Freedom At Midnight is a bold attempt to revisit the whole discourse about Partition, its causes, and the predicament under which the Congress leaders accepted it. It perfectly captures the extremely confused and complicated situation to which it seemed the only viable solution, observes Utkarsh Mishra.
The issue of CAG and PAC was mentioned in paragraph 25 of the judgment of the top court which had held that there were no irregularities in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France.
A day before being tabled in Goa legislative assembly, the Manohar Parrikar-led Public Accounts Committee report on illegal mining in the state has run into controversy after Congress party legislators on the committee refused to sign it on Tuesday.
Carter was in politics, but not a politician, certainly not a transactional politician, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
The Public Accounts Committee of Delhi assembly has started examining the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the Commonwealth Games, which had indicted Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her government for alleged irregularities in the implementation of various projects. In its first meeting on Tuesday, a number of senior officials from the public works department deposed before the nine-member PAC headed by senior Congress member Prahlad Singh Sawhney.
In FY24, the net income generated from Waqf properties fell to about Rs 1.26 crore from Rs 150 crore in FY20.
The Reserve Bank on Wednesday approved a Rs 2.11 lakh crore dividend payout to the central government for 2023-24, more than double the amount it paid for the previous 2022-23 financial year. The decision was taken at the 608th meeting of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India held under the chairmanship of Governor Shaktikanta Das.
The bad assets or gross NPAs of commercial banks fell to a 12-year low of 2.8 per cent in March 2024 and may go down further to 2.5 per cent by the end of the current fiscal, said the RBI's Financial Stability Report (FSR) released on Thursday. Scheduled Commercial Banks' (SCBs) gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio fell to 2.8 per cent, and the net non-performing assets (NNPA) ratio to 0.6 per cent at the end of March 2024. "The asset quality of SCBs recorded sustained improvement, and their GNPA ratio moderated to a 12-year low in March 2024. Their NNPA ratio too improved to a record low," said the June FSR.
A Congress member in Public Accounts Committee on Friday suggested calling former head of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi before the Parliamentary panel examining CAG report on games irregularities, but its chairman and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi seemed disinclined.
With the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on a questioning spree in 2G spectrum scam case, it has not gone down well with Joint Parliamentary Committee chairman PC Chacko who feels that the PAC has gone beyond its mandate, and wants a 'conflict' to be avoided. Chacko underlined that the PAC's mandate was limited to looking into accounting irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation as highlighted by the comptroller and auditor general, and it should not give an impres
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have united in their demands, calling for the immediate resignation and arrest of P P Divya, a Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and district panchayat president, who leveled graft accusations against ADM Naveen Babu at his send-off function organised by colleagues at the Kannur district collectorate.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to provide information about the numbers and names reiterated by the apex court Collegium for appointment as judges in higher judiciary with reasons why they were not considered so far and at what level they were pending.
Even as Bharatiya Janata Party MPs are boycotting the Joint Parliamentary Committee looking into the 2G spectrum scam, the panel's chairman P C Chacko has ruled out summoning of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In the first objection from within Congress, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said he is not in favour of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G spectrum issue as he was accountable to the Lok Sabha and "not to any committee".
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi indicated that he will not be taking up the 2G spectrum scam in the Public Accounts Committee meeting to be held next week.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
With the 2G spectrum issue getting caught in a logjam in the Joint Parliamentary Committee, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sought to bring the matter to the forefront of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, saying the matter is pending and should be disposed of.
As a controversy rages over the draft report by the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G scam, Parliamentary experts are unanimous that recommendations of a Parliamentary committee has to be accepted or at least "taken seriously" by the government.According to constitutional and parliamentary experts, though the PAC is a recommendatory body, reports of which are not legally binding, traditionally the government has accepted most of the reports submitted by it.
Eleven members of Parliament, including one each from Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, on Thursday demanded rejection of the draft Public Accounts Committee report on the 2G scam, which has indicted former Telecom minister A Raja and made critical observations about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance minister P Chidambaram.
The senior IPS officer said that 45 percent of cyber financial frauds taking place in the country are originating from the South East Asia.
Radia, whose tapped phone conversations with politicians, corporates, bureaucrats, and journalists form a key part of the investigations into the 2G spectrum scam.
Parliament's Public Accounts Committee on Thursday decided to examine the four latest reports of the CAG, including the one on coal block allocation, which are critical of the government.
The government on Monday ruled out making public the RBI report detailing the reasons why the central bank could not keep inflation within the targeted 6 per cent upper limit for the three consecutive quarters. "Yes sir, RBI has furnished a report to the central government, as mandated under Section 45ZN of the RBI Act, 1934 and Regulation 7 of RBI Monetary Policy Committee and Monetary Policy process Regulations, 2016," minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply. The said provisions of the RBI Act, 1934, and regulations therein does not provide for making the report public, he said.
Noted journalist J Gopikrishan, who broke the 2G spectrum scam on December 11, 2008, has been asked to appear before the Public Accounts Committee on March 8, to assist the committee in its investigations.
The turf war over 2G Scam inquiry has refused to die down with the Joint Parliamentary Committee planning to discuss on Thursday whether the Public Accounts Committee, chaired by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, has gone beyond its mandate.
Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, has said that the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam would in no way hamper the job of the PAC that is investigating the massive scam right now.He was reacting to the statement made by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that once the JPC was announced, the ongoing probe by PAC will amount to duplication of work.
Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, told newsmen that the claim made by Kapil Sibal, who holds temporary charge of telecom ministry was contradicted by Central Bureau of Investigation director A P Singh, who appeared before the committee in Parliament.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi who heads the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament has said that the prime minister's offer to depose before the committee is being considered. Joshi said that the Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai had not been summoned, but was a partt of the committee's proceedings.
BJP President Nitin Gadkari tells Gyan Varma that there is no disagreement within the party over the issue of a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G Spectrum scam.
In an interesting turn of events, the Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi summoned two senior editors of newsweeklies to depose before the PAC in connection to the 2G spectrum scam. Vinod Mehta and Manu Joseph, editors of Outlook and Open Magazine respectively were interrogated about the transcripts of the phone conversations that corporate lobbyist Niira Radia had with others, which were carried in their publications.
Joshi was again nominated by his party following which Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has reappointed him as chairman of PAC which is responsible for conducting the financial audit of various departments and ministries.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday took its grievances against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress-led United Progressive Alliance to President Pranab Mukherjee, demanding his intervention on the coal allocation issue and attacks on a constitutional institution like the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Earlier this year, the Union Cabinet gave the management of state-run companies the freedom to decide on divesting their subsidiaries. However, the very next day a meeting was held at the top level of the Government of India, for the presentation of proposals for more autonomy for state-run companies. Interestingly, no chiefs of any of these companies were invited. It is a problem that will stare the government in the face with the state-owned banks too, as talks have again begun for inviting strategic investments in these companies.
Opposition parties on Wednesday opposed the 'one nation, one election' proposal by calling it impractical and a 'cheap stunt' by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Even as political pressure was building against Ranjith, actor Siddique quit as the general secretary of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) amid voices from within his fraternity seeking his resignation.
Should not entertain him, must be removed: Bhaichung Bhutia criticises AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey for corruption, mismanagement
On a day when the Joint Parliamentary Committee into the 2G scam was set up, the Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi said his panel has every authority to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to appear before it.
The finance ministry on Friday informed a parliamentary committee that smuggling of fake currency has totally stopped post demonetisation and the tax department has seized Rs 515 crore in cash, including Rs 114 crore of new currency notes, up to January 10.
Slamming the Defence Ministry over the nine-year delay in awarding contract to French firm Thales to build six Scorpene submarines in Mumbai, a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday said the indecisiveness resulted in cost overruns and undue favour to the vendor, besides adversely impacting Navy's operational preparedness.
At least 13 candidates are in the race for the position of managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of Punjab National Bank (PNB), the second-largest public sector bank (PSB), according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. "Among the candidates, some are executive directors (EDs) and managing directors in major PSBs. "Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB) will conduct the interviews next month," said a source.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances