A whopping Rs 163 crore and 100 kg bullion have been recovered in what is being seen as one of the biggest seizures till date by the Income Tax Department. The searches were launched yesterday at the premises of M/s SPK and Company, a road construction firm in Tamil Nadu, which is working on state government projects.

“About Rs 163 crore cash, which is suspected to be unaccounted, and bullion and gold jewellery weighing about 100 kg have been seized so far. The raids are still going on,” an I-T department official told news agency Press Trust of India.

MK Stalin-led DMK has alleged that the said firm, SPK and Company, is run by the kin of Chief Minister Palaniswami. As per DMK’s complaint, filed with the state vigilance department in June, the company is run by a benami of the chief minister and was awarded six-laning of the Vandalur-Walajabad road. As per officials, the said seizure was probably the biggest so far in raid operations anywhere in the country.

The investigations were conducted through the Chennai wing of the I-T department. As per an I-T official, the department found “evidence of suspected tax evasion by the firm and its associates” that were believed to have political links.

The search operation will continue further. So far, a total of 22 premises — 17 in Chennai, four in Aruppukottai (Virudhunagar district) and one in Katpadi (Vellore) — have been searched.

The agency officials said that the seized cash was kept in big travel bags and parked cars. Dozens of gold biscuits were also seized by the agency. The department has also seized a number of documents and computer hardware.

PTI

Social media giant Facebook on Tuesday entered into a strategic partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to empower youth and entrepreneurs with digital skills in India.

The partnership, signed in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, will enable Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to incorporate Facebook’s training on Digital Marketing Skills in its courses, besides providing trainees with access to local, domestic and international markets.

The programme includes courses on Digital Marketing, Online Safety and Financial Literacy in regional languages with Facebook imparting training to people nominated by the NSDC. This will up-skill job seekers and increase their prospects of employment.

“We are delighted to partner with the National Skill Development Corporation to help in upskilling the youth of the country and also empower local businesses by providing training and resources to build up a digital presence and grow their businesses beyond what the traditional offline economies offer,” Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director, India, South and Central Asia – Facebook, said in a statement.

“This skilled workforce and successful businesses are imperative for boosting employment and economic growth in the country,” she added.

The collaboration will also enable trainees to have access to Facebook’s Jobs tool to easily search for job openings. They can easily search for jobs in their Facebook app or visit www.facebook.com/jobs through their mobile phones while controlling the sharing of information with prospective employers.

“The partnership with Facebook aims to leverage the digital opportunity which can assist in creating a market place for many businesses and service offerings for candidates getting trained under our skill ecosystem and; also act as an information kiosk for knowledge sharing,” said Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

“With Facebook’s expertise and support, we are taking a step towards utilising the immense potential of digital skills for the economic betterment of the country,” he said.

Under the Skill India Mission, nearly one crore youth in the country are being annually skilled, reskilled and upskilled through various central government programmes.

Facebook’s previous training programmes on Digital Marketing Skills have upskilled more than 200,000 youth and entrepreneurs under the #BoostYourBusiness programme across 16 states in the country.

Under the network giant’s #SheMeansBusiness programme, another 30,000 women entrepreneurs are currently being trained, the company said.

In 2017, Facebook launched Digital Training Hub which aims to train 500,000 youth and entrepreneurs by 2020.

The Indian space agency will have a busy year-end with several rocket launches planned from its rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, said a top official.

The GSAT-11 satellite, which had been recalled from Arianespace’s rocket port in French Guiana for further tests, is also expected to be put into orbit by Arianespace’s rocket Ariane by the year-end, the official said.

“The calendar year-end will be a busy one for ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), launching satellites with our three rockets — Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk II and Mk III).

“Starting September there will be rocket launches with Indian as well as foreign satellites,” K. Sivan, ISRO Chairman told IANS on Monday.

According to Sivan, in September ISRO will fly a PSLV rocket with two foreign satellites, earning revenue for the country.

In October, another PSLV rocket will fly with an Indian remote sensing satellite and several foreign satellites.

October will also see India’s heaviest rocket 640-ton GSLV Mk III flying up with GSAT-29 with Ka x Ku multi-beam and optical communication payloads. The mission targets Village Resource Centres (VRC) in rural areas to bridge the digital divide.

In November, ISRO will fly a GSLV Mk II rocket to put into orbit GSAT-7A, to be used by the Indian Air Force (IAF). Earlier, ISRO had launched GSAT-7 or Rukmini satellite for the Indian Navy.

Queried about the 5.8-ton GSAT-11, a communication satellite that was recalled from French Guiana this April, Sivan said: “We expect the satellite to be launched before the end of this year. Discussions with Arianespace are on regarding the time and date of the satellite launch.”

Consumers may have to burn a larger hole in their pockets to keep their vehicles running as retail prices of petrol and diesel are set to hit all-time high levels all over again soon. Rising oil prices and the reluctance on the part of the government to cut taxes are two factors responsible for the certain spike in auto fuel prices.

The retail price of petrol in Delhi is Rs 76.61 a litre now. Going by the price rise of up to 20 paisa per day over the last week, petrol would breach record high level of Rs 78.43, touched on May 29, in about 10 days.

Diesel is within the sniffing distance of all-time high of Rs 69.31 a litre, again recorded on May 29. Diesel is retailing at Rs 68.61 a litre in Delhi.

Uncertainty in global oil markets has increased post US sanctions on Iran and call for its strict compliance by president Donald Trump. The price of benchmark Brent crude was hovering over $75 a barrel, while the Indian basket was just a tad lower at $73 a barrel last month.

“But prices are rising now with expectation that it could even breach $100 a barrel post-November 24 when energy sanctions on Iran kick in. This could take petrol and diesel prices to new highs with the auto fuel even breaching Rs 100 a litre mark,” said an oil sector analyst, who did not wish to be named as he was still completing his calculations.

The government’s reluctance to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel has become a bigger worry for auto fuel consumers. This has made retail prices higher even with lower levels of crude oil prices.

Petrol breached its previous all-time high level recorded on September 14, 2013 (when it stood at Rs 76.06 a litre in Delhi) in May this year when crude oil prices were around $80 a barrel. Interestingly, crude oil was at $109.47 a barrel level in September 2013.

With crude reaching closer to $100 a barrel mark soon, retail price of petrol, which has already reached Rs 84.33 a litre in Mumbai, would easily cross Rs 100 a litre mark, making history.

“This is insane as the government is letting consumers suffer even though it has pocketed higher revenue from the sector with the understanding that this will come to their rescue when oil prices rise. If this is not the right time for excise duty cut on petrol and diesel, then one fails to understand what would be one,” said a former oil secretary asking not to be named.

The government’s fiscal concerns have prevented any duty cuts on petrol and diesel. With rising inflation and slowing factory output, revenue from the oil sector is key for the centre and states. This is also probably the reason why petroleum products have yet not been included in GST.

Prices of petrol and diesel rose to all-time high levels in the last week of May this year after oil companies resumed daily price hikes of the two products post Karnataka assembly elections. During elections, oil marketing companies kept petrol and diesel prices untouched for a record 19 days.

The daily increase in petrol and diesel prices again is higher now as OMCs are regularly holding the price line for few days under government instructions to prevent a public backlash.

Even though crude oil prices are rising again, they are still well off the highs of September 2013, when retail prices were at all-time highs. At that time, the price of the Indian basket of crude oil had shot up to $110 per barrel, almost 44 per cent more than what it is today.

“The need of the hour is to immediately cut excise duty on petrol and diesel not by mere Rs 2 per litre as was done on October 3, but to provide full relief to consumers by effecting a Rs 4 per litre cut in duties. This would rob the government of over Rs 50,000 crore in revenue but would save the country from higher inflation and demand squeeze,” said another oil sector expert who wished not to be named.

As per government estimates, India’s import bill could rise by up to $50 billion, impacting the current account deficit severely, if the present surge in oil is maintained. This would take oil import bill to about $140 billion in FY19, up from $88 billion in FY18.

The expectation for continuation of higher oil price this year has gained ground due a series of global developments, including continuing production cut by Opec and Russia, and forthcoming public offer proposed by world’s largest oil producer Saudi Aramco.

The BJP-led NDA government has increased basic excise duty on petrol and diesel nine times ever since it came to power (between November 2014 and January 2016) that more than doubled government’s excise mop-up to Rs 2,42,000 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 99,000 crore in 2014-15. In all, duty on petrol was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre. It has been reduced only once — in October, 2017 — by Rs 2 a litre.

In February, the government reduced basic and additional excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 8 per litre but re-imposed a new road cess of Rs 8 per litre, negating any advantage.

It is the third year since Swiss banks made public a list of accounts lying dormant without any trace of owners and no claimant has come forward for those with Indian links, even as a political slugfest continues in India over alleged black money parked there.

The list of all such accounts of Swiss citizens and foreigners including from India was first published by the Switzerland Banking Ombudsman in December 2015 and it keeps getting updated as and when an account is declared dormant.

This is to allow real owners of the accounts or their legal heirs to stake a claim with necessary proof.

The details get deleted from the list when a successful claim is made and this was the case for as many as 40 accounts and two safe deposit boxes in the year 2017 itself, as per the latest information shared by the Ombudsman.

However, the list of over 3,500 such accounts continues to have at least six with links to India since December 2015, as no successful claimant has come forward for them.

Switzerland was perceived to be among the safest havens globally for financial assets for many years before a global crackdown on alleged tax evasion by using such strong banking privacy practices as prevalent in Swiss banks led to Switzerland agreeing to tighten its rules.

Subsequently, Switzerland has framed new laws for greater cooperation with several other countries on an exchange of information and for a stricter clampdown on illicit activities like money laundering and tax frauds.

India is one of the countries with which Switzerland has inked an automatic exchange of information pact on financial matters, while the Alpine nation has already been providing details on bank accounts in cases where Indian authorities have been able to provide proof of wrongdoings.

As per the latest data released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), funds parked by Indians with Swiss banks rose 50 percent to CHF 1.01 billion (about Rs 7,000 crore) in 2017.

The funds, described by SNB as ‘liabilities’ of Swiss banks or ‘amounts due to’ their clients, are official figures disclosed by Swiss authorities and do not indicate to the exact quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held in the famed safe havens of Switzerland.

The official figures, disclosed annually by Switzerland’s central bank, also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.

It has been often alleged that Indians and other nationals seeking to stash their illicit wealth abroad use multiple layers of various jurisdictions, including tax havens, to shift the money in Swiss banks.

Also, with Switzerland putting in place an automatic information exchange framework with India and various other countries, the famed secrecy walls of Swiss banks are said to have crumbled. India will start getting this automatic data from next year.

However, the increase in Indians’ money in Swiss banks has already triggered a sharp opposition attack on the government, which in turn has said that it would be wrong to assume that all funds deposited in Swiss banks were ‘black money’ and strong action would be taken against wrongdoers.

The funds officially held by Indians with banks in Switzerland accounts for only 0.07 percent of the total funds kept by all foreign clients in the Swiss banking system, as per the SNB data.

In terms of the dormant accounts, at least three individuals from India and three others of Indian origin — but the resident of other countries — continue to figure on the list of unclaimed bank accounts made public by Switzerland since December 2015.

While specific figure for India-linked dormant accounts is not known, the total holding in all such accounts is estimated at about 44 million Swiss franc (about Rs 300 crore).

Of the six with Indian links, place of residence of three has been mentioned as India, while it is Paris (France) for one and London for another. The place of residence for the sixth person was not disclosed.

These are Pierre Vachek and Bernet Rosmarie from ‘Bombay’, the earlier name of Mumbai, Bahadur Chandra Singh from Dehradun, Dr Mohan Lal from Paris, Suchah Yogesch Prabhudas from London. Kishore Lall is the person whose place of residence was not disclosed.

The date of birth has also been disclosed in one case ? that is for Vachek as January 1, 1908.

All these accounts were added to the public list in December 2015 and would remain there till December 2020, unless a successful claim is made for the money.

There are also some such accounts from Pakistan, including of one Nawaz Haq of Wazirabad, which was added to the list in November last year.

The list is aimed at giving their owners or their legal heirs a chance to claim the funds in these accounts. Only those accounts form part of the list which have got at least 500 Swiss francs and have remained unclaimed for at least 60 years.

The list contains a large number of people from Switzerland itself, as also from Germany, France, the UK, the US, Turkey, Austria and various other countries.

If no legitimate party claims the assets that have been published within one year of publication, the banks can transfer the assets in question to the government.

The claim deadline for potential legitimate claimants is five years if the assets in question have been dormant since at least 1954.

Several Facebook groups are sharing pirated Hollywood movies to hundreds of thousands of users and the social media giant’s automated software are unable to stop copyright infringements, the media reported.

According to the Business Insider, these Facebook groups make no attempt to conceal catalogs brimming with the latest blockbusters like “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “A Quiet Place.”

“These groups, some of which are years old, exist despite Facebook’s army of human content moderators and automated software meant to detect copyright-infringing content, raising questions about the effectiveness of Facebook’s content-policing systems,” the report said on Sunday.

Some of the group’s titles are “Full HD English Movie” which has more than 134,000 members and “Free full movies 2018” that has 171,000 members.

A Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying that “it wasn’t the company’s responsibility to take down such content unless asked to by the content’s rights holders”.

In its battle against pirated content, Facebook last year acquired a US-based startup Source3 to help it weed out pirated videos and other content that users share without permission.

“We’re excited to work with the Source3 team and learn from the expertise they’ve built in intellectual property, trademarks and copyright. As always, we are focused on ensuring we serve our partners well,” a Facebook spokesperson said at the time of the acquisition.

Facebook has been struggling to crack down on pirated content for a long time.

The company had in past announced “Rights Manager” technology to detect and remove video clips shared by people who do not have rights to the video.

According to the recent Facebook transparency report, it took down 2.8 million pieces of content based on approximately 370,000 user copyright reports in the second half of 2017.

(IANS)

Joining the battle against plastic waste, Indian Railways is installing plastic bottle crushing machines at 2,000 stations across the country.

“At a time when plastics in general, and plastic bottles in particular, are being widely recognised as being extremely harmful for the environment, we are undertaking concrete steps to raise awareness to battle the plastic menace,” a senior Railways official involved in the cleanliness drive at stations told IANS.

There is a huge consumption of plastic bottles for cold drinks and water every day at stations across the country.

According a report in 2009 by the Comptroller and Auditor General, approximately 6,289 tonnes of plastic waste is discarded onto India’s railway tracks.

The installation of crushers is a step is to prevent travellers from throwing used plastic bottles on the tracks or in the station premises.

The crusher machines would be installed at platforms and at exit points so that passengers who want to discard their plastic bottles can deposit them in the flaking machine. Depending on the volume of plastic bottles deposited the machine automatically starts and stops. The inserted bottles disintegrate into fine pieces of plastic which is then released from a different outlet.

The plastic pieces will be given to the plastic manufacturers, thus saving the landfills from additional plastic pollutants.

All 16 zones and 70 divisons have been instructed to install the plastic bottle crushing machines at 2,000 stations in the first phase, said the official.

Currently empty plastic bottles are disposed off manually.

There is a need to curb garbage thrown on tracks either by rail commuters or by those staying in illegal slums along the tracks.

The railways has given RITES the responsibility of providing project management consultancy for selecting the agencies for installing and maintaining the crushers.

While smaller stations will be covered under corporate social responsibility spends, the rest of will be done through competetive bidding. Successful bidders will have a eight-year contract to ensure viability and upgrade technology from time to time.

by Shaheen Raaj

Impressed by the wide range of polymeric films that Flex Films manufactures and associated R&D capabilities that the company is globally recognized for,

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) had approached the company earlier in Sept, 2017 with a requirement of specialized film for passive thermal control of spacecraft components.
Flex Films at Noida is Indian Film Manufacturing Arm of India’s largest multinational flexible packaging materials & solution company Uflex Limited.

Taking this requirement in its stride, the engineers at Flex Films India developed a solution for ISRO in a record time period of 6 months.

Talking more about this specialized film, Anand Prakash Gupta from Speciality Films & R&D Department at Flex Films, Noida avers, “ISRO approached us in an endeavour to achieve its vision to self-reliance in Indian Space Programme which aims at engaging more Indian Industries in producing Space worthy products/technologies for its specific applications. Their desired specifications were in electro-optical & physical terms like Solar Transmittance, IR Emittance, Thickness of Coating in nano-meterson both sides of the substrate & wide spectrum working temperature of -150 to +120 degrees Celsius to name a few. The real challenge was to convert these specifications into our measurable norm. For this we sent an A4 sized sample to ISRO to get everything measured and tested in their terms. When ISRO reverted to us with their requirements in parameters that they recognize, we extrapolated that information to our measurable norm. Performing metallization in conventional metallizer was fraught with high risks of getting scratches & other aberrations (anomalies which were absolutely unacceptable for a high precision job that we were processing for ISRO). Further we developed some specialized coatings & applied on the substrate to ensure flawless metallization as required by ISRO.”

Talking more about this major break-through Jagmohan Mongia, President of Flex Films India averred, “The specialized metallized film that we supplied to ISRO was subjected to space environmental tests and passed through all parameters/tests qualifying for space application. Here I would particularly like to acknowledge the unrelenting & hard work by metallizing team of Flex Films India without which it would not have been possible for us to accomplish this goal. After this major break-through we now look forward to working with ISRO more closely in other research areas & technologies. This is just the beginning.”

Expressing delight on this breakthrough, Ashok Chaturvedi, Chairman & Managing Director, Uflex Limited said, “The most gratifying part of this whole engagement is that Uflex has been able to contribute to ISRO’s endeavour of indigenization and becoming self-reliant in space technology applications. This is a perfect example of an Indian polymeric film manufacturer meeting & exceeding the performance parameters set by Indian Space Research Organization. This is a major win for Make in India and a moment of truth for Made in India.”

Uflex is India’s largest multinational flexible packaging materials & Solution Company & an emerging global player. Since its inception back in 1985, Uflex has grown from strength to strength to evolve as a truly Indian Multinational with consumers spread across the world. Uflex today has state-of-the-art packaging facilities at multiple locales in India with installed capacity of around 100,000 TPA and has packaging film manufacturing facilities in India, UAE, Mexico Egypt, Poland & USA with cumulative installed capacity in excess of 337,000 TPA.

All Uflex plants are accredited with ISO 9001, 14001, HACCP & BRC certifications. Uflex caters to markets spanning across the globe in over 140 countries like USA, Canada, South American countries, UK and other European Countries, Russia, South Africa, CIS, Asian & African nations. Integrated within its core business profile are allied businesses like Engineering, Cylinders, Holography & Chemicals which further give Uflex a superior edge above competition.

Uflex Limited is also a part of the D&B Global Database & winner of varied prestigious national & international awards for its products’ excellence. Uflex offers technologically superior packaging solutions for a wide variety of products such as snack foods, candy & confectionery, sugar, rice & other cereals, beverages, tea & coffee, dessert mixes, noodles, wheat flour, soaps & detergents, shampoos & conditioners, vegetable oil, spices, marinades & pastes, cheese & dairy products, frozen food, sea food, meat, anti-fog, pet food, pharmaceuticals, contraceptives, garden fertilizers & plant nutrients, motor oil & lubricants, automotive & engineering components et al.

China on Monday said it has clinched a deal with India on the reduction of import duties on Indian medicines including anti-cancer drugs, which are highly expensive in the country.

Beijing, which earlier announced a cut on import duties on over 8,500 Indian items, said it will relax taxes on more goods from India and other countries as its trade war with the US heats up.

As discussed between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Wuhan summit in April, China has granted more access to Indian pharmaceutical companies.

“We believe the expansion of imports and slashing of tariffs on anti-cancer medicines will usher in great opportunities for India and other countries in the region,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

She referred to a recent popular Chinese movie about a leukemia patient, who imports and sells less expensive generic anticancer drugs from India for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in China.

“There is a popular movie ‘Dying to Survive’ about zero tariff imposition on anti-cancer medicines in China,” Hua added.

She was responding to a question about India’s decision to cut levies on 3,142 items from the member countries of Asia Pacific Trade Agreement. China is a signatory to the accord.

“According to the outcome of the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement, we agreed to slash tariffs by 33 per cent… So the slashing of tariffs by the Indian side is also part of this negotiation,” Hua said.

She added that China will also impose a negotiated agreed tariff rate on relevant items in accordance with its regulations.

“We have decided to expand our imports as well as opening up. This is what China needs in order to uphold the free trade and work against protectionism. It is also in keeping up with our own pace of development and opening up,” Hua said while referring to the ongoing trade war between China and the US.

The two countries slapped tariffs on each other’s products to the tune of $70 billion last week.

Unable to get further allocations from the Finance Ministry under the Nirbhaya Fund, Indian Railways is exploring the loan route to raise Rs 2,500 crore to install CCTVs at all stations and coaches to ensure state-of-the-art surveillance systems in the entire rail network across the country.

The loan is to be raised through Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC), the finance arm of the national transporter. It raises financial resources for expansion and running from the capital markets and other avenues.

There is a total requirement of Rs 3,000 crore for the CCTV project, out of which Rs 500 crore has already been allocated by the Finance Ministry under the Nirbhaya Fund.

“While 436 stations are being equipped with CCTVs, 547 more stations would be covered under the Nirbhaya Fund this year,” a senior Railway Ministry official told IANS.

Giving top priority to safety and security at rail premises, the Budget for 2018-19 had approved CCTV systems in 58,276 coaches and 5,121 stations in the Indian rail network.

However, the Railways could not get the Finance Ministry’s nod for further allocation under Nirbhaya Fund and was told to raise resources on its own.

So it has been decided to raise Rs 2,500 crore through IRFC, with Railtel repaying the loan. Railtel, the telecom wing of the Railways, is responsible for executing the CCTV projects.

Raising loan through IRFC will be preferable for the Railways as against taking market loan.

According to a revised plan, 42,000 coaches and about 5,000 stations would be equipped with CCTV system to strengthen safety and security of passengers.

“We will begin with AC coaches and subsequently other coaches would also be covered,” said the official. “While each coach will have eight CCTV cameras covering the entry gates, aisle and vestibules, all crucial points at stations will have the systems.”

Railways has identified 10,349 coaches of suburban trains, 4,038 coaches of premier trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi, and about 27,000 coaches of superfast and express trains to be covered under the CCTV surveillance system.

All mail, express and premier trains, as well as local passenger services, will be equipped with the modern surveillance systems in the next two years as per the plan.