One Percent Indians only Pay Income Tax

Only 1 Per Cent Indians Pay Income Tax – Over the last six years, the growth in the total income tax collected has slowed down considerably. Taxpayers account for just about one per cent of India’s population, but tax outgo was over Rs. 1 crore for as many as 5,430 individuals, as per the latest data disclosed by the government for assessment year 2012-13. As part of a transparency drive, the government has made public direct tax data for last 15 years. Data for individuals has been published only for 2012-13 assessment year, which shows taxes for income in financial year ended March 31, 2012. A total of 2.87 crore individuals filed income tax returns for that year, but 1.62 crore of them did not pay any tax — leaving the number of taxpayers at just about 1.25 crore which was close to one per cent of the country’s total population of about 123 crore at that time. The tax outgo was less than Rs. 1.5 lakh for a vast majority of nearly 89 per cent taxpayers (over 1.11 crore). Their average tax payable was just about Rs. 21,000, while the collective amount stood at over Rs. 23,000 crore. The three individuals in the top-bracket of Rs. 100-500 crore paid a total tax of Rs. 437 crore — resulting in an average tax outgo of Rs. 145.80 crore. As many as 5,430 individuals paid income tax of over Rs. 1 crore. Out of this, the tax range was Rs. 1-5 crore for more than 5,000 individuals, resulting in a total outgo of Rs. 8,907 crore. As per the overall data, total income tax collections rose nine-fold to Rs. 2.86 lakh crore in 2015-16, from Rs. 31,764 crore in 2000-01. The data further said that the bulk of individuals who filed returns for the assessment year 2012-13 earned an annual salary between Rs. 5.5 lakh and Rs. 9.5 lakh. Over 20.23 lakh taxpayers earned Rs. 5.5-9.5 lakh, while their cumulative salary earnings stood at Rs. 1.40 lakh crore in the financial year 2011-12. Further 19.18 lakh individuals earned salary of Rs. 2.5-3.5 lakh that year. Six individuals fell in the high-end earning bracket of Rs. 50-100 crore of salary income. In the salary range of Rs. 1-5 crore, there were as many as 17,515 individuals. Nearly 2.87 crore salary earners filed their I-T returns in assessment year 2012-13. The total number of individuals who paid income tax in 2011 was 4 crore; that number climbed only to nearly 5 crore for 2014. For the year 2014-15, Maharashtra collected the maximum direct tax (which includes corporate tax and individual income tax) of Rs. 2.77 lakh crore, followed by Delhi at Rs. 91,274 crore , Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Over the last six years, the growth in the total income tax collected has slowed down considerably. The growth rate in the collection of taxes was nearly 18 per cent in 2010, down last year to about 6.7 per cent. Source: NDTV

"I AM THE PRADHAN SEVAK"

 BUT MY  MINISTERS WILL

HAVE THE ARROGANCE OF RULERS

Believe you me my readers, '62 is just round the corner. Lack of morale causes depression. Our Defense Forces are fast turning into a 1.3 million uniformed men and women with sapped morale. Thanks to the present Governing Council of India, its cabinet.

While Chappan Chaati goes around proclaiming that he is the Pradhan Sevak of India, he has constituted his cabinet, the behavior of whose members is anything but 'sevak-like'.

The arbitrariness of these cabinet members shames even Mohd Tughlak, who is famed to have ordered minting of leather coins with his face on them.

These 'Rulers' not only issue arbitrary orders, but also arrogantly refuse their reconsideration, till vote banks are threatened, and ride rough shod over all high placed authorities in every domain and most humiliatingly dismiss them from their  presence. 

The whole aim is to brow beat these authorities into abject submission, making them sing the proverbial, "Yes Sir, no Sir, three bags full Sir".

Medieval Britain saw scores who dared the Kings/ Queens, thrown into dungeons and later put to the sword or thrown down from the Tower of London.

The arbitrary jailing is already in practise. Will it be the Kutub Minar the next.

The top judiciary, the last bastion against these 'monarch of all I survey' types has already been given a dressing down by the NSA, in the garb of a briefing on National Security.

The President, who had refused to sign a proclamation during the UPA - II days, has been more than compliant to the rule by proclamations being practised by the present Rulers. He has been firmly told that he was only a signing machine.

Here is another damnation of the arrogance of these Rulers, as amply and succinctly  brought out by Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, the former Vice Chief of Army Staff.

PARRIKAR OVERRULES THE DEFENSE CHIEFS

TAKES IGNORANCE & ARROGANCE 

TO A NEW LEVEL

                                                                                                                                                        April 25,2016

“The army is not like a limited liability company; to be reconstructed, remodeled, liquidated and refloated from week to week as the money market fluctuates. It is not an inanimate thing, like a house, to be pulled down or enlarged or structurally altered at the caprice of the tenant or the owner, it is a living thing. If it is bullied, it sulks; if it is unhappy it pines; if it is harried it gets feverish; if it is sufficiently disturbed it will wither and dwindle and almost die; and when it comes to this serious condition, it is only to be revived by lots of time and lots of money”. 

                                                                                                       - Winston S Churchill, 1905 

The Indian Army has a long tradition of checks and balances in curbing ‘wrongs’, may they be operational, administrative, man power or discipline related. Every issue and each case is deliberated upon extensively before judgment is passed or plans finalized.

Under the circumstances, one read with considerable consternation and shock that the Raksha Mantri (RM) of our country and the person responsible for the security of the nation has lost faith in the Chiefs of the three services. 

My reference is to two recent diktats of our worthy RM, who presides over the three services and is supposed to have the interest of the armed forces as his foremost task. 

In the first case, the RM, no doubt at the behest of the bureaucracy, ordered that in future selection boards for officers, an independent observer would sit in to ensure that the proceedings are above board. This move was apparently strongly objected to by the Chiefs and for good reasons. However, the RM persisted and only modified his orders stating that at least a representative from another service as an observer must attend. 

It is understood that the issue is still under consideration, but since it has undoubtedly been raised and reported, it reflects adversely on the propensity of the RM to shoot from the hip, without fully grasping the implications of such diktats. 

As a brief background, it was the first Prime Minister (also the defence minister), Jawaharlal Nehru, well known for his deep distrust of the military, who had first tampered with the then prevailing instructions in the Defence Services Regulations (DSR) relating to Selection Boards for officers that had existed for decades. By an order dated 10 April 1953, he ruled that all proposals for promotions and postings of officers of Colonels and equivalent ranks and above, along with dossiers would henceforth be submitted to the RM, along with reasons for non-selection. It went on to add that no promotions/ postings will be announced until the Minister’s approval had been obtained and communicated. 

One does not know as to how the service headquarters responded to this high-handed order, but it did become the norm! This was the start of nepotism and politicization that resulted in promoting incompetent sycophants in the military and the adverse results were visible to the entire world when the much vaunted Indian Military suffered the ignominious debacle of 1962! 

The successive RM’s and MoD bureaucrats lay low and bided their time, till during the NDA Regime in the second half of the 1990’s, the then RM-George Fernandes, issued an additional fiat stating that ‘the central government has the inherent power to modify, review, approve with variation or repeal recommendations of selection boards’. In other words –“we are the bosses”! Jai Ho!!! 

In no democracy in the world, has the so-called ‘Civil Supremacy’ manifested itself in this manner. The ignorance and arrogance of the politico-bureaucratic combine had now reached its zenith and one witnessed, with shame, even flag rank officers who had not been recommended for promotion by the selection boards, queuing up in front of the concerned joint secretary’s office like supplicants, but with cash in their pockets!!

The authority of the military hierarchy and the impartiality of Selection Boards now lay in tatters, but the Chiefs for unknown reasons remained mum and shackled with their penchant for not ‘rocking the boat’! Another Jai Ho!!! 

Let me now highlight the second fiat issued by our learned RM recently. Most newspapers had a headline last month that stated:“Parrikar raps service HQs for taking action against personnel who complain to him directly”. In elaboration, it was stated that the Defence Minister expressed his anger for the service headquarters taking action against personnel who had made representations to him directly. The Minister also directed that henceforth service headquarters shall restrain from taking action against complaining personnel and if any action needs to be taken, the same shall be first furnished to the MoD for seeking approval of the RM!?! 

The Minister may be under the wrong impression that it is a welfare measure. In actuality, it will result in subverting the loyalty of military personnel and will adversely affect discipline, which is the bedrock of all militaries. Are the brownie points that may accrue to the Minister worth it? 

This move in actuality undermines the discipline of the Indian Military and amounts to gross interference in the chain of command; letting down the hierarchy of the Chiefs; and encouraging serving personnel to violate good order and military discipline that is a fundamental precept military the world over.

. 

This is populism of the worst kind as it interferes with laid down norms of dealing with aggrieved personnel. Aggrieved personnel already have avenues of Non Statutory and Statutory Complaints available to them, which they can invoke if they feel that they have not received complete justice. Besides the overall negative implications of this order, the Minister would be opening the proverbial Pandora's Box, which will bog down both him and the MoD with a spate of ill conceived and ill perceived complaints of even trivial nature. 

The bureaucracy has its own personal and institutional agenda to try and dominate the armed forces, whether it is in pay and allowances; lowering of status; or keeping the services starved of funds for modernization; training and administration. For egoistic reasons, they seem to take a perverse delight in showing how powerful they are, even to the extent of confusing a well educated and learned RM. The Minister would be treading on dangerous ground when such diktats boomerang. When that happens, the bureaucrats will conveniently wash their hands off and let the poor Minister fend for himself. 

No one disputes that prompt redress of grievances by the concerned commanders in the chain is a must, and all commanders do give great importance to regulations,procedures, and in going by the legality of issues involved. Commanders are well conversant with the Regulations; they have studied military law; and they rarely, if at all, cut corners, on account of empathy with their comrades in arms. 

Let the armed forces function and execute their command functions, as per the time tested procedures. In democracies like ours, political leaders must not tamper or short circuit the chain of command of the military. The RM needs to reflect on how an interfering Defence Minister – Krishna Menon seriously damaged the professional military by his gross interference and politicisation of the Indian Military in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, despite being cautioned repeatedly by that great Chief, 'Timmy'. 

If the minister wants to persist in this folly, not caring for the damage he will inflict on the armed forces; then I suggest that he requests for a change of his portfolio and becomes the Home Minister, as the institutions and departments therein are in any case highly politicized and would welcome him with open arms! 

In a democracy, it is the trust that a Defence Minister has with the heads of the armed forces and non-interference in their internal functioning, which result in the armed forces giving their best. If trust is lost or gets diluted, it is the country that suffers, not individuals. The Indian Military has not only served the nation loyally but has done so comprehensively, through wars; insurgencies; major internal disorders and even in areas where the other instruments of the state have failed miserably. 

OROP Comments - Brig R Vinayak, VSM (Retd)

Dear Veterans,

Comments on Maj Gen SPS Vains SC judgement received from Former Member of AFT Primary Bench is as follows 

 

 

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO.5566 OF 2008

@ SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) NO. 12357 of 2006


have gone through the SC Judgement of Maj Gen SPS Vains and others.

Quote (.)

The SC has categorically stated that all Officers of the same rank cannot be differentiated in terms of pension based on a cut -off date. In this judgement it clearly talks of Maj Gens and equivalents. But interpreted otherwise will mean that the judgement is applicable to all ranks. In this case they have specifically restricted the arrears from the date of filing the petition.

 

In the court of law, any one holding a rank can thus quote this judgment to seek pension as per the newly retired same rank pers.

That is why, while the JM agitation was on, there was a strong lobby to take the Judicial route. I hope that this judgement is cited in front of the one man judicial committee, so as to obtain a favourable decision.

 

Also, going by this judgement, the 7th Pay Commission benefit can't be with-held from the pensioners under the garb of OROP. Unless, they make the 7th CPC award applicable to the Armed Forces as and when the 5 year period for OROP harmonisation is due. It will have other implications.

(.) Unquote (.)

Brig R Vinayak, VSM (Retd)


Click to View Judgment Copy
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5qMHPNAaXz3TldJc2RDbzVqOEU/view?usp=sharing
 

VVIP chopper scam Part IV - Col Ranbir Lamba

Role of the current CAG Shashi Kant Sharma in Agusta Westland deal

The current CAG Sharma was a key player in the AgustaWestland deal

By Team PerformanceGurus - April 29, 2016

#AgustaWestland deal
While the political tsunami Agusta is hitting all levels of Indian politicians and Air Force officials, a key official of India is perhaps hiding his head like an ostrich, hoping it would miss him. That would be India’s Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma. In page 9 of the Italian appeal court judgment(see the picture below), there is a seized document (a hand written note) from middlemen on how to share the bribe to the key people – Air Force officials, Bureaucrats in Ministry of Defence and to Sonia Gandhi’s Political Secretary Ahmed Patel (mentioned as AP). This crucial handwritten note was written by the main middleman, currently a fugitive, Christian Michel in March 2008.

Page 9 of the Italian High Cout verdict, showing DG (Acq), which was Sharma
In the bureaucrats section of the above list, there is a name mentioned as DG (Acq) – meaning Director General (Acquisition). In those days, this key post in the Ministry of Defence was held by the current Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Shashi Kant Sharma.

Sharma belongs to the 1976 batch of Indian Administrative Service (Bihar Cadre) and landed in the Ministry of Defence in the middle of 2003 as Joint Secretary (Air). He was the person who initiated this controversial Agusta Westland VVIP purchase and he became DG (Acquisition) in the middle of 2007. He was at this crucial post till 2010 and became Defence Secretary from March 2011 to May 2013.

In the 10 years that Sharma was in the Ministry of Defence, he held key positions and eyebrows were raised when the UPA Government in May 2013 made him the CAG.

 It was a very unusual move – a Defence Secretary does not get appointed as CAG, as the apex auditor’s major work of auditing is the biggest expenditure department, which is Defence.

 It is as if you are asked to sit in judgment over your own case where you are the accused.

After serving in the Defence Ministry for 10 long years and now as Country’s Apex auditor – all of a sudden he is auditing the expenditure approved by him for the past 10 years! What an awkward and morally questionable decision by the UPA Government! Was it looking for a pliable guy, as it was fed up with the then outgoing CAG Vinod Rai?

After the Italian Judgment has endorsed this bribe list by incorporating it, Indian agencies have to question each and every person mentioned. This puts the probe agencies in a dilemma as Sharma is now a CAG, which is a Constitutional post. In the interest of justice at least probe agencies have to go to him and take his version.

In the bribe sharing list prepared by middlemen in 2008, there is another key post that is mentioned – JS (Air). After Sharma, during this period, this crucial post was handled by R K Ghosh. This officer is from the IA & AS Service who donned this post from the middle of September 2007 to 2012. It is well known in power circles that Sharma and Ghosh are very close.

As soon as SK Sharma became the CAG, one of the first things he did was to give a plum post to his close friend R K Ghosh by giving him a plum post abroad. From mid-2013 onwards, Ghosh was posted as Senior Auditing Officer in United Nations Head Quarters in New York for three years. This is a tax-free post and is a dream job of every government officer. Now Ghosh is back in his parent Department as Additional Deputy CAG.

UPA’s crucial purchases including Agusta and the aborted Rafale deals were negotiated by Sharma and Ghosh during their very long stint in the Ministry of Defence. Now the investigating officers who took statements from Air Force officials including the then Air Force Chief SP Tyagi are consulting legal brains of the country on the awkward situation of taking statements from CAG Sharma, who sits on a Constitutional post.

Summary

This post illustrates the difficulties the current government is facing – there are just too many questionable appointments, all of whom cannot be brushed aside.

Is this the template (see picture above) that was used by the UPA for all its foreign dealings? If so, how many more such skeletons are going to tumble out of the cupboard?

Note: Kindly see handwritten by Michael payoff to various dignitaries in this news paper

https://www.pgurus.com/role-current-cag-shashi-kant-sharma-agusta-westland-deal/

Col lamba

VVIP chopper scam - Part III - Col Ranbir Lamba

What was the deal all about: 

The requirement for VVIP helicopters was raised by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the early 2000s. 

After rounds of evaluations and changes in requirements, it was only in February 2010 that the contract was signed for 12 Agusta Westland AW-101s.
The deal was valued at Rs 3,700 crore.

The helicopters were meant for ferrying top Indian dignitaries, including the prime minister. The AW-101 helicopter, which was eventually purchased after an almost decade-long process, is also used by the President of the US. Besides enhanced reliability that is provided by its three engines, the helicopter is fitted with advanced electronic equipment that can detect and neutralise threats.

In fact, as on early 2013, the company had already delivered three helicopters to the IAF. 

What went wrong: 

On February 12, 2013, the Italian police arrested Giuseppe Orsi, the head of defence group Finmeccanica SpA, the parent company of AgustaWestland, on a warrant alleging that he had paid bribes to win the Indian VVIP chopper contract, 

prosecutors accused Chief Executive and Chairman Orsi in the arrest warrant of "paying bribes to intermediaries to secure the sale of 12 helicopters in a 560 million euro ($749 million) deal when he was head of the group's AgustaWestland unit".

In light of the arrest, the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations that kickbacks were paid to Indian middlemen to secure the deal.

At the same time, the remaining payment of Rs 2,400 crore to AgustaWestland, along with the delivery of nine helicopters from the company was put on hold, until the closure of an investigation by the CBI.

By then, India has already paid around 30% of the committed amount. 

 Italian investigation reports suggested that Guido Haschke and Christian Michael were the main middlemen in the deal.

According to the report filed by Italian investigators in an Italian court, the middlemen had agreed for a 7.5% commission in the Rs 3,700 crore deal.

In March of 2013. the CBI said that it had found evidence against former Indian Air Force chief S P Tyagi that suggested that he had extended favours to the UK-based AgustaWestland by changing specification requirements for the VVIP choppers. The agency registered a first information report (FIR) against Tyagi and 12 others.

In its FIR, the CBI also included two top IDS officials — CEO Satish Bagrodia (brother of former Union minister Santosh Bagrodia), and MD Pratap Agarwal — who had not been named in its preliminary inquiry.

Days later, the CBI issued lookout notices for Tyagi, his three cousins and five others, named in its FIR. 

With the Enforcement Directorate indicating that it would bring the deal under its scanner and the a Joint Parliamentary Committee conducting its own probe, it was only in January of 2014 that the deal was finally scrapped by the MoD.

What happened next: 

A fortnight after cancelling the contract, the MoD has encashed a guarantee of over Rs 250 crore deposited by AgustaWestland in the State Bank of India, the Daily Pioneer reported.

However, India still had to recover bank guarantees worth Rs 2,134 crore deposited in Italian banks. 

In an RTI reply in early 2014, the IAF had said that euro 83,439,303 (15% of the contract value) and euro 166,878,607 (30% of contract value), totalling to about Rs 2,134 crore (according to the then exchange rates), were deposited as bank guarantee by the company in Deutsche Bank, Milan, Italy.

In late March that year, an Italian court allowed India to encash bank guarantees worth about Rs 1,818 crore deposited by AgustaWestland in Italian banks.

"The Milan court partially upheld the complaint lodged by the Indian Defence Ministry and thereby revoked the order issued by the judge on last March 17," said a statement by Finmecannica.CEO of AgustaWestland and Guiseppe Orsi, chairman of the Italian parent company Finmeccanica on the charges of bribing 3 middlemen to secure the deal with the Indian Air Force.

The Tyagi angle:

In 2014, the Italian court investigating the chopper scam named former chief of the IAF, SP Tyagi in the scam, stating that he was bribed by Finmeccanicato sign the deal with

However, in 2015, the Italian Court acquitted Tyagi, stating that there was no corruption by Indian officials.
In the second biggest Defence controversy following the Bofors Scam, then PM Manmohan Singh,UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and former chief of Indian Air Force SP Tyagi has been put to questioning.

According to an Indian Express report from April, 2016, the Italian Court of Appeals has observed that there are “unmistakable indications regarding corruption of an Indian officer”. 

The observation pointed at then Air Chief Marshal Tyagi. 

According to the report, the judgement reads: “Ultimately, there are no elements of certainty to affirm this beyond any reasonable doubt that the reduction in the operating rate was chosen contrary to the public (duty) and that Marshal Tyagi…made specific acts contrary to his duty; it remains anyway the wrongfulness of his conduct, for having offered to cooperate with AW [Agusta Westland] in economic operation which prohibited all forms of mediation, and for having received large compensation in relation to its institutional activity...” 

The Italian Court's observation comes just months after the ED, in September of last year, attached assets worth about Rs 7 crore alleged to be in the name of cousins of the former IAF chief . 

How is SP Tyagi connected to the scam?

The AW 101 choppers couldn’t make the cut after flight evaluation because they couldn’t fly at or above18,000 ft, while that was the key requirement of the Indian Air Force as urged to the Defence Ministry.
A CBI report said that prior to Tyagi being appointed as Air Force chief, the IAF had ‘’vehemently opposed’’ the lowering of the altitude requirement.

after Tyagi was appointed the chief and the IAF “conceded to reduce” altitude requirements, allowing AgustaWestland to re-enter the bidding process.
In recent investigations by the Milan Court of Appeals, particularly in its 225-page judgment, Tyagi’s name appeared more than once. The judgment said, “So, in the absence of contrary indications, it must be concluded that the reward bestowed to

to ‘Tyagi family’ (including three of his cousins) for their work in support of AW in relation to the race of the Government (of) India for military helicopters  

€10,500,000.”
How is Sonia Gandhi involved in the Scam?

The conversations between the three bribed middlemen, namely: Carlos Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guildo Haschke — have mentioned ‘Mrs Gandhi’ as being the ‘driving 

force behind the VIP’ and her close aides Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee — the latter is referred to as being the ‘British High Commissioner’.
In a letter dated 15 March, 2008, Christian Michel wrote to Peter Hulet, the then head of India region sales and liaison for AgustaWestland, saying “Dear Peter, since Mrs Gandhi is the driving force.AgustaWestland, saying “Dear Peter, since Mrs Gandhi is the driving force behind the VIP, she will no longer fly with MI8. Mrs Gandhi and her closest advisers are the aim of the High Commissioner, senior adviser Prime Minister Manmohan Singh obviously the main figure, then there’s Ahmed Patel Secretary”.

 

 But this changed just
All allegations false, have nothing to hide: Sonia Gandhi on VVIP chopper controversy

One of the key requirements in that RFP was that the competing helicopters must be able to fly at altitudes around 6,000 metres with a full load.

After trials, only one helicopter -- the Eurocopter’s EC 225 -- was able to fly at that altitude.

In 2003, the IAF sent its evaluation report to the PMO. Brajesh Mishra, then national security adviser and principal secretary to then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, asked the Special Protection Group that guards India’s VVIPs, for its comments.

The SPG apparently said the EC-225 was unsuitable because its cabin height was too short (at 1.39 metres) and that neither the VIPs nor the SPG personnel would be able to stand upright inside such a cabin.

Mishra then wrote to Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy who had taken over from ACM Tipnis in 2001, expressing concern on two points: A single vendor situation had arisen because of the specification that said the helicopters must be able to fly at altitudes around 6,000 metres and that the SPG’s inputs were not taken.

‘It is unfortunate that SPG wasn’t taken on board...

and the defence secretary work out the specifications in consultation with the SPG..’

So, the IAF, in consultation with the SPG, drew up the entire Air Staff Qualitative Requirement once again. That was in 2003.
The new specifications said the helicopters must be able to fly at an altitude of 4,500 metres and that its cabin must be at least 1.80 m in height.

A)Siachen glacier, located in the eastern Karakoram Range in the Himalayas, is one of the five largest glaciers in the Karakoram, situated at an average altitude of 18,000 ft above sea level. 

B)Meanwhile, Air Marshal S P Tyagi took over as IAF chief in 2004. It took Air Headquarters and the defence ministry’s acquisition wing another three years to issue a fresh Request For the Proposal. That was in 2006.

By then Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance government had been ousted, and the United Progressive Alliance was in power.

The new RFP, which went by the specifications finalised in 2003, was issued to six different vendors when Pranab Mukherjee, now India’s President, was the defence minister.

Three companies -- the makers of Mi-172, Sikorsky which made the S-92 helicopters and AgustaWestland’s AWA101 -- responded to the RFP.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry put in place a new concept -- the Defence Procurement Procedure.

Under this, all companies that bid for contracts above Rs 1 billion have to sign an integrity pact that binds the companies to give an undertaking that no bribes would be paid or that agents would be used in the contracts.

The Russian company that manufacturers the Mi-172 withdrew from the competition at an early stage refusing to sign the integrity contract!

That left Agusta Westland and Sikorsky in the race. By now this was late 2007.

Fali H Major, himself a helicopter pilot, had meanwhile taken over as the IAF chief.

The evaluations and trials of the S-92 and AW101 began and continued over the next couple of years (2008-2009).
According to IAF sources, the S-92 was found to be non-compliant on four counts:
1. It could not reach 15,000 feet without maximum power.
2. Its 'hover out off ground effect' was insufficient.
3. Its drift down altitude did not meet the requirement.
4. Its missile airborne warning system was not up to the mark.

AgustaWestland, with its three engines, was a bonus, according to IAF test pilots since one engine failure still meant it had two engines to fall back upon.

Sometime in 2009, 

Air HQ sent its recommendation to the defence ministry and after going through stringent financial and technical requirements mandatory under the DPP, a contract was signed in February 2010.

By this time, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik was the air chief.

The first of the AW 101 AgustaWestland helicopters arrived in India in late 2012. 

Two more helicopters followed in quick succession.

When a controversy over the deal emerged in 2013 with the arrest of Agusta's parent organisation Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi by Italian authorities, the then United Progressive Alliance government cancelled the deal, recovered the advance paid to the chopper manufacturer and instituted a probe against the alleged middlemen and beneficiaries

So were there middlemen? Who were they and why were they present in getting the deal in spite of India disallowing them to function here?

Allegedly, Guido Ralph Haschke, his partner Carlos Gerosa and London-based consultant Christian Michel were paid kickbacks totalling € (around Rs 4 billion) in the Rs 36 billion deal for 12 VVIP helicopters inked with AgustaWestland, the UK-based subsidiary of Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica, in February 2010.

The Central Bureau of Investigation’s First Information Report says: ‘Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa managed to send €5.6 million (over Rs 470 million) through the Mohali-based IDS Infotech and Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix Info Solutions Private Limited to India and kept the remaining amount of about €24.30 million (around Rs 2.05 billion) received from AgustaWestland with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia.’

Haschke had earlier claimed that €6 million (over Rs 510 million) were paid to IAF officers and €8.4 million (around Rs 710 million) to bureaucrats, with politicians also getting a cut in the AgustaWestland deal.

Prosecutors have claimed that money was paid to close associates of former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi, who is named as a prime accused in the Italian prosecution case. Italian prosecutors have also alleged that another part of the bribe money was paid through UK-based consultant Christian Michel to political entities in India, and speculated that senior leaders of the then ruling party, Congress, were among the recipients. 

Was Congress president Sonia Gandhi named in the court hearing in Italy? Why?

Prosecutors in an Italian court produced a note purportedly written by Christian Michel revealing that he had advised the people handling the VVIP helicopter deal on the company’s behalf to target people close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, including the prime minister and some of her closest advisers, to win the contract.

The note written in March 2008 by middleman Christian Michel to Peter Hullet, India head of the Anglo-Italian company, was produced by the prosecutors in an Italian court where a trial is underway in the bribe scam.

In the note, Michel reportedly termed Sonia as the driving force behind the deal and advised Hullet to 'target' people close to her to clinch the deal.

"Dear Peter, since Sonia Gandhi is the driving force behind VIP will no longer fly in the MI-8. Gandhi and her closest advisers are the people who the British ambassador should target," said the letter of Michel seized by the probe team. This letter was seized from the home of arrested middlemen Guido Haschke in early 2013.

What does the April 16 verdict of the Italian appeals court say about involvement of Indian politicians in the payoffs?

Michel's note reportedly mentions among others, Sonia’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, Pranab Mukherjee, M Veerappa Moily, then national security adviser M K Narayanan and Vinay Kumar, a defence ministry official in charge of IAF procurement.

The 225-page judgment of the appeal court in Milan says Haschke identified all the Congress leaders, when their photos were shown to him during the trial by the Italian prosecution.

Page No 163 and 164 name Manmohan Singh and details that Orsi used Italian leadership and diplomats to contact the then prime minister to scuttle the probe by non-cooperation from the Indian Government's side.

In Page 163, the judgment produces a handwritten note by Orsi from jail in July 2013 asking his people to contact then Italian Prime Minister Monti or Ambassador Teracciano to call Dr Singh.

"Call Monti or amb. Teracciano in my name to ask him to call the PM Singh," said the note seized from the prison cell of Orsi. The judgment in several areas blames the non-cooperation from Indian authorities including the Defence Ministry and other probe agencies in 2013, when the Congress-led UPA was in power.

What does the judgment say about former air chief Tyagi's role?

The judgement has a separate 17-page chapter on SP Tyagi explaining the grounds on which it came to the conclusion on the corruption of the former IAF chief.

Tyagi is alleged to have intervened in favour of AgustaWestland for the VVIP helicopters competition.

The Italian court order said that payments to Tyagi and his family -- including three of his cousins, were mcoade in cash and through wire transfers......

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