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PTI, December 27, 2017 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said it has seized assets worth Rs 26.61 of controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and others for alleged violation  of the FEMA law. It said it has seized the properties "in lieu of undisclosed assets held abroad by him" and the action has been carried out under section 37A of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Section 37A of the FEMA stipulates that if certain foreign exchange, foreign security or immovable property is held outside India in violation of this law, the equivalent value of asset can be seized within India.  The ED had booked Bhandari, reported to have left India for a foreign location sometime ago, under  criminal charges of the PMLA law in February thisyear as also under the FEMA. The Delhi Police had also booked him for alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) last year. Bhandari's case first came to light after the I-T department conducted searches against h...

The Economic Times By  Rajshekhar Jha December 27, 2017 Was Delhi's top gangster Neeraj Bawana plotting to eliminate underworld don Chhota Rajan inside Tihar jail at the instance of the D company ? Intelligence shared with Tihar authorities two weeks ago strongly pointed to the possibility, leading to a review of Rajan's security in the high-profile prison.  According to the inputs, the latest D company bid to target Rajan got busted after one of Bawana's aides boasted about the plot to another associate during what was described as drunken banter. This was picked up by the agencies which brought it to the notice of all stakeholders involved in Rajan's security.  Bawana also gave feelers about the plot during a meeting with a mulaqati (visitor), a source said. Incidentally, Rajan and Bawana are lodged in the same jail (no. 2) but have different cells. After the alert, Bawana has been shifted to an isolated cell.  A few days before he was moved, ...

The Economic Times December 27, 2017 New Delhi Over 3,200 people booked by CBI for their alleged involvement in corruption were acquitted by courts in the last four years, the government said today.  A total of 755 persons were acquitted by courts in 184 corruption cases during 2017 (till November), Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.  As many as 944 people were acquitted in 2016, 821 in 2015 and 748 in 2014, he said.  These people were acquitted in various cases probed by the CBI in the past three years.  In another query, Singh said a total of 3,617 people were convicted by the courts in 1,800 corruption cases booked by the CBI.  Of these, 741 people were convicted by the courts this year (till November 30), the minister said.  In 2016, 1,005 people were convicted in 503 corruption cases. A total of 878 (in 434 cases) and 993 people (509 cases) were convicted in 2015 and 2014 respect...

The Economic times By Reena Zachariah December 27, 2017 The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked Axis BankBSE -0.74 %, India's fourth-biggest private-sector lender by market capitalization, to strengthen its internal processes and systems after the regulator noticed leakage of price-sensitive information relating to financial results on WhatsApp groups before they were officially announced on stock exchanges.  The regulator on Wednesday asked Axis Bank to conduct an internal inquiry on those involved in the preparation of board notes and presentations, with information access and engaged in the consolidation of figures and dissemination of information relating to financial results in the public domain.  SEBI has also sought an inquiry on all the members of committees involved in generation of the original data for the purpose of determining key ratios, such as Gross non-performing assets (GNPA), net non performing assets (NNPA), net ...

The Economic Times December 27, 2017 Hyderabad Big Indian information technology companies have formed a cartel to keep salary of entry-level engineers low, alleged IT industry veteran TV Mohandas Pai, raising a strong pitch for a better deal for freshers.  He agreed with InfosysBSE -0.12 % Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, who said that in the last seven years, the salaries of freshers in the software industry have stayed stagnant, while the same for senior-level employees have grown multi-fold.  Pai, a former CFO of Infosys, said these companies are taking advantage of "over-supply" of engineers and seeking to command the market, terming this trend "totally wrong".  "There is a cartel...there has been a cartel, there is no doubt. They (big IT companies) talk to each other, sometimes tell each other not to increase, that's been there for a long time," Pai told PTI.  "I know that people (of big IT companies) used to get toget...

The Economics Times December 27, 2017 New Delhi The fall of Reliance Communications is part of the long decline at the Reliance Group. Personal fortunes of Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani too have shrunk ever since he and his elder brother, Mukesh Ambani, split the family business in 2006.  In 2007, Anil Ambani had a net worth of $45 billion, according to the Forbes Rich List. His biggest asset was a 66% stake in telecom venture Reliance Communications. Elder brother Mukesh had a net worth of $49 billion. In the 2017 Forbes Rich List, Anil's net worth had shrunk to just $3.15 billion while Mukesh's was $38 billion.  The group companies too reflected this trend. The 10-year compounded annual growth rates (CAGRs) of Mukesh's Reliance industries have been 11.2 (sales), 9.4% (profit) and 17.8% (returns), according to a Bloomberg report. The same rates for Anil's Reliance Group have been 9.4%, -12.6% and -1.7%. The gap in market value of both the ...

Live Mint December 27, 2017 Oil traded near the highest close in more than two years after an explosion at a pipeline carrying crude to Libya’s biggest export terminal curbed the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) nation’s production.  Futures were little changed in New York after rising 2.6% on Tuesday and breaching $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015. A pipeline run by Waha Oil Co. that carries crude to Libya’s Es Sider terminal exploded Tuesday, reducing output by 70,000-100,000 barrels a day. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is said to expect oil revenue to jump about 80% by 2023 to help the kingdom record its first budget surplus in a decade. Oil is heading for a second yearly advance as Opec and its allies including Russia prolong supply curbs through the end of 2018. Prices gained this month after a separate pipe in the UK—one of the most important conduits in the world—was shut because of a crack. Partial flows have now restarted at ...

The Times of India Reuters   December 27, 2017 India is set to surpass China as the biggest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) this month as a drive to replace wood and animal dung fires+ for cooking boosts consumption. Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows LPG shipments to India will reach 2.4 million tonnes in December, pushing it ahead of top importer China, on 2.3 million tonnes, for the first time. India's LPG purchases have surged from just 1 million tonnes a month in early 2015 on the back of a government programme to bring energy to millions of poor households relying on open fires.  "The growth in India is amazing. The fact that they have grown from 140 million subsidized household connections in 2015 to 181 million now is very impressive," Ted Young, chief financial officer at Dorian LPG told Reuters.With a fleet of 22 tankers, US-based Dorian is one of the world's biggest LPG shippers. LPG, a mixture of propane and butane, ...

The Guardian December 27, 2017 What would you do if you had $86m? It’s a welcome dilemma for some of bitcoin’s early adopters thanks to the cryptocurrency’s meteoric rise, from less than $1,000 last year to a peak of almost $20,000 in December. One generous bitcoiner has decided to follow the lead of Bill Gates and establish a philanthropic purse, the Pineapple Fund, because “once you have enough money, money doesn’t matter,” they say. The founder, known only as Pine, declared in mid December “I’m donating 5,057 BTC to charitable causes!” and since then has given away $7,550,000 in bitcoin to charities and causes around the world, with a view to dispersing the remaining bitcoin over the next several months. “I’m happy that I can help change the world for the better,” Pine says in a phone conversation on condition of anonymity. “I have a great deal of faith in humanity, but I wish more people could live with love and respect for each other. Early adopters of the ...

News 18 Eram Agha December 27, 2017  The letter acknowledges the complaint received by SJM, stating: “The outfit has asked for stoppage of introduction of HPV vaccine as it has highest rate of adverse effect among all vaccine in use for cervical cancer as per the World Health Organization report. Taking note of grievances aired by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch on an alleged attempt to introduce the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for cervical cancer in India, the Prime Minister Office shot a letter to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.  The letter acknowledged the complaint received by SJM, an RSS affiliate, and stated: “The outfit has asked for stoppage of introduction of HPV vaccine as it has highest rate of adverse effect among all vaccine in use for cervical cancer as per the World Health Organization report.” Reacting to the development, the national co-convener of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Ashwani Mahajan, said that the 72nd rep...