President polls: Pranab Mukherjee to respond to Team Sangma's objections to his nomination

July 3, 2012

Team

New Delhi, July 3: Pranab Mukherjee, who is the UPA's candidate for President of India's elections, will today respond to the objections raised against his nomination by Purno Sangma's team. Yesterday, Mr Sangma's supporters demanded that Mr Mukherjee be disqualified from the race because he allegedly holds an office of profit as Chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute. Team Mukherjee, however, countered the claim and said this was factually incorrect as Mr Mukherjee quit this position even before he resigned as Finance Minister last week.

Mr Sangma, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, takes on Mr Mukherjee in the Presidential election scheduled for July 19.

Bhartrihari Mahatab, a Member of Parliament who is serving as Mr Sangma's election agent, complained to the returning officer yesterday that Mr Mukherjee still held the post at the Kolkata-based Indian Statistical Institute and hence could not run for President.

The BJP too stepped up the attack on Mr Mukherjee and said his nomination would be rejected. "Pranab was the chairman of Indian Statistical Institute and has continued to be so. Article 102, has a power to Parliament that we can exempt a member to file nomination... I am confident that the nomination will be rejected and Sangma shall become President," said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.

But Mr Mukherjee's election agent and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal described this as "legally ill-conceived." He said Mr Mukherjee had resigned before he filed his nomination. Mr Bansal also said that both he and Home Minister P Chidambaram checked with Mr Mukherjee who said he had resigned. Mr Bansal said Team Mukherjee would file a written reply today.

The scrutiny of nomination papers was delayed for a day in view of Team Sangma's objection raised on Monday. Mr Mukherjee has to file a response by 2 pm today. The issue may be settled if the returning office is satisfied that chairman of the statistical institute is not an office of profit, or Mr Mukherjee quit in time.

The Indian Statistical Institute too has said that Mr Mukherjee submitted his resignation as Chairman on June 20, this year. It has also clarified that Mr Mukherjee's position was not an office of profit in any case as he was not paid an honorarium, nor were his travel expenses reimbursed. The institute has admitted it made a mistake in not updating its website, which listed Mr Mukherjee as its Chairman till Monday afternoon. It has now removed his name.

The Indian Constitution, while defining qualifications for a Presidential candidate under Article 58, states that "A person shall not be eligible for election as President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments."

Mr Mahatab is a member of Navin Patnaik's BJD party, which has nominated Mr Sangma for President along with Jayalalithaa's AIADMK and the BJP.

BJD chief Naveen Patnaik also accused Mr Mukherjee yesterday of having doled out huge amounts of money as Finance Minister to several states to ensure support for his candidacy. "Could it be that this money is going because he wants certain parties, you know, like Mulayam Singh's party, Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee to support his candidature as Rashtrapati of India? Well, this is not private money. This is the people's money," the Odisha Chief Minister said.

Clearly, though the numbers don't favour Mr Sangma in the race for President, his side will pull out all stops to make a battle of it.

Mr Mukherjee's party the Congress has smirked in response; in Law Minister Salman Khursheed's words, "You cannot stop working five years before you are actually considered as the President, saying we will do nothing at all. So I think we should all be good sports. Now that it has become clear that there is an overwhelming majority for Pranabda not just from people who support the UPA, but across the board, it's best to accept the reality."

The Congress also attacked Mr Mukherjee's rival, PA Sangma, fielding its Meghalaya Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma. "The President cannot represent just one community... Only Congress has taken care of tribals," he said.

Mr Mukherjee has also won the endorsement of two Left parties and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which partners with the BJP in Bihar. All that pledged support totals more than 50 per cent of the electoral college that elects the President and as of now, Mr Mukherjee seems all set to be the next President of India. Both candidates have begun campaigning.


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News Network
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Jan 27: Bidders for Air India Ltd. will need to absorb $3.26 billion of its debt, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration tries once again to sell the national carrier.

The entire company will be sold but effective control needs to stay with Indian nationals, according to preliminary terms published Monday. Bids are invited by March 17 with Ernst & Young LLP India as transaction adviser.

Air India, which started in 1932 as a mail carrier before winning commercial popularity, saw its fortunes fade with the emergence of cutthroat low-cost competition. The state-run airline has been unprofitable for over a decade and is saddled with more than $8 billion in debt.

Indian regulations allow a foreign airline to buy as much as 49% of a local carrier, while overseas investors other than airlines can buy an entire carrier. The government didn’t find a single bidder when it tried to sell Air India in 2018.

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Agencies
June 11,2020

New Delhi, Jun 11: India on Thursday rejected a US government report that voiced concerns over alleged attacks and discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities in the country.

"Our principled position remains that we see no locus standi for a foreign entity to pronounce on the state of our citizens' constitutionally protected rights," Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava said.

He was replying to a question on the report at an online media briefing.

Mandated by the US Congress, the '2019 International Religious Freedom Report' that documents major instances of violation of religious freedom across the world was released by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday.

"India's vibrant democratic traditions and practices are evident to the world. The people and government of India are proud of our country's democratic traditions," the spokesperson said.

"We have a robust public discourse in India and constitutionally mandated institutions that guarantee protection of religious freedom and rule of law," he added.

The India section of the report said that US government officials underscored the importance of respecting religious freedom and promoting tolerance and mutual respect throughout the year with the ruling and opposition parties, civil society and religious freedom activists, and religious leaders belonging to various faith communities.

The report referred to the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last August and the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Parliament in December as major highlights for India last year.

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News Network
March 21,2020

Mar 21: India’s economy, already in the grip of a slowdown, is in for more pain after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to stay at and work from home to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

The services sector, which accounts for about 55% of India’s gross domestic product, is poised to be the worst hit after Modi, in a late evening address on Thursday, urged citizens to go on a self-imposed curfew for a day and private companies to allow employees to work from home for longer. In the country’s vast informal sector, social-distancing measures could mean a dent to productivity and consumption because of job or pay losses.

“The impact of a partial lock-down or social distancing will be significant,” said Rahul Bajoria, a senior economist at Barclays Plc in Mumbai. “If there’s a widespread community outbreak, GDP could fall as low as 3.5% in the year starting April 1.”

Shrinking output may limit growth in an economy that’s already set to expand at an 11-year low of 5% in the current year to March 31. Before the virus outbreak, India had forecast growth to recover to 6%-6.5% in the next fiscal year. S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings have already slashed their growth forecast by 50 basis points.

“The current social-distancing measures will severely impact airlines, hotels, malls, multiplexes, restaurants and retailers,” according to analysts at Crisil Ltd., the local unit of S&P Global. “Lower footfalls and occupancies, decline in business volume and sub-optimal operating efficiencies will impact cash flows of companies in these sectors,” wrote the analysts led by Chief Economist Dharmakirti Joshi.

The government will try to announce a relief package for virus-affected sectors as early as possible, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday.

In a televised address, Modi advised all citizens to stay at home for a day on March 22, as he sought to stem the spread of the coronavirus -- cases of which are relatively low in India at about 200, compared with more than 200,000 infected people globally. His government also barred incoming flights for a week from that day, joining a growing list of countries effectively sealing their borders.

What Bloomberg’s Economists Say

We had only earlier this week lowered our GDP outlook to consider the direct impact of the local outbreak as confirmed virus cases exceeded 100 as of March 15 and the federal and state governments announced social distancing measures that have already started to crimp economic activity. We are now revising down our GDP estimate for 4Q fiscal 2020 to 3.3%, from our 3.5%.

-- Abhishek Gupta, India economist

For more, click here

“Consumption being the biggest component of GDP, a lock-down is bound to have a big impact on the economy,” said Devendra Kumar Pant, chief economist at India Ratings and Research, the local unit of Fitch. “Modeling uncertainty in any system will be very difficult, but one can say the slowdown could deepen or prolong further.”

Work From Home

While companies, including billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd., are asking employees to work from home, the option isn’t feasible in India’s vast informal sector.

“The option to work remotely simply won’t exist for most,” said Shilan Shah, an economist with Capital Economics Pte. in Singapore.

As many households don’t have savings buffers, the government would probably have to back this up with large-scale cash handouts that reach the poorest, he said.

Work from home is posing implementation challenges for the manufacturing sector where workers are required to be physically present at the production sites. The services sector, such as banking and information technology, also needs employees to be present in offices as confidential data is used, according to industry group Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

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