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Posts tagged Business
Friday: Raju’s bail plea hearing
Jan 16th
Hyderabad: Bail plea of Ramalinga Raju will be heard on Friday by Hyderabad court.
On January 12, besides Ramalinga Raju, the court had delayed the hearing of the bail plea of Ramalinga’s brother Rama Raju and Satyam’s Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas.
All are in judicial custody till January 23 and have been lodged in the Chanchalguda Central Prison.
The court will also listen to a request filed by the Security and Exchange board of India(SEBI) for quizzing Raju and the two others while they are in judicial custody.
Raju’s lawyer Bharat Kumar told journalists that a team of 25 lawyers has been put together to defend Raju and others.
In the meantime, police stepped up their inquiry into the case, having charged Ramalinga Raju and B Rama Raju with illicit conspiracy and forgery after Raju admitted profits had been flimsy for years and quit.
A case has been filed in opposition to Raju under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 477-a (fraudulent cancellation of securities) of IPC.
Raju had disclosed a financial fraud in the company to the tune of Rs 7,800 crore by inflating profits and showing fictitious assets where none existed.
The company’s scrip has fallen nearly 80 per cent since the exposure was made.
Three new members appointed by Govt on Satyam board
Jan 11th
The Govt has acted rapidly few days after the Rs 7000 crore Satyam scam came to light.
It has selected a new board bringing together greatly appreciated persons from the fields of Finance, IT and Law. HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, former NASSCOM chief Kiran Karnik and former SEBI member C Achuthan represent the new board.
Making the declaration, Minister of Corporate Affairs PC Gupta said, the government agencies have began probe into the Satyam scam in a matched manner and have completed “commendable progress”.
Speaking to NDTV, Minister of Corporate Affairs PC Gupta said, “No actions are being ruled” on Satyam front. “We are keeping all the options open,” he said, when asked about whether the government is looking at bailing out the beleaguered IT company, which is facing a liquidity disaster.
The recently selected board will gather over the next 24 hours to make a decision on a future course of action and will also take a call on who else to take in the new board.
The board takes more than at a time when the fate of nearly 50,000 employees remains undecided with liquidity being a serious fear. Investor assurance is also rock-bottom.
“Will ensure there is business continuity. It’s important to maintain customer confidence. Will get the company back on track,” said Kiran Karnik.
On Friday, the government had disbanded the board of Satyam Computer for “failing to do what they were supposed to”.
In the meantime, Satyam’s fallen promoters Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju will spend the next two weeks in judicial supervision at the high security Chanchalguda prison in Hyderabad. They have been remanded to judicial custody till January 23.
They were interrogated for 18 hours on Saturday and their bail pleas have been discarded. V Srinivas, the chief financial officer of Satyam was also under arrest late Saturday night.
While Raju’s counsel is probable to apply for bail on Monday, police will try for custody.
The CID has raided different associate companies of Satyam. The stock market watchdog SEBI has also filed a request to question Ramalinga Raju.
For now, the CID has formed teams to catch the other directors of Satyam Computer and auditors of PricewaterhouseCoopers who have been listed as the accused in the case.
Oil strike called off, after Govt pressure
Jan 10th
New Delhi: Public sector’s oil firms strike which nearly crippled India was called off after three days. Friday evening, almost immediately after the government warned that the strikers would be sacked if they did not continue work.
‘Yes, we have called off our agitation,’ Sanjay Varshney, one of the vice presidents of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) that launched the strike Wednesday, told IANS.
Saturday and Sunday have moreover been stated running days at the state-owned power companies in a worried bid to reinstate normalcy across India after thousands of fuel stations ran out of supply, paralyzing road traffic in numerous places and striking hard refineries.
There were symbols of the strike coming apart while Friday afternoon with staffers of power firms starting job in batches after warnings of group dismissals.
Attendance at Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) rose 40 percent, those at Oil India (OIL) withdrew from the strike, and employees of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) in the southern region resumed job.
The OSOA, the umbrella body of about 45,000 workers of more than a dozen state-run energy firms, were demanding high salaries.
A few hours prior to the strike finished, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora asserted that the objection was put to finish.
‘The illegal strike seems to be over. In the whole country, the situation has improved,’ the minister said.
‘Near-normal situation is expected in BPCL by evening. The IOC (Indian Oil Corp) Panipat refinery will start output later today while the Mathura refinery will start operations within 12 hours,’ he said. ‘The government is confident the strike will be called off within next six to 12 hours.’
Deora, who discarded talks with the strikers if they did not restart work, Friday morning required the Territorial Army’s assist to stop the stalemate.
The disaster management assembly of the cabinet met in the morning and determined that the government would not bend over to the strikers.
Petroleum ministry Secretary R.S. Sharma warned striking employees to call off the strike or face the axe.
‘There are only two options before you: join work immediately or face arrest under ESMA (Essential Supplies Maintenance Act) or NSA (National Security Act),’ Pandey said.
Maintaining that ‘there is no pleasure in dismissing people’, Pandey said that strikers might moreover face firing from service.
And to confirm that it was no inactive warning, the Oil and Natutral Gas Corp (ONGC) sacked 64 employees. IOC and GAIL India (formerly Gas Authority of India) axed three staffers each, he said.
According to Pandey, only a third of IOC outlets were prepared crosswise the country. For BPCL it was a slight over 65 percent as at 95 percent it was the utmost at Hindustan Petroleum, whose employees had not joined the strike.
Equally Deora and Pandey asked the people to end fright buying.
Throughout the day, fuel-starved autorickshaws, taxis and private vehicles went off the roads in India’s financial capital Mumbai, putting millions to poverty. The circumstances was only slightly better in New Delhi, where road traffic thinned by evening as scores of petrol and diesel pumps ran out of supply.
As fright mounted all above the country with motorists jostling for what little was obtainable in petrol stations, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said: ‘Strong action would be taken and I believe strong actions are being taken. If someone from the army has to be called, they will be called.’
