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  • ‘Adaniscam’ trends on Twitter, questions on deposits in LIC, SBI raised

    ‘Adaniscam’ trends on Twitter, questions on deposits in LIC, SBI raised

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    Following the outbreak of the Hindenburg report on the Adani group, on Friday, the hashtags ‘Hindenburg Report’, ‘Hindenburg Research’, and ‘Adani scam’ trended on Twitter.

    Several Twitter users including members of the opposition raised questions on the union government’s role in the development.

    Along with the Adani Group share pummelling on Friday, with the group losing Rs 3.37 lakh crore in aggregate market capitalisation in a single day, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the single largest non-promoter domestic shareholder in five of the largest Adani Group companies by market capitalisation, lost Rs 16,627 crore due to a drop in the value of its Adani Group holdings.

    The value of LIC’s Adani Group assets fell from Rs 72,193 crore on Tuesday to Rs 55,565 crore on Friday, a 22% drop in only two days.

    Meanwhile, LIC’s share price declined 3.5 percent during the day on Friday, falling 5.3 percent in the prior two days.

    By the time of publishing this story, #Adaniscam garnered 10.4k tweets and #HindenburgResearch garnered 4764 tweets.

    Reactions

    Some of India’s top public sector banks stated their exposure to the Adani Group was within the limitations outlined by the Reserve Bank of India despite Friday’s steep decline in shares of group firms and the lenders that have exposure to it. The RBI permits a bank to expose no more than 25 percent of its eligible available capital base to any one group of related entities.

    “There is nothing alarming about our Adani exposure and we don’t have any concerns as of now,” SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said speaking to Reuters.

    Khara said the Adani Group hadn’t raised any funding from SBI in the recent past and that the bank would take a ‘prudent call’ on any funding request from them in the near future, reported Reuters.

    SBI has reached out to the company for clarification and the board will take any decision on the bank’s exposure to the group only after that, reported Reuters quoting an unnamed official.

    An official at the state-run Bank of India said the loans to the Adani group were within permissible limits.

    “Our exposure to the Adani Group is below the large exposure framework of the Reserve Bank of India,” Reuters quoted an unnamed executive at the Bank of India as saying.

    “Till last month, the Adani Group’s interest payment on loans has been intact.”

    Bank executives at two other private lenders said that they were not yet in “panic mode” but being watchful, the report stated.

    The LIC is still investing additional money in Adani’s flagship unit despite the fraud allegations. According to a document, the state-controlled life insurer is investing around $37 million as an anchor investor in Adani Enterprises Ltd.’s $2.5 billion new share sale. It would increase its present ownership of 4.23% with the investment.

    Adani Power Ltd., Adani Green Energy Ltd., Adani Transmission Ltd., Adani Ports, and Special Economic Zone Ltd., and Adani Enterprises Ltd. make up the Adani Group.

    What is the Hindenburg report?

    Hindenburg Research, a well-known short seller in the United States, disclosed short positions in the Adani Group on Wednesday, accusing the conglomerate of the improperly wide use of businesses established in offshore tax havens and expressing worry about excessive debt levels.

    The revelation, which came just days before Adani Enterprises’ (ADEL.NS) $2.5 billion share sale, sent Adani group businesses’ shares tumbling.

    It also said that seven Adani listed firms had an 85% downside on a fundamental basis because to what it dubbed ‘sky-high valuations’.

    The firm published an investigative document titled ‘Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History‘ and revealed findings of their two-year investigation presenting evidence that the Rs 17.8 trillion worth Adani group has engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.

    According to the report, Gautam Adani, the Adani Group’s founder, and chairman, has a net worth of about $120 billion, which he has increased by more than $100 billion in the last three years, primarily as a result of stock price growth in the group’s seven most important publicly traded companies, which have increased by an average of 819 percent during that time.

    KT Rama Rao had also challenged the central investigative agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income Tax Department (IT) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to probe into the Adani enterprise’s ‘scam’.

    The challenge comes hours after US’s Hindenburg Research’s investigative document, alleging fraud in Adani Group’s dealings, surfaced.

    The Adani Group has said that accounting (or fraud-type assertions) “investigation” by Hindenburg Research are devoid of facts.

    Of Adani’s portfolio’s nine publicly listed entities, eight are audited by one of the Big 6.

    On leverage or over-leverage issue — 100 of our various companies are rated (these account for nearly 100 percent of our EBITDA), Adani Enterprises said in a stock exchange filing.

    On revenue or balance sheet being artificially inflated or managed — out of nine listed companies in Adani portfolio six are subject to specific sector regulatory review for revenue, costs, and capex, Adani Group said.

    In relation to governance, four of our large companies are in the top 7 percent of the peer group in Emerging markets or the sector of the world.

    On the LAS position do note that overall promoter leverage is less than 4 percent of promoter holding, the group said.

    Hindenburg asked 89 questions in total, the following Question by number: 1,2,3 5,6,7 19,20,21, 27,28,29 62,63,64 and 72,74,75,77,78,79 are in relation to Related party transactions, DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) and court cases.

    Twenty-one in total cannot be claimed to be the result of any investigation over a two-year period or any such assertion as they were disclosed in the public documents all the way back from 2015 onwards, the group said.

    The 21 questions are nothing but Adani Portfolio’s own public disclosure from as far back as 2015, the statement said.



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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Digvijaya Singh questions surgical strikes, accuses govt of peddling lies

    Digvijaya Singh questions surgical strikes, accuses govt of peddling lies

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    Jammu: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday questioned the surgical strikes and accused the government of peddling lies, drawing furious reaction from the BJP which said the opposition party was blinded by its “hate” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has “insulted” the armed forces.

    As his comments stoke a major political row, the Congress distanced itself from them, saying they are “his own” and do not reflect the party’s position.

    Addressing a public meeting during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh alleged that the government did not agree to the CRPF request of flying its personnel from Srinagar to Delhi and 40 soldiers sacrificed their lives in Pulwama in 2019 to a terror attack.

    “They talk of surgical strikes. They claim to have killed so many people but no proof is given. They are ruling by peddling a bundle of lies,” the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, who has often courted controversy with his comments, said.

    The BJP launched a sharp attack on the Congress, saying that such comments show that the Rahul Gandhi-led foot march across the country is Bharat Jodo Yatra only in name while he and his party colleagues are working to “break” the country. It is essentially “Bharat todo yatra”, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said.

    He said, “India will not tolerate if they speak against armed forces. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress hate PM Modi but it seems they have been blinded by the hate to an extent that their dedication to the country has withered away.”

    He said Congress leaders had raised questions about the surgical strikes soon after the Indian Air Force said it hit terror camps in Balakot in Pakistan in retaliation to the Pulwama terror attack.

    “Gandhi and the Congress do not have trust in our brave armed forces. They repeatedly raise questions and insult the citizens of India and our armed forces,” Bhatia claimed.

    With the BJP seizing the issue to corner the Congress over its key plank of national security, the opposition party swung into damage-control.

    AICC general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, “The views expressed by senior leader Digvijaya Singh are his own and do not reflect the position of Congress. Surgical strikes were carried out before 2014 by UPA government. Congress has supported and will continue to support all military actions that are in the national interest.”

    An unfazed Singh, however, kept up his line of attack.

    In a tweet in Hindi, he said, “From where did the terrorists get 300 kg of RDX in Pulwama incident? DSP Davinder Singh was caught with terrorists but then why was he released? We also want to know about the friendship between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India.”

    In his video message attached to the tweet, Singh said 40 CRPF personnel sacrificed their lives in Pulwama, but this government has not been able to reveal from where three quintals of RDX came.

    “Besides, the government has not been able to answer where is DSP Davinder Singh, who was caught involved with terrorists. Why was he let free and why was a case of treason not registered against him?

    “We would also like to know from the prime minister as to what kind of relations he has with Pakistani prime minister that both are praising each other. At least, he should answer these questions,” the Congress leader said in a video message.

    Attacking the Congress, Bhatia said its leaders had tried to deflect attention from Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack as well. Randeep Singh Surjewala had then blamed “home-grown terrorism”, he claimed, alleging that the opposition party tried to give a clean chit to Pakistan.

    Pakistan is in a lot of pain when our armed forces strike terrorists, while in India it is the Congress which is in anguish, he said.

    With the Pulwama terror attack and surgical strikes taking place in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the issues had captured popular imagination as the BJP retained power at the Centre with a bigger mandate than 2014 by winning over 300 seats out of 543.

    “Nothing is bigger than people’s blessings in democracy. In the 2019 polls, it became clear that people stand with the BJP and the armed forces. While those who raised questions are facing existential crisis,” Bhatia said.

    Bhatia claimed that the then Congress-led UPA government in 2008 did not allow the armed forces to target Pakistan after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. “There was zero response as it lacked courage. That corrupt and incompetent Congress government had no will,” he said.

    On the other hand the Modi government targeted camps of terrorists in Pakistan after terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama, he said.

    The BJP spokesperson also asked Rahul Gandhi to iterate his stand on Article 370, which gave special rights to Jammu and Kashmir and was repealed by the government in 2019.

    Supporting his party colleague Digvijaya Singh, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera shared his tweet and video message and said Prime Minister Modi should answer questions on Pulwama and not hide behind the armed forces.

    “The question is from the Modi government. Without hiding behind our brave army, Modi ji should answer: How did RDX reach Pulwama? Why was DSP Davinder Singh released without investigation? What kind of relation does Modi ji have with Pakistan that you call ISI to Pathankot,” Khera said.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Hyderabad: Fire at Numaish parking lot raises questions over public safety

    Hyderabad: Fire at Numaish parking lot raises questions over public safety

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    Hyderabad: A major fire that broke out in the Numaish parking lot once again raises questions over the safety of thousands of people that visit the annual exhibition in Hyderabad.

    In the fire incident, as many as three cars were burnt down to ashes. Initially, an electric car caught fire and then it spread to others.

    Though the fire tenders present at the spot doused the fire, the incident refreshed people’s memory about the 2019 incident.

    Speaking to Siasat.com, a regular Numaish goer Jameel Ahmed who witnessed the 2019 fire incident said that necessary arrangements need to be made at the exhibition ground and parking lot areas to avoid any untoward incident in the future.

    Another person Irshad Ahmed questioned how cars burnt down to ashes if proper arrangements were made.

    Fire brings back memories of the 2019 incident

    In 2019, a massive fire broke out in Numaish in Hyderabad. In the incident, many stalls were burnt to ashes.

    Luckily, no casualty was reported. However, following the incident panic prevailed and many traders incurred huge losses.

    History of numaish in Hyderabad

    Numaish-e-Masnuaat-e-Mulki, or Numaish in short, made a humble beginning in 1938 as an event to promote locally-produced goods.

    It was a group of graduates from Osmania University who came up with the idea of an exhibition to conduct an economic survey of the state.

    The seventh Nizam of Hyderabad State, Mir Osman Ali Khan, inaugurated the first ‘Numaish’.

    Enthused by the good response, it was decided to make it an annual event and use the earnings to promote education.

    Beginning with just 50 stalls and a capital of Rs 2.50, it has today evolved into one of the biggest industrial exhibitions in the country.

    Numaish could not be organized in 1947 and 1948 due to the turmoil in the aftermath of India’s Independence. With Hyderabad acceding to the Indian Union, the event bounced back in 1949.

    The exhibition could not be held in 2020 due to the Covid-19 situation. This was only the third time in its history that it could not be held.

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    #Hyderabad #Fire #Numaish #parking #lot #raises #questions #public #safety

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • China’s future to AI and jobs: five big questions from Davos

    China’s future to AI and jobs: five big questions from Davos

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    A number of big themes emerged from the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort Davos. Here are five of most pressing questions that came to dominate this year’s gathering of the global elite.

    Will China be forced to make friends with the west?

    Donald Trump’s trade war with China – continued by his successor Joe Biden – has left relations between east and west at rock bottom. But with Covid and trade tensions halving Chinese growth last year to just 3% and western businesses such as Apple moving business out of the world’s second-biggest economy, Beijing has hinted it may adopt a less-hostile approach.

    Vice-premier Liu He appeared on the main stage at Davos to assure foreign investors that after three years of Covid disruption, it was open for business. “We have to abandon the cold war mentality,” he said. “We must open up wider and make it work better.”

    Whether the west is ready to believe that remains to be seen. Executives at several tech companies said they were approached by American intelligence officials at the summit who were keen to understand their operations in China. “They want to know which side you are on,” said a tech boss.

    The FBI director Christopher Wray gave a speech arguing that China’s artificial intelligence (AI) programme would be weaponised by the country, telling attenders: “The Chinese government has a bigger hacking programme than any other nation in the world.”

    Several economists also forecast that China’s rapid reopening could reignite rapid inflation by fuelling demand for commodities just as central bankers hoped they had got a grip on surging prices.

    Davos promenade road
    A slogan for the World Economic Forum on Davos’s promenade, the sentiment undermined by fears about AI’s impact on jobs. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

    Is artificial intelligence coming for your job?

    Rapid advances being made in AI have prompted a wave of warnings, not only about what it means for the world of work, but also the risks that it might produce misinformation on a grand scale.

    Mihir Shukla, chief executive of Automation Anywhere, said that as a result of AI it was now possible for a machine to process a mortgage application in three minutes that previously would have taken 30 days.

    Erik Brynjolfsson, digital economy professor at Stanford University said in the past machines had not been a substitute for workers but complemented the activities of humans, enabling them to do things better and leading to higher pay.

    Yet IBM’s chairman and chief executive Arvind Krishna predicted a wave of job cuts from AI. “You should worry more about the clerical, white-collar jobs than the physical [jobs]. A large number of them will get replaced. So the question is: ‘What jobs do you create to replace those?’”

    Brynjolfsson identified another threat. The world risked being flooded with bot-generated emails, posts and tweets peddling disinformation on a massive scale and warned there was a need for a control mechanism to separate the true from the false.

    Swedish Climate activist Greta Thunberg
    The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (left) takes her environmental campaign to Davos where there were fears US and EU green economy plans could spark a trade dispute. Photograph: Laurent Gilliéron/EPA

    Will Biden’s $369bn green subsidy scheme help or hinder?

    The US and EU nations arrived at Davos with a $369bn row simmering in the background: Joe Biden’s vast green subsidy scheme, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It provides extensive state aid for companies investing in green technologies crucial to the transition away from fossil fuels, including electric cars, batteries, and renewable energy technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines.

    Jozef Síkela, the Czech Republic’s minister of industry and trade, equated it with “doping in sport” and said it was luring companies away from Europe to the US. But Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the IRA is the “most important climate action after the Paris 2015 agreement”.

    Some have speculated it could lead to a trade war between the US and EU, akin to the decades-long Boeing v Airbus dispute over subsidies. The EU is responding with its own Net Zero Industry Act which will simplify and fast-track clean tech production sites.

    Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said she hoped the subsidy race “is not going to be a race to the bottom”. While leader of the UK’s Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, embraced the idea of a more activist state, the UK business secretary, Grant Shapps, was distinctly cooler on the idea, describing it as “dangerous”.

    Kristalina Georgieva, International Monetary Fund
    Kristalina Georgieva, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director. Photograph: Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA

    Is a new debt crisis looming?

    About a quarter of the countries in the world are in debt distress or on the brink of it. In Davos every one of the multilateral organisations that keep tabs on the financial fragility of poor countries – the UN, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – expressed concern.

    Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Programme said there was an urgent need for a comprehensive solution but was unsure whether there was the bandwidth or leadership required.

    “Nothing is happening commensurate with the problem,” Steiner said. “There is a growing recognition that there has been a year of inactivity by the institutions created to deal with this – the G20 and the Bretton Woods institutions [the IMF and the World Bank].”

    Countries are having trouble paying their debts amid slower global growth and rising interest rates. Many also borrowed in US dollars, which have appreciated on currency markets. Steiner said there needed to be an urgent injection of financial support through a fresh issuance of IMF special drawing rights – a form of money creation that boosts a country’s reserves – with debt restructuring. That will require more flexibility by two important creditors: China and the private sector.

    Poster for Neom
    Saudi Arabia promotes it Neom $500bn megacity plan in Davos, part of a strong Middle East presence. Photograph: Getty Images

    Can the Gulf states modernise and wean off hydrocarbons?

    The corporate logos that plaster shopfronts on the Davos promenade are a good barometer of changing economic fortunes. With Russia blacklisted after its invasion of Ukraine and China keeping a low profile, the Gulf states – flush with petrodollars – took over the Swiss ski resort en-masse.

    The long road that winds towards the conference centre was dominated by Middle Eastern brands: from the United Arab Emirates’ logistics company DP World, to Neom, the $500bn megacity that is the cornerstone of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to modernise Saudi Arabia.

    The Gulf states need to prove to the world that they can modernise as companies and businesses switch away from oil and gas. The Saudis used the World Economic Forum to promote the kingdom’s modernisation plan, called Vision 2030, and the increasing role of women in the economy, while hoping the west would ignore atrocities such as the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist whose death in October 2018 has been linked to Crown Prince Mohammed.

    Several senior Saudi ministers were joined on a panel by Jane Fraser, boss of US banking giant Citi, and Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, to discuss more women joining the workforce and economic change.

    “When one turns up in Saudi looking at what are the opportunities from a business perspective … it’s quite breathtaking,” said Fraser. “As a banker, one gets frightfully excited.”

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • “Tearing urgency, lightning speed”, Supreme Court questions Centre on appointment of Election Commissioner

    “Tearing urgency, lightning speed”, Supreme Court questions Centre on appointment of Election Commissioner

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    After the Center presented the original file of Election Commissioner Arun Goel’s appointment before the Constitution bench on Thursday, the Supreme Court questioned the lightning-quickness with which his name was finalised.

    This occurred the day after the Supreme Court stated that the Centre should not be afraid to produce the file “if they were right, as they claimed and that there was no hanky panky” in regards to the “process” by which the former IAS official was selected as the Election Commissioner last week.

    On Thursday, a five-judge Constitution Bench, presided over by Justice K M Joseph and made up of Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and C T Ravikumar, said that the file was cleared within 24 hours and questioned the Centre as to whether there was any “tearing urgency” to do so. The petitions sought changes to the appointment of Election Commissioners.

    The Center, through Attorney General R. Venkataramani, asked the court to “hold its mouth” and asked it to look into the matter completely as the top court noted that the file pertaining to Goel’s appointment was cleared with “lightning speed.”

    Which type of evaluation is this? However, the panel stated that they were only criticising the procedure and not Arun Goel’s qualifications.

    When asked how the Law Minister selected the four names to be recommended to the Prime Minister, the Attorney General said it was done using a database that DoPT maintains.


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