Archives for 2023

After Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut may face disqualification as the breach of privilege motion has passed against him in Maharashtra state legislative assembly and referred to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha on Saturday.

Sanjay Raut had called the state assembly members the gang of thieves – chor mandal. The ruling party in Maharashtra took objections to Sanjay Raut’s statement calling state assembly as chor mondal and demanded the privilege motion against Sanjay Raut for insulting the elected representatives and its House which has a very rich tradition.

Maharashtra state legislative assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar read out the privilege committee report that recommended actions against Sanjay Raut. Narvekar said that he approves the breach of privilege motion that was filed against Sanjay Raut.

“We had issued notice to Sanjay Raut asking for his clarifications as part of natural justice. But he sought more time and more time was given, and later he replied but it was not satisfactory therefore decided to pass the privilege motion against him. Sanjay Raut is a member of the Rajya Sabha therefore they decided to refer this passed motion to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha for further actions,” Narvekar added.

Reacting to this development, Sanjay Raut confirmed that there is a conspiracy against him to disqualify him from membership in the Rajya Sabha like Rahul Gandhi, but he is not afraid of such actions.

He said that his remarks calling elected members as a gang of thieves are misinterpreted. “I was never meant to refer to the state assembly as a gang of thieves. But it was intended towards the 40 MLAs of Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena who snatched the Uddhav Thackeray’s father-founded party and its traditional bow and arrow symbol. They are a chor gang which are stealing from Uddhav Thackeray therefore my remark was limited to these 40 MLAs of the Shinde group only. I cannot insult the House and its elected members,” Raut clarified.

He said that he will not extend an apology for the statement that was never made. “If I wanted to apologize, then I would not have gone to jail also. I am the true soldier of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Balasaheb Thackeray who will never bow to such frivolous pressure and blackmailing tactics of the BJP and his allied partners in Maharashtra. I will continue to fight at any cost,” Raut said. 

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday reviewed the performance of public sector banks (PSBs) on various financial health parameters and their resilience in the wake of the current global financial scenario emanating from the failure of some international banks in the US and Europe.

She urged the banks to remain vigilant about the interest rate risks and regularly undertake stress tests.

During the two hours meeting with MDs and CEOs of PSBs, an open discussion was held on the global scenario amid the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank (SB), along with the issues leading to the crisis in Credit Suisse.

The meeting was also attended by Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi and other senior officials, an official statement said.

She also discussed the developing and immediate external global financial stress from both short and long-term perspectives.

During the PSB review meeting, she emphasised that the banks should undertake due diligence and adhere to the regulatory framework by focusing on risk management and diversification of deposits and assets base.

The finance minister underlined that PSBs must look at business models closely to identify stress points, including concentration risks and adverse exposures, the statement said, adding that she also exhorted PSBs to use this opportunity to frame detailed crisis management and communication strategies.

The chiefs of PSBs apprised Sitharaman that they follow the best corporate governance practices, adhere to regulatory norms, ensure prudent liquidity management and continue to focus on having robust asset-liability and risk management.

Further, she was also informed by the PSBs that they are vigilant of developments in the global banking sector and are taking all possible steps to safeguard themselves from any potential financial shock.

All the major financial parameters indicate stable and resilient PSBs with robust financial health, it added.

The minister also stressed that PSBs must leverage the full potential of branches opened in International Financial Services Centres in GIFT City Gujarat to identify international opportunities, including prospects related to Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs).

She asked banks to take focused measures to attract deposits, given the steps taken by the government to reduce the tax arbitrage in some debt instruments and pivot their strengthened financial position to support the credit needs of the growing economy.

The minister asked banks to focus on credit outreach in states where the credit offtake is lower than the national average, particularly in the northeast and eastern parts of the country, and enhance business presence in new and emerging areas like One District One Product (ODOP), e-NAM and drones.

She said PSBs should promote the Mahila Samman Bachat Patra, announced in the Budget, through special drives and campaigns and also focus on increasing brick-and-mortar banking presence in border and coastal areas.

BHOPAL: BJP national president JP Nadda, during his day-long stay in Bhopal, will lay the foundation of the new BJP state headquarters building today, besides other engaging in other activities, including addressing a gathering of party workers, seven months before the year-end assembly polls. As per key state BJP sources, the new BJP building which is likely to come up in a year and half is believed to incur expenditure of around Rs 75 crore to Rs 100 crore 

“The state-of-the-art building will be a ten-storeyed, which will be divided into three parts, including the Sankalp Sankul (main office), Samarpan Sankul (residence of top leaders) and Sahyog Sankul (residence of employees). It will also house an auditorium, having a seating capacity for more than 1000 persons,” a senior state BJP functionary told The New Indian Express on Friday.

To come up in an area of 1.15 lakh square ft, the new BJP state HQ building will have a parking facility for 400 plus vehicles. Solar Energy panels will be installed at the new office to power the new building through Green Energy. According to state BJP president VD Sharma, the construction of the new building is in line with the party’s decision (under the leadership of the present union minister and ex-national party president Amit Shah) to have party offices in each district of the country.

In that context only, our offices across the state are being renovated to have the latest facilities. “For a long time, the work of constructing a new building in place of the old building in Bhopal was pending. Now the work on constructing the new building is going to start. We hope that the new building with all state-of-the-art facilities will be ready in a year and a half.”

Importantly, the old building of the state party HQ was constructed at around Rs  2 crore in 1991, while a BJP government headed by Sunderlal Patwa was in power. It is located in the heart of Bhopal and has been dismantled to clear the way for the new building.

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday began a day-long “Sankalp Satyagraha” at Delhi’s Rajghat in support of Rahul Gandhi following his disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party’s top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.

Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Saktisinh Gohil, Jothimani, Pratibha Singh and Manish Chatrath were also present at the protest site.

Several leaders of the party’s Delhi also took part in the protest while a large number of party workers gathered outside the venue despite the police refusing to grant permission for the satyagraha.

In a letter, the Delhi Police said the request for holding the satyagraha was rejected due to law and order and traffic reasons and prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC had been imposed in and around Rajghat.

A senior police officer told PTI that while permission for holding the satyagraha was denied, adequate security arrangements were put in place.

In response to the Delhi Police’s action, Venugopal said on Twitter, “After silencing our voice in Parliament, the government has refused to let us hold a peaceful satyagraha at Bapu’s (Mahatma Gandhi) samadhi as well.

“It has become a habit for the Modi government to disallow every opposition protest. This will not deter us, our fight for truth, against tyranny goes on.”

The Congress has put up a stage outside Rajghat and are protesting against Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a 2019 defamation case and his subsequent disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

It has announced plans for a day-long satyagraha in front of Mahatma Gandhi statues at all states and district headquarters to protest against the disqualification.

Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat’s Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case.

The disqualification will prevent Gandhi (52), a four-time MP, from contesting elections for eight years unless a higher court stays the conviction.

Meanwhile, speaking for the first time since his disqualification, Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP government by reiterating that “democracy is under attack” in India. He also  of an apology over his remarks on the Modi surname in 2019, which a Surat court found defamatory, saying “My name is not Savarkar. My name is Gandhi. I won’t apologise.”

Lambasting PM Narendra Modi, Rahul said that he had  been disqualified “the Prime Minister is scared about my next speech on Adani and that is why this whole game of disqualification, allegations by ministers aimed at distracting people from Adani issue.”

The Congress leader said: “This is the whole drama that is been orchestrated to defend the Prime Minister from the simple question- Who’s Rs 20,000 crore went to Adani’s shell companies? I am not scared of these threats, disqualifications, or prison sentences.”

He also said that the BJP was trying to divert the issue by alleging that he had insulted OBCs and he would continue to ask what is Modi’s relationship with businessman Gautam Adani.

The disqualification will bar Gandhi (52), a four-time MP, from contesting polls for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction.

MUMBAI: Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya bought properties worth Rs 330 crore in England and France during 2015-16 even as his Kingfisher Airlines was facing a cash crunch at that time and banks had not recovered the loans defaulted by the liquor baron, the CBI has claimed in its supplementary chargesheet filed in a court here.

Mallya is an accused in the alleged over Rs 900 crore IDBI Bank-Kingfisher Airlines loan fraud case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The central agency recently filed a supplementary chargesheet before a special CBI court here.

Along with all the 11 accused named in the earlier chargesheets, the probe agency has added the name of Buddhadev Dasgupta, former general manager of IDBI Bank in its latest supplementary chargesheet.

The probe agency alleged that by abusing his official position, Dasgupta conspired with the officers of IDBI Bank and Vijay Mallya in the matter of sanction and disbursement of the short-term loan (STL) of Rs 150 crore in October 2009.

The said loan of Rs 150 crore as envisaged originally by Dasgupta (by proposal circulated among credit committee members) was to be adjusted/repaid from the aggregate loan of Rs 750 crore originally sought by the airlines.

However, after circulation, there was change in the proposal to show as if the credit committee had treated this as a separate loan, which may (or may not) be adjusted/recovered from the aggregate loan.

The chargesheet said the exposure of IDBI Bank was to be restricted to the aggregate amount of Rs 750 crore, but it became Rs 900 crore in December 2009 because the STL of Rs 150 crore was kept as a separate loan, largely at the behest of Dasgupta.

During the course of investigation, letters rogatory (LRs) had been sent to the United Kingdom, Mauritius, the USA and Switzerland as per the permission of the CBI court.

Courts of one country seek the assistance of the courts in another for the administration of justice there through letters rogatory.

The chargesheet mentioned the evidence collected during foreign investigation from these countries.

“The properties in the UK (Ladywalk in 2015-16 for GBP 12-13 million or Rs 80 crore) and France (‘Le Grand Jardin’ in 2008 for Euro 35 million or Rs 250 crore approximately) were acquired by Mallya even as Kingfisher Airlines was facing severe a cash crunch (2008) and the lenders were yet to recover the loans defaulted upon by Mallya and the Airlines (2015-16),” it said.

The chargesheet claimed that Mallya had adequate funds at his disposal between 2008 and 2016-17, but none of it was brought to support the airlines as equity infusion or to honour his obligations as a personal guarantor for the loans availed by KAL from IDBI and other banks in India.

The chargesheet, citing the evidence collected through LRs, said that sizable amounts were transferred to Force India Formula 1 Team between 2008 and 2012, it said.

The chargesheet further said that significant amounts were diverted from 2007 to 2012-13 and used to make payments towards acquisition and repayment of loan for the corporate jet used personally by Mallya.

Besides the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing a money laundering case against Mallya.

On January 5, 2019, a special court in Mumbai had declared Mallya a ‘fugitive’.

Under the provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, once a person is declared a fugitive economic offender, the prosecuting agency has the powers to confiscate his property.

BENGALURU: With the Karnataka assembly elections round the corner, health professionals in the field of cardiology, diabetology and nephrology suggest that instead of freebies, candidates can provide free screening tests (blood sugar, blood pressure, urine and creatinine) to people, to identify lifestyle diseases at an early stage. 

Diabetologist Dr Manohar KN, chairman, of the Karnataka Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (KRSSDI), explained that diabetes is the biggest cause of kidney-related ailments. India has the second highest number of people suffering from diabetes after China, hence it is important to keep an eye on parameters like blood/sugar levels regularly, he said.

The four tests combined cost around Rs 500 in a government-run health centre, and the cost will go down further if performed on a larger scale, Dr Manohar said. 

Speaking at a press briefing organised by the Kidney Warriors Association, in association with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Indian Society of Nephrology (ISN), medical professionals highlighted that the prevalence of lifestyle diseases like cardiac arrests, kidney failure, diabetes or high blood pressure are inter-related. Many of them can be prevented if diagnosed at an early stage, they said. 

Dr Arvind Kaneevaran, consultant nephrologist, transplant physician and co-founder, of Bloom Value Corporation, said that people in India do not have a concept of regular health checkups and do not have family physicians. Only in case of serious ailments do people end up visiting a doctor.

The panellists also appreciated the recently inaugurated Namma Clinics in Karnataka, which provide free consultations to people for basic ailments. Since treatment for these lifestyle diseases is expensive, a person who undergoes screening annually post the age of 30, can be diagnosed much earlier. 

AHMEDABAD: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi quoted Mahatma Gandhi in a tweet about truth and non-violence after a court in Surat in Gujarat on Thursday sentenced him to two years in jail in a criminal defamation case connected to his “Modi surname” remarks.

“My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God, and non-violence is the means to get it. — Mahatma Gandhi,” the Congress leader wrote in a tweet in Hindi soon after the court verdict.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail in a criminal defamation case over his ‘Modi surname” remark during an election rally in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The court granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court, the Congress leader’s lawyer Babu Mangukiya said.

The court sentenced Gandhi under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with criminal defamation, Mangukiya said. Gandhi was present in the court when it pronounced its verdict.

The case was filed against Gandhi for his alleged “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” remarks based on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi.

The Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad made the remarks while addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019, during Lok Sabha poll campaigning.