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Bank scam accused held after 9 years
Models display apparels from India’s top designers at the Kingfisher Fashion Awards 2005 held in Mumbai on Saturday evening. — PTI
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Pepsi’s Oye Bubbly irks Sehwag
Vat list of items may be extended
Ministry seeks ban on ATF export
Asians strike it rich in Britain
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SkodaAuto to double production
"Graveyard for computers", established with an intention to give a decent burial to the hazardous electronic waste.
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Bank scam accused held after 9 years
New Delhi, April 3 The CBI’s Economic Offences Wing got its prize catch today morning after the Indian Bank scam lynchpin remained elusive for nearly nine years, a CBI press statement stated here. Based on a Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued at the behest of the CBI, Indian Bank scam accused Varadharajaloo was detained by the Dubai Police when he tried to enter Dubai recently, the statement said. Varadharajaloo, wanted in 10 Indian Bank related cases registered by the CBI, fled the country during 1996 to Singapore and from there he reached France. He obtained French citizenship and evaded arrest since the time he left the Indian shore, the statement said. He had, in connivance with the Indian Bank officials, has defrauded the bank of several hundred of crores of rupees. The cases are pending trial in the Principal Special Judge Court for CBI cases at Chennai. There are five cases registered by the Economic Offence Wing, Chennai, three by the Bank Securities & Fraud Cell, Bangalore and two cases registered by the Anti-corruption Branch of CBI, Chennai. All these cases have been chargesheeted and are pending trial in the Court now. The fraud was committed by various companies connected with Varadharajaloo like M/s MVR Exports, M/s Industries, M/s Mountamount Singapore Pvt Ltd, M/s Nagova Exim Pvt Ltd and M/s Sathyam Chemicals. The CBI continued its efforts to arrest this fugitive and fought a protracted legal battle in the year 2001 for extradition of the scam accused from France, the statement said. However, the French government refused to extradite Varadharajaloo, who by then had acquired French citizenship. At last, the CBI efforts bore results when he was deported from Dubai as the Ministry of External Affairs asked Indian Ambassador Sudhir Vyas to make the deportation possible.
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Kingfisher Airlines to take off on May 7
Mumbai, April 3 Dr Mallya made this announcement at the 5th Kingfisher Fashion Awards ceremony held at a star-studded function at Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel here last evening. The airlines, on this occasion, also unveiled a designer line of uniforms and accessories for its flight attendants. Sharing his thoughts on the launch of its designer line, Dr Mallya said, ''Our flight attendants are our ambassadors and will embody the aspirations of our guests. The designer attire represents a commitment to provide an unparalleled and stylish travel experience.'' The collection designed for the flight attendants includes a skirt and a shirt with a waistcoat and accessories like shoes, bag and their travel baggage. While interacting with mediapersons later, Dr Mallya said, ''The fashion awards play a significant role in encouraging and promoting the best in Indian fashion industry. We are delighted to have created this platform to celebrate exceptional talent.'' The fashion awards comprised a glitzy ceremony choreographed by Prasad Bidapa, while comperes Isha Koppikar and Rahul Dev ensured that the heady mix of designs, models and music created an experience more expansive than traditional fashion pageantry. Meanwhile, Vijay Mallya-controlled United Breweries Ltd is planning to merge all its companies under a single entity — United Spirits Ltd — in the next three months. "We are looking at merging spirit business under a single brand, which will result in unlocking value and exploiting the potential of the group," UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya said on the sidelines of `Kingfisher Fashion Awards 2005' here late last night. Subsequently, the just acquired Shaw Wallace & Co (SWC), bought from the Manu Chhabria family, would also be merged with the United Spirits, he said. After the consolidation, United Spirits would become the second largest spirit distiller in the world, he claimed.
— Agencies
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Pepsi’s Oye Bubbly irks Sehwag
New Delhi, April 3 Sehwag endorses Reliance mobiles and Boost and is also the sole cricketer endorsing Pepsi’s rival Coca-Cola. Expressing objection on the use of Sehwag’s voice, Latika said, “this is totally unauthorised, improper, unethical and illegal use of Virender’s voice/voice-likeness undertaken by PepsiCo especially his favourite catch line — ‘Sir ji mera chance’ as used in Boost commercial — has been used in the new Pepsi advertisement.” However, a Pepsi spokesperson when contacted, said, “we have not used Virender Sehwag’s voice in the commercial.” Pepsi currently gets the services of a number of cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar and skipper Sourav Ganguly in its commercials and the use of a Sehwag-like voice in their latest commercial has led to the present controversy. Coke has brought back its most successful brand ambassador Aamir Khan in a new TV commercial to take on the Pepsi’s campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan with voice likeness of Saif Ali Khan and Amitabh Bachchan used along with the alleged use of Sehwag like voice. The latest spat between the two cola giants is likely to heighten the competition to capture the market share.
— PTI
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Vat list of items may be extended
New Delhi, April 3 Though the Vat White Paper released on January 17 refers to about 550 items coming under Vat, some of the industrially developed states like Maharashtra and Haryana already classify over 1,000 items as industrial inputs and outputs. State government sources said the figure in White Paper is “incorrect.” Confederation of All India Traders has also pointed to discrepancies in Vat list and rates of various states that have passed the Vat bills. When contacted, Vat panel secretary Ramesh Chandra admitted there was confusion on the Vat list among states.
— PTI
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Ministry seeks ban on ATF export
New Delhi, April 3 The ministry, acting on a request by IOC, now wants the Exim Policy to be modified to ban exports of jet kero and ATF, official sources said. IOC has alleged that adequate quantities of kerosene for public distribution were not available from Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).
— PTI
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Asians strike it rich in Britain
London, April 3 The top 10 richest in Britain are 1) Lakshmi Mittal (Steel, £ 14.8 billion), 2) Roman Abramovich (Oil, industry, football, £ 7.5 b), 3) The Duke of Westminster (Property, £ 5.6 b), 4) Hans Rausing and family (Food packaging, £ 4.95 b), 5) Philip and Christina Green (Retailing, £ 4.85 b), 6) Oleg Deripaska (Aluminium, £ 4.375 b), 7) Sir Richard Branson (Transport and mobile phones, £ 3 b), 8) Kirsten and Jorn Rausing (Inheritance and Investments, £ 2.575 b), 9) David and Simon Reuben (Property and metal trading, £ 2.5 b) and 10) Spiro Latsis and family (Banking, aviation and shipping, £ 2.4 b). “In just a year, 54-year-old Mittal quadrupled his fortune to £ 14.8 billion — from £ 3.5 billion last year — and Mittal’s climb to the top is one of the most phenomenal increases in personal wealth ever seen in this country,” Beresford said. New entries this year in the “billionaires’ Club” are James Dyson, the inventor, Richard Desmond, the newspaper magnate, and Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraq-born tycoon. Britain’s richest are acquiring wealth at one of the fastest rates in the world. The country’s most affluent 50 persons increased their wealth by 29.7 per cent last year, compared with a 12.5 per cent increase among the richest 50 in Europe and a 1.7 per cent rise for the richest 50 in the world. The wealthiest woman on the list is Christina Green, who shares a £ 4.85 billion fortune with her husband, the retail tycoon Philip Green. A tax exile in Monte Carlo, she is named as owner of the couple’s shareholding in the retail groups Bhs and Arcadia. Of the 1,000 people on the list, 750 are self-made millionaires. Most have made their money in land, property, banking or finance. The boom in consumer confidence means that many multi-millionaires who have thrived this year are involved in shopping, hotels and food.
— PTI
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SkodaAuto to double production
Chandigarh, April 3 This was revealed by Mr Imran Hassen, Managing Director, last night here. He was on way to Jalandhar to inaugurate their first dealership at Jalandhar. Mr Hassen said, “With this, we have raised the number of our dealer network to 37. Jalandhar is important to us as we have received a tremendous response in this region. It will sell all nine luxury models offered by Skoda in the country. ” They have a dealership each in Chandigarh and Ludhiana in the North. On an average, they sell about 70 units in the Punjab area. Considering that Skoda models are priced in the high-end range of Rs 10.5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh, Mr Hassen is happy with the sales. “We have a 24 per cent market share in the high segment,” he adds. He attributes their success to “obsession with quality” and latest technology like the provision of air bags and the use of only computerised gadgets for servicing and total absence of screws and drivers While Octavia is a popular choice, the company plans to target the upper middle class by introducing Fabia in the country soon. SkodaAuto has been operating in India since 2001 as a subsidiary of SkodaAuto a.s. Czech Republic (Volkswagen Group).
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Computer graveyard comes up in India’s silicon valley
Bangalore, April 3 Mr P.Parthasarthy, an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, has started a company to recycle e-waste called "E- Parisara" at Dabaspete, 50 km from Bangalore, where e-waste is disposed of by reprocessing in an eco-friendly manner. He collects precious metals from obsolete and discarded computers and other electronic wastes like monitors, printers, fax machines, floppies, cartridges, integrated circuits, chips and mother boards and recycles them to reusable products. "Most of the materials are handled and processed properly. There is no problem at all. And our methodology is non-incineration. We will be following environmental norms and there will not be any significant landfill of useful material. Reduce, reuse and recover is our motto,” he said. Mr Parthasarthy says Bangalore, which is the IT capital of the country, generates around 6,000 tonnes of electronic waste every year. He is hopeful of bagging contracts from IT bigwigs like Infosys, Wipro, HP and ABB, who have shown keen interest to dispose of their e-waste as he also offers specific guarded burial of the waste that might contain valuable and confidential data. The recycled waste helps in recovery of precious metals like silver, gold and platinum. E-waste is one of the most rapidly growing environmental problems of the world. In India e-waste management assumes greater significance not only due to generation of waste but also dumping by the developed countries. In general, computer equipment is a complicated assembly of more than 1,000 materials, many of which are highly toxic, such as chlorinated and brominated substances, toxic gases, toxic metals, biologically active materials, acids, plastics and plastic additives. The health impacts of the mixtures and material combinations in the products often are not known. The production of semi-conductors, printed circuit boards, disk drives and monitors uses particularly hazardous chemicals, and workers involved in chip manufacturing are now beginning to come forward and reporting cancer clusters. In addition, new evidence is emerging that computer recyclers have high levels of dangerous chemicals in their blood.
— ANI
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Another leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul is listed 175th richest in Britain with wealth worth £ 275 million pounds — £ 5 million more than Queen Elizabeth II, who is listed 180th with assets to the tune of £ 270 million.
Encouraged by the good response to Skoda cars, SkodaAuto India plans to double the production capacity from 15,000 units per year to 30,000 by the year-end. This follows the decision of the company to make their state-of-the-art facility in Shendra, near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, the manufacturing hub for south Asian countries, including Nepal and Bangladesh.
