During his visit Pradhan informed that the bank is focusing on providing loans to various sectors including MSME, agriculture, and retail. He added that the bank is working towards providing more loans to self-help groups.
Demanding more investments in the State, Pradhan said "Odisha is only receiving assurances for investments in industries sector but no real investment has been done so far. The State government needs to create more opportunities for an industrial corridor.”
In September, the Central government had appointed MDs, CEOs of 10 nationalised banks, five from SBI group alone.
Kochhar, 57, whose second five-year term was to end in March next year, has been replaced by Bakhshi, ICICI Bank said in a statement.
Bakhshi, who took the helm of the bank on an interim basis in June, was named Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for a period of five years until October 3, 2023, subject to various approvals. Bakhshi, a Mechanical Engineer from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, started his career with ICICI in 1986.
He looked after the corporate clients for the Northern and Eastern regions of ICICI Limited before joining ICICI Lombard in 2002. His work responsibilities included business development, project appraisals, project monitoring and business restructuring.
Kochhar had in June gone on leave after ICICI Bank appointed a retired Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna to investigate an anonymous complaint that alleged quid pro quo in the course of her work in dealing with certain borrowers of the bank.
The complaint alleged that Kochhar had favoured Videocon in lending money because the firm's founders had an investment in a renewable energy company founded by Kochhar's husband.
ICICI Bank said the "inquiry instituted by the board will remain unaffected" by Kochhar's exit, adding that some of her retirement benefits would be subject to the outcome of the probe.
The board had initially backed Kochhar, calling the nepotism allegations against her "malicious and unfounded", but later instituted the probe into the matter in June.
Kochhar, who had headed the country's third-largest lender since May 2009, will also step down from the boards of all ICICI subsidiaries including ICICI Securities where she had just weeks ago sought reappointment as chairperson.
The bank further said that the external enquiry instituted by the board against Kochhar in May will continue and the benefits to her would be subject to the outcome of the probe.
"The enquiry instituted by the Board (against Kochhar) will remain unaffected by this and certain benefits will be subject to the outcome of the enquiry. Kochhar will also relinquish office from the Board of Directors of the Bank's subsidiaries," the statement said.
"The Board of Directors of ICICI Bank accepted the request of Chanda Kochhar to seek early retirement from the Bank at the earliest," it said.
Kochhar's current five-year tenure as CEO was to end on March 31, 2019.
Meanwhile, independent director M D Mallya too resigned from the board for health reasons.
Shares of ICICI Bank closed at Rs 315.55, up 3.94 per cent on the BSE even as the benchmark index Sensex plunged by more than 2 per cent.
There are allegations of involvement of Kochhar and her family members in a loan provided to Videocon group on a quid pro quo basis.
It was alleged that Videocon Group pumped money into NuPower Renewables, a firm owned by Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar.
There are also allegations that NuPower got investments of Rs 325 crore from Mauritius-based Firstland Holdings, a company owned by Nishant Kanodia, son-in-law of Essar Group co-founder Ravi Ruia.
The investments from Ruia's son-in-law's firm into NuPower started in December 2010. Incidentally, the same month ICICI Bank was the lead banker in a consortium of Indian banks that extended a USD 530 million loan to Essar Steel Minnesota LLC on December 29, 2010. This loan was later classified as NPA.
The Reserve Bank in its 2016 investigation in the matter had raised questions over the ownership of the Mauritius-based entity, First Land Holding, which had invested Rs 325 crore in NuPower.
Panda will become the first woman to hold the top post in the industry body’s eastern zone after her name was announced at the CII Eastern Regional Council meeting in Kolkata today.
Panda will replace Umesh Chowdhary Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Titagarh Wagons Ltd. as the chairperson for a period of one year from 2018 to 2019.
Co-founder of Ortel Communications Ltd, Panda was awarded as the “Young Global Leader” at the World Economic Forum in 2008.
Panda has more than 15 years of experience in the broadband and broadcasting industry and was earlier serving as the deputy chairperson of the CII, Eastern Region.
Panda is also the Co-founder and Executive Director of Odisha Television Limited (OTV).
Touted to be India's first ever highly modernised farmer training centre, the centre operating from fertilizer factory premises of IFFCO at Paradip, has been facilitated with modern technology. The objective behind the initiative is imparting training to farmers to enhance farm yield and train them in add-on skills and organic farming for proper utilisation of land.
This apart, the farmers will be informed of the weather forecast, seasonal cropping patterns, and use of fertilizers through computers and digital medium like smart phones.
According to sources, farmers from Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts would be given training initially followed by other districts of the State.
The training will be imparted in the local language, stated Awasti.
In the days to come, the cooperative has plans to establish similar training centres for the local farmers in other states of the country.
The anti-corruption officials later conducted simultaneous raid on the government quarters of Mishra, his office in Cuttack and his residence.
Talking to media persons, Mishra said he has been implicated in a false case. “I was at a meeting of OSIC. Everyone here knows that after the meeting, I entered into my car. I don’t know who had kept the money inside my car. This is a conspiracy of some corrupt people in this office who are trying to get rid of me as I want to bring reforms in the functioning of OSIC,” he added.
Asked about the claim of the Vigilance that the cash seized from his official vehicle was a bribe, Mishra said how the Vigilance officials can claim this since they have not recovered the cash from his possession. I have not demanded money from no one. “I will take legal recourse to prove my innocence.
Talking to media persons, Swarup Parida, SP, Vigilance Cell, said the Vigilance officials had conducted secret verification on several allegations of corruption against Mishra since last six months. “Today we got conclusive information that he is taking money with him in his government car (OR-05-AU-4399). Acting on the information, we planned accordingly and seized the cash from his vehicle. In this connection, we have conducted simultaneous raid on his private residence at Ranihat in Cuttack, his government quarters in Bhubaneswar and his office in Cuttack. The raids are still continuing and further investigation is underway,” Parida said.
He further said there were allegations that Mishra had taken huge bribe from the contractors.
Asked to name the persons from whom the OSIC MD has taken bribe, Additional SP, Vigilance Radhakrishnan said the investigation is underway. “We can tell you after the investigation is over,” he pointed out.
According to a General Administration notification, Ahuja has been posted as Principal Secretary, Tourism and Culture.
Besides, the state government posted Gagan Dhal appointed as Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) and ChandrasekharKumar as Managing Director, Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (OMFED).
While Vir Vikram Yadav has been appointed as secretary, Science and Technology, Hari Ballav Mishra will take charge as Director, Agriculture, the notification added.
Samantray will have to undergo an additional 20 month of rigorous imprisonment in case he fails to pay the fine, the court said in its verdict.
The court, however, exonerated Samantray’s wife Sandhyarani in the case.
Notably, Vigilance sleuths had conducted simultaneous raids on the office and houses of Samantray in 2008 following allegation of amassing disproportionate properties against him. During the raid, the anti-corruption wing had traced movable and immovable properties worth Rs 1,34,14,514 belonging to him of which property worth Rs 80,46,133 was found to be disproportionate to his known sources of income during investigation.
"We are delighted to have Salil joining as the CEO and MD of Infosys. He has nearly three decades of global experience in the IT services industry. He has a strong track record of executing business turnarounds and managing very successful acquisitions," said Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Infosys.
Parekh will be joining Infosys from Capgemini, where he was the member of the Group Executive Board.
The company said U.B. Pravin Rao will step down as interim CEO and MD effective January 2, 2018 and will continue as Chief Operating Officer and a whole-time Director of the company.
The software major's full-time CEO post has been vacant ever since Vishal Sikka resigned on August 18, stating that he could not continue to work amid "malicious personal attacks". The company's Board had then blamed its founder N.R. Narayana Murthy for Sikka's dramatic resignation.
The co-founder of the company Nilekani returned as non-executive Chairman with an aim of finding a CEO for the company, reconstituting its Board and stabilising its business.
In a statement on Saturday, Capgemini announced that Parekh would be leaving the company's Board from January 1, 2018.
"I would like to thank Salil for his involvement in the Capgemini journey. Salil contributed in particular to the development of the group in India and in the US," Capgemini's Chairman and CEO Paul Hermelin said in the statement.
Like Infosys, Capgemini is also a global consulting, technology and IT outsourcing firm headquartered in Paris, France.
As per reports, Patnaik, who was lodged in jail allegedly for chit fund scam, was produced before the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors’ court (OPID court) by police today. However, some depositors manhandled and shoved him outside the court room in presence of police.
Patnaik was arrested by Golanthara Police from Bhubaneswar on November 6 last year. Datum Marketing Company has allegedly duped nearly Rs 100 crore from depositors in Ganjam and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh through several lucrative schemes.
Prior to the transaction, Puri held 0.14 per cent stake -- 77.96 lakh shares -- and post the sale he holds 0.01 per cent stake, 3.76 lakh shares, according to the latest data released by the exchanges. Puri sold the shares during July 21-23.
The development gains significance as Puri is set to retire from the top post of the bank in October after serving as the MD since its establishment in 1994.
The bank's board last year set up a 6-member search committee to identify his successor.
Puri is credited with building India's largest and most valued private sector bank. The bank's market capitalisation currently stands at Rs 6.14 lakh crore.
At the end of the day's trade on Friday, its shares were at Rs 1,118.80 on the BSE, lower by Rs 11.90 or 1.05 per cent from the previous close
(IANS)
You May Also Read:
HDFC Bank Launches ‘e-Kisaan Dhan’ App For Farmers