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Hostile Environment Former minister blames aides of party vice-president forrunning campaign against her; Cong leaders say sacking linked to corruption charges
in environmental clearanceswould be taken care of, therebyappearing to blame her. Nata-rajan complained that Rahulhad responded in cursory fash-ion to her e-mail complainingabout the Ficci speech. She alsocomplained of the non-respon-siveness of the party’s top lead-ership, saying she had been un-able to secure an appointmentwith Congress President SoniaGandhi for months on end.
‘Rahul’s Office Planted Stories’��2
Natarajan Quits Congress,Attacks Rahul Gandhi
‘Not Politics, Anguish’What Natarajansaid on FridayShe had been let down by the party
Had no plans to join any other political party now
She would offer proof of Rahul Gandhi’s interference in decision-making
What the Nov Letter to Sonia Gandhi says
Natarajan raisedissue of absence of democracy within
Congress
Also said she was forced to launch an
attack on Modi with regard to
snooping scandal
Our Bureau
New Delhi: Senior Congressleader and former environ-ment minister Jayanthi Nata-rajan quit the Congress on Fri-day after launching a scathingattack on the party, especiallyRahul Gandhi, blaming hisaides for running a campaignagainst her. Congress leadersresponded in kind, essentiallyclaiming that she had beensacked because of corruptionallegations.
Addressing a press confer-ence in Chennai, Natarajancomplained about a range of is-sues. Her principal grievancecentered on the circumstancesunder which she was asked toresign in December 2013. Asper Natarajan’s version ofevents, she was asked to stepdown on the ground that shewould be switched to the party.She was therefore shocked by aspeech by Rahul Gandhi at aFicci event that month atwhich he promised that indus-try concerns regarding delays
‘Payments’ to EnvironmentMin Led to Sacking: Cong
New Base TurnsSpringboard for 7% Leap in FY15
Fresh FY13 and FY14data show recoveryhad started in the lastyear of UPA govt itself
nearly double-digit expansion.There will be greater pressure onthe new government, which tookover in May last year, to better theperformance in the current fiscalyear through March.
Apart from updating the base ofnational accounts to 2011-12 from2004-05, the country has also shift-ed to compiling numbers at inter-nationally accepted market pric-es as opposed to the previous
factor-cost meth-od, which consid-ered cost of fac-tors consumed forproducing goodsand services. In
addition, coverage has becomewider to include a bigger set ofnumbers from the corporate af-fairs ministry’s database andmore of the unorganised sectors.
In terms of the size, the economyremains the same at nearly .̀ 113.5lakh crore in fiscal 2014, whichsuggests some growth redistrib-ution is behind the spurt ingrowth from earlier estimate.
Could Outpace China This Year��11
Our Bureau
New Delhi: India’s economy ex-panded at a much quicker pace in2013-14 than previously estimat-ed, updated and revamped datawith a new base showed, indicat-ing that a recovery had started inthe last year of UPA governmentand the country’s growth couldoutpace China’s this year itself.
Gross domestic product grew6.9% in 2013-14 and 5.1% in theyear before that, government da-ta showed Friday. The numbersaren’t strictly comparable withthe earlier data that showed theeconomy expanded 4.7% in fiscal2014 and 4.5% in fiscal 2013.
The UPA had received much flakfor the slow growth after years of
GDP GREW MORE THAN EXPECTED
Better in the Good Old Days
Going by the strong recovery, case for interest cuts is weaker
Revision won’t make expected fiscal room
What Are The Implications?Govt revamps its nationalincome numbersShifts to global mkt prices, as opposed to factor cost earlierBase year updated to FY12 from FY05Wider coverage, many unorganised sectors included
2012-13
2013-14
Earlier Estimates(Factor Cost)
New Estimates(Market Prices)
4.5%
4.7%
5.1%
6.9%
GDPGrowth
NUMBERS NOT COMPARABLE
In absolute terms, GDP under new measure actually lower than initially estimated
Absolute GDP for FY12, FY13 was also lower, explaining the spurt in growth
Earlier years’ numbers likely to show FY12 growth lower than estimated
Some redistribution of growth has caused spike in FY14 numbers
Sujatha Singh, who was removed as foreign secre-tary on Wednesday, hit out at the government onFriday and claimed, “My reputation is being ma-
ligned, my record being trashed.” She said she wanted to setthe record straight as she believed that a campaign on socialmedia “is being manipulated and deliberately driven”. ��3
Reputation Maligned: Sujatha SACKED FOREIGN SECRETARY HITS BACK
Ahmedabad: In 2011, Pune-basedBhupendra Jagtap went aboutscouting intimate gifts. While a re-luctant Jagtap eventually musteredup enough courage to ask for somesexy lingerie, he realised the salesgirls across the counters were asembarrassed as he was.
The experience lead him to startPrivyPleasures.com, an e-tailingsite for edible lingerie, body paints,dice games, lubricants, body jew-ellery and a range of other stimulat-ing products. It isn’t the only oneaiming for that presumably lucra-
tive intersection between the lustand prudery of Indian consumers.Sites like ThatsPersonal.com, Bliss-Basket.com and Kaamastra.comare also hoping to cash in — espe-cially on Valentine’s Day.
Saying it with flowers is evidentlyno longer enough. “Customers do notwant to gift feel-good items like teddybears or flowers on V-Day which arealso gifted to the sick,” says MayurMasrani bluntly. The IT professional-turned-entrepreneur started Bliss-Basket.com in January 2014 and hasseen monthly average sales soarfrom 50 to 700. And for that crucialfirst fortnight of February alone, heexpects to reach 450 orders. At Privy-Pleasures.com, Jagtap is hoping to
ring up 20% of annual sales in theshortest month of the year.
Microsoft ex-executive Samir Sa-raiya founded ThatsPersonal.comin January 2013, making him one ofthe first movers in this category. Hesays his site receives approximately15,000 daily visitors and records 3%conversion. And two years on, he’sexpecting edible body paint, adultgames, massage candles, X on thelips gloss (a tantalising lip balm withgender-friendly pheromones) andbath bombs costing anywhere be-tween .̀ 1,500 and .̀ 3,000 to drive salesat his site during V-Day, with an av-erage ticket size of around .̀ 2,700.
PEs Show Interest��12
This V-Day, Roses Give Way to Edible Lingerie!With online sales of intimate gifts rising, PEs look to invest in such websites
Mumbai: Life Insurance Corpora-tion and other domestic institutionsbailed out the government’s biggestdisinvestment offering by picking upa substantial chunk of Coal India’sshares in the offer for sale (OFS) thatconcluded on Friday.
The insurer is believed to have in-vested more than .̀ 10,000 crore, help-ing the new government’s first majordisinvestment offering sail past thefinish line. Coal India’s offer for salewas oversubscribed 1.06 times withmajor support from domestic insure-rs and mutual funds. The governmentreceived bids worth .̀ 24,174 croreagainst an offer size of .̀ 22,613 crore.
Domestic InstitutionsBail Out CIL IssueLIC picks up almost 40%in .̀ 22,613-cr offer forsale that was 1.06 times oversubscribed
Stock market indices sawtheir biggest daily fall in threeweeks on Friday as investorssold to reallocate their moneyto Coal India’s share sale andtwo leading banks reporteddisappointing results, reportsOur Bureau from Mumbai.Sensex dropped 498 points or1.68% to close at 29,182. TheNifty dropped 143 points(1.60%) to end at 8,808 points,ending a 10-day winning run.Analysts said unwinding ofbullish positions in equity fu-tures precipitated slide.��14
Sensex Drops 498 Points onProfit Booking
Largest Deal inPublic Fund Raising
ONGCMAR-04
10,694
OFS
DLFJUN-07
9,188
IPO
ICICI BANKJUN-07
8,750
FPO
COAL INDIAJAN-15
22,700
OFS
OCT-10
15,199
IPO
RELIANCE POWER
11,700
IPO
JAN-08
ISSUE DATE SIZE (` CR) TYPE
Four RSS Men Make it to Top IndianCouncil of Historical Research Panel Four members of the governing body of India’stop historical body are office-bearers of an RSS-affiliated organisation. The HRD Ministry hasappointed 18 new members to the ICHR.Pure Politics��2
Inside story
Mumbai: The hunt for black moneystashed abroad is moving beyond Liech-tenstein and Switzerland. Over the lastfortnight, at least ten individuals — allfrom Mumbai and holding shares ofcompanies in the Caribbean tax havenBritish Virgin Islands (BVI) — havebeen told by the Enforcement Directo-rate (ED) to spell out details of theiroverseas investments.
The persons in question will have toshare photocopies oftheir passport, and infor-mation on their local busi-nesses, foreign visits andoffshore assets. The no-tices served by the Direc-torate, which trackscross-border transac-tions, says that non-com-pliance — or, failure toshow up in the ED officewith the documents —will be in violation of for-
eign exchange laws and attract penalty.“None of the notices make any men-
tion of BVI, but all these people had in-corporated firms in BVI through a ser-vice provider in Singapore. First, theyhad either set up companies abroad orbought into entities without the ReserveBank of India’s permission; second,they are signatories to bank accounts ofthese entities,” said a person familiarwith the development.
Funds Moved Using Hawala Route��11
Hunt for BlackBucks Leads toBVI Investors
In 2013, I-T dept came to know of Indians owning shares in BVI firms
INDIANS USED A SINGAPORE FIRM TO SET UP COS IN BVI AND PARK FUNDS
The BVI list was released in April 2013 by a consortium of international journalists
In Aug 2013, the Singapore entity told BVI police there was a data theft
SHARES WEREPURCHASEDBEFORE THE RBI RULEALLOWINGINDIVIDUALS TO INVEST ABROAD
ED asks 10 individuals to spell out details ofoverseas investments
ED notice
says non-
compliance
will be in
violation of
foreign
exchange
laws and
attract
penalty
IN THE CROSSHAIRS
Amit ShahHits Out atCongress
SERIOUS MATTER
ET MAGAZINEON SUNDAY
SALAM
different occasions betweenJanuary 9, 2012 and February2, 2012.
These payments, as the diarydescribes them, were for the“purpose” of “Project J-Envi-ronment & Forest”. The diarydoes not name the person towhom payments were made.“In August 2013, at a meeting or-ganised by my ministry attend-ed by the head honchos of cor-porate India, two industrialistsbrought to my attention howJayanthi Natarajan was con-ducting the affairs in the envi-ronment ministry,” senior Con-gress leader and formercommerce minister AnandSharma told ET.
Jayanthi Natarajan Denies Wrongdoing��13
known as the ‘Birla diaries’which income-tax authoritiesrecovered in October 2013 dur-ing a survey of the Aditya Bir-la Group’s offices in New Del-hi. Senior Congress leaderssay the call was taken to askNatarajan to resign after theybecame aware of the allegedtransactions, more so becausethe leadership had already re-ceived complaints about herconduct from a number of in-dustrialists.
Congress spokesperson Abh-ishek Manu Singhvi told apress conference in Delhi thatthe term ‘Jayanthi tax’ waswell-known and understood inbusiness circles.
These documents, whichhave been reviewed by ET, refers to payments made on 13
New Delhi: Former environ-ment minister Jayanthi Nata-rajan, who launched a scath-ing attack on Rahul Gandhi onFriday, was removed from theministry in the UPA II govern-ment because the Congressleadership was convincedthat she had a case to answer on allegations of pay-ments to the ministry forclearing projects.
The transactions which at-tracted the attention of topCongress leaders are men-tioned in what is widely
Back-SeatDriving InUPA: Adani
Reacting to the revelationsmade by Jayanthi Natarajan,BJP president Amit Shah saidit was a very serious matterthat the former adminis-tration had blocked certainprojects from Gujarat just be-cause they were from a statewhose then CM was the mainopposition to Congress in theprime ministerial race, report Nistula Hebbar &Rakesh Mohan Chaturvedi.FULL INTERVIEW ��2
The allegations levelled byex-environment ministerJayanthi Natarajan prove the existence of “back-seatand motivated driving “dur-ing the UPA government”,Gautam Adani has claimed,reports Rohini Singh.��3
FISCALDEFICITCROSSES ESTIMATE
��PAGE 4
� CBI Probing 5 Cases CBI probing as many as 5 casesregarding dodgy green nod.��3
The Congress lead-ership has alleged a“BJP-corporate nexus”
was behind Jayanthi Natarajan’s“baseless allegations”.��3
‘BJP-Corporate LinkBehind the Show’
MUMBAI | 20 PAGES | .̀ 3.00 OR .̀ 7.00 ALONG WITH THE TIMES OF INDIA SATURDAY, 31 JANUARY 2015
First Ladies Are Steeped in ProtocolGLOBAL BUSINESS�� 18
Djokovic OvercomesWawrinka in 5 Sets SPORTS �� 20
The Reconfigurationof Nicobar IslandsSATURDAY FEATURE�� 17
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Disinvestment secretary AradhanaJohri said the sale was a success, withgood participation from all investors.
Indicative Price Was .̀ 358.49��12
Product: ETNEWMumbaiBS PubDate: 31-01-2015 Zone: MumbaiCity Edition: 1 Page: ETMCSFP User: nawzerp2905 Time: 01-31-2015 00:24 Color: CMYK