Relief for Chidambaram, Supreme Court says no evidence against him in 2G case

August 24, 2012

CHIDAMMBARAM

New Delhi, August 24: The Supreme Court has dismissed two petitions against P Chidambaram asking for him to be investigated by the CBI in the telecom scam and to be made co-accused along with former Telecom Minister A Raja.
The verdict offers significant relief for the Finance Minister, whose resignation has been demanded by the main opposition party, the BJP, in the 2G scam, described as India's biggest swindle. "The BJP has wasted the court's time," said senior minister Ambika Soni. She said that the opposition has been dealt "blow after blow" in its attempts to indict Mr Chidambaram.
The cases against Mr Chidambaram had been filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan; they wanted the minister's role in the telecom scam to be studied by the CBI, and for him to be prosecuted. The CBI has repeatedly said there is no evidence to merit an inquiry against the minister in the allocation of mobile network licenses and spectrum in 2008, when A Raja was Telecom Minister. The Supreme Court has said that it has been given no evidence that there was a criminal conspiracy between Mr Chidambaram and Mr Raja, or that the Finance Minister abused his office. "Poor management in allocation of spectrum cannot be said to be the product of criminal conspiracy," the judges said.
They also said that there was no evidence that Mr Chidambaram benefitted financially from any aspect of the scam.

Mr Swamy has said he will seek a review of today's judgement. "I will get the judgement copy and seek a review. This judgement is based on something I did not argue. It says I haven't given evidence of conspiracy, but I have only argued that Chidambaram caused loss to the exchequer," he said.

In 2008, Mr Chidambaram was Finance Minister when then Telecom Minister A Raja allegedly broke the rules to help companies who were ineligible land valuable mobile network licenses at throwaway prices. They were not charged separately for the second-generation or 2G airwaves they would use. Mr Raja ignored advice to conduct an auction for the licenses; he said he would follow a first-come-first-serve policy, but was later jailed for allegedly pushing companies to the head of the line in return for kickbacks. Mr Raja has said in his trial that he kept Mr Chidambaram and the PM informed of all his decisions.

The national auditor has said the telecom scam was worth Rs. 1.76 lakh crore, giving it star billing on a list of scandals that have engulfed the ruling UPA coalition. In February, the Supreme Court cancelled 122 of the licenses given by Mr Raja.

That has allowed the BJP to accuse Mr Chidambaram of dereliction of duty, and the Prime Minister of being permissive of corruption within his cabinet. In the Winter Session of Parliament, the BJP announced a "boycott" of Mr Chidambaram, preventing him from speaking in the House by drowning him out with shouts.

Earlier this week, the BJP walked out of a parliamentary committee studying the telecom scam; its members said that the PM and Mr Chidambaram must be summoned and questioned by the panel. Without their deposition, the BJP said, the committee's attempts to fix accountability for the scam amounted to a charade.

In February this year, a CBI court in Delhi rejected Mr Swamy's request to try Mr Chidambaram for his alleged role in the telecom scam. Mr Swamy then challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court. In his appeal, he said that Mr Chidambaram was as culpable as Mr Raja for the losses caused by the 2G swindle because he was involved in deciding the price of spectrum, and in permitting two companies who received licenses to dilute equity by bringing foreign partners on board, making huge profits virtually overnight.

Mr Swamy said that there was evidence to show that as Finance Minister, Mr Chidambaram's actions merited his prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other criminal laws.

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News Network
March 2,2020

Mar 2: Two more positive cases of the novel coronavirus -- one in Delhi and another in Telangana -were reported, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

The person from Delhi had travelled to Italy, it said adding he is being diagnosed at RML hospital.

The other person with the coronavirus infection has a travel history to Dubai, the ministry added.

"Both the patients are stable and being closely monitored," the ministry said.

Sunitha Krishnan is the name of the patient from Telangana and she is a social activist.

Krishnan has tweeted, "So going to enjoy hospitality at Gandhi Hospital for two days as admitted in the isolation ward suspected coronavirus. They have not started the tests yet( 1.30 hrs since I arrived).I believe the results make take 48hrs. At this pace, I have a feeling I am might be here sometime."

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News Network
January 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: The new Army chief Lieutenant General MM Naravane on Wednesday said that India needs to pay more attention to its border along China and asserted that the force is capable of dealing with any security challenge.

"We have been giving attention to our western front in the past. The northern front now also requires an equal amount of attention... The Army is capable of tackling any dangers to the country," General Naravane told reporters after receiving the first Guard of Honour as the Army chief.

"In that context, we are now going in for capability development and enhancement of our capacities even in our northern borders which includes the northeastern part of our country," he said.

On the border dispute with China, the Army chief said that continuing peace along the border will pave the way for a solution.

He said: "We have been able to maintain peace and tranquility along borders and I'm sure that situation will prevail. By maintaining this, we will be able to set the stage for the eventual solution."

General Naravane said that operational readiness and modernisation will be among the top priorities of the Army under his leadership.

"Our priority will be to be ready to meet any challenge and to be operationally prepared at all times. This will happen as a result of modernisation. We will continue to build our capability especially in the North and Northeast region of our country," he said.

He said that the Indian Army will pay special attention to respect human rights. "We will also pay special emphasis on raising security awareness among ranks and file and pay special attention to respect human rights," the Army chief said.

Assuring the country on security, he said, "All three services — the Army, the Navy and the Air Force — are ready to defend the country."

He extended wishes to people in the new year and hoped that the country will make huge progress in this decade.

General Naravane took over as the 28th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) on Tuesday, succeeding General Bipin Rawat who has become India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

General Naravane was previously the Vice Chief of Army Staff.

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News Network
February 19,2020

London, Feb 19: Indian universities had a good performance year within the emerging economies of the world as a record 11 made it to the top 100 Times Higher Education's (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020.

Only China has more universities than India in the top 100 at 30 from a total of 47 countries and territories included in the analysis released in London on Tuesday evening.

A total of 56 Indian universities appear in the full ranking of a total of 533 universities across emerging economies of the world.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), ranked 16th, is India’s top-ranked institution followed by the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs).

"There has long been a debate about the success of Indian universities in world rankings, and for too long they have been seen as underperforming on the global stage," notes Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer for the THE.

"The Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020 suggests that real progress is being made by a number of institutions in a number of metrics across our robust methodology, and could mark an exciting turning point for Indian higher education, enabled in part by the Institutes of Eminence scheme," he said.

The Indian government’s Institutes of Eminence scheme was established in 2017 and one of its participating universities, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, has entered the top 100 for the first time, moving up a huge 51 places from joint 141st in 2019.

The other universities included in the Institutes of Eminence scheme that appear in the top 100 mark the biggest improvers in the ranking with IIT Kharagpur moving up 23 places to 32nd, IIT Delhi improving by 28 places to joint 38th and IIT Madras climbing 12 places to joint 63rd.

The Institutes of Eminence scheme provides participating universities with government funding and greater autonomy with the aim of moving them into the top 100 of the world university rankings, including Times Higher Education’s World University Ranking, over time.

The expectation is that this will be achieved through a number of changes including an increase in foreign students and staff, offering online courses and encouraging academic collaboration with other top universities around the world.

This year marks only the second time that 11 Indian institutions have held top 100 positions since the ranking began in 2014, when much fewer universities took part in the ranking globally.

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