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It is important the the PM answers this issue of his ministers travelling to tax havens so often and not giving reports to PMO.

Is he not a weak PM keeping quiet when minsters were not reporting to him even about their trips

1. 71 of the 78 UPA ministers [ besides the PM] have made 786 foreign trips spending about 3,798 days and travelling 1.02 crore Km in 1287 days.

2.   The ministers of UPA have done foreign travel that will to log enough miles to circle the earth 256 times.

3.   Large number of Congress ministers have visited Italy again and again [Ambika Soni spent 23 days in all in personal trips to Italy  of which 11 days were not disclosed to PMO.]

4.   No less than twenty ministers visited Italy!

5.   Most ministers go to Italy then to Switzerland and then to Italy &  In between if time permits, visit India

6.   All ministers who visit Italy also visit Switzerland ? Why? Dal me Kuch Kala Hai!!

7.   Arjun Singh has spent two and half months in several countries and Ashwini Kumar for 3 months. Kapil Sibal has toured USA six times and spent 18 days on a trip to Malaysia and China.?

8.   Renuka Chowdhury totaled 112 days abroad with “personal trips to Chicago and Singapore.

10.Praful Patel travelled 125 days on personal visit and 57 days on official visits and [Fatmi of  RJD] travelled 14 days on official visit and 181 days on personal visit.

All this is till November 2008--- last year  

Most importantly Many of them have not given reports to PMO on their personal trips which sometimes are side trips of official trips. This makes Manmohan as a very weak PM since his own ministers even from Congress did not consider the need to report to himRajiv Gandhi wanted a Government on the move . This UPA government was definitely one which was not just moving but flying to and from Tax Havens.It is time PM releases the full travel list of his ministers, particularly to various tax havens .

 SOURCE   for data India Today Feb 18-2008

The estimates of the money stashed abroad can be inferred from a pioneering study sponsored by Ford Foundation. It is titled ---Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002- 2006 -- Global Financial Integrity [GFI] By Dev Kar and Devon-Cartwright Smith-a project of Ford foundation

[Source: http://www.gfip.org/storage/gfip/executive%20-%20final%20version%201-5-09.pdf]

Financial flows in the context of this report includes the proceeds from both illicit activities such as corruption (bribery and embezzlement of national wealth), criminal activity, and the proceeds of licit business that become illicit when transported across borders in contravention of applicable laws and regulatory frameworks (most commonly in order to evade payment of taxes).

a) In 2006, the most recent year of the Global Financial Integrity-[GFI] study, developing countries lost an estimated $858.6 billion to $1.06 trillion in illicit financial outflows.

b) Even at the lower end of the range of estimates, the volume of illicit financial  

flows coming out of developing countries increased at a compound rate of 18.2 percent over the 5 year period analyzed for the study.

c) On average, for the five-year period of this study, Asia accounts for  approximately 50 percent of overall illicit financial flows from all developing countries.

d) This report shows that the average amount stashed away from India annually during 2002-06 is $27.3 billion. It means that during the 5 year period the amount stashed away is 27.3x5=136.5 billion. It is not that all these amounts had gone to Swiss. It has gone to different tax and secret shelters. The share of Swiss banks in dirty money being a third of the global aggregate, some $ 45 billion out of the 136.5 billion stashed away from India would have been hoarded in these years in Swiss banks. [Pp-30-Source as above]

 e)The important point is that this is only for 5 years. More amounts were stashed away during the Nehruvian socialist regime. So the loot for 55 years would be several times the about money. In fact in those days the Indian rupee commanded a better value per Dollar. So fewer rupee could get more dollars. So the estimation that the Indian money stashed away may be of the order of $1.4 trillion.

f)This amount of USD 1.4 trillion is Rs 70 Lakh Crores when our national income is around Rs. 50 Lakh crore

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Amar Singh contributed millions to Clinton Foundation

Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC | December 19, 2008 | 09:23 IST

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh contributed anywhere from $1 to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, and so did industrialist Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of ArcelorMittal, according to information released by the non-profit organisation set up by the former President Bill Clinton to fund a variety of charitable activities around the world, including combating the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

The Foundation raised a total of $492 million since its inception in 1997 through the end of 2007, from 205,000 donors, including foreign governments, other charitable foundations, trade groups like the Confederation of Indian Industry (which gave anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million), businesses, and individuals who gave as little as $10 each.

The list did not release specific figures, but only provided a range of the contributions made, and neither did it list the occupation or countries of resident of the individual donors. So, it could not be ascertained whether Singh and Mittal gave $1 million or $5 million, or somewhere in-between, as with the CII, whether it gave exactly $500,000 or a $1 million or somewhere in-between.

The figures showed that the Foundation received more than $40 million from Saudi Arabia ($10 to $25 million range) and other Gulf countries, including Kuwait and Qatar and from Oman, Brunei, Norway and Italy.

Earlier, it had refused to disclose details of who the contributors were saying it wanted to maintain their confidentiality, but with President-elect Barack Obama naming former First Lady and Senator Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State designate, a memorandum of understanding had been hammered out between the Obama and Clinton teams that the Foundation would not only release these names but also submit future Foundation activities and paid speeches by the former President to an ethics review.

Under the terms of the agreement, Clinton was also to absolve himself from the day-to-day operations of his annual Clinton Global Initiative to which several foreign governments and organisations had pledged funds and that the State Department would be kept informed about new contributors, which going forward were unlikely to include foreign governments.

The Foundation's CEO Bruce Lindsay and attorney Cheryl Mills, according to the Associated Press, had also met with senior aides to Senator John Kerry, incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and the ranking Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar and apprised them of the MOU between them and the Obama team.

Several television networks like ABC News and CNN echoed the sentiments expressed by the AP report that 'the list also underscores ties between the Clintons and India, a connection that could complicate diplomatic perception of whether Hillary Clinton can be a neutral broker between India and Pakistan in a region where President-elect Barack Obama will face an early test of his foreign policy leadership'.

The report noted that Singh, an Indian political leader had 'hosted Bill Clinton during a visit to India in 2005 and met Hillary Clinton in New York in September to discuss the Indo-US civil nuclear deal'.

The AP also said, "Some of the donors have extensive ties to Indian interests and could prove troubling to Pakistan," and noted that "tensions between the two nuclear nations are high since last month's deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai."

In an exclusive interview with rediff.com, when he visited the US in September, Amar Singh said the specific purpose of his trip at that particular time was to meet with Hillary Clinton to among other things to urge her to push for the consummation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

He said, "I have had a very close relationship with Hillary Clinton. I had not met her for long. I had a dinner appointment with her yesterday night (September 12), where we spent some quality time together for more than two hours. So, that was the sole purpose of my visit because I thought that I should seize this opportunity to come and interact with her."

When asked how this relation was formed, Amar Singh had said, "Our relationship was formed long time back. We met together in India through Sant Chatwal (New York-based multi-millionaire hotelier and close friend of the Clintons) and thereafter it developed gradually and Mr Clinton came all the way to Lucknow to attend a dinner for me and then in all the Clinton program initiative meetings he has been calling me and interacting with me."
http://www.rediff.com///news/2008/dec/19amar-singh-gave-millions-to-clinton-foundation.htm

 Indian Industrialists Donation to Clinton Foundation

Amar Singh, Lakshmi Mittal, CII among major donors to Clinton Foundation New York, IANS: Industrialist Lakshmi Mittal, politician Amar Singh, hotelier late Lalit Suri, corporate houses Reliance and Ranbaxy, media house India Today group and Confederation of Indian Industry figure in the list of prominent donors to the Clinton Foundation..

Several Indian big-wigs, including industrialist Lakshmi Mittal, politician Amar Singh, hotelier late Lalit Suri, corporate houses Reliance and Ranbaxy, media house India Today group and Confederation of Indian Industry figure in the list of prominent donors to the Clinton Foundation, according to the information made public on Thursday.

Though the exact amounts donated were not released, steel-tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh fall in the category wherein they donated between one million to five million US dollars. So did Tulsi R. Tanti-headed Suzlon Energy Limited, which is based in Amsterdam, and is a leading supplier of wind turbines.

A close friend of the Clinton family, successful Indian American entrepreneur Vinod Gupta, donated between quarter million to half a million US dollars, so did hotelier Lalit Suri who died in October 2006. Ajit Gulabchand, chairman and managing director of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) also made a similar donation.

The list of donors was released by the William J. Clinton Foundation, established by the former US President, Bill Clinton, as part of an agreement with the president-elect, Barack Obama, under which he nominated the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, as his Secretary of State.

"As soon as Senator Clinton was nominated to be Secretary of State, the Foundation staff began working with President-elect Obama's transition team to ensure that not even the appearance of a conflict of interest existed between the Clinton Foundation's operations and Senator Clinton's anticipated service as Secretary of State," the Foundation said in a statement issued in New York.

The Foundation is involved in charitable work particularly in the underdeveloped world and in Africa. A large number of its donors are from outside the US. The biggest donors include the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, UNITAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and government of Norway.

President Clinton's efforts are unprecedented and go above and beyond what the law requires and are intended to allow the important work of the Foundation to continue.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) donated between half a million to one million US dollars, according to the list released by the Clinton Foundation. Major Indian and Indian American donors in the category of $100,000 to quarter million include the India Today group, Lata Krishnan, Mike Patel, Raani Corporation, Ranbaxy Pharmacuticals and Reliance Europe Limited. 

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Dec192008/foreign20081219107645.asp?section=updatenews