Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Opposition parties on Wednesday alleged that selective leak of information on demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes to 'friends of BJP' and demanded making public the names of those who had bought gold and foreign exchange of over Rs 1 crore since April.
A Congress-led opposition on Tuesday came together seeking to pin down the government on the demonetisation issue in the winter session of Parliament beginning tomorrow but a consenses eluded on Trinamoll Congress's proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhawan for meeting the President.
Shahid's OTT debut, Ajith's bumper hit, and lots of romance. Sukanya Verma gives you some OTT recommendations for the week.
Jaitley said note ban has compelled people to deposit money into bank accounts.
Junking of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, he said, will help the world's fastest growing major economy to move towards less cash economy and digital payments that will help shore up tax revenues and check evasions.
'Modi had not discussed demonetization with me prior to his announcement on 8 November 2016. 'I learnt of it along with the rest of the country. 'I was not surprised when he did not discuss the issue with me prior to making the public announcement. 'It fitted in with his style of making dramatic announcements.' A fascinating excerpt from Pranab Mukherjee's The Presidential Years: 2012-2017.
If the high security notes introduced in 2015 were kept in the system, the pain due to demonetisation can be ameliorated to a certain extent. But unfortunately, such thought process have no place in the hasty demonetisation decision.
The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said banknotes in circulation witnessed higher than average increase during 2020-21, on account of precautionary holding of cash by people due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its prolonged continuance. The value and volume of banknotes in circulation increased by 16.8 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively, during 2020-21, as against an increase of 14.7 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively, witnessed during 2019-20, said the RBI annual report. In value terms, the share of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 banknotes together accounted for 85.7 per cent of the total value of banknotes in circulation as on March 31, 2021, as against 83.4 per cent as on March 31, 2020.
Advocating the move, home ministry officials said most of the developed countries change the security features of their currency notes every 3-4 years and therefore, it is absolutely necessary for India to follow this policy.
India has requested Malaysian authorities to hand over evidence against an arrested accused who was part of a conspiracy to plan and carry out terror strikes allegedly at the behest of ISI on the US and Israeli consulates in the southern part of this country.
A minimum of 50 per cent tax may be levied on unexplained bank deposits made using the banned currency notes up to December 30 along with a 4-year lock in period for half of the remaining amount under the amendments to tax law the government plans to bring in Parliament shortly.
Only Rs 16,050 crore out of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore of the old high denomination notes have not returned.
'The more harder India pushes its nationalism on to its population, the further away we send Kashmiris.' 'We should understand that the unrest in that state cannot be solved by demonetisation. There are much deeper causes,' says Aakar Patel.
'It sounds hollow when the military -- the last bastion meant to secure India within the State of India -- is itself not found secure on the third day of the Pathankot strike, in spite of so-called definitive intelligence inputs and preparations,' says Lieutenant General Anil Chait (retd), former chief of the Integrated Defence Staff.
'People are tense. The morale of the perpetrators of the Kaliachak attack is very high.' 'People there fear that if the arsonists there could burn the police station today, they can burn the courts tomorrow; they will burn the collectorate.'
The National Investigation Agency has taken over the probe into the case of alleged hatching of a plot by Pakistan-based terror group to carry out suicide attacks on the US and Israeli consulates in South India.
They are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-law, a home ministry official said.
According to an Amnesty report, at least 1,032 people were executed in the world, other than China, of which 87 per cent took place in just four countries -- Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.
It's five months after 8/11. But this is not the first time that India's currency of the time faced the axe. The Mughals, after invading a territory, would effect the demonetisation of the local currency with the aim to cripple the economy of the land.
A united Opposition is expected to move amendments to the motion of thanks for the President's address on how note ban was a mess.
Gandhi alleged that demonetisation is the biggest scam in history of India.
He claimed 50 per cent of the country's black money was going to BJP's coffers.
A scrutiny of the PM's statements in the last 12 weeks lays bare a stunning lack of homework for a policy that has affected each of the 1.25 billion people of India.
Indian embassies in the Gulf region have advised Non-Resident Indians staying in the region not to carry large amount of Indian currency when travelling to India.
The current limit of Rs 24,000 per week has been raised to Rs 50,000 for savings accounts.
The Opposition on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying his note ban decision was "reckless".
The economic affairs secretary said that the focus is on production and supply of Rs 500 and lower denomination notes.
President Pranab Mukherjee addressed a joint session of Parliament ahead of the budget session which began on Tuesday. Here are the highlights of President Pranab Mukherjee's speech:
The earlier attempt by the authorities in Dhaka that Islamist militancy had not established a presence in Bangladesh will now have to be given up.
Urjit Patel said said the process of remonetisation was on and estimation of costs was a complex exercise.
'The execution has been 100 per cent faulty.' 'The scheme is also a stupid one, a real Tuglaq Darbar scheme.' 'This way of attacking black money is the most ineffective one.'
The United States and India Tuesday asked the international community to take effective steps towards eliminating sanctuaries and infrastructure that support terrorism.
The United States plans to introduce ''significant changes'' in the appearance of the dollar, including a colour other than green, as part of an intensified campaign to stop counterfeiting, Under Secretary of Treasury Peter Fisher has said.
The event will be significant for the Congress and Trinamool Congress leaderships, cementing the proximity during the winter session of Parliament.
Demonetisation is not the end but the beginning of a "long, deep and constant" battle against black money and corruption and will benefit the poor and the common man, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said as the BJP parliamentary party passed a unanimous resolution endorsing his "great crusade".
The template is the top secret plate which is used for printing the currency.
Piloting the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said it will extinguish the government's liability towards scrapped notes and also eliminate the possibility of their bring used as parallel currency.
Munich-based Giesecke and Devrient supplies security features to the RBI for currency notes, and machines to bank branches across the country to detect counterfeits.
With the introduction of Rs 200 notes, the problem people face due to high-value Rs 2,000 notes would be taken care of.
In related findings for India, the FATF in a report brought out last month, chronicled the use of banking channels to fund the activities of the banned terror group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
