PRCI awarded Shri Abhijit Sarkar with the coveted Chanakya Jury’s Special Award 2015

 Public Relations Council of India (PRCI), the ace body of Communications and PR professionals awarded Shri Abhijit Sarkar, Head – Corporate Communications & Director-Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, Sahara India Pariwar, with the coveted Chanakya Jury’s Special Award 2015 for his exemplary work in the field of Sports Communications. Shri JualOram, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India presented the award to Shri Abhijit Sarkar, in a glittering ceremony held at New Delhi on 13^th March, 2015.

 This award is an eloquent manifestation of the fact that Shri Abhijit Sarkar, is probably the only sports management expert in the country who has so effectively contributed to sports in India, across the board. His exceptional efforts in bringing together Corporate for promoting sports in India from regional, national and international level not only took sports like cricket to greater heights but also brought excellence in those sports which are less popular and require infrastructural and financial support and there is hardly any sport left in the country where his efforts and encouragement have not been recognized. His outstanding contribution to Indian sports is also evident from the fact that he is the Co-Chairman of FICCI Sports Committee for the past two years and also a member of the prestigious Sports Committee of CII for last three years. He has also been the Convener of Publicity & Media Sub Committee of the XIX Commonwealth Games, 2010.

 For his contribution in the field of Sports and Corporate Communication in general and Public Relations in specific, he has been awarded with the ‘Most Dynamic Corporate Communications Professional of the Year’ in the Power brands Hall of Fame Awards in London 2011. He has also been conferred with Indy’s Excellence Award 2008 in the field of Corporate Communications, Crises Management and PR and ‘Communicator of the Year” award 2011 by IPRCCA, ‘Chanakya Corporate Communication Professional of the Year’ by Public Relations Council of India.

 Additionally, Mr. Sarkar’s unparalleled expertise and leadership in the field of sports have also accorded him vital positions in various sports bodies. He is Director - Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, Director – Sahara Force India (India’s only Formula One team), Director – U.P. Wizards (U.P. Franchise team of Hockey India League), Director – Ranchi Rays (Ranchi Franchise team of Hockey India League), Director – Awadhe Warriors (Lucknow Franchise team of Indian Badminton League), and Director – Sahara Warriors (Sahara’s Polo team). His charm and dignity made him a personal favorite of nearly all the eminent sportspersons who always consider him as their indispensable support.

It was in consideration of his deep understanding of the nuances of media and sports, vast experience and expertise in the area of communications and Sports Management that he was appointed as a Convener – Publicity & Media Sub Committee of the XIX Commonwealth Games, 2010. For the same, Sahara eventually received Gold Award under the category of ‘Public Service Campaign’ by the Public Relation Council of India in 2011.

Mr. Abhijit Sarkar has played pivotal role in cementing Sahara’s inseparable association with Sports, for the past 15 years, whether it is the Sahara Cup in Canada, Sponsorship of the Indian Cricket Team for 14 years, Indian Hockey Team, Indian Women Cricket team, Indian Volley ball team or playing a pivotal role in Sahara’s association with Hockey, Boxing, Wrestling, Archery, Shooting, Football, Golf, Polo, and other sports disciplines. Besides, being the most visible face of Corporate Communications professionals in India, he also happens to be one of the tremendously successful in taking Indian sports to the next level. Under Mr. Sarkar’s visionary guidance Sahara is supporting 73 Sports person out of which 5 had won medals in London Olympics 2012.

 Having bestowed upon with multitudinous tasks in running Sahara’s IPL Pune franchisee – Pune Warriors India, as director Mr. Sarkar lead the IPL team for three consecutive years and played a decisive role in getting the coveted franchisee for Sahara.

Moreover, Mr. Sarkar has been instrumental in developing and executing various well acclaimed international and national events like Sahara India Sports Awards (SISA) – the one-of-its-kind platform to honor the sporting legends. The ‘Sahara India Sports Award’ won Silver Award under the category of ‘Corporate Event’ by the Public Relation Council of India, 2011.

Since the early days to the present day, Sahara’s association with Indian Cricket has traveled a long journey of significant milestones that deserved to be chronicled. The story of the rise of Indian Cricket team as a cricketing super power during the course of Sahara India Pariwar’s long association not only needs to be told but also preserved for the future generation of the cricket lovers.

 In the same context, Mr. Sarkar came with a up concept of preparing a Coffee Table Book, ‘The Golden Era’, which is a sumptuous tribute to Cricket and commemorates Sahara’s glorious association with Indian cricket in a form of book that spans from Natwest Trophy win in 2002 which is considered a turning point in Indian cricket after, of course, the 1983 World Cup triumph to India’s recent home series against South Africa. The book has number of sections with brief bios on each of the recent great cricketers. The book was conceptualized, ideated and produced under the guidance of Mr. Abhijit Sarkar.

In addition to this, he was instrumental in bagging the coveted franchisee of Uttar Pradesh in 2012 for the Hockey India League. Spearheading the U.P. Franchisee, he added another feather in his cap by adding another franchisee, Ranchi Rays in 2014, in the Hockey India League, which Sahara co-owns with cricketing legend, M.S. Dhoni.

 Besides, he played a major role when Sahara announced its co-ownership in India’s only formula One Team with Dr. Vijay Mallya. Not only India, he expanded the horizon of Sahara’s association with sports beyond a nation, when Sahara bagged the official sponsorship of Bangladesh Cricket team in 2012.

Statement from Sahara Counsels Ayush Chaudhary & Abhinav Mani Tripathi

We are thankful to the Hon’ble Court for giving us permission to raise funds via mortgage and sale of certain properties. Looking at the magnitude of the transactions involved, the Hon’ble Court has allowed us 90 days time to work from the conference room within Tihar Jail court premises, extending the facilities of video conferencing and meeting with various parties.

Apart from the mortgage of the three foreign properties, court has also allowed sale of ten domestic properties and a land parcel of Aamby Valley City. We are in a very advanced stage with many parties and shall execute these deals at the earliest. We have already deposited nearly Rs.4, 000/- crores in the ‘Sahara-SEBI Account’ and we shall be very shortly depositing the remaining amount along with the Bank Guarantee.

Sahara Counsel

Ayush Chaudhary & Abhinav Mani Tripathi

Is Really Big Companies Like Sahara, DLF are Culprit

Everyone loves it when a regulator acts tough against large corporations. So when the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) banned DLF Ltd and six senior officials, including its chairman and founder, it expectedly won plaudits. Shekhar Gupta, a senior journalist, tweeted, “Sahara, now DLF, Sebi stature grows…”

However, Sebi’s conduct in the DLF case has been vastly different compared with its handling of Sahara. It took more than seven years to pass its judgement. During this time, the original complainant against DLF, K.K. Sinha, was forced to take Sebi to court alleging “deliberate inaction”. Besides, the Delhi high court castigated the regulator on more than one occasion for dragging its feet on the case.

 And while many have been enamoured by the ‘housewives’ plot allegedly used by DLF to hide its association with some subsidiaries, as shown in Sebi’s order, the truth is that Sinha informed the Delhi high court about this way back in September 2008.

 For some perspective, Sinha first sent a complaint directly to Sebi, alleging that DLF hadn’t disclosed an ongoing litigation between him and a DLF subsidiary in its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus. Sebi’s order suggests that this complaint was forwarded to DLF for its response. The developer, obviously, denied the allegations, saying that the said company wasn’t a subsidiary.

 Because of Sebi’s inaction at the time, Sinha filed a writ petition before the Delhi high court in 2007. Some of Sebi’s arguments during the hearing of this case are worth noting. Sebi objected that since the petitioner was not an investor in the securities market, he had no locus standi to file the petition. It also contended that since the subsidiary company in question was an unlisted company, it wasn’t amenable to the Sebi regulations and guidelines. Note that in the Sahara case, Sebi took the exact opposite stand, which is that it acted against an unlisted company.

Sebi didn’t exactly cover itself with glory with those statements, and the high court judge observed, “In the instant case, as the facts reveal, Sebi was inexplicably slow in reacting to the petitioner’s complaints. Its subsequent failure to initiate further steps to investigate the transaction in question was also not consistent with its statutory obligation.” In his judgement in April 2010, the judge directed Sebi to undertake an investigation into the complaints made by Sinha.

Although it dithered on the DLF case, Sebi has done well to bring closure to the case (although, of course, it will now be fought at the Securities Appellate Tribunal and perhaps, even the Supreme Court). But it should go further and look at the role of investment bankers and other related issues. To stop at only Sinha’s complaint will be quite an inadequate response, considering all that its investigations have unearthed thus far.

For more info : http://www.livemint.com/Money/HEzLkPp0o1LgcEaUNLlHML/Sebi-Reluctant-hero-in-the-DLF-case.html

Sahara Case Proceeding : Gautam Awasthi Thanked Supremecourt

Statement of Advocate Gautam Awasthi on yesterday’s Supreme Court Proceedings

               

Today, we are extremely thankful to our Hon’ble Judges who have opened the path after 5 months for Saharasree to reintroduce him and his presence in the work sphere. He never could get a chance to talk to anybody. Here in the jail, Subrata Roy Sahara used to get only 35 minutes and additional few calls at times in a week.

Actually from today only the business is starting to fulfill the direction of Hon’ble Court though these are all double payments.

So, on 22nd July, 2014, we got the permission for mortgage and sale of overseas assets and today on 1st August, 2014, we are going to get the support of all kinds of communications round the clock with office staff and technical support.

Since all the assets, every Rupee, every inch of all immovable properties, every gram of movable properties were under absolute embargo no payment in compliance of order dated 26th March, 2014 could have been made. Immediately after lifting of embargo on Bank account etc. things have started improving from beginning of June and consequently a substantial part of the cash payment of Rs.5000 crores could be deposited.