Nirav Modi's lawyer raised a British court's judgment blocking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US on mental health grounds, as the embattled diamond merchant appeared via videolink before a court here on Thursday for a two-day hearing of final submissions in his fight against being extradited to India. The 49-year-old diamond merchant, facing charges of fraud, money laundering and intimidating witnesses in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, appeared in the Westminster Magistrates' Court. Sporting a full beard and dressed casually in a blazer, he followed the proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London as his counsel raised Monday's judgment which blocks the extradition of Assange to the US on the grounds of his mental health.
India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya as per the Extradition Treaty between India and the UK through a note verbale on February 8
In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said it has issued fresh guidelines for surveillance with regard to COVID-19 that will remain in force till January 31, as it asked the states and union territories to keep a strict vigil to prevent any rise in cases during the New Year celebrations and the winter season.
Clare Montgomery, Modi's barrister, made a series of offers to try and convince the judge to grant bail.
The currency market won't care for our moans, groans, cries and sighs. The rupee will find its own level, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The 49-year-old jeweller, fighting extradition in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, will appear via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London for the latest hearing in the case, during which District Judge Samuel Goozee will hear his defence team's arguments against the admissibility of certain evidence provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in order to establish a prima facie case against the accused.
Information technology industry veteran V Balakrishnan on Thursday criticised the new digital rules, alleging that they appear to be unduly compromising the privacy right of citizens. The two key issues with the new IT rules relate to user privacy, which is a fundamental right, and the oversight mechanism lying fully with the executive arm of the government, said the former chief financial officer of Bengaluru-headquartered IT major Infosys Ltd.
The valuables include polished diamonds, pearls and silver jewellery and are worth Rs 1,350 crore.
A few days back, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged the start-up community and public to deal in cryptocurrency with caution because everything that was floating around was not currency. In the first week of August, the country's top nine crypto exchange platforms were summoned by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in Hyderabad. The exchanges were questioned for money laundering, especially over a number of Indian non-banking financial companies and their fintech partners for predatory lending practices in violation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and by using tele-callers who misuse personal data and use abusive language to extort high interest rates from the loan takers.
As for Bharat Biotech, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the CDSCO asked the firm to expedite volunteer recruitment for the ongoing clinical trial and said it may conduct interim efficacy analysis for further consideration of restricted emergency use approval for its vaccine Covaxin, they stated.
'And because she was very close to Indira Gandhi, she was close to me.' 'Sonia is a wonderful person'
The UK Home Secretary will have to sign Mallya's extradition order within two months. However, Mallya's defence team has a chance to appeal in higher courts in the UK against the verdict.
Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who lost his UK high court appeal against an extradition order to India, has said that he is "disappointed" with the ruling but will continue to seek legal remedies as advised by his legal team. The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss reiterated that he has repeatedly offered to pay the Indian banks the loan amount owed by his now-defunct airline, an offer which the banks have rejected.
A number of social media users suggested it was an assassination attempt "ordered" by Hillary Clinton, while others thought US President Barack Obama was involved.
Vijay Mallya is accused of money laundering and violating the FEMA.
China on Friday said that any successor to the present Dalai Lama should be approved by it, ruling out recognition to any heir nominated by him or by his followers.
Reconstruction efforts after the Russia-Ukraine war will be dominated by the heft of the membership of major nations across international organisations. India is hamstrung because it does not play host to any major global institution nor does it hold positions of significant influence in the ones in which it has membership. As a result, the world's sixth largest economy is obliged to follow the rules set by most of them.
'The prospects for both India and the global economy is that we are headed towards a very difficult time.' 'I see very uncertain at least 8-10 months for both India and the rest of the world.'
Wanted diamond merchant Nirav Modi appeared via videolink from his London prison for a regular call-over hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, when he was further remanded in custody until February 25, when the judgment in his extradition case is to be handed down. District Judge Angus Hamilton informed Modi that he would most likely be appearing again via videolink on the day of the ruling, which will decide whether the 49-year-old jeweller has a case to answer before the Indian courts on fraud and money laundering in relation to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case. Last month, District Judge Samuel Goozee had confirmed the timeline for the judgment at the end of closing submissions in the case, during which he heard that Modi is responsible for overseeing a "ponzi-like scheme" that caused enormous fraud to PNB.
It is alleged that during the tenure of Chanda Kochhar, six loans worth Rs 1,875 crore were cleared for the Videocon Group and its associated companies, in which in two cases she herself was on the sanctioning committees.
Police have identified the suspect as 28-year-old Usman Khan, inspired by the ideology of Al Qaeda terror group, was previously sentenced to 16 years in prison term for his role in the London Stock Exchange bombing in 1990.
Modi's defence team doubled the bail security to 2 million pounds and offered he would stay on 24-hour curfew at his London flat.
The liquor baron showed up despite being exempt from appearing by the judge at the last hearing on June 13.
A four-member team led by CBI additional director Rakesh Asthana will apprise British authorities about the finer points of the loan default cases against Mallya. Two senior ED officials are also part of the team.
On production capacity of Covishield, the vaccine being manufactured and supplied by Serum in India under a licensing agreement with Oxford and AstraZeneca, he said the present capacity is 130 million doses per month and always try to increase it further.
Justice Ingrid Simler at the Royal Courts of Justice in London concluded the hearing and said as the matter was of "some importance", she would take some time to consider it and hand down her ruling on Wednesday.
British intelligence agencies now believe it is 'feasible' that the COVID-19 pandemic began with a coronavirus leak from a Chinese bio laboratory, a media report said here on Sunday, prompting Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi to demand that the World Health Organisation (WHO) must fully investigate the origins of the deadly virus.
Only half India's population has received the first shot of Covishield and Covaxin and the government's immediate task is to first vaccinate its adult population before placing its focus on children.
Faced with prospect of its assets across the globe being seized just like Pakistan and Venezuela, the government decided to scrap retrospective taxation but the international embarrassment could have been avoided had 'attached' shares of Britain's Cairn Energy Plc not been sold, according to tax and legal experts. On Thursday, the government introduced a Bill in Parliament to scrap the tax rule that gave the tax department power to go 50 years back and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India. The 2012 legislation was used to levy a cumulative of Rs 1.10 lakh crore of tax on 17 entities, including UK telecom giant Vodafone, but substantial punitive action was taken only in the case of Cairn.
'These are interesting days for watchers of English cricket and central banking,' points out Amol Agrawal.
If international crude oil prices zoom past the current level of about $90 per barrel and move towards $100 and beyond, middle-class consumers are not going to keep quiet about their discomfort, points out Arun Balakrishnan, former chairman and managing director, Hindustan Petroleum.
'Even with 3 lakh cases a day, we have saturated our resources.' 'It is scary to even think what will happen when the number doubles.'
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Currently, the Shannon Development Centre employs over 200 professionals, delivering IT and business process services' offerings to marquee retail banking and insurance customers across Ireland and the UK.
'Cyrus was always very different. He would think before acting.'
The funds officially held by Indians with banks in Switzerland now accounts for only 0.07 per cent of the total funds kept by all foreign clients in the Swiss banking system.
Exports from Ranbaxy plants at Toansa and Dewas to Europe will remain suspended as probes are continuing even as Indian authorities have withdrawn the certification of manufacturing standards from one of the units, European health regulator EMA said today.
'But India, increasingly, is not that far behind, which is a story I never expected to tell.'
The first 100 beneficiaries of such foreign vaccines shall be assessed for seven days for safety outcomes before it is rolled out for further immunisation programme within the country, the Union health ministry said.
A special court on Tuesday issued an order allowing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to begin extradition proceedings against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi in connection with its money laundering probe against him and others.
The Enforcement Directorate arrested Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor under money-laundering charges in Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday, officials said. The banker was held under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) around 3 am as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe, they said.
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