Pratibha Patil’s Museum: Gifts received by VVIPs from foreign countries can be purchased by them but can they be loaned?

Moneylife :VINITA DESHMUKH | 08/08/2012 02:30 PM |

Why couldn’t outgoing President Pratibha Patil follow the norms like other VVIPs and buy the gifts she received officially, instead of getting them loaned to her proposed museum?

Gifts which VVIPs including President of India receive during their official foreign tours are the property of the nation and are deposited in the government treasury called theToshakhana.  They can be purchased at market value by the VVIPs, if they so wish. In fact, according to the ministry of external affairs, “the total amount collected by the government by allowing retention of gifts by VVIPs during past three years and the current year is Rs62,000.” So, why couldn’t outgoing President Pratibha Patil follow the ministry’s norms and buy whichever gifts she received officially instead of having them free of cost?

The notification of the ministry of home affairs dated22 June 1978 does not mention anything about giving away such gifts on loans to the respective VVIPs. However, around 155 gift items which Pratibha Patil received during her tenure as President of India have now been ‘loaned’ to the collector of Amravati, where Ms Patil’sfamily trust is building a museum to showcase her political journey.

Earlier VVIPs which include presidents, vice-presidents and ministers, could retain gifts that they receive on foreign trips which are valued at Rs1,000 and that too can take home only one such gift in case they receive more than one on a particular tour. In an amendment made by the ministry of home affairs in 1999, the amount has been increased to Rs5,000 and the VVIP can purchase the gift item as per the market value of the “country of origin” over and above that amount. This means that the VVIP can retain any gift he or she receives during official tours abroad free of cost in case the value is Rs5,000 and below. However, if he or she wishes to possess any other gift which is beyond this amount then, he or she will have topay the market price as valued by the ministry of external affairs.

In a written agreement signed between the Presidential Estate and the Collector of Amravati, the 155 gifts out of the 2,500 gifts that Pratibha Patil received in her tenure as the President of India, have been ‘loaned’ to her trust for a museum under-construction, in her hometown in Amravati, without any time frame for returning them to the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s ‘Toshakhana’ (treasury).

Ms Patil, who courted controversy and impropriety in terms of grabbing a sprawling 2,42,000 sq ft defence land for her luxurious post-retirement home in Pune (which she abandoned after a series of articles in Moneylife) and for having spent Rs200 crore on her foreign trips with an entourage of family members in practically every trip, is now all set for another bad precedence, where propriety too is being questioned.

As per the last notification of the ministry of home affairs dated 27 January 1999, “In regulation of the foreign contribution (acceptance or retention of gifts or presentation regulation 1978 in sub-regulation (1) the following proviso shall be inserted namely: provided that a minister my retain a gift or presentation made to him/her provided the value of the gift assessed under sub-regulation 5 does not exceed Rs5,000.” There is no mention of loaning out of these gifts to the individual after retirement which are received in the official capacity of the VVIP, on behalf of the entire nation.

The above reply was given in the Lok Sabha on 2 May 2012 by Praneet Kaur, minister of state in the ministry of external affairs (MEA), to a series of questions asked by Members of Parliament DB Chandre Gowde, Karnataka and Abdul Rahman, Tamil Nadu, in the Lok Sabha. The questions posed by these two MPs were:

1. whether the government has laid down any extensive guidelines with regard to gifts received by VVIPs during their foreign visits which are funded by the Union Government
2. if so, the details thereof;
3. the details of VVIPs who went on official visits to foreign countries during the last three years and the current year using public money and the details of the gifts received by them, VVIP-wise
4. the details of the VVIPs who declare the gifts and deposited the same with the government and who did not declare the gifts received by them during the above period
5. the total amount of daily allowance paid to these VVIPs by the Indian missions/embassies abroad during the above period
6. the total amount earned by the government by selling/disposing of the gifts deposited by the VVIPs and
7. the steps taken by the government to ensure that the gifts received by the VVIPs aredeclared and deposited in the government Toshakhana

While most of the information for the above questions are still being compiled, as stated by Ms Kaur in her reply: “the information is being compiled and will be laid on the Table of the House as soon as it is available and that, none of the gifts deposited in Toshakhanaby the VVIPs was sold. The total amount collected by government by allowing retention of gifts by VVIPs during past three years and the current year is Rs 62,000.”

This writer has invoked the RTI (Right to Information) Act and sent off an application under Section 6 of the RTI Act  to the Central Public Information Officer in the President of India’s office on 3^rd August. While reply is awaited, I request each one of you who reads this article to independently send a similar RTI query which will ensure citizen pressure, enough to compel the CPIO to reveal the required information from the august office.

Central Public Information Officer

                        Shri Saurabh Vijay,

                       Central Public Information Officer

                       President's Secretariat

                       Rashtrapati Bhavan

                       New Delhi-110004

                       Telephones: 011-23015321 Extn: 4685(O)

        Full name of the applicant:

            Vinita Vishwas Deshmukh

            123/8, Mira Society

            Salisbury Park

            Pune-411037

       Date: August 3, 2011

        Subject matter of information:

        President of India’s gift articles loaned for display

        Details of information:

1. Copies of rules/GRs/amendments/correspondence for rules and amended rules regarding gift articles and souvenirs which are received by Presidents of India from other countries and within the country
2. Copy of rules and regulations for ‘loaning’ official gifts received by President of India to presidents on their retirement or loaned to any other organisation.
3. Copies of requests made by Presidents of India for loan of gifts for display at their post-retirement residences or any other place outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Give names of the presidents and list of gift articles loaned to them
4. Copies of official requests made by Presidents of India for loaning of gifts from 1990 onwards. Provide copies of all such correspondence within the President of India office as well as between President of India office and the relevant district/city authority where the President of India may have resided or the place where she/he wants to display the loaned gift items, form 1990 onwards
5. Copies of official requests made specifically by Ms Pratibha Patil to President of India office and correspondence between President of India’s office and ministry of external affairs (MEA) and collector, Amravati, Maharashtra regarding loaning of a number of gift items for a museum in Amravati.
6. List of gift items loaned specifically to Ms Patil along with the evaluated price of each item, from which country did each gift item come from, what was the purpose of her visit when she received each of the gift item
7. How many gift items in total does the ‘Toshakhana’ of the president’s office have at the moment and what is the total amount in value

Period of information:

1990 to 2012

Whether information is required by post or in person:

By registered post at the above address

Simultaneously please scan and email all the certified documents atvinitapune@gmail.com.

Thanking you in advance and requesting you to send me the information as early as possible.

Yours Sincerely
 

Vinita Deshmukh

123/8, Mira Society

Salisbury Park

Pune-411037

 Rules when VVIPs receive gifts from abroad on official visits (ministry of home affairs notification, 22 June 1978)

1. Where such person receives any foreign contribution by way of gift or presentation, he shall within 30 days of the receipt thereof , intimate to the secretary, to the Government of India, in the ministry of home affairs/ministry of external affairs and the ministry or the department of the Government of India sponsoring the delegation of which he is a member in writing –

1. The fact of his having received of such gift or presentation
2. The foreign source from which it is received
3. Its approximate market value in India
4. The place in which and the date on which it is received; and
5. Such other details relating there to as he may, in the circumstances consider appropriate;

Provided that in case where such person received such gift or presentation while he is visiting any foreign country or territory outside India such intimation may be made by him within 30 days from the date of his return of India.

2. Every gift or presentation received by such persons for any foreign source shall be deposited by him with the secretary to Government of India in a ministry or the department which has sponsored that delegation of which he was the member within 30 days from the date of intimation by him of such receipt under sub-regulation (2).

3. The secretary to the Government of India, referred to in sub-regulation 3 shall forward every such gift or presentation deposited with him to the Toshakhana in the ministry of external affairs for assessment of its market value in India.

4. Such assessment shall be made within 30 days from the date of receipt of the gift or presentation in the Toshakhana in accordance with the rules applicable, for the time being in force to the valuation of articles in the Toshakhana and such persons shall be intimated in writing of such assessment forthwith.

5. The assessment so made under sub-regulation 5 shall be final and shall not be called in question by such person.

6. Every such gift or presentation the market value in India of which as assessed under sub-regulation 5 does not exceed Rs1,000 (now it is Rs 5,000) shall be returned to such person for retention by him;

8. Every such gift or presentation the market value in India of which (now it is market value of the country of origin), as assessed under sub-regulation 5 exceeds Rs1,000 shall be retained in the Toshakhana;

Provided such person shall have the option that exercised by him within 30 days from the date of receipt by him of the intimation under sub-regulation 5 to purchase such gift or presentation on payment of the difference between the market value in India of such gift or presentation as assessed under sub-regulation 5 and Rs1,000 (now Rs5,000); provided further that the option once exercised under this sub-regulation SHALL be final.

(Vinita Deshmukh is the consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte” with Vinita Kamte. She can be reached at vinitapune@gmail.com)

Management Tip of the Day: Leadership

When you manage a team of people, adapt your leadership style to meet each person’s needs. 
In general there are four types of approaches: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Depending on the level of your employee’s competence and commitment, choose which will work best. 
When your direct report is learning new skills, be directive. Define tasks clearly and check progress to make sure he’s not faltering. 
Use periodic coaching when your employee is learning new skills but needs the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. 
Be supportive, encouraging highly competent employees who lack confidence.
 With employees who are both highly motivated and experienced, delegate tasks.
 In all cases, your responsibility is to find the balance between hand-holding and empowering.

Adapted from the Harvard ManageMentor Online Module: Leading and Motivating.

Chidambaram to meet public sector bank chiefs on August 18

BL : K R Srivats : Newdelhi :Aug 7,2012

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will meet public sector banks and financial institutions chiefs on August 18 in the Capital.

This will be his first meeting with PSU bank chiefs after assuming charge as Finance Minister on August 1.

This meeting is significant as it comes in the backdrop of the banking industry facing a crisis-like situation on several fronts, including rising bad loans and human resource problems.

There is also the threat of drought in several parts of the country, adversely impacting bank balance-sheets in the second quarter.

Chidambaram has also invited the heads of Nabard, Exim Bank, National Housing Bank, India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd and SIDBI. The Chairman of pension regulator, PFRDA, has also been invited, official sources said. Chidambaram’s predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, also followed the practice of meeting chief executives of PSU banks.

Such meetings offer an opportunity to the Finance Minister to review the status of financial inclusion, extent of farm credit growth and progress on the education loans front.

Already, Chidambaram has indicated that he would prefer lower interest rates to spur investments.

The RBI expects the Indian economy to grow 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal, while the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman, C. Rangarajan, had pegged it higher than 6.5 per cent.

Infosys launches cloud solutions

BL : Bangalore : Aug 7 ,2012

Infosys today announced the launch of cloud integration software solutions, Cloud Ecosystem Hub.

This, according to the company, will enable its existing and future clients to adopt, manage and govern cloud computing solutions.

Vishnu Bat, Vice-President and Global Head-Cloud, told Business Line: “Businesses can now accelerate time-to-market of cloud computing related services up to 40 per cent, improve productivity by up to 20 per cent and achieve cost-savings of up to 30 per cent.” Further, this solution will work with private, public cloud and hybrid clouds (which is a combination of private and public clouds). A private cloud is where a company keeps existing IT infrastructure within its premises and uses solutions on a need basis and in a public cloud, the IT infrastructure resides online and is used on a need basis.

According to Bhat, the Infosys cloud solutions come with features such as unified self-service catalogue that enables enterprises to subscribe to business services across multiple environments such as mainframe or Web. It provides a single-window view of the enterprise cloud ecosystem and a single view of fragmented IT environments thereby enabling monitoring of resource usage.

Infosys has collaborated with providers of cloud infrastructure, applications and platforms such as Amazon Web Services, HP, IBM, Microsoft and others. The cloud business is a part of the products and platforms business and in FY 2012 contributed about 6 per cent of Infosys revenues.

venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in

Chronic lifestyle disorders plague IT workforce

 

ronendrasingh.s:BL: Aug 8,2012

Around 55 per cent of young workforce engaged in India’s information technology (IT) and IT enabled services (ITeS) sector are stricken with lifestyle disorders due to unhealthy eating habits, hectic work schedules, tight deadlines, irregular and associated stress.

According to a study by Assocham, no fixed meal hours and non-stop telephonic sessions were causing gastric problems, together with fatigue and headaches.

About 2,000 young men and 1,000 women were interviewed by the industry body’s Social Development Foundation in the age group of 22 to 30 years, representing various business process outsourcing (BPO) companies.

The survey was carried out in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Pune between August and October last year to ascertain the extent of junk food addiction among BPO employees.

“Excessive intake of junk food, lack of physical exercise, long working hours, lack of sleep together with unbound mental fatigue is impacting on the health of BPO and IT professionals in the cities,” DS Rawat, Secretary General, Assocham said.

He said most of them eat food served outside, and this might have detrimental consequences on employees’ health in the long run.

ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in

ICICI Bank topples Bharti, enters top-10 most valued list

PTI: BL: Mumbai:Aug,8,2012

ICICI Bank today toppled Bharti Airtel to become the country’s 10th most valued firm in terms of market capitalisation, pushing the telecom major out of the top-10 list following a sharp fall in its share price after it posted a sharp dip in first quarter profit.

Bharti Airtel’s scrip was under pressure, down 4.4 per cent on the BSE in early trade, as its net profit declined 37 per cent to Rs 762.2 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012 — the tenth straight quarterly fall.

As a result, Airtel’s m-cap slipped to Rs 1,08,305 crore, making it the 11th most valued firm, as against ICICI Bank’s Rs 1,12,006 crore m-cap which pushed it to 10th place.

Market experts blamed the fall in Bharti’s scrip and market cap to below-expectation results.

“Bharti reported below estimate numbers, both its domestic and African operations reported a marginal decline,” Rikesh Parikh, VP Markets, Motilal Oswal Securities, said.

Another analyst, Ankita Somani, Research Analyst-IT & Telecom, Angel Broking said, “Bharti reported a disappointing performance for Q1 FY13, with its net profit declining for the tenth straight quarter due to higher operating costs. Overall the results were subdued.”

Meanwhile, the shares of ICICI Bank were trading at Rs 971.5, down marginally by 0.24 per cent.

The top-10 list is led by RIL with a m-cap of Rs 2,59,409 crore, followed by TCS (Rs 2,45,141 crore), ONGC (Rs 2,37,885 crore), Coal India (Rs 2,19,462 crore), ITC (Rs 2,04,529 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 1,40,568 crore), SBI (Rs 1,39,332 crore), NTPC (Rs 1,37,740 crore), Infosys (Rs 1,31,154 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 1,12,006 crore).

The market capitalisation of a listed company corresponds to the cumulative market price of all its shares. This figure changes daily with the stock price.

Quote Gems - Nelson Mandela

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling,


  but in rising   every time we fall."




 Nelson Mandela -


Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918) is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first ever to be elected in a fully representative democratic election.

 Before being elected President, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist, and the leader and co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela went on to serve 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island.

 Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to the establishment of democracy in 1994. As President, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa.

In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata (Xhosa: father).Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.