The former Union Minister, D. Purandeswari, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday after meeting senior leader L.K. Advani and party president Rajnath Singh.Daughter of Telugu Desam Party founder, N.T. Rama Rao, Ms. Purandeswari quit the Congress in February as she was “disappointed” at the way Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated. BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu facilitated talks between Ms. Purandeswari and the BJP leadership, informed sources said.Mr. Rajnath Singh said on Twitter: “Former Union Minister D. Purandeswari joined the BJP today. I welcome her into the party fold.”
4)IOC offers Rs.66 crore to Tata Medical Center
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), a major supporting partner for expansion of the Tata Medical Center at Rajarhat near here, has offered Rs.66 crore in phases toward the Rs.200-crore project.“We are going for the second phase expansion soon and IOC is supporting the cause in a big way. They (IOC) have offered Rs.66 crore in phases toward the project. We hope to complete the expansion over the next 24 months,” Tata Medical Center Deputy Director V.R. Ramanan said.The IOC has disbursed Rs.14 crore toward the expansion for 250 beds and state-of-the-art cancer care medical equipment. “The total estimated cost for the second phase is Rs.200 crore,” CFO S.K. Agarwal said.Tata Medical Center, the only super speciality cancer hospital in eastern India, offered affordable oncology treatment. It opened 30 months ago and is funded and managed by trusts under the Tata group.“We are offering treatment and diagnostics at an average price which is around 40 per cent lower. Our business model offers free and subsidised cost to 50 per cent patients,” hospital Senior Medical Administrator Aseem Mahajan said.Mr. Ramanan said the hospital wanted more corporate assistance. It is facing a deficit of Rs.1 crore a month for running the 165-bed first phase built at a cost of Rs.350 crore.The SBI has offered the single largest CSR exposure of Rs.6 crore for part funding a PET-CT scan machine to the hospital.SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya visited the hospital and expressed her intention of continuing support to such initiatives.
5)Andhra Bank issues red letter circular to branches on security
Stung by the daylight robbery in which a gang made away with Rs.2.35 lakh on February 4, the Andhra Bank management on Friday served a red letter circular to all the bank branches to step up security.
Inquiry heldAndhra Bank Security Officer of Hyderabad, Gurutej Singh, who conducted an inquiry into the incident, recorded the statements of the cashier, chief manager and other staff.An enquiry report would be submitted to the Security Wing, headed by the bank’s General Manager on the theft, said Andhra Bank Guntur Deputy General Manager (DGM) V.M. Parthasarathi.Security reviewedThe DGM told The Hindu on Friday that security has been reviewed at all the branches and a red letter circular has been issued to all the Assistant General Managers, Chief Managers, Managers and the cashiers.Thieves identifiedThe Lalapet police, probing the attention diversion case, have identified the accused involved in the theft and a manhunt has been launched to nab them.“The modus operandi of the crime seems to point to gangs Tamil Nadu. As per the footage of the CC televisions, a five-member gang entered the bank , executed their plan and escaped with cash. Special teams have been formed to crack the case,” Superintendent of Police, Guntur Urban District, Gopinath Jatty said.Staff to be bookedMeanwhile, police are preparing to book the responsible staff of Andhra Bank, Hindu College Campus branch.“We will book the Chief Manager and Cashier of the bank under the Public Funds Deposit Security Act and the Deposit Protection Act for being negligent in providing security to public money,” said a police officer who is investigating the case.
Andhra Bank Security Officer Gurutej Singh conducts an inquiry into robberyThe police are preparing to book the responsible staff of Andhra Bank branch, for being negligent
6)Govt has the right to set inflation target: FM
To ensure there is no violation of the model code of conduct, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would approach the Election Commission for issuing new bank licences, Governor Raghuram Rajan announced here on Friday.“If all goes well, we should be able to issue new licences in a few weeks,’’ Mr. Rajan said.The Governor was addressing a joint press conference with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram following a meeting of the RBI Board here.Mr. Chidamabram, too, had announced on Wednesday - when the model code of conduct that came into force - that the RBI was likely to issue new bank licences before the Lok Sabha polls.On Friday, he said that he had made no recommendations to the RBI regarding the bank licences. However, “we had appointed the Jalan Committee. The Jalan Committee report is before the RBI. …The RBI will take appropriate decisions,” he said. The Minister said that if at some stage the Governor wished to share the contents of the report with him, then he would listen, but he didn’t intend to speak to the RBI about the recommendations of the Jalan Committee on bank licences.The Minister also said that it was agreed in the meeting with the Governor that the government through Parliament will set an inflation target, and then leave it to the monetary authority to find the way to achieve it. “The sovereign has the right to set the target, and then the central bank has the mandate to take steps to achieve the target. I think that there is a great degree of convergence on the way to go forward,” Mr. Chidambaram said. He also emphasised that India must achieve “price stability and growth, that is what the people of the country want and that is what the people of the country deserve’’. By ‘working together’, the government and the RBI would be able to achieve these targets, he added.An RBI panel had,in January, proposed moving to an inflation target of 4 per cent in three years, with a 2 per cent band on either side when setting monetary policy, sharply below current levels. Mr. Rajan has since said publicly that the government and Parliament would have the final say in any decision on whether to adopt an inflation target.The Minister also said that the government was looking to issuing shares to employees of public sector banks but the decision on the proposal would be taken by the new government post-elections. “We were looking at the rights issue for minority shareholders. There was some discussion about non-voting shares, but I think the time has come to look for new or innovative ways to raise more capital for the banks,” he said.
7)SEBI acts against Royal Twinkle Star Club
Continuing its clamp down on illegal investment schemes, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, on Friday, barred Royal Twinkle Star Club, which has admitted to mopping up nearly Rs.670 crore through holiday plans, from raising more money from the investors.Royal Twinkle Star Club Ltd (RTSCL) is part of the diversified Mirah group, which has interests in real estate and hospitality, among other areas.
8)U.S. warship heads for Black Sea exercises
Even as the Russian Parliament backed Crimea’s call for a referendum on splitting from Ukraine, the United States stepped up its military presence in the region.The USS Truxtun, a guided missile destroyer crossed the Bosphorus Straits on Friday for joint training with the Romanian and Bulgarian Navies in the Black Sea.The ship is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and has a crew of about 300.The U.S. Navy said the visit was “routine” and planned long before the crisis in Ukraine, but the CNN said its arrival “sends a signal.”The Pentagon is also sending 12 F-16 fighter jets and 300 service personnel to Poland for a training exercise next week in response to the Ukraine crisis.Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak was quoted as saying Friday that the exercise had been scaled up at Poland’s request after Russia took control of the Crimean Peninsula.The U.S. on Thursday deployed six F-15 fighter jets in Lithuania in response to “Russian aggression in Ukraine,” according to Lithuania’s Defence Minister Juozas Olekas.The additional deployment will boost to 10 the number of NATO fighter jets assigned for air patrols over the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.Crimean lawmakers on Thursday voted to have a referendum on March 16, asking people to choose between acceding to Russia and remaining an autonomous region of Ukraine with greater powers.“If the people of Crimea make this decision, we in the upper chamber will support it,” Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Federation Council, said at a meeting with a delegation of Crimea’s Parliament led by its pro-Russian Speaker Vladimir Konstantinov.“We will respect the historic choice of the people of Crimea,” said Sergei Naryshkin, Speaker of the lower house, the State Duma.Intense diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis continued overnight as U.S. President Barak Obama called Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for a second time in less than a week.The Kremlin said the two leaders disagreed over “the causes which brought about the current crisis and the resulting state of affairs.”Mr. Putin insisted the new government in Kiev was illegitimate because it had come to power through “an unconstitutional coup.”At the same time, the Russian and American Presidents “agreed that foreign policy chiefs Sergei Lavrov and John Kerry will continue intensive contacts.”
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