Mumbai, September 11
Finding the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) guilty of lapses while conducting the Rs 6,000 crore share sale of PSU major NMDC, SEBI today censured the bourse for its conduct and asked it to take necessary action after an independent review.

Besides, the capital markets regulator would conduct a “detailed probe” into confirmation of bids, worth about Rs 682 crore, by Citibank placed for the Offer For Sale (OFS) that took place nearly two years ago.

In its order, SEBI asked BSE to engage “one or more independent consultants to review the entire sequence of events in the matter, the process followed, checks in place, systems employed while accepting the OFS bids by BSE.” The consultant would need to “bring out the shortcomings, if any, and suggest remedial measures within a period of three months. BSE shall then fix the responsibility internally, both in terms of processes and personnel, and take appropriate action,” SEBI said.

The exchange would need to inform SEBI within further three months as to how the recommendations of the consultant, along with the regulator’s directions, have been implemented.

The matter relates to the government selling nearly 39.65 crore shares of NMDC through OFS mechanism of the BSE and NSE on December 12, 2012. A probe by SEBI into the matter has now shown violations by the BSE to SEBI’s circular on operational guidelines for conducting OFS.

After the closure of the share sale that day at 3.30 pm, SEBI had sought bid data from the two exchanges, to which BSE first stated that the final cumulative bids received at its platform were for 29.91 crore.

In another intimation to SEBI later that evening, BSE revised the figures upward by 4.55 crore shares to state that the final cumulative bids received by it were for 34.47 crore shares. Subsequently, SEBI sought clarification from the BSE about the huge difference between the two figures.

BSE said all the bids had come in before the cut off time of 3:30 pm on December 12, 2012, but it had received a facsimile request from one of its authorised clearing bank, Citibank, on behalf of custodian, Citibank NA at 3:55 pm in respect of updation of collateral of approximately Rs 902 crore with respect to the bid for 4.55 crore shares. — PTI

London/New Delhi, Sept 11
British authorities have taken the UK subsidiary of French train and turbine maker Alstom to court over alleged bribery charges in three countries, including for the Delhi Metro project in India.

Alstom Network UK Limited allegedly paid bribes of around $8.5 million to win infrastructure orders in Poland, Tunisia and for the Delhi Metro between June 2000 and November 2006.

The allegations also involve bribes to bag tram and infrastructure deals in Warsaw, Poland and Tunis, Tunisia during that six-year period.

"Alstom Network UK Ltd, formerly called Alstom International Ltd, a UK subsidiary of Alstom, has been charged with three offences of corruption contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906, as well as three offences of Conspiracy to Corrupt contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977," the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said.

"The alleged offences are said to have taken place between June 1, 2000 and November 30, 2006 and concern large transport projects in India, Poland and Tunisia," it added.

The first hearing of the case was held at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and the next hearing is scheduled for October 6.

The probe commenced as a result of information provided by the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland concerning the Alstom Group, in particular Alstom Network UK Limited — PTI

New Delhi, September 11
The Union Cabinet was apprised yesterday of the progress made with regard to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) with more than 3 crore accounts being opened.

The PMJDY was launched by the Prime Minister on August 28. Banks opened more than 1.84 crore accounts in the first two days of the launch of the scheme. As on September 8, 3.02 crore accounts have been opened of which 1.89 crore are in the rural areas and 1.13 crore in the urban areas. Banks have collected deposits of Rs 1,496.51 crore under the scheme so far which works out to be Rs 495 per account.

As against 3.02 crore accounts opened, banks have been able to issue only 33.6 lakh RuPay Debit Cards. Banks are efforts to clear this backlog and it is expected to be cleared in about four weeks.

Mumbai, September 11
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who had predicted the 2008 financial meltdown, has said that abrupt reversal of low interest rates globally could create substantial amounts of damage and that it should be done in predictable and careful way.

He was also worried that altering the price of capital for substantial period of time distorts investment decision and the nature of the economies. He was asked whether quickly reversing low rates could backfire.

Asked whether super easy money has led to misallocation of capital, he said his greater worry was that by altering the price of capital for a substantial period of time, “are we also, in a sense, distorting investment decisions and the nature of economy we will have.

“Have we artificially kept the real rate of interest somehow below what should be the appropriate natural rate of interest today and created bad investment that is not the most appropriate for the economy?” he told Time magazine.

To a question whether long-term low interest rate mean trouble, Rajan said his sense was that monetary policy can do only so much and beyond certain point it does more damage than good.

A number of years over central bankers have convinced markets that they will continuously come to their rescue and will keep rates really low for long that has pushed asset prices beyond fundamentals and made markets much more vulnerable to adverse news, he said. — PTI

New Delhi, September 11
After Apple's high profile iCloud fiasco, Google is the latest cybercrime victim with Russian hackers posting usernames and passwords of close to five million Google accounts online.

The list was posted on bitcoin forum btcsec.com by a user called Tvskit.

The user claimed that about 60 per cent of the passwords are still active.

The same Google account password is used across all Google products like Gmail, Youtube, Hangouts, Drive and Maps.

Acknowledging the leak in a blog post, Google said it had found that "less than 2 per cent of the username and password combinations might have worked."

It further said that Google's automated anti-hijacking systems would have blocked many of those login attempts.

"We have protected the affected accounts and have required those users to reset their passwords," it said.

Last week, nude images of celebrities were leaked from Apple's cloud service.

Google maintained that the leaked usernames and passwords were not the result of a breach of Google systems.

"Often, these credentials are obtained through a combination of other sources," it said.

Cautioning users, Google said they should ensure they use a strong password unique to Google and update recovery options, so that they can get the information on e-mail or phone in case they get locked out of their account.

"And consider 2-step verification, which adds an extra layer of security to your account," it said.

Users can visit "https://isleaked.com/en.php" to check if their account has been compromised, according to security solutions firm Kaspersky. — PTI 

BRIEFLY

Mercedes-Benz launches E350 at Rs 57.4 lakh onwards
Pune: Mercedes-Benz on Thursday launched an upper-end variant of its flagship luxury sedan E-Class in diesel version — E350 — making it the eighth of the planned 10 launches this year. With a starting price of Rs 57.42 lakh (ex-showroom Pune), it marks the revamp of the E-Class portfolio in the country and is the sixth model to be assembled at its Chakan, Pune facility. — PTI

Audi launches Q3 Dynamic at Rs 38.40 lakh
New Delhi: Audi on Thursday launched Audi Q3 Dynamic with Audi drive select in the Indian market priced at Rs 38.4 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai). The company said this new addition will further strengthen the brand’s dominance in the luxury SUV segment. — PTI

General Motors to launch 40 products globally
New Delhi: General Motors plans to launch 40 new products in international markets, including India, where it is focusing on a turnaround. “In Europe we will launch 27 new Opel models between this year and 2018. In the US from 2013-14, we have launched 32 new vehicles. In China, we have introduced new or upgraded 17 models this year and in international operations, including India, we have 40 new products,” General Motors CEO Mary Barra said. — PTI

India ranks 4th among global smartphone markets
New Delhi: With 111 million users, India ranks as the fourth largest smartphone market globally after China, the US and Brazil, global telecom body GSM Association said on Thursday. China topped the list with 629.2m users, followed by the US (196.8m) and Brazil (141.8m). — PTI

China fines Audi, Chrysler on monopoly charges
Beijing: China on Thursday announced it will fine automaker Audi $40.5 million and Chrysler $5.2 million in a sweeping anti-monopoly probe of their industry that has prompted complaints foreign businesses are being treated unfairly. — AP

VU launches 4K ultra HD televisions in India
New Delhi: California-based Vu Televisions on Thursday launched their 50 and 55-inch 4K Ultra HD TVs exclusively on snapdeal.com. It is priced at Rs 89,900 for the 50-inch versus Samsung’s 48-inch model at Rs 1,59,556, and Rs 1,19,000 for its 55-inch model versus Sony’s equivalent model priced at Rs 2,18,000. — TNS