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Jan 1-15, 2023 - Vol 3, Issue 11
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Chanda Kochhar: From Kamath’s angel to jail loans sanctioned to industrialist Venugopal N. Dhoot's Videocon Group between 2009-2011, when she was lording over the bank.
Mumbai, Dec 25 (IANS) The highprofile, much-talented, discussed, rewarded, awarded and decorated woman banker with a 'Midas touch', the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the private ICICI Bank, Chanda D. Kochhar, was finally arrested along with her husband Deepak Kochhar. It is some seven years after the first of the complaints surfaced that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) bit the bullet to nab the Kochhar couple in connection with the alleged massive Rs 3,250 crore loan fraud involving the defunct Videocon Group. Among other things, the CBI has accused Chanda Kochhar, 61, of irregularities, flouting banking rules and laws in a series of
The CBI earlier in 2019 booked the Kochhar couple and Dhoot, besides naming the companies like Videocon International Electronics Ltd., NuPower Renewables Pvt. Ltd., Videocon Industries Ltd., Supreme Energy Pvt. Ltd., under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act. In an alleged quid pro quo deal, the CBI claimed that after the Videocon Group got the loan of Rs 3,250 crore from ICICI Bank in 2012, Dhoot reportedly diverted a Rs 64 crore to NuPower Renewables where Deepak Kochhar had a 50 per cent stake, raising eyebrows and questions on ethics, as Chanda had set the credit limits for the Videocon Group companies. The CBI charge sheet said that under Kochhar, the ICICI Bank sanctioned the loans to Videocon Group and others in complete violation of the bank's policies,
and later these were declared non performing assets (NPAs) causing losses to the bank and illegal gains to the borrowers and accused.
United Nations, Dec 24 (IANS) The UN's paralysis on its momentous challenge in decades with a permanent member of the Security Council invading a neighbour will be the dominant factor in 2023 and it will also bring the focus on reforming it. The Ukraine war has emerged as a catalyst for calls to change both the UN as well as the international institutions created after World War II, and there will be renewed efforts next year in that direction
As the long-simmering disenchantment with the functioning of the Council seemed ready to boil over, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "The possibility of enlarging the Security Council is now seriously on the table." At the high-level week inaugurating the current General Assembly session leaders of more than 70 countries demanded reforms and it was reinforced at the debate in the Council called by India this month on "New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism". While Council reform will move up in the various agendas at the
Threat to Rishi Sunak continuing as UK Prime Minister within his party as well as the biggest epidemic of strikes by unions in the UK since the 1980s.
The CBI also wanted to investigate the role of other ICICI Bank's senior officers who approved the loans to Videocon Group, among others, allegedly at Chanda's behest. The loans to Videocon Group companies and others eventually turned into NPAs by 2017, and the CBI said that most were grossly flouting the laws, banking rules and the bank's regulations, and were red-flagged as 'frauds' after the probe. Independent banking circles say that the ICICI Bank reported the maximum NPAs during Chanda's leadership and as per a RTI reply received by a Pune businessman Prafful Sarda, it had accumulated up to a staggering around Rs 200,000 crore till 2021. Just last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed parliament that among other Continued on Page 3
Ukraine to dominate UN in 2023, impacting reforms, economic issues even if changes don't happen next year.
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UN in 2023, realistically it will be nowhere near to achieving it, although may move closer to adopting negotiating text, the main hurdle to progress. The Ukraine war and its cruel manifestations at the meal plates, petrol pumps and electricity meters around the world, as well as the inflation and the threats of recession, will dominate the discourse at the UN -- and universally. Guterres said that he does not see an early end to the war, but perhaps later in 2023. The UN is seeking to ameliorate the most serious consequence outside the theatre of war, the looming famine, through its one Continued on Page 3
London, Dec 18 (IANS) With parliament in recess, politics is also on vacation in UK in what is deemed in this country to be a Christmas truce. But the threat to Indian-origin Prime Minister Rishi Sunak continuing in office seems to be around the corner, if not already present. Lord Peter Cruddas, a ruling Conservative party peer in the House of Lords and one of the party's biggest recent financial donors, bluntly told The Observer: "Something's going to come to a head because the members don't want Rishi Sunak. The odds are stacked against him. Sunak, 42, became head of government on October 25. He has at least avoided the ignominy of a tenure shorter than the dubious record set by his immediate predecessor Liz Truss. But he is hemmed in by trouble from
Cruddas has donated more than 3.5 million pounds to the Conservatives; and strenuously supported a move in October to bring back Boris Johnson as Prime Minister after he had been forced to resign in July. The plot could therefore be to remove Sunak, perceived to be lacklustre, and reinstate Johnson, who is controversial and allegedly corrupt, but colourful in reaching out to voters. Cruddas' outburst came as the latest Opinium poll published by The Observer indicated that the extreme right-wing Reform party has increased its support. This is read as a sign that the pro-Brexit and low tax preferring Conservative voters could be drifting away to Reform. Another pollster YouGov in a survey of national voting intention carried out on December 14-15, put 48 per cent as being with the main opposition Labour party and only 23 per cent remaining with the Conservatives, who won a thumping majority under Johnson only three years ago. This translates to a Labour landslide, if an election is held now. Continued on Page 3
PM Modi’s mother Heeraben Modi dies at the age of 100 statement, "Heeraba Modi passed away on December 30 at 3.30 a.m. (early morning) during the treatment at UN Mehta Heart hospital."
New Delhi, Dec 30 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother Heeraben Modi passed away at the age of 100 early on Friday morning. She was admitted to Ahmedabad's UN Mehta Hospital after her health deteriorated. UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre said in a
Modi wrote with a heavy heart, "A glorious century rests at the feet of God. In Maa, I have always felt that trinity, which contains the journey of an ascetic, the symbol of a selfless Karmayogi and a life committed to values." The Prime Minister met his mother for the last time at the hospital where she had been admitted on Wednesday.