accountant news

accountant News, Video News

NEW DELHI
NAT12National/Diaspora/Terrorism/Mumbai Terror AttackMauritius' State Bank CEO killed in Mumbai terror carnageBy Kul BhushanNew Delhi, Dec 3 IANS The business trip just a month before he was due to retire was Anil Gunness' last. The CEO of the State Bank of Mauritius was one of the 183 killed in the Mumbai terror attack that also targeted the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel.His body was flown to Port Louis Monday and hundreds of Mauritians, including President Sir Anerood Jugnauth and the Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam attended the cremation, Sadhna Ramlallah, a journalist and daughter of the founder publisher of The Mauritius Times, told IANS over the telephone."He was in his room at the Taj while his wife, Amrita, had gone down to the Business Centre to send e-mails to her two daughters, Anju and Archana, when the attack took place," she said. "He was killed in his hotel room but she escaped.""We are so far away from Mumbai but the terror attack has also wounded us. These attacks are a blow to the whole world especially to the families of the victims and it disheartens us to see our very own Anil to be one of them," added Ramlallah. "Anil's exceptional qualities as a human being have always been very much appreciated and valued by one and all."Gunness, aged 58, was on a business trip to Mumbai accompanied by his wife Amrita and his body was found in the hotel room Saturday after he had gone missing since last Wednesday's terrorist attacks. Gunness' body was officially identified by his wife.An accountant by profession, Gunness had a long and fruitful career at the State Bank of Mauritius for the last 28 years, mainly at senior management level including retail, corporate and international banking. --Indo-Asian News Service311 Words*03121142
2008-12-03 03:00:00
Longtime film-academy accountant Spoerri dies
Otto Spoerri, dubbed "the ultimate arbiter of industry power" because he determined seating at the Oscars, has died. He was 75.
2008-12-02 20:11:15
Two charged over accountant death
Two men are charged in relation to the abduction and death of Glasgow accountant, Andrew Ramsay, police say.
2008-11-30 03:47:09
Company liquidations rise by a quarter, and more individuals declared bankrupt
The number of companies going bust is expected to soar in the coming months after official figures showed corporate insolvencies had increased dramatically to their highest point for five years.Company...
2008-11-08 02:27:40
Obituary: Sir John Hermon
The longest-serving chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary during Northern Ireland's Troubles, Sir John Hermon, who has died aged 79, led the force through the 1980s - a decade of unrelenting terrorist violence. His time in the UK's toughest policing post was dominated by controversies over the supergrass system of informers, "shoot to kill" operations and the fury of loyalists denouncing the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.Protestations by Hermon that he was an impartial upholder of law and order did not prevent republicans and civil rights campaigners from portraying him as the embodiment of the establishment, selectively bending security rules. Unionist leaders turned on him following the Hillsborough Accord as they attempted to suborn the police service.But Hermon was a forthright defender of his officers, having been steeped in the constabulary's embattled culture since his earliest professional life. In the ranks, he was known simply as "Jack" or "JC".Born in Larne, County Antrim, and educated locally, Hermon trained and worked as an accountant for four years until he joined the RUC in 1950. In 1963 he became the first RUC officer to attend what is now the Police Staff College, Bramshill in Hampshire. On his return, promotion was rapid. He was appointed district inspector and, in 1967, deputy commandant of the RUC training station in Enniskillen.By 1976, he had risen to deputy chief constable. Attachment to Scotland Yard in 1979 was a further sign of approval and he became chief constable the following year. His era opened with a sharp escalation in the level of IRA violence as H-Block hunger strikes further polarised the divided province.Hermon had little love for politicians, whom he blamed for tearing society apart. That distrust dated back to a critical incident in 1964 when the Rev Ian Paisley inflamed opinion over the presence of an Irish tricolour flag in republican west Belfast. The ensuing riot embittered relations between the police and nationalist community.Perceived by critics as an abrasive disciplinarian, Hermon fell out at times with both the Northern Ireland police authority and the Police Federation, which passed a motion of no confidence in him after he upbraided them for discussing revival of the disbanded B Specials. He was knighted in 1982.His reform of the RUC, which transformed it into a more independent force, shorn of its worst sectarian sympathies, enabled it to resist the onslaught of loyalist violence against officers and their homes in the aftermath of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. That resilience protected the developing political process.But it was the row over police "shoot-to-kill" operations in County Armagh during 1982 and the subsequent inquiry by the deputy chief constable of Manchester, John Stalker, that overshadowed his period in office. The two senior policemen clashed repeatedly. Stalker later claimed that during their first meeting Hermon sketched out Stalker's family tree on the back of a cigarette packet, highlighting the Irish Catholic ancestry on his mother's side - some of whom Stalker himself did not know.The Stalker Affair, which fuelled allegations of official cover-ups and conspiracies, degenerated into a vendetta between the chief constable and the media. Despite efforts to dissuade him, Hermon privately pursued three legal actions to clear his name.In 1984, Stalker had been appointed to investigate the shooting by police of six men - five of them republican suspects. He had striven to obtain access to a secret MI5 tape recording of one of the shootings. But he was abruptly removed from the inquiry and suspended for supposedly consorting with criminals - only to be reinstated three months later.Hermon was said to have tossed Stalker's report across the room in fury when he read the document. Stalker later revealed that, for five months, Hermon had refused to allow him to send a report, recommending the prosecution of a number of officers, to the director of public prosecutions.But he did not believe Hermon had been entirely responsible for the obstructions. "I think the architects of my removal were on this side of the water," he told a court in 1995.Hermon's well-publicised views on the work of the murdered Belfast lawyer Patrick Finucane, shot dead by loyalists in 1989, added to his unpopularity with the civil rights lobby. The chief constable later insisted: "Pat Finucane was associated with the IRA and he used his position as a lawyer to act as a contact between suspects in custody and republicans on the outside."Hermon was ahead of his time in calling for the police to renounce their powers to adjudicate on parades during the annual marching season. In 1986, following violence in Portadown, he reported: "Unless parading organisations face the reality that population changes can result in areas once receptive becoming hostile, then the public order tasks of the RUC will become increasingly difficult."According to his autobiography, Holding the Line 1997, he left his bomb-proof office in east Belfast disillusioned. The appointment of his successor, Sir Hugh Annesley, commended as a team player, was seen as a reproach to his style of leadership.On retirement in June 1989, he became a consultant to Securicor. His first wife, Jean, had died from cancer, but he subsequently married Sylvia Paisley, a law lecturer at Queen's University. They had met after she wrote a paper criticising his refusal to allow women officers to carry firearms.In 2001, she was persuaded to stand as the Ulster Unionist Party candidate for North Down. She held the seat again in 2005, becoming the sole UUP representative at Westminster. Lady Hermon declined, however, to lead the party because her husband was suffering from Alzheimer's disease: she felt she could not "let him down in his hour of need". She survives her husband, as do two sons from their marriage, and a son and a daughter from Hermon's first marriage.Northern IrelandPoliceNorthern Irish politicsguardian.co.uk &ampcopy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
2008-11-08 02:21:40
Fraud risk 'rises' during crunch
Fraud in the workplace is likely to accelerate during the global economic downturn, according to accountants KPMG.
2008-10-17 06:49:13
Payout hope for bank's customers
Accountants called in to administer Landsbanki Guernsey say they hope to give savers their money back soon.
2008-10-13 05:29:15
Bollywood stays complascent despite liquidity crunch
BUS21Business/National/showbizBollywood stays complascent despite liquidity crunchBy Jivraj BurmanMumbai, Oct 10 IANS Could the current global market meltdown, directly or indirectly, affect Bollywood's finances and the production of its hugely mounted movies This is a question not many in the film industry are asking at present because they are confident the worldwide liquidity crunch will have no direct impact on them.So, it is business as usual in Bollywood and there is no sign of tension.Instead, the mood so far is complacent in entertainment corporate houses as well as in privately-run big production firms like Yash Raj Films and Karan Johar-headed Dharma Productions, which are gearing up for the release of "Roadside Romeo" and "Dostana" respectively."The big production houses already have sufficient cash reserves and corporate houses have collected enough money from the markets to worry about for any short-term crisis," said Manmohan Shetty, producer and former chairman and managing director of Adlabs.Supporting Shetty's view, chartered accountant Mehul Pakekh averred that never in the history of Indian film industry has any economic crisis slowed down film production."There's no cause for worry. But, yes, those who borrow money from the banks to make movies may face problems as the banks will not lend money easily as long as the current global financial instability continues," said Parekh, who is also one of the directors of the Infinity Film Completion Services.He said fresh equity sales of corporate houses engaged in entertainment content productions might slow down, but that would not affect them immediately.Parekh felt the liquidity crunch may be a boon for cinegoers."In order to keep their businesses going, multiplexes may have to think of cutting down admission rates ticket price so as not to lose clientele if the liquidity crunch worsens," he said.Both Shetty and Parekh feel that money is not an issue in Bollywood at present."The problem is the poor film content and the films are not recovering enough money at the box-office because of that," said Parekh. Echoing the same view, Shetty said if the mega budget movies continued to do poor business at the box-office as is the case now, producers would be forced to reduce the budgets of their future projects."Cost-cutting measures are long overdue. If so and so stars cannot justify their prices at the box-office, they cannot afford to continue to charge the same, or at least the producers cannot afford to pay them the same. This is only one aspect of cost-cutting," he said.According to the half-yearly report card, more than Rs.3 billion $70 million has gone into making films in Bollywood, but half of the amount sank beyond recovery. In the beginning of 2008, the audience rejected Rajkumar Santoshi's supposedly serious movie "Halla Bol".With equal disdain, the paying public passed over "Sunday", "My Name is Anthony Gonsalves", "One Two Three" and "Bombay to Bangkok".Even "Tashan", "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic" and "Krazzy4" that had the honour of being produced by two of Bollywood's revered banners, Yash Raj Films and Filmkraft respectively, were rejected.Under the present circumstances, what should be the ideal budget of a big star-cast movie"I would say, it should not exceed Rs.600 million because this is the amount of money that is recoverable from all sources at present," Shetty said. Citing the example of the impact of the recession in Hollywood, both Shetty and Parekh said that during the economic slowdown in the US in 1974, movie ticket sales climbed rather than declining."Films are the cheapest form of entertainment and therefore thrives more in bad times," Parekh remarked.Shetty was a bit more matter-of-fact and added: "Under the present circumstances, there is more likelihood of fewer movies becoming blockbusters.Finally, will the present crisis in the international money market give a jolt to the Anil Abnani's Reliance BIG Entertainment RBE's deal with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG, because as per the $1.2 billion deal, RBE will have to invest $500 million and provide another $750 million in debt through JP Morgan Chase "In so far as debt is concerned, JP Morgan Chase has already committed it and it will not go back on its commitment," Parekh said. --Indo-Asian News Servicejb/ar/ank/vt755 Words*10101730
2008-10-10 08:03:08
Lodha's last rites completed in Kolkata
ECO6Economy/NationalLodha's last rites completed in KolkataKolkata, Oct 8 IANS The last rites of Birla Corp Ltd chairman Rajendra Singh Lodha - the disputed beneficiary of Priyamvada Birla's will - was performed Wednesday at the Keoratala burning ghat.The body of the famed chartered accountant was flown back to Kolkata from London Wednesday morning.Lodha, 66, died Friday following cardiac arrest in London, where he had gone to attend a business meeting along with his son.The body was first kept at his south Kolkata residence and thereafter at Priyamvada Birla Arvind Eye Hospital to enable his relatives and friends pay their last homage.Lodha got embroiled in a major controversy when MP Birla Group chairperson Priyamvada Birla bequeathed the entire assets of the group worth Rs.250 billion $5.55 billion to him.Birla's demise in July 2004 was followed by intense litigation after Lodha applied for the probate of a purported will, which itself became a matter of dispute. Senior members of the Birla clan had filed appeals in the Calcutta High Court. Since then, the Birlas and Lodha have been engaged in a protracted legal battle.--Indo-Asian News Serviceag/ssp/sj/dg203 Words08101628
2008-10-08 07:00:00
Opening up banking sector will endanger economy: expert
ECO19Economy/National/EconomyOpening up banking sector will endanger economy: expertChennai, Oct 6 IANS Since the savings rate in the West is too low, the overseas banks would like to control the savings of Indian investors once the country's banking sector is opened up, a leading economic commentator said here Monday. "Opening up the banking sector and allowing full currency convertibility would result in importing all ills of the American banking systems," said S. Gurumurthy, a practicing chartered accountant and a columnist. "The savings rate in the US and Europe is low. The overseas banks would like to control the savings of the Indian people," he added, while addressing a seminar, jointly organised by the Consumers Association of India and Indian Banks' Association. An economy that is built on encouraging spending, credit and individualism at the cost of family values is bound to face problems, he said referring to the US economy. K. Srinivasan of Prime Point Foundation, a non-profit public trust, said: "People have trust in the government-owned banks." Referring to the rebranding exercise undertaken by some public sector banks, he said: "The need of the hour is repositioning the banks and training their employees. Rebranding per se without changing the basic structure will be like trying to make an old women look young with trendy attire."Listing out the rights and duties of customers and banks, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Usha Thorat cautioned account holders against signing any paper without reading.With rising complaints about credit cards and recovery agents, the central bank has put down strict procedures for banks to comply with, she added. --Indo-Asian News Servicevj/sj/vt296 Words06102104
2008-10-06 11:00:00