ISRO's 47th PSLV mission to launch 28 nano satellites, countdown begins

A 27-hour countdown began Sunday for the launch of India's EMISAT satellite along with 28 nano satellites of global customers from Sriharikota Monday, a mission which would witness the ISRO placing payloads in three orbits and conducting space experiments for the first time.

The EMISAT satellite is aimed at electromagnetic measurement.

The countdown began at 6.27 am for the launch on board Indian Space Research Organisation's third generation workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its 47th flight, ISRO said.

The four-stage PSLV-C45 will blast off from the second launch pad at the spaceport of Sriharikota, about 125 kms from here, at 9.27 AM Monday, agency officials said.

The mission will mark several firsts to the credit of the space agency as it would manoeuvre satellites in various orbits and orbital experiments including on maritime satellite applications.

According to ISRO, a new variant of the rocket PSLV-QL equipped with four Strap-On motors in the first stage is used for the launch.

PSLV, also used in India's two key missions -- "Chandrayan" in 2008 and Mars Orbiter in 2013, is a reliable and versatile launch vehicle for ISRO with 39 consecutive successful flights till June, 2017 and five-in-a row from January 2018.

The rocket has encountered only two failures so far -- its maiden developmental flight ended unsuccessful way back in 1993. In September, 2017 the flight went off without any hitch but the IRNSS-1H Satellite could not be released into orbit after the PSLV-C39's heat shield failed to open on reaching the orbit.

In Monday's mission, ISRO scientists would place the satellites and payloads in three different orbits, a first for the agency.

After injecting the 436 kg primary satellite EMISAT, intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement, at around 17 minutes from lift off in a 749 km orbit, they would restart the fourth stage again.

During this initiative, all the other 28 customer satellites, totally weighing about 220 kgs, would be released by lowering the fourth state to around 504 kms orbit.

Again, the fourth stage would be reignited and further lowered to 485 kms orbit to serve as an orbital platform for carrying out space borne experimentations for the first time in ISRO's history.

According to ISRO, this is the first time it has been envisaged to provide a micro-gravity environment for research organisations and academic institutes to perform experiments.

The PS4-fourth stage hosts three payloads in this mission.

They are automatic identification system from ISRO for Maritime satellite applications capturing messages transmitted from ships.

Automatic Packet Repeating System from AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation), India to assist amateur radio operators in tracking and monitoring position data.

Advanced Retarding Potential Analyzer for lonospheric Studies (ARIS) from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) for the structural and composition studies of ionosphere.

The other 28 international satellites -- 25 3U type, two 6U type and one 2U type nano satellites -- are from Lithuania (two), Spain (1), Switzerland (1) and the United States (24).

All these satellites are being launched under commercial arrangements, ISRO said.

The previous launches by ISRO this year include the imaging satellite Microsat-R for military purpose along with 1.2 kg Kalamsat in January onboard PSLV-C44.

In February, ISRO launched India's communication satellite GSAT-31 from the European launch service provider Ariane from French Guiana.

Vijaya, Dena to become Bank of Baroda from Monday; to work as BoB outlets

In a first three-way amalgamation, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will merge with Bank of Baroda (BoB) from April 1 to create the third-largest lender of the country.

As a result, branches of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will function as BoB outlets from Monday onwards.

"Customers including depositors of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will be treated as customers of Bank of Baroda with effect from April 1, 2019," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had said in a statement on Saturday.

To make merger a smooth affair, the government last week decided to infuse Rs 5,042 crore in BoB to enhance its capital base to meet additional expense.

According to the Scheme of Amalgamation, shareholders of Vijaya Bank will get 402 equity shares of BoB for every 1,000 shares held. In the case of Dena Bank, its shareholders will get 110 shares of BoB for every 1,000 shares.

The government in September last year announced the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in India, with a combined business of Rs 14.82 trillion, making it the third-largest bank after State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank.

The announcement of the three-way merger was among several reforms initiatives undertaken by Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar to make public sector banks (PSBs) healthy, robust and globally competitive.

As part of the reform process, the government had also announced transfer of majority 51 per cent stake to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in IDBI Bank in August last year to transform the Mumbai-based lender.

Besides, the Department of Financial Services made a record capital infusion of Rs 1.06 lakh crore in the PSBs in the current fiscal. As a result five public sector banks including Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank were out of the prompt corrective action framework of the RBI earlier this year. Non-performing assets (NPAs) have shown negative trend in 2018-19 and have reduced by Rs 23,860 crore between April-September 2018.

Following the merger, the number of PSBs will come down to 18.

Announcing the merger, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said "the consolidation will help create a strong globally competitive bank with economies of scale and enable realisation of wide-ranging synergies".

The merged entity will have better financial strength, Financial Service Secretary Kumar had said adding that its net NPA ratio will be at 5.71 per cent, significantly better than PSBs' average of 12.13 per cent.

Besides, provision coverage ratio would be better at 67.5 per cent against an average of 63.7 per cent and the cost-to-income ratio of the combined entity would come down to 48.94 per cent as compared to average of 53.92 per cent, he had said last year.

Crisis averted at Jet Airways; pilots defer by 2 weeks decision not to fly

A major crisis at the struggling carrier Jet Airways was averted Sunday after its pilots' body National Aviator's Guild (NAG) deferred to April 15 its call of halting operations.

The decision was taken at an open house meeting of NAG members that took place both in Mumbai and Delhi Sunday afternoon, a guild source said.

The NAG, which claims representation of around 1,100 pilots of the total 1,600 with the full-service carrier, last month announced that its members will not fly from April 1 unless their pending salary dues were cleared and clarity on future payments was provided by March 31.

Jet Airways has been defaulting on salary payments to pilots, engineers and senior management since August last year.The loss-making airline, which is now under the ownership of SBI-led consortium of lenders following a debt-recast plan, Saturday said it could remit only the remaining amount of December salary to pilots and others.

Jet Airways engineers have also reportedly threatened to stop work from April 1 if their dues are not cleared by March 31.

However, the airline expressed its inability to clear the remaining three months dues of the staff immediately.

"The board of directors and the management team are working as fast as possible to implement the resolution plan agreed with the consortium of Indian lenders to quickly restore the much-needed stability to our operations and build a sustainable future for the airline," Jet Airways chief executive officer Vinay Dube said in a communication to pilots and engineers Saturday.

"These are complex processes and it has taken longer than we had expected and as such we are only able to remit your remaining salary for December 2018," he said.

Zuckerberg calls for global internet regulations to address harmful content

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg called for new global regulations governing the internet on Saturday, recommending overarching rules on hateful and violent content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.

In a statement that was also published as an op-ed in the Washington Post, Zuckerberg said the company is seeking regulations that would set baselines for prohibited content and require companies to build systems for keeping harmful content to a minimum.

"We have a responsibility to keep people safe on our services," he said. "That means deciding what counts as terrorist propaganda, hate speech and more. We continually review our policies with experts, but at our scale we’ll always make mistakes and decisions that people disagree with."

Zuckerberg’s comments mark his most visible effort so far to shape the discourse around the way the company collects information, uses and disperses it around the world.

Government Probes

Facebook has been the target of probes by various governments after news broke about a year ago that it allowed the personal data of tens of millions of users to be shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. Earlier this month, it came under fire for taking too long to take down a live video of a shooting in New Zealand and allowing it to be circulated across the internet. Millions of users also had personal information accessed via a recent breach.

Over the past year, lawmakers have focused greater scrutiny on the company and its immense influence, asking its executives -- including Zuckerberg -- to testify in front of Congress to explain the proliferation of misinformation, hate speech and election manipulation on the platform.

In his post, Zuckerberg proposes that "regulation could set baselines for what’s prohibited and require companies to build systems for keeping harmful content to a bare minimum." The tech industry has long said that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is vital to its ability to operate open platforms. The provision exempts companies from being liable for user-generated content.

Content Scanning

Facebook built a content-scanning system that over the years has added rules based on reactions to changes in user behavior or public uproar after an incident such as the New Zealand mass shooting. Last week, the company moved to ban content that references white nationalism or white separatism from the platform.

When the website’s users or computer systems report posts as problematic, they’re sent to one of the company’s 15,000 content moderators around the world, who are allowed to take content down only if it violates a rule.

But that process is not always precise. "Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech, and frankly I agree," Zuckerberg wrote in Saturday’s post. "I’ve come to believe that we shouldn’t make so many important decisions about speech on our own."

Zuckerberg said Facebook would welcome common standards for verifying political actors, citing practices deployed by advertisers in many countries of verifying identities before buying political ads. He also suggested updating laws to include "divisive political issues" in addition to candidates and elections.

“Every day we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, and how to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks,” he said. “But if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn’t ask companies to make these judgments alone.”

The billionaire said it’d be good for the internet if more countries adopted rules such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation as a common framework.

Facebook has an incentive to play a strong role in the debate around technology companies’ data regulation. The company’s rapid revenue growth and billions of dollars in profits are fueled by collecting numerous data points around its customers and making that easily available to advertisers.

Instagram Spinoff

Progressive groups have been urging the Federal Trade Commission to carve up Facebook and split off its popular services Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger into their own companies. In January, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is planning to integrate the chat tools of those products, making a breakup harder to accomplish if the services are more tightly intertwined. The move has also increased concerns about transparency into how Facebook’s data collection works.

Privacy regulations "should protect your right to choose how your information is used -- while enabling companies to use information for safety purposes and to provide services," he said. "It shouldn’t require data to be stored locally, which would make it more vulnerable to unwarranted access."

Zuckerberg also said there should also be rules guaranteeing portability of data that protects information when it moves between services.

The Facebook chief’s statement was in keeping with his efforts this year to frame the company’s more critical problems as part of broader issues for the internet at large. Zuckerberg’s willingness to embrace regulation could pave the way toward taking the thorniest problems about speech and privacy out of Facebook’s hands -- or at least give the company more time to solve them.

PAN-Aadhaar linking deadline ends today: Here's how you link both the cards

If you haven't linked your PAN card with Aadhaar yet, you still have few hours to do so as the extended deadline ends today (March 31).

You will not be able to file income tax returns if you fail to link Aadhaar and PAN.

There are several ways to link Aadhaar with PAN, both online and offline.

Here's how to do it:

Through SMS facility:

Send SMS to 567678 or 56161 in the following format:

UIDPAN<SPACE><12 digit Aadhaar><Space><10 digit PAN>

Example:

UIDPAN 111133333321 AAAAAEEEEE

Through online:

If you have an account at the Income Tax department's e-filing portal, you can simply login at portal.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. Go to profile settings -- you will see an option of linking your Aadhaar with PAN.

Aadhaar-PAN linking Fill in your Aadhaar details and click on submit

After filling your Aadhaar details and verifying the same, you will get a message saying the status of your request will be sent to your registered mobile number and e-mail ID. 

Aadhaar PAN You will receive this message after filling in your details.

In case you do not have an account registered at the e-filing portal, you can create an account by providing basic details like your PAN number, mobile number, e-mail address, address, among others.

In case you do not wish to create an account, you can still link your Aadhaar with PAN. Here's how

1. Go to the website

2. Click on 'Link Aadhaar'

3. A pop-up window will appear. Enter your Aadhaar number, PAN number and name as per Aadhaar

4. Enter captcha and click on 'Link Aadhaar'.

5. The system will match your name, date of birth and gender with PAN card and Aadhaar database, if detail matches, you will get the message “Aadhaar – PAN linking is completed successfully.”

In February, the income tax department had declared that it will only issue refunds via the e-mode into bank accounts of taxpayers from March and they should link PAN with their accounts.

Link your PAN with your bank account to get your refund directly, swiftly and securely, the department had said in a public advisory.

Cement prices and demand likely to see a rebound after Lok Sabha elections

After price volatility in March 2019, the cement sector may see an improvement in prices after Lok Sabha elections in June when construction activity by the government, as well as, individuals start picking up and a shortage of labour eases.

After prices remained muted from April 2018 to January 2019, the sector witnessed a rebound in prices for a few weeks in February-March when average prices rose by around Rs 25 a bag only to fall after Holi.

Industry officials said that in mid-March, while prices fell marginally in the northern region to around Rs 300-315 a bag, in south India, prices declined by nearly Rs 15 to around Rs. 315-320 per bag with the steepest decline in Hyderabad, Bangalore and parts of Kerala.

“Despite the volatility, cement prices have increased marginally by 1-2 per cent on the average for the past few years which is far below the inflation level”, H M Bangur, managing director at Shree Cement said.

Construction activity also took a beating in March due to lack of labour.

“Most of the labourers in the cement and construction sector are migratory workers and go back to their villages in pre-election time. Thus, both infrastructure projects, as well as, individual house building gets affected”, Vivek Chawla, CEO at Emami Cement said.

Besides, owing to the Election Commission’s model code of conduct, new tenders are also not being floated.

Both Bangur and Chawla opined that after the elections, the labour shortage situation will improve and there will be a renewed focus on construction activities, both on the infrastructural, as well as, house building front.

Other cement company officials added that owing to over-capacity, particularly in the northern and central regions, prices have been corrected according to market forces.

“In south India, the price rise was the steepest owing to numerous infrastructure construction activities but has now corrected”, an industry official said.

According to estimates by ICRA, till January 2019, because of better capacity utilisation and demand from rural and affordable housing, the sector saw healthy volume growth of 13.6 per cent with total production standing at 275.7 million tonnes (mt), beating ICRA’s estimate of a projected seven per cent growth.

However, according to the credit rating agency, it is unlikely to translate into any meaningful profit growth or improved margin for the 2018-19 fiscal year given the sector’s inability to secure any significant price increases and being subjected to cost pressures for much of the year.

“Whatever cost pressures we have been absorbing, is being offset by volume growth and higher economies of scale. That is how many companies are able to maintain margins”, Bangur said.

Sabyasachi Majumdar, senior vice president & group head of corporate sector ratings at ICRA is of the view that in the coming fiscal year, production volume, in response to increased demand from rural and affordable housing and infrastructure segments led by road, metro and irrigation projects will lead to a growth of 8 per cent.

“On the capacity side, we expect around 17-18 mt to get added in 2019-20. With the incremental demand of around 24-28 mt being greater than the incremental supply, this is likely to translate to improved capacity utilization although past capacity overhang is likely to keep the utilisation at moderate levels – at 69 per cent in FY 2019 and 71 per cent in FY 2020”, he said.

Last day to file delayed income tax return for FY18: A step-by-step guide

If you are yet to file your income tax returns for the financial year 2017-2018, you still have few hours left as the deadline ends on March 31. If you fail to file your tax return, the government reserves the right to take legal action against you.

Though the last date for filing Income tax ended on August 31, 2018, the I-T department later allowed people to file their income tax returns till March 31, 2019, provided they also submit a late fee of Rs 10,000. 

"Taxpayers can still file their Income Tax Return for the assessment year 2018-19 (the financial year 2017-18) by March 31, 2019, with a late fee," the I-T department wrote on Twitter.

You can still file your Income Tax Return for A. Y. 2018-19 ( F. Y. 2017-18 ) by 31st March, 2019 with late fee if you have not filed yet. pic.twitter.com/3ug7yCc76B

— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) March 29, 2019

Despite being a Sunday, income tax offices are open today to facilitate the filing of tax returns by the taxpayers.

Taxpayers can use the I-T department's online portal to file their returns from the comfort of their home.

Before you sit down to file your income tax returns, here are some important documents that you need to keep handy with you:

1. PAN card, valid email account, valid mobile number, Aadhaar number

2. Form 16/16A: These forms will help you provide proof of tax deduction on the payments you have made.

3. Investment proof: Proof of tax-saving investments made, medical cover taken, donations made, etc, are all required for helping you claim deductions under Section 80C, 80D and 80G respectively.

4. Bank details: Even if you know that you don’t have a refund this year, you should provide all your bank account details along with the IFSC code in your income-tax return.

Is it mandatory to file I-T return?

Filing income tax return is mandatory for -

1. Individuals and HUFs having income more than Rs 2.5 lakh (Rs 3 lakh for senior citizens aged 60-80 years and Rs 5 lakh for those above 80)

2. All companies, firms, LLPs

3.Trusts, associations, political parties (whose income prior to the claim of exemptions exceed the minimum chargeable to tax)

You can follow these steps to file your returns through I-T department's official website:

Step 1: Go to e-filing website - http://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in

Step 2: Users not registered on the website need to register on the website. Those already having an account can login.

Step 3: Go to e-File and select Income Tax Returns

Step 4: Select assessment year, ITR form, submission and verification mode

Step 5: Fill the form using details from Form-16

Step 6: Preview and submit

Another way to file income tax return is through the online portal of ClearTax. Here's a step-by-step guide:

Income tax returns Fill in your personal details along with your address in the first step

Income tax returns If you have other means of income, click on the other boxes shown beside the section 'salary'

Income tax returns You can claim a deduction of up to Rs 150,000 by providing the details shown below. In case you have further deductions, click on the bar 'More deductions' or 'Other deductions'

Income tax returns Provide details of your TDS (tax deducted at source) between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018.

Income tax returns This is the last step of filing your income tax return. Provide your bank account number — this is where you will receive your refund, if applicable.

Income tax returns Congratulations! You have now completed all the steps in filing your income tax return. Just review all the information filled out and you are good to go

RBI rate decision, macro data announcement to drive equities this week

The domestic equities market is likely to be guided by a host of key macroeconomic data announcement lined up this week, mainly the RBI interest rate decision, say analysts.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) interest rate decision is scheduled to be announced on April 4.

During the week, PMI data for the manufacturing and services sector, which would also influence trading sentiment, will also be released.

Auto stocks will remain in focus amid monthly sales data announcement on Monday.

Besides, foreign fund movement, trend in rupee and outcome of the US-China trade talks would also be monitored for further cues, analysts said.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 86.21 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 1,724.39 crore, provisional data showed.

The rupee, meanwhile, appreciated 16 paise to close at 69.14 against the US dollar on Friday.

"Investors should look for the line up events in the Indian market for this week. Where, one should keep an eye on Nikkei manufacturing PMI on Tuesday, while related to banking industry one should look for RBI's monetary policy on Thursday. Auto stocks will be in focus as sales number is coming on this week," said Debabrata Bhattacharjee, Head of Research, CapitalAim.

Over the last week, the Sensex advanced over 508 points, or 1.33 per cent, while the Nifty gained 167 points or 1.45 per cent.

"India is likely to continue its outperformance among emerging markets due to FII inflow, expectation of revival in earnings growth and political stability," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

As this week marks the beginning of the new financial year, all eyes are set on the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in seven phases beginning April 11.

Jeff Bezos' phone hacked by Saudis to access personal data: Investigator

The investigator hired to look into the release of intimate images of Jeff Bezos said Sunday he has concluded that Saudi Arabian authorities hacked the Amazon chief's phone to access his personal data.

Gavin de Becker linked the hack to extensive coverage by The Washington Post newspaper, which is owned by Bezos, of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last year.

"Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information," de Becker wrote on The Daily Beast website.

He said that while the brother of Bezos's mistress was paid by the National Enquirer scandal sheet for the release of the information, his role may have been a red herring, and the plot went far beyond one man seeking to cash in.

"It's clear that MBS considers The Washington Post to be a major enemy," de Becker wrote, referring to the oil-rich kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the US Senate, after a closed-door briefing by the CIA, named as "responsible" for the murder.

But de Becker did not specify which part of the Saudi government he was blaming for the hack, and gave few details about the investigation that led him to the conclusion that the kingdom was responsible.

The results, he wrote, "have been turned over to federal officials." Bezos hired Gavin de Becker & Associates to find out how his intimate text messages and photos made their way into the hands of the Enquirer, which reported on the Amazon chief's extramarital affair, leading to his divorce.

Bezos has accused Enquirer publisher American Media Inc, led by David Pecker, of "blackmail" for threatening to publish the intimate photos if he did not halt the investigation.

The Amazon chief declined to do so, instead publishing copies of emails from AMI. Saudi Arabia has stressed that the crown prince was not involved in the killing of Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist.

Riyadh initially said it had no knowledge of his fate, but later blamed the murder on rogue agents.

Jet Airways clears pending December salary, pilots say not enough

Jet Airways on Saturday cleared the pending salaries for December, but pilots maintain they would stop flying from April 1 if full dues are not settled. The pilots’ union has called for a meeting on Sunday to decide further steps.

The airline is yet to pay full salaries for January and February to its pilots, engineers and senior management. So far, only 12.5 per cent of December salary was paid and on Saturday the airline credited the remaining 87.5 per cent for the month.

“The board of directors and the management team are working as fast as possible to implement the resolution plan agreed with the consortium of Indian lenders to quickly restore the much-needed stability to our operations and build a sustainable future for the airline,’’ chief executive officer Vinay Dube said in an email to staff. Stating that these are complex processes and that it has taken longer than expected, Dube wrote, “We are only able to remit your remaining salary for December 2018”.

Founder Naresh Goyal stepped down as chairman of Jet Airways on March 25 as lenders agreed to provide Rs 1,500 crore in emergency funding as part of a resolution plan. His wife, Anita, too, resigned as director on the Jet board.

“We realise that this remittance does not lift the financial hardship that each of you are facing and we do not take your sacrifices for granted. We continue to work on additional funding on an urgent basis and shall advise you about the release of the remaining salary arrears as the funds come in,” Dube has told the Jet staff in his latest email communication.

The pilots’ union has made it clear that the partial payout is not acceptable. “There will be no flying unless the company pays us substantial salaries and provides a road map,” the National Aviators Guild, the pilots’ union, said in a message to its members.

Just a day ago, around 200 pilots had individually written to the airline CEO, threatening to go on leave of absence and warning of legal action for non-payment of dues. Engineers too have threatened to stop work if salaries are not paid.

Lenders’ consortium is preparing for an open auction for Jet, which has a debt of around Rs 8,500 crore. The expression of interest for the auction is likely by April 9 and final bids are expected by end of May. Goyal, whose stake has been halved from 51 to 25.5 per cent is learnt to be scouting for strategic partners for the airline he had founded more than 25 years ago. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, which owned 24 per cent in Jet and now is left with 12 per cent, is expected to decide at a board meeting on Sunday, whether it wants to exit the airline completely or not.

Meet Nirav's A-Team that may have helped him pull off Rs 14,000-cr scam

How did fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi pull off what he is accused of — the country’s biggest banking fraud at Punjab National Bank, worth over Rs 14,000 crore — without an army of trusted lieutenants while keeping his moves under wraps? After all, he employed over 2,200 people and it’s a matter of conjecture as to why someone didn’t blow the whistle earlier. It turns out that while his family council was involved, he also — according to a report submitted to a US Bankruptcy Court by an appointed examiner — had a highly organised core management team. The common denominator: They were predominantly Gujarati, mostly male, and either related by blood or very well-known to Nirav.

The family: Nishal Modi who was his half-brother and in charge of diamond trading was a director and has a look out notice on him and is wanted by the authorities. Nehal Modi, Nirav’s other brother in New York was reportedly a consultant with Firestar and involved with the Ithaca Trust, an entity set up to fund and buy real estate for the fugitive jeweller through questionable sources of finance.

Mehul Choksi, Nirav’s uncle and mentor, and boss of Gitanjali Group, is hiding out in Antigua. Purvi Modi Mehta, Nirav’s sister, managed the Hong Kong business but was not a key director in the holding companies, sources say, adding that she and the brothers were intentionally put in positions with no or very limited liability, but supported Nirav by transferring funds when required. Nirav’s wife Ami Modi is supposedly in the United States and like Purvi assisted by transferring funds through her account when required, according to the examiner’s report. There’s a look out notice on her and she has also been recently charge-sheeted by the enforcement directorate.

Nirav’s sister was also involved with other facets that involved shadow companies and transferring money to various group companies as well as to Nirav’s wife, according to the report.

Choksi's daughter Priyanka wed Antwerp-based diamond merchant Akash Mehta in 2011. At the time Priyanka was running A.Jaffe, in which Nirav had invested and was deeply involved in. A.Jaffe was also a company that allegedly saw funds from LoUs routed through it.

Former CEO of Firestar Diamonds and Firestar India Mihir Bhansali, who is Nirav’s cousin, worked closely with him and allegedly had involvement that ran deep into the shadow companies — a set of firms that were supposedly created by Nirav to divert funds. Bhansali, a graduate from Babson College and HR College of Commerce and Economics, was Nirav’s “de facto number 2” and is alleged by the Indian authorities to have a significant control over the entire group.

In May 2017, Bhansali allegedly directed Shyam Wadhwa, an alleged Nirav confidante and employee of Firestar India, to replace the director in Hong Kong with Bankim Mehta a diamond trader in New York working for FDI.

In an interview with the examiner, Mehta admitted that he did little more than sign paperwork. In other discoveries by the examiner, managers of shadow companies say that Bhansali trained them to say they were jewellers with several generations of experience when in fact they were just Firestar employees.

A.Jaffe CEO Sumay Bhansali is also the brother of the wife of Anurag Jain, the boss at Parag Diamonds, the company which ended up buying A.Jaffe for $8 million at its bankruptcy sale. It was valued at $22 million. It’s not clear whether the two Bhansalis were related. Vipul Ambani, CFO of the firm’s India operations, was arrested and had been in jail for a few months when the scam broke. He has since been released but the extent of his involvement is not clear.

Working shoulder to shoulder with Mihir Bhansali was Ajay Gandhi, CFO of the US-based Firestar companies, who received his Bachelor’s degree in India and became a licensed CPA in 1994 after graduating from York College in New York City. Gandhi allegedly had control over all of Firestar’s financial transactions including managerial sign off on loose diamond transactions with the shadow companies that were worth hundreds of millions. His day-to-day role at the US entities included checking all account balances, monitoring cash flow, reviewing payments, managing payables, and receivables and reviewing inputs from sales teams.

He would also sign monthly borrowing certificates for lending banks IDB and HSBC and based on the reviews by the examiner’s team it’s inferred that he clearly controlled the finances of the debtor entities. In several interviews with the examiner, Gandhi was quizzed about his knowledge of shadow companies and their ties to the debtors. In his first interview he said he only knew that they were Bhansali’s customers.

Bhansali allegedly hired proxy or placeholder employees who would do what they were asked to without question.

This included the likes of Hemant Bhatt, who — though identified as Nirav’s business partner and director in the group’s oldest company Diamonds R Us — was, some former employees say, just “the canteen supervisor at the India Office”.

According to Firestar India’s general manager of accounts Saju Poulose Parokaran, the authorities were told Bhansali requested he “select some of the trusted employees from the company who do not apply much brain to work for Firestar overseas entities

Will Nirav Modi, Mallya share same jail cell in Mumbai if extradited?

There was some light-hearted moments at the UK court Friday when Judge Emma Arbuthnot hearing the second bail plea of Nirav Modi asked the prosecution whether the fugitive diamantaire would be lodged in the same jail cell along with Vijay Mallya if he is also extradited to India.

The 48-year-old diamond merchant is wanted in India for alleged "high value and sophisticated" fraud and money laundering amounting to $ 2 billion.

At the very start of the hearing, Westminster Magistrates Court Chief Magistrate Arbuthnot said she was getting a sense of "deja vu", in reference to her having ordered the extradition of Mallya in December last year.

"Do we know which part of India he [Modi] is being sought in," the judge asked, to try and establish which jail Modi is likely to be held in.

She was told by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, that it would be an extradition to Mumbai and that he may in fact be held in the same Arthur Road Jail as that prepared for liquor tycoon Mallya, to which the judge said in a light-hearted vein that it could even be the same cell as we know "there is space" from the previous video submitted during the Mallya extradition trial.

India has informed the UK court that Mallya will be lodged in one of the high-security barracks located in a two-storey building inside the prison complex.

Authorities at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai have kept a high security cell ready for Mallya if he is extradited from UK in connection with loan default cases against him in India.

Mallya, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore, has filed his application in the UK High Court, seeking permission to appeal against an extradition order signed by the British Home Secretary.

If extradited, 62-year-old Mallya will be lodged in the prison complex, which also housed 26/11 Mumbai attack terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab.

An official from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs earlier said Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail was one of the best in the country.

His comments came after Judge Arbuthnot asked Indian authorities to submit a video of the Arthur Road Jail cell where they plan to keep Mallya following his extradition.

The official said adequate medical facilities were available to treat prisoners in Arthur Road Jail, where Mallya would get full security cover as an undertrial prisoner and it was highly secured in accordance with international standards.

The central government has already conducted an assessment of security cover given to prisoners in the Arthur Road Jail and its findings conveyed to the UK court.

In another throwback to the Mallya trial, Nirav Modi's defence team, led by barrister Clare Montgomery raised the issue of the state of the paperwork submitted by the Indian authorities, claiming it "made her cry" at one stage.

The judge concurred with her and was very firm about proper indexing of all documents to be submitted to the court in relation to the case.

Of the 521 Lok Sabha members, 106 charged with serious offences: ADR Report

At the end of the term of the current (16th) Lok Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to have the highest number of parliamentarians charged with criminal offences.

Across parties, of the 521 Lok Sabha members of parliament (MPs), 106 (20%) are charged with serious offences such as murder, inciting communal disharmony, kidnapping and crimes against women. 

As many as 55% of these are from the BJP (92), compared with 2% from the Congress (7), 3% from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) (6), 17% from the Shiv Sena (15) and 7% from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) (7), an analysis by National Election Watch (NEW), a campaign run by the advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), shows.

The composition of the lower house of parliament has changed during its five-year term due to by-elections held for a variety of reasons including death, bankruptcy, mental illness or conviction for a serious criminal offence.

The 2014 elections saw the highest number of people facing criminal charges being elected to the Lok Sabha, a 14% increase from 2009, as IndiaSpend reported on May 23, 2014.

From the beginning of the current Lok Sabha until now, there has been a marginal decrease in the number of MPs with criminal cases, from 186 (34%) of the initially elected 541 members to 174 (33%) of 521 members now.

By the end of this Lok Sabha term, the number of MPs charged with serious criminal offences has increased in 15 states, five of which have BJP governments and two have Congress governments. Bihar, where the number has increased the most (from 8 to 18), is ruled by the Janata Dal United, currently part of the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.

At the beginning of the term, Uttar Pradesh had 12 MPs with serious criminal cases against them, the highest among all states, and now has even more at 21. In Maharashtra, from 11 at the beginning of term, the number is now 19. In Bihar, the number has more than doubled, from 8 in 2014 to 18 in 2019.

The BJP had 98 MPs facing criminal charges at the beginning of the term, 35 of which were serious charges. The BJP continues to have the maximum number, and the number of serious charges has increased to 58 of the 92 MPs.

At the end of the term, 15 are from the Shiv Sena, seven from the Congress, seven from TMC and six from the AIADMK. Of the 106 members charged with serious offences, 55% are from the BJP.

10 of the 106 are charged with murder--four from the BJP, one each from Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Loktantrik Janata Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Swabhimani Paksha, and one is an independent.

14 MPs face cases of attempt to murder--eight from the BJP and one each from the Congress, TMC, NCP, RJD, Shiv Sena and Swabhimani Paksha.

An equal number are charged for inciting communal disharmony, a large majority of 10 from the BJP, and one each from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Pattali Makkal Katchi, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen and All India United Democratic Front.

In all, 430 of the 521 MPs have declared assets of more than Rs 1 crore. The BJP has the most--85% of their 267 MPs. The average assets held by BJP MPs amount to Rs 11.89 crore.

The Congress has 37 crorepati MPs but the average amount of assets held by them is higher at Rs 15.57 crore. There are 29 crorepati MPs from the AIADMK and 22 from the TMC.

'Modi vs who' question could arise in 2024, but not this time, says PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday his ruling coalition would increase its majority in India’s upcoming election, despite some independent analysts suggesting it could disappear due to discontent over lack of jobs and depressed farm incomes.

Involving around 900 million voters, India’s general election will be the world’s largest democratic exercise, with the vote taking place in seven phases between April 11 and May 19.

Results will be announced on May 23, and in an interview with Republic Bharat television channel, Modi predicted an easy victory.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its National Democratic Alliance partners will get more seats than the previous election,” Modi said.

In 2014, Modi led his Hindu nationalist BJP and its allies to the biggest majority scored by any political group in nearly 30 years, as a Congress Party led government paid the price for a faltering economy.

During Modi’s tenure the economy has gathered strength, but growth has been uneven, leaving large sections of the population unhappy.

Though his approval ratings still trail Modi’s, rival Rahul Gandhi has worked hard to revive Congress and forge partnerships with regional parties.

Up until a few weeks ago most opinion polls were expecting a close run race, but over the past month, Modi’s BJP has benefited from nationalist fervour unleashed by a flare up in tensions with neighbouring Pakistan.

Modi dismissed Gandhi’s chances this time round, predicting the opposition would have to wait another five years to mount a serious challenge.

“The ‘Modi vs who’ question could arise in 2024, but in 2019 the citizens have made up their mind and are not looking for anyone else.”

As yet, no major survey has emerged measuring the impact on voter intentions from the upsurge in tensions with Pakistan.

The Indian opposition accuses Modi of using national security to score political points, especially after he addressed the nation on Wednesday to announce that India made a space breakthrough by shooting down one of its satellites in space using an anti-satellite missile.

During the interview, Modi again swiped Pakistan over a militant attack that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel last month in the disputed Kashmir region.

The prime minister said he would not enter talks with Islamabad until “the world sees that Pakistan has taken action against terrorism.”

Pakistan has denied any role in the attack and has said it is ready to hold talks with India to address the core issue of Kashmir.

In its market debut, Lyft counters Uber with 'nice guy' image

Lyft Inc has been challenging larger ride-hailing rival Uber Technologies Inc for years by cultivating an image of caring more for its drivers, riders and the environment. As the company debuts in the stock market on Friday, it hopes to convince investors the "nice guy" image will pay off.

"In the early days, people misunderstood, 'Oh you guys are the nice guys. You guys are going to get crushed by a more competitive player," Lyft President and co-founder John Zimmer told Reuters.

"We said, 'No, we're very competitive but treating our employees well, treating our drivers well, treating the local communities that we work with respect, which is also very good for business."

Lyft exceeded market expectations with its initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, raising $2.34 billion and fetching a valuation of $24 billion.

That is still a fraction of the $120 billion valuation that investment bankers have told Uber it could wind up with in its IPO in April, thanks to its international presence and expansion into sectors such as food delivery and freight hauling.

Despite its bigger size, Uber has evolved in lock-step with Lyft, adding new types of rides like car-pooling, changing fares investing in autonomous vehicle development and adding scooters and bikes.

As a result, Lyft and Uber look a lot alike. Both companies have been losing money, subsidizing rides to boost market share. But Lyft has been making inroads against Uber in the United States, boosting market share to 39 percent as of December from 35 percent in early 2018.

Some of Lyft's gains are due to Uber's woes. The latter is still recovering from a series of scandals in 2017, including allegations of sexual harassment made by female employees, the forced resignation of its chief executive officer and the departure of other senior executives, and its use of illicit software to deceive regulators.

A #DeleteUber campaign surged on social media. The negative publicity helped Lyft attract new drivers and riders without spending much on marketing.

Lyft, which operates in the United States and a few Canadian cities, also moved to boost its market share, adding more than 100 new cities since 2017. It targeted socially conscious millennials who are concerned about harming the environment by owning a car.

"We have barely scratched the surface of helping shift the world from a car ownership model to a transportation-as-a-service model," Lyft's CEO Logan Green, who is also a co-founder, told Reuters.

Lyft's branding as a warmer, more caring alternative to Uber dates back to its launch in 2012. It borrowed marketing strategies from Southwest Airlines Co and Starbucks Corp, hoping to portray itself as friendly and customer-centric, and likened itself to the championship Golden State Warriors pro basketball team, according to Lyft executives.

'PRICE IS MAIN FACTOR'

Anna-Marie Wascher, CEO and founding partner at Flat World Partners, an institutional advisory and asset management firm and early Lyft investor, said market share growth came as "consumers were being more discerning in their choices," and recognizing the gulf in company culture and values between the two firms.

While some Lyft riders have turned into loyalists as a result of its branding efforts and Uber's problems, many say they still pick the app with the lowest price.

"(My choice) is based on price and estimated time of arrival. But I would say price is the main factor," said John Nickele, who owns a bicycle in San Francisco and spends about $30 a week on Lyft and Uber.

Both Lyft and Uber have been criticized for causing congestion in cities and creating hazards to bicyclists and pedestrians. A study by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority found that about half of new congestion in San Francisco from 2010 to 2016 was from ride-hailing.

Lyft said this week it will provide at least $50 million per year to cities to support transportation infrastructure, fight climate change and provide free rides to those in need, such as victims of natural disasters.

The first project will be in Los Angeles, where it will offer rides to individuals who provide services to the homeless.

Lyft's and Uber's relations with their drivers are not without strain. Lyft drivers this week held protests in San Francisco and Los Angeles over what they call wages that are too low to survive on. The company also faces a slew of arbitration claims and lawsuits from drivers who claim they are misclassified as independent contractors and owed back wages and reimbursement for expenses.

Zimmer told Reuters he believes the company's ongoing work supporting drivers will help it stand apart from Uber. He said he still attends meetings with drivers to hear their grievances and exchanges texts with them.

Rahul Gandhi says will scrap Niti Aayog, revert to Planning Commission

Congress President Rahul Gandhi Friday said his party, if voted to power, will scrap the Niti Aayog and replace it with a "lean" Planning Commission.

Gandhi said the Niti Aayog, set up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he assumed power in 2014, served no purpose other than making marketing presentations for the PM and "fudging data".

"If voted to power, we will scrap the NITI Aayog," he said in a tweet.

"We will replace it with a lean Planning Commission whose members will be renowned economists and experts with less than 100 staff," he said.

The Planning Commission, set up in 1950 under the Congress government, was replaced by the Niti Aayog by the Modi dispensation. The Congress is seeking to revert to the original structure of the government think-tank.

200 Jet Airways pilots write to CEO; threaten to go on leave, sue airline

Around 200 pilots of embattled Jet Airways have written individually to its CEO Vinay Dube threatening to go on "leave of absence" and planning to take legal recourse over non-payment of salary dues, according to a source.

Cash-strapped Jet Airways, whose board has cleared a debt resolution plan, has grounded many planes and has also defaulted on repayment of debt, including External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs).

A source in the pilots' community said around 200 pilots have written to the CEO flagging concerns about non-payment of salaries. The pilots are also members of the National Aviators Guild (NAG), the source added.

Without providing the specific number, a NAG office bearer said that some pilots have written to the CEO in their individual capacities.

Quoting a letter, the source said that a pilot has informed the CEO that he was planning to go on "leave of absence" starting from April 1.

The pilot is also looking to take recourse to legal steps, including recovery proceedings against the company for salary, allowances and benefits, the source said citing the letter.

On Friday, the NAG reiterated that its members would not be flying from April 1 unless their salary dues are cleared.

Earlier this month, the NAG, a grouping of more than 1,000 Jet Airways pilots, decided that they would not fly from April 1 unless their salary dues are cleared by the airline.

Cash-strapped Jet Airways has grounded many planes and also defaulted on repayment of debt, including ECBs.

On Monday, Jet Airways' board approved a resolution plan formulated by SBI-led domestic lenders. Under the plan, lenders would take control of the airline and also make an immediate fund infusion of Rs 1,500 crore.

Technology can displace, transform 45m jobs globally by 2025: Report

Advent of digital technologies will have an impact on jobs, and up to 45 million jobs can get displaced or transformed by 2025, a report has warned.

Productivity gains through digital technologies will help create up to 65 million new jobs during the same timeframe, a McKinsey Global Institute report said Friday.

"Retraining and redeployment will be essential to help some 10-45 million workers whose jobs could be displaced or transformed," the report said. It can be noted that the report comes amid tech industry leaders raising question marks over the skillsets of Indian techies and wondering whether they will be helpful in the future.

According to the report, core digital sectors like IT/software and business process management, digital communication and electronics manufacturing can double their GDP contributions to up to $435 billion by 2025.

"All stakeholders will need to respond effectively if India is to achieve its digital potential," it added.

Companies will have to invest in building capabilities, including through partnering with universities, governments will have to invest in digital infrastructure and public data that can be used by organisations, it said.

To capture the gains, we will require more ease in creating, scaling and exiting startups as well as policies to facilitate retraining, it said.

Individuals will have to keep abreast of the changes and keep themselves informed on how the digital economy can impact their work, it recommended. The study said up to $150 billion each of benefits can be accrued in sectors, including agriculture, education, energy, financial services, healthcare, logistics and retail if they embrace digital technologies.

It, however, added while domestic businesses are digitising "rapidly", it is not an even growth as there are laggards everywhere. 

PM Modi's 'Mission Shakti' speech didn't violate model code of conduct: EC

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation on the successful test-firing of an anti-satellite missile did not violate the model code of conduct, the Election Commission said Friday night.The EC took the decision based on the report of a committee of officers which found that the prime minister did not violate the provision of 'party in power' in the poll code.

"The committee has, therefore, reached the conclusion that the MCC provision regarding misuse of official mass media...is not attracted in the instant case," the commission said, citing the report of the committee constituted to look into the case.

Model code of conduct is in place for the April-May parliamentary election and some state polls.

India shot down one of its satellites in space on Wednesday with an anti-satellite missile to demonstrate this complex capability, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced, making it only the fourth country to have used such a weapon.

Declaring India has established itself as a global space power after the success of the operation 'Mission Shakti', Modi said the missile hit a live satellite flying in a Low Earth Orbit after it traversed a distance of almost 300 km from earth within three minutes of its launch.

The announcement was made by the prime minister in a broadcast to the nation on television, radio and social media.

Several opposition parties had complained to the Election Commission alleging violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

L&T launches strategic unit L&T-Nxt to focus on AI, Internet of Things

Construction to engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has announced a five-year strategic initiative — L&T-Nxt — that will focus on artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), geo‐spatial enterprises, and cyber security.

The announcement comes at a time when L&T is trying to expand its technology footprint through a sweet and sour takeover of Mindtree.

“Disruption has become the new order as we embrace frontier technologies, and our businesses are leapfrogging into entirely new realms powered by the tremendous benefits of digitalisation and analytics,” said S N Subrahmanyan, chief executive officer and managing director, L&T, referring to the efforts of the company to embrace digitalisation.

L&T, through its current construction, EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) and manufacturing businesses, has made one of the largest deployments of IoT, analytics and AI in the industrial sector in areas such as finance, human resources, labour, and plant material among others. The company is shifting its focus to accelerating top line and bottom line growth while at the same time expanding its potential for value creation by adopting a fresh mindset and building a new structure from the ground up.

L&T-Nxt will at present be driven by J D Patil, a senior executive vice-president (defence business) and member of the board. “L&T-Nxt has been honed and utilised in-house for over three years now and we felt that it was a good time to take this capacity to our customers across the industries,” he said.

Patil said there would be little overlap between the kind of services catered by L&T-Nxt with that of the group’s existing software and technology arms, L&T Infotech (LTI) and L&T Technology Services (LTTS). He did not foresee any immediate plans to list the entity.

The idea, he said, was to provide existing and new engineering customers higher efficiency and digital-led value addition to services. The L&T-Nxt team currently comprises a few hundred employees and will grow further as the business vertical develops. “We see new technology businesses and sunrise enterprises as prime constituents with the latent upside for rapid and substantial value creation.”

Both LTI and LTTS are among the better favoured technology providers in the mid-cap IT space. Analysts are not entirely sure how L&T group’s technology ambition is intended to pan out if they seek to keep these two companies (which also address a number of group clients) separate from this new initiative. Last week, Subrahmanyan had said even if Mindtree didn’t come into the its fold, the group wouldn’t have any immediate plans of consolidation among its IT companies.

After acquiring 20.3 per cent from Mindtree’s key shareholder V G Siddhartha, L&T on Tuesday said its open offer for Mindtree would open in May. L&T will spend an additional Rs 5,030 crore in the open offer to acquire another 31 per cent from Mindtree’s shareholders to take majority control in the company. It plans to buy 15 per cent additional shares from the market at the same price.

L&T-NXT: Getting future-ready

L&T-Nxt will focus on artificial intelligence, internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality, geo-spatial enterprises, and cyber security

L&T-Nxt’s team comprises a few hundred employees

There would be little overlap between the kind of services catered by L&T Infotech and L&T Technology Services

The idea is to provide customers higher efficiency and digital-led value addition to services

Saradha scam: SC issues notice to Vodafone, Airtel over CBI plea

The Supreme Court issued notices to telecom operators Airtel and Vodafone following a plea by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging non-cooperation by the operators by not sharing Call Detail Records (CDR) of Saradha Group directors Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee.

The notice issued by a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi required the companies to reply by April 8, to the notice, even as the defendants argued that all information has been handed over and that the probe agency's contention is incorrect.

Both telecom operators have so far said that they are providing complete cooperation. “We at all times extend full support and comply with the regulatory framework regarding subscriber data disclosure,” said a Vodafone spokesperson.

Similarly, Airtel spokespersons said,”We can confirm that we have provided the information that the concerned authorities / investigative agencies had requested and will continue to assist them. As a responsible corporate, we have always been and shall remain compliant with the laws of the land.”

Earlier in the week, perusing the CBI's latest status report, the top court noted that "very, very serious" revelations have been come to light upon former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar's interrogation in relation to the chit fund scam.

UK court rejects Nirav Modi's bail plea, fears he may not surrender

A London court on Friday rejected the bail application of fugitive billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India for over a $2 billion loan fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB).

A judge at the Westminster Magistrate court said it finds substantial grounds to fear that Modi, who was arrested on March 19, would fail to surrender and will hear his plea again on April 26.

India asked Britain in August 2018 to extradite Modi, 48, after he was accused of massive bank fraud, charges he denies.

Modi left the country before India’s biggest banking fraud came to light early last year.

The third generation of his family to go into the diamond trade, Modi is worth $1.73 billion, according to Forbes. He once owned 17 jewellery shops across the world, with branches in Asia, the U.S. and Britain, reports Reuters.

PNB, India’s second-largest state-run bank, said in 2018 that two jewellery groups headed by Modi and his uncle MehulChoksi had defrauded it by raising credit from other Indian banks using fraudulent guarantees issued by rogue staff of the bank. Modi and Choksi have both denied wrongdoing.

Dhanbad best city for 4G availability in India, Srinagar grabs 3rd spot

In terms of 4G availability, Dhanbad in Jharkhand has topped the list of 50 cities in India, according to London-based wireless coverage mapping company OpenSignal.

Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand, came second after scoring 95 per cent in 4G availability. Srinagar came third with a score of 94.9 per cent.

New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata did not make it to the top 10 in the list.

For the study, Data analytics firm OpenSignal looked at 50 of India's largest cities and analysed them by their 4G availability, based on a combined score for all operators that operate a 4G network in those metros.

Dhanbad scored 95.3 per cent in OpenSignal's measurements.

OpenSignal's 4G availability metric is not a measure of coverage or the geographic extent of a network.

It measures what proportion of time users with a 4G device and subscription can get a network connection, in the places they most commonly visit.

"So when we say an operator has a 4G availability score of 95 per cent, that means our LTE users on that network were connected to 4G services 95 per cent of the time," Opensignal's Senior Analyst Peter Boyland wrote in a blog post.

Raipur, which scored 94.8 per cent in the measurements, was placed fourth in the list, followed by Patna with 94.5 per cent.

Of India's largest cities, none were really stoking the fires in OpenSignal's 4G availability analysis.

New Delhi and Mumbai were in the lower half of the table, neck-and-neck with scores just shy of 90 per cent, behind Hyderabad's 90.5 per cent.

Bengaluru was mid-table on 92.3 per cent, while Ahmedabad scored 92.7 per cent. "Nonetheless, all of the 50 Indian cities we measured scored over 87 per cent 4G availability -- a feat that many much more developed mobile markets would be proud of," Boyland said.

In OpenSignal's latest "India Mobile Network Experience" report, the company found Jio's national 4G availability score was a remarkable 96.7 per cent - over 20 per centage points ahead of its main rivals.

However, while the 4G availability race has been played out, operators need to focus on continuing to increase network capacity to ensure all the connected smartphone users can get a more consistent download experience throughout the day across all of India.

But OpenSignal also measured the fastest possible download speeds that could be reached in different locations. These tended to be achievable early in the morning, with 4am being the prime time for smartphone users, across all 20 cities, at 16.8 Mbps. Speeds are high in the early hours as networks are the least congested during that time. “The wide range between a city’s fastest hourly speed and the average speed smartphone users experience shows the challenge India’s operators face from the need to support a really big number of smartphone users consuming mobile data services,” OpenSignal said.

OpenSignal measured 4G download speeds across 20 of India’s largest cities and found that average rates varied widely. The city with the fastest average download speed—Navi Mumbai, at 8.1 Mbps—had a rate over twice that of the lowest, Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), at 4 Mbps.

PNB offloads stake in PNB Housing Finance for Rs 1,851 crore

State-owned lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) is selling stake in its housing finance arm -- PNB Housing Finance – to General Atlantic Group and VardePartners for Rs 1,851 crore at Rs 850 per share.

Both VardePartners and General Atlantic Group will buy 1.089 crore shares each at Rs 850 per share in the housing finance company from Punjab National Bank.

After the transaction, Punjab National Bank will continue to hold a strategic stake of 19.78 per cent in the housing finance company and will remain the promoter and strategic shareholder of the company, the lender informed the stock exchanges on Friday.

Earlier in July 2018, PNB housing finance had informed the exchanges that PNB and Quality Investment Holding (QIH) were considering a joint stake of a minimum of 51 per cent in the housing finance company. However, in November 2018, PNB housing finance said that PNB will independently pursue and proceed with the sale of its shareholding to financial investors via a competitive bidding process.

QIH, on the other hand, had decided to withdraw from the joint sale process. However, QIH had stated that it is considering all options including re-starting the sale process (whether jointly or independently) depending upon market conditions amongst other factors.

It had also mentioned that it might consider buying an additional stake in PNB Housing Finance Company or participate in a potential sale process as a buyer.

PNB was trading 0.63 per cent higher than its previous close at Rs 95.95 on the BSE while PNB Housing Finance company was tradin

An online programming challenge gets 21-yr-old a Rs 1.2 cr Google job in UK

If you thought landing a job at top global companies like Google, Facebook was only possible through IITs or IIMs in India, the story of this 21-year-old Mumbai youth will make you rethink.

A final year engineering student of Shree LR Tiwari Engineering College, Abdullah Khan has been hired by Google at a package of Rs 1.2 crore per year, according to a report in the Times of India.

Khan will join Google's site reliability engineering team in September.

The student, the report says, was spotted by the tech giant on a website that hosts online programming challenges. Khan then had to go through a few rounds of online interviews and a final screening at Google's office in London.

The offer took Khan by surprise as he had not expected any such thing while participating in competitions on that site. "I used to participate as it was fun. I did not even know that firms check programmers' profiles on such sites," he told TOI.

Apart from Rs 54.5 lakh base salary, the six-figure package includes 15 per cent bonus and stock options worth Rs 58.9 lakh over four years.

In 2018 a few engineering students from India landed jobs at Google with staggering pay packages. Aditya Paliwal, then a student of integrated MTech at International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-B), had received a job at Google's Artificial Intelligence research wing with a pay package of Rs 1.2 crore per annum.

IIT-Hyderabad student K Sneha Reddy had also landed a job at Google with a similar pay package.

300,000 companies under the tax scanner for money laundering

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has directed income-tax (I-T) officials to verify bank transactions of companies struck off from the records of the Registrar of Companies (RoC), specifically during demonetisation.

The move will bring 300,000 companies struck off by the RoC for not filing their statutory returns under the tax scanner.

On Thursday, the CBDT issued a directive to senior I-T officials, asking them to examine possible misuse of such companies for money laundering activities. “The board desires that the tax authorities verify deposits/withdrawals from bank accounts of such companies during the process of striking down and just before that, especially during demonetisation,” the CBDT office said.

Further, it said in cases of detection of unusual transactions and beneficiaries, appropriate action may be taken, according to the provisions of the I-T Act. Accordingly, the tax department will seek restoration of such struck-off companies by filing an appeal before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

The I-T department suspects that many of these companies abused their corporate structure by creating multi-layering during demonetisation for cash deposits. The I-T probe also reveals that many individuals had used these firms for siphoning money or converting undisclosed cash into legitimate money after the currency purge.

The apex body wants this exercise of verification to be completed in a time-bound manner and positive cases be brought to the notice of the board. “If such transactions are detected in a particular company, we should bring it to the notice of the RoC within one month, so that objections may be filed against the proposal to strike off a company,” the CBDT had added.

Sources say that the department suspects Rs100 billion has been laundered through such firms during the note-ban period. The official data says that 35,000 companies deposited and withdrew cash worth over Rs 170 billion after the note ban, through about 60,000 bank accounts. It was noticed that the accounts that had negligible balance on November 8, 2016, have seen significant cash deposits and withdrawal during this period.

Last year, the tax department had filed a petition before the NCLT for restoration of registration in as many as 50,000 such companies. The board also asked the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to not oppose the restoration application in the tribunal, as such a move would refrain them from launching tax recovery proceedings against these firms. Directors of these companies have been prohibited from holding directorships in any other company.

Sensex, Nifty set to post double-digit return for third consecutive year

The benchmark indices are set to report double-digit return for the third consecutive financial year, led by financials, information technology (IT), fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and Reliance Industries (RIL).

Thus far in the financial year 2018 - 19 (FY19), the S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 have moved up 17 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively - outpacing the 11.3 per cent and 10.2 per cent rise seen in these indices in the previous financial year.

A bulk of the these gains came in March after the foreign investors pumped in over $5 billion in hopes of Modi government returning to power post the general election scheduled for later this year. That apart, an improvement in corporate earnings going ahead also boosted sentiment.

"The rise in markets currently looks like a catch-up rally just before the 2019 general elections, especially in the case of private banks which are making new highs. NBFC stocks which took a beating post the ILFS crisis have bounced back. On the global economy front, concerns remain as regards rising oil prices and a slowdown in the global economy, which may impact investor sentiments,” said Hemang Jani, Head - Advisory, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

Winners and Losers

Among individual stocks, Bajaj Finance, RIL and Axis Bank have rallied over 50 per cent each, while ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, State Bank of India (SBI) and Hindustan Unilever gained in the range of 26 per cent to 50 per cent during FY19.

On the other hand, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL), Jet Airways (India), Vodafone Idea, Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Infrastructure, PC Jeweller, Manpasand Beverages and Indiabulls Real Estate are among the top losers that saw their market value dip over 50 per cent in FY19.

However, liquidity distress in the country’s capital markets, triggered by the default in September 2018 of IL&FS, saw the midcap and smallcap indices recorded their worst performance since FY12.

The S&P BSE Midcap lost 4 per cent, while the S&P BSE Smallcap has slipped 12 per cent so far in FY19. In the past two fiscals, both these indices had rallied 50 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively, as compared to 30 per cent rise in the benchmark Sensex.

Autos in reverse gear

Sector-wise, auto (down 23 per cent) and metal (down 17 per cent) indices have been the worst performers. Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki India, Eicher Motors and Ashok Leyland from automobile sector tanked between 25 and 47 per cent during FY19.

MHCV (medium & heavy commercial vehicle) growth dragged in October-December quarter (Q3FY19), primarily due to the liquidity crunch at non-banking financial institutions (NBFC) along with an increase in official maximum load carrying capacity of heavy vehicles that adversely affected demand of heavy tonnage trucks.

The slowdown also impacted the auto-ancillary sector (auto components and tyres). Analysts expect the growth to remain subdued for another two quarters before recovering in Q3FY20, as pre-buying would start before BSVI implementation in April 2020.

Lok Sabha MPs are 147 times richer than rural households, says report

There is a wide monetary gap between the elected representative and the voter.

The average asset of a Lok Sabha MP is worth Rs 14.7 crore. The average rural household asset is worth Rs 10 lakh. This means that an MP on average has 147 times the assets of the average rural household.

NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch on Thursday released a report analysing the affidavits of 521 MPs submitted before to the 2014 elections. The asset details are based on their disclosures. Seats are vacant in 22 out of the 543 constituencies.

This was compared with the data on household assets, based on the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey. The NSSO noted that the average rural household had assets worth around Rs 10 lakh. It was around Rs 23 lakh for the average urban household, according to the 2013 Household Assets and Liabilities report.

The NSSO report mentions that the poorest one-tenth of rural and urban households had assets in a few thousand and a few hundred rupees, respectively.

“The lowest 10 per cent of India’s rural households (in terms of total assets) had an average asset value of Rs 25,071. The lowest 10 per cent of the urban households had an average asset value of Rs 291, implying that poorest (in terms of assets) urban population is owning very little assets (as durables were not considered as physical assets in this round),” said the NSSO report. 

There is a wide variation between richer and poorer MPs, too. The wealthiest have assets running into hundreds of crores. The poor have a few thousand.

The top three wealthiest MPs are politicians from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana - Jayadev Galla, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and Gokaraju Ganga Raju. They have declared assets of between Rs 200 crore and Rs 700 crore.

The poorest is Sumedha Nand Saraswati (Rs 34,311), followed by Uma Saren (Rs 4 lakh) and Mohammed Faizal P P (Rs 5 lakh).

As many as 24 sitting MPs, with assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, haven’t disclosed income tax details, according to the report.

The report also had data on criminal cases. At least 33 per cent sitting MPs have declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits -- 106 are named in serious criminal cases including those related to murder, attempt to murder, communal disharmony, kidnapping and crimes against women.

Rail Vikas Nigam IPO opens today: Why analysts suggest subscribing to it

The Rs 482 crore initial public offering (IPO) of state-run Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) will open on Friday and close on April 3. The price band has been fixed at Rs 17 - Rs 19 per share. The issue is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) of 25.35 crore shares (12.2 per cent of post-dilution equity) by Government of India. Of the total issue, 0.3 per cent, or 6,57,280 shares, are reserved for the employees of RVNL. Retail investors and employees will be offered a discount of Rs 0.5/share.

SHOULD YOU SUBSCRIBE?

Most analysts have assigned 'subscribe' rating to the IPO, given its robust executable order book, growth prospects, government focus on rail infrastructure spend and attractive valuation.

In the recent past, two Indian Railway entities - IRCON International (IRCON) and RITES (RITES) - debuted at the bourses. Of these, only RITES is trading above the IPO price, while the former is trading at 16 per cent discount (as of Thursday's close) to the IPO price.

"RITES predominantly is a consulting arm of Indian Railways, while IRCON is normally into project execution and can execute projects across the spectrum. Though both IRCON and RITES are not perfect peers to RVNL but can be considered as proxy peers as they majorly cater to Indian Railways," wrote analysts at Choice Research in the IPO note.

RVNL, which is a project executing agency working for and behalf on Ministry of Railways, has an order book of Rs 77,500 crore. Of this, Rs 30,000 crore worth orders are long-gestation projects with execution timeline of five-seven years. Orders of nearly Rs 45,000 crore are related to doubling, new lines, etc, where execution timelines are two-three years.

Analysts at ICICI Securities believe the healthy order-book provides near-medium term revenue visibility for RVNL.

Between FY13-17, RVNL contributed more than 33 per cent of the doubling projects and more than 21 per cent of electrification projects of the total reported by Indian Railways (IR), a CARE Ratings note said.

In 2016, Indian Railways had announced a capex plan of around Rs 8.6 trillion stretched over five year period i.e. 2016-20. The proposed capex plan is 90 per cent more than the combined capital outlay in the previous 15 years.

Given the government's focus on building rail and road network going ahead, analysts at Centrum Wealth believe the company could be a key beneficiary of the upcoming opportunities in the railway infrastructure segment. The brokerage suggests investors 'subscribe' to the issue from a long-term perspective.

RVNL's 'asset-light model' is another reason why brokerages remain optimistic on the road ahead for the company. An asset-light business model is where a business owns relatively fewer capital assets compared to the value of its operations.

In RVNL’s case, contractors provide for the machinery, plants, and stores for the execution of works. The company also relies on the MoR for deputation of manpower to perform supervisory tasks, etc.

"Based on the higher price band, RVNL is demanding a P/E multiple of 7x (to its restated FY18 EPS of Rs 2.7), a discount to peer average of 11.9x. With respect to the projected FY19E and FY20E earnings, it is demanding a P/E valuation of 6x and 4.4x, respectively. Valuation seems attractive and investors can look for long-term investment in this PSU," the Choice Broking note adds.

FINANCIALS

RVNL is a financially sound company. Between FY15-18, its top line grew from Rs 3,146.5 crore in FY15 to Rs 7,597.4 crore in FY18, translating into a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.2 per cent. Profit after tax (PAT) has grown at robust pace of 19.2 per cent (CAGR) during the same period i.e. from Rs 336.8 crore in FY15 to Rs 569.9 crore in FY18. One cause for concern, however, is the PAT margin, which has dipped 320 basis points (bps) over the period to 7.5 per cent in FY18.