Apr 12: The board and management of troubled NMC Healthcare should be held accountable for the financial irregularities, said Abdulaziz Al Ghurair, chairman of the UAE Banks Federation.
"Banks have dealt with the exposure professionally and they lent to a company which was listed on FTSE-100 index with world-class regulator and the world's largest audit firm doing their audit. Even if they present their balance sheet today, people will still lend to them. This is a world-class fraud and the management and board members should be held accountable. We should have a different track to handle this company. It is not a normal track that we can go," Al Ghurair said during a virtual press conference on Sunday.
It is estimated that the more than 80 local, regional and international banks have exposure to healthcare firm. The UAE bourses had asked all the listed companies in the UAE to announce their exposure. The UAE banks last week announced nearly Dh10 billion exposure to NMC Healthcare, which is owned by the billionaire BR Shetty.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has the highest exposure to NMC at Dh3 billion. Dubai Islamic Bank and its subsidiary Noor Bank announced Dh2 billion exposure while Emirates NBD and its Shariah-compliant unit Emirates Islamic Bank revealed Dh747.34 million exposure. Ajman Bank has Dh151.8 million while Al Salam Bank pegged its exposure at Dh161.5 million. All these lenders revealed their exposure for the first time on Sunday.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank said it had extended Dh1.07 billion in financing to NMC Healthcare, and an additional Dh113.67 million exposure to Islamic bonds issued by NMC.National Bank of Fujairah pegged its exposure to NMC at Dh289.1 million, while Sharjah-based United Arab Bank said its exposure was Dh135.3 million.
NMC recently revised its debt position to $6.6 billion, well above earlier estimates.
London's High Court last week placed hospital operator NMC Health into administration, on the application of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.
"I know leading bank in UAE have already legal guardian of the company so now management cannot hide anything. The new team will manage and discover what happened," said Al Ghurair.
Mar 11: The Karnataka government on Wednesday started a campaign called 'Namaste over Handshake' that encourages people to greet in the traditional Indian style, to tackle the spread of coronavirus.
The campaign also includes health advice on how people can protect themselves from the infection by adopting hygiene practices such as regularly washing hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
As part of the campaign, the state health and family welfare department has uploaded a poster on the social media, featuring a 'Bharatnatyam' dancer draped in a red saree saying 'Namaste'.
"Use Namasthe to greet others, fight against corona" read a message on the poster online.
The poster has health helpline numbers (104 and 011- 23978046) for public queries on the viral disease, which has claimed 4,251 lives worldwide.
A health department official told PTI that as part of the campaign, posters have been uploaded on social media and it would be printed and despatched to different districts to be put up at important junctions.
"We had been working on this idea. Kerala has already done it. They are using Kathakali dancers whereas we are using a Bharatanatyam dancer as our model," the official said.
Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar too had insisted that people should adopt 'Namasthe' or 'Namaskara' to greet people instead of handshakes or hugs.
Udupi, Jun 9: Karnataka Minister for Primary and Secondary School S Suresh Kumar on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of either postponing or cancelling SSLC exam in the State and it will start from June 25 as scheduled.
Replying to a question, the Minister said that Telangana and Tamil Nadu States might have cancelled the SSLC exam, but Karnataka will not follow them. "Will hold the examination from June 25 to July 4 by taking all care to protect the interests of the Children.
The SSLC exam was originally scheduled for March 27, but was postponed as lockdown was clamped following the spread of killer Coronavirus.
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