Vijay Mallya offers to curtail 'lavish' lifestyle

Agencies
April 5, 2019

London, Apr 5: Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya is willing to curtail his "lavish" lifestyle to satisfy numerous Indian banks trying to recoup some of the nearly 1.145 billion pounds owed to them, a UK court was told.

The 63-year-old had been sanctioned an "ordinary living expenses allowance" of a maximum of 18,325.31 pounds a week, which he offered to cut down to around 29,500 pounds a month during a UK High Court hearing this week.

However, a consortium of 13 Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) did not agree to his offer as they seek access to nearly 260,000 pounds in an ICICI Bank current account in his name in London.

DWF Law LLP, representing Mallya in his legal fight against the banks, said the former Kingfisher Airlines' boss intends to stay within any court-ordered spending limits.

"Dr Mallya continues to do all he can to support a court process in India, which should see creditors paid off in full," Jonathan Isaacs, partner at DWF Law LLP, said in a statement to news agency.

"It is unfortunate that he has to fight UK enforcement at the same time but no one creditor should be allowed to break rank and grab assets at the expense of all other creditors. Dr Mallya meanwhile lives well within the court-ordered limits and looks forward to all matters concluding in the coming months," he said.

At a hearing before Master David Cook at the Queen’s Bench Division of the UK High Court on Wednesday, lawyers representing SBI and 12 other Indian banks had highlighted that Mallya continues to live a "lavish lifestyle" despite owing them millions in debt.

The hearing centred around an "interim third-party debt order" obtained by the banks in January relating to funds worth just short of 260,000 pounds in Mallya's current account with ICICI Bank in London, according to TLT LLP, the law firm representing the Indian banks.

It forms part of the banks’ ongoing efforts to enforce the Indian Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) judgment against Mallya in the UK. The former Kingfisher Airlines and Force India chief is opposing the application and seeking a discharge of the interim order. A judgment in the case is expected in the coming weeks. If the judge makes the interim order final, the funds held in the ICICI London account will have to be released to the banks.

The case is part of wider efforts by SBI and 12 other Indian banks – Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd – to recover some of the funds owed to them as a result of unpaid loans by Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

In a ruling in May last year, a UK High Court judge had refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and upheld an Indian court's ruling that the Indian banks were entitled to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds.

TLT LLP has been representing the banks in their efforts to recover their dues as part of the worldwide freezing order, including a bankruptcy petition aimed at seizing his assets to recover dues filed at the end of last year.

Mallya, meanwhile, remains on bail after his extradition was ordered by Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London in December last and signed off by UK home secretary Sajid Javid in February. He has since filed an application in the UK High Court seeking leave to appeal against that order.

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News Network
May 15,2020

New Delhi, May 15: With an increase of 3,967 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases reached 81,970 cases, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.

According to the latest figures, 51,401 patients are active coronavirus cases while 27,919 patients have been cured/discharged and one patient has been migrated.

With a rise in 100 deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the number of deaths now stands at 2,649.

According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra is the worst-hit state with regard to the number of COVID-19 cases with 27,524 cases of which, 6,059 patients have been cured/discharged and 1,019 succumbing to the virus.

Tamil Nadu has a tally of 9,674 cases inclusive of 2,240 patients cured/discharged and 66 fatalities.

Gujarat has a total of 9,591 cases which include 3,753 patients cured/discharged while 586 have lost their lives due to coronavirus.

Delhi has a tally of 8,470 cases of which 3,045 patients cured/discharged and 115 fatalities.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11 Congress's performance touched a record low in the Delhi Assembly election as the party bagged less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled and 63 of its candidates lost their deposits.

The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.

Only three of its candidates Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar managed to save their deposits.

Security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he/she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.

Most of Congress candidates got less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.

Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra's daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji, also could not save her deposit.

Former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh also forfeited her deposit.

The party's campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife, Poonam Azad, lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23) votes.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given nod to the Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the Oxford University developed Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the country.

Government officials said that the approval for conducting phase 2 and 3 clinical trials by the SII was granted by DCGI Dr V G Somani late Sunday night after a thorough evaluation based on the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19.

"The firm has to submit safety data, evaluated by the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), to the CDSCO before proceeding to phase 3 clinical trials," a senior official said.

"As per the study design, each subject will be administered two doses four weeks apart (first dose on day one and second dose on day 29) following which the safety and immunogenicity will be assessed at predefined intervals," the official said.

As a rapid regulatory response, the expert panel at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Friday, after a detailed deliberation and considering the data generated on the vaccine candidate in phase 1 and 2 of the Oxford University trial, had recommended granting permission for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the potential vaccine, 'Covishield', on healthy adults in India,  the officials said.

Currently, phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine candidate is going on in the United Kingdom, phase 3 clinical trial in Brazil and phase 1 and 2 clinical trials in South Africa.

The officials said that the SII had submitted a revised proposal on Wednesday after the SEC on July 28, following deliberation over its application, had asked it to revise its protocol for the phase 2 and 3 clinical trials besides seeking some additional information.

The panel had also recommended that the clinical trial sites which have been proposed for the study be distributed across India.

According to the revised proposal by the SII, 1,600 people aged above 18 years will participate in the trials across 17 selected sites, including AIIMS-Delhi, B J Medical College in Pune, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore.

"According to the application, it would conduct an observer-blind, randomised controlled study to determine the safety and immunogenicity of 'Covishield' on healthy Indian adults," the official said.

The SII, which has partnered with AstraZeneca, for manufacturing the Oxford vaccine candidate for Covid-19 had submitted its first application to the DCGI on July 25 seeking permission for conducting the phase 2 and 3 trials of the potential vaccine. 

Initial results of the first two-phases of trials of the vaccine conducted in five trial sites in the UK showed that it has an acceptable safety profile and homologous boosting increased antibody response, sources had said.

To introduce the vaccine, SII, the world's largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced and sold, has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute (Oxford University) in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca. 

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