Ambay Valley becomes India’s first City to get ‘ISO 50001:2011 Energy Management System Certifications’

Mumbai, 26th September, 2014: Ambay Valley, the first planned Hill City of Independent India which always believed in achieving new heights and setting new trends, has now become India’s first city to receive ‘ISO 50001:2011 Energy Management System Certifications’.  The ISO certification has been awarded to Ambay Valley for its energy management systems and its endeavors of environment conservation especially at the time when the country is striving to achieve round the clock power supply for everyone. The certification is a testimony of Ambay Valley’s robust energy management system (EnMS) to use energy more efficiently.

The luxurious Ambay Valley City spread over ten thousand acres is being developed as an integrated Hill City by Sahara India Pariwar. This unique and self-contained City is surrounded by the picturesque Sahayadri range and offers a superior lifestyle along with essential infrastructures such as a hospital, school, airport and shopping facilities. The City comprises of high-end villas, condominiums, a 18 hole championship golf course which was recently awarded ‘Best International Golf Course’, a town plaza, a community centre and the world’s tallest multimedia fountain show. The City has a dedicated airport.  Under the hood, Ambay Valley City is powered by a dedicated power plant that guarantees 24 hours of power supply, a well planned professional security system, IT & Communication network, a well-designed and modern water treatment and solid waste & sewerage treatment systems & networks and a state of the art water treatment plant. These utilities combined ensure a smooth and uninterrupted 24/7 operation. 

Before awarding the prestigious ISO 50001:2011 Energy Management System certification to Ambay Valley City Ltd., auditing firm M/S RINA carried out various audit to examine the energy management systems adopted by the Ambay Valley City for its operations. In an event held at Sahara Star Mumbai ISO 50001:2001 Certificate awarded to Mr. Vivek Kumar - CEO Ambay Valley City & Hotel Sahara Star by Mr. Thomas Alocious Fernandez, Country Head of auditing firm M/s RINA.  

Speaking on the Occasion Mr. Vivek Kumar - CEO Ambay Valley City & Hotel Sahara Star said, ““It is a matter of great pride for us to become India’s first city to receive ISO 50001:2011 certification for energy use and environment conservation. We at Ambay Valley City continuously strive to integrate energy management to improve quality that in turn helps us in environmental management. We always believe in achieving new heights and setting new trends this is yet another major milestone achieved by Ambay Valley City and showcase of our commitment to make Ambay Valley City as life’s finest abode, especially when we are already the proud recipient of two International Certifications • ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System • OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health & Safety Systems.”

As committed to the energy policy to optimize the use of Renewable Energy Sources, at Ambay Valley City the reduction in the Electricity Consumption in the last four months is approx. 2200 MWh (22 Lac Units). This accounts for a reduction in approx. 1900 tons of Carbon Dioxide per annum. Implementation of the ISO 50001:2011 EnMS system is a very helpful in reduction of the Green House Gas (GHG) emission and will also make positive contributions towards reducing depletion of energy resources and mitigating worldwide effects of energy use, such as global warming.

About Ambay Valley City

Spread over ten thousand acres, the luxurious Ambay Valley City is being developed as an integrated Hill City by Sahara India Pariwar. This unique and self-contained City is surrounded by the picturesque Sahayadri range and offers spectacular views of vast environs and breath-taking landscape. The City successfully blends a superior lifestyle along with essential infrastructures such as a hospital, school, airport and shopping facilities. The City comprises of high-end villas, condominiums, a 18 hole championship golf course which was recently awarded ‘Best International Golf Course’ at the International Property Awards in London, a town plaza, a community centre and the world’s tallest multimedia fountain show. Apart from being a destination for unsurpassed grandeur and luxurious lifestyle, Ambay Valley City also has an equally impressive business district with an infrastructure that allows businesses to land their private airplanes into the City’s dedicated airport and head straight to the conference rooms. The business infrastructure and facilities have been designed in accordance to the international standards. Moreover, Ambay Valley City is also home to India’s largest auditorium.  Under the hood, Ambay Valley City is powered by a dedicated power plant that guarantees 24 hours of power supply, a well planned professional security system, IT & Communication network, a well-designed and modern water treatment and solid waste & sewerage treatment systems & networks and a state of the art water treatment plant. These utilities combined ensure a smooth and uninterrupted 24/7 operation.  The city is located at a distance of 120 km from Mumbai, 90 km from Pune and lies 25 km off the town of Lonavala on the Mumbai Pune Expressway. The luxurious quality and style of Ambay Valley life have redefined City living. This paradigm shift in lifestyle has been very well accepted and has also become the new benchmark in luxurious living. We are fully committed in making Ambay Valley to be one of the top five destinations of the world.

Sahara’s Plaza property world’s 2nd most popular hotel for uber-rich: Survey

New Delhi: The Sahara group's iconic hotel The Plaza, New York, figures among the top 10 hotels in the world for multi-millionaire visitors in 2014, a survey said.

The Plaza is the second most preferred hotel for the uber-rich people globally, said the survey by New World Wealth. It was based on a sample of 450 multi-millionaires.

The Plaza, which is jointly owned by Sahara Group and Kingdom Holdings, a Saudi Arabia-based corporation, had 3,700 multi-millionaires in the 12 months to June 2014, second only to The Bellagio in Las Vegas, which received as many as 6,400 multi millionaires.

"The Plaza's high place on the list is impressive considering it only has 280 rooms which puts it at a disadvantage to larger hotels which can accommodate more guests in a year," the report said.

According to the report, titled 'Most Popular Hotels for Millionaires', The Raj Palace, Jaipur, had 300 or more multi-millionaire visitors in the 12 months to June.

The Raj Palace, Jaipur is the only one hotel from India has made it to the list of select few boutique hotels that witnessed 300 or more multi-millionaires visitors.

Other most preferred hotel destinations for multi -millionaires include Caesars Palace, Las Vegas (3,400 visitors); Waldorf Astoria, New York (3,300); Marina Bay Sands Singapore (3,100) and The Breakers, Palm Beach (3,000) among others.

Las Vegas hotels dominate the list. "This reflects Vegas's appeal as a short stay holiday destination for the super-rich," the report said.

The other boutique hotels which were mentioned by several multi-millionaires in the survey include -- Baur au Lac, Zurich; Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles; Goldeneye, Jamaica; Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes; Little Nel, Aspen and Raffles, Singapore.

For the purposes of this study, an individual with net assets of at least $10 million is considered multi-millionaire. There are around 495,000 multi-millionaires worldwide (as on June 2014).

Sahara's The Plaza 2nd most popular hotel for the uber-rich

Sahara group-owned, The Plaza in New York city is the second most preferred hotel for the uber-rich people globally, said the survey by New World Wealth.

The Sahara group's iconic hotel The Plaza, New York, figures among the top 10 hotels in the world for multi-millionaire visitors in 2014, a survey said. The Plaza is the second most preferred hotel for the uber-rich people globally, said the survey by New World Wealth. It was based on a sample of 450 multi-millionaires. The Plaza, which is jointly owned by Sahara Group and Kingdom Holdings, a Saudi Arabia-based corporation, had 3,700 multi-millionaires in the 12 months to June 2014.

Blessings for Saharshri on His Birthday as He Battles Legal Woes

A human-being is very dominating. He is born with the different traits. So a high density of population creates all kinds of confusions, people lose their peace of mind because everybody desires a good existence. There are very few companies in India that have revolutionized & developed India like Sahara India Pariwar. Shri Subrata Roy Sahara is a visionary in the true sense of the word – with a vision that transcends all boundaries and defies all conventional business norms. For a man who has created a mega corporate empire, his fundamentals are totally different from standard managerial practices and norms. Sahara can be defined as a business house with No Owner & No Trade Union and strictly No – Discrimination Policy – “You don’t need ‘Netas’ in a family, you need guardians”. When approached for a trade union, this was the answer that was politely given by one of the Kartavyayogi Karyakartas. It is this spirit that moves every Kartavyayogi at Sahara India Pariwar.

On the event of Saharasri's bday, I would like to wish the loyal son of Indian soil, a very happy bday. I would pray for the gods to bless him with true and quick justice, Good health & long life. I believe as a Sahara follower that he will come clean and unscathed in his tryst with political corruption & competitors led gimmick. God bless you Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara. 

SAHARA SEBI ISSUE – STATEMENT FROM KESHAV MOHAN, ADVOCATE

We are disappointed with the judgment that has been delivered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court earlier today. We are still in the process of reading and understanding the judgment. The voluminous evidence that we have already submitted to substantiate our stance may have possibly been misunderstood.We maintain that we have already refunded to 93% of our investors. Most of the payments made were in cash, as per the RBI norms and in accordance with SEBI and SAT orders. In addition to ledger entries, we had also submitted original vouchers, receipts and other concerned documents in original being physical proof of the payments and are with SEBI pending verification.

We expect to return to the Hon’ble Court in the near future with further evidence of our compliance of the Hon’ble Court’s previous orders, and to satisfy the Hon’ble Court of our earnest intentions moving forward.
The Hon’ble Court has indicated that it expects us to make a new proposal. Since the beginning, we have been trying hard to present the best practical proposal. We have always maintained that this will be actually a double payment which we are asked to make hence a serious relook into the business and financial status is required each time. In light of today’s direction, we will try our best to derive a fresh proposal to the best of our capacity and hoping to satisfy the Hon’ble Court. For this, we would also apply to the Hon’ble Court that our properties and bank accounts be defreezed so that we are in a position to come up to the expectations of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
We take this opportunity to reiterate our deep and abiding respect for the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and our commitment to follow the order in letter and spirit.

Keshav Mohan
Advocate

Column: Why is Sebi finding it difficult to track Sahara investors?

Arun Kejriwal

The imbroglio involving the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Subrata Roy-led Sahara Group is not a simple case of money being taken and not returned to investors; neither is it a shady deal like the Saradha scam.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had overseen the refund of over Rs 22,000 crore to about 40 million Sahara investors by a handpicked committee a few years ago. Neither the committee faced the problem of identifying investors nor it doubted their existence.

Certainly, the apex bank has greater knowledge of investors, and a refund of this amount of money to such a large base of investors was a mammoth task. When RBI could do it, why is Sebi finding issues with the same set of investors as claimed by Sahara.

One must understand that the turf over which Sahara operates is with people who are unbankable. Returns offered by Sahara are in sync with the prevailing market rates and are not, therefore, unsustainable or in any way leading to instability.

The Sahara scheme is not a pyramid scheme and does not offer returns which can only be shown on paper. The rates vary in the range of 8-10 per cent, which is the current bank rate in the country.

Sebi in its wisdom says that since majority of the 20,000-odd people to whom it sent mails about their deposits did not respond, they are bogus or non-existent. The kind of questionnaire sent by the market regulator is beyond the realm of a well-read person and needs a high degree of expertise to be filled in and returned.

Secondly, when a person is asked to contact the Sebi headquarters in Mumbai for a refund of Rs 8,000, he/she feels it is not worth it. Thirdly, if the investor has already been refunded by Sahara, why should he claim a bogus or double refund? The most interesting aspect of the episode is that the same 20,000-odd investors from whom Sebi did not receive reply, Sahara got KYC and refund discharge vouchers in the standard prescribed and accepted form from over 16,000 people.

RBI refunded about Rs 22,000 crore is not acceptable to Sebi. The regulator is not willing to work with Sahara.

Sebi is not able to locate investors and yet it wants more money. Why and for what is something that Sebi needs to answer? In the Saradha case, which rocked West Bengal last year, thousands of investors came out to protest and there were a few cases of suicides as well.

Why do not we see similar protests in the Sahara case if there are millions of unpaid investors as claimed by Sebi? I believe in the current situation it makes sense for Sebi to seek help of bodies concerned in reaching out to the investors and seeing that the money due is refunded at the earliest.

The Supreme Court has also said that if Sahara's help is taken in doing so, there is no reason why the investors cannot be found and their rightful money be repaid. Like I said in the beginning, the case of Sebi versus Sahara is not one of investor protection but something which goes beyond that.

SAHARA SEBI: IMAGINE !

Let’s Imagine! Imagine Charlie Chaplin not being the legendary comedian that he was. Or Arnold Swarzeneger not the action icon we all know him as. Imagine Sachin Tendulkar not being the celebrated cricketer but a regular 9 to 5 school teacher or if electricity was never invented. What would it be like if Newton had never discovered the Law of Gravity or Einstein had not made those elaborate inventions?  What if Elvis continued driving trucks or Satyajit Ray wasn’t an illustrious story teller? Difficult and rather unfamiliar and absurd hypothesis! Would these people be still famous, brilliant and celebrated if they were not in their chosen professions? What would have our lives been like in the absence of these people or their world changing contributions to humanity? The answer can only be left to one’s imagination and with no certainty can anyone claim that they be who they are today or what would our existence been like, if these men were not true to their calling.

Now for a moment, let’s imagine a bit further. Would Sahara India have avoided the existential crisis, they are in today, had they not chosen to provide a sound, secure & lawful financial structure to a stratum of the society who has always stood ignored amongst the tall claims of social and economic development? What would the lives and future of these millions of depositors would have been like if they didn’t have a secure medium to invest and save and flourish? What would the future of the children growing in these millions of households have hold? Would they be educated? Would there be employment for the unemployed or the less skilled or the poor? Would there have been economic empowerment for the have nots who do not have the means or the sanction to even hold a bank account or a legitimate Id? Would the chief of Sahara India, Subrata Roy, have saved himself the witch hunt by a National Regulator or avoided jail had he chosen to create a lush empire and focused on serving himself rather than serving the people? Such a swarm of hypotheticals starting with just one simple question, “Imagine?”

Sadly, there are no simple answers. Only simple questions. The answers are complex, unfathomable and lead down to a road of nefarious possible motives, juxtapositions & outcomes. SEBI’s motives juxtaposed with the Court’s senseless brickbat blows on the Sahara Chief only adds insult to the common man’s understanding of productive regulation and fair justice. Even more dangerously, the imagination of SEBI and the Courts have taken a turn for the worse and seem to be more heavily invested in feeding their own egos, their illogic and mindless banter rather than using that imagination to serve and secure.

Currently, SEBI has been claiming that investor accounts provided by Sahara are fictitious and the regulator’s independent verification has failed to make any headway. SEBI so far has been able to repay less than 1 crore rupees to OFCD investors even though  its been 18 months since Sahara deposited 5,120 crore rupees with the market watchdog. Interestingly, in 2008, Sahara had paid back around 4 crore depositors under strict supervision of Reserve Bank of India. The central bank, then, did not stumble upon any such fictitious account and the OFCD issue had almost same set of investors. So is SEBI imagining these investors as fictitious or is it disguising its incompetence. To further add to the comedy of errors, the Supreme Court has expressed its displeasure over SEBI’s tardy pace in verifying these investor accounts in Sahara’s OFCD issue. I can only imagine the embarrassment the courts must be facing at the hands of the regulator’s malfunction. And who is paying the price for all this mockery. The innocent, the lawful and the poor!

Let’s tax our imagination one more time and explore another set premise. What if Sahara is innocent? What if the Sahara supremo is being wrongfully accused and punished? Is SEBI acting in the best interest of the depositors or is it blinded by its punitive sense of dominion? What would it be like if SEBI realized and acknowledged that these investors in question are for real? What would it be like if there was no Sahara to begin with? Are these questions that have real and heavy implications or are they just plain rhetoric?

The answers can only be left to unfold as time and events pass by. The outcomes would be real and the consequences can either set unhealthy & dire precedents or can pave way to a truthful, mindful and fair premise. Just IMAGINE..!!!