The CBI on Friday questioned ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar’s brother-in-law Rajiv Kochhar for a second consecutive day in connection with a case of Rs 3,250 crore loan to the Videocon Group in 2012.

Rajiv Kochhar is being questioned at the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) Bandra-based office since morning.

Informed sources said the CBI was probing Rajiv Kochhar’s link over allegations pertaining to his Singapore-based company Avista Advisory’s dealings with the ICICI Bank.

The bank, however, has denied its engagement with Avista for any services ever.

The CBI on Thursday questioned Rajiv Kochhar for over five hours in connection with the case.

He was on Thursday stopped at Mumbai airport by immigration authorities around 11 a.m. while he was about to leave for Singapore.

Later, he was handed over to a CBI team which brought him to its Bandra office for questioning him in connection with its preliminary enquiry against his brother Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Chairman Venugopal Dhoot.

The agency had registered a preliminary enquiry against Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon Group officials and others for its probe to determine any wrongdoing or otherwise in the sanction of the loan to the Videocon Group by the ICICI Bank as part of a consortium of banks in 2012.

Chanda Kochhar, who is facing questions of conflict of interest on the issue, has not been named in the preliminary enquiry, which was registered after news reports raised questions about Videocon Chairman giving loan of Rs 64 crore to a firm he had jointly promoted with Deepak Kochhar, six months after his group got the Rs 3,250 crore loan.

The said money was part of a loan of Rs 40,000 crore which Videocon received from a consortium of 20 banks led by the State Bank of India.

The CBI on Thursday said it has filed a case against Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL) and its directors for defrauding a consortium of 11 banks of Rs 2,654.40 crore.

Apart from DPIL, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR filed on March 26 includes names of firm’s founder Suresh Narain Bhatnagar and his sons Amit Suresh and Sumit Suresh.

The FIR also mentions some unidentified public servants.

The CBI has reportedly conducted searches at the corporate office, two factory premises and at the residences of the directors of the firm.

DPIL, which is engaged in the production of cables and other electrical equipment, through its management has fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks since 2008, leaving behind a total outstanding debit of Rs 2,654.40 crore as of June 29, 2016, according to the FIR.

The company managed to get term loans and credit facilities, in spite of the fact that they were already appearing in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s list of defaulters and the caution list of Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGCI) at the time of initial sanction of credit limits by the consortium, it said.

At the time of consortium’s formation in 2008, Axis Bank was the lead bank for the term loan and the Bank of India was the lead bank for cash credit (CC) limits.

Bank of India, which tops the list with Rs 670.51 crore of loans, is followed by Bank of Baroda (Rs 348.99 crore), ICICI (Rs 279.46 crore), State Bank of India (Rs 266.37 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 255.32 crore), Allahabad Bank (Rs 227.96), Dena Bank (Rs 177.19 crore), Corporation Bank (109.12 crore), Exim Bank of India (Rs 81.92 crore), IOB (Rs 71.59) and IFCI (58.53 crore).

The company, allegedly with support of officials from various banks, managed to obtain enhancement in credit facilities. During 2011, DPIL had projected turnover of Rs 2,197.60 crore for the year 2012 whereas the actual turnover was Rs 1,267.60 crore only for the year 2011, the FIR said.

“DPIL got credit facilities enhanced from Rs 285 crore to Rs 480 crore.”

Next year, against the estimates of Rs 2,197.60 crore, DPIL actually achieved a turnover of Rs 1,740.38 crore as on March 31, 2012, which was Rs 457.22 crore less from the projected turnover figure, despite the fact that the CC limit was fully availed by the company, said the FIR.

As per the FIR, Bank of India officials, while conducting the credit review, did not decrease the cash credit limit and kept it unchanged at Rs 480 crore even though such figures were based on grossly exaggerated sales figures.

Facebook has deployed technology tools like artificial intelligence and thousands of people to work on security as the company’s “major focus” this year is to protect the integrity of upcoming elections in several countries, including India, on its platform, its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said.

Terming 2018 a “big year” for elections, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was enhancing its security features to prevent trolls from spreading information.

The social media giant has been slammed over a major data breach scandal by Cambridge Analytica, a British firm linked to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

“In the US Senate Alabama special election last year, we successfully deployed some new artificial intelligence (AI) tools that removed Macedonian trolls who were trying to spread information during the election. We now have about 15,000 people working on security and content review and we’ll have more than 20,000 by the end of this year,” Mark Zuckerberg told reporters during a conference call on Tuesday.

“This is going to be a big year for elections ahead with the US midterms and elections in India, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Hungary and others. This is going to be a major focus for us,” he said.

Several states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are scheduled to go for polls this year and the general elections are due in a little over a year from now.

A day earlier, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook had taken big steps by taking down Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) pages that were targeting the US.

“Since we became aware of their activity after the 2016 US elections, we’ve been working to root out the IRA and protect the integrity of elections around the world,” he said.

“There have been a number of important elections that we’ve focused on. A few months after the 2016 elections, there was a French presidential election and leading up to that we deployed some new AI tools that took down more than 30,000 fake accounts,” he said.

In German election, the company developed a new playbook for working with the local election commission on share information on threats it received, he said.

“We have more work to do here and we’re going to continue working very hard to defend against them. There’s the Mexican presidential election, there are big elections in India and Brazil as well as in Pakistan and Hungary and a number of other countries and the US midterms, of course,” he said.

The Facebook CEO pointed out three different types of activity that required different strategies for fighting.

Economic actors, who are basically spammers; the second are governments trying to interfere in elections, and then the third is just polarisation and sometimes lack of truthfulness in what you’ve described as the media, he said.

“If we just make it so that the economics stop working for them then they’ll move on to something else. I mean, these are literally the same type of people who had been sending you Viagra e-mails in the ’90s. We can attack it on both sides. on the revenue side, we make it so that they can’t run the Facebook ad network,” he said.

The second category are the national security type issues, Mark Zuckerberg said, adding that is the Russian election interference.

“In order to solve that, what we need to do is to identify these bad actors…What we need to do is to just track that really carefully in order to just be able to remove it from Facebook entirely,” he said.

COMMENTSMark Zuckerberg alleged that some media organisations that are sanctioned news outlets in Russia when investigated closely over time, clearly come out as organisations completely owned, controlled and operated by the IRA.

“So we take them down and treat that as a security issue,” he said.

Monday’s trip marked SpaceX’s 14th resupply mission for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract.

SpaceX blasted off a load of supplies Monday for the International Space Station aboard a rocket and a cargo ship that have both flown before, marking the second such flight for the California-based company.

“Falcon 9 is on its way,” a SpaceX commentator said as the white rocket surged skyward over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 4:30 pm.

SpaceX’s Jessica Jensen, director of Dragon mission management, said the booster had previously launched in August 2017, and the Dragon flew to the space station in April 2016.

SpaceX’s first such double-recycle resupply mission for NASA flew to the orbiting outpost in December 2017.

The effort is part of SpaceX’s mission to lower the cost of space flight by re-using costly, multimillion-dollar components that typically have been discarded into the ocean after each launch.

“What is really neat about this is it is becoming the norm,” Jensen said.

Monday’s trip marked SpaceX’s 14th resupply mission for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract that aims to guarantee much-needed supplies and equipment to the astronauts living in orbit.

The capsule is packed with about 5,800 pounds (2,600Kg) of food and science experiments, including one to study thunderstorms and another to test drug development in space.

The cargo ship is scheduled to latch onto the space station early Wednesday, and will stay in orbit for about a month before returning to Earth.

Motherson Sumi (MSS), via its 51% owned subsidiary SMRPBV, has executed the transaction documents for the proposed acquisition of Reydel Automotive (Reydel; all cash deal). Prima facie, the deal is favorable as: (a) businesses & customer profiles of both companies are complementary. In fact, the acquisition will bolster MSS’ capabilities; (b) valuations at ~0.1x CY17E EV/sales & ~2x CY17E EV/EBIDT (~5-6x for SMRPBV) render it value accretive (similar to SMR in 2009) given RoCE of ~25%; and (c) capex needs of ~USD30mn indicates adequate FCF. We revise down FY20E EPS ~4% to INR15.3 to factor in lower growth across business. However, we upgrade to ‘BUY’ post the recent stock price correction with revised TP of INR375 (earlier INR 404).

Reydel buy: Key takeaways:

· Reydel a strategic fit: The acquisition provides MSS access to a diverse set of capabilities (versus SMP) in similar line of products (cockpit modules, instrument & door panels, consoles, etc). Also, it widens its customer base. Post the acquisition, revenue share from Renault/PSA to rise to 8%/5% from 5%/1% currently. Similarly, MSS will gain access to Indonesia, Croatia, Philippines, Morocco and Argentina where currently it has limited presence.

· Valuations attractive: At USD201mn, Reydel will be acquired at attractive valuation of EV/sales of ~0.1x and EV/EBIDT of ~2x (EBIDT of USD68mn, net cash at USD53mn). Management indicated that Reydel’s capex need will be well funded by its operations. Ample cross leverage opportunities for MSS and Reydel on best practices, accessing new locations and new platforms. Management indicated that it has been mulling the Reydel buy since a year and has the support of all the latter’s customers.

Outlook and valuations: Well placed; upgrade to ‘BUY’

We like MSS’ strong India franchise (~65% market share; >50% RoCE) as well as SMR (~25% market share; >40% RoCE). We expect SMP to also follow this trajectory driven by revenue traction and lower capex. We estimate 28% FY18-20E EPS CAGR. Post the recent correction, we upgrade to ‘BUY’ from HOLD with TP of INR375 (India business 30x, SMR: 20x, SMP/PKC: 18x FY20E PER). At CMP, the stock trades at 21x FY20E PER.

Oxfam India on Monday announced the appointment of Amitabh Behar as Chief Executive Officer of the organisation that fights against inequality, poverty and injustice and is involved in humanitarian work in the country.

Behar succeeds Nisha Agrawal, who was the founding CEO of Oxfam India and headed the organisation since March 2008.

Behar, a former Executive Director of National Foundation for India, is an expert on people-centred advocacy and chairs organisational boards of Amnesty International India, Navsarjan and Yuva. He has an M.Phil in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

An Oxfam statement said he was selected after an “extensive and transparent process, led by the board chair of Oxfam India Kiran Karnik, with the help of a prominent executive search firm”.

“I welcome Amitabh as the new CEO of Oxfam India. In an outstanding field of candidates, Amitabh stood out as exemplifying Oxfam’s values and ambitions. He brings grass-roots knowledge, passion and clear vision coupled with his commitment to social justice, and leadership, which has inspired many,” Karnik said.

The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against Deepak Kochhar, husband of ICICI bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, officials of the Videocon group and others to determine whether any wrongdoing was involved in the sanctioning of a Rs 3,250 crore loan to the Videocon Group by the ICICI Bank Ltd as part of a consortium of banks in 2012.

CBI sources said that Chanda Kochhar, against whom conflict of interest questions have been raised, has not been named in the PE as of now.

They said that Deepak Kochhar will soon be called for questioning along with some bank officials. These officials are also likely to include from the banks which were part of the consortium that lent money to the Videocon group.

The CBI action comes in the wake of the news reports raising questions about Videocon Chairman Venugopal Dhoot allegedly providing crores of rupees to a firm promoted by Deepak Kochhar and two relatives six months after his group got the Rs 3,250 crore loan from ICICI Bank.

The said amount was part of a loan of RS 40,000 crores which Videocon received from a consortium of 20 banks led by State Bank of India (SBI).

A PE is conducted to determine if there is enough evidence of wrongdoing for a case to be taken up for detailed investigation. If sufficient evidence suggests that a cognizable offence has been committed, then the PE is converted into a regular case or First Information Report (FIR).

The source said that the agency has collected documents related to the loan given to Videocon group in 2012.

India on Thursday successfully launched the GSAT-6A satellite that would provide mobile communication facilities, using its heavy rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F08), in a copy book style.

The GSLV-MkII rocket slung the satellite in a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) from where it would be taken up to its final geostationary orbit by three orbit raising manoeuvres.

ISRO’s scientists at the mission control centre were visibly happy, slapping each others’ backs and hugging each other once the rocket ejected the satellite into the intended orbit.

Precisely at 4.56 p.m., the GSLV rocket ascended into the sky from the second launch pad here at Satish Dhawan Space Centre and the 49.1 metre tall rocket, weighing 415.6 tonne, slung the two tonne satellite into the intended orbit 17.46 minutes into its flight.

The purpose of the satellite is to provide mobile communication applications in S-band in five spot beams and C-band in one beam during its 10-year life span.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the GSAT-6A was similar to the GSAT-6 put into orbit in 2015.

The GSLV is a three stage/engine rocket. The core of first stage is fired with solid fuel while the four strap-on motors by liquid fuel. The second stage is the liquid fuel-propelled and the third is the cryogenic engine.

According to ISRO, two improvements — induction of high-thrust Vikas engine and electromechanical actuation system — have been made in the rocket’s second stage this time around.

One of the crucial rocket engines is the cryogenic engine, designed and developed by ISRO, and more efficient than the other two variants as it provides more thrust for every kilogram of propellant burnt.

With this successful launch, India established the performance of its GSLV-MkII rocket which in future may fetch orders from third parties for launching their satellites.

India puts into orbit foreign satellites for a fee using its lighter rocket – the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) as their weight is not much.

Revenue for launching satellites depends on weight of the satellite – higher the weight, higher will be the revenue.

According to the latest Economic Survey, foreign exchange earnings of India from export of satellite launch services increased noticeably in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to Rs 394 crore and Rs 275 crore from Rs 149 crore in 2014-15.

(IANS)

The Income-Tax Department on Thursday released a pan-India list of 24 defaulting individuals and companies who owe about Rs 490 crore in taxes to the exchequer but have either gone untraceable or have reported inadequate assets for payment of dues

The department issued an advertisement as part of its name and shame defaulters policy in leading national dailies titled ‘List of defaulters of Income Tax and Corporate Tax’

The notice, issued by a nodal office of the Principal Director General of Income Tax in Delhi, “advised” the named defaulters to pay their tax arrears immediately

The public announcement carries the identity of the firm or the individual, the name of their directors and partners, the date of incorporation of the company (date of birth in case of individuals), their Permanent Account Number (PAN) or the Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN), their last known address and business profile, the amount of tax defaulted, assessment year and the respective jurisdictional I-T authority

These defaulting firms were in the business sectors like food processing, bullion trading, software, real estate, breweries and manufacture of ingots among others

The maximum tax dues of over Rs 86.27 crore is against a Delhi-based company named Ms Stock Guru, India and its partner Lokeshwar Dev and the notice said the assessee has gone untraceable and also has inadequate assets to pay the income tax

The dues for this firm are for the assessment years (AYs) 2009-10 and 2010-11. Some of the defaulters on the list have not paid their taxes for the assessment year 1989-90

A Kolkata-based individual Arjun Sonkar, as per the notice, has an I-T default of over Rs 51.37 crore and is “not traceable” now. He is followed by Kishan Sharma, another individual from the West Bengal capital, who the department said is in default of Rs 47.52 crore of income tax.

The total tax default amount by 24 entities, from cities like Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Vijaywada, Nashik, Surat, Delhi, Vadodara, Kolkata and others, is about Rs 490 crore

A senior I-T Department official said the public list is aimed to make people aware so that they can help the department in nabbing these defaulters, if they have any information about them

The notice also carried a disclaimer that the “entries in the list are specific to the tax arrear/assessment year mentioned and the tax defaulter’s address, business, shareholding and management may have changed” now

It added that the amount of default “shall further increase” after due interest is levied on it

The department has carried out this exercise over the last few years and?had named 96 such entities which have huge tax liabilities on them but they have either gone non- traceable or have shown no assets for recovery

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy- making body of the I-T department, had few years back adopted the strategy of bringing out the names of chronic defaulters in public domain and had also begun posting these names on its official website.

Privately-run Karnataka Bank Ltd has informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that Gitanjali Gems of scam-hit Mehul Choksi had committed a Rs 86.5 crore fraud in the fund-based working capital.

“We have reported a fraud to the RBI amounting to Rs 86.47 crore in the fund-based working capital facilities extended to Gitanjali Gems Ltd on account of non-realisation of export bills and diversion of funds,” said the Mangaluru-based bank in a regulatory filing on the BSE late on Wednesday night.

The scheduled commercial bank, however, clarified it does not have any Letter of Understanding (LoU) exposure in Choksi’s company.

“The working capital facilities were extended by the bank under consortium arrangement and provisions will be made as per the RBI guidelines,” the bank’s Company Secretary Prasanna Patil said in the filing.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are already facing investigation in the Rs 13,540-crore fraud they committed on the state-run Punjab National Bank’s Mumbai branch, which came to light after they left the country in early January.

(Ians)