HEAD NEWS: May 2011

Friday, May 20, 2011

Mamata Banerjee sworn in as West Bengal Chief Minister | 1st Lady

mamata

Kolkata: Poriborton (change) has come to Bengal. On Friday, minutes after 1 in the afternoon, Mamata Banerjee took oath to become the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal.

It was a historic moment for the state and personally, one that the diminutive giant-slayer has waited for all her life. Mamata took oath in Bengali marking a change of guard that will see the end of 34 years of uninterrupted rule by the CPI(M)-led Left Front.
Among the several thousands present was former Chief Minister

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Mamata had sent a personal invitation to him yesterday. Also there were Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister AK Antony.

The Mamata Banerjee ministry has 43 members apart from her. Of these 36 are Trinamool Congress members, and there will be seven Congress ministers. The ministers are now taking oath.

The Trinamool Congress list of ministers include Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Manish Gupta, Subrata Mukherjee, Abdul Karim Chowdhury, Sadhan Pandey, Upen Biswas, Sabitri Mitra, Bratya Basu, Madan Mitra and Noore Alam Chowdhury.

Opposition Welcomes DMK MP Kanimozhi's arrest on 2G Spectrum case

Opposition Welcomes DMK MP Kanimozhi's arrest on 2G Spectrum case

kani

New Delhi: The Opposition on Friday welcomed the CBI special court's decision ordering the arrest of DMK MP Kanimozhi in the 2G scam spectrum case.

"These arrests and actions have been possible only because the Supreme Court is monitoring the inquiry," said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

He also added, "This is the only UPA regime where government controlled inquiries will produce no results."

Javadekar said, "If we want effective results, the only way is Supreme Court because government monitored agencies do not perform. The enquiries about other scams including CWG then only will we be getting justice."

Communist Party of India (CPI) Secretary D Raja said, "Congress stands thoroughly exposed."

Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV MD and CEO Sharad Kumar were arrested after a Special Central Bureau of Investigating (CBI) court dismissed the bail petition of Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar in the case following which they were taken into custody.

While rejecting their bail petition Judge OP Saini ordered their "forthwith" arrest and directed the duo to appear before it at 10 am on Saturday. Kanimozhi and Kumar will be lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.

Timeline of 2G spectrum case | Kanimozhi

Timeline of 2G spectrum case | Kanimozhi

Kanimozhi

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) With the bail plea of former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi being rejected, the second generation (2G) spectrum case has taken another turn. A timeline of the case:

- Oct 22, 2009: The CBI files a first information report (FIR) against unidentified officials of the department of telecommunications on the 2G spectrum (airwaves) auction, based on a reference from the Central Vigilance Commission.

- November first week, 2010: Media publishes contents of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the 2G spectrum auction. The CAG said that the public exchequer suffered a notional loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion) due to faulty auction procedure under Raja in 2008.

- Nov 9, 2010: Parliament's winter session begins. Protests by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Left parties and other parties - demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the spectrum scandal - wash away the five-week session.

- Nov 14: Raja submits his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. Claims he did no wrong.

- Nov 16: CAG report on 2G spectrum allocation tabled in both houses of parliament amidst uproarious scenes.

- Dec 8: The CBI raids the house of Raja and premises of former aides Siddharth Behura and R.K. Chandolia in New Delhi. It also raids houses and offices of Raja's relatives, associates and some journalists and social workers in Tamil Nadu linked to the DMK and Raja. The CBI claims recovering incriminating documents.

- Dec 15: The CBI raids the houses and offices of Niira Radia, a corporate lobbyist linked with Raja. She is subsequently questioned by the CBI several times.

- Dec 24: The CBI questions Raja in New Delhi.

- Dec 25: Raja's questioning continues for the second day.

- Jan 31, 2011: The CBI questions Raja again.

- Feb 2: The CBI arrests Raja, Chandolia and Behura.

- April 2: CBI filed charges against nine people and three firms -- Raja, Chandolia, Behura, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa, director Vinod Goenka, Unitech director Sanjay Chandra and three officials from the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group -- Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

April 20: Special city court denies bail to Goenka, Chandra, Doshi, Nair and Pipara.

April 25: In a major embarrassment for Karunanidhi, daughter Kanimozhi named co-conspirator, along with Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV, Karim Morani of Cineyug Films, and Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Agarwal of Kusegaon Realty.

May 6: Morani had got exemption for appearance as he was admitted to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital. He again got exemption May 10 on the same grounds. Pipara is in All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment, but continues to be in judicial custody.

May 20: Kanimozhi's bail plea rejected. Sent to judicial custody in Tihar Jail. Sharad Kumar also to go to jail.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Citi's Vikram Pandit gets a $22.5 million pay package | Indian US CEO

vikram-pandit

Washington, May 19 (IANS) After working for years for a token annual salary of $1, Citigroup's Indian American CEO, Vikram Pandit has received a $22.5 million retention package that's partly tied to the future performance of the banking giant.

'Vikram has done an outstanding job since coming on board as the financial crisis began,' Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons said in a statement Wednesday. 'Under his leadership, the management team has navigated Citi through the crisis, returned Citi to profitability and is executing a strategy for sustainable growth.

'The long-term, multiyear, performance-based structure of this award is designed to retain Vikram as our CEO and reward him for future performance benefiting the company and our shareholders,' Parsons added.

Pandit got deferred stock valued at $10 million on the day it was granted, according to a regulatory filing by Citi.

The award will vest in three equal installments at the end of 2013, 2014 and 2015 - but only if Citi's personnel and compensation committee decides Pandit has reached performance goals tied to regulatory capital and risk management, company culture and talent development, including succession, the filing explained.

Pandit also got a new profit-sharing plan that could pay him more than $6 million, depending on the future cumulative pretax profit of Citicorp in 2011 and 2012 - minus the cumulative income or loss generated by Citi Holdings in the period.