Category Archives: BUSINESS

Business

Breaking: Indian Rupee hits 81 per US dollar

Posted on by
Reply

Though expected a little later, Indian rupee has plunged to its lowest today touching Rs.81 per US dollar, amid gloomy prospects of markets around the world in view of a steep rise in interest rates by the US Federal reserve by 0.75 percentage points, vowing to further hike in the future.

On Thursday, experts expected the Indian rupee to hit 82 levels in a month’s time but it has been precipitated on Friday to Rs. 80.71 and per US dollar by afternoon, it plummeted to Rs.81 level.

In fact, since August, the Indian rupee has been touching Rs.80 level before trying to emerge stronger against the American dollar.

Sensex plunges by 800 points, Indian Rupee touches 80.81 per US dollar

Posted on by
Reply

Indian benchmark indice Sensex fell by 800 points as of 01:30 p.m. on Friday. which is at 58,314.78 points or 804.94 (1.36%) points down from the previus day, revealing the deep impact caused by the US Fed Reserve decision to hike interest rates steeply and its pledge to continue further to tame the inflation.

Nifty is also down to 17,407.05 or 222.75 points down (1.26%) today.

Stocks of Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), ITC, Dr. Reddy’s, Infosys, HCL Tech, Titan Company, and Maruti Suzuki were among top Sensex gainers. IndusInd Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), M&M, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank were among top index draggers.

Tata Steel is in positive zone following the board’s approval on Friday to the scheme of amalgamation between seven of its group companies and itself.

Rupee to fall further: Experts

The Indian Rupee fell to its lowest level in 20 years reaching 80.81 per US dollar on Friday. The Indian Rupee fell to its lowest level against the greenback to 80.12 in August and again on Thursday, revealing the inherent weakness to go down further in value. Experts suggest that this time the Indian Rupee may weaken up to 82.00 level in the near future.

Moonlighting: Wipro cracks whip, fires 300 employees found working with rival companies

Posted on by
Reply

Following uproar among IT companies on many workers indulging in moonlighting, Wipro had warned against it and now took stern action firing 300 employees for moonlighting with its key rivals at the same time.

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said in Wednesday that the “reality is that there are people today working for Wipro and working directly for one of our competitors and we have actually discovered 300 people in the last few months who are doing exactly that.”

Speaking at the All India Management Association (AIMA) National Management Convention, Premji reiterated that moonlighting is a complete violation of integrity “in its deepest form.” Wipro has now terminated their employment for “act of integrity violation”.

Premji recently said that the concept of a second job to the regular job is “plain and simple” cheating. “There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating — plain and simple,” he had tweeted.

As the issue of moonlighting or working elsewhere to make extra money in India is plaguing many tech giants after the Work From Home concession that entailed them work remotely, several Indian tech giants are facing the challenge to keep their workforce committed and focused.

The ethical issue has been raised by tech services giant Infosys first, followed by cloud Major IBM last Wednesday. Infosys has already made it clear that the practice is not ethical and the company may fire those who are moonlighting.

Rishad Premji

However, Wipro has become the first to fire its employees who are moonlighting. Infosys, IBM are still pondering the issue though they are with the industry against moonlighting.

IBM Managing Director  Sandip Patel said, “All of our workers when they are employed, they sign an agreement which says that they are going to be working full-time for IBM. So moonlighting is not ethically right for them to get into.”

However, some startups are encouraging employees to opt for moonlighting or work outside their primary working hours. Swiggy has encouraged the practice but the traditional companies are calling it cheating and unethical and issued warning to employees from practising Moonlighting even in extra hours.

 

In one case, a techie who was interviewed by a Hyderabad-based company and hired in turn hired another techie to work on his behalf, while he is engaged in working on other projects. He has been summarily fired now but the issue has brought to light the glaring anomaly in misuse of a pact with the company.

Infosys has already warned employees that involvement in such practice can result in “disciplinary action including termination of employment”. “No two-timing, no moonlighting”, the company said in an internal memo.

Starlink satellite link is global now, declares SpaceX chief Elon Musk

Posted on by
Reply

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Monday announced that Starlink, the satellite Internet division of his rocket company, is now active on all the continents, including Antarctica, connecting the entire world on one internet provision at a speed of around 50-200 Mbps.

On the microblogging site Twitter, Musk wrote, “Starlink is now active on all continents, including Antarctica. Another batch with lasers reaches orbit” he said after the deployment of 54 Starlink satellites was confirmed by the company.

Recently, a report said that the McMurdo Station in Antarctica has nearly 1,000 people living and working there during the summer and they already have satellite internet, which is not reliable in rough conditions.

There is currently a 17 Mbps link for everyone, according to the US Antarctic Program. But with Starlink, the internet service will be better and not patchy like earlier, the report had said.

The McMurdo Station blocks scientists from using Netflix and video calls, with the exception of Skype or FaceTime sessions once a week at a public kiosk or mission-critical communications.

CBDT issues new guidelines, help decriminalisation of offences

Posted on by
Reply

Sep 17 (IANS) Aiming decriminalisation of offences, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Saturday issued revised guidelines for compounding of offences under the Income Tax Act, 1961 with reference to various offences covered under its prosecution provisions.

Some of the major changes made for the benefit of taxpayers include making the offence punishable under Section 276 of the Act as compoundable. Further, the scope of eligibility for compounding of cases has been relaxed whereby the case of an applicant who has been convicted with imprisonment for less than 2 years being previously non-compoundable, has now been made compoundable. The discretion available with the competent authority has also been suitably restricted.

CBDT /Ians

As per the department, the time limit for acceptance of compounding applications has been relaxed from the earlier limit of 24 months to 36 months now, from the date of filing of the complaint. Besides, procedural complexities have also been reduced and simplified.

Officials said that specific upper limits have been introduced for the compounding fee covering defaults across several provisions of the Act. Additional compounding charges in the nature of penal interest at the rate of 2 per cent per month up to 3 months and 3 per cent per month beyond 3 months have been reduced to 1 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively.

 

British pound slumps to a 37-year low; Now 1 pound=1.14 US dollar or 91 INR

Posted on by
Reply

Sep 16 (IANS) The British pound slumped to a 37-year low on Friday after new data showed that shoppers are pulling back spending as inflation squeezes household budgets, underscoring fears that the economy may already be shrinking, media reports said.

The currency fell below $1.14, its lowest since 1985, after the Office for National Statistics said that retail sales in August dropped 1.6 per cent month-over-month, the biggest decline since December 2021 and significantly worse than economists had expected, CNN reported.

“I think the UK is in recession already,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, CNN reported.

Pounds/IANS

The pound has been hammered by a string of weak economic data, but also the steep ascent of the US dollar, a safe haven investment that sees inflows in times of uncertainty. The greenback is now near its strongest level in about two decades against a basket of top currencies, bolstered by expectations of another big rate hike by the Federal Reserve next week, the report said.

But the economic outlook in the United Kingdom means the pound is suffering more than most. It has lost more than 15 per cent of its value against the dollar this year, compared to a 12 per cent decline in the euro.

Rupee-dollar/IANS

A plan by Prime Minister Liz Truss to subsidise energy bills for households and businesses could ease the pain this winter, but may not be enough to restore growth. The Bank of England forecast a lingering recession before her plan was announced.

Investors have also been unsettled by indications that the government will pay for its energy program, which could cost as much as $171 billion, by sharply increasing the UK national debt.

Sensex plunges by over 1,000 points, heavy sell-off in IT, banking shares

Posted on by
Reply

Equities market was falling sharply on Friday during the afternoon trade due to heavy sell-off in IT, PSU Banks, Auto stocks following weak Asian markets on concerns of global recession, dealers said.

At 2.10 p.m., Sensex was down 1050.03 points or 1.75 per cent at 58,883.98, and Nifty was trading 326.56 points or 1.83 per cent lower at 17,550.85.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, Ultratech Cement, TCS, Infosys, Wipro were major losers during the afternoon trade on Sensex.

Mumbai:People walk past the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai / IANS

Nifty IT and BSE IT index were down 2.91 per cent and 2.69 per cent respectively. Nifty PSU Bank index was down 2.79 per cent and BSE Auto was down 3.25 per cent.

“Indian equity markets are witnessing some selling pressure after a long period of resilience. Global cues continuously remain weak as there is a sharp surge in the dollar index and US bond yields post US inflation numbers. We may continue to outperform, but we can’t remain in isolation for a long time. Global markets are looking nervous ahead of the FOMC meeting because there is talk of a 100 basis rate hike while a 75 basis rate hike was already discounted,” said Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd.

Asian markets remained weaker on Friday due to growing fears of a global recession after the warnings by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 per cent. Australian shares were down 0.94 per cent on Friday, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index slipped 1.2 per cent.

Global Recession fears

The world may edge towards the global recession in 2023 as central banks across the world simultaneously hike interest rates to combat persistent inflation, the World Bank said.

The economies of the US, China, and the euro zone, were slowing and a slight hit to the global economy further would lead to recession.

“Technically, Nifty is facing resistance at the 18,100 level and it has slipped below its 20-DMA of 17,700 which may lead to some more selling pressure where 17,470-17,400 is an immediate demand zone then 17,150 is a sacrosanct support level. Bank Nifty is outperforming but yesterday it ended at a day’s low after hitting a fresh all-time high, which is a little disappointing. On the downside, 40,900-40,700 is an immediate demand zone; below this, 40,270 is the next important support level,” Meena added.

Gautam Adani Becomes World’s Second Richest Person: Forbes List

Posted on by
Reply

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has now become the world’s second richest man, replacing Bernard Arnault on the Forbes list with a net worth of $155.5 billion.

The revised Forbes Real Time Billionaires List says Adani’s net worth rose by $5.2 billion, or by 3.49 per cent and slidly ahead of French tycoon Bernard Arnault and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Tesla founder Elon Musk continues to occupy the top position in the rich list.

Adani

In the top 10 list, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is the second Indian with a net worth of $92.2 billion, while other billionaires in the top ten list include Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

On August 30, Adani had surpassed Louis Vitton boss Arnault to become the world’s third richest man, becoming the first Asian to be ranked among the top three billionaires.

The Adani Group consists of shipping ports, airports, kitchen, food essentials, oil among others.

 

‘Worst is over’, says Byju Raveendran after FY22 results

Posted on by
Reply

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) After six stressful and tough learning months, Byju Raveendran is back in the game, consolidating the loss-making acquisitions like WhiteHat Jr and optimising the rest, while doubling down on opening more physical tuition centres. According to him, “the worst is finally over” and there is only “growth ahead” as seen in the company’s FY22 financial results.

The edtech company with nearly $22 billion valuation went through an ordeal as it delayed the audited FY21 financial reports for nearly 18 months, inviting government scrutiny and serious questions from the public.

The FY21 report is out, with massive losses to the tune of Rs 4,500 crore, while BYJU’s needs to pay the rest of the acquisition amount (about Rs 2,000 crore) to global VC firm Blackstore in the $950 million Aakash acquisition by September 23.

Raveendran told IANS that he is not worried at all about paying the rest of the acquisition money as the core education business is doing excellent and the company has a healthy cash reserve of more than $1 billion.

“The losses that you see in FY21 is because 40 per cent of the revenue got deferred on account of two things: revenue recognition change because of streaming revenue getting recognised over the period of consumption of the product,” Raveendran explained in a free-wheeling interview.

He said that the other reason for the audit delay was that EMI or credit sales were getting recognised after the complete significant collection was done.

“There are the main reasons for audit delay, apart from the initial reasons like Covid and then the complexity of our business moving from a single product, single geography offering to multi-product, multi subsidiary offering across the world,” emphasised Raveendran, adding that while the revenue got pushed out, the cost expenses during the financial year did not.

In 2007, he founded the test preparation business Byju’s Classes, and in 2011 Raveendran founded BYJU’s with his wife, Divya Gokulnath.

Last year, he went on an acquisition spree. The edtech unicorn made at least 10 acquisitions for a cumulative transaction value of about $2.5 billion — including Delhi-based offline test preparatory services provider Aakash for $950 million.

Raveendran said that loss-making acquisitions like WhiteHat Jr, the beleaguered coding platform BYJU’s acquired for $300 million, are now being consolidated.

“WhiteHat Jr is underperforming as it has a very high marketing cost attached to it. This is one of the businesses where we are seeing Covid pull-back. We have the structural challenges as it has an inefficient cost structure,” he told IANS.

Raveendran said that they don’t have the product challenge with WhiteHat Jr as they added Maths with coding on the platform.

The edtech major clocked gross revenues of nearly Rs 10,000 crore in FY22, leaving its investors happy and Raveendran, a relieved man.

“From here on, we will double down on growth as our core business is booming. Both Aakash Institute and Great Learning are doing excellent and have doubled their revenues,” Raveendran stressed.

In June, BYJU cut at least 600 jobs — asking 300 employees at its Toppr learning platform and another 300 at coding platform WhiteHat Jr to go.

On any future job cuts, Raveendran said that apart from getting rid of few redundant roles and some functions becoming optimised, BYJU’s is actually hiring more people while absorbing the right mix of workers into other products.

“We today have 50,000-plus employees, that’s up from 20,000-plus 18 months back. The total number of employees in the ecosystem is growing. Several new functions and initiatives have been created where we are hiring a lot of teachers, because of the hybrid learning centres like Akash which are really growing well,” the BYJU’s CEO told IANS.

He said BYJU’s is hiring at least 1,000 employees on a month-to-month basis, even more.

Raveendran is confident that the remaining amount in the Aakash deal will reach Blackstone soon, as he charts a new course for BYJU’s in months to come, as the next big funding raise is in the offing.

Ministry changes threshold paid-up capital for small companies to Rs. 4 Cr, turnover to Rs. 40 Cr

Posted on by
Reply

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Aiming to facilitate the ease of doing business and reduce compliance burden on small companies, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has revised the threshold for paid up capital for such companies.

The government has taken several measures in the recent past towards ease of doing business and ease of living for the corporations. These included decriminalisation of various provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 & the LLP Act, 2008, extending fast track mergers to startups, incentivising incorporation of One Person Companies (OPCs), etc.

Earlier, definition of small companies under the Companies Act, 2013 was revised by increasing their thresholds for paid up capital from “not exceeding Rs 50 lakh” to “not exceeding Rs 2 crore” and turnover from “not exceeding Rs 2 crore” to “not exceeding Rs 20 crore”.

This definition has, now, been further revised by increasing such thresholds for paid up Capital from “not exceeding Rs 2 crore” to “not exceeding Rs 4 crore” and turnover from “not exceeding Rs 20 crore” to “not exceeding Rs 40 crore”.

Small companies represent the entrepreneurial aspirations and innovation capabilities of lakhs of citizens and contribute to the growth and employment in a significant manner.

The ministry said that the government has always been committed to taking measures which create a more conducive business environment for law-abiding companies, including reduction of compliance burden on such companies.

Some of the benefits of reduction in compliance burden as a result of the revised definition for small companies include ‘No need to prepare cash flow statement as part of financial statement’, ‘Advantage of preparing and filing an Abridged Annual Return’, ‘Mandatory rotation of auditor not required’ and ‘An Auditor of a small company is not required to report on the adequacy of the internal financial controls and its operating effectiveness in the auditor’s report.

The benefits also include holding of only two board meetings in a year, annual return of the company can be signed by the company secretary, or where there is no company secretary, by a director of the company and lesser penalties for small companies.

FTC to tame gig economy firms in US

Posted on by
Reply
Washington, Sep 16 (IANS) The Lina Khan-led Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US has announced a new policy to tame gig economy companies and platforms in order to protect all kinds of delivery partners/online cab drivers from unfair contracts, pay and hours.

The FTC approved a new policy by a 3-2 vote, saying that “protecting these workers from unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive practices is a priority, and the Federal Trade Commission will use its full authority to do so”.

It will continue to “capitalise on its broad jurisdiction and interdisciplinary expertise to combat unlawful practices that harm gig workers”.

Over the last two years, groups like the Gig Workers Collective are addressing the concerns of delivery partners for companies like DoorDash and Instacart.

But the groups have struggled to make significant industry changes without the legal protections of a conventional union, reports The Verge.

The rapid growth of the gig economy is made possible by the contributions of drivers, shoppers, cleaners, care workers, designers, freelancers, and other workers.

Gig workers are paid in different ways, including weekly, in “batches” after completing multiple gigs, or immediately upon completing a gig (for a fee).

“Many workers are heavily dependent on customer tips. Gig companies may generate revenue from multiple sources, including a ‘take rate’ (a percentage of customer payments for workers’ services), customer fees, and commissions charged to merchants,” said the FTC.

Meanwhile, gig companies tightly prescribe and control their workers’ tasks in ways “that run counter to the promise of independence and an alternative to traditional jobs”.

At the same time, gig companies may use non-transparent algorithms to capture more revenue from customer payments for workers’ services than customers or workers understand.

“This dynamic calls for scrutiny of promises gig platforms make, or information they fail to disclose, about the financial proposition of gig work,” said the FTC.

Behind the scenes, ever-changing algorithms may dictate core aspects of workers’ relationship with a given company’s platform, leaving them with an invisible, inscrutable boss.

“Workers have little leverage to demand transparency from gig companies,” the FTC added.

Tencent fires entire editorial staff of its Fanbyte publication

Posted on by
Reply

Hong Kong, Sep 16 (IANS) Chinese conglomerate Tencent has laid off all of the editorial staff at Fanbyte, an online gaming publication owned by it.

Some of the staff members at Fanbyte posted their ordeal on Twitter, saying the website’s editor-in-chief, head of media, features editor, social editor, news editor, graphic designer, podcast producer and authors were sacked.

“Fanbyte employees were laid off slowly, one by one, over the course of several hours,” reports TechCrunch.

The Fanbyte Instagram bio with a display name ‘forgot the keys?’ read: “Tencent made $35 billion in net income last year and laid off almost every member of child company Fanbyte! Please support the staff elsewhere”.

A Fanbyte employee Merritt K tweeted on Friday: “I see a lot of empathy going out to everyone who was fired today but let’s please also spare some thought for the people who had to fire everyone one by one over the course of countless hours, drawing out the delicious psychological torture.”

Tencent did not make an official comment on the development.

Last month, Tencent fired 5,500 employees, after posting a revenue of $19.8 billion in the June quarter, down 3 per cent which was the first decline since going public.

Tencent downsized its workforce for the first time since 2014.

The company attributed the weak performance to “fewer big game releases, lower user spending, and the implementation of minor protection measures”.

 

IRCTC not issuing invoice, causing huge loss to exchequer: Tax consultant

Posted on by
Reply
Chandigarh, Sep 16 (IANS) The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Railways, is causing loss to the exchequer by not issuing invoice to the consumers for eatables sold within trains, a tax consultant said on Friday.

In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chandigarh-based tax consultant Ajay Jagga said the Supreme Court recently issued notices to the Central government on a plea seeking to plug existing loopholes in the GST system.

The IRCTC, which is selling food in the trains, appears to be a similar entity causing huge loss to the exchequer, he said.

He said he travelled in Shatabdi Express to New Delhi from Chandigarh on Thursday. While travelling, he ordered a cup of tea and paid Rs 20 for this.

Later he asked for an invoice. On his insistence, an invoice of Satyam Caterers Private Ltd was issued.

One cup of tea sold without invoice results in a GST loss of Re 1, he said. “Imagine other items like cold drinks, chocolates and food booked within the train without issuing invoices,” Jagga, a former member of the Tax Intelligence Unit, told IANS.

Also, he said, the waiters were charging food amount in the bill but not issuing the invoice to the consumers.

“The working of IRCTC waiters and other staff is causing huge losses to the exchequers. On one hand, we are penalizing shopkeepers for not issuing bills and on the other the IRCTC is not issuing bills and the number of such transactions, pan-India, would be in lakhs everyday,” said his letter.

Earlier, in a letter to the Union Finance Minister, he had said the Centre should issue necessary advisory to all states that restaurants should stop charging unjustified extra cost, which was being imposed on consumers for items such as pastry, cake, etc.

Oracle Cloud biz sees 100% growth in India, doubles its customer base

Posted on by
Reply

Sep 15 (IANS) Cloud major Oracle on Thursday said its India business saw a tremendous growth in the first quarter of FY23, with the Oracle Cloud Unit (OCI) clocking over 100 per cent growth (year-on-year) for the third year in a row.

In India, the OCI is growing at 25 per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) and the company has clocked double-digit growth across all lines of businesses, in some even triple digit, Kapil Makhija, Vice President – Technology Cloud Business, Oracle India, told IANS.

“This is specifically true for the India region where in the IaaS/PaaS market, we are growing at 25 per cent QoQ continuing on the growth trend we have been witnessing for the last three years,” said Makhija.

He said that in the last eight months, the company catered to more cloud projects than it had in the last three years — across the private and public sectors.

“This momentum indicates the value that OCI has brought to customers as a result of speed of execution, performance, scalability and cost savings,” Makhija added.

In the first quarter of FY23, Oracle was a huge growth across all lines of businesses.

“Oracle India stands apart in the cloud space in the IaaS and PaaS market. Cloud technology has done significantly well and Oracle’s India business has been a strong growth engine for the company,” the Oracle executive noted.

Oracle’s quarterly revenues were up 18 per cent year-over-year to $11.4 billion globally.

Makhija said the company aims to be the preferred cloud provider for all Indian organisations, both in the private and public sectors.

“Our MeitY empanelled cloud regions, in Mumbai and Hyderabad, are running at full capacity and as a result, we have doubled our cloud customer base in the past few years,” he told IANS.

New customers are HDFC Life, Federal Bank, NSE, Cognizant, Manappuram Comptech and Consultants Limited, SBI, Polycab, Forbes Marshall Pvt Ltd and Tensor etc, according to the company.

“We have also defined more avenues of working with our partners and expanding business opportunities for them and us,” said Makhija.

Oracle serves more than 15,000 customers in India across large and SMB enterprises, across the private and public sectors.

The Cloud major has 38 Cloud regions in 20 countries and 6 more are planned by end of 2022.

PM Narendra Modi meets King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

Posted on by
Reply

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has met the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in New Delhi today.

Both the dignitaries have discussed the various ideas to further strengthen the close and unique India-Bhutan friendship. Shri Modi has also conveyed his appreciation for the guiding vision provided by successive Druk Gyalpos in shaping  relations between India and Bhutan.”

In a tweet, the Prime Minister said;

“Had a warm meeting with His Majesty the King of Bhutan. Discussed various ideas to further strengthen the close and unique India-Bhutan friendship. Conveyed my appreciation for the guiding vision provided by successive Druk Gyalpos in shaping our relations.”

PM meets King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

 

 

G20 members to introduce assessment tool to evaluate policies for disabled people

Posted on by
Reply

Jakarta, Sep 14 (IANS) Representatives of G20 countries have agreed to introduce an assessment instrument to measure how far each country’s policies have accommodated the needs of people with disabilities.

The agreement was concluded at the Sixth G20 Employment Working Group (EWG) meeting in Bali, which mainly discussed inclusive job opportunities.

“We aim to ensure that workers with disabilities could have the same opportunities as other workers. Thus, we agree to formulate an instrument that can evaluate whether the policies in every country have been friendly with the disabled people and how far their realisations of affirmative actions for the people with disabilities,” Secretary General of Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry Anwar Sanusi said on Tuesday in a written statement released after the G20 EWG meeting.

G20 flags

The G20 EWG, he added, also raised other development issues, including the development of capacity of human resources and social protection in the working environment.

“Inclusive job creation is one of the issues raised by Indonesia’s G20 Presidency at the EWG meeting that will later be discussed further at the Labor and Employment Ministers Meeting held tomorrow (Wednesday),” Sanusi said.

Delhi court orders probe into Rs.800 Crore bank scam, involving PSBs

Posted on by
Reply

A new bank scam has come into light before a Delhi court which on Tuesday ordered a court-monitored investigation. The scam involving among other public sector banks, the State Bank of India, runs into Rs 800 crore, allegedly involving an infrastructure company director.

The FIR in this regard was registered by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan of Saket District Court, heard an application filed by complainant Vaibhav Jalan against Gaurav Jalan, Director of JKM Infra Projects Ltd and ordered the probe.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the accused allegedly created fictitious invoices and transferred the money from the company accounts to shell companies’ accounts, but no effective investigation has been carried out by the Investigating Officer and the complainant was not called for purpose of the probe in the last ten months.

Taking note of the submissions, the court directed the EOW to file a status report seeking the investigation carried out by it in the last 10 months and what investigation has been conducted on the discrepancies highlighted by a forensic audit of the company.

It also noted the apprehension that the accused may flee the country to evade the process of law. The matter will be further heard on November 11. (IANS)

Foreign Service: Jennifer Larson is new US Consulate General in Hyderabad

Posted on by
Reply

Hyderabad, Sep 13 (IANS) Jennifer Larson is the new Consul General of the US in Hyderabad.

She previously served as Deputy Principal Officer at the US Consulate General in Mumbai and as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for India.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be here in Hyderabad. I’ve spent the last five years working on the US-India relationship from Mumbai and Washington. Now I’m honored to have the opportunity to expand our partnership in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha,” she said.

“From joint military exercises and business ties to cultural exchanges and higher education, the US-India relationship is only growing broader and deeper in Hyderabad.”

Jennifer Larson new US Consul General in Hyderabad.

According to a statement from the Consulate General, Larson brings 19 years of diplomatic experience with her to Hyderabad.

She most recently served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for India in Washington, where she supported the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in formulating and implementing US-India policy.

In that capacity, she spoke at “A Roadmap for Indo-Pacific Regional Cooperation in a Post-Covid 19 World Order,” an international conference organised by the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad in March.

Larson was most recently overseas as Deputy Principal Officer at the US Consulate General in Mumbai from 2016-2020, the second-highest ranking official in the consulate.

In addition to serving as spokesperson in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in Washington, D.C., she has also served in Libya, Pakistan, France, Sudan, Jerusalem, and Lebanon.

Before joining the Foreign Service, Consul General Larson worked for National Public Radio’s San Francisco affiliate as a talk show producer.

She completed her undergraduate and graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley in Comparative Literature (Arabic, Spanish and French) and Middle East Studies.

India to assume G20 Presidency for a year from Dec 1; Sets priorities

Posted on by
Reply

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) India has listed its priorities ahead of assuming the G20 Presidency for a year from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said: “Our G20 priorities are in the process of being firmed up, ongoing conversations inter alia revolve around:

  • Inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth;
  • LiFE (Lifestyle For Environment);
  • women’s empowerment;
  • digital public infrastructure and tech-enabled development in areas ranging from health, agriculture and education to commerce,
  • skill-mapping,
  • culture and tourism;
  • climate financing;
  • circular economy;
  • global food security;
  • energy security;
  • green hydrogen;
  • disaster risk reduction and resilience;
  • developmental cooperation;
  • fight against economic crime; and multilateral reforms”.

    Under the role, India is expected to host over 200 G20 meetings across the country, beginning from this December.

    The G20 Leaders’ Summit at the level of Heads of State Government is scheduled to be held on September 9-10, 2023 in New Delhi, said the Ministry statement.

    The G20 is an inter-governmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies.

    G20 comprises 20 countries — India, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US — and the European Union (EU).

    Collectively, the G20 accounts for 85 per cent of the global GDP, 75 per cent of international trade and two-thirds of the world population, making it the premier forum for international economic cooperation.

  • G20 flags

    India is part of the G20 Troika (current, previous and incoming G20 Presidencies), which includes Indonesia and Italy.

    “During our Presidency, India, Indonesia and Brazil would form the Troika. This would be the first time when the Troika would consist of three developing countries and emerging economies, providing them a greater voice,” the statement said.

    The G20 currently comprises Finance Track, with eight workstreams (Global Macroeconomic Policies, Infrastructure Financing, International Financial Architecture, Sustainable Finance, Financial Inclusion, Health Finance, International Taxation, Financial Sector Reforms)

    Sherpa Track, with 12 workstreams — Anti-corruption, Agriculture, Culture, Development, Digital Economy, Employment, Environment and Climate, Education, Energy Transition, Health, Trade and Investment, Tourism.

    Ten Engagement Groups of private sector/civil society/independent bodies (Business 20, Civil 20, Labour 20, Parliament 20, Science 20, Supreme Audit Institutions 20, Think 20, Urban 20, Women 20 and Youth 20).

    In addition to G20 members, there has been a tradition of the G20 Presidency inviting some guest countries and international organizations to its meetings and summit.

    Accordingly, in addition to regular international organizations (UN, IMF, World Bank, WHO, WTO, ILO, FSB and OECD) and Chairs of Regional Organizations (AU, AUDA-NEPAD and ASEAN).

    India, as G20 Presidency, will be inviting Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and UAE as guest countries, as well as the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Asian Development Bank as guest international organizations.