DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ BBC won’t be ‘put off’ covering India by tax raids and censorship
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —The BBC says it will not be “put off” from reporting in India after the government prevented a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from airing in the country and raided the broadcaster’s offices. Indian tax authorities spent three days searching BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai last week. We won’t be put off from that task”Davie added that the BBC “does not have an agenda.”Indian authorities have accused the BBC of tax evasion. Modi was accused of not doing enough to stop the violence, which killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. — Swati Gupta and Manveena Suri in New Delhi, Olesya Dmitracova and Martin Goillandeau in London, and Alex Stambaugh in Hong Kong contributed reporting.

New Delhi/London CNN —India’s market regulator is looking into the explosive allegations against Adani Group made by US short seller Hindenburg Research, which accused the conglomerate of “the largest con in corporate history.”The claims, published in late January, set off a crash in the company’s market value and robbed its owner Gautam Adani of his title as Asia’s richest man, as a 400-page rebuttal by the conglomerate failed to reassure investors. Adani Group did not respond to a CNN request for comment on the inquiry on Tuesday. The balance sheet of each of its independent portfolio companies is “very healthy” and “our business plan is fully funded,” the spokesperson told CNN. On Tuesday, shares of many of the listed firms controlled by the conglomerate slid again in Mumbai. Although Adani Enterprises rose 1.9%, there were 5% falls in the stocks of Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas, Adani Power and Adani Total.

CNN —Russian sausage magnate-turned-lawmaker Pavel Antov died in India on Saturday after falling from the third floor of his hotel, according to the Indian police. Police believe Antov died by suicide after falling from the third floor of his hotel in the Rayagada district, although the postmortem report has not been released yet, Sharma said. He was a member of the Russian parliament’s United Russia party, which was formerly headed by Vladimir Putin and is still staunchly supportive of the Russian President. Russian Consul General in Calcutta Alexey Idamkin told Russian state media RIA Novosti on Monday that the Odisha State Police and the Consulate General in Calcutta didn’t see anything suspicious in the death of two Russians in India. In mid-September, Russian businessman Ivan Pechorin, who was the top manager for the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, was found dead in Vladivostok, according to Russian state media.

☆ Gujarat elections: BJP wins in sweeping victory for Modi
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Swati Gupta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The BJP took 156 of 182 total seats in the Gujarat state assembly following voting earlier this month, marking the party’s best-ever performance in the state, a longtime BJP stronghold. In a comment posted to Twitter Thursday evening, the Prime Minister thanked the people of Gujarat and said he was “overcome with a lot of emotions” to see the results. The BJP won 25 seats and three went to independent candidates, with results from the state of around 6 million also announced Thursday. He campaigned extensively in the lead-up to the election in Gujarat, where the BJP has ruled for more than a quarter century. Modi led the state as chief minister for more than a decade before coming to power as Prime Minister in 2014.

New Delhi CNN Busines —Indian startup Skyroot Aerospace launched the country’s first privately developed rocket, Vikram-S, into space on Friday with support from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Until now, the country’s space industry has been dominated by the state-run ISRO, but Skyroot Aerospace has opened up the sector to private companies. This mission symbolizes not just India’s first private rocket launch but also “the potential of new India,” said Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder of Skyroot Aerospace after the launch. Skyroot Aerospace was launched in 2018 and is based in the southern tech hub of Hyderabad. Last year, it became the first startup to enter into an agreement with ISRO to use the Indian space agency’s expertise and to access facilities.

CNN —India’s top court on Friday ordered the release of six people convicted of killing the country’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, 31 years after their imprisonment. The Supreme Court released Nalini Sriharan, the only woman convicted in the case, and five men, according to Anand Landge, the lawyer for the petitioners. Over the years, various Tamil Nadu governments have requested the release of those found guilty over the killing. In May, the Supreme Court ordered the release of A. G. Perarivalan, another man convicted in the case. Known as the “unwilling” prime minister who never wanted the job, Gandhi became India’s youngest leader at the age of 40 after his mother and former prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was shot dead by her bodyguards.

Morbi, India CNN —A marigold garland hangs across a photo frame with the faces of 12 members of the Bodha family who died when a bridge collapsed beneath them during a family outing in Gujarat, eastern India. In the days since the tragedy, few answers have emerged as to why the colonial-era suspension bridge appeared to snap, spilling dozens of people into the Machchhu River. Police investigating the case have suggested the company tasked with maintaining the bridge, Oreva, failed to conduct the appropriate repairs or tests to ensure the bridge was safe for pedestrians. Courtesy Prabhulal BodhaDiwali holidays turn deadlyThe suspension bridge has hung across the Machchhu River for as long as anyone can remember. Gujarat authorities estimate some 200 people were on the bridge when it collapsed – much more than the capacity allowed, they said.

CNN —More than 50 children are among 135 people killed in Sunday’s bridge collapse in India’s Gujarat state, according to a list of victims published by state authorities on Wednesday. Rescue workers conduct search operations after a bridge across the river Machchhu collapsed at Morbi in India's Gujarat state on October 31, 2022. A shoe lies near a damaged suspension bridge in Morbi, India, November 1, 2022. Mourners take part in a funeral procession while carrying the coffins of victims who died after a bridge across the river Machchhu collapsed at Morbi in India's Gujarat state on October 31, 2022. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site of the deadly bridge collapse in western India on Tuesday.

☆ Indian regulators hit Google with $162 million fine over anticompetitive practices
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Swati Gupta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New Delhi CNN Business —Google is facing the heat in India. The country’s antitrust regulator has imposed a penalty of approximately 13.4 billion rupees ($162 million) on Alphabet Inc’s Google for abusing its “dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem.”The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has asked Google to modify its conduct in relation to anti-competitive practices. Google has been pouring some serious cash into India, which is a key overseas market for American tech firms. The world’s second most populous country has 750 million internet users, and millions more are expected to come online in the future. In 2020, Google said it was planning to invest $10 billion in India as part of plans to make the internet “affordable and useful” for a billion people.

The WHO suspects that four of the syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited – Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup – have “unacceptable amounts” of chemicals that can damage the brain, lungs, liver and kidneys of those who take them. The deaths confounded medics until a pattern emerged: dozens of patients younger than five had fallen ill three to five days after taking a locally sold syrup made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals. CNN has reached out to Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited, but has not yet heard back. All of the children had consumed Maiden Pharmaceuticals’ cough syrups, authorities added. One official told Reuters that the total number of deaths nationwide was “still being determined.”Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said this week that the cough syrups had not been registered in the country.

India has long grappled with an epidemic of violence against women and girls in the deeply patriarchal country. And campaigners say the alleged involvement of a woman in this latest case demonstrates the scale of internalized misogyny in society. ‘Loopholes in every corner’Dixit, the police official, said the alleged rape took place around three months ago in Mainpuri – about 270 kilometers (167 miles) southeast of India’s capital, New Delhi. But activists say in the seven years since its implementation, little has been done to empower women and girls, and violent crimes against women persist. Those beliefs appear to have played out in this case too, as the girl did not report her alleged rape for three months, according to Dixit.

New Delhi/Hong Kong (CNN Business) Cyrus Mistry, the Indian scion of one of the country's most prominent empires, died in a road accident on a highway near Mumbai on Sunday, according to Maharashtra police. Mistry, 54, was one of two people who died when the car they were traveling in hit a barrier between two lanes, according to Shrikant Shinde, a Maharashtra police official. Two other people in the vehicle were injured and taken to hospital, he added. Autopsies would be carried out on the two deceased at a hospital in Mumbai, said Pradeep Dhodhi, a Palghar district medical official. Mistry was best known as the former chairman of Tata Sons , the massive Indian conglomerate that owned Jaguar, Land Rover and the Taj hotels.

Search resuls for: "Swati Gupta"

12 mentions found