The chatter around Jayant Sinha losing his perch in the ministry of finance isn’t dying down. According to a source, the conflict of interest charge against Sinha’s wife Punita Kumar Sinha centres on the Canadian investment firm Fairfax India Holding. In September 2015, Mrs Sinha was appointed as an independent director at Fairfax. Promoted by India-born Prem Watsa, Fairfax has invested a whopping $1 billion in India post 2014. It spent a pretty package upping its stake in ICICI Lombard General Insurance to 35 per cent, among other firms. Intriguingly, Fairfax also recently picked up a 33 per cent stake in Bangalore Airport—which now comes under Jayant Sinha’s charge as MoS civil aviation.
Gone are the days when Mamata Banerjee would hold private discussions with industrialists in what has been dubbed the vain hope of getting investments for West Bengal. According to sources, she has decided to distance herself from Calcutta Inc. Earlier, the likes of Sanjeev Goenka would often be spotted travelling in Mamata’s car to talk matters of commerce, but it is evident that she has cut them off completely. What has also stopped is her habit of SMSing them when she wanted to meet them. Now that’s what one might call real poriborton.
