UK ex-PM Rishi Sunak cleared for paid advisory roles with American tech giants
London (PTI): Britain's former prime minister Rishi Sunak has been cleared by a UK government watchdog to take on part-time paid advisory roles with tech giant Microsoft and AI firm Anthropic, both based in the US.
Sunak, who is now a backbench Conservative Party MP for Richmond and Northallerton, had approached the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments under the government's "Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers".
The committee, which published its decision on Thursday, said Sunak should not draw on any “privileged information” available to him from his time in the prime ministerial office. He is also constrained from lobbying the government on behalf of either of the firms for at least two years.
"As the former prime minister, you will have been privy to a range of high-level sensitive information on more or less all government-related matters. Further, during your time in office, you had extensive industry engagement with companies and organisations within the AI and tech sector,” reads the committee's advice.
"The committee recognised the risks associated with your access to information are somewhat limited due to the passage of time and political and economic changes. It also considered it likely you will be seen to have privileged insight from your dealings with the tech and AI sector as prime minister, albeit some months ago. Consequently, a condition has been imposed to limit your role and reduce the scope for risks under government rules,” it stated.
Sunak told the watchdog that all proceeds from his new roles will be donated to The Richmond Project, an education charity he founded with his wife, Akshata Murty, to tackle numeracy issues among children in the UK.
“I have long believed that technology will transform our world and play a key part in determining our future,” said Sunak.
“We stand on the edge of a technological revolution whose impacts will be as profound as those of the industrial revolution: and felt more quickly. In my role as a senior adviser, I want to help these companies ensure that this shift delivers the improvements in all of our lives that it can,” he said.
The British Indian politician's latest roles follow a re-entry into the banking world as Senior Adviser at the Goldman Sachs Group, announced in July. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs as a summer intern in Investment Banking in 2000 and later as an analyst between 2001 and 2004.
His career in politics started when he was elected Tory MP in 2015 and went on to be appointed a junior minister, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, before taking charge as Britain's first prime minister of Indian heritage in October 2022. The 45-year-old MP moved to the backbenches of Parliament after the Tories lost the general election in July 2024.
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No benefit for K'taka from union budget: Deputy CM Shivakumar
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday said that there was no benefit for the state from the union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament.
He, however, said that he is yet to go through the budget in detail.
"There is no benefit for our state from the central budget. I was observing it. They have named a programme after Mahatma Gandhi now (after repealing the MGNREGA act that was named after Gandhi) ," Shivakumar said.
Speaking to reporters here, he demanded that the MGNREGA act be restored, as he also made it clear that the new rural employment legislation -- VB-G RAM G -- that has been enacted with a 60:40 percent fund sharing formula between the Centre and state governments, cannot be implemented.
"I don't see any major share for our state from this budget," he added.
Stating that there were expectations for Bengaluru from the central budget, Shivakumar, who is also the Minister in-charge of the city's development, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called it a "global city", "but what has the central government done for it."
He further pointed out at the troubles that sugar factories, especially those from the cooperative sector, face, due to alleged lack of decisions or measures by the central government to help them.
The Centre has the right to fix MSP for the farmers' produce. "They will have to take necessary measures to help the farmers," Shivakumar added.
