| IVRCL tanks on NHAI consultant's death |
| IVRCL's scrip closed at Rs 33 on the BSE, down 19.8% on the previous close of Rs 42 |
| BS Reporter / Hyderabad Jan 25, 2013, 00:43 IST
The share price of Hyderabad-based infrastructure firm IVRCL plunged today following a report in an English daily on the death of a National Highways Authority of India ( NHAI) consultant said to be overseeing the company’s road project.
IVRCL’s scrip closed at Rs 33 on the BSE, down 19.8 per cent on the previous close of Rs 42.
"Linking the unfortunate incident to us by some sections of the media (though it was only a passing reference) appears to have resulted in our shares being affected adversely and our image being damaged," IVRCL said in a press release.
IVRCL said The Indian Express had reported Paulose Thomas, a consultant of Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats (ICT), had died in circumstances that are being probed.
ICT is said to have been entrusted by National Highways Authority of India to oversee the quality of work on the four/six laning of NH- 47 from Chengapalli, near Coimbatore, to Walayar on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. This incident seems to have taken place 45 days ago.
"We categorically deny any knowledge of this incident and would like to mention that in unequivocal terms that we are totally unconnected," the company said.
The project in question is being executed by IVRCL Chengapalli Tollway Limited, a subsidiary of the company, on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis.
Currently, IVRCL has under its portfolio 11 highway projects in various stages of development and operation. These include three toll projects, which are under operation. On the whole, the company is involved in development and operation of 4,340 km stretch of highways.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ivrcl-tanksnhai-consultants-death/499947/ |
Thursday, 24 January 2013
NHAI consultant's death-IVRCL tanks
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Serum Institute of India
| Pune firm to offer polio shot at Rs 50 |
| Cyrus Poonawalla?s Serum Institute of India to enter injectable polio vaccine market, undercut Glaxo |
| Bloomberg / Mumbai Jan 23, 2013, 00:48 IST |
Billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, founder of the world’s biggest maker of vaccines, will slash the price of polio immunisation and introduce shots for diarrhea and pneumonia, undercutting Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK).
Poonawalla, who set up the Serum Institute of India Ltd in 1966, will use last year’s acquisition of a Dutch vaccine business to add the injectable form of polio inoculation to the oral drops the Pune-based company supplies to organisations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, he said. The closely-held group also plans to sell a low-cost pneumococcal shot to compete with Pfizer’s $4-billion Prevnar pneumonia vaccine by 2016.
The plan by Serum Institute, which says it supplies vaccines used to immunise two out of three children worldwide, will “revolutionise” efforts to eradicate polio that affects nerves and results in paralysis, said Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general at the World Health Organisation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a key funder of the effort to exterminate the malady, has backed the proposal as oral drops, made of live virus, carry the risk of infection.
| HEALING TOUCH FROM A BILLIONAIRE |
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“On May 30, Gates came over for a private dinner at my house,” and asked that Serum Institute remain family-owned, Poonawalla, 71, who also rears thoroughbred racehorses, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters. “The obvious reason was that, as soon as we sell the company, ‘big pharma’ would immediately double the price of vaccines.”
Serum Institute will enter the injectable polio vaccine market with a shot costing as little as euro 0.7 (Rs 50) in multi-dose vials, he said. That compares with the current price of about euro 2.5 (Rs 180) per shot, Poonawalla said.
Poonawalla, who started Serum Institute by raising $12,000 (Rs 6.4 lakh) selling horses, has his own expansion plan. He bought Bilthoven Biologicals six months ago to gain technology, expertise and manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands.
The facility makes an injectable vaccine based on an inactive form of polio virus developed by Jonas Salk in the 1950s, and is one of four facilities in the world with the capability, according to Martin Friede, a scientist at the World Health Organisation in Geneva.
“We decided to go in for the acquisition of this plant with the encouragement of the Gates Foundation,” Poonawalla said.
“This plant would be scaled up for production, as we’ve done in all our other vaccines, to give 100 percent of the requirement to the rest of the world.”
London-based Glaxo and Paris-based Sanofi are the largest suppliers of injectable polio vaccine, which is used in most developed countries to protect children against crippling poliomyelitis.
Developing countries such as India use the oral formulation developed by Albert Sabin which contains live, weakened virus that’s easier and cheaper to administer.
India, the world’s second-most populated nation, hasn’t reported a polio infection since January 2011, according to government data, while Pakistan is close to eliminating a strain of the virus.
Occasionally, the Sabin vaccine virus mutates back to a virulent strain and sparks immunisation-derived polio outbreaks. That risk will deter governments and United Nations agencies from using the Sabin vaccine as the world comes closer to eradicating polio, requiring a switch to injected products based on inactivated polio virus, Poonawalla said.
The company “could really revolutionise the polio endgame,” said WHO’s Aylward. “They are potentially the most exciting game in town.”
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has a contract with Sanofi ending in March to buy e-IPV, an enhanced-strength injectable polio vaccine, at $12.24 (Rs 658) a dose, the Atlanta-based agency says on its website.
The company’s strategy of not spending on advertisements and waiting for demand for the vaccines to increase has helped it control costs, Poonawalla said. Serum Institute typically enters vaccine markets about five years or longer after a new product has been released, demand is well established and patent protection has ended.
“We’re going to follow the Serum Institute’s philanthropic policy of just putting it at half the price,” said Poonawalla, who also runs two hotels in the UK and an airline charter service in India. “So we can’t see any competition coming our way.”
The price of injectable polio vaccine may be lowered further by the use of additives, called adjuvants, that boost potency, he said.
“Vaccine manufacturers in developing countries, like the Serum Institute of India, are critical to bringing down vaccine prices,” said Trevor Mundel, president of the global health programme at the Gates Foundation.
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine-making unit of France’s largest drug maker, is well positioned to face competition from Indian manufacturers with its Hyderabad-based unit, Shantha Biotechnics, said Olivier Charmeil, president and chief executive officer of the unit.
Shantha produces shots for hepatitis B for emerging markets, tetanus shots for Unicef, and cholera vaccine for Haiti and Africa. The company’s Shan6 inoculation will be an “affordable answer” to six diseases including polio, Charmeil said.
“Shantha allows us to manufacture vaccines with the right quality standards at affordable prices,” Charmeil said in an e- mail. Shantha, which is developing immunisations for diarrhea and cervical cancer, will fuel Sanofi Pasteur’s growth in emerging markets, he said.
Glaxo spokesman David Daley declined to comment on competition from low-cost manufacturers. The company’s shares fell 0.3 percent to 1,401 pence as of 9:21 am in London.
The GAVI Alliance, which buys vaccines for children in poor nations, and the Gates Foundation are encouraging the Serum Institute to supply the shots at a third to a quarter of the current cost, Poonawalla said.
“The Serum Institute has already demonstrated the impact its high quality, low cost vaccines can have on some of the world’s poorest communities,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance. “GAVI welcomes all efforts by partners to drive down prices and increase access to high quality vaccines.”
The Geneva-based alliance was formed in 2000 after the Gates Foundation gave it a start-up grant of $750 million. The Serum Institute is a key supplier.
“The whole philosophy of Serum Institute right from the beginning has been very low cost,” said Poonawalla, whose strategy helped create a $3 billion business. His company supplies about a billion doses of vaccine annually, generating about $500 million in revenue. Sales this year will expand in the range of 35 per cent to 40 per cent, he said.
The Indian company plans to start selling a vaccine for diarrhea-causing rotavirus in 2015 in competition with Merck & Co’s RotaTeq and Glaxo’s Rotarix. Unicef had a contract to buy a single-strain rotavirus vaccine from Glaxo for euro 1.88 a dose and a five-strain formula from Merck for $5 a dose last year, according to data the organisation’s website.
It also plans to begin patient studies of human papillomavirus, the most common cause of cervical cancer next year, Poonawalla said. It will build a plant to manufacture about 35 million doses of the shot, he said.
Serum Institute will start selling a pneumococcal vaccine in 2016, initially protecting against 10 types of the pneumonia- causing bacterium before extending to 15 types, Poonawalla said.
Unicef had a contract to buy a 13-strain pneumococcal vaccine from Pfizer at $7 a dose last year, according to data on the organisation’s website. Glaxo also sold Unicef a version of the vaccine that protects against 10 strains of the bacterium.
“The day we launch it, it will be 100 million-plus capacity,” said Poonawalla, whose stud farm has bred horses that have won nine Indian Derbies. “We have promised to give the vaccine at $2 and still make a profit.”
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/pune-firm-to-offer-polio-shot-at-rs-50/499703/
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Radia shuts shop
TELECOME SCAM
Radia shuts shop
| The 2G scam claims another victim in the form of Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, which its owner, Niira Radia, shuts down. |
Corporate lobbyist Niira Radia arrives to appear before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee in New Delhi in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
NIIRA RADIA was a name that was known only in business and some media circles until tape recordings of her conversations over a period of time with journalists, corporate honchos, politicians and others were leaked to the media in end-2010.
The transcripts exposed a web of deceit and influence-peddling that involved lobbyists of telecom companies, Ministers and officials and helped unravel several threads in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. Today Niira Radia's is a much discredited name in the public relations fraternity.
A media analyst said: “She and her band of lobbyists thought they were powerful influencers who could get away with what they were doing.... Radia probably typifies the kind of people who rise because of their associations with influential people and become so powerful that they think they are beyond the law.”
Radia is embroiled in the 2G scam for allegedly attempting to broker deals in connection with the allocation of spectrum. In November, perhaps as a consequence, Radia shut down her public relations firm, Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, which had among its clients the Tata group and the Reliance (Mukesh Ambani) group. She cited health and personal reasons for doing so.
“She may not have broken the law but what she did was unethical,” said a senior police official in Mumbai. It is a pity that almost 200 people have lost their jobs, he added.
Radia came to public notice when the Income Tax Department kept tabs on her as part of its investigations into possible money laundering, restricted financial practices and tax evasion. With authorisation from the Home Ministry, the department tapped Radia's phones for 300 days in 2008-09. What emerged, among other things, was Radia's alleged lobbying with politicians and journalists for the appointment of A. Raja of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) as Union Communications Minister. The leaked transcripts of the telephone conversations also exposed her role in the 2G scam.
Last year the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revealed it had 5,851 recordings of telephone conversations between Radia and well-known journalists, corporate heads, politicians and senior bureaucrats. They were at some point leaked to the media, and OPEN magazine carried several of the transcripts. The tapes, which were made available on the Internet as well, gave clear details of how Radia worked the media to use their influence to appoint Raja as Communications Minister after the United Progressive Alliance returned to power in the 2009 general election. Additionally, Radia was heard chatting with the Tata group's chairman, Ratan Tata, who later petitioned the government to acknowledge his right to privacy.
The 2G issue goes back to August 2007 when Raja was Communications Minister and when the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had initiated the process of granting Unified Access Service (UAS) licences to telecom companies providing mobile phone services. At this time the Prime Minister and the Finance Ministry apparently raised concerns over the procedure adopted to issue licences. Raja rejected these concerns.
Suddenly, in January 2009 the DoT advanced the issuing of licences on a first-come, first-served basis. The three telecom companies that were allotted licences – Swan Telecom, Unitech and Tata Teleservices – sold their stake at higher prices, which raised suspicions of irregularities. A complaint filed in May 2009 to the Central Vigilance Commission kicked off the investigation.
From May 2009 to the present the 2G spectrum scam has not spared anyone. Once Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy came into the picture demanding a probe and sought sanction to prosecute Raja, the situation turned murkier. In February 2011, Raja was arrested in connection with the scam and a few days later Swan Telecom's promoter Shahid Usman Balwa was also arrested. In April 2011, DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi was arrested.
Meanwhile, Subramanian Swamy claimed that Home Minister P. Chidambaram, when he was Finance Minister, had a hand in the scam.
Gopal Das Bhawan, New Delhi, where the now defunct Vaishnavi Corporate Communications had its office on the fifth floor.
Radia's name cropped up in 2008 with regard to her involvement with the Tatas, and the CBI homed in on her after it got permission to tap her phone. Once it had substantial evidence of her lobbying, the Enforcement Directorate questioned her, and she is still under its scanner.
Radia is said to have had complete control over the Tata group's PR work. This was around the early 2000s when she opened Vaishnavi Corporate Communications. The association with the Tatas opened doors for her and within a few years Radia had over 50 big corporate clients in her portfolio. They included Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group. Numbers are hard to come by, but it is believed Vaishnavi's annual revenue was close to Rs.100 crore.
Following her involvement in the 2G scam, it was inevitable that Vaishnavi would shut shop. In a press release, Vaishnavi said: “For nearly a year now, there have been transcripts of purported conversations between our Chairperson Ms Niira Radia with some reputed personalities from various walks of life. These unverified transcripts and tapes have been widely circulated in the media by motivated and vested interests intent on maligning us, and deflecting public attention from their own wrongdoings in the telecom sector. Indeed, many of the purported transcripts being circulated have absolutely no relevance to telecom at all, and are merely being used for dramatic effect, and to create the illusion of wrongdoing on our part.”
For the media, access to the Tata group was only through Vaishnavi Corporate Communications. “It was a nightmare to get anything out of Vaishnavi,” said a business reporter. “They would only reach us when they wanted to. In fact, even if you had Ratan Tata's e-mail or phone number you could not reach him without Vaishnavi coming into the picture.”
Another reporter had this story to tell:
“In the days following the November 26, 2008, attacks on Mumbai any information was valuable and essential. People across the country, not just in Mumbai, were seeking details on the violent strikes, including at the Tata-owned Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, which claimed over 170 lives. The Tata group had at the time enlisted the help of Vaishnavi Corporate Communications to ‘manage' the media. Whenever mediapersons tried and reach them, they dodged questions or refused to answer them.
“Eventually, Vaishnavi held a press conference where Taj heads were to speak about what happened during the attacks and about the post-attack plan of action. When I called the PR firm to get details on the location and time, I was told by a staffer: ‘This press conference is only open to the foreign press and a selected few others.' I was obviously furious at this discrimination, but there was little I could do as it was the only point of contact for information on anything connected to the Tata group.”
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2824/stories/20111202282404300.htmVaishnavi Corporate Communications-Niira Radia
Exit left
Vaishnavi Corporate Communications shuts shop
In the normal course, no public relations agency would advise you to make a big announcement on the day India hosts its first Formula One race. The din of 95,000 people in 40,000 cars making their way to the Buddh International Circuit would drown out everything else. But this was hardly the normal course. Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, which had two of the most coveted clients in Tata Group and Reliance Industries, was announcing that it was shutting shop - lock, stock, NeUcom and Noesis. This was as good - or as bad - a day as any. More good than bad, since it wouldn't hurt if the announcement went unnoticed.
It was not. In these times of a scandal a week, Niira Radia's face on television that Sunday afternoon may have looked only slightly familiar to some, but the echo of the socalled Radia tapes is still too strong to be lost even in the roar of two dozen 700-hp engines. It was news all right. PR has become big business, and Vaishnavi was the big fish in the lobbying pond. It was also the most unique. "Unprecedented concept... unprecedented client," says Group CEO Vishal Mehta, a trusted aide to Radia, before pausing to add: "Unprecedented crises."
It was not. In these times of a scandal a week, Niira Radia's face on television that Sunday afternoon may have looked only slightly familiar to some, but the echo of the socalled Radia tapes is still too strong to be lost even in the roar of two dozen 700-hp engines. It was news all right. PR has become big business, and Vaishnavi was the big fish in the lobbying pond. It was also the most unique. "Unprecedented concept... unprecedented client," says Group CEO Vishal Mehta, a trusted aide to Radia, before pausing to add: "Unprecedented crises."
...Till the recent past, I would fi ght back, survive and probably react. However, today, I want to give them their victory and let them savour it: Niira Radia
2G scam: Trouble in store for Radia
It had been at the receiving end of a controversy involving bribes to militants in Assam and had to sacrifice the airline at the altar of government policy, which would not - still does not - allow a foreign airline to hold equity in a domestic carrier.
Radia made two attempts of her own at starting an airline - Crown Express and Magic Air - but failed at both due to her British citizenship. Eventually, she started Vaishnavi on November 1, 2001, out of an offwhite building in New Delhi's South Extension. Compared with the shiny new Mango outlet next door, the office was modest - Radia's shiny SUV parked in the porch its only shot at upmarket status. But nothing would take away from the lustre of its clients list. The list began with Indian Hotels, the Tata Group company which runs the Taj chain of hotels. When it signed an agreement with the Department of Culture for preservation of the Taj Mahal, Vaishnavi was roped in to foster the brand association.
A scene of protest in Singur, West Bengal
"The billings that Vaishnavi declared were nowhere close to industry standard; you do not make that kind of money in PR," says the head of a rival firm who, like many others speaking on the subject, does not want to be named. The companies that required more interface with policy makers, the media and public, may have paid more. Tata Steel, which fought a prolonged battle to acquire Corus in 2007, and Tata Motors, which had a bruising time in its failed attempt to set up a factory in Singur, West Bengal, readily come to mind.
These were annual contracts, but renewed every year without any competitive bids being called. Later on, non-Tata clients came: ITC Foods, Hindustan Construction Company, Punj Lloyd, Ascendas, Haldia Petrochemicals, JK Tyre, the Confederation of Indian Industry, and Bennett, Coleman & Co. And then came the big one, Reliance Industries, for which a new subsidiary, NeUcom Consulting, was set up to serve just the one client. Alongside, Noesis Strategic Consulting was set up with Pradip Baijal, recently retired as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, as partner to provide business advisory services.
But none of the other clients compared with the Tatas. The group's relationship with Vaishnavi grew ever closer, so much so that in many cases the PR firm took the shape of the client. Its professionals not only organised interactions with Tata executives, they also spoke for the Tata companies.
So, if you went to Singur when it was burning in farmers' protests against the Tata factory, you met Vaishnavi's personnel on the ground. "For 15 days, we lived on khichri for breakfast, lunch and dinner," recalls a senior Vaishnavi executive. Living on spartan khichri, a porridge of rice and lentils, is meant to show the extent to which Vaishnavi was willing to forgo the worldly pleasures in the service of the client.
The same dedication and proximity eventually undid Vaishnavi as the phone-tapping tapes showed Radia going beyond the purported brief of a "communications consultant" to try and influence a ministerial appointment.
Even as Tata defended Radia, a small but influential group of his executives started informal discussions with outside parties to assess the damage caused to the Tata brand and to the image of Ratan Tata, and figure out the way ahead in managing media relations. Vaishnavi and its people knew nothing about this exercise.
mosimageWhen the end came on October 30, it was short and swift, though "shock" is the word some junior Vaishnavi employees use. Most of them came to know about it from Radia's internal email circulated the same day, in which she invoked Gautama Buddha's philosophy of renunciation. "The last year has been a great experience and one could have continued living in the same manner, always looking behind our back (sic), second guessing when is the next attack coming. But that is not a life I want to lead! ...Till the recent past, I would fight back, survive and probably react. However, today, I want to give them their victory and let them savour it," the email said.
Even some of her senior executives were not prepared for this, but recovered quickly. The recovery was aided by the fact that 30 of them, including CEO Mehta, are joining Reliance Industries. There is a team led by NeUcom head Manoj Warrier to help everyone find jobs. But it is not easy to find 110 open positions for "client servicing professionals" overnight. Some junior staff say they have been left to fend for themselves.
Tata has not taken any, except one person who joined the group a month before closure. Instead, it has chosen Rediffusion, led by Arun Nanda, to handle its public relations. Rediff, in turn, has formed an alliance with Edelman India, passing over the PR firms owned by WPP, which owns 26.7 per cent of its equity. "I do not see any negative impact of the Radia tapes on the Indian public relations industry," says Robert Holdhiem, who heads India operations for Edelman.
Amid all this, the shadow of the 2G case, whose hearings resume on November 11, looms large. Radia has not been arrested, nor charged. She is merely Witness No. 44 for the CBI, which is relying on 124 others to get its convictions. In that sense, the Radia tapes have had little material impact on the case. Will Vaishnavi's closure have any?
Additional reporting by Kushan Mitra and Suman Layak
http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/niira-radia-exits-corporate-communication-business/1/19895.html
NIRA RADIA
WHO IS NIRA RADIA?
Nira was born to Sudesh and Iqbal Memon, a Hindu trader, on 19 November 1960.The sudden rise of Radia raised many eyebrows, she has created Rs-300 crore venture in 9 years.
CBI officials claim they have evidence that she once worked with data servers hosted out of Ukraine and had latest Israeli anti-surveillance gizmos running on the telephones used by her and her close aides. The agency has in its possession 180 hours of candid conversations that Radia, as chairperson of Vaishnavi Corporate Communications(earlier Big League) and its sister organisations like Vitcom, Neucomp, and Neosys — had with politicians, bureaucrats and a handful of high-profile journalists. These could put her at the heart of the telecom scam that claimed the cabinet berth of Andimuthu Raja, who is accused of selling lucrative licences at dirt-cheap prices.
The natural heir to the family business, Radia also worked with Scotland Yard on a job-to-job basis providing escort cover to its young recruits. In London, she married Janak Radia of a wealthy trading family. At some point, she was also marestried to the grandson of Rao Birendra Singh, Haryana’s chief minister in the 1960s, and went by the name of Niira Yadav.In 1996, Radia fled to India from UK after a host of shell companies with paid-up capital as low as £100 went bust and came under scrutiny for money laundering.
First she worked with Sahara supremo Subrata Roy’s blue-eyed boy Uttam Kumar Bose, who was managing Air Sahara. “She worked with us for some time,” admits Abhijit Sarkar, one of the directors of Sahara India. But Bose fell out of favour with Roy when aircraft lease rentals were found to be as much as 50 percent higher than market rates. Thereafter, Radia ventured out on her own. She harboured an ambition to take over the defunct ModiLuft and rename it Magic Air, but failed to get the necessary clearances.
The CBI is also probing what it calls her nexus with a slew of former bureaucrats whose brains she picked to bend rules to the benefit of her clients. These included conglomerates like the Tatas, Reliance, ITC and Mahindras, and big-bucks entities like Lavasa, Star TV, Unitech, Elder Health Care, Haldia Petrochemicals, Emami and the HIV/AIDS initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
This week, one of her confidants, Pradip Baijal, the former telecom and disinvestment secretary who started the country’s much-hyped disinvestment process, was questioned by the CBI for over four hours for his alleged investments in African nations like Guinea and Senegal.
“The charges are serious,” admits ED’s Rajeshwar Singh, refusing to reveal details. CBI and ED officials told that there is enough evidence to prove Radia’s links with retired bureaucrats like Ajay Dua, former secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), CM Vasudev, former finance secretary, SK Narula, former Airports Authority of India chairman, and Akbar Jung, the former civil aviation secretary.
The IT investigations revealed that apart from managing the telecom licences for builder Unitech, among others, Radia also handled and facilitated cross-border transfer of funds. Intercepted conversations between Radia and the allottees of the new telecom licences suggest that she was a key adviser in staggering the inflow of funds from outside India so that no impression could be created that there was a windfall gain to the companies.
Radia was instrumental in sourcing funds — as much as Rs. 1,600 crore — for Unitech,one of the controversial beneficiaries of the telecom licences. The company eventually sold a majority stake in the telecom venture to Norway’s Telenor for seven times the licence fee it paid.
Worse, some of the conversations link Radia to Anil Agarwal of the London-based Vedanta group that has drawn flak for violating environmental norms at its billion-dollar mining projects in Orissa’s Kalahandi district.
Tellingly, the tapes also establish her links with Sunil Arora, an IAS officer based in Rajasthan and used by Radia to gain access to his batchmates in various ministries. The conversations are a part of the CBI notes to the Supreme Court.Arora, who sacrificed his second tenure as chairman and managing director (CMD) of Indian Airlines by attempting to blow the whistle on Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, seems to have opened many doors for Radia across India. During his tenure as the CMD of Indian Airlines (2003-05), seven aircraft leases were found to have been channelled to companies that had Radia’s front companies acting as agents. “We have evidence that substantial payments were made to Arora’s Meerut-based brother by Radia’s company,” said Akshat Jain, a senior IT official.
There are many who claim Radia still nurses a grudge against Jet Airways head Naresh Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel for bringing her flights of fancy to naught. While Radia never got security clearance as the promoter for Crown Air, she came in close contact with the then aviation minister Ananth Kumar of the BJP.
Radia played a role in funding Agnisaakshi, a movie produced by Binda Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. Panjabi was close to the Thackeray family and is tipped to have been a former part-owner of Sea Rock Hotel in Bandra. (Sea Rock was one of the sites bombed in the 1992 serial blasts in the city. The property, which changed hands multiple times, is now run by the Tata Group’s Indian Hotels Company.)
With a never-say-die attitude and assiduous networking, Radia developed a close rapport with Singapore Airlines, helping it set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in India. The change in government policy that disallowed foreign airlines to enter India was also rumoured to have been at the behest of her foes Goyal and Patel.
Late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan played a crucial role in helping the Tata-led management invest Rs-1,200 crore of VSNL’s reserves in the ailing Tata Teleservices.Radia’s biggest break came when she got acquainted with Ratan Tata’s close aide RK Krishna Kumar, the man trusted by Tata to translate his airline dreams into reality.
FORMER DELHI Commissioner of Police KK Paul was a close friend of Radia’s, and got his post under the NDA four months before the Congress-led UPA came to power. When a former Maharashtra DGP was made to quit the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner overnight in February 2007, there was a strong buzz that Radia was lobbying hard to get him a plush posting at the CBI or an intelligence agency in Delhi. Intelligence sources do not rule out Radia’s hand in the controversy surrounding former Mumbai police commissioner Hassan Gafoor, who was the top choice to become Maharashtra DGP before a damaging interview appeared in a leading weekly magazine.
Radia fought a bitter, hostile battle with Dayanidhi Maran, who was upset with Ratan Tata’s reported patronage of maverick businessman C Sivasankaran.Her biggest break came when a rift developed between the Marans and the Karunanidhi family, which resulted in the suave and progressive Dayanidhi Maran’s unceremonious exit from the telecom ministry. It is believed that Radia once flew to Chennai and organised a closed-door meeting between the DMK supremo, his son MK Stalin and Tata.
Radia is believed to have engineered a privilege motion against Praful Patel in Parliament’s monsoon session of 2005. An unheard of periodical, UT Independent, saw a sudden increase in circulation after dubbing the suave Patel India’s bidi king.
Radia was also the non-executive chairmanship of Magic Air — Radia floated Neosys with Baijal, Vasudev and Narula as partners. A couple of Chinese companies including telecom major Huawei were being advised by Radia’s company.
At the same time, her unhindered growth surprised many. Windfall gains came from managing a massive Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) public relations mandate from Mukesh Ambani.Radia formed Neucom to manage the RIL account. With India’s two largest industrialists in her fold, earning her a rumoured Rs 100 crore per annum, Radia left every established player far behind within six years of setting up shop.
She worked closely with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
http://myeconomist.wordpress.com/who-is-nira-radia/
Who is Niira Radia?....
Who is Niira Radia?
NDTV Correspondent | Updated: December 15, 2010 12:53 IST
New Delhi: Kenya-born and London-educated corporate lobbyist Niira Radia has become a household name ever since a news magazine published taped conversations from her phone over a six-month period in 2009.The 5,800 tapes have revealed, among other things, how key portfolios were allocated when the Union Cabinet was formed after the victory of the Congress-led UPA in May 2009, with the lobbyist, who counts the Tatas and Ambanis among her clients, in the thick of it. Even as more skeletons tumble out of the closet, there is very little known about Radia's background and her meteoric rise to fame.
Radia, said to be in her fifties, moved to London from Kenya in the 1970s and schooled at the elite school Haberdashers' Aske's in northern London. She graduated from the University of Warwick and got married to UK businessman Janak Radia, a Gujarati, whom she later divorced and moved to India in the mid-nineties. She started off as Sahara liaison officer and soon became India representative of Singapore Airlines, KLM, UK Air. It is during this time she forged her powerful contacts in the civil aviation ministry, the government and the media. She tried to float an airline, Crown Air, in 2000, but the plan did not take off. In 2001, she set up Vaishnavi Communications, followed by Noesis, Victom and Neucom Consulting. Radia's big-ticket break came when she bagged all 90 Tata group accounts in 2001. Another crowing moment was when Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited joined her clients' list in 2008.
"She was leveraging the power of her clients who are some of the most powerful businessmen in the country," said Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer who filed a public interest litigation seeking the prosecution of Raja on the basis of the taped conversations of Radia.
In 2009, she moved from corporate lobbying to allegedly fixing the lucrative telecom ministry, resulting in a scam that depleted the national exchequer by billions of rupees.
A suspicious IT department taped her conversations at the time of cabinet formation last year in UPA-II. Those tapes have now become part of the national conversation.
(With agency inputs)
"She was leveraging the power of her clients who are some of the most powerful businessmen in the country," said Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer who filed a public interest litigation seeking the prosecution of Raja on the basis of the taped conversations of Radia.
In 2009, she moved from corporate lobbying to allegedly fixing the lucrative telecom ministry, resulting in a scam that depleted the national exchequer by billions of rupees.
A suspicious IT department taped her conversations at the time of cabinet formation last year in UPA-II. Those tapes have now become part of the national conversation.
(With agency inputs)
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/who-is-niira-radia-72723
Apex court tells Centre - Spell out steps to protect small traders
NEW DELHI, JAN 22:
Is FDI in retail a “political gimmick”? This was what the Supreme Court today asked the Government, seeking its response on how it intends to safeguard the interests of small traders after opening up the retail sector to foreign direct investment (FDI). The apex court said the interests of small traders should not be affected by FDI in retail. It said small traders fear their businesses would be affected with the coming of multinational companies, and this needs to be allayed by the government through a regulatory mechanism.
Response in 3 weeks
A Bench headed by Justices R.M. Lodha and S.J. Mukhopadhaya asked the Centre to file its response on these aspects within three weeks and also asked whether some foreign investment had come into the country after the retail sector was opened up or if it was just a “political gimmick”. “What checks are there to ensure that free trade is not affected, particularly the interests of small traders,” the Bench asked, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate questioning the Centre’s policy. “Apprehension is there in the minds of people that small traders’ interests would be affected. How do you intend to allay the fear? Some regulatory mechanism has to be there,” the Bench said. Favouring a regulatory framework to protect small traders, the Bench said the big companies can bring down the prices of commodities through unfair trade practices, forcing small traders to shut shop after which the companies could hike prices and monopolise the market. “Has the policy brought some investment into the country or is it just a political gimmick. Has the policy brought some fruits?” the Bench asked the government.
‘Approved by House’
Expressing reservation on scrutiny of the policy by the Court, Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati said it is a policy matter that has been approved by Parliament and all these aspects were discussed by MPs. The Bench, however, said Government policies are not sacrosanct and the Court has a right to see that the policy is reasonable and within the Constitutional framework.
No policy is sacrosanct
“Any policy is not sacrosanct and it must be within constitutional parameters. We are not policy-makers and we cannot substitute government policy but we will see that it is reasonable and within the constitutional framework,” the Bench said. The court adjourned the matter for five weeks. The Confederation of All-India Traders welcomed the court’s observations on protecting the interests of small traders. “The issue raised by the court for the protection of small traders is a welcome step. We have always advocated that the Centre must put in place a mechanism or regulatory framework to protect the interests of small traders, who are very apprehensive about the FDI policy in retail,” the association’s General-Secretary Praveen Khandelwal said.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/apex-court-tells-centre-spell-out-steps-to-protect-small-traders/article4331859.ece?homepage=trueAllen Stanford’s Ex-CFO James Davis Gets 5-Year Sentence
Allen Stanford’s Ex-CFO James Davis Gets 5-Year Sentence
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins & Andrew Harris - Jan 22, 2013 8:16 AM PT
Former Stanford Financial Group Co. finance chief James M. Davis was sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in a 20-year, $7-billion international fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge David Hittner imposed the sentence today at a hearing in federal court in Houston. He also sentenced Davis to three years of post-release probation. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year term for Davis, 64, who pleaded guilty to felony charges in 2009 and testified against financier R. Allen Stanford. Davis’s attorney asked the judge to cap the sentence at four years, citing his client’s cooperation and early acceptance of responsibility. “I’m not here telling your honor that Mr. Davis was a saint,” the attorney, David Finn, told Hittner today. “From our first meeting he has been remorseful, contrite and has tried to make amends for the harm he has done.” Davis was the second-highest ranking member in Stanford’s business empire, which included the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd. The bank offered certificates of deposit and the Houston-based Stanford Group Co. brokerage sold them. Stanford, who was convicted of lying about what his bank was doing with CD buyers’ money, is serving a 110-year sentence at a U.S. prison in Coleman, Florida.
Former Roommates
Davis and Stanford once shared living quarters while they were students at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. “I’m ashamed and I’m embarrassed,” Davis told the judge today. “I’ve perverted what was right and did wrong. I hurt thousands of investors, I betrayed their trust, also that of associates, neighbors and friends, my family and this court and this country. Everything that I was part of, I failed them and I’m sorry.” Hittner recommended that Davis be sent to a U.S. prison camp near Memphis, Tennessee. Davis must surrender in 60 days. The case is U.S. v. Davis, 09-cr-335, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston). To contact the reporters on this story: Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston atlaurel@calkins.us.com; Andrew Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/allen-stanford-s-ex-finance-chief-gets-five-year-prison-sentence.html
Sunday, 20 January 2013
NCP downplays Rahul's appointment
| NCP downplays Rahul's anointment as Congress vice president |
| Hints willl continue alliance with Congress but on its terms in Maharashtra |
| Sanjay Jog / Mumbai Jan 20, 2013, 16:50 IST |
Ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has downplayed Rahul Gandhi’s anointment as Congress party’s vice president saying that it was its internal matter. But at the same time, NCP chief and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar clarified that NCP cannot fight the ensuing polls under the leadership of party MP and his daughter Supriya Sule as the situation has not come in NCP to entrust leadership to her.
To a question whether his party would cooperate if Rahul Gandhi takes over the leadership of the United Progressive Alliance, Pawar quipped: “How can I react to an event which has not taken place?”
On the other hand, Pawar’s nephew and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar sent out a strong message to its co-partner Congress party not to take NCP for a ride. He also declared that NCP was gearing itself for a singular fight in the coming elections to the state assembly slated for 2014. Both Congress and NCP are ruling state since 1999.
Moreover, Ajit Pawar gave one point programme for party cadre that of increasing NCP’s tally both in the Lok Sabha and also in the state assembly in next elections. Ajit has been instrumental to lure disgruntled leaders from Congress, Shiv Sena, BJP and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to broadbase NCP’s reach. He however, has clarified that the party would not indulge into any move to engineer split in other parties but was open to welcome leaders who have a reckoning and following.
Both uncle and nephew have dropped sufficient indications that NCP won’t unilaterally break alliance with Congress as the party was keen to keep communal forces at bay. However, the duo said NCP would not compromise the interest of party and its workers while keeping its alliance with Congress.
The stand taken by Pawar senior and junior is crucial especially when Congress president Sonia Gandhi in her speech at Chintan Shivir said there was a need to strike a fine balance when it comes to dealing with alliance partners while ensuring that the party's rejuvenation was not compromised. Sonia thereby has snubbed a section of Congress leaders both from the Centre and from Maharashtra who are quite vocal to press severing links with NCP during 2014 elections.
NCP’s state general secretary, who did not want to be identified, told Business Standard “Rahul Gandhi has been toeing idea of Congress party going alone in Maharashtra even if it loses power in 2014 elections. He wants Congress party’s base to increase further instead of its loss due to alliance with NCP. Congress party is free to take its decision so also NCP. However, NCP is preparing its self to face any eventuality.”
Maharashtra Congress party spokesman Sachin Sawant however, said party high command would take a final call on alliance with NCP in the state. “However, as directed by our party president Congress will make all efforts to build the party organization and fight next elections to defeat communal forces.”
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ncp-downplays-rahuls-anointment-as-congress-vice-president/203354/on
Oscar nomination-Lincoln: Anil Ambani
Thanks to Oscar nomination, they now call me Lincoln: Anil Ambani
MUMBAI: It is close to sunrise at the Marine Drive. The sun is about to rise across the Arabian Sea, as Anil Ambani, clad in skin-hugging lycra, and protected by joggers glasses, runs on the parapet of the Nariman Point promenade. He neatly dodges people who are either practising yoga, or are resting on the wall. Accompanying him is his bodyguard.
A day before the Mumbai Marathon, Ambani is just warming up for the big
day. He is saving on the energy quotient for Sunday's 21-km run, but
agrees to interact after his strenuous workout. His trainer from South
Africa, Heath Matthews, is close at hand, watching his every step. His
bodyguard shadows him as he disappears into the crowd, slowing down when
his boss slows down, and pacing up a step behind when his boss cranks
up speed occasionally. In an interaction with 15 of his top CEOS, his
mantra was to stay fit and exercise diligently as this was the best
message you can give to shareholders.
In a rare one-on-one
interaction in many years, Ambani was spontaneous and cheerful, warming
up to his favourite topic, his philosophy of running. He didn't take
questions on the business, except on the blockbuster Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln.
"We have 12 nominations. It's absolutely a wow feeling. It's very
funny. I was in Chennai for five days for my niece Nayantara's wedding,
and weddings in India are about thousands of people. Celebrations,
dinner, lunches and drinks, and through those five days, a very large
number of people there referred to me as Lincoln (laughs). There really can't be a better recognition for Steven (Spielberg) and Daniel Day-Lewis,
who plays Lincoln, and the rest of the cast of Lincoln and the entire
team at Dreamworks. It makes us all very proud. I sincerely hope their
efforts are recognised. We'll wait and watch what happens on February
24. It's a good omen, as 24th is also my respected mother Kokilaben's
birthday. We have her blessings. We can't have a better day for the
Oscar awards."
Ambani starts his day well before the crack of
dawn and his routine includes a punishing run on the Marine Drive
promenade and other parts of the city. "I've a simple math. A day
consists of 24 hours. We work for 10 hours, and eight hours we need to
sleep. This leaves us with six hours. We need an hour to eat, an hour to
read, and an hour to shower. Is it not possible to find one hour for
our health? And you will still have two hours left for anything to do!"
Ever since the start of the Mumbai Marathon in 2004, running has become a major exercise routine for a number of people in Mumbai.
"I call this meditation with eyes open. Usually, people close their
eyes when they meditate. I meditate with my eyes open. When you run, you
can dream of anything," he sums up.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
2 MPs, 42 MLAs across India ACCUSED.....
Entrepreneur's campaign targets 2 MPs, 42 MLAs accused of crimes against women
INDIA, Updated Jan 02, 2013 at 04:06pm IST
Ever since people of the country came out on the streets, lit candles, held protest marches and clashed with the police, many had made direct and oblique references to the political culture of parties turning a blind eye towards giving tickets to candidates accused under different sections of Indian Penal Code for crimes against women including rape. The clamour for the clean-up of the political class seems to be only getting stronger. With help from his friends and associates, Srikant Sastri, a Delhi-based entrepreneur and angel investor, has started a campaign called 'Save The Republic - Resign Before Jan 26th' on Facebook and Twitter to ask two MPs and 42 MLAs, accused of crimes against women including rape, to voluntarily tender their resignations before Republic Day. The data has been culled together from the affidavits submitted by candidates to the Election Commission of India and the various state election commissions.
Of these accused, six MLAs are accused of rape. As many as three of them are from Samajwadi Party (SP): Sribhagwan Sharma, Anoop Sanda and Manoj Kumar, all from Uttar Pradesh. Mohd Aleem Khan from BSP is another such accused from the same state. The BJP's Jethabhai G Ahir from Gujarat and TDP's Kandikunta Venkata Prasad from Andhra Pradesh are the other two. Thirty six other MLAs have declared that they have other charges of crimes against women such as outraging the modesty of a woman, assault, insulting the modesty of a woman etc. Of these, six MLAs are from the Congress, five from the BJP and three are from SP. UP has the maximum number of MLAs (eight) who have declared that they have charges of crimes against women, followed by Orissa and West Bengal with seven MLAs each. Two MPs, namely Semmalai S of ADMK from Salem constituency in Tamil Nadu and Suvendu Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress (AITC) from Tamluk constituency in West Bengal, have declared that they have charges of crimes against women, such as cruelty and intent to outrage a woman's modesty etc.
Speaking to IBNLive, Sastri said, "While we understand that being accused for a crime and being convicted are not the same, given the level of public outrage, the lengthy judicial process and the haplessly low conviction rates, we believe it's time for the political parties of the country to try to reclaim the higher ground."
The campaign, launched in the first day of the new year at 12 midnight, seeks voluntary tendering of resignations on part of the elected representatives. "We do not want confrontation, we want dialogue with the parties, we want them to take this step out of self-realisation. As part of the build-up plan, we are also trying to reach out to the youth of our country by directly campaigning in colleges apart from running the e-campaigns," Sastri told IBNLive. "We wanted to fix the date for January 26 not just because it is our Republic Day but also because a lot of people believe that attitudinal changes towards women is a time-taking process and are bogged down by a sense of helplessness. We wanted to put a time-frame to this to also let the political parties have a chance to show the people that they could act swiftly and decisively," Sastri added.
Incidentally, political parties gave tickets to 260 such other contesting candidates in the Legislative Assembly elections held in the last five years who have declared that they have charges of crimes against women such as outraging the modesty of a woman, assault, insulting the modesty of a woman etc. Out of the 260 candidates who declared that they have been charged with crimes against women, 72 are/were independent candidates, 24 have been given tickets by the BJP, 26 by the Congress, 16 by the SP and 18 by the BSP. Maharasthra has the maximum number of such candidates (41), followed by Uttar Pradesh (37) and West Bengal (22). In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, political parties gave tickets to six candidates who declared that they have been charged with rape. Out of these six, three are from Bihar, one from Delhi, one from Uttar Pradesh and one from Andhra Pradesh.
Thirty four other contesting candidates from the 2009 Lok Sabha elections declared that they have charges of crimes against women. Maximum cases of crimes against women are against candidates from Bihar (9), followed by Maharashtra (6), and Uttar Pradesh (5). (For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter,Google+ and Pinterest)
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/entrepreneurs-campaign-targets-two-mps-42-mlas-accused-of-crimes-against-women/313485-3.html
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