1. PM Modi Promises 'Strict Action' Against PNB Fraudsters
Breaking his silence over the Rs 11,400-crore fraud at India's second-biggest public sector bank PNB, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 23 February Friday said his government will take stringent action against financial irregularities and not tolerate loot of public money.
Days after the fraud allegedly masterminded by diamantaire Nirav Modi came to light, the prime minister asked the management of financial institutions as well as the supervisory bodies to do their job diligently to check such frauds.
"I want to make it clear that this government has been taking strict action against financial irregularities and will continue to take strict action," he said at Global Business Summit organised by Economic Times. "System will not tolerate loot of public money," Modi said.
"I want to make an appeal to those who have been entrusted with the job of framing rules and policies and maintaining ethics to do their job diligently and with dedication," he said
(Source: PTI)
2. Govt Moves to Attach All Assets of Accused in Rs 11,300 crore PNB Fraud
The government has moved to attach all assets of the key accused in the Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National Bank fraud, including those of the companies owned by them. The accused include jeweller Nirav Modi, his wife Ami Modi, his brother Nishaal Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi.
On Friday, the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) with a petition under sections 221 and 222 of the Companies Act to freeze all assets of the 64 respondents in the Nirav Modi case. Besides family members, the respondents include companies and trusts belonging to them. The next date of hearing has been fixed on 27 February.
Legal experts say the government had the option of acquiring the companies the way it took over Satyam Computers after a massive fraud in 2009. However, if the government does take over the companies, it will not have a major advantage in the absence of a functioning business to run, and will only be saddled with liabilities.
(Source: Times of India)
3. Nearly 10,000 PNB Credit, Debit Card on Sale Online: Cyber Security Firm CloudSek
A Cyber Security firm says that it found details of over 10,000 credit and debit cards of customers of the embattled Punjab National Bank up for sale for $ 4-5 per card on the internet for the last three months.
The country’s second largest public sector bank blocked the cards soon after the breach was reported by Cloudsek on Wednesday afternoon, the company said.
“Close to 10,000 client details are for sale on the dark web which included names, emails, passwords, credit and debit card number, expiry dates, year, CVV number and the like. The user information of each card costs about $4 - $5,” said Rahul Sasi, cofounder of CloudSek, a Bangalore-Singapore based cyber security company.
“We have a system that crawls the Web/Dark Web/UG Discussion forums for websites that have put up user data for sale. Once our crawler stumbles upon suspicious data like that, our machine learning software analyses it and if there is a threat we alert our clients about customer data being disclosed” Sasi, said. ClouSEK’s clientele includes Gojek, Grab Taxi, and BankBazaar.
(Source: Economic Times)
4. Indian Exchanges Cut Ties to Foreign Bourses After Government Nod: Sources
India’s government fully endorses a dramatic move by domestic exchanges to cut off data to global bourses, sources familiar with the matter said, seeing it as vital to lure foreign investments into the country from Singapore and other financial centres.
It was only after receiving the endorsement that India’s three private stock exchanges - NSE, BSE and MSEI - proceeded with the joint announcement on 10 February to stop providing data to foreign rivals, said two senior officials at the bourses.
A senior finance ministry official said New Delhi had held “wide consultations” on whether to support the exchanges’ actions, and concluded it was needed to allow a new international finance centre being set up in India “to compete with Singapore and Dubai.”
The move by the exchanges, blasted by index provider MSCI Inc as protectionist, reflects long-held wariness by Indian officials about the trading of Indian derivative products overseas.
The action is also a tactical move to lure foreign investors to an international financial centre being developed in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
(Source: Reuters)
5. Reliance Jio Is Now India’s Third-Largest Telecom Company
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is now India's third-largest telecom operator.
India's youngest telecom operator’s revenue market share increased to 19.7 percent in the third quarter of the financial year 2018, higher than Idea Cellular Ltd, a feat achieved in just 16 months of operations. The telecom company is just 90 basis points away from becoming the second-largest.
Reliance Jio’s revenue market share increased by 584 basis points compared to the last quarter.
In the December-ended quarter, Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country's largest telecom operator, lost some market share to Reliance Jio among the top telcos. Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd did see some marginal improvement in their market share.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
6. Rotomac Chief, Son Sent to Transit Remand, IT Seizes 12 Accounts
A CBI court on 23 February sent Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul to one-day transit remand, while the Income Tax department seized 12 bank accounts of the group and issued six prosecution against the businessman in connection with the Rs 3,695 crore loan default.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal at the Patiala House courts passed an order for a day's remand after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought a two-day transit remand to take the father and son to Lucknow. The duo will be produced before the court concerned in Lucknow on 24 February.
Kothari and his son were arrested on Thursday 22 February for an alleged default on loan repayment. This came after four days of questioning since the day the CBI filed the case against them and raided their residential and office premises in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur.
Read full story here.
7. Bharti Infratel, Indus Towers Planning Merger to Create Telecom Tower Giant
Bharti Infratel Ltd and Indus Towers Ltd—two of India’s largest telecom tower firms—are planning to merge their businesses, three people aware of the matter said.
Vodafone India Ltd and publicly traded Bharti Infratel Ltd hold 42% each in Indus Towers. Idea Cellular Ltd owns 11.15% and US-based private equity fund Providence owns 4.85%.
Bharti Infratel was earlier planning to acquire a controlling stake in Indus Towers and make the latter a subsidiary.
According to that plan, Bharti Infratel was to acquire the stake it didn’t own in Indus Towers in an all-cash transaction and later sell the combined business to external investors.
Vodafone India and Idea Cellular are set to merge this year to create India’s largest telecom operator, surpassing Bharti Airtel Ltd.
(Source: Livemint)
8. SEBI Asks HDFC Bank To Probe WhatsApp Earnings Leak
The market regulator, probing earnings circulated on messaging platform WhatsApp before official announcement, asked HDFC Bank Limited to strengthen its controls to ensure price-sensitive information is not leaked.
Such leakage is prima facie attributable to the inadequacy of the processes, controls and systems that HDFC Bank as a listed company had put in place, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said in an order uploaded on its website.
The regulator asked India’s largest private bank to complete an internal investigation in three months to find out people responsible for leaking the numbers and take appropriate action against in accordance with law.
It found that the leaked numbers for the quarters ended December 2015 and June 2017 were close to the actual results.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. India Seeks 'Reasonable' Oil Price From Saudi Arabia: Dharmendra Pradhan
India is seeking a reasonable price for crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday, in a move that could help Riyadh regain top spot in supplying the world’s third largest oil consumer.
“Some instrument can be developed so that the pricing is suitable for both of us,” Pradhan said after a meeting with Saudi Arabian counterpart Khalid al-Falih.
“We must get a reasonable price for crude oil and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas),” he said.
India is building a six million tonne strategic oil reserve. It already has a 5 million tonne strategic reserved stored at three locations.
“The way we have done an arrangement with ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) for storage facility, the same way we are discussing with Aramco (Saudi Aramco),” Pradhan said.
(Source: Reuters)
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