Category: Business

Enforcement Directorate seizes Rs 3.71 crore in Bank of India fraud case

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Enforcement Directorate has seized Rs 3.71 crore of two companies for alleged misuse of third party accounts by cash deposits at a bank branch in Bihar after demonetisation.

Stating that the seizure was made yesterday, an ED release said that the amount was held in the name of two companies in a case involving huge cash deposits in demonetized currency in certain bank accounts of the Bank of India, G B Road, Gaya.

During investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, it was found that some officials of the Bank of India, Gaya, in connivance with four individuals misused the bank accounts of certain innocent persons to deposit huge amount of demonetized currency in their accounts, the release
said.

“The money so deposited was layered through various bank accounts in the guise of fake business transactions. Rs 3.71 crore in demonetized currency were deposited in the bank accounts of various firms/persons without their knowledge and consent”, it said adding that the amount was further transferred to the account of two companies.

While the director of one company could not offer any logical explanation of such deposits and transaction whereas the director of another company did not appear in response to the summons, it said.

For this, an amount of Rs 1.77 crore from a private bank account of one company and Rs 1.94 crore from a PSU bank account of another company were seized, the agency said.

The ED also said among the accused businessmen based in Gaya, one was in judicial custody and two others were absconding.

Among the bank officials named in the case, one retired chief manager was arrested while two others are absconding, the release said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon arm to create New-Age tech workforce in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Realising the need to create a workforce for Next-Gen technologies, several tech companies have started accelerators and incubators in the recent past to nurture talent in disruptive technologies in India.

On the other hand, global Cloud services platform Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, started on the mission long back to prepare an industry-ready workforce and nurture start-ups in the country.

According to a senior AWS executive, the company is working very closely with the entire accelerator and incubator space in India.

“AWS has various programmes that it runs in India that help all the stakeholders further drive invested or incubated companies move forward on New-Age technology. This includes giving AWS credits for free. We do mentorship, we do training. We take them through labs,” Bikram Bedi, Head (India Region) at Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd (AISPL), told IANS.

AISPL is an Indian subsidiary of the Amazon Group which undertakes the resale and marketing of AWS Cloud services in the country.

“Next, we help them in terms of ‘connect’. One programme we run is called ‘Enterprise Connect’ where we go to a bank or a manufacturing company, for example, and ask what kind of new solutions they are looking for in the digital space.

“They tell us that they are looking at such-and-such five areas. We will then go back to our start-up space and say hey, these AWS customers want these five kinds of solutions. The next step is proof of concepts (POCs) and then adoption,” Bedi informed.

When it comes to creating the right set of skills in the market, AWS has a clear-cut strategy.

“The effort is broken into a couple of things. The first is around the existing workforce — start-ups, big enterprises and the thriving small and medium businesses (SMBs), etc. We regularly run training classes. Every office that we open in this country has a training room attached to it,” Bedi told IANS.

AWS has been running training prgrammes for the existing customers across segments — around system administration, solution architecture and more.

“The second piece you need to focus on is the emerging workforce, like students. We’ve built two separate programmes for them. One is called ‘Educate’ and the other is called ‘Academy,'” the AWS executive said.

With the increasing demand for Cloud employees, AWS Educate provides an academic gateway for the next generation of IT and Cloud professionals.

Educate is primarily a shorter duration programme that helps academicians build assets, study programmes and learning modules around AWS.

“Academy is the full-term course. We are working with a number of educational institutes to see how we can help build the right skill-sets for the market,” Bedi added.

The third part of building skills is to go out and organise regular outreach programmes across communities.

AWS recently organised a full-day programme around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) called the “AIML Conclave” in Bengaluru that was attended by business leaders, data scientists, engineers and developers.

The event helped developers learn about Amazon AI and real-world use cases developed by Amazon and AWS customers — to build smart, customer-centric, scalable solutions in the Cloud and on the edge, using Amazon AI, AWS Internet of Things (IoT) and AWS Deep Learning.

AWS AI is also helping Indian developers build chatbots. Haptik, an AI-based chatbot platform, has partnered with AWS to offer solutions to customers in the country. In cooperation with AWS, Haptik aims to rapidly expand in the Indian chatbot AI market.

The functionality within the AWS AI platform leverages ‘Amazon Polly’ — a text-to-speech service that uses advanced deep learning technologies to synthesise speech that sounds like a human voice.

“We are striving hard to reach out to the wider community in India. We are trying to connect several pieces into one and create a right mix of skilled workforce for the new technologies in the market,” Bedi told IANS.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

In Malaga, memories of Picasso hang in the air

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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He sat there. Under the jacaranda tree with a book in hand. The shirt sleeves rolled, the trousers creased. A wrinkle on his broad forehead and a smile mislaid into the thick laughter lines. Behind the artist sculpted in bronze was 15, Plaza de la Merced, the yellow house with green slat windows where he was born one autumn afternoon of 1881. I had flown thousands of miles into Malaga (Spain) just to see the man I swoon over. His name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.

I swoon over Picasso. But he was not there. It has been 45 years since Death knocked his door on April 8, 1973. In Malaga, I walked where he must have walked once – El Castillo De Gibralfaro, the 10th century Moorish Palace, the 16th  century Renaissance Cathedral and the 1st century Roman Theatre. But I did not find his footprints; Time has erased them from Malaga’s sidewalks. In 1891, when his father found a job as an art teacher, the family left Malaga for La Coruna, returning for three years in summer. In 1901, Picasso finally left Malaga. Never to return. He was 19.

Children First, Just As He Finished

Picasso did not live long in his birthplace, but Malaga, the largest city on the Costa del Sol in Spain’s Andalusia, seems to subsist on the memory of the artist. Here, the aesthete needs no map – his feet know where to go first. To the Museum of Picasso, the world’s second largest collection of his art. With ticket and an orange folder in hand, I waited at the entrance. Suddenly, there was the hubbub of innocent laughter. A bunch of kindergarten students had walked in for a day with Picasso. I had to step aside for them. In Picasso Museum, children have priority. That is how Picasso wished. Children enter first. I paid heed to the painter’s wish.

Then I saw him. An old Picasso. Nearly 90. He was peering from a tiny screen on the Museum’s wall. In the black/white video, I watched him paint. A bull. A woman. A horse. Eloquent, magical strokes on canvas. Picasso is oblivious of the world. To the man who pioneered Cubism, only the form mattered. That’s the form – and Picasso – I swoon over. That’s the Picasso I met in the Museum housed in a former Renaissance-style building that sits on the remains of 7^th century Phoenician Malaga and is now a National Monument. Donated by Picasso’s family to the city of Malaga are 233 works of art, most never displayed for public before.

Malaga on a Canvas

I walked back to Casa Natal, the yellow house in which Picasso was born. Picasso’s father had rented it in 1880 and stayed until 1883. A heritage site since 1983, the building was taken over by the Picasso Foundation in 1998 and officially reopened by the King and Queen of Spain. The Picasso Birthplace Museum houses the artist’s prints, ceramics and graphic art from the period 1931-1971.

Before leaving Malaga, I had to see Picasso one last time. I sat next to him on the bench. He was silent. Under the jacaranda tree, I tried saying the full name of the man I swoon over: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. I fumbled. Perhaps Picasso smiled. I don’t know.

When I was a child my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll be the pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. – Pablo Picasso

The signature of Paloma Picasso, the artist’s daughter, on an oak cask in Malaga’s El Pimpi restaurant.

What more in Malaga:

Automobile and Fashion Museum houses the private collection of Portuguese car fanatic Joao Magalhaes and is listed in Top Ten of Museums of Spain

Preeti Verma Lal is a Goa-based freelance writer/photographer. 

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India opens $15 billion contest for more than 110 fighter jets

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India is looking to buy around 110 fighter jets, the air force said in a request for information issued on Friday, marking the first step toward a long-delayed deal that could be worth more than $15 billion.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Saab and Dassault Aviation are among the manufacturers expected to compete.

The aircraft must be built largely in India as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to build a domestic industrial base.

The air force said in a notice that “85 percent will have to be made in India by a Strategic Partner/Indian Production Agency”.

Lockheed has offered to move its F-16 production line in Fort Worth, Texas, to India and make it the only plant worldwide to produce the F-16 for not only India but also other countries, said Vivek Lall, vice president, strategy and business development at Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed has teamed with India‘s Tata Advanced Systems to build the planes locally while Sweden’s Saab has entered into a partnership with the Adani Group, a resources conglomerate. The other contenders have not announced their local partners.

The tender will be open for makers of both single engine and twin-engined combat jets, in a widening of the field. The Eurofighter Typhoon and Russian aircraft are also potential contenders under the new requirements.

A spokesman for Dassault Aviation which makes the twin-engine Rafale declined to comment.

Earlier, the defence ministry had sought expressions of interest from single-engine manufacturers which effectively restricted the contest to Lockheed’s F-16 and Saab’s Gripen fighter jets.

But in February the government asked the air force to open up the competition to twin-engined aircraft, in the latest flip-flop in policy that has delayed the acquisition process for years and left the air force short of hundreds of planes.

India began its search for new planes for the Indian air force in 2003 to replace its Soviet-era MiG fighters.

The request for information is open until July, the air force said. A request for proposal will then be issued followed by bid evaluations and contract negotiations. The process could take years, officials say.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Shree Renuka Sugars to divest Brazilian Operations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Crisis-hit Shree Renuka Sugars today said that its board has decided to divest the Brazilian operations of the company.

But the divestment of the Brazilian operations of the company is subject to any necessary approvals, Shree Renuka Sugars said in a BSE filing.

“The board of directors, at its meeting held today i.e. on 6th April, 2018, has decided that the Brazilian operations of the company would be divested in due course subject to any necessary approvals.,” the company said in the filing.

The board noted filing of a revised Judicial Recovery plan under the Bankruptcy Protection Code in Brazil for Renuka do Brasil, the main step-down subsidiary of Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd in that country, it said.

“This plan involves the sale of one production unit (Sugar Mill) in due course subject to any necessary approvals and the other unit being kept closed with an option to the buyer of the first unit to purchase the same within three years,” the filing said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cap for H-1B visa reached, says US Citizenship and Immigration Services

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it has reached the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for fiscal year 2019 and would conduct a lottery to decide successful applicants for the work visa popular among Indian IT professionals.

The fiscal year begins October 1, 2018.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The USCIS has also received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the 20,000 visa cap for advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, a statement said.

The statement did not mention the exact number of H-1B petitions it received since April 2, when it started accepting applications for the popular work visas for highly skilled Indian professionals.

“We will not have exact petition receipt numbers for a few weeks. However, the USCIS will be conducting a lottery as we have done in past years,” Arwen FitzGerald, the USCIS spokesperson, told PTI.

“The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings,” the USCIS said.

the agency said that it would continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, will also not be counted toward the FY 2019 H-1B cap.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Did Cambridge Analytica get your data? You’ll know soon

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Despite fraud, PNB’s 2017-18 domestic business up 7.9%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Despite a major fraud, state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Friday reported a 7.9% growth in its domestic business, which crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark during 2017-18.

“Global business of the bank hovers around Rs 11 lakh crore, the domestic business of the bank has reached new milestone by crossing Rs 10 lakh crore registering 7.9% YoY growth for the FY 2017-18,” the bank said in a statement.

“Domestic deposit has remained above Rs 6 lakh crore with YoY increase of 6.2%. The savings bank deposit has increased to Rs 224,109 lakh crore.”

“From the beginning when the fraud was detected and reported to the authorities by us, the bank had communicated that it has a strong balance sheet to meet any liabilities; This reflects in our numbers as well,” PNB Managing Director and CEO Sunil Mehta was quoted as saying in the statement.

“Our deposits have grown in line with the industry and our credit has grown by 9.9%, which is in line with our guidance. The turmoil during the last one-and-a-half months has not converted into loss of confidence among the customers or staff members.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cryptocurrency miner Canaan eyes IPO; bets on China’s push for chip industry

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Canaan Creative, one of the world’s top cryptocurrency mining equipment makers, said it was considering an initial public offering and expected China’s push to promote the domestic chip industry to help drive growth for the company.

Hangzhou-based Canaan has seen a surge in demand for its mining machines amid a boom in cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin spiking more than 1,300% in 2017. The price of the digital currency has, however, halved so far in 2018.

Canaan shrugged off the recent volatility stemming from growing scrutiny of the sector, betting lower prices would bring in more demand. The company says it supplies around a quarter of the global bitcoin blockchain computing power.

Canaan is considering an IPO in Hong Kong or the United States, co-chairman Jianping Kong said in an interview.

“We … prefer listing outside mainland China as we are in a global business,” Kong said, without giving details on when or how much it expects to raise.

The company had in 2016 tried to list on the mainland through a 3.06 billion yuan ($485 million) back-door listing, but cancelled the plan after a regulatory deadlock. It also scrapped another plan to list on the New Third Board in China, Kong confirmed on Friday.

Kong said the decision was not driven by China’s regulatory crackdown on bitcoin, but because listing in the country takes too long, adding Canaan may consider a secondary mainland listing by issuing depository receipts.

“As an integrated circuit company, we are supported by government policies,” he said.

China’s semiconductor push 

China has introduced tax breaks for chipmakers producing in the country in a bid to cut dependence on foreign manufacturers as trade tensions with the United States soar.

This bodes well for makers of high-end chips used in cryptocurrency mining as China is also home to one of the world’s largest centres for such mining —where people solve complex mathematical puzzles with computers in order to be awarded virtual coins.

While cryptocurrency trading has come under scrutiny in China amid worries of financial risks, an underground ecosystem of peer-to-peer platforms has sprung up to allow bitcoin trading to thrive.

Canaan’s clients include individuals in China and companies outside the country, with many of its machines ending up in electricity-rich areas that have formed large bitcoin mines, such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Yunnan.

N G Zhang, the company’s 35-year-old founder and CEO, said Canaan employs around 200 in Beijing and Hangzhou, mostly in chip research and development, and is hiring more.

Canaan, which sells “Avalon” mining machines with customised super-fast ASIC chips, made revenue of more than 1 billion yuan in 2017.

Its main competitors include US-based Bitfury and Beijing-based Bitmain, which makes the “AntMiner”.

Canaan is now looking to add more products to its portfolio, such as home appliances with blockchain computing power and AI functions like “coin-mining TVs” that mine cryptocurrencies “while you sleep”, Kong said.

Canaan is developing its own AI chips and planning to launch equipment to mine other cryptocurrencies such as litecoin.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow