Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
GUANGZHOU, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) — A cross-border e-commerce pilot zone in south China started its first bonded import business on Sunday, a practice believed to benefit businesses in terms of lower logistics cost and provide consumers with cheap and fine products, local officials said.
The comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, ushered in the new business hoping to give full play to the proximity of Hong Kong and Macao.
Zhuhai is connected to the Hong Kong airport since the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge opened to traffic in October last year.
The business model allows e-commerce platforms to purchase a large quantity of goods from overseas according to their market forecasts and consumer demands. The goods will be imported and stored in the special customs-supervised area before being delivered to consumers as personal items.
Such practices enable e-commerce enterprises to buy quality products from around the world at a lower price with less logistic time, according to Lin Xibin, a local commerce official.
The bonded import business program is expected to attract businesses from China’s Hong Kong and Macao, as well as businesses from Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries and regions.
Zhuhai is one of the 22 cities that was identified as a venue for comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zones by the State Council, or China’s cabinet, in July last year.
China’s e-commerce market has developed at a double-digit pace for years. E-commerce transaction totaled 22.69 trillion yuan in the first three quarters of 2018, up 11.2 percent year on year.
China’s Ambassador to Iraq Chen Weiqing gives visa to an applicant at the Chinese embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 3, 2019. China’s Ambassador to Iraq Chen Weiqing welcomed on Sunday Iraqi visa applicants at the Chinese embassy in Baghdad, ahead of Chinese Spring Festival, saying that China is keen to strengthen ties with Iraq. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)
BAGHDAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) — China’s Ambassador to Iraq Chen Weiqing welcomed on Sunday Iraqi visa applicants at the Chinese embassy in Baghdad, ahead of Chinese Spring Festival, saying that China is keen to strengthen ties with Iraq.
“Iraq is at a transition point heading to the rebuilding stage. We are keen to strengthen ties between China and Iraq, and at the Chinese embassy, we will facilitate your visa process,” Chen said.
Annually, as the Chinese New Year approaches, embassies of China around the world hold cultural events and ceremonies, but because of the precarious security situation in Iraq, the ambassador had to make a short speech.
“This is the last workday for the embassy before the Spring Festival. Last year, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Iraq,” Chen told Xinhua.
“At present, relations between Iraq and China have developed very well, especially after China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, in which Iraq was among the first Arab nations to join,” Chen added.
The Chinese embassy lies in Baghdad’s upscale neighborhood of al-Arasat, which is a relatively safe area. But like most foreign embassies in Iraq, high security measures are necessary.
Dozens of Iraqi visa applicants, if not hundreds at peak days, flock into the embassy every day, as China has become a favorable destination to many for business or study.
Inside the embassy, a small room was decorated with traditional Chinese red lanterns and paper cuttings, while Chinese landscapes and images of cultural life in China were hanged on the walls.
Two Chinese diplomats and two local employees handled the visa applications. Applicants described the procedures as smooth.
“This is going to be my first visit to China. I am going to study Chinese language at Shandong University, and then I aspire to be a pilot and work in China,” Zeyad Ismael, 23, told Xinhua as he waited in the queue.
“My expectations are high. I have looked for images of Shandong province on the internet and I like it. I expect good opportunities and a beautiful life,” Ismael added.
Last year, the Chinese embassy received close to 20,000 visa applications, most of which were for business reasons.
In recent years, China has become a source for many goods imported to Iraq such as smartphones, electronics and automobiles.
Iraqi English teacher, Muqdad Salih, 38, speaks fluent Chinese as he studied the language in China in 2007. Now, he is on the way to China to work as an English teacher in China’s Jiangxi province.
“Chinese New Year celebrations were beautiful and I was surprised by the atmosphere and friendliness of the Chinese people,” Salih said.
BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) — A senior military official on Sunday called on media as well as literary and art workers of the military to promote innovation and development in their work, so as to provide solid support for strengthening and revitalizing the armed forces.
Zhang Youxia, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when he extended Spring Festival greetings at the news media center and the culture and arts center of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The PLA’s news media center is an important publicity front of the Party, and the PLA and has to speak for the Party’s will, said Zhang, stressing adherence to correct political and public opinion direction.
The PLA’s culture and arts center should play an active role in nurturing the fighting spirit and build up a good image of art soldiers in the new era, Zhang said.
The Railways suspect rail fracture as the probable cause of the derailment of the Delhi-bound Seemanchal Express on Sunday morning that left at least seven dead and scores injured.
SNS Web | New Delhi | February 3, 2019 11:51 am
(Photo: Twitter/@NDRFHQ)
The Railways suspect rail fracture as the probable cause of the derailment of the Delhi-bound Seemanchal Express on Sunday morning that left at least seven dead and scores injured.
“Prima facie cause of Seemanchal Express accident is rail fracture of CMS X-Ing at Barauni end of station yard,” Rajesh Kumar, the Chief Public Relations Officer of the East-Central Railway, was quoted as saying by ANI.
The exact reason behind the accident will be unearthed after the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) concludes its investigation into the derailment.
Eleven coaches of the train went off the rails before dawn near Sahadai Buzurg in Vaishali district at a time when most passengers were deep in sleep.
Kumar said that the 12 unaffected coaches are being moved to Hajipur where more coaches will be attached before the train moves to its original destination at Anand Vihar Terminal railway station (ANVT) near New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were among those who expressed grief at the loss of lives.
“Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to the derailment of coaches of the Seemanchal Express. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly. Railways, NDRF, and local authorities are providing all possible assistance in the wake of the accident,” wrote PM Modi on Twitter.
Narendra Modi
“Deeply pained to learn about the train tragedy in Bihar. My thoughts are with the affected families. Requesting local Congress workers to extend all possible help to the families of the affected,” Gandhi wrote on Twitter.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also directed the state administration to provide all assistance in the rescue and relief operation.
He announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
A statement from Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s office said that the Minister is in touch with Railway Board members and GM ECR regarding the accident.
The Indian Railways also announced that ex gratia Rs 5 lakh each will be given to the kin of the deceased while Rs 1 lakh would be given to the grievously injured and Rs 50,000 to those who have suffered simple injuries. The Railways will also bear medical expenses.
Rajesh Kumar said that one general coach, one AC coach (B3), three sleeper coaches (S8, S9, S10) and four more coaches derailed between 3-4 am near Shadai Buzurg railway station in Vaishali district.
The train, number 12487, was running at full speed when it derailed.
Officials fear that the death toll might increase as many are still trapped inside the derailed coaches.
Locals were the first to respond to the accident site. People were seen trying to rescue those trapped inside the derailed coaches before a massive rescue operation was launched involving personnel from NDRF and police.
NDRF personnel went in through broken windows to scan the insides of the overturned coaches for those trapped. Sniffer dogs, too, were deployed to help in the rescue mission.
The teams of doctors were rushed from nearby Sonpur and Barauni.
The Railways has also issued help line numbers – Sonpur 06158221645, Hajipur 06224272230 and Barauni 06279232222.
This is the second major train derailment in two days. On Friday, the Dayodaya Express derailed between Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur and Rajasthan’s Ajmer near Jaipur on Friday. No passenger was, however, injured in the accident.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe grenade is believed to have been dug up accidentally in France
A World War One-era German hand grenade has been found among a delivery of potatoes shipped from France to a crisp factory in Hong Kong, police say.
The muddy device, which was 3in (8cm) wide, was “in an unstable condition” because it had been discharged but had failed to detonate, officials said.
It was discovered at the Calbee crisp-making factory in the eastern Sai Kung district on Saturday morning.
The bombe de terre was safely detonated on site by bomb disposal officers.
“All the information to date suggests that the grenade was imported from France together with the other potatoes,” Superintendant Wong Ho-hon told reporters.
He added that the device was defused using a “high-pressure water firing technique”.
The youngster was posing in front of a stationary bullet train at Wuchang Railway Station in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, while his mother was taking photographs and filming him as a souvenir of their ride home for the Lunar New Year holiday, news portal Thepaper.cn reported.
But when she asked him to take a step backwards, the child lost his footing and tumbled into the gap between the platform and the train.
An employee ran to help and after climbing down into the gap managed to lift the boy to safety, the report said.
Apart from being a little shaken, the child was unhurt and he and his family were able to continue on their journey home.
And thanks to the quick thinking of the station worker, the train was not even delayed.
With the Lunar New Year holiday officially set to get under way on Tuesday, hundreds of millions of people across the country have making their way home over recent days. The annual migration, known as chunyun in Chinese, puts a massive strain on the nation’s transport infrastructure.
Over the coming “golden week” – as the holiday is often known – an estimated 400 million trips will be made by train, with that figure rising to 2.99 billion for all trips made by rail, road and air over the 40-day travel period – from January 21 to March 1 – that covers the extended break taken by many migrant workers.
The huge numbers often lead to a spike in accidents and injuries during the holiday travel period.
In 2017 alone, 898 people were killed in railway-related accidents, with most of the fatalities attributed to people being hit by trains while trying to cross the track at non-designated spots, according to official figures.
This combo photo shows attendants getting ready to work aboard the train K1/6 during the Spring Festival travel rush in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province in January of 1998 (top, photo taken by Gao Meiji); and bullet train stewards taking part in an etiquette training in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, Jan. 17, 2019 (bottom, photo taken by Su Yang). (Xinhua)
BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) — Veteran train driver Zhou Li, 54, has driven all four generations of Chinese trains — from steam locomotives to high-speed.
Having spent two-thirds of his Spring Festivals driving a train, this year is Zhou’s 31st Spring Festival travel rush.
The Spring Festival holiday is a frenetic travel period in China when hundreds of millions of Chinese return to their hometowns for family gatherings, to visit relatives and friends or just for a break from city life.
Zhou is one of many Chinese train drivers who have witnessed the fast development of the national railway network in connection with the changes of the world’s biggest travel rush.
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 70 years ago, the speed of trains has increased sixfold while the length of the entire railway system has expanded from only slightly more than 20,000 km in 1949 to some 131,000 km by the end of 2018.
Thanks to this enormous train network, the journey home for 413 million Chinese, the number of people who travel via train during the holiday this year, has become faster, more convenient and more high-tech.
According to calculations based on archived reports by the People’s Daily, some 31 million trips were made via train during Spring Festival 1957, which seems like nothing compared to this year’s number.
However, it still exerted a huge pressure on the country’s transport system. The People’s Daily even carried an editorial in 1959 urging short-distance travelers to walk or use bicycle wherever possible, to ease the burden on the public transport system.
Just 10 years ago, standing in carriages filled with passengers and their luggage for a 58-hour trip was ordinary for many. Today, the constantly improving and expanding railway network and the launch of bullet trains means such journeys are less crowded and more enjoyable.
Yu Maosheng, 38, said that he used to wait for several hours when queuing for train tickets, and it used to take him more than 30 hours to return home to Linyi in eastern China’s Shandong Province from Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong Province.
Today, the trip between Shenzhen and Linyi has been shortened to 10 hours thanks to high-speed trains.
In September 2017, Fuxing high-speed trains independently developed by China began to run between Beijing and Shanghai. With a speed of 350 kmh, it is the fastest train in commercial service in the world.
Fuxing trains will be running on the railway between Beijing and Zhangjiakou, in northern China’s Hebei Province, when the two cities host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
“Efforts are also being made to introduce intelligent railways, which will apply cutting-edge technologies including big data and artificial intelligence,” said Wang Junbiao with the China Academy of Railway Sciences.
Meanwhile, China has developed the world’s largest real-time ticket service website, with nearly 3.5 billion tickets sold annually. New technologies including face scan check-in have been applied in many train stations.
This year, Yu bought his tickets online and said he is looking forward to checking in with facial recognition technology.
For veteran driver Zhou, he can still remember the days he would witness travelers carrying multiple bags while rushing to get on the train and secure enough room for their belongings. With neat and more spacious carriages, that chaos is rarely seen nowadays.
“It all improved very quickly, just like the speed of the train,” he said.
BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) — Unlike the rest of the neighborhood, which is busy decorating their houses with couplets of rhymed wishes for the upcoming Spring Festival, at 11 p.m. Friday, Song Keming, a mild man with a strong build and pleasant features, put on his coat and began his inspection along the vast and extensive wetlands along the Yellow River.
This is his plan for Chinese New Year’s Eve, as it has been for every day and night for the past 20 years.
Enduring temperature below the freezing point, Song tries to curb his coughs caused by chronic bronchitis as he and others patrol along the wetland. It is the winter habitat for tens of thousands of migratory birds, including Asian great bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii, “dabao” in Chinese), a critically endangered species that has been spending winters here for thousands of years.
There are only about 800 specimens of the great bustard’s Asian subspecies left in China, from where it gets the nickname “the giant panda of the birds.” With striped plumage and known to be the heaviest flying terrestrial bird, the Asian subspecies migrates over 10,000 kilometers across Eurasia every year, which is one of the longest migration ranges of any threatened species.
For 20 years, Song has been guarding Changyuan wetland reserve bordering Shandong and Henan provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. The wetlands have been an important wintering home for the bustard and many other wildlife species that form the rich biosphere of the “Mother River of China.”
During the day, Song and other members of the “Green Future” environmental protection association – a non-profit volunteer team founded and led by Song Keming – search along hundreds of miles along the riverbanks to remove poisoned bait placed by poachers and to rescue any surviving wildlife from threats such as deadly toxins, nets or gunshots or properly dispose of dead bodies.
At night, from 11 p.m. till dawn, the volunteers drive along the wetland that stretches 3,000 kilometers from Shaanxi, Hebei, Henan to Shandong provinces, to fend off poachers, who usually come with hunting rifles and hounds, with the help of local public security organs.
Song has been hit by poachers’ vehicles, shot by their rifles and beaten with bricks and fists, but none of these had frightened him enough to cause him to step away from the battlefield.
Every autumn and winter, as migratory birds return from the northern Mongolian Plateau or the Siberian Arctic tundra, poaching happens more often, especially around the Spring Festival holidays. While criminals continue to break the law in an effort to make a fortune, Song and his team are actively trying to make it more and more impossible for these poachers to succeed.
Last year, the “Green Future” team caught four suspected poachers and helped the local police open three criminal cases. The volunteers scattered a dozen poachers from the reserve, including some well-equipped poaching gang members.
In recent years, more and more like-minded local residents have gathered around Song. Now the team has more than 300 volunteers. More and more people, as well as public departments, have been joining the cause to fight hard against poaching.
To Song’s joy, Chinese society is growing in awareness of the importance of species and habitat protection, while those who choose to eat wildlife to show off their wealth have become a rare minority.
Song was delighted to find that China’s building of an ecological civilization as a national strategy and the protection of species have been obtaining positive results.
This winter, a record number of migratory birds flew back to the Changyuan Wetland Reserve, including grey cranes, taiga bean geese, greylags, etc.
“About 180 great bustards have been observed wintering at the reserve, and by spring when they are about to head north, we expect the total number to be around 200,” Song confirmed with Xinhua reporter over the phone on Saturday.
The nicknamed “Bustard Guardian” firmly believes that as long as the Yellow River wetlands are attentively protected to preserve the wintering home for the migratory birds, where wildlife can stay safe from poaching and disturbances and live in peace, the vigorous biodiversity of the mother river will recover.
And the great bustards, a symbol of the king’s diligent peasants recorded as early as in the Book of Songs (1100 to 600 B.C.), can continue to coexist harmoniously with the Chinese nation, Song said.
In order to honor the man’s tireless efforts in protecting the wetlands, Song Keming was named “the most beautiful environmentalist in Henan,” winning the “Green Guardian” award of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the “Green Monument” award of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
The work of Green Future has received wide acclaim and support from the country and was highly commended by international experts and scholars at the International Conference on Promoting the Protection of Asian Great Bustard held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in 2017.
However, Song could not let himself rest on the laurels. He told the reporters that there is still a long way to go to protect the great bustard and the Yellow River wetlands. The situation is still urgent and we should not be blindly optimistic, he warned.
The International Committee for the Protection of Birds has included great bustard in the Red Book of Endangered Species. “There are only about 800 left in China. Each one of them that we are losing to poaching is a loss too heavy for the survival of the species!” he said.
The man who humbly refers himself as “just a peasant who doesn’t know how to make great speeches” is determined to continue protecting the wetlands and its biodiversity until he can no longer move.
In the future, Song hopes to help the local villages develop eco-tourism that will not cause harm and disturbance to the wildlife in a way that village folks can benefit from species conservation and ecological restoration. For example, helping poachers become tour guides to show the visitors where to view the most breathtaking landscape or how to identify the most beautiful birds or operate homestays and hostels – anyway that they can make money legitimately, Song suggested.
If wildlife and the health of the wetlands became the attraction for eco-tourism, the local population will voluntarily protect the environment, as proven in precedents worldwide, he said.
“I hope that every ordinary person can start from himself, refuse to eat wildlife, refuse to wear fur, refuse to use drugs containing wild animal components and actively report any suspicious sales of wildlife products to the forest police,” Song said, telling Xinhua that he wishes everyone a happy Chinese New Year.
“Everyone can make his/her share of contribution to protecting endangered species,” Song said.
As for himself, the 54-year-old “bustard guardian” is willing to believe that with the concerted efforts of the entire Chinese society, the future is promising for China’s building of an ecological civilization and the biodiversity conservation and for the Asian great bustard to survive and thrive.
“I look forward to witnessing the Mother River of the Chinese nation regain its vitality as people and nature develop in perfect harmony,” Song said.
The fall of Chanda Kochhar, the iconic banking CEO and a poster woman for Indian industry, holds a cautionary tale for the entire business community, writes the BBC’s business correspondent Sameer Hashmi.
India’s third-largest lender, ICICI Bank, on Wednesday found the former chief executive guilty of violating internal bank policies and professional misconduct.
It was the culmination of an investigation set up by the bank to look into allegations of conflict of interest. It concluded that she had failed to make mandatory disclosures and her actions were not in line with the bank’s internal processes.
The bank also announced it planned to “claw back” all bonuses paid to Ms Kochhar between April 2009 and March 2018, an amount estimated to run into millions of dollars.
Ms Kochhar had risen through the ranks of ICICI to become its chief executive in 2009.
But she went on indefinite leave in June 2018, following which she announced her retirement in October 2018 even as the investigation against her was still continuing.
‘The face of a movement’
Ms Kochhar was one of India’s most celebrated bankers and arguably the most prominent female chief executive in the country.
For nearly a decade, various surveys consistently called her one of the world’s most powerful and influential female CEOs. For many Indian women, especially those working in the corporate sector, Ms Kochhar was a role model.
“She was the face of a movement that encouraged women entrepreneurs. Her downfall has done immeasurable harm to Indian chief executives, especially women business leaders,” Gurcharan Das, author and former chief executive of Procter & Gamble India, told the BBC.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionMs Kochhar with Ivanka Trump, daughter of the US president and his adviser
Ms Kochhar began her career as a trainee at ICICI in 1984 after getting her MBA. At the time, ICICI was a financial institution that helped companies with project financing. It got a banking licence in 1994, following the liberalisation of India’s economy.
Ms Kochhar’s ascent mirrored ICICI’s journey from a small financial institution to one of India’s largest technology-driven financial service behemoths.
Under the tutelage of KV Kamath – the larger-than-life boss who headed the bank through much of the 1990s and 2000s – Ms Kochhar was given charge of several significant projects which saw ICICI set itself apart in a market dominated by public-owned banks.
In 2009, at the age of 48, she beat several other strong candidates to succeed Mr Kamath as chief executive.
Unlike her predecessors, who followed a more inclusive leadership approach, Ms Kochhar ran a tight ship with complete control and authority.
She was credited with navigating the bank out of troubled waters following the 2008 global recession.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionMs Kochhar is credited with navigating ICICI out of troubled waters following the 2008 global recession
Ms Kochhar was also renowned for her attention to detail – not only when it came to running the company but also when making public appearances or being interviewed.
She invested in a very strong PR machinery that ensured her public profile was meticulous. When I interviewed Ms Kochhar at her office in 2012, her communications team had a number of requests and queries ranging from the type of questions that would be asked to camera angles and even the size of the plant in the background.
Her love for saris and diamonds was well known. Her former colleagues say she was very particular about picking the right sari to match the mood and tone of an occasion. She even wore them while attending international conferences like the World Economic Forum in Davos – making it a style statement.
The fall from grace
Ironically perhaps, it was her lack of attention to disclosing allegedly critical information about her husband’s business dealings with a client of her bank that led to her downfall.
Ms Kochhar’s problems began in October 2016 when a whistleblower raised allegations of conflict of interest against her.
Initially the issue did not attract much media attention, but in March 2018 the story began to gain traction in the Indian press.
The scandal centres around a $456m (£347m) loan issued by ICICI bank to consumer electronics company Videocon Industries.
It had been alleged that Ms Kochhar sanctioned loans to Videocon Industries, violating the bank’s lending policies, in exchange for an investment by its owner Venugopal Dhoot in a business headed by Ms Kochhar’s husband.
Ms Kochhar, her husband and Mr Dhoot have denied the claims.
Soon after the allegations surfaced in April, Mr Kochhar said they were all “false”.
Speaking to India Today TV, he said, “Where is the conflict of interest? ICICI Bank will have relationship with all top corporates in India. If I can’t touch any corporate who deals with ICICI, is it fair to me? Can I function like this? I am a Bajaj MBA and a Harvard alumnus. I am an educated professional. Should I sit at home just because my wife is the CEO of ICICI?”
Mr Dhoot also denied any wrongdoing, insisting in an interview with the PTI news agency that the loan to his company was given on merit. He also said he knew all 12 members of the panel that approved it, not just Ms Kochhar.
Initially, ICICI’s board dismissed all the allegations against Ms Kochhar.
But continuous media glare and questions from investors forced the bank to set up an inquiry to investigate if Ms Kochhar had violated the bank’s rules with regards to conflict of interest and internal lending.
Even then Ms Kochhar did not step down, choosing instead to go on indefinite leave in June 2018. She resigned four months later.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionMs Kochhar has denied all the charges against her
But after the investigative committee – headed by a former Supreme Court judge – submitted its report, the bank decided to treat her resignation as termination. The report did not, however, investigate whether Videocon invested in her husband’s company in exchange for loans.
Speaking soon after that, Ms Kochhar issued a statement talking about her “disappointment” with the decision.
‘I am utterly disappointed, hurt and shocked by the decision. I have not been given a copy of the report. I reiterate that none of the credit decisions at the bank are unilateral. ICICI is an institution with established robust processes and systems which involve committee based collective decision making with several professionals of high calibre participating in the decision making,” it read.
The controversy has also raised questions about the credibility of the board and its failure to investigate the matter when it was first raised.
Shiriram Subramaniun, who heads InGovern, a corporate governance advisory firm, called the episode a lesson for company boards across the country.
“Companies need to recognise that their primary duty is toward the shareholders and not star chief executives,” he told the BBC.
But Ms Kochhar’s troubles didn’t stop there. Last week, the country’s federal investigating agency, the CBI, filed a case of criminal conspiracy and fraud against her and her husband Deepak Kochhar.
They are looking closely into Ms Kochhar’s role in the ICICI decision to sanction the loan to Videocon. In its preliminary complaint report, the organisation accused her of receiving “illegal gratification through her husband” to sanction the money.
It also accuses her of cheating, dishonesty and “abusing her official position” by sanctioning the loan to Videocon. It has also filed a case against Mr Dhoot and is investigating the roles of senior ICICI bank executives who were part of the bank committee that sanctioned the loans.
The bank told the BBC that they were not willing to comment about the investigation at this stage.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Three powerful women politicians, each from a very different section of Indian society, may pose a big threat to the chances of Prime Minister Narendra Modi winning a second term in a general election due by May.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, part of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has ruled India for much of the time since its independence from the British in 1947, joined the struggle in January, when the opposition Congress party made her its face in the nation’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.
Two other senior female politicians – the firebrand chief minister of West Bengal state, Mamata Banerjee, and Mayawati, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister – are also plotting to unseat Modi’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition by forming big opposition groupings, though there is no firm agreement between them as yet.
“The opposition has more powerful women leaders than the NDA, and therefore they will be able to carry conviction with voters generally, and with women voters, in particular,” said Yashwant Sinha, 81, a former finance minister who quit Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which dominates the NDA, last year.
“They should be very worried, especially after the defeat in the three major Hindi heartland states,” he said, referring to BJP’s losses in recent state elections.
The entry of Priyanka – she is usually referred to by just her first name – into the political fray drew a gushing reaction from much of the Indian media.
SPONSORED
There were pictures of elated supporters dancing, a lot of talk of the 47-year-old’s resemblance to her grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and comments about her gifts as a speaker able to connect with voters. That contrasts with her brother, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who in the past has been criticized for lacking the common touch.
TRIPLE CHALLENGE
The other two women seen threatening Modi’s grip on power have a lot more experience than Priyanka, and both could be seen as potential prime ministerial candidates in a coalition government.
Mayawati, a 63-year-old former teacher who goes by just the one name, last month formed an alliance between her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – which mainly represents Hinduism’s lowest caste, the Dalits – and its once bitter foes, the Samajwadi Party that tends to draw support from other lower castes and Muslims.
Then there is 64-year-old Banerjee, who has twice been railways minister in federal governments. Last month, Banerjee – who built her All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) party after leaving Congress in 1997 – organised an anti-BJP rally in Kolkata that attracted hundreds of thousands.
Party colleagues of the three women leaders said they were not available for comment.
To be sure, Modi remains, for now, the most popular leader in the country, opinion polls show.
Modi also cannot be accused of ignoring women’s issues during his first term. He has launched a government campaign – Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, or “Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter” – and called for the eradication of female foeticide. His campaigns to provide toilets and subsidised gas cylinders for poorer Indians are often promoted as ways to empower women.
He has six women in his 26-strong cabinet, though a lot of power is centralised with Modi and a couple of senior male lieutenants.
The BJP said it would seek votes on the basis of achievements under Modi and the opposition did not have a “positive alternative to the government, and its activities”.
PERSONAL TIES
Congress has said it wants to form a post-poll partnership with Mayawati’s BSP and SP alliance, though it will be fighting against it in 78 seats. The alliance will not contest two Gandhi strongholds won multiple times by Rahul and his mother Sonia.
Mayawati told a press conference announcing the alliance with the SP that Congress was not part of it because they did not think “there would be much benefit in having them with us before the election”.
The BSP, however, backs Congress-led governments in the northern states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
There is no formal alliance between Banerjee and Congress, though she does know Rahul and Priyanka.
Dinesh Trivedi, a former federal minister and a close aide to Banerjee, said she enjoys a good personal relationship with Sonia Gandhi, the matriarch of the dynasty and a former Congress president, and so working with her two children would not be a problem.
“In terms of experience, Mamata Banerjee is far ahead,” Trivedi said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi would look at Mamata Banerjee as somebody who could really inspire them.”
The strength of Priyanka, Mayawati and Banerjee as a potential opposition alliance is that they can appeal to different parts of the electorate.
Two Congress sources said the formal entry into politics of Priyanka could help rejuvenate the party in Uttar Pradesh, where it is a marginal player. Coming from what is India’s first family, they said she could appeal to upper caste voters in the state who typically vote for the pro-business BJP.
A Congress leader close to the Gandhis said she would attract women, young people, and floating voters.
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Priyanka is far from a political neophyte, having supported her brother and mother during previous election campaigns. She has also experienced political and personal tragedy, as Rahul Gandhi stressed in a speech last week.
“You have to understand my relationship with my sister – we have been through a hell of a lot together,” he said.
“Everybody is like ‘look, you come from this illustrious family, and everything is easy’. Actually it’s not so easy. My father was assassinated, my grandmother was assassinated, huge political battles, wins in political battles, losses in political battles.”
“NATIONAL LEADER”
BSP spokesman Sudhindra Bhadoria said Mayawati’s gender did not matter.
“She has managed a party from scratch to this level. The important fact is that she has organised large numbers, both men and women, Dalits, other backward castes, the poor, minorities,” Bhadoria said. “I don’t fit them in the straightjacket of male-female. I think she’s a national leader.”
She is regarded as ambitious. A U.S. diplomatic cable in 2008, among many thousands leaked by Wikileaks two years later, described her as “first-rate egomaniac” who “is obsessed with becoming prime minister”.
But Mayawati has also been credited with empowering oppressed lower caste Hindus.
Banerjee, who defeated a 34-year-old communist government in West Bengal in an election in 2011, is known for her streetwise political skills and portrays herself as a secular leader in a country polarised under the BJP.
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