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India slips to 75th place on money in Swiss banks; UK on top

[email protected] (Agencies)
July 4, 2016

New Delhi, Jul 4: India has slipped to 75th place in terms of money held by its citizens with banks in Switzerland, while the UK remains on top.

swissIndia was placed at 61st place last year, while it used to among top-50 countries in terms of holdings in Swiss banks till 2007. The country was ranked highest at 37th place in the year 2004.

As per the latest annual update on Swiss banks, released by Switzerland's central bank SNB (Swiss National Bank), the total money held there by foreign clients from across the world fell by nearly 4 percent to Swiss franc (CHF) 1.42 trillion (about Rs 98 lakh crore) at the end of 2015.

In terms of individual countries, the UK accounted for the largest chunk at about CHF 350 billion or almost 25 percent of the total foreign money with Swiss banks.

The US came second with nearly CHF 196 billion or about 14 percent. No other country accounted for a double-digit percentage share, while others in the top-ten included West Indies, Germany, Bahamas, France, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Panama.

India was ranked 75th with CHF 1.2 billion (about Rs 8,392 crore), which is not even 0.1 percent of the total foreign money in Swiss banks and is the lowest for the country in at least two decades or since 1996 -- the first year for which full comparable data is available.

Pakistan was placed higher at 69th place with CHF 1.5 billion -- a shade better than 0.1 percent of total foreign money parked with Swiss banks.

India was also lowest ranked among the BRICS nations -- Russia was ranked 17th (CHF 17.6 billion), China 28th (CHF 7.4 billion), Brazil 37th (CHF 4.8 billion) and South Africa 60th (CHF 2.2 billion).

Others ranked higher than India included Mauritius, Kazakhstan, Iran, Chile, Angola, Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico, while a number of so-called tax havens were also placed above, including Jersey, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Marshall Islands, Bermuda, Belize, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Seychelles and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

All offshore financial centres together held CHF 378 billion in Swiss banks. The total for developing countries stood at CHF 207 billion, while the same for the developed countries was much higher at CHF 833 million.

India was ranked in top-50 continuously between 1996 and 2007, but started declining after that -- 55th in 2008, 59th in 2009 and 2010 each, 55th again in 2011, 71st in 2012 and then 58th in 2013.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: The National Commission for Women (NCW) has issued notice to some Bollywood celebrities named in a complaint against the promoter of a company for allegedly blackmailing and sexually assaulting a number of girls on the pretext of giving them a career in modelling.

Taking cognizance of the complaint filed by social activist Yogita Bhayana of People Against Rape in India (PARI), the NCW scheduled a virtual hearing presided by its chairperson on August 6.

The complaint against Sunny Verma, promoter of a company named IMG Ventures with its headquarter in Chandigarh, alleged that he has been blackmailing and sexually assaulting a number of girls on the pretext of giving them career in modelling.

PARI's Yogita Bhayana wrote a complaint letter to NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma.

"Through his company, he (Sunny Verma) invites the girls on the pretext of organising a Miss Asia contest with a claim that the contest will launch them as models. To make it look genuine, his company has also been taking an entry fee of Rs 2,950. Once the girls apply, they are alluded by the female accomplices of Sunny Verma to submit their nude pictures in order to get the better ranking in the contest," the complaint letter said on July 31.

It alleged that Verma, after receiving the pictures and sometimes even before, used to get in touch with the girls and ask for completely nude pictures and videos.

The complaint letter said that Verma also used to allude as well as threaten the girls to submit to his sexual desires if they were interested in modelling as a career or wish to win the contest.

"Once he established a physical relationship with the girls, he used to blackmail them for regular sexual favours. Many girls from across the country have suffered a sexual and mental assault from Sunny and his accomplices," said the complaint citing several letters, texts and audio clips from several girls as proof of this modus operandi of Sunny Verma and his company.

The complaint also said that Sunny Verma has been previously also arrested on charges of sexual assault.

"We would demand that NCW should investigate the case to its depth and get the guilty punished so that any other person should not dare to exploit these kinds of innocent girls on any pretext. It will be a message to people like Sunny Verma and all associated Bollywood stars. Looking forward to strict action from NCW against sexual offenders like Sunny Verma & others," the complaint said.

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Agencies
February 26,2020

Unnao, Feb 26: Ever heard of someone wishing a 'bright future' for the dead? In a bizarre incident in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, a village head issued a death certificate with the wish for an elderly man who had died last month.

The incident took place in the Sirwariya village in Asoha block where an elderly person Laxmi Shankar died after a prolonged illness on January 22.

His son went to the village head Babulal and requested him to issue a death certificate that he needed for some financial transactions.

Babulal not only issued the death certificate, but also 'wished' 'a bright future for the deceased' on the document.

The village head wrote in the death certificate -- "Main inke ujjwal bhavishya ki kaamna karta hoon (I wish him a bright future)."

The letter went viral on the social media on Monday after which the village head apologised for the error and issued a new death certificate.

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Agencies
January 7,2020

Washington, Jan 7: Facebook will ban deepfake videos ahead of the US elections but the new policy will still allow heavily edited clips so long as they are parody or satire, the social media giant said Tuesday.

Deepfake videos are hyper-realistic doctored clips made using artificial intelligence or programs that have been designed to accurately fake real human movements.

In a blog published following a Washington Post report, Facebook said it would begin removing clips that were edited--beyond for clarity and quality--in ways that "aren't apparent to an average person" and could mislead people.

Clips would be removed if they were "the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning that merges, replaces or superimposes content onto a video, making it appear to be authentic," the statement from Facebook vice-president Monika Bickert said.

However, the statement added: "This policy does not extend to content that is parody or satire, or video that has been edited solely to omit or change the order of words."

US media noted the new guidelines would not cover videos such as the 2019 viral clip -- which was not a deepfake -- of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that appeared to show her slurring her words.

Facebook also gave no indication on the number of people assigned to identify and take down the offending videos, but said videos failing to meet its usual guidelines would be removed, and those flagged clips would be reviewed by teams of third-party fact-checkers -- among them AFP.

The news agency has been paid by the social media giant to fact-check posts across 30 countries and 10 languages as part of a program starting in December 2016, and including more than 60 organisations.

Content labeled "false" is not always removed from newsfeeds but is downgraded so fewer people see it -- alongside a warning explaining why the post is misleading.

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