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HDFC Bank has no love for India

HDFC Bank “has got no love and respect for India” as it put the country’s reputation at stake by not activating a debit card of a couple “trapped in a foreign country”, the apex consumer court has said.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) made the observations while asking the bank to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the Indian couple, who were stuck in Thailand and Singapore as the bank did not activate their debit card for 10 days in 2008.

“The bank has got no love and respect for India. The reputation of India was at stake. Knowing fully well that Indians were trapped in a foreign country, it was the bounden duty of the manager to swing into action immediately. He committed an egregious mistake for taking no action for 10 days. It exposes the sloth and callousness on the part of the manager. This shows negligence, inaction and passivity on the part of the bank.”

“Foreigners always complain that due to procedural delays, they do not want to have business relations with this country. The lackadaisical approach by the bank is surprising. The bank manager did not make any effort to straighten out the problem,” the Bench headed by Justice J M Malik said.-from BS

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BSE gets SEBI approval for IPO

Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has provided in-principle not to BSE Ltd for an initial public offering (IPO).

 

BSE, the country’s second-largest exchange in terms of volume, has written to market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) seeking an approval for theIPO and to list its shares on a recognized stock exchange. 

 

Ashish Kumar Chauhan, managing director and chief executive officer, BSE said it will take around six to nine months for the exchange to file its offer document with Sebi. 

 

“We hope that we will be able to file the offer document in the next six-nine months. As of now we don’t envisage issuance of any fresh equity. The IPO is likely to be an offer for sale (OFS) by existing shareholders,” said Chauhan.-from BS

(Anybody interested in buying/selling shares of BSE,kindly email me at Alpha Ideas )
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Remembering Khwaja Ahmad Abbas

A small, modest, ground-floor flat in Juhu was his home and, on the first floor, a tiny cubbyhole served as his workplace. It was in the cubbyhole that we used to meet.

There were no chairs, only mattresses with cushions in the makeshift study. One sat next to him on the floor. He had no writing table, just a raised wooden platform with numerous nib-pens and inkwells, both red and blue. (He used red ink for exclamation marks, something he had a weakness for.) And, of course, the cubicle was full of clippings, periodicals, books and postcards. On the walls were displayed signed photographs of himself with Khrushchev, Tito, Nasser, Nehru. Despite the clutter it was not an untidy room. A chaiwala brought oversweet tea in glass tumblers at regular intervals—that was the extent of his hospitality. To say he lived frugally would be superfluous; he was a communist, even if linked to the glamorous film industry.

From this cubicle he wrote, directed and produced fourteen flop films. And scripted Raj Kapoor’s iconic Awara, Boot Polish, Shri 420, Jagte Raho, Bobby, Mera Naam Joker and many others. He also published sixty books, fiction and non-fiction. He was a busy communist.

Forever in debt and forever scrounging around for money, he borrowed from friends and moneylenders. All the films under his banner, Naya Sansar, were not minor box-office disasters but gigantic box-office disasters. ‘Some people say I am mulish, trying out themes of social realism without compromise,’ he explained. ‘“Give the people what they want,” they advise. But I believe in doing what satisfies not only my personal ego but also my social conscience.’

Abbas’s films would start promisingly. Sadly, after the first half, he would slump into sermonizing, making his cinema didactic and tedious. Fully conscious of the hazards of mixing propaganda and entertainment, he persisted. ‘All the money I make from Raj Kapoor, I put into my flops,’ he joked. He admitted history would remember him only as the producer who introduced Amitabh Bachchan to Bollywood (Saat Hindustani), a fact Amitabh himself acknowledged, saying if Abbas had not given him a break, he would have gone back to his boxwala executive job in Calcutta.

He worshipped Jawaharlal Nehru and lovingly recalled all his meetings with Panditji, especially the last one at Teen Murti, a week before Nehru passed away. As Abbas walked up to greet him, Nehru, weak after his stroke, tried to get up from his chair. Abbas urged him not to bother. ‘Abbas, I may be about to die but I haven’t forgotten my tehzeeb (culture).’ When he recounted this story his eyes welled up.

I remember him for his loyalty to a wonderful romantic vision, and also the lunches he bought me. On the first of the month he would collect his monthly salary of Rs 500 from the Blitz office and treat me at the Jehangir Art Gallery restaurant, Samovar. ‘You can have beer if you like,’ he would say.Today I have money, tomorrow I won’t.’wrote Vinod Mehta

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Karma in India

If the due process of law was followed  in time then Vijay Mallya would have been history by now !….the irony is that the victims,the KFA Employees ( a captain on a panel voiced this) want him free so he’s able to pay them their dues….for if he goes behind bars so goes their hopes!….

a stock market scamster comes to mind who was arrested & convicted as he owed the  banks heavily but has been on bail  on an Apex Court Appeal now pending for years and has been able to repay the Banks despite his accounts being frozen ! ~ tacit!? …think about it !….manipulated & rigged stocks & got into trouble….then manipulated & rigged stocks again to repay !….the World is round indeed !

wrote Gaurav

Hmm…maybe NSEL victims should plead for Jignesh Shah’s release !

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Jayant Sinha is doing you a favour