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RBI may be holding back Rs 2,000 notes, says SBI report

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New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may either be holding back Rs 2,000 notes or could have stopped printing high denomination currency, says a SBI Research report.

Juxtaposing the data presented in the Lok Sabha recently with the one provided by RBI in its Annual Report earlier, the SBI Ecoflash report said on Wednesday, “we observe” that the value of small denomination currency in circulation up to March 2017 was Rs 3.5 lakh crore.

This implies that the value of high denomination notes was equivalent to Rs 13.32 lakh crore as on December 8, after netting out the small denomination notes from the currency in circulation on that day, it said.

The report further said that as per the Ministry of Finance in the Lok Sabha recently, the RBI has printed 1,695.7 crore pieces of Rs 500 notes and 365.4 crore pieces of Rs 2,000 notes as on December 8. The total value of such notes translates into Rs 15.79 lakh crore.

“This means that the residual amount of high currency notes (the difference between Rs 15.79 lakh crore Rs 13.32 lakh crore) of Rs 2.46 lakh crore may have been printed by the RBI but not supplied in the market,” said the report authored Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, SBI. Interestingly, the report added, “it is safe to assume” that Rs 2.46 lakh crore may be on the lower side as the RBI must have printed notes of small denomination in the interregnum (Rs 50 and Rs 200).

“As a logical corollary, as Rs 2,000 denomination currency led to challenges in transactions, it thus indeed seems that RBI may have either consciously stopped printing the Rs 2,000 denomination notes/or printing in smaller numbers after initially it was printed in ample amount to normalise the liquidity situation,” said Ecoflash.

This also means that the share of small currency notes in total currency in circulation now may have touched 35% in value terms, it added. The government on November 8 last year had announced demonetisation of high value notes, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, which together accounted for 86-87% of the currency in circulation.

The move had lead to huge cash shortage and large queues were witnessed at banks for exchange or depositing the scrapped currency. The RBI introduced a new Rs 2,000 note as well as new version of the Rs 500 note. Subsequently, the RBI, for the first time, also introduced a Rs 200 note.

(PTI)

Wife of slain BJP leader joins Cong party in Belagavi

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Belagavi: Mallamma, wife of Yogesh Gowda, the BJP member of the Dharwad Zilla Panchayat, who was allegedly murdered recently, joined the Congress party on Wednesday.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress women’s wing president Lakshmi Hebbalkar welcomed Mallamma into the party fold by handing over the party flag to her at a hurriedly convened press conference, after Mallamma took primary membership of the party.

Addressing the gathering Mallamma said “I have voluntarily joined the Congress and there was pressure on me to join the party”

When she was questioned on her sudden decision to join politics, Mallamma said that the BJP leaders were using her husband’s murder as a tool to gain political mileage and so, she took the step.

(Agencies)

China says no political considerations in Masood Azhar’s listing issue

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Beijing: China today rejected India’s assertion that moves at the UN to list JeM leader Masood Azhar as a global terrorist were blocked due to narrow political considerations, saying it acted in a “candid way” over the issue based on rules and procedures.

China has been consistently blocking moves by India, the US, the UK and France to designate Azhar as a global terrorist by the 1267 Sanctions Committee by putting technical holds. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin during an open debate yesterday in the Security Council criticised some UN members for failing to “clearly understand” the common threat of terrorism.

“It is noticed that on an issue as serious as the designation of terrorist individuals and entities, the Council-mandated Sanctions Committees fail to make concrete progress and fall victim to narrow political and strategic concerns in some cases,” he said.

Responding to Akbaruddin’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing that on Azhar’s issue China had “acted in a candid way with ease”. “So what we do is nothing to do with the narrow-minded political considerations as you mentioned,” Hua said.

The issue of China blocking the listing of Azhar at the UN is expected to come up in tomorrow’s 20th round of India- China border talks in New Delhi. The talks will be held between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. Besides the border-related issues, the two top officials also have the mandate to discuss all issues between the two countries. “We have stated our position multiple times about the listing issue 1267 committee to the media queries and dealt the questions in a sincere way on different occasions in the past,” Hua said.

She said China “firmly” backed the crackdown on various international terrorist groups. Defending China’s move to block the moves against Azhar who is accused by India of being the mastermind of the Pathankot terrorist attack, Hua said: “on this issue, we make our own judgement based on the merit of the matters themselves”.

She said the “relevant move” by China in 1267 committee was based on its rules and procedures. “We will work with various parties to uphold the security and peace of the international communication,” Hua said.

(PTI)

RInfra’s Rs 18,800 cr deal to sell Mumbai power business to Adanis

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Mumbai: Announcing the largest ever debt reduction exercise by an Indian corporate, Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) on Thursday said it has signed a definite agreement for the sale of its Mumbai power business to Adani Transmission Ltd for a total consideration of Rs 18,800 crore.

While the total deal value of the sale of the Mumbai power utility Reliance Energy is Rs 13,251 crore, regulatory assets estimated at Rs 5,000 crore and net working capital on closing estimated at Rs 550 crore would also accrue to RInfra as part of the agreement, a company release said here.

“Reliance Infrastructure Ltd today announced signing of a definitive binding agreement with Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL) for 100 per cent stake sale of its Mumbai power business, which includes the integrated business of generation, transmission and distribution of power for Mumbai,” it said.

“Total deal value is at Rs 13,251 crore. This comprises of business valued at Rs 12,101 crore and regulatory assets approved so far of Rs 1,150 crore. In addition, regulatory assets under approval estimated at Rs 5,000 crore and net working capital on closing estimated at Rs 550 crore will flow directly to RInfra.

“Total consideration value is estimated at Rs 18,800 crore,” it said.

“RInfra will utilize the proceeds of this transformative transaction entirely to reduce its debt, becoming debt free and up to Rs 3,000 crore cash surplus,” the statement added.

The proposed transaction is subject to the customary approvals.

Describing the deal as the largest ever debt reducing exercise by any corporate, RInfra said that monetisation of the Mumbai power business is a major step in the companmy’s deleveraging strategy for future growth.

“Reliance Infra’s Mumbai power business (known as Reliance Energy) is India’s largest private sector integrated power utility distributing power to nearly 3 million residential, industrial and commercial consumers in the suburbs of Mumbai, covering an area of 400 sq km,” the statement said.

The Mumbai utility caters to a peak demand of over 1,800 MW, with annual revenues of Rs 7,500 crore with stable cash flows, it added.

RInfra also said that, going forward, it will focus on upcoming opportunities in the asset-light engineering, procurement and construction, as well as defence businesses.

(PTI)

Special CBI court acquits all accused including A Raja and Kanimozhi in 2G case

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New Delhi: A special CBI court on Thursday acquitted all the accused including former Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi in the multi-crore 2G spectrum allocations cases. Fifteen other accused in the case and three companies were also acquitted.

Others acquitted in the case are former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) — Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair.

Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also acquitted in the case.

Besides them, three telecom firms — Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd — were also accused and acquitted in the case.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini pronounced the judgement in the 2G scam which had rocked the UPA government.

In its charge sheet filed in April 2011 against Raja and others, the CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.

All the accused facing trial in these cases had denied allegations levelled against them by the CBI and the ED.

The court’s verdict came more than eight years after the CBI filed an FIR against “unknown persons” and began its investigations following a recommendation by the Central Vigilance Commission.

(PTI)

Manmohan, UPA stand vindicated in 2G scam: Sibal

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PTI

New Delhi: Congress leader and senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the acquittal of all the accused in the 2G scam vindicated then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA’s stand that there was no scam in the allocation of spectrum and licences to telecom companies.

“Manmohan Singh and the UPA government stand vindicated today,” Sibal said. He was speaking to reporters after a special court here acquitted former Telecom Minister A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi and others accused in the 2008 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

Sibal sought an apology from Vinod Rai who as then Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had in his telecom audit report estimated a massive presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the state exchequer by allocating 2G spectrum licences at allegedly throwaway prices.

The Congress leader said Rai must also apologise to the nation “as the telecom industry is in dire straits today and thanks to him and the then opposition (BJP)”.

Sibal, who succeeded Raja after the DMK leader was forced to resign, also sought an apology from the BJP that had accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of shielding the corrupt.

“They (the BJP) must apologise as they attacked the (then) Prime Minister, and the Congress in the Lok Sabha as well as in Rajya Sabha. Today’s verdict clears the government position as vindicated.”

Sibal had maintained during his term as Telecom Minister that there was zero loss to the exchequer and no wrong had taken place in the allocation of licences.

He repeated the argument, saying: “I told the people of this that nothing wrong that has happened. And today my position, the government’s position and the then Prime Minister’s position has been vindicated.”

The alleged scam in the issuance of licences and allocation of 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecom occurred during the Congress-led UPA government’s first tenure in 2008 but was widely reported in 2010 following a report by then Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai.

(IANS)

US’ Haley warns UN General Assembly over Jerusalem

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Nikki Haley, centre, vetoed an Egyptian-drafted resolution that called on countries to not establish diplomatic missions in Jerusalem [Justin Lane/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has sent a threatening letter to members of the UN General Assembly ahead of a vote on a resolution against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In the letter, obtained by Haaretz, Haley wrote that US President Donald Trump “will be watching [Thursday’s] vote carefully” and “requested I report back on those who voted against us…”

The warning came after the US was outnumbered 14 to 1 as it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday against Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.

Trump announced on December 6 that the US formally recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will begin the process of moving its embassy to the city, breaking with decades of US policy.

The move led to a wave of global protests, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in recent days to denounce his decision.

Threatening words
Furious over the Security Council resolution against the move, Haley on Tuesday said it was “an insult” that would “not be forgotten”.

“It’s one more example of the UN doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she said on Twitter.

Haley’s letter to the General Assembly members echoed her tweets in which she said the US “will be taking names” during Thursday’s vote, which is expected to pass with an overwhelming majority.

“As you know, the General Assembly is considering a resolution about President Trump’s recent decision on Jerusalem. As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally,” Haley said in the letter.

“Twenty-two years ago, the US Congress declared that Jerusalem should be recognised as the capital of Israel, and that the US embassy should be moved to Jerusalem. President Trump affirmed that declaration by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” she wrote.

“However, the President’s announcement does not affect final status negotiations in any way, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.

“The president also made sure to support the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites, and did not advocate changes to arrangements at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif,” Haley added in her letter.

‘US will not be able to use privilege’
Anticipating the US veto in the Security Council, the Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank promised to take the issue to the General Assembly to seek the passing of a resolution there.

Riyad al-Maliki, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), said in a statement on Monday: “The member states of the General Assembly will be asked to vote on the same draft resolution that we presented to the Security Council, which the US has blocked with the veto.

“In the General Assembly, the US will not be able to use this privilege,” he added.

Since the 1970s, when it first began exercising its veto power, the US has shot down some 42 Security Council resolutions relating to Israel and its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Turkey, a long-time ally of Palestine, is also leading efforts to pass a resolution through the UN’s General Assembly.

A vote in favour of the resolution in the 193-member UN General Assembly, however, is not legally binding. This means it would only serve as a recommendation and would act as an expression of the international community’s stance on Jerusalem.

At the request of Turkey and Yemen, the UN General Assembly is set to meet at 15:00 GMT on Thursday for the discussion about Jerusalem.

Accused in Ryan case to be tried as adult: Juvenile board

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Gurgaon: A school student accused of killing a seven-year-old boy will be tried as an adult, the Juvenile Justice Board said today.

The board passed the order this morning responding to a plea that the teenager accused of the crime should not be treated as a juvenile.

The board had earlier rejected the bail plea of the Class 11 student, accused of killing Pradhuman Thakur on the premises of the Ryan International School here on September 8.

(Agencies)

BJP leader assaults School headmistress at Bengaluru

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Bengaluru: In a shocking incident, a BJP leader Ramakrishnappa was found slapping the headmistress of a school M Asha, within the school premises in Singanayakanahalli in North Bengaluru for not repaying the loans. The entire incident has been captured on CCTV.

In the video, a man is seen yelling at the headmistress of the school in her cabin, before proceeding to slap her repeatedly and hitting her with what looks like a rope.

According to police, Ramakrishnappa repeatedly asked the schoolteacher to return the rest of the loan.

When Ramakrishnappa got, angry over not paying the interest amount owed to him by the school, he started slapping and assaulted the headmistress, M Asha.

According to Asha, she had taken a loan of Rs. 70,000 from him at an interest of 10 per cent and had repaid up to Rs 50,000 in installments. While she had been prompt with her repayments, personal problems prevented her from repaying him for the last four months.

In a statement to police, M Asha, 35, said Ramakrishnappa arrived at the school in Rajanukunte around 12.30pm and started shouting at her

Based on her statement, police have registered an FIR against Ramakrishnappa, 45, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code. Police have launched a hunt for the worker.

The woman told police “On Monday, Ramakrishnappa entered my office room and asked me to return the entire amount. Four students were in the room at that time. Feeling embarrassed, I sent them out. Then, he raised his voice and started using abusive language. I was seeking more time to repay the loan when he repeatedly slapped me. My earrings came off.”

The accused BJP leader is the father of Janardhan, the president of BJP Yuva Morcha in Yelahanka. He is also known to be a close associate of Yelahanka MLA Vishwanath. He is currently absconding as the Rajanakunte police are on the lookout for him.

According to sources, the police have detained his son Janardhan for questioning.

(Agencies)

India drops to fifth most vacation deprived country this year: Survey

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New Delhi: India has become the fifth most vacation deprived country globally, just after South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong and France, says an annual survey conducted by online travel agency Expedia.

Expedia released the results of the 2017 Vacation Deprivation study, an annual survey of vacation habits across multiple countries and continents and the survey ranks India as the fifth most vacation deprived country globally.

Also 67 percent Indians have cancelled or postponed vacation plans because of work; on the other hand, 74 percent Indians would prefer an unlimited vacation policy.

According to findings, 55 percent Indians take fewer days of the vacation days they get and 28 percent don’t take leave as the work schedule does not allow for vacation or there are not enough staff to cover.

“It is very important to inculcate an organisational culture that promotes healthy work-life balance through timely vacations. While technology helps us leave the office in time, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are disconnected from work,” said Manmeet Ahluwalia, Marketing Head, Expedia in India.

“As per our study this year- on a one-week vacation, 37 percent Indians would check their work email/voicemail more than once per day and 21 percent check once per day. It is no surprise that 48 percent Indians feel the happiest during a vacation when they disconnect from work, even though the figures have dropped from 53 percent last year.

“A good vacation and disconnecting from work at least once or twice a year is crucial in rejuvenating not just the body, but the mind,” he added.

(IANS)

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