UN peacebuilding efforts held back by lack of funding: India
United Nations, April 25: The UN's peacebuilding efforts are struggling due to a lack of political will to back them up with sufficient funds, India has told a high-level meeting here.
"The funds available for UN peacebuilding efforts are not even one per cent of the annual budget for UN peacekeeping," A. Gitesh Sarma, Additional Secretary in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, told the high-level meeting on peacebuilding and sustaining peace here on Tuesday.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President of the General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak also bemoaned the lack of funding for the peacebuilding efforts.
Lajcak pointed out that the Peacebuilding Fund was struggling to meet its $500 million target because the international community was not investing enough in efforts to prevent conflicts.
Guterres spoke of the high cost -- $233 billion -- for dealing with conflicts and their aftermath through humanitarian interventions, peacekeeping and hosting refugees.
He suggested that it made more sense to invest in preventing conflicts through peacebuilding because it saved lives and averted conflicts spiralling dangerously requiring greater outlays to deal with the consequences.
He, therefore, appealed to UN members to come up with $500 million every year for the Peacebuilding Fund.
Backing Guterres's appeal, Sarma welcomed the financing options he presented in his report in January and said these need to be considered seriously to deal with inadequate funding.
India has so far given $5 million to the Peacebuilding Fund -- the latest contribution was $500,000 made in July 2017.
While the UN has been largely successful in containing conflicts between nations, it is struggling with dealing with chronic armed conflicts within countries despite large-scale deploying troops as peacekeepers and other resources, Sarma said.
"The concept of Peacebuilding, that expanded the focus to post-conflict situations and led to the establishment of UN's Peacebuilding architecture around a decade ago, is struggling due to lack of adequate funding that betrays a lack of genuine political will," he said.
Two Presidents, a King, a Prime Minister and more than 25 Ministers are attending the two-day high-level meeting, which is a signature event of Lajcak's presidency.
While peacekeeping operations now overwhelmingly deal with civil conflicts, peacebuilding activities work to prevent such internal conflicts from flaring up or recurring.
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US SEC summons Gautam Adani, nephew Sagar in bribery case
New York (PTI): Adani group founder and chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar have been summoned to explain their stand on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allegation of paying USD 265 million (Rs 2,200 crore) in bribes to secure lucrative solar power contracts.
Summons have been sent to Adani's Shantivan Farm residence in Ahmedabad and his nephew Sagar's Bodakdev residence in the same city for a reply to SEC within 21 days.
"Within 21 days after service of this summons on you (not counting the day you received it)...you must serve on the plaintiff (SEC) an answer to the attached complaint or a motion under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," said a November 21 notice sent through the New York Eastern District Court.
"If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. You also must file your answer or motion with the court," it added.
Gautam Adani, 62, and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar, who is a director at the group's renewable energy unit Adani Green Energy Ltd, allegedly agreed to pay about USD 265 million in bribes to Indian government officials between approximately 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts on terms that expected to yield USD 2 billion of profit over 20 years, according to an indictment unsealed in a New York court on Wednesday.
Separate from the indictment brought by the US Department of Justice, the US SEC has also charged the two and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global, for "conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme".
The ports-to-energy conglomerate has denied the allegations and said it will seek all possible legal resources.
"The Adani Group has always upheld and is steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organisation fully compliant with all laws."
An indictment in the US is basically a formal written allegation originating with a prosecutor and issued by a grand jury against a party charged with a crime. A person indicted is given formal notice to reply.
That person or persons can then hire a defence lawyer to defend.
Prosecutors said the investigation started in 2022 and found the inquiry obstructed.
They also allege that the Adani Group raised USD 2 billion in loans and bonds, including from US firms, on the backs of false and misleading statements related to the firm's anti-bribery practices and policies, as well as reports of the bribery probe.
"As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and... lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors," US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement announcing the charges on Wednesday.
"My office is committed to rooting out corruption in the international marketplace and protecting investors from those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets."
