West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to hold a dharna in Kolkata against alleged arbitrary deletions in the state's electoral rolls, marking a return to her roots as a street fighter and signalling a key political battle ahead of Assembly elections.
Veteran politician and former railway minister Mukul Roy, a key figure in West Bengal politics, has died due to cardiac arrest, marking the end of a significant era.
FDI inflows into India are expected to register robust growth in 2026, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, big-ticket investment announcements, sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business, and a new generation of investment-linked trade pacts.
A couple from Kerala, running a chit fund company in Bengaluru, has allegedly fled after cheating over 1,300 investors of more than Rs 50 crore. Police have launched a manhunt and are investigating the extent of the fraud.
Ghanshyam Sahu, a resident of Uparwara of Durg, sold two acres of land to invest the proceeds in a chit fund company, only to realise he had been duped. Like hundreds others, Sahu had given up hope of getting the money back. So when he received Rs 9 lakh from the state government last month, he couldn't believe his luck. "I did not expect the money to be recovered," he candidly told Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel at an event in January.
'Around 15 crore poor people have lost their money.'
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized Rs 1.5 crore in cash from the premises of a chit fund company owned by Gokulam Gopalan, one of the producers of the Malayalam movie "L2: Empuraan", in connection with foreign exchange law violations. The searches were conducted at locations in Kozhikode, Kerala and Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The ED alleged that the company collected subscription to chit funds from persons residing outside India without due permission and violated regulations framed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
30 per cent of all movies made in Tollywood are produced by chit fund companies.
Chit funds can accept subscription from NRIs on non-repatriation basis
"L2: Empuraan", the second part of the "Lucifer" movie, a trilogy planned by the Prithviraj-Mohanlal team, has become a topic of hot debate over its critique of right-wing politics and the covert mention of the Gujarat riots.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The body count, mostly from suicides after the chit fund bubble burst, went up to 11 on Tuesday with the death of an agent and an alleged suicide by a chit fund firm director.
Though a popular savings option in India's villages and towns, chit funds have resulted in scams too. Here's what you must know about chit funds before investing your money.
The total size of unregistered chit funds is almost Rs 30 lakh crore (Rs 30 trillion). Viswanath Prasad, a peon at a broking house in Kolkata, subscribed to a 'chit fund scheme' two months back.
70 per cent of the total ad market in the state was driven by these companies.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has sought to blame the Centre for the chit fund scam, has claimed that the central government reduced the rate of interest in small savings to drive depositors towards ponzi schemes.
RBI has allowed NRIs to invest in chit fund companies on a non-repatriation basis, subject to certain conditions
The chief minister on Monday announced a double-pronged probe by a special investigation team under the Director General of Police and an inquiry commission under Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen.
With the Trinamool Congress government stepping into the third year of its rule, it is facing its biggest challenge in the multi-crore chit fund scam which has hit lakhs of people across the state.
The CBI action came a day after the agency filed its second charge sheet in the case alleging that former director general (state armed police) and Trinamool Vice President Rajat Majumdar and East Bengal Club official Debabrata Sarkar were beneficiaries of the money collected through chit fund scam.
While chits and the formal financial sector are not 'largely substitutable', users like the commitment to savings that these enforce and the flexibility in borrowing, reports N Sundaresha Subramanian from New Delhi.
The bill will be discussed in the state Assembly on June 18.
Congress MP Adhir Choudhury has pegged the loss at Rs 17,000 crore.
He also hit out at the Congress saying governments in the past 70 years kept quiet on blackmoney because they were worried about losing power.
According to the consumer affairs department, these chit funds are operating at a small level.
The West Bengal government is committed towards compensating the losses suffered by chit fund investors in the wake of the Saradha Group's collapse, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday.
The probe agency is likely to take him to Bhubaneswar for further questioning.
The popularity of the 'parallel banking service' continues to rise.
A SFIO probe into Saradha scam and 'chit fund' operations of 62 other entities has found serious financial mismanagement and siphoning off the funds by their promoters, who took advantage of regulatory gaps.
The owner of a rural chit fund firm, active in two south Bengal districts, died on Thursday in Hooghly district taking the ponzi scheme fiasco deaths in the state to 14.
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A bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir also issued notice to other state governments and the Centre on the petitioners' pleas for empowering Securities and Exchange Board of India to regulate chit fund schemes in the country.
A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said that the scams have inter-state ramification and directed the investigation be handed over to the central agency from the state authorities.
Supreme Court has issued notice over chit fund.
Sudipto Sen, chairman of the Saradha chit fund company, which has allegedly defrauded thousands of depositors, was arrested along with two other company officials in Kashmir Valley
Centre must share blame for Ponzi schemes with West Bengal.
A special task force has been set up under to carry out all investigations into such companies.
The Saradha group's fortunes nose diving has not only put a scanner on other chitfund companies operating in the state, but has also reportedly put a question mark on TMC's rural vote.
In a letter the Central Bureau of Investigation dated April 6, West Bengal's chit fund scam accused and Saradha Group promoter Sudipta Sen has accused Trinamool Congress Members of Parliament Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose of blackmailing him for huge sums of money.
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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee keen on framing a stringent act to prevent malpractices by chit fund firms.
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