Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India seem to be bringing down the number of 2,000 rupee notes in circulation, even though no decision has been taken to phase them out. 2,000-rupee notes were introduced soon after the demonetization of 1,000-rupee notes in late 2016. Their introduction came for heavy criticism and was […]
The demolition of five illegal high-rise apartment buildings in Kochi has snowballed into a major controversy, with some of the state’s prominent politicians who openly supported the illegal buildings now coming under fire from social media and even their own colleagues. The initial response of the political community in the state was one of support […]
The arrest of former finance minister P Chidambaram has thrown many critics of the current administration into a quandary. On the one hand, they know that there may be some truth to the allegations of corruption made by the investigating agencies. They would, therefore, like nothing better than for corrupt politicians to be probed just […]
Milind Deora, head of Congress Party’s Mumbai unit who is known to be close to the business community of the country, said businessmen in the country are feeling uneasy about the current climate, but not speaking out due to fear. Deora, who was speaking in the context of the suicide of entrepreneur and businessman VG […]
Finance ministry on Thursday gave detailed numbers to detail the efforts that the Narendra Modi government has been making to overcome the problems created by corruption and bad loans in India’s public sector banks. Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman pointed out that a review in 2015 found that a huge chunk of loans issued in previous […]
The Supreme Court has appointed former judge Justice A K Patnaik to conduct a detailed inquiry into the allegation that external forces hatched a conspiracy to remove Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi from benches seized of high-profile cases. Justice Patnaik will have the full use of three investigating agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation, Delhi […]
Indian banks will need between $40 bln to $55 bln (Rs 2.8 lakh cr to Rs 3.8 lakh cr) of additional capital to meet the Basel III capital adequacy norms set to come into effect next year, Fitch Ratings said, adding that most of the money will have to be put in by the tax […]
Former cabinet minister Anand Sharma today warned against what he called the misuse of tax and investigation agencies in the country, and warned BJP leaders that they may not always be in power. He said the BJP government has ‘spoiled the habits’ of agencies like Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Vigilance and Central Bureau of Investigation, […]
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has expressed suspicions of an ‘internal sabotage’ of the investigations into the so-called Aircel-Maxis scam, in which the accused include former finance minister P Chidambaram and son Karthi. “BJP government at Centre, judging by today proceedings on Aircel Maxis in SC, is under internal sabotage. Have to find out who is […]
The ongoing allegations around the sanction of a loan by ICICI Bank to the Videocon Group and the bank’s reluctance to support an independent probe into the matter has created doubts about the bank’s internal governance standards, global ratings agency Fitch said. “..the presence of the bank’s CEO on this credit committee – and the […]
Punjab National Bank, in the eye of a storm after a couple of employees issued unauthorized credit guarantees worth $2 bln to clients, said it has put in place procedural and technological changes required to prevent a repeat of the incident. Two key technical changes being implemented are a revamp of the way the bank […]
Public sector banks would need to divert an estimated Rs 63,000 cr, or about 41% of the total money that the government has promised, to meet increased provisioning requirements for loans under the new Ind-AS accounting standard, India Ratings said, adding that this would ‘knock down’ their growth aspirations and hurt market share. Provisioning refers […]
Maruti Suzuki India Limited said it entered into an agreement with the Government of NCT of Delhi to set up Driving Test Centres in 12 locations in the city. In the first phase, these Automated Driving Test Centres will be set up at Hauz Khas, Shakur Basti, Raja Garden, Hari Nagar, Burari, Loni Road, Sarai […]
The Reserve Bank of India has released the list of Indian banks and their non-performing assets as of September 30, 2017, the latest period for which financial data is available. The total non-peforming assets, or bad loans, has risen to 8.37 lakh cr — a burden of around 20,000 for each working person in the […]
Subramanian Swamy, the BJP leader known for speaking his mind, today said the 2G scam case was “sabotaged” by law officials who were in charge of the case and investigation. Swamy pointed out that the judge in his order noted that there was a lot of enthusiasm in the beginning, but it disappeared later, and […]
The decision by a trial court in Delhi’s Patiala House complex to dismiss charges of corruption and conspiracy against former telecom minister and others in the 2G scam case has created a curious legal imbroglio as the order seems to fly counter to the Supreme Court’s verdict in the 2G scam case. The special court […]
The move to withdraw high-value currency notes in November last year has helped the income tax department unearth Rs 25,000 cr of undisclosed income as of October this year, the finance ministry said. Out of this, Rs 15,761 cr was unearthed by searches and raids, while the remaining was detected using ‘surveys’, the ministry said. […]
A senior State Bank of India official warned against assuming that the bad loan malaise affecting the Indian banking sector has started declining. Praveen Kumar Gupta, MD in charge of retail and digital banking, said one cannot directly draw conclusions by extrapolating trends seen in the first two quarters of the current financial year. In […]
Eight months on, the Reserve Bank of India is yet to finish verifying and counting the 500- and 1000-rupee notes surrendered by the public between Nov 8 and Dec 30, 2016, the finance ministry said in a statement on Aug 11. UPDATE: About ten days after this article was published on Aug 17, the government […]
Nawaz Sharif is third time unlucky to have to abandon his term as the democratically elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. With the Supreme Court disqualifying him over the corruption cases for ten years, sixty-seven-year-old Sharif’s premiership comes to end one year before his term expires. It also potentially means the termination of an eventful political […]
