In our daily life, most of us must have been a witness to or a victim of the corruption thriving in some or the other part of the country. It could be in the form of a taxi-driver manipulating the meter to jack-up the reading or a government officer taking bribery to promptly transfer your file to the next department or even yourself offering bribe to a traffic police on breaking a signal.Scams in india is not a new thing.Every day i wake up ,watch news and i see a new scam rocking the country.This are not small scams but huge multi-million dollar scams that we see every year after year.The title name is inspired from the movie"saat khoon maaf". :)
1)2G Spectrum Scam
176,379 crore (US$39.33 billion)
Rightfully this can be called "Baap" of all the scams and the Biggest scam this world has ever seen.Following is a primer on the second-generation spectrum allocation scandal that resulted in former communications minister A Raja of DMK being arrested on Wednesday. The issue dates to 2008 when nine telecom companies were issued scarce airwaves, a national resource, and licences for 2G
mobile phone services at Rs 1,658 crore (less that $350 million) for a pan-India operation. As many as 122 circle-wise licences were issued. The opposition said by giving airwaves cheap and in a controversial manner of first-cum-first-served basis, the exchequer had lost billions of dollars. It also objected to the arbitrary advancement of the cut-off date for filing applications to suit some firms.
But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself defended Raja's decision and said May 24 last year that his communications minister had done no wrong and had only implemented the policy that was already in place. No norm was flouted, he added.
The opposition nevertheless stepped up its attack with two examples on 2G spectrum sale:
* A new player, Swan Telecom, bought licences for 13 circles with the necessary spectrum for $340 million but managed to sell a 45% stake in the company to UAE's Etisalat for $900 million. This swelled its valuation to $2 billion without a single subscriber.
* Another new player, Unitech, paid $365 million as licence fee but sold a 60% stake to Norway's Talenor for $1.36 billion, taking its valuation to nearly $2 billion, again without a single subscriber.
Similarly, another licensor, Datacom, later became Videocon Mobile and Stel now has large stake by Bahrain Telecom. The other companies are Tata Tele, Idea Cellular, Loop Telecom, Shyam Telelink and Spice.
The issue cropped up again after auction of airwaves for third-generation (3G) services that fetched nearly $15 billion and for broadband access, which fetched over $8.5 billion to the exchequer. Accordingly the the notional loss on 2G was estimated at $12.8 billion to $40 billion.
This estimate was arrived at by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and leaked to some sections of the media, forcing Raja to regisn on Nov 5 from the Union Council of Ministers holding the communications and IT portfolio.
The official auditor also said the entire process of spectrum allocation was undertaken in an extremely arbitrary manner and that the advise of industry watchdog, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), was ignored and misused.
Meanwhile, Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy filed a suit in the Supreme Court seeking judicial intervention in giving directions to the government and probe agencies to act against Raja.
Acting on the petition, the Supreme Court had asked the solicitor general last October why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not responded in a timely manner to a request by Swamy to sanction proceedings against Raja.
Then in December, the apex court itself decided to monitor the probe, that was being conducted by multiple agencies, including the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. The agencies have to submit their respective reports to the apex court by Feb 10.
2)Black Money
The black money market situation in India is epidemical. India currently tops the list for black money in the entire world with almost US$1,456 billion in Swiss banks (USD 1.4 trillion approximately).Yes U READ IT RIGHT,1.4 FREAKING TRILLION DOLLARS. According to the data provided by the Swiss Banking Association, India has more black money than the rest of the world combined. Indian Swiss bank account assets are worth 13 times (1300%) the country’s national debt, and, if this black money is brought back to the country, India has the potential to become one of the richest countries in the world, after the United States.
3)Commonwealth games scam
The commonwealth games 2010 scam was waiting to happen. But the proportion couldn't be guessed even by generous estimates. Rs 36,000 crores or $8 billion scam! Whoa. And this in a country where 400 million live below the official poverty line or simply put, in sub-human conditions. But this was only expected once Suresh Kalmadi was appointed the head of the commonwealth games Organizing Committee. After all, he has a string of achievements to his credit. Some of which include charges of land grab, becoming the chief of Indian Olympics Committee (IOC) using shady means and using the same to stay in that position ever since, siphoning off public funds and many more.
Commonwealth Games Scam List - A Ready Reckoner
Commonwealth Games Scam List - A Ready Reckoner
- Liquid Soap Dispensers rented for Rs 9,379 a piece or $206! I bet it cleanses the bacteria for ever for this kind of money.
- Operating Expenses escalating from Rs 399 crore in December 2002 to Rs 1,628 crore finally.
- Medical equipment including tread mills have been bought or rented at 6-7 times their original price. Way to go!
- Allegations that funds meant for India's most deprived sections - the SC/ST - have been diverted to the games funds. Stealing from the poor to fund the elite's luxuries?
The commonwealth games 2010 related infrastructure projects have left India's capital city, New Delhi, resembling a war zone. Practically all roads are dug up, cables lying all around, people jumping over little rocks as the pavements resemble Moon like craters. With more than 50,000 crore rupees already pumped in one would have expected at least decent output. Alas, it is naive to be a dreamer in India.
Consider this:
- The newly built shooting range at the Siri Fort area collapsed after one heavy shower
- The foot over bridge adjacent to the main venue of the Commonwealth Games collapsed while being erected, injuring 27 workers who were dumped into a tow away truck to a municipal hospital and dished out a compensation of measly Rs 50,000 ($1097) for broken skulls and multiple fractures.
- Many of the games venues leaked during the monsoon and roofs of some collapsed.
- The Commonwealth Games village, the place where athletes from participating countries will be put up is infested with dog poo, snakes, clogged toilets, and unfinished work.
- Fancy bill boards have erected all over the city to hide the piles of garbage, slums that are a trademark sight in any major city in India.
The Bofors scandal is known as the hallmark of Indian corruption. The Bofors scam was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s; when the then PM Rajiv Gandhi and several others including a powerful NRI family named the Hindujas, were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India’s 155 mm field howitzer.
The Swedish State Radio had broadcast a startling report about an undercover operation carried out by Bofors, Sweden’s biggest arms manufacturer, whereby $16 million were allegedly paid to members of PM Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress.
Most of all, the Bofors scam had a strong emotional appeal because it was a scam related to the defense services and India’s security interests.5) Telgi Scam
As they say, every scam must have something unique in it to make money out of it in an unscrupulous manner- and Telgi scam had all the suspense and drama that the scandal needed to thrive and be busted.
Abdul Karim Telgi had mastered the art of forgery in printing duplicate stamp papers and sold them to banks and other institutions. The tentacles of the fake stamp and stamp paper case had penetrated 12 states and was estimated at a whooping Rs. 20000 crore plus. The Telgi clearly had a lot of support from government departments that were responsible for the production and sale of high security stamps.
6)Hasan Ali scam
Hasan Ali Khan is an Indian multi-billionaire businessman. Hasan Ali, a somewhat mysterious Pune based racehorse owner is reported to have illegally transferred more than 35000 crore sums of money to seven Swiss bank accounts.These accounts have been frozen at the request of the Indian government.In 2007, authorities began investigating Khan for suspicion of money laundering.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 7 froze seven out of 10 Swiss bank accounts of the trader operating from a six-storey building in Koregaon Park area of Pune.
Money used to be deposited into the trader's accounts from Britain via havala or unauthorized money transfer channels, the ED sources said, adding that the investigations began in January this year with a raid on the trader's office following a tip-off.
Money used to be deposited into the trader's accounts from Britain via havala or unauthorized money transfer channels, the ED sources said, adding that the investigations began in January this year with a raid on the trader's office following a tip-off.
Income Tax (IT) authorities in Mumbai and Delhi claim to have stumbled upon a huge money-laundering racket in which money is sent to Mauritius through hawala and it comes back to India as investment in stock market and other areas.
Senior Income Tax officers said the department stumbled on it a month-and-a-half ago when they raided a stud farm owner in Pune, who owns a flat on Peddar Road in Mumbai as well. During the search, the officials said they found details of accounts in Swiss banks in various names in which Rs 20,000 crore was deposited. Some big names from India’s political and corporate worlds held these accounts, the I-T officials said.Still under investigation as of March 2011, Khan claims that he has been framed.7)satyam scam
The scam at Satyam Computer Services is something that will shatter the peace and tranquillity of Indian investors and shareholder community beyond repair. Satyam is the biggest fraud in the corporate history to the tune of Rs. 14000 crore.
The company’s disgraced former chairman Ramalinga Raju kept everyone in the dark for a decade by fudging the books of accounts for several years and inflating revenues and profit figures of Satyam. Finally, the company was taken over by the Tech Mahindra which has done wonderfully well to revive the brand Satyam.
Fucking indian government
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