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2018 Bhima Koregaon violence: Inquiry commission gets 3-month extension
The earlier extension granted to the Koregaon Bhima Inquiry Commission was till July 31. The comission has now been given extension till October 31 to submit its report, officials said. Violence had broken out near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial in Pune district on January 1, 2018, a day after the Elgar Parishad conclave was held in Pune. Dalits visit the memorial in large numbers as it commemorates the victory of British forces, which included Dalit soldiers, over the army of the Brahmin Peshwa rulers of Pune in 1818. The two-member commission, comprising retired chief justice of Calcutta High Court J N Patel and former Maharashtra chief secretary Sumit Mullick, is probing the circumstances that triggered the riots.
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
UK intel may involve Nato allies to raid 'shadow fleet', claims Russia
Russia's SVR claims UK secret services plan to involve Nato allies in a large-scale crackdown on the so-called 'shadow fleet', according to intel received by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service ANI Asia The UK's intelligence agencies are planning to enlist Nato allies in a large-scale operation targeting the "shadow fleet," which could lead to an environmental disaster in international waters, the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a statement obtained by TASS. As per the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this plan provides for a major act of sabotage to force Washington into sanctioning buyers of Russian energy. In a post on X, the Russian MFA said, "Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service: UK intelligence agencies plan to involve Nato allies to launch a massive raid on the 'shadow fleet'. This plan provides for a major act of sabotage to force Washington into sanctioning buyers of Russian energy." "British secret services are planning ecological disaster in international waters. The press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation informs that, according to the information coming to the SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service), the British secret services are planning to involve Nato allies in a massive roundup for the 'shadow fleet'," the statement said. According to the UK's plan, the impetus for such a campaign should be provided by "a resonant incident involving one or more tankers." "The plan involves organizing a major act of sabotage the losses of which would allow the transportation of Russian oil to be declared a threat to all international shipping. This would untie Western countries' hands in choosing methods of counteraction," the document said, as quoted by Tass. According to the SVR, the British are working on "two potential casus belli." "The first scenario implicates setting up an 'unwanted' tanker accident in one of bottlenecks of sea communications (for example, in straits). As it is believed in London, oil spills and fairway blocking would provide Nato countries with 'sufficient' grounds for establishing a precedent of 'extraordinary' vessel inspection under the guise of maritime safety and environmental regulations compliance," the statement noted. The SVR pointed out that the timing of the UK attack is intended to be chosen so as to use the media effect from it to put pressure on the administration of US President Donald Trump, as per Tass. "The aim is to force Washington, in defiance of its national interests, to impose the most severe secondary sanctions against Russian energy resources buyers, making them seen as 'indirect culprits of the tragedy'," the statement said, as per Tass. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
How Astronomer turned a scandal into a marketing win
Calamity strikes businesses in all shapes and forms, but the recent incident involving US-based data operations company Astronomer's ex-CEO Andy Byron and ex-chief people officer Kristin Cabot deserves to be taught as a case study in workplace crisis management at B-Schools around the world. On 18 July, Byron and Cabot, both married to other people, were caught in an intimate embrace on a jumbotron at a concert by the popular British band, Coldplay. The 'mishap", which has by now gone down in the history of scandals as 'Coldplaygate", caused an upheaval all over the internet. In no time, the couple was caught in the eye of a social media blitzkrieg, spawning much mirth, mockery and memes. Byron resigned in a few hours, Cabot followed suit days later. Last heard, Byron is considering suing Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of the band, for the viral 'kiss cam scandal". In the meantime, Astronomer installed one of its co-founders Pete DeJoy as interim CEO, who quickly went into damage control mode by making the right noises. In his first post on LinkedIn since the incident, he praised the integrity and professionalism of his employees in the face of all the attention Astronomer has recently received. 'The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies—let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world—ever encounter," DeJoy wrote. 'The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name." It was a textbook move on managing crises in the workplace: start by clearly acknowledging the problem and accessing the extent of the damage. Ironically, Astronomer's reputational troubles proved to be a blessing in disguise because it was caused by poor personal choices of its leaders rather than unscrupulous business decisions. Had it involved a disaster pertaining to the company's services or finances, it would have been much harder for even the best PR machinery to undo. For comparison, think of the 2009 Satyam scandal, when founder-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju confessed to a massive accounting fraud, shaking up India's IT sector as well as global investor confidence, eventually leading to Satyam's dissolution. No Bad Publicity A cursory glance at Google Trends data over the last two weeks validates DeJoy's statement. On 16 July, 'Astronomer" was at -1 in terms of search interests on the engine. On 18 July it hit 100, indicating peak interest. Over the next few days, the levels of public curiosity began to decline, but by that time, the scandal had 'achieved" something unexpected. For a start-up with 300-odd employees based in Ohio that provides a niche service, a sudden spike of public interest was too good an opportunity to pass up. So, Astronomer decided to get advertising maverick Ryan Reynolds to turn the controversy into a cool marketing strategy. Reynolds' company, Maximum Effort, recently released a video featuring actor and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, who also happens to be Chris Martin's ex-wife, to diffuse the negative chatter around Astronomer. More leaves taken out of the book of crisis management: formulate a solid strategic response and execute it carefully. Paltrow's video does a masterful job of shifting attention from the speculations about the disgraced leaders at Astronomer. Instead, it focuses on explaining what the company does—which no one who is not working with or in niche tech would have likely known. At the time of writing, the video has over 67,000 likes on Instagram with nearly 85,000 shares. For perspective, the post right before this clip was snapshots of scenes from a meetup in Berlin that Astronomer posted on 9 July. It has 147 likes and 6 shares. The ingenious strategic public response by Astronomer to its recent misfortunes shows that it is possible to counter virality with virality in the age of social media. Instead of shirking from a negative story, the company decided to own the narrative and turn it into a force for positive reinforcement. The move was perfectly timed as well—just as attention on the company was on the wane. Is it possible to police personal interactions in the workplace, especially when people spend more time than ever before with their colleagues on a daily basis rather than at home with their spouses, partners and family? No. But is it still possible to uphold the values that make for a respectful and accountable workplace—especially when all hell breaks loose? Yes. Crisis management lessons need to evolve and keep pace with the times. The idea that no publicity is bad publicity isn't necessarily true. But when life gives you a scandal in the workplace, you might as well try to turn it into a business opportunity. That's the gamble DeJoy and his crisis management team decided to lean on. It's too early to say if it has turned its fortunes around, but at least the unexpected stunt has got Astronomer even more eyeballs than it would have probably got in all of its ten-year-long existence. Work Vibes is a fortnightly column on ideas to help you thrive at what you do.
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
"Hell Hath No Fury Like Woman's Wrath": Rani Kapur's Lawyer To NDTV
New Delhi: As the Kapur family drama continued after businessman Sunjay Kapur's death last month, his mother Rani Kapur's lawyer told NDTV that she has "credible evidence" to warrant an investigation into her son's "suspicious" death. Mr Kapur, 53, died playing polo in London on June 12. The cause of death was listed as a cardiac arrest, but there were reports that he suffered an anaphylactic shock after a bee flew into his mouth. His mother, however, has hinted darkly at a "transnational conspiracy" leading to the "murder" of her son. "She has credible evidence to the extent that there are enough and more suspicious circumstances which warrant a very deep investigation. What the outcome of that final investigation would be or what the judicial course is going to be is not something that she can determine. But she certainly needs facts to be looked at," Rani Kapur' s lawyer, Vaibhav Gaggar, told NDTV. According to the lawyer, everyone has turned a deaf ear to Ms Kapur. He also invoked a quote from William Congreve's play 'The Mourning Bride' to describe Ms Kapur's state of mind. "She's been requesting, urging, seeking information, seeking cooperation. But everyone seems to have turned a deaf ear to this senior lady, you know. And having said that, you know, there is a line which often comes to mind - 'Hell hath no fury like a woman's wrath'. And if grieving mother's wrath is that, she's going to get to the bottom of it in her head," he said. "For her, it has always been about finding out the real cause of her son's death. This is a 79-year-old grieving mother saying I need to know what's really happened here. She's got grave suspicion about it. People may be painting it as a conflict dispute. They may say it about the corporate issues. But in her head, it's not. And she has made it clear that she's going to get to the bottom of this," he added. Ms Kapur wrote a letter to the British authorities, claiming that she has "credible and concerning evidence" that suggests Sunjay Kapur 's death may not have been accidental or natural, but may have involved foul play, including the possibility of murder. She also claimed she has records that "point to forgery, dubious asset transfers and suspicious legal filings, (and) indications of collusion between individuals who stood to gain financially" from his death - referring to Mr Kapur's third wife, Priya Sachdev Kapur. "There are compelling reasons to believe his death may have been facilitated or orchestrated as part of a coordinated transnational conspiracy, with the involvement of individuals and entities in the United Kingdom, India and maybe the United States," Ms Kapur told British authorities in her letter that was accessed by NDTV. Her lawyer said that they are hoping the British authorities act and begin investigating Mr Kapur's death. "Whatever skeletons there are in the cupboard should come tumbling up," he said. Mr Gaggar also spoke about the cease-and-desist letter sent by automotive parts manufacturer Sona Comstar - part of the Rs 30,000 crore Sona Group - to Ms Kapur. The letter said Ms Kapur, who claimed majority shareholder status and said she was "coerced" into signing documents supporting the nomination of her daughter-in-law as a non-executive director, had defamed the company and caused it damage. "You know, it's interesting that this notice was sent. If you look at her letter, even her statement, she never accused Sona Comstar of anything. She did say that she had been approached multiple times by certain people. She was made to sign documents. She was not aware of what had been signed. She's been asking for those documents during the grieving period. No one is giving her any of those documents. And if any of those documents relate to what is happening in Comstar, she's asking for those documents," Mr Gaggar said. He added, "She never alleged that Comstar is the one that has gotten her to do it. So yet again, there's a different spin to what was put out there. And the cease and desist notice, which was issued, has been appropriately replied to as well, I believe.
