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India's Mars mission satellite mated with rocket, launch date revised

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<img alt="India's Mars mission satellite mated with rocket, launch date revised" border="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" pg="" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/thumb/msid-24446031,width-300,resizemode-4/Mars-Orbiter--I.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" title="India's Mars mission satellite mated with rocket, launch date revised" vspace="0" width="300" /></div>
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File picture of Isro scientist working with the Mars Orbiter Mision spacecraft. </div>
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<br />CHENNAI: The Indian Space Research Organization completed integration of its Mars mission satellite on Sunday with the rocket while the heat shield is expected to be closed in couple of days, an official said. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />"The 1,340 kg satellite was mated with the rocket today (Sunday). The heat shield will be closed in two or three days after tests. Everything is progressing normally on the rocket and the satellite side," an <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Isro" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #024d99; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Isro</a> official, who did not want to be identified, told IANS. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />On Saturday Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan told IANS that the Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will be delayed by a week as out of of the two ships — Nalanda and Yamuna — carrying rocket tracking systems, only the latter has reached Fiji. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Nalanda is expected to reach there October 21. From there, both the ships have to travel to their respective locations to track the rocket, Isro officials told IANS. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The ships have terminals to track the rocket, which has a coasting period of around 20 minutes beyond the visibility of existing ground stations. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Malgalyaan mission was originally slated for October 28 from Isro's rocket launch centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80km from here. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />According to Isro officials, there is no problem as far as the mission is concerned. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Radhakrishnan said as the launch window is between October 28 to November 19, the revised launch date will be decided October 22 after the ship reaches Fiji. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Incidentally October 22 is seems to be a special date for Isro. It is a Tuesday and in Tamil, Mars planet is called Sevvai Graham and Tuesday is also called Sevvai. In Hindi, Mars is called Mangal and Tuesday is Mangalwar. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />India's first inter-planetary mission was to the Moon October 22, 2008 at an outlay of around Rs 390 crore<br />.</div>
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India's Mars mission satellite mated with rocket, launch date revised

File picture of Isro scientist working with the Mars Orbiter Mision spacecraft. CHENNAI: The Indian Space Research Or...

08:24

FIR against KM Birla & Parakh: Focus now shifts to CBI & PMO in coal scam

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<span style="background-color: white; color: #757575; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><b>CBI's pursuit of industrialists from the top drawer, succeeds in making a mockery of India Inc's apparent progress in the anti-corruption crusade</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Almost 48 hours after </span>Kumar Mangalam Birla <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">became the latest industrialist to find himself in the crosshairs of the </span>Central Bureau of Investigation<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> (CBI), and 24 hours before the </span>Supreme Court<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> ordered </span>the national <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">investigative agency to probe six instances of prima facie criminality in taped conversations of a lobbyist for some of India's biggest conglomerates, the creme de la creme of </span>India Inc<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> got a booster shot from unexpected quarters.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">A study by global anti-corruption group </span>Transparency International<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> (TI) titled 'Transparency in Corporate Reporting: Assessing Emerging Market Multinationals' concluded that "companies from India are clearly ahead of the pack" in their efforts to curb corruption. </span>The rest<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> of the "pack" had companies - 100 in total - from 16 developing economies, including China (the worst performer), Russia, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, Hungary, Indonesia and the UAE.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">One section of TI's study scored companies for reporting on anti-corruption programmes, including measures such as "facilitation payments" and "political contributions". A clutch of Indian corporations found themselves in the top bracket with scores of between 77% and 92% against a rather dismal sample average of 46%.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Scoring well along with a sprinkling of Tata firms for its apparent eagerness to disclose anti-corruption measures is </span>Bharti Airtel BSE 2.27 %<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> (88%), whose chairman </span>Sunil Mittal<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> in April this year had to submit personal bonds in a </span>CBI<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> special court as guarantees for his appearance in a case related to alleged excess allocation of radio airwaves in 2002 by the telecom services provider.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Late last year, the CBI had filed a charge sheet in a case involving hoarding of excess spectrum in which it named, among other telecom companies, Bharti Airtel. For good measure, Bharti Airtel also comes in at No. 4 in the overall study on transparency with an index score of 6.4.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">It gets better. Hindalco, the company for which the CBI's first information report (FIR) insists that Birla entered into a criminal </span>conspiracy<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> with former coal secretary PC Parakh for getting a </span>coal block<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> allocated, is one of the companies that scores pretty high on "organisational transparency". TI's study has </span>Hindalco BSE 3.15 %<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> scoring a high 75% - against the sample average of 54% - for its willingness to be open about "complex corporate structures [that] can hide tax evasion and bribes".</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div>
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<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><strong style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SCAMS & POLICIES</strong></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As far as TI is concerned, Mittal and Birla - along with the Tatas, </span>Infosys BSE 1.41 %<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">, </span>Vedanta Resources<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> among others - aren't faring too badly in doing their bit to "stop </span>corruption<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> from being a part of their business".</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Now only if the CBI would agree. The investigative agency's relentless pursuit of industrialists from the top drawer (by market value and revenues) - along with top bureaucrats and politicians - succeeds in making a mockery of India Inc's apparent progress in the anti-corruption crusade.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Why, even </span>Ratan Tata<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> - until recently chairman of the </span>Tata group<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> of which six companies figure in TI's top 10 list of most transparent in emerging markets - found himself at the receiving end of the CBI's investigation into the misallocation of 2G spectrum but eventually got a clean chit.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Citizens who would be tired of news channels and headlines screaming corruption ad nauseam - much of it of the crony kind, involving politicians, babus and industrialists - may be tempted to scoff at TI's findings; but when on Tuesday the CBI named the </span>Aditya Birla group <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">chairman, of which Hindalco is a part, in the FIR relating to a </span>scandal<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> involving alleged misallocation of coal blocks, his counterparts in India Inc along with a slew of ministers in the ruling UPA regime couldn't help wondering aloud if the CBI had gone too far. Hindalco in a statement said it had done nothing wrong.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Predictably, India Inc came out in full force against the FIR - the 14th in the Coalgate investigations - in the days after it hit the headlines. Industry doyen </span>Rahul Bajaj<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> told ET Magazine: "There is a feeling that the decisions and actions of the government appear to take industry back to the licence-permit raj of pre-1991 days." Yet, he doesn't think it's just the government to blame. "Whether 2G or Coalgate or any other similar case, culprits include the giver and the receiver of illicit funds. Hence, business and government are both guilty."</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Bajaj acknowledges that it's not easy to remove bad eggs from among politicians or industrialists. However, the numbers can be reduced substantially if discretionary policies are reduced to a minimum and if, after due process of law, a bureaucrat, a politician or a businessman is found guilty, he must be severely punished. "Often it is found that the guilty gets away due to corruption and the honest, perhaps due to some technical error, gets caught," adds Bajaj.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Minister of state for telecommunication, IT, shipping and ports Milind Deora told ET: "We're still unable to differentiate between policy decisions and scams. They're usually unrelated because there can be a </span>scam<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> in what's perceived to be a good policy decision and no scam in what's considered to be a bad policy decision."</span><br />
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A government concerned about deficits, a depreciated rupee and muted investor sentiment was quick to voice its concern about the counter-productiveness of such apparent witch-hunting. Information & broadcasting minister Manish Tiwari, among the first ministers to speak on the issue on Wednesday, told ET: "Alleged criminal culpability of leaders of corporate India should be juxtaposed with implications it has on investment growth and overall business climate given the corrosive nature of our public discourse."<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Industry minister Anand Sharma told ET: "We have to make a distinction between bonafide and malafide decisions; a bureaucrat or a minister cannot be hauled up without examining the complexity of policy-making. We cannot label every one with the same tag of corruption."<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />The question then, of course, is that if not India Inc then who should carry the can? And it's then that a can of worm unravels that inevitably poses uncomfortable questions to a government that's been plagued with corruption charges, many of which lead all the way to the prime minister's office (see PMO and Coalgate).<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />On Saturday, the PMO put out a statement saying that the final decision on the allocation of the Talabira coal block (the one awarded to a JV of Hindalco and two PSU joint venture partners), which differed from the earlier recommendation of the Screening Committee, was taken following a representation received in the PMO "from one of the parties, which was referred to the ministry of coal". "The prime minister is satisfied that the final decision taken in this regard was entirely appropriate..."<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><tbody style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<tr style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="FIR against KM Birla & Parakh: Focus now shifts to CBI & PMO in coal scam" class="gwt-Image" src="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo/24400128/coal-scandal.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="FIR against KM Birla & Parakh: Focus now shifts to CBI & PMO in coal scam" /></td></tr>
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<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><strong style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PMO AND COALGATE</strong><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />As minister in charge of coal for around five years in UPA's two regimes, the PM came under attack once the coal scam surfaced.<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />What PM could have done<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />According to the CAG, competitive bidding could have been introduced in 2006 by amending the existing administrative instructions.<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />The PM's counter (In Parliament)<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />A meeting was convened in the PMO on July 25, 2005, which was attended by representatives of coal and lignite bearing states in which representatives of state governments were opposed to the proposed switchover to competitive bidding. Legislative changes that would be required for the proposed change would require considerable time.<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Therefore, it was decided to continue with the allocation of coal blocks through the screening committee procedure. It was only in August 2006 that the Department of Legal Affairs opined that competitive bidding could be introduced through administrative instructions. However, the Department also opined that legislative amendments would be required.<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />The tough questions<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Were there pulls and pushes from all quarters to help private companies get coal blocks?<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Did the Congress party put pressure through the PMO to hand over coal blocks to A, B or C?<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />When state governments, including those ruled by the BJP, urged the Centre not to go for bidding, did they represent a particular corporate entity?<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Why some of these questions may have no answers:<br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Parakh may have had some of the answers but by making him an accused, Parakh as a potential witness has been neutralised as the version of an accused has no standing in court.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">TRYING TO CLEAN ITS SLATE</strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />The UPA for its part has been making all efforts to shrug off scandals that have erupted in its second stint in government. The two biggest ones were courtesy former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai, whose reports on 2G spectrum and coal blocks allocation squarely blamed the government for losses of billions of dollars for misallocation of spectrum and for windfall gains to those allocated coal blocks in an arbitrary manner. But the more it attempts to deflect the attention of such scandals, the more does it backfire in spectacular fashion.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />The former coal secretary Parakh ensured the rebound was magnified when he told reporters that if he is accused for recommending Hindalco in 2005, shouldn't the PM who was the final approver as coal minister then, also be in the same boat?<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />That was the cue for the Opposition and even a couple of coalition partners to rush in for the kill. Their ire was directed at the two weakest points of the UPA: a prime minister who hasn't been able to do enough to curtail the corruption that has dogged his government, thereby making him appear an accomplice; and a government that seems to be clueless about the rampage on which the national investigative agency has embarked upon.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />"The week-long developments show how the government is not in control of anything. That cluelessness stems from the top," says a coalition partner who is a member of parliament and who did not want to be named. The CBI for its part has taken its cue from the Supreme Court, which recently directed the agency to stop being a "caged parrot" and to stop listening to its "master's voice".<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">CBI ON A SHAKY GROUND?</strong><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />The CBI would have used the court's directive to free itself from apparent interference into its investigations into Coalgate. To be sure, CBI director Ranjit Sinha thundered to the press that he had "evidence" on Parakh - that it was Parakh who overturned a screening committee's decision and allotted coal blocks to Hindalco. "This is a Supreme Court-monitored investigation and we are going by the rulebook." CBI officials on condition of anonymity have said the documentary evidence against Parakh includes notings on files by officials of the coal ministry who had objected to Parakh's decision.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Sinha, however, didn't appear to have much support from the government, although most spokespersons and ministers ET Magazine spoke to did make it a point to note that they were "all for transparency and action against corruption". But they did drive home the point that the CBI may be on shaky ground. Corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot said caution should be taken that such actions are based on hard facts and do not create an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />To be sure, legal experts who read the FIR wonder privately why the CBI was trigger-happy in naming Birla and Parakh, and not the "competent authority" in the FIR. After all it was this authority that first agreed to the screening committee's recommendation to reject Hindalco, and subsequently approved the coal secretary's decision to allot Hindalco a coal block(thereby ignoring the screening committee's recommendation).<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />"We had named Jindal and we had to follow the same rule in this case. We will name all owners in future FIRs too," a senior CBI official told ET Magazine, although he did admit that the agency desisted from naming the PMO and referred to it as the competent authority at this stage to avoid controversy. "It was not necessary to name the competent authority at the FIR stage," he added.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Legal experts point out that with Parakh saying that it was the PM (as coal minister) who took the final decision, it's clear who the competent authority is. And if the CBI is to be believed that it is still early days to name that authority, it may do so when the investigation proceeds beyond the FIR stage.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />In any case, naming the competent authority matters little, now that the PMO has come out in the open and declared that it approved the allocation of the coal block.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Conspiracy theorists point out that the reason to bring in an industrialist from "below the radar" into the probe is to scuttle it, and ensure that everybody - politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists - go scot-free.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Making Parakh an accused also helps this endeavour as it neutralises him as a potential witness. Perhaps it would be pragmatic this time around to heed senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh when he says the "witch hunting" should stop at a time when the country is forced to import coal to feed its thermal power stations.</div>
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FIR against KM Birla & Parakh: Focus now shifts to CBI & PMO in coal scam

CBI's pursuit of industrialists from the top drawer, succeeds in making a mockery of India Inc's apparent progress in the anti-...

18:50

Coalgate: Kumar Mangalam Birla breaks silence, rubbishes CBI charges against him

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CBI alleges Kumar Mangalam Birla wrote two letters and held a "personal meeting" with the then coal secretary Parakh, after which Hindalco was given a coal block.</div>
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<br />NEW DELHI: Even as he drew all round support from industry and some ministers, Kumar Mangalam Birla on Friday broke his silence rubbishing CBI charges against him in a coal block allocation case saying he was not worried as no wrong has been committed. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group flagship firm Hindalco, met finance minister P Chidambaram and revenue secretary Sumit Bose and later told reporters that he had discussed the FIR issue with the minister. "As of now I am not worried about it. There is nothing wrong (that) has been done. So why should one worry?" He was asked whether the CBI FIR naming him and Hindalco in the coalgate scam would cast a shadow on the Aditya Birla Group's application for a bank licence. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Meanwhile, industry body CII on Friday joined others in slamming the FIR against Birla but issued a nuanced statement saying while CBI had the right to proceed against anyone it should be careful before taking action against reputed industrialists to avoid creating a sense of fear. Without referring to the Birla case, CII chief Kris Gopalakrishnan said, "It is desirable to ensure that all facts of the case are laid upfront before proceeding against respected and reputed individuals." <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />He said that reputations of institutions and individuals take years to build and therefore, extreme caution needs to be exercised before any action is taken, which jeopardizes reputation that institutions and individuals build for themselves<br />.</div>
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Coalgate: Kumar Mangalam Birla breaks silence, rubbishes CBI charges against him

CBI alleges Kumar Mangalam Birla wrote two letters and held a "personal meeting" with the then coal secretary Parakh, af...