Parliament Briefs: Exposure of 5 State-run Insurers in Adani Group at Rs 347cr: MoS Finance
An official walks past the stall of Adani Defence and Aerospace during the inauguration of Aero India 2023, at Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. / Image Courtesy: PTI
New Delhi: Five state-run general insurance companies have a total exposure of Rs 347.64 crore, or 0.14% of their total assets under management (AUM), in Adani group of companies, Finance Ministry said on Monday.
In reply to a question on details of money lent by banks and financial institutions to the Adani group, the Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that the RBI Act prohibits disclosure of credit information submitted by a bank.
With regard to exposure by insurance companies, Karad said the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), on January 30, said that LIC's total holding under equity and debt is Rs 35,917.31 crore as on December 31, 2022, in Adani group of companies.
The exposure in the Adani group is 0.975% of LIC's total AUM at book value of Rs 41.66 lakh crore.
"As per data received from Public Sector General Insurance companies, namely New India Assurance Company Ltd, United India Insurance Company Ltd, National Insurance Company Ltd, Oriental Insurance Company Ltd and General Insurance Corporation of India, total exposure in Adani Group of Companies as on January 31, 2023 is Rs 347.64 crore which is 0.14 per cent of the total AUM of all the five companies," Karad said.
With regard to other financial institutions -- Exim Bank, Small Industries Development Bank of India, National Housing Bank, National Bank for Financing Infrastructure, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development --, Karad said they are bound by provisions of the concerned Acts, and are prohibited from divulging any information relating to their constituents.
Stocks of the Adani group companies had taken a beating, losing billions of dollars in market value, after US-based activist short-seller Hindenburg Research in a report dated January 24 made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group.
The Adani group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
Closure of SAIL's Steel Unit in Bhadravathi Soon
The government has decided to shut SAIL's loss- making Visveswaraya Iron & Steel Plant (VISP) at Bhadravathi in Karnataka, Parliament was informed on Monday.
The government had originally planned for privatising VISP and had invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for selling SAIL's 100 per cent stake in the unit in July 2019.
However, in October last year, the government decided to scrap the strategic disinvestment plans of VISP due to low bidder interest.
In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said the shortlisted bidders had expressed inability to participate in the sale process of VISP.
"On account of old machinery, sub-optimal size, continuous losses and shutdown of blast furnace for a long time, it has been decided to initiate the process for closure of this unit," Karad said.
The Cabinet had in October 2016 cleared strategic disinvestment of SAIL's 100% stake in VISP.
Over 690 Universities, 34,000 Colleges Operating sans NAAC accreditation
At least 695 universities and over 34,000 colleges across the country are operating without accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Parliament was informed on Monday.
The data was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question in Lok Sabha.
"As per information received from the UGC, out of the 1,113 universities and 43,796 colleges, NAAC has accredited 418 universities and 9,062 colleges," he said.
"To bring all the educational institutions, universities and colleges under the accreditation system, NAAC has considerably reduced the fee structure for assessment and accreditation. The metrics and questions in the manual for self-study report for affiliated and constituent colleges have also been considerably reduced," Sarkar added.
The number of colleges operating without NAAC accreditation is 34,734, he said.
The new National Education Policy (NEP) envisions all higher educational institutions to aim, through their institutional development plans, to attain the highest
The accreditation of universities and colleges is done by the NAAC, an Inter University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
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