Sonia Gandhi resigns as MP, NAC chairperson
New Delhi: The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, resigned from her position as a Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareilly and as chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on the issue of legislators holding office of profit. The Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, has accepted her resignation as an MP.

The controversy on the office of profit issue started with the disqualification of Ms Jaya Bachchan, Rajya Sabha MP of the Samajwadi Party by the president of India.

Her disqualification followed a complaint by a Congress party member to the president that as the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development Council, she was holding an office of profit while being an MP. This prompted Opposition parties to file similar complaints with the President against Sonia Gandhi.

The Election Commission, on whose recommendation the president disqualified Bachchan said that it had not yet received any notice from the President about Ms Gandhi, but added that the law would be the same for everybody.
Back to News Review index page  

Steps down from Tata Steel board
Mumbai: Keshub Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra, has stepped down from the board of Tata Steel the company informed the BSE. B. Jitender, nominee director of IDBI, also resigned from the board.
Back to News Review index page  

PSEB shortlists four to head Coal India
Kolkata: With Shashi Kumar the present chairman of Coal India due to retire in September 2006 the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has begun the process of selecting the next chairman of the company.

The PESB has short-listed four eligible persons from public sector companies for an interview on March 29. Among them is P.S. Bhatacharya, chairman & managing Director of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), who is the only CIL group executive, while the three others are non-CIL executives.

Shashi Kumar has said that CIL expects to post a profit before tax of around Rs 8,000 crore in 2005-06, with all its coal producing subsidiaries expecting to end the current fiscal with a profit.
Back to News Review index page  

Naina Lal Kidwai appointed HSBC CEO
Mumbai: Naina Lal Kidwai has been appointed as chief executive officer of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and is taking over from Niall SK Booker, who is to move to Dubai as deputy chairman and CEO of HSBC Bank in the Middle East. She becomes the first woman to head the operations of a foreign bank in India.

Kidwai has been deputy chief executive officer of HSBC in India since June 2004 having joined HSBC in November 2002 as vice-chairman and managing director of HSBC Securities and Capital Markets India, prior to which, she was vice-chairman at investment bank JM Morgan Stanley.

Kidwai will oversee operations spread across 43 branches in 22 cities.

Kidwai was also the first Indian woman to graduate from the Harvard Business School.
Back to News Review index page