01-03-2021 The Asian Independent

4
01-03-2021 to 15-03-2021 ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
On the trail of 12 Indian fugitives
who fled to LONDON
New Delhi : At a time
when a British court has
ordered the extradition of diamantaire
Nirav Modi to India
to stand trial in a Rs 13,500
crore bank fraud after dismissing
arguments of his
"mental health concerns,"
saying they are not unusual in
a man in his circumstances,
while that of billionaire Vijay
Mallya, also accused of financial
crimes, hangs in the balance,
a new book delves into
12 extraordinary cases over
seven decades that have seen London
emerge as a safe haven for those who want
to escape the law in India and unravels the
legal quagmire that has caused much
debate in Her Majesty's courts - and consternation
in New Delhi's corridors of
power. In 'Escaped: True Stories of Indian
Fugitives in London' (Penguin), Danish
Khan and Ruhi Khan, through eyewitness
accounts and archival records, delve into
these 12 cases to decode why London is an
irresistible siren for Indian fugitives.
More than throwing the spotlight on the
ultra-luxe worlds of Modi and Mallya, the
book also uncovers the complex ownership
of their UK assets and brings to life the
intense courtroom battles involving them.
The book also chronicles the saga of
cricket bookie Sanjeev Chawla, now dispatched
to India, and that of music director
Nadeem Saifi, charged with the murder of
music baron Gulshan Kumar. Saifi had fled
Most Indian firms still short on
displaying 'digital empathy'
New Delhi : As more and
more Indians adopt digital way
of life most organisations are
still a long way from authentically
displaying "digital empathy"
and deliver better customer
experiences, a new
report has stressed.
Just over a third (37 per
cent) of Indian executives have
significant insights into customer
mindset. "Drivers of purchase,
friction points and attribution
of how marketing
actions relate to customer
behaviour fare only marginally
better," according to Adobe's
'2021 Digital Trends Report'.
Interestingly, Indian executives
are most likely to agree to
having significant insight into
drivers of loyalty (46 per cent),
to the UK in 2001 but the London High
Court rejected the Indian government's
request for his extradition on the ground
that there was no prima facie case against
him. The request met a similar fate in the
House of Lords while a sessions court in
Mumbai exonerated him after a key prosecution
witness turned hostile. Saifi chose
not to return to India and eventually
acquired British citizenship.
The book explores how drug lord Iqbal
Mirchi and terror accused Hanif Patel
evaded extradition, and investigates the
loopholes that saved convicted paedophile
Raymond Varley and NRI parents Arti Dhir
and Kaval Kaval Raijada, accused of murdering
their adopted child. Then, the book
reveals the inside story of how Lt
Commander Ravi Shankaran (retd), the
alleged spy in what is known as the Navy
War Room Leak Case, was set free.
On the plus side, the book takes a trip
journeys of new customers (44
per cent) and attribution of how
marketing actions relate to customer
behaviour (40 per cent).
"Truly committing to customer
experience as a growth
lever will mean going beyond
response and conversion rates,
and instead digging into the
motivations, frustrations and
thinking of customers
throughout the customer journey",
said Nitin Singhal,
Head, Digital Experience
Business, Adobe India. Even
as things start to normalise in
2021, there is a continual need
for organisations to move
away from siloed work cultures
and tide over the market
pressures through rapid innovation
and product pivots.
According to the
research, executives in
India (34 per cent) reported
their organisations as
dynamic, collaborative
and flexible amid the
market changes, where
they work environments
were restricted by traditional
hierarchies.
Nearly 71 per cent of
executives surveyed in
India agreed to their customers
benefiting from
great digital experiences.
"There's no doubt that
business agility and digital
maturity will continue to be
a differentiator for businesses,
even as we move towards a
post-Covid economy," Singhal
said.
The research also found that
26 per cent of those surveyed in
India are using a cloud-based
platform along with other marketing
data management systems,
confirming a hybrid
approach being adopted by
many organisations.
"With accelerated digital
adoption brought on by the
pandemic, new technologies
and effective data management
tools are necessary for delivering
enhanced customer experiences,"
said Dharmarajan K,
Chief Product and Customer
Experience Officer, Tata CLiQ.
through history as it
recounts how a newly
independent India
managed to bring
back two powerful
industrialists, Dharma
Jayanti Teja, and
Mubarak Ali Ahmed,
who were involved in
financial crimes.
Danish Khan is a
journalist and historian
living in London.
He has been covering
the UK and Europe for
Times Now, ET Now and Mumbai Mirror
for a decade. Prior to that, he worked as a
journalist in Mumbai. Danish was awarded
the Martin Senior scholarship and the
Amersi Foundation scholarship at the
University of Oxford, where he is also
involved in the Global History of
Capitalism Project. He has taught history at
the University of Oxford and Stanford
University.
Ruhi Khan is a London-based independent
journalist. She has written on extradition
cases for the Wire. She has worked
with NDTV and Mumbai Mirror in India
and been a curator at Twitter UK. Ruhi was
a Jefferson Fellow at the East West Center,
US, and a recipient of the Mary Morgan
Hewitt Award for Women in Journalism.
She is an Economic and Social Research
Council (ESRC) scholar at the London
School of Economics and Political Science
and also edits the Media@LSE Blog.
'UK supports Afghan's
fight against Taliban'
London : British Prime
Minister Boris Johnson held a
telephonic conversation with
the Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani during which the former
reiterated his country's continued
support to the latter's fight
against the Taliban, according
to a statement by the British
government.
"Johnson on Friday reiterated
the UK's longstanding support
for the Afghan government's
fight against the Taliban
as part of the NATO coalition,"
said the statement.
"They agreed on the importance
of making progress in
peace talks to secure a sovereign,
democratic and united
Afghanistan and to preserve the
gains made by civil society and
women and girls," the statement
added.
The Presidential Palace said
in a statement that Ghani and
Johnson discussed the bilateral
ties and the Afghan peace
process, Tolo news reported.
The British Prime Minister
assured President Ghani of his
country's continued support to
the Afghan peace process,
strengthened regional diplomacy,
and UK's support to Afghan
forces, the Palace said.
The statement further said
that both of them also discussed
the global efforts to tackle the
pandemic and the roll out of
vaccines in Afghanistan and the
UK.