Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7169,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Corruption&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7169,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 7072
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Corruption&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about? | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <br /><div align="justify">A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.<br /><br />The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.<br /><br />While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.<br /><br />Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat .<br /><br />Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.<br /><br />Here are some questions about the scandal:<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?<br /></em><br />Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market.<br /><br />The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.<br /><br />Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences &quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&quot; the auditor said.<br /><br /><em>WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?<br /></em><br />Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.<br /><br />The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations.<br /><br />Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party.<br /><br />All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?<br /></em><br />The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &quot;fair treatment&quot; for Telenor.<br /><br />Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.<br /><br />The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.<br /><br />One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.<br /><br />The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.<br /><br /><em>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?<br /></em><br />Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.<br /><br />This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer.<br /><br />If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.<br /><br />Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &quot;errors others have committed in India.&quot;<br /><br />It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7169,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Corruption&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7169,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 7072
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Corruption&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about? | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <br /><div align="justify">A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.<br /><br />The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.<br /><br />While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.<br /><br />Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat .<br /><br />Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.<br /><br />Here are some questions about the scandal:<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?<br /></em><br />Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market.<br /><br />The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.<br /><br />Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences &quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&quot; the auditor said.<br /><br /><em>WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?<br /></em><br />Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.<br /><br />The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations.<br /><br />Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party.<br /><br />All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?<br /></em><br />The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &quot;fair treatment&quot; for Telenor.<br /><br />Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.<br /><br />The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.<br /><br />One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.<br /><br />The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.<br /><br /><em>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?<br /></em><br />Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.<br /><br />This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer.<br /><br />If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.<br /><br />Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &quot;errors others have committed in India.&quot;<br /><br />It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6803a18055f00-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6803a18055f00-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7169,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Corruption&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 7072,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 7169,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 7072
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Corruption&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country&#039;s biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates&#039; Etisalat .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are some questions about the scandal:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world&#039;s fastest growing telecoms market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry&#039;s process of issuing licences &amp;quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&amp;quot; the auditor said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor&#039;s India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat&#039;s India operations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja&#039;s DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh&#039;s Congress party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government&#039;s image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &amp;quot;fair treatment&amp;quot; for Telenor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India&#039;s most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The scandal could dent Congress&#039; chances in Wednesday&#039;s elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world&#039;s worst performer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Norway&#039;s prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &amp;quot;errors others have committed in India.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about? | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <br /><div align="justify">A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.<br /><br />The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.<br /><br />While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.<br /><br />Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat .<br /><br />Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.<br /><br />Here are some questions about the scandal:<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?<br /></em><br />Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market.<br /><br />The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.<br /><br />Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences &quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&quot; the auditor said.<br /><br /><em>WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?<br /></em><br />Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.<br /><br />The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations.<br /><br />Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party.<br /><br />All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?<br /></em><br />The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &quot;fair treatment&quot; for Telenor.<br /><br />Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.<br /><br />The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.<br /><br />One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.<br /><br />The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.<br /><br /><em>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?<br /></em><br />Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.<br /><br />This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer.<br /><br />If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.<br /><br />Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &quot;errors others have committed in India.&quot;<br /><br />It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 7072,
		'title' => 'What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<br />
<div align="justify">
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.<br />
<br />
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.<br />
<br />
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.<br />
<br />
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat .<br />
<br />
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.<br />
<br />
Here are some questions about the scandal:<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?<br />
</em><br />
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market.<br />
<br />
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.<br />
<br />
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.<br />
<br />
The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences &quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&quot; the auditor said.<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?<br />
</em><br />
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.<br />
<br />
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations.<br />
<br />
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party.<br />
<br />
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?<br />
</em><br />
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &quot;fair treatment&quot; for Telenor.<br />
<br />
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.<br />
<br />
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.<br />
<br />
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.<br />
<br />
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.<br />
<br />
The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?<br />
</em><br />
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.<br />
<br />
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer.<br />
<br />
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.<br />
<br />
Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &quot;errors others have committed in India.&quot;<br />
<br />
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. <br />
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => 'The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169',
		'meta_title' => null,
		'meta_keywords' => null,
		'meta_description' => null,
		'noindex' => (int) 0,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => (int) 7169,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 7072,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?',
	'metaKeywords' => 'Corruption',
	'metaDesc' => '

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...',
	'disp' => '<br /><div align="justify">A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.<br /><br />The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.<br /><br />While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.<br /><br />Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat .<br /><br />Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.<br /><br />Here are some questions about the scandal:<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?<br /></em><br />Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market.<br /><br />The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.<br /><br />Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences &quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&quot; the auditor said.<br /><br /><em>WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?<br /></em><br />Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.<br /><br />The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations.<br /><br />Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party.<br /><br />All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?<br /></em><br />The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &quot;fair treatment&quot; for Telenor.<br /><br />Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.<br /><br />The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.<br /><br />One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.<br /><br />The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.<br /><br /><em>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?<br /></em><br />Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.<br /><br />This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer.<br /><br />If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.<br /><br />Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &quot;errors others have committed in India.&quot;<br /><br />It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. <br /></div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 7072,
	'title' => 'What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<br />
<div align="justify">
A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.<br />
<br />
The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.<br />
<br />
While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.<br />
<br />
Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat .<br />
<br />
Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.<br />
<br />
Here are some questions about the scandal:<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?<br />
</em><br />
Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market.<br />
<br />
The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.<br />
<br />
Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.<br />
<br />
The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences &quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&quot; the auditor said.<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?<br />
</em><br />
Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.<br />
<br />
The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations.<br />
<br />
Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party.<br />
<br />
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?<br />
</em><br />
The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &quot;fair treatment&quot; for Telenor.<br />
<br />
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.<br />
<br />
The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.<br />
<br />
One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.<br />
<br />
The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.<br />
<br />
The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.<br />
<br />
<em>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?<br />
</em><br />
Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.<br />
<br />
This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer.<br />
<br />
If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.<br />
<br />
Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &quot;errors others have committed in India.&quot;<br />
<br />
It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. <br />
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => 'The Economic Times, 13 April, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about/articleshow/7969630.cms',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'what-is-multi-billion-telecoms-graft-scandal-all-about-7169',
	'meta_title' => null,
	'meta_keywords' => null,
	'meta_description' => null,
	'noindex' => (int) 0,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => (int) 7169,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 7072
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?'
$metaKeywords = 'Corruption'
$metaDesc = '

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.

The graft scandal is...'
$disp = '<br /><div align="justify">A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors.<br /><br />The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition.<br /><br />While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors.<br /><br />Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat .<br /><br />Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue.<br /><br />Here are some questions about the scandal:<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?<br /></em><br />Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market.<br /><br />The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process.<br /><br />Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences &quot;lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner,&quot; the auditor said.<br /><br /><em>WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?<br /></em><br />Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes.<br /><br />The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations.<br /><br />Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party.<br /><br />All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India.<br /><br /><em>WHAT IS THE FALLOUT?<br /></em><br />The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking &quot;fair treatment&quot; for Telenor.<br /><br />Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe.<br /><br />The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals.<br /><br />One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations.<br /><br />The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat.<br /><br />The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal.<br /><br /><em>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA?<br /></em><br />Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped.<br /><br />This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer.<br /><br />If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts.<br /><br />Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for &quot;errors others have committed in India.&quot;<br /><br />It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers. <br /></div>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

What is multi-billion telecoms graft scandal all about?

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors. The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition. While corruption itself has been largely shrugged off by investors, the regulatory uncertainty from the review of past government decisions is a source of concern to investors. Present at the hearing are former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja as well as officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat . Three executives from Reliance ADA, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, are also on trial in the case which police investigators said involved awarding companies valuable telecoms licences at rock-bottom prices. The state auditor estimates the scam to have cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenue. Here are some questions about the scandal: WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT? Police say that millions of dollars were paid in bribes to ensure favours for certain firms in 2007/08 when India issued 122 new licences to offer mobile phone services in the world's fastest growing telecoms market. The state auditor estimated India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue -- equivalent to the defence budget -- due to violations during the allocation process. Several licences were issued to firms who were ineligible, or who had no prior experience in the sector, or who had hid material facts while applying, the auditor said. The telecoms ministry's process of issuing licences "lacked transparency and was undertaken in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner," the auditor said. WHAT ARE THE CHARGES? Police have charged the accused of cheating, conspiracy and other crimes. The accused include Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech and Shahid Balwa, the vice chairman of Etisalat's India operations. Raja, the former minister, is also accused of taking bribes to favour the local partners of Telenor and Etisalat. Police say the bribes were routed through a television channel run by Raja's DMK party, a key member of the ruling coalition led by Singh's Congress party. All the accused deny any wrongdoing. Telenor and Etisalat say the events described occurred before they invested in India. WHAT IS THE FALLOUT? The scandal has tarnished the Congress-led government's image, spooked investors and has led to the Norwegian prime minister writing to his Indian counterpart seeking "fair treatment" for Telenor. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not acting quickly enough against Raja and the opposition all but shut down an entire parliament session demanding a special cross-party probe. The government gave in to that demand. A separate parliamentary committee is also investigating the graft scandals. One of those panels last week summoned Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani -- two of India's most high-profile businessmen -- to answer questions on the licence allocations. The telecoms ministry is considering whether to cancel 85 licences issued in 2008, including those held by Telenor and Etisalat. The scandal could dent Congress' chances in Wednesday's elections in southern Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by the DMK, as voters may decide to punish it over the role senior party member Raja, the former telecoms minister, played in the corruption scandal. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA? Regulatory uncertainty is worrying investors, as so many business deals are being investigated and there is the possibility that some may be scrapped. This concern has hit the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world's worst performer. If the telecoms ministry does decide to cancel some or all of the 85 licences it is scrutinising, questions will be raised over whether foreign investors can trust Indian government contracts. Norway's prime minister has said Telenor should not be penalised for "errors others have committed in India." It is early to say whether licences will be cancelled, but pressure will be on the government not to do so because operators have invested millions of dollars in rolling out networks and cancelling them will inconvenience subscribers.