MUMBAI, (PTI): A special court here on Thursday refused to grant interim bail to Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, arrested in a money laundering case, but permitted him to undergo cancer treatment at a hospital of his choice for two months.

Goyal (74), who is lodged in Arthur Road jail in central Mumbai, had sought to be released on interim bail to undergo treatment for cancer.

Special judge for cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) M G Deshpande permitted Goyal to undergo treatment for the illness at Tata hospital or any other hospital of his choice for a period of two months.

Last month, Goyal was permitted by the court to undergo tests at a private hospital here.

On February 15, Goyal filed an application seeking interim bail on medical grounds as the tests revealed malignancy.

The application said Goyal has to undergo some scans to determine the stage of the malignancy, based on which doctors will be able to determine the line of treatment, including surgery and chemotherapy.

The doctors have advised an aggressive and immediate line of treatment to arrest any fatal issues that could arise in the applicant’s case, the plea added.

Goyal was arrested in September 2023 by the ED, which claimed he had laundered money and siphoned off loans to the tune of Rs 538.62 crore given to Jet Airways by Canara Bank.

The money laundering case stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR against Jet Airways, Goyal, his wife Anita and some former executives of the now-grounded carrier in connection with the alleged bank fraud. (PTI)

MUMBAI/PANAJI: According to a report by the Centre for Promoting Indian Economy (CPIE India), almost 77 to 79 percent of Goa’s population is online and access the internet or world wide web at least 4-7 times a month at the bare minimum. This is more than twice as that of Bihar and some other states.

Similarly, nearly 50 per cent of Goans use mobile email apps (like Gmail app) at least 3 times a month and about 80 percent of Goans own an internet and email enabled smartphone, the CPIE said in a statement.

According to CA Junaid Shaikh and journalist and publicist Flynn Remedios (formerly a Tech consultant with the Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell and volunteer with the CPIE) – both of whom were associated with the CPIE study titled “Internet Penetration and Usage in Goa”, about 90 per cent of Goans (and Goan-based Indians combined) use the YouTube app at least twice a month.

The CPIE report on internet usage in Goa is close to that of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which claimed that for the first time, over a half of the country’s population are now active internet users, though not regularly.

According to IAMAI stats, 759 million Indians, out of a total population of 1.4 billion, access the internet at least once a month. This represents a 14% increase compared to 2021, driven largely by growth in rural areas. Rural India added 56 million new users in the past year, while urban centers saw slower 6% growth.

In Goa, the CPIE found that since 2019 till date, there has been a 25 per cent increase in internet users in Goa and even Goans above 60 (considered not so net savvy) are now using smartphone enabled internet apps.

Growth of smartphone usage in Goa peaked during the Covid pandemic-related lock down as all youngsters in the age groups of 7 to 17 were attending online classes and using smart phones. Many Goan families who did not possess a smart phone were forced to purchase one as their kids had no option but to attend online classes, Remedios noted.

India’s active internet base is predicted to increase to 900-950 million by 2025. A majority of new users in India are expected to be women, thus closing the gender gap. Currently, 54% of users are male, however by 2025, women are projected to account for 65% of new users.

In Goa 55 percent of internet-enabled smartphone users are men, while 45 percent are women, Remedios said, quoting the CPIE report.

Similarly in Goa, UPI-based payment apps (Google Pay, Phone Pe, etc) account for more than 85 per cent of all online transactions according to CPIE India. Across India, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as the dominant platform, used in 99 per cent of digital payment transactions.

The IAMAI highlights the digital divide in India, with Goa having an average of 70 per cent of its population online, compared to just 32 per cent in Bihar.

In rural areas of Goa (Bethoda, Panchwadi, parts of Ponda, Priol, Valpoi, Quepem, etc) the internet penetration is only 40 per cent as most phone users still use the older keypad phones and do not have email access on their handheld devices. This is however in the age group of 45 to 60, while in the age group of 20 to 45, the usage is much higher.

An individual can withdraw a partial amount from his or her employee provident fund account before its maturity (except in the case of unemployment) under certain situations.

Here are some of the circumstances that allow an individual to prematurely withdraw the sum.

EPF Withdrawal Rules 2023

Here are some of the basic rules that one must take note of:

NEW DELHI, (PTI): Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday cracked down on unauthorised, pesky promotional messages by telemarketers as it issued directions to telecom operators to act swiftly to stop the misuse of headers and message templates.

To stop the misuse, the regulator has directed access service providers (telecom operators) to reverify all registered headers and message templates on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform and block all unverified headers and message templates within 30 and 60 days respectively.

Telecom operators have also been asked to ensure that temporary headers are deactivated immediately after the set time duration.

”… Remove confusions among recipients of message and prevent their misuse, no look-alike headers (headers which are similar by virtue of combination of small case or large case letters) are to be registered by access providers in names of different Principal Entities,” TRAI said.

To curb messages from unauthorised or unregistered telemarketers, including telemarketers using telephone numbers, telecom operators have been directed to ”bar all telemarketers, who are not registered on DLT platform from handling the message template scrubbing and delivery of messages to recipients through Access Providers’ network”.

Telcos will have to ”ensure that promotional messages are not transmitted by Unregistered Telemarketers or Telemarketers using telephone numbers (10 digits numbers).” Telecom operators have been instructed to take action against all erring telemarketers as per stipulated regulations and also initiate actions as per relevant legal laws.

”The Access Service Provider shall also notify details of such Telemarketers to other Access Providers, who shall, in turn, bar these entities from sending any kind of commercial communications through their networks,” TRAI said.

TRAI has asked all telecom service providers to comply with its directions within thirty days. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, (ANI): Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has written to Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das and SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, in two separate letters, seeking an investigation on the allegations levelled against the Adani Group by Hindenburg Research. Citing the Adani Group’s large size, his letter to the SEBI chief said investigations must be “fair and complete, with no favour”.

“Any failure to do so will cast a shadow on Indian corporate governance and on India’s financial regulators, and could affect our ability to raise funds globally,” the letter read. He reiterated that a full-fledged independent investigation must be carried out on the numerous allegations levelled against the Adani Group.

Further, in his letter, he raised questions in what he said is why financial institutions of national importance such as the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the State Bank of India have heavily bought Adani Group equity when most private funds were severely underweight.

“LIC, which 30 crore Indians trust with their life savings, has lost thousands of crores in Adani Group stock in recent days. Should we not ensure that such public sector financial institutions are more conservative in their investments than their private sector counterparts and free from pressure from above?” he questioned.

In the letter to the RBI governor, he said the central bank must look into two aspects — what is the true Adani Group exposure of the Indian banking system and the possible bail-out plan if foreign funding to the group declines. “The RBI must look into two aspects: One, what is the true Adani Group exposure of the Indian banking system? Two, what are the explicit and implicit guarantees that the Adani Group has been given that it will be bailed out by Indian banks if foreign funding dries up?” he said in the letter.

Over the past two odd weeks, share prices of companies in the Adani Group have dropped significantly. The short seller’s report alleged stock manipulation and fraud by the conglomerate. The US-based firm, in its report on January 24, raised concerns about shares of Adani group companies having a possibility of declining from their current levels owing to high valuations, “brazen stock manipulation”, and “accounting fraud”, among others.

The Adani Group has attacked Hindenburg as “an unethical short seller” and stated that the report by the New York-based entity was “nothing but a lie”. The continued sell-offs in the group’s stocks led its flagship firm, Adani Enterprises Limited, to cancel a fully subscribed Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer. A follow-on public offering (FPO) is the issuance of shares to investors by a company listed on a stock exchange after its initial public offerings.

Adani Group on January 29, in a long 413-page report, said the recent report by Hindenburg Research was not an attack on any specific company but a “calculated attack” on India, its growth story, and ambitions. (ANI)

HYDERABAD, (PTI): Business conglomerate GVK Group on Wednesday categorically said there was no ”extraneous pressure” from anyone to sell its stake in Mumbai airport as alleged by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The company’s comments came a day after Gandhi alleged in Lok Sabha that ”Mumbai airport, was taken away from GVK using agencies such as the CBI and the ED, and was given to Adani by the Government of India”.

”GVK reiterates that the decision to sell its stakes in Mumbai Airport to Adani, was taken by the management and there was absolutely no question of any extraneous pressure being exerted on us,” GVK Group spokesperson told PTI.

Adani Group, which is currently in the eye of a storm over the recent report by short-seller Hindenburg Research related to its company’s business dealings, took over the management of the Mumbai airport from GVK Group in July 2021.

While explaining the circumstances that led to the sale of the airport, GVK Group Vice Chairman Sanjay Reddy told a TV channel that it was looking to raise funds for the airport business.

Reddy said that at that time, Adani Group founder-chairman Gautam Adani approached him saying he had a lot of interest in the airport and whether GVK Group was willing to do a transaction with him.

”… He (Adani) said that he will assure that we will conclude the entire transaction in one month which was very important for us. So, from that perspective, whatever we did was in the interest of the company and the lenders who we had to repay and therefore, we had to close the transaction with Adani because we didn’t see any light of day with the other investors,” Reddy said.

While leading the Opposition attack over the Adani-Hindenburg issue in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Gandhi alleged that the government tweaked rules in favour of Adani and said the clause that no one without any prior experience would be involved in the development of airports was done away with.

”This rule was changed by the government and Adani was given six airports. After that, India’s most strategic, profitable airport, Mumbai Airport, was taken away from GVK using agencies like the CBI, ED, and was given to Adani by the Government of India,” he alleged.

In July 2021, Adani Enterprises Limited said Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), the flagship holding company of Adani Group’s airport business, will hold nearly 98 per cent stake in GVK Airport Developers Ltd (GVKADL) pursuant to the rights exercised by it as a lender to the company.

AAHL took over the management control of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).

GVKADL is the holding company of GVK Airport Holdings Ltd (GVKAHL) which holds 50.50 per cent equity stake in MIAL. The latter holds 74 per cent equity stake in Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, (PTI): Most of the Adani group companies rose on Tuesday, with flagship Adani Enterprises gaining 14 per cent in late morning trade.

Amid volatile trading in the market, eight Adani group firms gained while two were in the red.

On the BSE, shares of Adani Enterprises jumped 14.28 per cent to Rs 1,797 and Adani Transmission climbed 5 per cent to Rs 1,324.45, also its upper price band.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone rose 5.79 per cent to Rs 577.65, while Adani Green Energy jumped nearly 3 per cent to Rs 913.70.

Shares of Adani Wilmar went up 4.99 per cent to hit the upper price band of Rs 399.40.

ACC jumped 3.13 per cent to Rs 2,031.20, Ambuja Cements climbed 3.20 per cent to Rs 391.60, and NDTV surged 5 per cent to reach the upper price band of Rs 225.35.

Out of the ten listed companies of the Adani group, two were in the red — Adani Total Gas slumped 5 per cent to touch the lower price band of Rs 1,467.50, and Adani Power declined 2.93 per cent to Rs 177.10.

On Monday, six of the group companies closed in the red. The combined market capitalisation of the group companies has eroded by Rs 9.5 lakh crore since January 24, when the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research came out with an adverse report.

Adani group, on Monday, said that the promoters will pre-pay USD 1,114 million for the release of pledged shares of its firms ahead of the maturity in September 2024.

These shares belong to Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission.

The Hindenburg Research report has rattled investor sentiments towards Adani group stocks.

In late morning trade, the 30-share Sensex dropped 158.39 points to 60,348.51 points. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, (PTI): A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to constitute a committee monitored by a retired apex court judge to enquire and investigate into the Hindenburg Research report which made a slew of allegations against the business conglomerate led by industrialist Gautam Adani.

The fresh public interest litigation (PIL), filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, has also sought directions to set up a special committee to oversee the sanction policy for loans of over Rs 500 crore given to big corporates.

Last week, another PIL was filed in the apex court seeking prosecution of short seller Nathan Anderson of US-based firm Hindenburg Research and his associates in India and the US for allegedly exploiting innocent investors and the ”artificial crashing” of Adani Group’s stock value in the market.

The Adani Group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations including fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation against the business conglomerate led by Gautam Adani.

The Adani Group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.

In his plea, Tiwari has said the petition depicts the ”drastic condition and fate of people” when there arises a situation of share fall in the securities market due to various reasons.

”Lots of people who had the whole lifetime saving in such stocks get a maximum setback due to fall in such shares with a huge amount of money getting into drain,” the PIL said.

It said with the recent news of the publication of the Hindenburg report, it has led to the loss of huge amount for various investors who have invested their life-saving in such shares.

”In the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on billionaire Gautam Adani’s vast empire by Hindenburg, the market value of all 10 Adani stocks have halved with investors sitting with a colossal loss…,” the plea said.

It claimed that no concrete steps have been taken by authorities on the issue despite a ”massive attack being perpetrated” on the country’s economy.

”It is ultimately the public money for which the respondents (Centre and others) are answerable and there needs to be strict concern for mitigating of such loans with a clear process and sanction policy for such high stake loan amount,” it said.

The plea has made the Centre and others, including the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India, as respondents. (PTI)