chennai l friday l november 22, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l vellore EDITION mass federal job cuts in doge’s blueprint fot mega U.S. reforms Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy provided the blueprint for an unprecedented US government reform in an op-ed on the Wall Street Journal Crackdown coming on work from home The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will suggest job cuts after identifying the minimum number of employees required at each federal agency, Musk and Ramaswamy wrote. Federal employees will not have the option of work from home. “If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them,” they wrote ■ $500 bn driving change through executive action ■ DOGE, they wrote, will present a list of ‘illicit’ regulations to President Donald Trump, who can then pass executive orders to pause them The 2022 US Supreme Court ruling that restricted the Environment Protection Agency’s power to regulate carbon emissions will be a reference in their crackdown on regulations, the two wrote | P9 how much doge hopes to help the U.S. government save each year CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian govt officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and lied about the bribery as they sought to raise capital from US - US Attorney Breon Peace As stated by DoJ itself, “the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.” All possible legal recourse will be sought - Adani Group US court indicts Gautam Adani Bribery charges against Adani Group chairman, 7 others $250 million kickbacks to Indian govt officials to sign power supply contracts $200 mn paid in Andhra alone Kenya cancels Adani projects Kenyan President William Ruto said that he has cancelled multimillion-dollar airport expansion and energy deals with Adani after US indictments. He said the decision was made ‘based on new information’ Rahul demands immediate Arrest Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded immediate arrest of Gautam Gautam Adani. “Why is he roaming around like a free man?” he asked, demanding his arrest Curious timing, Quips bjp The BJP said all the states mentioned in the US indictment were at that time ruled by opposition parties. It also questioned the timing, just before the start of Parliament session ARSHAD K HAN & BSN MALLESWARA RAO @ New Delhi / Vijayawada THE US Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicted Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and seven others on bribery charges involving over $250 million in payments to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts. The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged Adani and others with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, as well as substantive securities fraud, for their involvement in a multi-billion dollar scheme to deceive US investors and global financial institutions with false and misleading statements. The indictment alleges that between 2020 and 2024, the accused conspired to pay bribes to officials in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu & Kashmir to secure lucrative solar energy supply contracts. These con- tracts were expected to generate post-tax profits exceeding $2 billion over an estimated 20year period. The prosecutors said the Adanis raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds by hiding their corruption from lenders and investors. Following the reports, Adani Green Energy cancelled plans to raise $600 million in US dollardenominated bonds. The other executives who are indicted are Vneet S Jaain (ex-CEO of Adani Green), Ranjit Gupta, Rupesh Agarwal, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra. An indictment is the formal charges prepared by prosecutors and returned by a grand jury to start criminal proceedings. It is not a conviction and the accused remains innocent until proven guilty in court. Adani Group denied the allegations and called them baseless, adding that it will take all possible legal steps. “The Adani Group has always upheld and is steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations,” it said. Adani shares crashed up to 23% on Thursday . In his pushback, Tamil Nadu electricity minister V Senthil Balaji said the electricity corporation run by his government does not have any commercial ties with Adani’s firm. In another investigation, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said that hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid or promised to officials in Odisha to buy 500 MW power from the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) to which Adani Green Energy was supplying power. SEC also alleged that Adani paid $200 million to Andhra officials following his meeting with the then chief minister. Neither Y S Jaganmohan Reddy nor YSRCP responded while the NDA-led state government said it was looking into it. $600 bn grants ICC issues arrest warrant against Bibi must from rich nations: India AGENCIES @ The Hague THE International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with their war. The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant focus on allegations that Israel has used food as a weapon in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, a charge Israeli officials deny. The warrants were issued by a three-judge panel in a unanimous decision. The panel said there were reasonable grounds to believe they “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival”, including food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity . The decision came six months after ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan requested the warrants. Netanyahu said Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions” adding: “There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza.” Member countries are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. express read HC allows memorial for Fr. Stan Swamy on pvt land Chennai: Holding that government cannot stop a person from erecting statues on a private land unless it may cause law and order issue, the Madras HC has permitted a Salem-based activist to build a memorial for Father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist who died in jail | P4 No biz dealing with Adani Group in last 3 years: Min Karur: Referring to reports about reference to TN in a case filed in the US against Adani Group, minister V Senthil Balaji said Tangedco had no commercial relationship with Adani Group over past three years. MoU was signed only with a union govt agency for buying power, he said | P4 S V Krishna Chaitanya EXPRESS IN BAKU Y ear after year, COP after COP we keep discussing , what needs to be done without addressing how it is to be done,” said Leela Nandan, deputy leader of the Indian delegation at COP29 and secretary of the Union environment ministry . Talking at an open-ended ‘Qurultay’ summit convened by the COP29 presidency after it released a set of decision draft texts, Nandan said, “as we approach the conclusion, we see a troubling shift towards mitigation without the corresponding means of implementation. This is unacceptable.” The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) must reflect finance as the critical enabler for developing nations to formulate and implement their ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). “We demand a mobilisation goal of $1.3 trillion, with at least $600 billion in grants or grantequivalent resources.”