Happy Media

The Wire December 05, 2018 Kabir Agarwal New Delhi : The Adani Group’s Carmichael coal mine project, which has faced multiple legal and financial obstacles over the last eight years, now faces a fresh court challenge.   On Tuesday, the Australian Conservation Fund (ACF), a non-governmental environmental organisation, announced that it will take the Australian federal government to court over the grant of a water license to the Adani group without an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). In March 2017, the Adani group was  granted  a water license by the Queensland state government. It could use as much as 26 million litres of water a day for a period of sixty years. The groundwater would be extracted through a pipeline from the Great Artesian Basin, which is the only  reliable source of water supply for large parts of northern Australia. Yet, the Australian Federal government  waived  the need for a full environment impact assessment for the...

The Express Tribune December 05, 2018 Islamabad: - Pakistan’s former ambassador to India Abdul Basit has said India under no circumstances will sit on the negotiations table for the Kashmir dispute at present therefore rather than begging for deliberations, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government must take practical steps. Basit expressed these thoughts while addressing a seminar held in Islamabad on Tuesday. “Pakistan is not doing justice with freedom movement in the Indian occupied Kashmir,” said Basit adding the government has a great responsibility of taking practical measures for resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Controversial remarks on Pakistan, Occupied Kashmir land Shahid Afridi in hot water “Kashmiris have rendered innumerable sacrifices for freedom but it is unfortunate that some federal ministers are making statements on improving relations with India and showing their desire for deliberations,” lamented the former ambassador. Basit further said a...

Indian Express December 05, 2018 Deeptiman Tiwary ,  SHUBHAJIT ROY Hours after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj discussed the extradition of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal, with her counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Michel was extradited to India Tuesday night, the CBI said. Advertising The 57-year-old British national is expected to be produced in court tomorrow. “A team lead by A. Sai Manohar, Joint Director in CBI has been to Dubai for the purpose”, the CBI said. “Under the guidance of Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor (NSA), the entire operation is being coordinated by in-charge Director CBI M Nageswara Rao,” the agency spokesperson said. Incidentally, the Supreme Court is going to hear the matter regarding CBI director Alok Verma on Wednesday.  Michel was among the alleged middlemen who had brokered the deal and who, investigators claim, p...

Bloomberg Quint December 05, 2018 Search the internet for Yes Bank Ltd. and you’d have to look hard to find a positive story. Regulatory trouble, director resignations and stock price under pressure. While none of those events are imaginary, the bank rather blame a rival for the bad press. Yes Bank has accused financial newspaper  Business Standard  of publishing malicious and defamatory news reports, suggesting this was done at the behest of Uday Kotak, owner of the newspaper and rival Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. In a filing with the stock exchanges, Yes Bank enclosed a letter addressed to senior editors at Business Standard accusing the newspaper of “a persistent attack on a public trust institution like Yes Bank Ltd., which is going through a transition phase in its life cycle”. The pattern/sequel of articles published by Business Standard in the last two+ months would clearly indicate that there is explicit malice and prejudice, which the journalis...

BloomBergquint December 05, 2018 Arpan Chaturvedi The Supreme Court today dismissed the Competition Commission of India’s plea to allow it to probe Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.’s allegations of cartelisation against its older rivals— Vodafone India Ltd., Idea Cellular Ltd. and Bharti Airtel Ltd. The bench, headed by Justice AK Sikri, was hearing the CCI’s appeals challenging a judgment passed by the Bombay High Court. The high court in September had ruled against the probe saying the CCI doesn’t have the jurisdiction to order a probe when there is a sector-specific regulator—in this case the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. In January this year, the CCI contested in the top court that a stay order cannot be passed against an ongoing investigation by the commission and the court can look into it only once the probe is complete. Reliance Jio in November 2016 filed a complaint with the CCI alleging that the incumbents were abusing their dominant position t...

Money life December  05,2018 The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) in its submission before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has revealed details of its finding on several instances of misreporting of income, dubious transactions, conflict of interest, ever-greening of loans and rampant personal enrichment of key employees, including Ravi Parthasarathy, Hari Sankaran, and Arun Kumar Saha besides others. The MCA, quoting interim report from the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) says, "IL&FS and its main subsidiaries had the same set of persons as controlling officials who have been at the helm of the affairs for a long period. As part of the governance structure, the board of directors of all key IL&FS group companies had constituted committee of directors (CoD), which was empowered to take decisions pertaining to the operations of that respective entity. The CoD of important subsidiaries comprised of managing directors (MDs), joint MDs, and executi...