnership,” mPokket said in a statement.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh

New Delhi: BJP member Tejasvi Surya had accidentally opened the emergency door of an IndiGo aircraft last month and the airline did not find the passenger in violation of any rule, according to the civil aviation ministry.

Surya, the ruling BJP’s Bengaluru South MP, has been facing flak from Congress over the incident, which happened on December 10 last year at Chennai airport.

To a question on whether the government through aviation regulator DGCA has identified the passenger who illegally opened the emergency door of a flight at Chennai, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh replied in the affirmative.

“As per the report submitted by InterGlobe Aviation Limited, the name of the passenger alleged in the incident is Shri Tejasvi Surya who had boarded flight 6E-7339 (Chennai to Tiruchirappalli) at Chennai Airport on December 10, 2022.

“The emergency door opened accidently as clarified by InterGlobe Aviation Limited. This was not a deliberate action and as per InterGlobe Aviation, they did not find the passenger to be in violation of any rule,” Singh said in a written reply.

On whether the DGCA has taken any action, the minister said as per the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) regarding ‘Notification of incidents and investigation thereof”, the occurrence did not come under the category of ‘reportable occurrence’.

“The matter was investigated by the concerned airline. The occurrence took place while the aircraft was on ground and the flight departed only after completing all the safety checks/ protocols,” the minister said.

On January 18, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Surya himself reported the incident where he accidentally opened the emergency exit of the IndiGo plane and apologised for it.

In another written reply on Thursday, Singh said as per maintenance procedures prescribed by the manufacturer, the emergency exit door is required to be installed back and pressurisation check carried out before the aircraft is released for flight.

Sriharikota (AP): ISRO on Friday tasted maiden success in the small satellite launch vehicle segment, with its SSLV D2 rocket injecting three satellites into an intended circular orbit, months after the maiden mission failed to bring in the desired results.

The satellites included ISRO’s earth observation satellite EOS-07.

ISRO’s first mission in 2023 and SSLV’s sequel saw a strange coincidence–it was launched at 9.18 AM, the same time its predecessor lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on August 7, 2022 but could not deliver due to orbit anomaly and flight path deviation.

With the earlier SSLV not living up to the expectations, ‘corrective measures’ were put in its successor.

A visibly relieved Chairman of the Indian Space Research Oragnisation (ISRO), S Somanath said SSLV in its second flight put the three satellites in the intended orbit with precision.

“Congratulations to the space community of India…we have a new launch vehicle, the small satellite SSLV. In its second attempt, SSLV D2 has placed the satellites in the intended orbit precisely. Congrats to all three satellite teams,” he said from the Mission Control Centre (MCC) soon after the successful launch that brought all round smiles.

All the problems related to the previous SSLV launch have been identified, corrective action taken and implemented in good time, Somanath added.

Mission Director S Vinod said the ISRO team made a “comeback” is short time soon after the August 7, 2022 failure.

ISRO now has a “new launch vehicle” on offer for the launch vehicle community, he added.

Earlier, the 34-metre tall SSLV soared into majestically into clear skies at 9.18 AM, after a six and a half hour countdown, carrying with it the EOS-07, besides Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2 satellites. The rocket placed the satellites into the intended 450-km circular orbit after a 15-odd minute flight.

EOS-07 is a 156.3 kg satellite which has been designed, developed and realised by ISRO. New experiments include mm-Wave Humidity Sounder and Spectrum Monitoring Payload.

Janus-1, a 10.2 kg satellite, built by Antaris, USA is a technology demonstrator, smart satellite mission, ISRO said.
AzaadiSAT-2, weighing about 8.2 kg is a combined effort of about 750 girl students across India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai. It aims to demonstrate amateur radio communication capabilities, measure radiation, among others, the space agency added.

According to ISRO, SSLV is capable of launching mini, micro or nano satellites in the 10-500 kg segment into the 500 km planar orbit. It caters to the launch of satellites to Low Earth Orbits (LEO) on “launch-on-demand” basis. It provides low-cost access to Space, offers low turn-around time and flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, and demands minimal launch infrastructure, ISRO added.

It is configured with three solid propulsion stages and a velocity terminal module.

New Delhi: A team of India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) engaged in relief and rescue operations in the quake-hit Turkiye has successfully rescued a six-year-old girl from under the rubble in Gaziantep.

The NDRF has dispatched three teams to Turkiye for rescue operations.

“Standing with Turkiye in this natural calamity. India’s @NDRFHQ is carrying out rescue and relief operations at ground zero. Team IND-11 successfully retrieved a 6 years old girl from Nurdagi, Gaziantep today,” the spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs tweeted along with a video of the girl and how she was rescued.

In a tweet, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Proud of our NDRF. In the rescue operations in T rkiye, Team IND-11 saved the life of a six-year-old girl, Beren, in Gaziantep city. Under the guidance of PM @narendramodi, we are committed to making @NDRFHQ the world’s leading disaster response force. #OperationDost.”

India launched “Operation Dost” to extend assistance to Turkiye as well as Syria following Monday’s devastating quake that has killed more than 19,300 people in the two countries so far.

The NDRF is working to extricate live victims from under the rubble and providing first-aid to the injured, before handing them over to medical response authorities.

The force is using chip and stone cutters to breach fallen concrete slabs and other infrastructure and has deep radars that pick feeble sounds like the heartbeat or sound of a person, officials said.

The teams on the ground have quick deployed antenna and satellite phones for communication.

Seven four-wheeled vehicles and trucks, apart from four canines, were sent along the three teams that were airlifted by an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 heavy lift aircraft from the Hindon air base in Ghaziabad to the Adana airport in Turkiye.

Kolkata: After sending two missives to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for allegedly occupying parts of land leased to his family in an “unauthorised manner”, Visva-Bharati University on Thursday said it will conduct a joint survey of the land along with the economist’s side.

In a statement, the university sought a suitable date and time from Sen for the exercise.

“With reference to our earlier letters, this is to inform you that the university wants to survey/demarcate jointly the land mutated in your favour for the residual period of lease as per lease deal executed on October 27, 1943 vide resolution no 8 dated September 3, 2006 of the executive council of Visva Bharati and communicated to you on October 31, 2006,” the letter said.

The varsity, in the letter, said the joint survey will be conducted on at least two days, and sought to know a suitable date and time from Sen.

One of the previous letters issued by the university to Sen on January 27 stated, “You are in possession of 1.38 acre of land which is in excess of your legal entitlement of 1.25 acre. Kindly return the land to Visva Bharati as early as possible “

On January 24, the central university had issued a similar letter to Sen.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last week came out in support of the economist and handed over land-related documents to the octogenarian during a visit to Birbhum.

Mumbai: The LIC management will soon meet the top management of the crisis-ridden Adani Group and seek clarification on the crisis being faced by the diversified conglomerate, chairman M R Kumar said here on Thursday.

LIC’s investment into Adani group firms’ stock has come under criticism by the opposition parties as well as investors after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations against the Gautam Adani-led group, saying its companies manage and manipulate share prices, run offshore shell companies for round-tripping and lacking in corporate governance practices.

“Though our investor team has already sought clarifications from the Adanis, our top management could not contact them yet as we have been busy preparing the results. We are soon going to call them to meet us and explain. We want to understand what is happening in the market and in the group,” the chairman told reporters at the earnings conference on Thursday.

“We’ll be calling them in sometime soon to know how are they managing the whole crisis,” Kumar added.

Kumar, however, refused to give a timeline of the meeting between LIC and Adani group officials.

LIC, which is the nation’s largest institutional investor, is the second largest shareholder in most of the listed Adani group companies, with a cumulative investment of Rs 36,474.78 crore as of January 27, which in percentage terms is 4.23 per cent of the total public holding in those companies. But for LIC’s Rs 44.76 lakh crore investment asset under management, this is only 0.97 per cent.

As of January 27, this investment was valued at over Rs 56,000 crore, LIC had said on January 30, but since then these shares have further lost — cumulatively about USD 100 billion or about 60 per cent of their January 24 market value.

When asked, the chairman categorically said, “Our investments are still in the green and we have not made any provisions either for equity, which is the vast majority or for the debt. Our equity holding in the group is 4.23 per cent of the total public holding of those firms. But from our total market investment of Rs 44.76 lakh crore, this is only 0.97 per cent.”

He said the Irdai (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) norms on investment caps it at 15 per cent of a company’s equity, but “we have some exception wherein we hold more than 30 per cent in some companies”.

“Why should we be making provision when they are in the green. To some of the group companies (ACC and Ambuja Cements) our investments go back to more than two decades,” he said.

On January 30, LIC issued a public statement saying: “Our total holding in the Adani group companies under equity and debt a on date is Rs 36,474.78 crore. This was Rs 35,917.31 crore as of December 31, 2022. Total purchase value of these equities of the group companies, bought over the past many years, is Rs 30,127 crore and the market value for the same at close of market hours on January 27, 2023 was Rs 56,142 crore.”

LIC has exposure to all the 10 listed Adani group companies. However, it did not disclose about its exposure on an individual company basis.

Even after the Hindenburg report, LIC invested about Rs 300 crore in buying 9,15,748 shares in Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offer as an anchor investor.

Kumar said, the book value of its Rs 44.75 lakh crore market asset under management is only Rs 6.87 lakh crore, and according to the same book value its exposure to the Adani group companies is only 4.23 per cent.

Since the publication of the Hindenburg report on January 24, three days before the launch of the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO), the value of the group companies’ stocks have lost more than USD 100 billion or about 60 per cent from their January 24 value.

The FPO was fully subscribed but called off a day later by the management.

Dehradun: A protest by youths against recruitment examination paper leaks in Uttarakhand turned violent when the protestors clashed with police personnel and hurled stones at them here on Thursday.

The police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the protestors. Some youths were injured in police action.

The clash between the protesters and the police caused a long traffic jam from Clock Tower to Rajpur Road.

Unemployed youths had staged a dharna here on Wednesday demanding a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in different recruitment examinations held by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission.

Reacting to the police lathicharge on protesting youths, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said they were subjected to brutality for raising their genuine demands.

“The BJP government’s corruption in Uttarakhand is ruining the lives of youths. They were brutally lathicharged when they were staging a demonstration with their genuine demands against paper leak of recruitment examinations,” Gandhi said in a statement.

The youths were angry as police had allegedly forced them to lift their dharna on Wednesday.

The Uttarakhand Congress too reacted sharply to the “coercive manner in which the voice of youths was being silenced” by the state government.

The party will hold demonstrations in every district on Friday in protest against the atrocity against the youths, PCC vice president Mathura Dutt Joshi said.

Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami appealed to the youths not to let themselves be misled by anyone, saying efforts are on to ensure that recruitment examinations are held in the state in a transparent way.

“We are soon going to bring the strictest anti-copying law in the country. It will be ensured that use of unfair means in recruitment examinations stops completely and they are held in a transparent manner. We will see to it that no injustice is done to the youth,” Dhami said.

“Our government is making decisions in favour of the youth. We have granted reservation to our sisters and daughters in government jobs. Everyone’s interest will be protected. My request to the youth is that they should not allow themselves to be misled by anyone,” he said.

The government has got irregularities in recruitment examinations thoroughly probed and the guilty have been sent behind bars, the chief minister said.

LUCKNOW: The stage is set for the three-day UP Global Investors; Summit (GIS-2023) beginning tomorrow. Billed as the state’s biggest business meet, it aims to push the state towards becoming a trillion-dollar economy. State capital Lucknow is being decked up to welcome around 10,000 delegates, including 400-plus international investors from nearly 41 countries, apart from top industry leaders, Union ministers, political bigwigs, ministers from participating countries and diplomats along with the CEOs of many leading companies and banks.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the event on Friday, President Draupadi Murmu will attend the meeting at the closing ceremony on Sunday. As many as 30 technical sessions based on different sectors such as IT, aviation, health, defence, animal husbandry and dairy, handloom, textiles, media, entertainment, sports and energy, among others, are planned for the meeting. As the preparations for the summit peaked on Thursday, a list of five industry captains, including Reliance Group chairman Mukesh Ambani, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Manglam Birla, chairman of Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Dixon Technologies Sunil Vachani and CEO, Zurich Airport Asia Daniel Bircher is kept in advance. They are expected to speak briefly before PM Modi. Moreover, teams representing Birla Group, RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, Hiranandani Group, Mahindra Group, among others, will also be a part of the summit.

Besides inaugurating the mega event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also launch the global trade show and Invest UP 2.0. He will visit the exhibition hall and have a photo session with top industry leaders and special guests on the occasion. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will address the gathering while Uttar Pradesh minister for industry Nand Gopal Nandi will deliver the welcome address. Arrangements have been made for a live telecast of the inaugural session in all the districts.

Having set an initial target of receiving investment proposals worth Rs 10 lakh crore which was revised to Rs 17 lakh crore through this event, the UP government has already receive d proposals of over Rs 27 lakh crore through over 17,000 MoUs till the summit eve. It stands out to be around seven times the investment proposals (Rs 4.68 lakh crore) received during the previous summit in 2018.

CM Yogi Adityanath has asked all officials to conduct local investors’ summits at the divisions and district levels in addition to the international and domestic roadshows that the state government’s teams organized in 21 cities in 16 countries and eight cities in India. While the foreign roadshows fetched around Rs 7.12 lakh crore investment intents by signing 108 MoUs , the intents received through the roadshows in eight cities, including Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Chandigarh, stood out at Rs 8.93 lakh crore.

These proposals received through UPGIS-2023, when fully implemented, are expected to bring a job boom by creating around 2 crore employment opportunities in the state. To invite investments, the state government had released policies for 25 different sectors, offering subsidies, grants, land etc. A special Nivesh Sarathi portal was set up for signing MoUs online and tracking them to ensure effective and quick implementation.

Drone show

CM Yogi Adityanath has told officials to conduct local investors’ summits at district levels. For the first time, investors and entrepreneurs from all 75 districts will participate in the opening ceremony. Cultural events and a drone show will also be conducted.