‘RIP justice’: All 6 accused in Pehlu Khan lynching case acquitted by court!

Bengaluru, Apr 13: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President and former Minister D K Shivakumar has demanded resignation of Minister In-Charge of COVID-19 for his alleged irresponsible comment, despite holding a responsible post.

Mr Shivakumar's comments came after Dr Sudhakar on Sunday shared a picture of him and his children in a swimming pool, on Twitter with a caption, ''After a long time joined my children for swimming hope maintaining social distance here as well…hahaha.''

However, Dr Sudhakar deleted the tweet from his account, soon after he was criticised for sharing such a picture, when the country is facing a health crisis.

Bengaluru, Jul 26: A year-long probe by Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) has found that its late founder V G Siddhartha routed Rs 2,693 crore out of the company to Mysore Amalgamated Coffee Estates Ltd (MACEL), another privately-owned entity of him.

The MACEL owes Rs 3,535 crore to subsidiaries of Coffee Day Enterprises as of July 31, 2019 of which only Rs 842 crore was accounted.

"Therefore, a sum of Rs 2,693 crore is the incremental outstanding that needs to be addressed," said the report of an investigation headed by Ashok Kumar Malhotra, a retired DIG of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and assisted by law firm Agastya Agastya Legal.

Siddhartha was found dead in early August 2019, and many suspected that he had committed suicide.

Steps are being taken by subsidiaries of CDEL for recovery of dues from MACEL, the company said.

"The board authorised the Chairman to appoint an ex-judge of the Supreme Court or the High Court, or any other person of eminence, to suggest and oversee actions for recovery of the dues from MACEL and to help on any other associated matters," it said in regulatory filings at stock exchanges late on Friday.

The probe further gives clean chits to the Income Tax Department and the private equity firms who Siddhartha in his parting letter had alleged of harassment.

"We have not been provided with any documentary evidence to draw an inference that there may have been any advertent or inadvertent harassment from the Income Tax Department," said the probe report.

The probe also highlighted severe liquidity crunch at CDEL in the build-up to Siddhartha's death.

A committee supported by senior professionals was formed to protect the interest of all stakeholders. CDEL said the debt levels which were about Rs 7,200 crore on March 31, 2019 have been brought down significantly by Rs 4,000 crore. The present debt of the group is around Rs 3,200 crore.

"The disinvestment process in the group continues and we are confident to have effective solution to all stakeholders," it said.

Mangaluru, Mar 8: The Saraswat Co-operative Bank Ltd., celebrated International Women’s Day with a special seminar on Financial Planning for the banks’ women customers. The programme was held on Friday, March 6, 2020 from 4.00 to 6.00 p.m. at Hotel Ocean Pearl Inn, Bejai, Mangalore. Dr. Sukanya Rao, academician and financial planner, was the chief guest and resource person for the seminar. Mr. Srinivas C., Karnataka State Head, Future Generali India Insurance Company Ltd., was the guest of honour.  Mrs. Vimala Anchan, Senior Manager and Branch Head of M. G. Road Branch of Saraswat Bank presided over the function.

In her chief guest’s address, Dr. Sukanya Rao defined empowerment of women as the ability of take one’s own decisions and utilize resources. Quoting global rankings, she said India enjoys a high ranking of being 9th in the world in political empowerment of women, whereas in other sectors we stand abysmally low. In social empowerment of women, India ranks at 120th, in economic empowerment at 124th and health and survival at 135th.

She suggested that the best tool for enhancing these empowerment rankings is education, which will lead to earning potential and result in enhancing social status. “Every year spent in school boosts girl’s wages by 10-20%,” she said “When a girl receives 7+ years of education, marriage gets postponed by four years and she has 2.2 less children.” She advised women to learn to take one’s own decisions. “Learn to take decisions, especially financial decisions, on your own instead of depending on significant others to do the decision making,” she said.

She followed up her talk with an interactive session on personal financial planning. She enlightened the audience on factors influencing our financial decision making and gave different perspectives on prioritizing savings, spending and investment. 

Srinivas C., Karnataka State Head, Future Generali India Insurance Company Ltd., along with Deepak enlightened the women regarding financial safeguards available under Married Women's Property Act (1874).

Established in 1918, Saraswat Bank was the first co-operative bank to provide merchant banking services after it was recognized as a scheduled bank by RBI in 1988. The bank enjoys high proportion of women employees (nearly 75%) and it is a recipient of Best Cooperative Bank Award in 2016.

Fun games were conducted and prizes were distributed to the winners. Bhavanthi Street Branch Head Karthik Shetty welcomed the gathering. Prithvi Pai and Aishwarya rendered the invocation. Naina Shenoy expressed the bank’s Women’s Day greetings. Chilimbi Branch Head Kishore Shetty gave a vote of thanks. Mahesh Nayak compered the programme. Past Branch Head Mamtha Rao was present.