Financial Chronicle's Businessman of the Year

If you were to name the man who sprang the biggest surprise on India Inc in 2008, who would you pick from among those captains who regularly hit the headlines?

Ratan Tata? Mukesh Ambani? Anil Ambani? Nandan Nilekani? None of them did anything to shake up the Indian corporate world. Tata did, but only to an extent, with Nano. That was hardly a surprise though; everyone knew Nano had been in incubation for some time. Mukesh’s new refinery was on its way, and Anil pulled no rabbit out of his hat. Nilekani only did what he was expected to do – manage Infosys well.

Financial Chronicle’s editorial team went through a great deal of CVs and found the man who qualifies for the honour: Malvinder Mohan Singh, 35, of Ranbaxy fame. He is our Businessman of the Year.

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Madrasa certificates will now be Central Board of Secondary Education equivalent

In a move that goes a long way in main streaming Madrasa students across the country and help clear their way to higher education, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is all set to grant madrasa certificates equivalence to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

A key recommendation of the Sachar committee — and also on the PM’s 15-point programme for minorities — a special panel set up by the Ministry recently recommended that in states where madrasa certificates are recognized as equivalent to secondary and senior secondary level, these should also be granted equivalence by the CBSE.

The notification is expected soon and will benefit some 7000 madrasas and 3.5 lakh students in seven states that have madrasa boards: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam and West Bengal. This will also apply to madrasa certificated already issued.

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Differently schooled

MCD School, Madanpur Khadar (outskirts of Delhi): The toilet is locked. Students roam inside the school premises, as teachers disappear after taking the attendance.

Government Girls’ School, Rajokri, Gurgaon: The building is brightly painted. The junior section has tables. A wall has parts of a body painted on it. During lunch break, students gather around the wall to look them. The school does not have desks, but teachers can be seen teaching.

Most Schools run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) that HT visited have crumbling infrastructure. Three of them were functioning from porta cabins. Many did not have facility for drinking water. None of them had separate toilets for teachers and students.

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In India, a woman becomes a crime victim every three minutes

Every three minutes a woman becomes victim of a crime somewhere in India. The highest number becomes targets of their husbands and inlaws. A total of 185,312 incidents of crime against women were reported in the country during 2007 as compared to 164,765 during 2006, an increase of 12.5 percent.

The number of crimes committed against women has increased continuously during the last five years. In 2007, the highest number of crimes against women was recorded in Andhra Pradesh, according to the ‘Crime in 2007’ report of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).

Homes were far from being safe havens for women. Last year, 75,930 women became victims of torture and cruelty by their husbands and in-laws, accounting for the highest number of crimes against women.

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Satyam banned for 8 yearrs by World Bank

The World Bank has finally admitted that it has decided not to do business with city-based Satyam Computers for eight years over charges of data theft.

A Satyam spokesperson, however, refused to react to the World Bank statement.

After media went to town with the World Bank revelation, Satyam’s stock crashed by 13.5 per cent and closed at Rs.140.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. It had earlier touched a low of Rs 138.

Reports had appeared in October itself that the World Bank had implicated Satyam for data theft and had banned it. The company and the bank, however, had denied the ban then.

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UK couple world’s ‘unluckiest’ tourists

An English couple has been also part of a terror trial after they were caught up in three separate terror attacks during their holidays. Call them the world’s unluckiest tourists, or plain lucky ones, as they survived all three attacks in New York, London and Mumbai.

Jason and Jenny Cairns Lawrence, who are from Dudley in West Midlands, started their unlucky terror trail in September 2001, when they were in New York during the Al Qaeda terror attacks. Almost 3,000 people were killed in the US during those terror attacks.

Forty-two-year-old Jason, a sales manager, and Jenny Cairns-Lawrence, 26-year old dental laboratory worker, were in London in July 2005 , when terrorists blew up three London Underground trains and a bus, resulting in the deaths of 52 commuters. They escaped death yet again in November this year when terrorists struck in central Mumbai, resulting in the death of some 170 people.

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Israeli politicians threaten major offensive against Gaza

Israel threatened on Sunday to launch a major offensive against the Gaza Strip as violence simmered around the impoverished territory days after the end of a truce with Hamas.

The two front runners in the race to become prime minister in February's parliamentary polls both vowed to topple Hamas, which has run Gaza since winning a 2007 power struggle with the rival Fatah faction after winning democratic elections in 2006.

Militant rocket and mortar fire continued on Sunday, the Israeli Army said, reporting that one person was slightly injured.

A Palestinian medic said a woman had been wounded in northern Gaza by shrapnel from a tank shell but the Israeli military denied firing in the area.

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Satyam to buy back shares

Satyam Computer Services Ltd on Thursday exercised its second option of buying back its shares after being forced to cancel plans to pick up 51%in Maytas Infra and 100% in Maytas Properties.Details of the conference call made by fund managers with Satyam management on Tuesday revealed that every one of them opposed the deal for by passing minority shareholder approval.

The company informed stock exchanges on Thursday that its board would discuss the buy back proposal on December 29. The news helped to prop up the company’s be leaguered shares,which closed 7% higher at Rs 169.35 on the BSE. However, year on year, the value of Satyam’s stock has eroded by two-thirds.

Under existing provisions, a company can use 10% of its equity capital plus free reserves to buy back shares. Satyam had around Rs 7,350 crore as such at the end of March. So, of the total cash of around Rs 5,300 crore in its books, Rs 735 crore can be used for the buy back.

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Investigation - CBI forensics halted as lab chemicals old

Much of the inves tigation work done in the CBI’s forensic laboratory has come to a standstill since most chemicals kept in its ballistics division are past their expiry date. Ballistics work involves examination of firearms, explosives (including RDX) and detonators to determine the nature of an explosion and type of weapons used in a crime, the range of fire, linking bullets with arms, cartridge cases and checking of weapons for evidence.

An investigation by this newspaper has established that the chemicals which have crossed their expiry date include ammonium acetate, arsenic sulphide, benzene, ethyl acetate, among others. These chemicals are used for laboratory examinations. The work also involves studying and giving expert opinions on the nature of explosives (civil, military and IEDs).

Two bottles of ammonium acetate kept inside the bal listics division are of no use as they are already past their expiry dates — July 4, 2008 and November 18, 2008 respectively. The supply of Benedict’s solution, another key ingredient, also cannot be used as its November 4, 2008 expiry date is over. There is no fresh stock of this available, and scientists at the ballistics division refused to comment.

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Bill’s in: 180 days no bail, Naxals also ‘terrorists’

WITH the chorus for tough anti-terror laws growing after the Mumbai terror strikes, the Government today introduced two Bills providing for a National Investigating Agency (NIA) to probe terror cases across the country and proposing deterrent provisions like detention without bail up to 180 days and up to life imprisonment for those involved in terror acts. For foreign nationals accused, detention can be indefinite.

The NIA Bill, 2008 and the Unlaw ful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2008, tabled by Home Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha a day after the Cabinet cleared the measures, extend definition of terrorism to militancy, insurgency and Naxal extremism.

The NIA Bill empowers the agency at the Central level to probe terrorism and crimes with national ramifications such as challenges to the country’s sovereignty and integrity, bomb blasts, hijacking of aircraft and ships and attacks on nuclear installations.

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Obama man calls for civilian control of ISI

Islamabad on Monday continued to face pressure from the United States over the Mumbai attacks with Democratic Senator John Kerry agreeing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Pakistan needs to do more to combat terrorists based on its territory.

Kerry, who is considered close to US President-elect Barack Obama, suggested that Pakistan must act against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the leaders of such terrorist organisations. He also said Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence should be under civilian control.

India has said that the LeT had carried out the Mumbai attacks. Delhi has also thrown hints that ISI had a hand in planning the operation.

Kerry, who is slated to be the next chairperson of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is travelling next to Islamabad and is expected to tell Pakistani leaders to take on terror groups on its territory.

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Ireland makes first green computer

The world’s first biodegradable computer, the iameco, has been manufactured in Dublin from biodegradable wood panels made from waste products in the lumber and pulp industry.

During a visit to the company by Ireland’s minister for science and innovation, Mr Jimmy Devins, the inventors of iameco, MicroPro Computers Ltd, said they could implant the seeds of native-tree species into the wood panels.

The minister’s visit coincided with the announcement of details of a new Enterprise Ireland Green Technology Support for businesses.

“Our business is built around green technologies and using them to produce healthier, more energy efficient and cheaper computers that have less impact on the environment,” said Mr Paul Maher, chief of MicroPro.

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Economy likely to get into deflation by mid-2009

Indian economy is headed towards deflation by mid-2009, HDFC Bank and the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese financial services major Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) have forecast in two separate research reports.

Deflation, the exact opposite of inflation, refers to a persistent fall in prices. It is also known as negative inflation. Deflation raises the purchasing power of consumers but signals a shrinking of economic activities.

Inflation has been consistently on a decline for six weeks. The wholesale price index (WPI) data released on Thursday put the inflation rate at 8 per cent for the week ended November 29.

“Inflation has been falling and we expect it to go down further,” com merce and industry minister Kamal Nath said.

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India fumes at duplicate Bangladeshi Taj Mahal

India's embassy in Bangladesh on Wednesday voiced displeasure over a life-size copy of the Taj Mahal, saying it would investigate to see if any copyright laws had been breached.

“You can’t just go and copy historical monuments,” fumed a spokesman at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

“Someone will go out there and have a look. The reports we are reading say it is an exact replica. This is a protected site we are talking about so we need to find out if it really is the exact size,” he said.

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It’s at Sony: 8,000 staff to be laid off worldwide

Sony, the Japanese consumer electronics giant, stepped up its efforts to cut costs Tuesday, announcing it would shed 8,000 jobs and rein in planned investments in response to the global financial crisis and the severe cutback in spending by worried shoppers around the world.

The measures, combined with a bleak outlook from its rival, Samsung of South Korea, and news that the Japanese economy had contracted more than initially thought during the third quarter, highlighted how much Asian economies were now suffering from the fallout from the financial crisis — now increasingly also an economic crisis — that began in the United States last year.

Many economists believe worse is still to come, both in terms of earnings declines and job cuts, for companies across Asia as their export-reliant businesses reel from the sharp drop in global demand for cars, refrigerators, television sets and other discretionary items.

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China drill was to be in Secunderabad

The Indian Army was initially in favour of Secunderabad (Hyderabad’s twin city) being the venue of the second joint Sino-Indian Army exercises in the country, well-placed South Block sources have revealed. The exercise, codenamed Exercise Handin-Hand, has started in Belgaum, Karnataka, which was ultimately selected as the venue. Sources indicated that it was felt in government circles that Belgaum should be the venue, probably because several sensitive defence establishments are located near Secunderabad and Hyderabad. Sources said that the thinking in government circles from the beginning was that the exercise could be held in southern India.

The Army had earlier considered other venues, including Mhow in Madhya Pradesh and Dehradun in Uttarakhand. But once it became clear that the exercise was to be held in southern India, the Army initially proposed that Secunderabad be the venue, sources said. This was due to several reasons.

Sources said that whenever exercises with a large neighbouring country like China are conducted, the focus is on showcasing the best in terms of infrastructure to gain what is known as “moral ascendancy”.

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26/11 planning started a year ago, and we had the evidence

The planning for the November 26 terror attack started a year ago, and security agencies had evidence of it - nine maps plotting the attack sites recovered from a Lashkare-Tayyeba terrorist arrested in Uttar Pradesh on February 10. But the evidence was buried in a bulky chargesheet.

The story began in 2003 in Dubai, where Fahim Ansari, originally a resident of Goregaon (W), was looking for a job.

Fahim, already an activist of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India, was spotted by a Lashkar recruiter Police sources said Fahim was indoctrinated and sent to Pakistan by sea. He was trained in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in handling computers and arms.

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‘Dead’ man appears in court, says acquit those who ‘killed’ me

After spending three years in jail for ‘killing’ a young man, freedom is finally in sight for four brothers. Almost a decade ago, Ram Kumar, Ram Pratap, Ram Kripal and Santosh Kumar were booked for murder, and even though the ‘victim’ Ram Sajiwan was found to be alive and well within months, the case against them was not dropped.

On Wednesday, the accused men saw some hope of justice when the ‘dead man’ finally appeared in court. “I am alive, please free those four brothers accused of my murder,” Ram Sajiwan told the court.

The saga began on January 16, 1999, when Chandrakala, a resident of Bajauli village, lodged an FIR with Patranga police station stating that her son, Sajiwan, was missing. In the complaint, she accused the four brothers, who lived in the same village, of murdering him.

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Rice plays piano for the Queen

United States secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who came to London for a day-long farewell visit on Monday, played piano for Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace.

Ms Rice, an accomplished pianist, performed a piece by Brahms and was accompanied by Louise Miliband, the violinist wife of British foreign secretary David Miliband, and three members of the London Symphony Orchestra. The private recital came after Ms Rice, who is a concert-level pianist, expressed a wish to play at the Buckingham Palace.

The queen obliged the outgoing American secretary of state by allowing her to use its music room and listened to part of the performance, the Daily Telegraph reported. Later, the queen presented Ms Rice, who will leave office in January, with an audio recording of the Brahms recital as a gift. Ms Rice, who arrived from Washington D.C., was in London to hold talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and foreign secretary David Miliband.

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Gurgaon boy gets an invite from the US: A date with President Obama

On Inauguration Day in America — the day Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44rth President of the country — one young man from Gurgaon will have a ringside view of history.

Seventeen year old Kuber Singh will be among the delegates present to witness Obama assume the office of the presidency. According to tradition, January 20 is kept aside as Inauguration Day. The president takes oath at noon, and this is followed by a black-tie inaugural ball.

Kuber Singh’s mother Aman told Newsline: “He was selected to the Global Young Leader’s Conference (GYLC) in June, which seeks the participation of students across the world. Soon, he received an invitation to attend the Presidential Inauguration and the Presidential Youth leadership Conference (PYLC).”

The Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC), an independent educational organisation with several members of the US senate and House of Representatives on its advisory board, organises these events.

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72 whales die in Australia

Seventy two whales have died after becoming stranded on rocks in southern Australia, one week after 53 of the giant animals died nearby in a similar beaching, an official said on Sunday.

The long-finned pilot whales are believed to have beached themselves at the rocky and remote Sandy Cape on the west coast of the southern island of Tasmania on Saturday.

“There are 72 deceased animals,” Chris Arthur of Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service said.

Arthur said rescuers had shepherded 32 more whales, which had been trapped in a channel offshore among reefs, to safety using a small boat and these animals were now swimming strongly.

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