Swraj Paul, Baron Paul

Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, PC ( born February 18, 1931 in Jalandhar, Punjab ) is an India -born, British entrepreneur and politician (former Labour Party ).

Life and career

His official biography According to Paul was born in 1931 in Jalandhar, Punjab. His father ran a small foundry, steel buckets and farming equipment produced. Paul visited the Forman Christian College in Lahore and later gained a master's degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. He worked for the Apeejay Education Society (AES ) in India, which was led by his older brother Stya Paul. He took over the business of Apeejay Overseas. Stya Paul died in 2010.

In 1966 he came to Britain to receive medical treatment for his daughter, who was suffering from leukemia. After the death of his daughter who joined a prolonged period of sadness and depression, Paul moved almost completely withdrew from public life and put back his own career. Also, he decided to stay in the UK.

In 1968 he began initially as a sole trader, with the purchase and sale of steel products. Shortly thereafter, he earned a small steel company, the Natural Gas Tubes ( NGT ). He founded in 1968 the Caparo Group, which developed into one of the leading producers of welded steel pipes and welded in a spiral pipes in the UK. He came back in 1996 by the management of the Caparo Group and his youngest son Angad was CEO.

In the Sunday Times Rich List of Britain Paul stands at 88th place; nevertheless, he used his own words public transport in London. Since the 1960s, he lives in Portland Place, opposite the radio home of the BBC in central London. He and his family own a dozen apartments in the block of flats, each of which is worth almost a million pounds. He also owns an estate, The Grange, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

Membership in the House of Lords

Paul was appointed Life peer as Baron Paul, of Marylebone in the City of Westminster on 9 October 1996 .. His inaugural address was delivered on 28 November 1996.

When his political interests he states foreign policy, education, and economic policy. As states are of particular interest he calls Austria, the Republic of China, Dubai, Germany, India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

In December 2008 he was appointed Deputy Speaker. Shortly after he had from that position, to resign for alleged financial irregularities related to the expenses scandal.

Role in public

Paul was Prokanzler 1998 (Pro - Chancellor ) of the Thames Valley University and was its president ( governor ) Regulations 1992 until 1997. Since 1998 he has been chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Westminster, which has received from his Family Trust £ 300,000.

He was a member of the Foreign Policy Centre Advisory Council and the Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was chairman of the Olympic Delivery Committee, a sub-group of the London Development Agency. He went on to chair the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association ( CPA).

He was the first person of Indian origin who held the office of Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords; he was one of a total of 12 people in this office. On 15 October 2009 he became a member of the Privy Council.

Paul founded the Ambika Paul Foundation in memory of his daughter. Profits from Caparo to invest in charitable projects.

Paul is an honorary patron ( Honorary Patron ) of the Zoological Society of London and has major projects in Regent's Park founded, including the petting zoo.

He is close to Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah Brown. He donated £ 500,000 to the Labour Party and is a major supporter of Gordon Brown. Paul was the largest donor in the campaign for the party presidency of Brown. In 2007 he offered in the event of an early election on " so much to give, how he could afford it ."

Honors

Paul has received various awards and honors. In 1983 he was awarded by Indira Gandhi with the Padma Bhushan. The Indian Merchants' Chamber awarded him the Bharat Gaurav Award. In 2008 he the Asian Woman Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award was presented.

Controversy

In connection with the expenses scandal, the British Parliament told the The Sunday Times in October 2009 that Paul was not able to explain the assertion of parliamentary allowances amounting to £ 38,000, although he admitted that he spent not one night at the place he stated as his main residence, a studio. He was forced to resign from his post as Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, during its reimbursements were investigated. He faced a potential criminal complaint against and considered to leave the House of Lords, but the police stopped the investigation.

On 18 October 2010 recommended the Committee for Privileges and Conduct, a Parliamentary Select Committee of the House of Lords to clarify the expenses scandal that he is suspended together with Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin and Amir Bhatia, Baron Bhatia and the disputed expenses, in his case £ 41,982, must pay back. Paul's suspension was for four months; He also left the Labour Party. Since then, he sits as an Independent (Independent ) in the House of Lords.

Paul subject, because of its alleged status as a non-resident taxpayer ( the non-domiciled status ) in the UK not the general income tax. Paul made this the existing tax law in the English distinction between " resident " and " Domicile" claims for itself.

When Michael Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, a wealthy member of the Conservative Party, was forced to acknowledge his non- domiciled status in view of a possible change in the tax legislation, this used to point the opportunity to point out that this is also true for Paul. On 9 March 2010 Paul announced to abandon this status.

2003 Paul had pointed out that " Greed, in connection with the disappearance of personal responsibility " was the cause of difficulties in the business world. In an interview in the Times of India in 2004, he demanded high standards of accountability and transparency in political and business life of India.

Publications

• Indira Gandhi, Robert Royce Ltd., 1984, ISBN 978-0947728182 ( biography of Indira Gandhi )
• Beyond Boundaries: A Memoir, Viking Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0670879250 ( autobiography )