Illegal mining: Krishna, two other ex-chief ministers face probe

Bangalore, Dec 3 (IANS) Three former Karnataka chief ministers, including present External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, are now caught in the illegal mining row rocking the state as a court Saturday ordered a probe into their role during their rule.

The other two are Krishna's successor N. Dharam Singh, also of the Congress, and Singh's successor H.D. Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal-Secular.

Lokayukta (ombudsman) Special Court Judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao Saturday directed police to complete the probe by Jan 6 and submit a report.

His order came on a private complaint filed by Bangalore businessman T.J. Abraham, who alleged that Krishna, Dharam Singh and Kumaraswamy had allowed large-scale illegal mining when they were chief ministers.

Besides these three former chief ministers, Abraham has also accused 11 serving and retired senior officials for the scam.

The police probe will cover their role too, the special court ordered.

Krishna headed the Congress government in the state in 1999-2004, Dharam Singh was the chief minister of the Congress-JD-S coalition in 2004-06 and Kumaraswamy succeeded him in 2006 heading the JD-S-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition.

Ever since illegal mining scandal broke out in the state in 2006, Krishna's name has been mentioned often but he has strongly denied the allegations.

Dharam Singh and Kumaraswamy have also denied they had allowed illegal iron ore mining.

The mining scandal has forced the BJP's first chief minister in the state B.S. Yeddyurappa out of office. He quit July 31 after the then Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde recommended his trial for corruption in the mining scandal.

The scam has sent former Karnataka tourism minister and mining magnate Gali Janardhana Reddy to jail in Hyderabad as he has been facing case of illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh.

Bhopal survivors protest Dow's Olympic sponsorship

BHOPAL, India (AP) — Hundreds of survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster burned effigies of two Olympics officials Friday to protest Dow Chemicals' sponsorship of the London Games.

The protests were on the eve of the 27th anniversary of the disaster in Bhopal, India, where a Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked lethal gas that killed an estimated 15,000 people and maimed tens of thousands.

Nearly 200 people, some carrying banners that read, "Down withLondon Olympics" and "We want justice," marched to the now-abandoned plant.

They burned effigies of Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London organizing committee, and Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the head of India's Olympic Organizing Committee.

Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001 and has maintained that legal claims regarding the gas leak were resolved when Union Carbide paid $470 million as compensation for those killed or injured.

The Indian government is seeking an additional $1.7 billion for the victims from Union Carbide, and activists accuse Dow of not cleaning up contamination in Bhopal.

Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state where Bhopal is located, last month wrote a letter to India's Sports Minister Ajay Maken asking that the country boycott the London Olympics, which start in July.

At least 21 Indian Olympic athletes have also urged the organizers of the London Games to end Dow's sponsorship of the Games, which includes a curtain-style wrap around a stadium where some Olympic events will be held.

Earlier this week, Malhotra said India had no intention of keeping its athletes away from the games. London Olympic organizers have said they will not change their position on Dow's sponsorship.

Five Bhopal victims' rights groups have said they will stop all trains that pass through Bhopal on Saturday to draw attention to their demands.

They say the Olympic sponsorship deal gave undue publicity to a company that was refusing to clean up the toxic contamination of soil and groundwater in Bhopal

CBI arrests Rajasthan ex-minister over missing nurse

New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS) Former Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna has been arrested in connection with the missing nurseBhanwari Devi case, the CBI said here Friday.

CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra told IANS: 'Mahipal Maderna andParasram Bishnoi have been arrested.'

Bishnoi is Congress legislator Malkhan Singh's brother.

Bhanwari Devi had gone missing from Jodhpur's Bilara area Sep 1. Prominent Jat leader Mahipal Maderna was sacked from the state cabinet by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Oct 16 over allegations that he had a role in her disappearance.

'I did not want to wait till 40 to be a CEO'

“Even when I was in college I was sitting with the new business idea every week, so the thought of doing something on my own was never out of the question” says this economic graduate who completed her MBA from IMT and is now founder and CEO of e-commerce giant 99labels.com

Leap of Faith

The brilliant entrepreneur was spotted by Cadbury’s soon after her MBA completed. After a three-and-a-half year stint with Cadbury, where she handled the brand management of both the confectionary division and Cadbury’s Dollops ice-cream, Ishita was itching to do something on her own. Reason, there was nothing left to learn, and Ishita liked the learning curve’s upwardly movement more. So she quit Cadbury’s and teamed up with a school time friend to start up her first company called the Orion Dialogue which was going to be instrumental in the ITES sector in India and one of the first to focus solely on the Indian market.

“We did our research before jumping to the business bandwagon. Back in the 1994-95 the BPO industry was just starting out and it was a good time to venture into the same. We did our research and with as good as no money in our pockets and no backing we took a big leap of faith and founded what we called the Orion Dialogue private limited company” she tells proudly.

There were many times when she and her business partner would approach investors with a business plan and they would turn her away asking her to get her father and then they would discuss things further or would simply not take them seriously enough.However, in the 11-year-run that Orion Dialogue had, Ishita and her partner now were operating out of three offices from different cities in India which was quite an achievement she tells.

After leading the company to great heights, it was bought out by Aegis BPO in 2006 leaving Swarup to achieve even greater heights. While she was deciding her next venture, Ishita also helped setting up businesses and consulting other women entrepreneurs.

99labels.com

99labels is a pioneering innovative concept introduced to India for the first time. Partnering national and international brands, 99labels presents event based online sales for a limited time period giving members an opportunity to buy fashion-wear, accessories, lifestyle products at up to 90% off label prices. 
The idea of 99labels.com says Ishita made a lot of sense as a consumer. She says, 99labels offers an exclusive chance for people to buy credible, branded items from a reliable source at discounted prices and from the privacy and convenience of their own home. So from a consumer’s point of view it was a win-win situation. E-commerce was big abroad and people in India had started to accept the idea and hence there was huge potential for a site like 99lables.com here. Swarup further adds that the timing of entering the market seemed perfect too.

The journey was new, uncharted tough and yet rewarding. Two years ago we started as an 8 member team and launched two sales per day. Today, we have a growing team of 120 employees and have partnered with more than 250 brand partners and consequently held over 5000 sales. Having said that you should know that despite our current success we are only aiming higher! 

On being a woman entrepreneur

Ishita says that she always wanted to do something of her own. “You see I never wanted to wait till I was forty-years-old to become a CEO. I became a CEO at the age of 25, when the rest of my friends or ex-colleagues were cribbing about their unsatisfying jobs. 

Ishita personally feels that being an entrepreneur itself empowers a person, and if a woman wants to build a career as an entrepreneur there is nothing that is more satisfying. She even feels that being a woman entrepreneur has more advantages than otherwise.

“Being an entrepreneur gives women the freedom to work the way she wants to, when she wants to and how she wants to. A woman sometimes struggles more in the corporate world than when she works on her own terms” she quips. As an entrepreneur gets to explore more and push her limits which is not really possible when it comes to working in a structured atmosphere. She even says that now is the time to start your own ventures, when the market is ready, investors is ready and when the mindsets too are ready to accept women who run their own show.

US House approves faster green cards for Indian IT workers

Washington, Dec 1 (IANS) In a move that may allow more highly skilled immigrants from India and China to obtain the so-called green cards faster, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill modifying the visa system.

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigration Act (H.R. 3012), eliminating per-country caps on employment-based visas and instituting a first come, first served system, drew broad, bipartisan support, passing the House with a vote of 389-15 Tuesday.

The bill is expected to move swiftly through the Senate.

Currently, immigration law limits employment-based green cards allowing permanent residence for citizens from any one country to no more than seven percent of the total green cards approved by the State Department in any particular year.

The rule makes it easier to obtain a green card for applicants from smaller countries that don't generate a significant amount of applications, but makes it tougher for workers from big countries that provide most of the foreign tech workers sought by companies.

Individuals from India, the source of most tech industry immigrants to the US, often have to wait up to 10 years for a green card due to the per-country cap.

The High-Skilled Immigration Act, which was introduced to Congress in September by Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, aims to correct such imbalances by switching to a first come, first served system for the roughly 140,000 employment-based green cards awarded each year.

'Per country limits make no sense in the context of employment-based visas. Companies view all highly skilled immigrants as the same regardless of where they are from--be it India or Brazil,' Chaffetz said in a statement.

In addition to eliminating numerical caps on employment-based green cards, the Act would also raise the per-country cap for 226,000 family-related green cards from seven percent of the total to 15 percent.

The bill's bipartisan support owes much to the fact that it does nothing to increase the total number of green cards awarded, it simply evens out the process for those looking to emigrate to the US.

American technology companies have been clamouring for Congress to offer more green cards for their foreign employees, arguing that the United States was losing out in global competition by forcing those immigrants to leave

Kingfisher still in talks with local investor: Mallya

REUTERS - Kingfisher Airlines is still in talks with a potential local investor to raise funds, its chairman Vijay Mallya said Friday, even as woes mounted for the cash strapped carrier with a major airport set to stop facilities on credit.

"That's going on," Mallya said on Friday in televised comments, in response to a query on whether he was talking to a local investor.

"I know that you are in a hurry to fix a timeline for it, but things do take time, particularly negotiations," he told reporters in New Delhi after a meeting with India's finance minister.

Mallya did not elaborate on the details of his meeting with Pranab Mukherjee.

The meeting with Mukherjee follows a meeting of aviation company chiefs with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention to help the carriers tide over the deep financial crisis and were assured that "legitimate" grievances would be considered.

Kingfisher, India's third largest airline, has been struggling to raise funds to continue operations and repay debt, but has found the going difficult due to the uncertain economic environment.

In a media interview in November, Kingfisher's founder and flamboyant liquor baron Mallya had said he was close to sealing a $370 million deal with an Indian private investor and a consortium of banks that would save the airline.

Mallya, however, brushed aside concerns that his airline operations may be grounded in Mumbai, one of the busiest connections in India, following a cash and carry directive by the Mumbai airport.

"I don't understand what is this big thing about cash and carry. If we have to pay on a daily basis (or) weekly basis, we will pay, and the flights will operate uninterruptedly," Mallya said.

On Thursday, India's Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd sent a legal notice to the struggling carrier threatening to put it on cash and carry from Saturday citing non-payment of dues.

Under cash and carry, an airline has to clear its dues to avail of any facilities.

Kingfisher, which has never made a profit since its launch in 2005, is facing a series of financial difficulties. It has eroded its net worth after reporting a doubling of its loss in the fiscal second quarter on higher fuel prices and operating costs.

Kingfisher has become one of the main casualties of high fuel costs and a fierce price war between a handful of airlines which, between them, have ordered hundreds of aircraft for delivery over the next decade in a long punt on the future.

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation has forecast a record $2.5-$3 billion loss for Indian airlines for the year ending March 2012, with state-run Air India alone likely to account for more than half of it.

DEBT REDUCTION DRIVE

Kingfisher Airlines has been asked by its creditors to raise $160 million in equity while holding debt restructuring till it has a credible plan.

Mallya said that talks with lenders was "an ongoing process". He refused to elaborate.

Kingfisher, whose current debt stands at over 65 billion rupees, has a negative networth.

It aims to cut debt to 37.2 billion rupees through sale and lease back of aircraft, sale of a property in Mumbai and conversion of rupee loans into lower interest foreign loans, an investor presentation posted on its website showed.

According to the presentation, Kingfisher seeks to convert 12 billion rupees of rupee loans to foreign currency loans and aims to raise 1.8 billion rupees through sale and lease back of aircraft.

The airline, which is targeting an interest cost reduction of 3.94 billion rupees per annum, also plans to raise 900 million rupees from the sale of a property in Mumbai.

Shares in Kingfisher, valued at $228 million, closed up 3.56 percent at 24.7 rupees in a firm Mumbai market.

The stock has lost 64 percent since the beginning of 2011. The main index is down about 18 percent in the year to date.

Can't let politics block valued foreign equity in retail: Pranab

New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS) Farmers and consumers will be the casualties if foreign equity in retail trade is prevented for narrow political gain, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Friday, yet hoping to convince all stakeholders on the benefits of the new policy.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here, thefinance minister said global experience showed how organised retail, with integrated supply chains, cuts post-harvest wastage and gets remunerative returns to farmers and competitive prices to the consumer.

'But that needs appropriate technology and investment in a large scale,' he said.

'Yet, despite this recognition, often narrow political gains take precedence over early implementation of a policy framework, even when it is being done in a calibrated and sensitive manner,' Mukherjee said, referring to opposition over foreign retailers.

'I do hope ultimately we will be able to persuade all those who are opposing it.'

According to him, such policies were needed for an emerging economy like India to ensure improvement in efficiencies to vigorously pursue and sustain high growth that can also be equitable across states and between urban and rural areas.

'But in the absence of timely action or no action at all, it is the farmer and consumer who will suffer as the nation would miss out on an opportunity,' he warned.

Opposition parties have stalled functioning of parliament since the cabinet, at a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, approved up to 51 percent foreign equity in multi-brand retail and 100 percent in single brand format.

Even some constituents of the the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), such as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's DMK, have opposed the move.

The finance minister lamented that despite being the leader of house in the Lok Sabha, he was unable to express his views inside parliament, especially on the fact that the authority of states was not being undermined deciding on foreign equity in retail.

'Essentially, one has to keep in mind that this (not allowing foreign retailers) can be done by the states, because they have the authority to issue licences. As per law, they have the authority to provide land and other facilities,' he said.

'At the same time, our request is you can exercise your authority within the territorial limits. But don't stand in the way of the others who want to implement it,' Mukherjee added.