Milan: Months after the shocking revelations of the AgustaWestland bribery case, Finmeccanica ex-CEO Giuseppe Orsi's trial begins on Wednesday. A CBI team will also be attending the trial in Milan.
Orsi and the CEO of its chopper unit Bruno Spagnoli, will go on trial on Wednesday in a Milan court. Orsi was arrested on February 12 on charges of international corruption, bribery and billing fraud over the sale of 12 AgustaWestland helicopters to India.
Orsi is said to have received kickbacks in the Rs 3,600 crore deal with India.
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08:41 AM, Jun 19, 2013
New Delhi: CBI has sent one of its investigating officer along with a Defence Ministry team to Milan for attending trial related to alleged corruption by AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica executives in clinching the VVIP helicopter supply contract. The Italian agencies are probing allegations of corrupt practices against top executives of UK-based AgustaWestland and its parent company Italy-based Finmeccanica in bagging the Rs 3,600 crore deal for supplying 12 helicopters to...
05:28 PM, Jun 17, 2013
New Delhi: Larsen & Toubro Ltd is competing for defence contracts worth up to Rs 8,000 crore that will be awarded in the next few months, MV Kotwal, president of the company's heavy engineering department, said on Monday. It has bid for four contracts from the Indian coast guard to supply training ships and support vehicles, worth about Rs 4,000 crore in total. The orders are likely to be finalised...
05:07 PM, Jun 17, 2013
New Delhi: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has deferred a decision on Gulf carrier Etihad Airways' planned 24 per cent stake buy in Jet Airways, the country's economic affairs secretary said on Friday. The board has sought more details on "effective control" and ownership, Arvind Mayaram said. After the FIPB, which clears foreign direct investment proposals, the deal will also need approval from the cabinet committee on economic affairs....
04:55 PM, Jun 14, 2013
Islamabad: Israel has exported military equipment, including hi-tech gear used in combat jets, over the past five years to Pakistan and Arab countries with which it has no diplomatic relations, according to a media report which was dismissed by Islamabad and Tel Aviv. The report, that can be damaging to Indo-Israel defence ties, released by Britain's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which deals with British government permits for arms...
10:40 PM, Jun 11, 2013
New Delhi: India has been made a party in the VVIP chopper scam trial in Italy which is expected to begin in the third week of June there. The Indian side is in the process of hiring a law firm there to present its case in the Italian trial procedures, Government sources said. The Law Ministry has been asked to hire the law firm for the case and it has...
08:48 PM, Jun 05, 2013
New Delhi: Staring at the prospect of being blacklisted in the wake of the chopper scam, Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland has approached the Finance Ministry for release of nearly Rs 2,400 crore which has been put on hold by the Defence Ministry pending inquiry into the case. The company has written to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, arguing that there were certain "contractual difficulties" with the Defence Ministry and holding back its...
07:36 PM, Jun 04, 2013
New Delhi: Delhi Police on Sunday arrested a man in connection with the murder of a property dealer, who was shot dead in his office on Thursday, a police officer said. "Rishi Gupta, 30, was arrested near the Shahadra Metro station Sunday morning. He had come there to meet a friend," Additional Commissioner of Police Ravindra Yadav said. Two pistols and live cartridges have been recovered from Gupta's possession, Yadav...
05:19 AM, Jun 03, 2013
Tokyo: Japan on Wednesday indicated that an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with India could happen in "shorter than two years", but both sides seemed to tread cautiously in the matter given their respective stands on the contentious issues of Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Tonohika Taniguchi, councillor and a member of the Japanese Prime Minister's strategic team, said that "both countries have agreed to...
06:50 PM, May 29, 2013
Tokyo: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in Tokyo on a three-day visit for bilateral talks. On the agenda are stronger defence ties, joint naval exercises and a possibility of a civil nuclear agreement. The PM also called upon Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, who are due to visit India this year. PM Manmohan, accompanied by his wife Gursharan Kaur, was accorded a red carpet welcome upon his arrival in...
09:35 AM, May 28, 2013
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left on Monday on a two-nation five-day visit to Japan and Thailand aiming to give a "new meaning" to India's 'Look East' policy and hoping it will contribute to peace, prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific. PM Manmohan, who flew to Tokyo, his first halt, described Japan as a "key regional and global partner for India". In his departure statement, he said he proposed...
10:30 AM, May 27, 2013
Panaji: Long-delayed aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya is undergoing trials and could be in India by December, Russian ambassador Alexander Kadakin said Friday. The Russian ambassador also complained that the delay in handing over of the Russian aircraft carrier to India was being written about extensively, as compared to the five-year long delay in the French-built Scorpene submarine. Kadakin was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the Russian consul office in Goa....
08:30 AM, May 25, 2013
Mumbai: Shareholders in Jet Airways approved an agreed sale of a 24 per cent stake in the airline to Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways, a senior executive at the Indian carrier said on Friday. Jet Airways, however, deferred seeking shareholder approval for a new set of "Articles of Association" as it awaits regulatory clarity, Company Secretary Arun Kanakal told Reuters after a shareholders' meeting. Etihad, in April, agreed to acquire a...
12:46 PM, May 24, 2013
Mumbai: Seeking shareholders' approval for sale of 24 per cent stake to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal on Friday said this strategic alliance would improve the Indian carrier's profitability and lower the costs. "Etihad investment will help us to deleverage and grow in a sustainable manner," Goyal said here while addressing Jet Airway's shareholders at an Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) convened to seek their approval for...
12:38 PM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in a gas deal that he says deliberately favours Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). Dasgputa also called for Oil Minister Veerappa Moily to step down for favouring RIL. He said if RIL's sale price of gas to the government is accepted, the government's subsidy burden would rise by Rs 36,000 crore. He said the corresponding...
11:23 AM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad's Rs 2,058-crore stake purchase in Jet Airways has hit a regulatory air pocket, as regulators are seeking more clarity on the deal to ensure overall competition in the aviation market is not affected and interests of public shareholders and consumers are protected. Separate clarifications have been sought on the deal, which involves a 24 per cent stake purchase in Jet by Etihad and is...
01:59 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: In fresh trouble for arms dealer Abhishek Verma, the CBI has initiated another probe into alleged possession of documents related to small arms deal with him which allegedly violated Official Secrets Act. CBI sources said the agency has registered a preliminary enquiry against unnamed officials after documents dispatched by estranged business associate of Verma, C Edmond Allen, were found to be genuine and confidential by the Defence Ministry....
07:59 AM, May 23, 2013
Ranchi: Aadhaar will be mandatory as proof during land deals in Jharkhand from January 1 2014, an official release said on Tuesday. The decision was taken to bring in transparency in the sale/purchase of land and prevention of registering the same land more than once, the release said quoting Chief Secretary RS Sharma. Now onwards land could be registered showing Aadhaar or other relevant documents, but from January 1, 2014...
12:56 AM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in India on Monday. Karzai is set to receive an honorary doctorate from a Chandigarh university, after which he will visit the national capital. Hamid Karzai, who is not on an official visit to India, may seek increased military aid from India during and discuss recent cross-border clashes with Pakistan, an aide said. The comments follow a weekend report by the Times...
09:59 AM, May 20, 2013
New York: Yahoo may be on the verge of closing its biggest acquisition during the 10-month reign of CEO Marissa Mayer as she tries to attract more traffic and advertisers to the Internet company's website and mobile applications. The Sunnyvale, Calif, company's board of directors will meet on Sunday evening to consider approving a $1.1 billion acquisition of online content-sharing site Tumblr in a deal Mayer negotiated, according to the...
11:50 PM, May 19, 2013
