“The six companies and bank accounts which were operated from London were started in 1999 and closed down just before the listing of Satyam’s American Depository Rights on New York Stock Exchange in May 2001. These accounts and fictitious firms were clearly part of Raju’s modus operandi to divert Satyam scam money,” whistleblower said.

CBI sources said the whistleblower, in his late forties or early fifties, contacted the agency on his own and his statement is being currently recorded. “Since these benami accounts no longer exist, this person will be able to provide us valuable leads as to the trail of the money that were in these accounts”, a CBI official said.

The CBI is still awaiting responses to the letters rogatory sent by Indian courts to six countries seeking their cooperation in unearthing the trail in the moneylaundering of Satyam scam money. The requests were sent to courts in US, UK, Belgium, Mauritius, Singapore and British Virgin Islands. CBI sources said it may take a few more weeks for responses to arrive from these countries as the courts there have to still complete the formality of recording statements of those connected to the foreign accounts there.

‘Legalities taking time’

Even as next hearing of Satyam scam was posted to March 31 by a special CBI court, Union minister of state for corporate affairs Salman Khurshid said: “Sometimes, legal system takes its own time.. I can tell you that it is high priority for us that we do it as quickly as possible, so that the world knows that not only did we get back on our feet, but also made sure that people are accountable”, he said.

An article in China Daily stressed that the US company’s withdrawal “from the Chinese mainland is a deliberate plot”.

“Google’s withdrawal is not a purely commercial act. The incident has from the beginning been implicated in Washington’s political games with China.”

The article by Ding Yifan, a researcher at the Development Research Center under the State Council, pointed out that “Google’s services in Germany, France, India and other countries are also under scrutiny”.

In January, Google threatened to leave after alleged cyber-attacks. It also said it won’t filter its Chinese-language search results.

Google moved its Chinese-language search engine site to Hong Kong and stopped censoring its Chinese search results Monday.

Clinton spoke about Google’s “positive role in instilling US political stances and values into Georgian and Iranian street politics to sway local public opinion… the White House believes that Google alone cannot play a large role in China as it did in Georgia and Iran”.

Days later, Google announced the withdrawal of its search service from the world’s largest Internet market saying it could not tolerate strict internet censorship mandated by the Chinese government.

The article accused Google of enjoying “intimate links with the Obama administration” and said: “The company was one of the four major sponsors of President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign… Close connections between the two make it natural for Google to be devoted to serve the Obama administration’s foreign strategy.”

It stated: “The search engine leader’s exit from the Chinese mainland is a deliberate plot.”

“Google’s case is in essence part of the US’ Internet intrusive strategy worldwide under the excuse that it advocates a free internet.”

Brazil, Vietnam, Korea and US are among the top five countries from which most spam was sent during the first two months of 2010, said the study by PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory.

And, the cities from which spam was being sent, Seoul topped the list, followed by Hanoi, New Delhi, Bogota, Sao Paulo and Bangkok.

The spam messages themselves are used primarily to distribute malware or sell illicit products, such as videos or photos of Brazilian girls.

Ending suspense over his appearance before the Supreme Court-appointed SIT probing the 2002 Gujarat riots, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to present himself before the panel on March 27.

“March 27 is the mutually agreed date on which Modi will appear before Special Investigation Team (SIT),” his advocate Mahesh Jethmalani said.

However, Modi told SIT Chief R K Raghavan in a letter that since the hearing on the case is scheduled before the Supreme Court on April 5, it will be good if the apex court hears the matter first.

Modi pointed out to the SIT that since the matter, regarding which summons had been issued to him was pending before the Supreme Court, propriety demands the SC hears it first before he appears for SIT questioning, Jethmalani said.

He said the chief minister has also written that in case the SIT decides to question him on the mutually agreed date of March 27, he will appear before the panel.

However, SIT Chief R K Raghavan refused to comment on the date. “It is a privilege communication between the SIT and the witness and I cannot comment on this,” he said.

Confusion prevailed over the appearance of Modi before the SIT with its chief saying he would appear on March 21. But Modi, in an open letter, claimed he was not summoned on that date.

SIT has summoned Modi to depose in connection with a complaint of Zakia Jaffery, widow of former Congress MP Eshan Jaffery, who was killed in Gulburg society riot case of 2002 along with 69 others.

Former BJP MLA Kalu Maliwad had approached the Supreme Court demanding that SIT should not be allowed to press the complaint of Zakia Jaffery.

“The opportunity is not at a company-level but at an industry level,” said Milan Sheth, partner, Ernst & Young, indicating the scale of opportunities that is expected to unfold over the next 10 years. Nearly all top IT firms and BPOs have been anticipating the move and preparing for it by pursuing contracts and acquisitions giving them a footprint the US healthcare provider and insurance segment, estimated at around $ 30 billion.

Mumbai-headquartered IT services provider, Patni Computer Systems, announced a strategic deal with a US-based healthcare insurance provider that involved taking over part of its operations in El Paso, US, only last week. “Patni sees significant healthcare outsourcing opportunity both in IT and BPO areas. The additional enrollees will need to be administered and this means a lot more work in areas of claims processing, enrollments, underwriting support, customer support et al for insurance carriers, which is outsourced to companies such as Patni,” said Sanjiv Kapur, senior VP and head – BPO, Patni.

“There will be increased volumes both on the provider and payer side. It is a big positive for us because the big part of what we do is eligibility services, where we assess eligibility and enrol people into medicare programmes… I expect a bulk of business to come in 2014,” said Ananda Mukherji, CEO, Firstsource Solutions, which will gain from its MedAssist acquisition done in 2007. This kind of opportunity will require players to also have an onshore presence, in some cases, because of regulatory requirements and in others, because of the high-end processing involved, said industry executives. A few like Firstsource and Cbay already have an onshore presence and while others are building it.

“Delivery of healthcare in the US will never be the same again. If there is one focus of the bill, it is getting the entire administration behind reducing healthcare costs against what they are today. To do this, every form of cost reduction must be leveraged by healthcare companies, including outsourcing and offshoring. This will mean positive momentum for players in this space in the medium-to-long term. Services such as finance and accounting, research and analytics will be high in demand as they also help reduce cost and increase efficiency,” said Keshav Murugesh, CEO, WNS Global Services.

Some large US healthcare insurers already have an offshore presence in the country which will help them keep costs lower. UnitedHealth Group, one of the biggest US health insurers, has been present in Gurgaon, for the past three years. It operates a captive business process outsourcing unit, employing about 2,000 people in IT Operations (ITO) and Healthcare Business Services (HBS).

“Traditionally, a company such as Cognizant, which has a huge exposure to healthcare and life sciences and earns nearly 26% of its revenues from this industry, has benefited from the opportunities spawned by regulatory changes in the healthcare and life sciences industry,” pointed out K Vinayambika, senior VP, healthcare practice, Cognizant Technology Services. Cognizant, Wipro, Infosys Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services, all have thriving healthcare practices that stand to benefit from this opportunity.

“But the benefits will not be limited to the large players or offshore players alone. Even US firms and smaller India-based providers will gain,” pointed out Mr Sheth.

This ‘sin’ economy, comprising fake and counterfeit products, smuggled and pirated goods, unauthorised gambling, bribery and prostitution, among a host of other sinister activities that go unaccounted, has a draining effect on the economy. So Just how big is the black economy?

While there are no authentic figures, economists feel that it is in the region of 40% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). Professor of economics, Jawaharlal University, Arun Kumar, who has written one of the most authentic books on the subject, ‘The black economy in India’, puts the figure at around 50% of the GDP.

According to the latest estimate of Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the size of the Indian economy is around Rs 61,64,000 crore. Thus, the size of the black economy, taking it at 40% of GDP, is around Rs 25,00,000 crore or around $500 billion.

If black money is declared by individuals or corporate houses as income, it becomes legal and would be taxed at 30%. If all the estimated black money is declared, it could generate a tax revenue of Rs 7,50,000 crore for the government! This is more than total tax collection at Rs 6,41,000 crore for 2009-10. Kumar puts the potential tax revenue figure much higher at around Rs 10,00,000 crore.

Surely, the government can make better use of this amount. Additional tax income to the government, said Kumar, would not only have helped the government to expand its welfare programmes, but also enabled it to take up more infrastructure projects.

Besides, revenues of individual sectors get impacted by counterfeit products. Take the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry for instance. It loses 6-7% of its turnover due to counterfeit products and illegal imports. The size of the FMCG industry is around Rs 1,00,000 crore, which pegs the losses to the sector from counterfeiting at Rs 7,000 crore. With the excise rate applicable on personal care products being 8%, the duty evasion is well over Rs 500 crore annually. “Spurious and counterfeit products is a cause of serious concern. It not only affects the industry but, more importantly impacts, consumer interests,’’ said a HUL official. Pharma is no different. According to Ranjit Shahani, vice-chairman and managing director, Novartis India, what is more alarming is the economic value loss, which is multifold.

Of the drugs tested in a countrywide survey conducted by the Drug Controller-General of India, 0.4% were found to be spurious. The size of India’s pharmaceutical industry is Rs 90,000 crore. Thus, the estimated size of the counterfeit market is around Rs 360 crore. Apply a multiplier effect of ten, and the economic value loss would be in excess of Rs 3,000 crore.

Counterfeiting is prevalent across the board, from aircraft parts, apparel and software, to cigarettes and auto components. Over 40% of the spare parts industry is said to be counterfeit. A SIAM study has identified annual losses of up to $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) to the auto industry due to counterfeiting. For the music industry, the turnover is said to have declined from Rs 1,200 crore in early 2000s to around Rs 600 crore, mainly due to pirated music CDs and DVDs.

The Rs 6,000 crore Indian film industry loses Rs 2,500 crore annually to piracy. Over 800 million pirated DVDs discs are consumed in India annually and 1 million DVD players are added every month in India.

If there was no piracy, the estimated revenues earned by the government by way to the various taxes would be around Rs 1,000 crore per annum, said an industry official. The domino effect of piracy impacts workers, employees and actors alike, adding to the economic value loss.

According to Kamal Nayan Kabra, former professor of National Institute of Public Administration, economic liberalisation not only helped corporate houses in hiding their income, but also in deploying the same back in the economy by re-routing it to tax havens, through hawala channels.

Despite computerisation and issuance of permanent account number (PAN) to all the taxpayers, benami transactions are still rampant. According to a finance ministry source, 30% of the high-value transactions of total value of over Rs 55 lakh crore are without PAN. A majority of real estate transaction have been reported without PAN. The implementation of goods and services tax (GST) is expected to help contain the spread of black money in the economy to an extent.

The official in charge of the internet bureau under the State Council Information Office made the comments about two hours after the online search service provider announced it has stopped censoring its Chinese-language search engine Google.cn and was redirecting Chinese mainland users to a site in Hong Kong.

“Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,” Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.

“This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicisation of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts,” the official said.

Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond made the “stop censoring” announcement in a blog post at about 3 a.m. Tuesday, more than two months after the company said it had been attacked by hackers supported by the Chinese government and was considering pulling out of the Chinese market.

“We made patient and meticulous explanations on the questions Google raised (in the talks), …telling it we would still welcome its operation and development in China if it was willing to abide by Chinese laws, while it would be its own affair if it was determined to withdraw its service,” the official said.

“Foreign companies must abide by Chinese laws and regulations when they operate in China,” the official reiterated.

He noted that the Chinese government encourages the development and promotes the opening-up of Internet.

“Online opinion exchanges are very active in China and e-commerce grows rapidly here. As facts have demonstrated, the environment for Internet investment and development in China is sound.

“China will unswervingly adhere to the opening-up principle and welcomes foreign companies’ participation in the development of Internet in the country,” he said.

The official also vowed the government will provide good service to foreign businesses, adding Internet will maintain, as before, rapid growth in China.

DPA adds: Google moved its Chinese-language search engine site to Hong Kong and stopped censoring its Chinese search results.

“Earlier today we stopped censoring our search services – Google Search, Google News, and Google Images on Google.cn,” the company said on its official Google blog.

“Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.”

The company said it would continue to conduct research and development work in China and also continue to operate its advertising sales teams in the country.

“Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard,” Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said.

“We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”

“We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced, it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision.”

Google added that it will create a new web page that will track which Google services are available in China, and which are being blocked by the Chinese government.

Bihar is set to be the new battleground for Hindi language dailies with Dainik Bhaskar, the second largest publication in the country (with an average issue readership of 12.8 million, acording to the latest edition of the Indian Readership Survey) firming up its plans to enter the market.

Bhaskar is scouting for land for printing facilities in the state. Girish Agarwal, director, DB Corp. Ltd said the group plans to launch multiple editions of its Hindi newspaper in the state. “We see potential in the market because cover-price wise, it is extremely attractive,” he added, declining to share details.

Prabhat Khabar, run by the Usha Martin group of Kolkata, is launching two new editions in the state; currently the Hindi daily is printed out of Patna. K.K. Goenka, vice-president, Prabhat Khabar, said the paper already sells at least 75,000 copies in Bihar and the two new printing facilities at Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur will double this number. Dainik Jagran, published by Jagran Prakashan Ltd, runs three editions of the paper and may be adding one more, according to an executive at a rival newspaper. The group’s director, Shailesh Gupta, said the paper is working to consolidate its position in the state but declined to elaborate. Basant Rathore, general manager, brand development, Dainik Jagran, too, declined to comment on the plans.

Hindustan is market leader in the state with a 75% readership share (or 4.33 million readers) and is also looking to set up printing facilities in Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur. Amit Chopra, business head, Hindustan, said: “We have strengthened our offering further with the introduction a daily youth supplement—Hindustan Yuva.” Once the printing facilities in Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur are operational, the newspaper’s circulation in Bihar would be around 900,000 copies, he said.

The impending fight for readers in Bihar doesn’t seem to faze Chopra. “Dainik Jagran is a huge national player and it entered this market (Bihar) 10 years ago. Still, we’ve managed to get and hold on to 75% readership share,” he said.

The sudden interest of newspapers in Bihar is understandable. For starters, the state will go to the polls in October and elections is usually a good time for newspapers to push circulation. It also spells a spike in advertising revenues.

Anita Bose, general manager, Mediaedge:cia, of GroupM India Pvt. Ltd, who does not see Bihar as a major advertising market, says ad revenues could surge by at least 15-20% during elections.

“Elections yield best circulation results. It is the best entry time for a new player. Also paid news, no matter how vehemently one denies it, has become the order of day,” said A.S. Raghunath, print media consultant, who is currently a consultant to Prabhat Khabar and the Telugu daily Sakshi in Andhra Pradesh.

Raghunath’s reference is to a growing practice among some publications of carrying ads masquerading as news in an effort to fool readers and bypass Indian rules on electoral spending. Mint, Hindustan Times and Hindustan have clear rules on advertising and other paid-for content which is identified as such in the publications.

Bihar isn’t an unattractive market either. The state’s economy is growing at 11.03% compared with the national average of 8.49%, according to the latest data from the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO). Chopra of Hindustan says of the Rs2,000 crore advertising revenue that the Hindi dailies generate, Bihar contributes around Rs150 crore. And readers in the state also appear to be willing to pay for their papers—a change from most other markets where advertising subsidises the cost of printing to a significant extent.

While Prabhat Khabar sells its daily at Rs3 on all weekdays, Dainik Jagran’s cover price ranges from Rs4 to Rs6 on different days of the week, and Hindustan is priced at Rs4.

Still, that could change with Dainik Bhaskar’s entry; the paper isn’t known for its quiet entry into markets and usually stirs things up with aggressive price positions.

Janardan Pandey, business director of Mudra Group’s media specialist agency Radar said: “It cannot be a luke-warm entry for Bhaskar. It would need to carpet-bomb this market, as Bihar is one market which has given Hindustan clout at an all-India level. Jagran is also an established player there. It would have to take share from the existing players in order to make a successful entry.”

According to data shared by Mediaedge:cia for the Bihar market, in the latest edition of the Indian Readership Survey Hindustan leads in the Bihar market with 4.3 million readers, Dainik Jagran follows with 2.3 million readers, and Aj comes in at a distant third with 2,84,000 readers.

The country’s total number of internet users grew to 71 million last year, according to an annual survey by market research agency IMRB and Internet and Mobile Association of India, available exclusively with Neytri. The survey has traced users who have used the internet at some point in time, an indication of the number of Indians who have gone online at least once in their lifetime.

Companies such as Dell, HP, Acer, HCL and Lenovo have all launched netbook models in India in the recent past. Gartner estimates that nearly 325,000 units will be sold in India this year. Indeed, the burst of such devices in the market couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, given that the customary contributors of internet growth in India were beset with their own problems.

PC sales, after years of giddy growth, were almost flat at 73 lakh units in India in 2009-10 from a year ago. And the country’s number of cyber cafes dropped from 235,000 in 2006 to 180,000 in 2009, according to Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI).

At least 37% of computer users still reply on cyber cafes to use the internet. Growing awareness about the benefits of internet usage and critical applications such as job search gradually shifting to online portals also helped in the rise in the number of users.

The study also says India’s active user base — comprising people who access the internet at least once a month — grew by 18% to 51 million from a year earlier.

However, the survey also offers salient data that are a counter against getting carried away by the other glowing trends. The number of users who possess an internet connection remains starkingly low at 14.6 million. Also, internet penetration is still measly compared to that of countries such as the US. China has over 360 million internet users followed by US at 227 million and Japan at 95 million.

Similarly, internet additions continued to be eclipsed by mobile subscriber additions that were ticking at 10 million a month last year. Users who access internet via mobile phones remains a meagre 2 million due to slow download speeds. Here, users who access online WAP portals pre-burnt into SIM cards are counted out in the survey.

Still, in many households, internet usage rose 70% to 15.7 hours a week from a year earlier, a pointer to the growing popularity of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“Proper laws governing cyber cafe industry will promote further adoption of internet in the country,” says Amrita Choudhary, Director at Cyber Cafes Association of India.

Can audio-video piracy be checked if it is brought under the stringent laws that deal with activities of bootleggers, immoral traffic offenders, drug offenders and goons?

In a recent submission to the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the central government has said that it has urged state governments to explore the ‘desirability’ of having a legislation that covers all such activities.

The central government suggestion was to enact a law along the lines of the “Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of bootleggers, drug offenders, goondas, forest offenders, immoral traffic offenders and slum grabbers Act, 1982” that includes video piracy as an offence.

The submission said the government was proposing further amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957, to give performers more rights and incorporate provisions to protect the music industry.

The draft also highlighted the achievements of law enforcers and said IP infringement cases registered in India were on the rise. “The rules have become an effective tool for checking entry of pirated goods into India and have made enforcement of IP rights much easier for rights-holders.”

Luxotica, the Italian group of companies, was the first to file a notice under the IPR (Imported Goods) Enforcement Rules, 2007, to prevent import of counterfeit Rayban products in India. As against 28 cases of suspension of clearance of imported goods on account of IPR infringements in 2008-09, the number increased to 55 in 2009-10, the report said.

Though the submission is voluntary, India has provided its inputs to USTR as the country’s views will be considered while USTR prepares its annual Special 301 Report — a review of the global IPR scenario and its impact on US-based industries.

The Special 301 Report categorises countries under three separate heads — watch list, priority watch list and notorious — depending on how USTR rates the enforcement systems of its trading partner. India, along with 11 other countries, including China, Russia, Canada, Venezula and Argentina, is currently in the “priority watch list”.

This is the second time India is submitting its views to USTR. Though countries often give their views after the US comes out with its “Special 301” reports, it is the first time USTR has decided to invite submissions before it sits down to rate IP regimes across the world.