1. finance
2. personal finance
3. insurance

REPORTER POST
Ranchi
Miscellaneous
11 OCTOBER 2014
2
SATURDAY
'Chopper verdict upholds 'Kailash Satyarthi loves to cook
for rescued child labourers'
honour of ex-IAF chief'
New Delhi: After a court in Italy
Thursday found him not guilty
of corruption in the 2010 deal to
supply India with Agusta Westland helicopters, Giuseppe Orsi,
the former chief executive of Italian firm Finmeccanica said the
judgement upheld the honour
of India's ex-air chief, Air Chief
Marshal S.P.Tyagi, falsely accused
of wrongdoing. "This judjment
is also important because gives
Marshal Tyagi back his honour after the accusation of having done
something that he really had not
done," Orsi said in a statement
sent to IANS by his lawyers. Tyagi
was not charged in the Italian case,
heard in the court of Busto Arsizio
and has denied any wrongdoing in
connection with the 560 million
euro (Rs.3,600 crore) contract for
12 helicopters for VVIP use. "The
peremptoriness of the acquittal
makes the allegations meaningless. No amount of money was
paid to an Indian public official,
nor did the Swiss intermediary try
to alter the tender," said Orsi's advocate, Ennio Amodio. Orsi, who
was then the CEO of Finmeccan-
BBA has also led successful campaigns against the use and sale
of products in domestic and international markets that employ
children to do the work. "Satyarthiji is a veteran in the field
of child rights. After all these
years, no rescue operation is too
small for him. I remember he
used to take part in every operation, and later comfort the rescued children. In 2004, a raid in
Gonda in Uttar Pradesh almost
cost his life, but he did not give
up... That's how dedicated he is,"
Gupta said. Having worked on
the field for several years, Satyarthi always stresses on the fact
that the issue of child exploitation should not be looked at in
isolation. "Poverty drives many
parents into pushing their children into work instead of sending them to school. Addressing
this problem is therefore crucial
in order to address the issue of
child labour and child exploitation," he has said. Satyarthi also
harped on the need to regularise
placement agencies that source
minor children to work as domestic help. In June, BBA released a report on the economics
of child labour and commercial
sexual exploitation of children a billion dollar market - due to
which the vicious cycle involving several stakeholders continues. There is huge amounts of
money to be made in India every
year through child labour and
commercial sexual exploitation
of children, the report said. "The
dream of development and child
slavery cannot co-exist. Time is
running out," Satyarthi said.
said because it can also be an African voice or an Ethiopian voice as
it addresses issues like governance,
how to move the economy forward, and so on”, the ambassador
said. According to Verma, India
and Ethiopia have many similarities like strong young population
and a large agricultural sector.
However, since the service sector
cannot take the entire young work
force that is produced each year,
there is no option for governments
of both countries but to focus on
the manufacturing sector. “India
has identified 25 sectors as priorities under this initiative which we
feel have natural and comparative
advantages. We have the social,
cultural and economical back-
ground and we can compete,” the
ambassador said. “The fact that
we just sent a satellite to Mars at
less cost than it took to produce
the movie 'Gravity' means we have
certain strengths that we will be
utilising,” he added. One of the
goals of launching the 'Make in
India' initiative in Ethiopia, according to the ambassador, is to
rekindle the interest of Ethiopian
entrepreneurs. Although it may
not be possible immediately, Verma said, maybe in the next four or
five years there might be FDI flowing from Ethiopia to India. FDI
to India has been around $25-30
billion per year for the last couple
of years. This figure is expected to
reach $50 billion in the next year
or so. On the other hand, India
is Africa’s fourth-largest trading
partner after the European Union
(EU), China and the US, and a
significant investor across the
continent. Bilateral trade hit $57
billion in 2011, and is targeted to
reach $90 billion by 2015. At present, India accounts for 5.8 percent
of Africa’s trade, according to the
“Africa-India Trade and Investment - Playing to Strengths' report
published by Standard Chartered
in 2012.
By Azera Parveen Rahman
By Biswajit Choudhury
ica unit AgustaWestland, was accused of paying bribes to Indian
officials to win the contract. An
agent of AgustaWestland, who
agreed to become a witness for the
prosecution, testified that he had
met with Tyagi, who then changed
the tender requirements to favor
AgustaWestland. The Italian judge
said in the verdict that while prosecutors had proven that fake invoices had been issued, there was
no corruption. Telling reporters
after the verdict that he hoped India would reconsider its decision
to cancel the helicopter order, Orsi
said: “This was an internal Italian
issue that had nothing to do with
India. I hope that the good relations between Italy and India will
be restored.” Three helicopters
had been delivered when the deal
was cancelled. Reacting to the verdict, Tyagi told reporters here: “I
am happy man, I always knew that
I had done nothing wrong. ItÂ’s a
big morale booster for the Indian
air force, which had done its job
perfectly." The Central Bureau
of Investigation, which is investigating the deal, Thursday said
the Italian court's judgment did
not necessarily mean the agency
would drop its investigation of
Tyagi, and that it was waiting to
peruse the full judgement.
New Delhi: Child rights crusader Kailash Satyarthi, who
won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
along with Pakistan's Malala
Yousufzai, is a passionate man.
His love for children makes
him go to any length to comfort the vulnerable victims of
child labour. He loves to cook
sumptuous meals for them.
Umesh Gupta, a former employee of Satyarthi's Bachpan
Bachao Andolan (BBA), recalled
what a brilliant cook Satyarthi
is -- and how he loves to cook
for kids rescued from bonded
labour. "On several occasions,
he cooked for the children who
we rescued from work units.
His love and compassion shines
through such a gesture. The
children who would be scared a
while back open up and smile in
his warmth," Gupta told IANS.
Rakesh Senger of BBA had a
similar tale. "It never fails to
amaze us how Satyarthiji comforts the rescued children. After
a rescue operation the children
are obviously very scared. But an
hour with Satyarthiji and they
become composed and relax. He
has the gift." BBA has been one
of the first NGOs to have started
work on child rights, and against
child labour in 1980. Touching
the lives of thousands of young
children, often from socially
and economically vulnerable
background, the group actively
participates in rescue operations
along with the police and the labour department and helps the
kids reunite with their families.
Ethiopia hears Modi's
Ignore rules in calamity times,
pay claims: SC to insurance firms 'Make in India' call
New Delhi: The Supreme Court
Friday said that the rules and
regulations governing the payment of insurance claims could
be not come in the way of people of Kashmir who lost their
properties in the recent devastating floods that had hit the
state. A bench of Chief Justice
H.L.Dattu, Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice Abhay Manohar
Sapre said this as it declined to
interfere with the Jammu and
Kashmir High Court's order directing the insurance companies
to pay 95 percent of a claim up
to Rs.25 lakh and 50 percent in
respect of claims above Rs.25
lakh. "Sometimes we have to
ignore the rules and regulation
(for paying insurance claims) in
the interest of the people suffering from natural calamities," the
court said. It refused to accede
to repeated submissions by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi
and senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani seeking a month's time
to carry out the survey of the
insurance claims by the people
who lost their belongings in the
unprecedented floods that hit
the state. "The chief justice of
the high court has seen the tragedy with his own eyes and he
is justified in passing the order.
Not one shop can be opened at
Lal Chowk. There is no shop in
Lal Chowk," Chief Justice Dattu
said, justifying the high court
order on the payment of the insurance claims without carrying
out mandatory verification of
the claims. "We are not going
to change even a word from
the high court order," he said,
brushing aside all submissions
seeking a hold on the high court
order. The court disagreed, say-
Jan Dhan: Over 5 crore
accounts; Chandigarh,
Puducherry all covered
New Delhi : Over five-andhalf crore accounts have been
opened under the Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
(PMJDY) scheme for financial inclusion, the finance
ministry said here Friday. "As
on Oct 7, 2014, 5.52 crore
accounts have been opened
and deposits of Rs.4268 crore
have been mobilized under
PMJDY," said a statement
here after a review meeting
Thursday of the PMJDY mission director with executive
directors of public sector
banks and of some private
banks. The review meeting
emphasized the early issue of
RuPay Debit Cards, e-KYC
based account opening, Aadhaar seeding and the progress
in survey made in the rural
as well as urban areas. In
all, 3.12 crore accounts were
opened in rural areas and
2.17 crore in urban areas.
RuPay cards have been issued
in 1.78 crore accounts. The
survey work was found to be
satisfactory except in Maharashtra and Haryana, where
this has been stopped in view
of the forthcoming assembly elections, the ministry
said. The union territories of
Chandigarh and Puducherry
and the districts of Mehsana
and Porbandar in Gujarat
have covered all households
with banking facilities under
PMJDY, it added. Reporting
last month that many existing
account holders have opened
a new account to avail of incentives announced under
the scheme, the finance ministry said it was publicising
the fact that Jan Dhan benefits can be extended to existing account holders in their
previous accounts as well,
and a new account need not
be opened for this. The Jan
Dhan Yojana was launched
by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi in August to bring 7.5
crore more families into the
banking network by Jan 26,
2015.
ing "It is not true", as Attorney
General Rohatgi told the court
that over 5,000 surveyors were
working on the verification of
the insurance claims. "We can't
accept your statement," the
court told Rohatgi as he sought
time till Nov 30 to verify claims.
"We will settle all the claims by
November 30, but it has to be after certain verification," he said.
Krishnamani, who appeared for
four general insurance companies, urged the court that the
high court's order may be watered down to allow the firms to
pay 50 percent of the claims up
to Rs.25 lakh and 30 percent of
the claims above Rs.25 lakh. The
court was told that up to Thursday, the four insurance companies - United India, National,
Oriental India and New India have received 9,917 claims of an
estimated amount of Rs.980.49
crore and have already made 983
cheques of total amount of over
Rs.25.104 crore. While declining to interfere with the order of
the high court, which is operating from a makeshift accommodation, Chief Justice Dattu told
Jammu and Kashmir Advocate
General Mohammad Ishaq Qadri to take all the steps to ensure
that the high court operates fully
from Oct 13 with the supply of
electricity. The court refused to
accept Qadri's claim that high
court was being supplied electricity. Chief Justice Dattu said
that till Thursday evening there
was no electric supply. It also
asked Qadri to take steps for
an alternate accommodation
for the high court's chief justice
whose house has become inhabitable after it was inundated with
flood waters.
By Hadra Ahmed
Addis Ababa: In yet another
sign of India's growing footprints
in Africa, Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's 'Make in India'
campaign to make the country
a global manufacturing hub was
launched by the Indian embassy
in Ethiopia. Designed to encourage the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India, the
'Make in India' initiative is aimed
at providing a reference point for
foreign investors on all aspects of
regulatory and policy issues and to
assist them in obtaining regulatory clearances. The Indian government is working on the processes
to make them simple and reduce
the burden on investors. This
initiative is intended to increasing the share of manufacturing in
India’s Growth Domestic Product
(GDP) to create jobs and to show
that India has the capacity and capability to become a world manufacturing power in a variety of
sectors, according to India's Ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti,
Sanjay Varma. “Our PM although
was addressing Indians in his
'Make in India' unveiling speech,
it is important to listen to what he
Vodafone wins Rs.3,200 crore
tax case on outsourcing arm
Mumbai:Britain-based global telecom major Vodafone got a major
verdict in its favour, with the Bombay
High Court ruling Friday that it need
not pay the tax claim of Rs.3,200 crore
($530 million) slapped on it for buying
shares in its Indian arm. The case pertains to Vodafone's outsourcing arm
in Pune issuing shares to its parent.
The IT Department had demanded
the amount from Vodafone's outsourcing unit, with taxes plus interest,
which the company had challenged.
The authorities said the funds were
infused by the parent company into
its Indian arm at a discounted share
premium. Accordingly, the authorities said, this transaction had resulted
in Vodafone Plc paying a much lesser
amount to get more shares in its Indian arm, which they said was subject
to taxes under what is called transfer
pricing. "We feel that there is no taxable income on the share premium
received on the issue of the shares," a
division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M.S. Sanklecha
ruled. "Vodafone has maintained
consistently throughout the legal
proceedings that this transaction was
not taxable. We welcome the decision
today (Friday) in the Bombay High
Court," the company said in a state-
ment. The verdict could prove to be
a major setback to the Income Tax
Department (ITD), which is expected
to challenge the high court ruling in
the Supreme Court. On the flip side,
it spells hope for at least 20 other companies involved in similar tax disputes.
“Any share premium that is received
on issue of shares is never taxable,”
said Harish Salve, senior counsel for
Vodafone, adding that such a demand was an untenable attempt by
Indian authorities to tax hypothetical, non-existent income. Vodafone
is involved in another tax dispute
with the Indian authorities. This pertains to Vodafone's $11.2-billion deal
with Hong Kong-based Hutchison in
2007, on which the government has
slapped a capital gains tax with retrospective effect. The amount claimed is
around Rs.11,000 crore ($1.8 billion).
This matter is sub-judice. In fact, the
Supreme Court in 2012 had ruled in
favour of Vodafone, holding that such
a deal was not taxable in India. But to
counter this, the government amended the law with retrospective effect
to bring such transactions under the
capital gains tax net. This has been a
major sour point with global investors. Both Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Commerce Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman have sought to allay the
fears of the global investing community on this saying the government will
not raise any fresh tax claims on them
with retrospective effect.
Time to scrap
Insurance Act:
Shriram Group chief
Chennai:The 76-year-old Insurance Act should be scrapped while
the insurance regulator should be
fully empowered and made accountable for the performance
of the Indian insurance industry,
said a top official of the Shriram
group. "Time has come to consign
the Insurance Act 1938 to the dust
bin as its provisions are constricting the regulator and the industry
players. Ninety five percent of the
Insurance Act can be scrapped," R.
Thyagarajan, founder-chairman of
the Shriram group of companies
told reporters here Friday. The
Shriram group has life and non-life
insurance business in its fold apart
from major interests in non-banking finance companies (NBFC),
chit funds, infrastructure, energy
and others. "The IRDA should be
empowered and also be made accountable for the performance of
the insurance sector as a whole,"
he said. The provisions relating to
the cap on management expenses
of an insurance company or the
one that prohibits premium rebate by an agent to a policyholder
and several other sections are not
relevant now, Thyagarajan said.
"Why should there be a statutory cap on management expenses
when there is a solvency margin
and the shareholders are willing
to bring in additional capital," he
queried. As for the provisions of
the Insurance Act that prohibit an
insurance agent from inducing a
prospect to take a policy - like rebating certain portion of the premium - Thyagarajan said the law
is observed more in the breach.
"The provision was made by the
British when they ruled India as a
protection for their own insurance
companies from domestic competition," he said. According to him,
the proposal to levy Rs.500,000
fine on agents who rebate premium will be used as a blackmailing
tool against the agents. He said arguments that the provisions of the
Insurance Act have stood the test
of time are not valid. Thyagarajan said a fully empowered IRDA
can draft necessary regulations to
govern the sector and there need
not be two power centres - central
government/finance ministry and
the sectoral regulator.