Vinod Rai, a 1972 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, took oath on Monday as the country's new Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Rai, who replaced V N Kaul, was administered the oath of office by President Pratibha Patil at a brief function at Rashtrapati Bhawan. Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram were among the dignitaries present at the ceremony.
His appointment will be effective from the date he assumes charge of his office, an official statement said on Monday. An Indian Administrative Service officer of Kerala cadre, 1972 batch, Rai will take over from V N Kaul.
Implementation of Lodha Committee recommendations in the Board of Control for Cricket in India will be complete in the next four-five months, said Vinod Rai, head of the Supreme Court-appointed panel of administrators to manage the cricket board's affairs.
As industrialist Vijay Mallya fights his wilful defaulter tag, former CAG Vinod Rai has said Kingfisher Airlines' loan default is just a "trickle" and the overall problem of huge bad loans at public sector banks can be blamed on 'cronies' using connections to borrow money.
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.
Vinod Rai, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India till May and probably the most talked-about government official in the last few years, participated in a Live Chat with readers of Rediff.com on Friday.
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Monday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which is probing the 2G spectrum scam, to explain how the government auditor quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Rai was asked to brief the Committee, chaired by Congress leader P C Chacko, on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum during 1998 to 2009.
A historian, a retired auditor and a financial executive were among four people named by India's highest court on Monday to run the country's cricket board (BCCI).
Defending the proactive approach of the CAG, Rai emphasised that the job of the public auditor was also to ensure that executive and the government are held financially accountable to legislature.
He replaced Vinod Rai, who superannuated on Wednesday after five-and-a-half years of eventful tenure as the head of CAG.
Former Comptroller Auditor General Vinod Rai has come out with a stinging criticism of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying integrity is not just financial but intellectual and professional too and claimed that Congress leaders had sought to apply pressure on him to keep the PM's name out of audit reports.
The Committee of Administrators (COA) held a fruitful first meeting with coach Anil Kumble and rest of the Indian cricket team's support staff on the sidelines of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's Awards in Bengaluru.
Vinod Rai, former Comptroller and Auditor General of India, former India women's captain Diana Edulji and banker Vikram Limaye were present at the meeting held at the IDFC Bank's premises in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex.
A vacation bench of Justices M M Shantanagoudar and Deepak Gupta was informed by Guha's counsel that he had tendered his resignation on May 28 to Vinod Rai, Chairman of the Committee of Administrators of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
After ex-Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai attacked Manmohan Singh on 2G issue, Congress leader Kamal Nath on Friday said the former Prime Minister may have made a "mistake" in not acting despite his letter to him expressing concern over the spectrum allocation process.
India will finish their home series against Sri Lanka on December 24 before leaving for South Africa on December 28. They are scheduled to play a two-day warm-up tie starting on December 30 before taking on South Africa in the first Test on January 5.
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) on Monday sacked some of the previous officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, including Team India's media manager Nishant Arora.
As CAG found Reliance Industries was being favoured in gas exploration deal to the government's detriment, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the then top auditor Vinod Rai that audit should not hurt the private sector and RIL was one of the biggest and most respected.
The Indian board (BCCI) will consider a further increase in salaries for its contracted players after leading cricketers expressed dissatisfaction with the pay raise announced last month.
President Pranab Mukherjee presented five Padma Vibhushan, eight Padma Bhushan and forty-three Padma Shri awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
'There should be total transparency in the system.'
These recommendations are based on interactions held by the Banks Board Bureau with eligible candidates from PSBs towards appointment against vacancies in PSBs for the period 2018-19
The resistance to Lodha panel reforms remains deep rooted in the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Political funding of elections has led to the rise in black money in the economy.
'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.'
Chaudhry said the BCCI cannot approve an appointment in the current situation.
The list of the prestigious Padma Awards 2016 awardees is out and superstar Rajnikanth is set to be honoured with the nation's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stated that the three-member panel of Vikram Limaye, Amitabh Choudhary and Anirudh Chowdhury will represent the Board of Control for Cricket in India at the International Cricket Council's meeting, starting in Dubai, on Thursday.
In a proposal to FinMin, the Banks Board Bureau suggests asset sales to PSUs within a deadline to recover bad loans.
Instead of only government departments and state-owned undertakings, the CAG can now audit private companies, too.
The Supreme Court had cancelled 204 such allotments.
Hailing from a family of lawyers from Maharashtra, he was part of a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court which in August 2017 declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right of an individual.
In a first, the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) officers reached out to several ministries in the last week of April as part of a confidence-boosting measure. The meeting brought the CAG officials and those from the ministries across the table to discuss the pain points in their relations. CAG of India Girish Chandra Murmu took this novel step because of growing tensions between those audited and the auditor.
'Banking is a business of trust.'
'And who sold this belief?' 'Public-spirited individuals' like Subramanian Swamy.' 'Independent public servants' like Vinod Rai. 'Anti-corruption activists' like Kiran Bedi. And 'outspoken television anchors' like Arnab Goswami,' says Mihir S Sharma.
Former Board of Control for Cricket in India president Anurag Thakur on Thursday tendered a fresh "unconditional" and "unequivocal" apology in the Supreme Court, saying it was never his intention to undermine the majesty of the apex court.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
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