'No sovereign guarantee, no bank guarantee, no escrow account, yet a huge amount was paid as advance'
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation challenging the appointment of Shashi Kant Sharma as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
Baijal also ordered an inquiry into the spendings on advertisements projecting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party and asked the chief secretary to fix responsibility.
Centre objected to the review petition and said that the basic grounds for seeking review of the verdict are the same as they were in the main petition.
'As someone who has had the opportunity of cross examining Vinod Rai, extensively over three days as part of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, many of us included I had concluded at that point of time that this report rests on the foundation of sand.'
'The EC is a sacred institution.' 'In the last few years, more than once, we have found the EC bending over backwards to accommodate the government.'
The year gone by saw the high and mighty of the corporate world face the music in the Delhi High Court which held that the telecom majors are amenable to CAG audit and Mukesh Ambani's RIL struggling hard to get rid of an FIR lodged on gas pricing by the 49-day-old AAP regime.
DoT and the company have not done anything that breached the guidelines mentioned in the notice inviting applications for the auction of the BWA spectrum in 2010, it stated in a reply to CAG's draft audit report.
In a complete defiance of the Supremer Court, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, on Saturday, rejected key recommendations of the Lodha Committee, like one-state one-vote, age limit of 70 years and cooling-off period of three years, setting the stage for another round of confrontation with the apex court.
The government had in October 2007 set a sale price of $4.20 per million British thermal unit based on the price discovered by RIL from key customers.
"Why is it that whenever there are no political overtones to a case, the CBI does a good job?" he said.
'Event management can distract from, but not permanently mask, execution failures,' points out Rathin Roy, director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
He is known for his paperless style of working.
Yashwant Sinha explains where the Modi government has gone wrong in its handling of the economy.
As the House took up the debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address, the Bharatiya Janata Party launched a frontal attack on opposition parties specially the Congress for their stance against the CAA, saying they were trying to divide the nation.
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The power of a nation is directly related to the revenues it realises from its citizens. But India loses a gargantuan Rs 5.8 lakh crore, as the IT department drags its feet over recovering uncollected taxes in time or holding up files in appeal cases, says Mohan Guruswamy.
From a dismal Airport Service Quality ranking of 101 in 2006, it topped the list in 2016.
Having cut off the "umbilical cord" that tied him to the Board, the former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) spoke to PTI on a range of issues from "giving a free hand" to the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri duo, Anil Kumble's exit as national coach, his frosty relationship with colleague Diana Edulji, sexual harassment allegations against BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and difficulties in implementing the Supreme Court-mandated Lodha recommendations.
With the Union government clearing the way for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the railways, the Railway Board is devising a plan for operations, maintenance and construction projects.
After three decades of glorious service, the Sea Harrier jets of the Indian Air Force will fly into the sunset on Wednesday.
President Pranab Mukherjee presented five Padma Vibhushan, eight Padma Bhushan and forty-three Padma Shri awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Amid the Bharatiya Janata Party governments at the Centre and in Haryana beginning to turn the heat on him, businessman Robert Vadra, also the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, recently ensured his companies filed their pending balance sheets.
The government has made clear that the Airports Authority of India will closely monitor the cost of airports built through the PPP route.
If banks cannot charge interest from borrowers during the moratorium, who will bear that cost? Should the depositors subsidise the borrowers by foregoing interest on deposits? In that case, we will turn banking on its head! notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Three key babus will make room for a new set of officers to carry the baton of Budget programmes.
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".
'The world does not care about the tension on our border.' 'India has to emerge as a strong economic power.' 'Respect comes when the world sees a country with a direction and leadership that has a vision,' points out Ramesh Menon.
'India has seen that whenever dynastic politics has been powerful, institutions have taken a severe beating'
Chartered accountants are readying themselves for a higher onus on individuals to report violations that they come across as part of their work. There has been a scramble to understand the implications as the non-compliance with laws and regulations (NOCLAR) comes into effect in less than six months. It is applicable from April 1, 2022 after being deferred earlier because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The PNB fiasco falls into a family line that involves non-fund limits - read contingent liabilities which are off-books. Harshad Mehta did it with bankers' receipts in 1992. Ketan Parekh exploited the ignorance of bankers who did not know the difference between a cheque and a pay-order. And the RBI blinked when it failed to insist the SWIFT platform be linked to the core banking solution. Raghu Mohan & Abhijit Lele trace the banking mess that was just waiting to happen.
'The Chennai floods in particular clearly show there is a nexus between corruption, disaster, destruction and death.' 'Urban development in India is the source of all corruption.'
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
The International Chamber of Commerce's arbitration body International Court of Arbitration has ruled in our favour in the Antrix-Devas arbitration case and Antrix is liable to pay damages totalling $672 million to it, Devas said on Tuesday.
In the 38-page report, across 10 chapters, RIL explained how it entered the exploration and production business; the history of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy and the introduction of production-sharing contracts.
The Congress, which was not a petitioner before the apex court, wants the Rafale deal to be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the price arrived at by the BJP government versus the one negotiated by the previous UPA regime, as also how billionaire Anil Ambani's group with virtually no experience in manufacture of fighter jets was selected as an offset partner for the deal.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged illegal phone tapping of NSE employees, officials said.
While the likelihood of these states going the Lanka or Greece way may be an alarming assessment, the financial situation of some states such as Punjab and West Bengal is indeed quite weak.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'A lot of people -- whether farmers, students or businessmen -- think when they take a loan, that everything will go well and they will pay back.' 'Sometimes, things don't go well.'
FinMin officials say an announcement could be made in the Budget.
