Debt accounts for 0.5%-0.7% of overall bank loans: Moody’s Rising liquidity issues in Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) are credit negative for Indian banks and debt market, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report. “As of 31 March 2018, debts incurred by IL&FS in the form of bank loans …
Read More »Yearly Archives: 2018
Rationalisation of CS schemes mooted
Many Centrally Sponsored Schemes are boutique in nature, with ‘dubious’ outcomes: N.K. Singh Several Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) are just boutique in nature with ‘dubious’ outcomes, the 15th Finance Commission of the Union Government has noted while calling for urgent rationalisation of the CSSs. The pruning of such schemes would …
Read More »Call for second Brexit vote grows stronger
National campaign sets out six scenarios for holding another referendum The national campaign for a second referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU on the terms being negotiated by the government set out six scenarios in which such a vote would be possible, as it sought new momentum to …
Read More »‘S. Korea wants to elevate ties with India’
Expert says Seoul wants to strengthen ties on economic and strategic fronts One of the major foreign policy initiatives of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea is the government’s ‘New Southern Policy’, with a goal of deepening ties with South East Asian nations as well as India, and building an …
Read More »Court suspends Sharif’s sentence
Islamabad High Court says NAB could not bring evidence against the Sharifs in corruption case Members of Nawaz Sharif’s party celebrated his release on Wednesday after the Islamabad High Court suspended the jail sentences handed to the former Prime Minister, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd.). National …
Read More »Tribal group to protest for Santali teachers
Organisation to hit streets on Sept. 24 Protesting against the absence of permanent teachers to teach in Santali in schools, a tribal organisation has decided to hit the streets in the city. Santali as medium of instruction in the State-run schools of West Bengal was announced a few years ago. …
Read More »A second chance to prove legacy: SC
Justice Ranjan Gogoi on the Special Bench hearing the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) case observed on Wednesday that by allowing the claimants to file extra papers, the apex court was actually giving them a ‘second chance’ to prove their Indian legacy. “Usually, the process of claims and objections …
Read More »J&K civic poll: Rs. 10 lakh cover for contestants
Proposal made by Governor Facing a volatile situation, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has proposed to offer insurance cover of Rs. 10 lakh to all candidates participating in the polls to the civic bodies and panchayats in the State. Meanwhile, the Congress and JD (U) on Wednesday decided …
Read More »Can’t curb liberty on conjecture, says SC
“You [the Maharashtra government] should make a clear distinction between opposition to government and efforts for mass destruction or violence… We may not like it [resistance], but we must accept the fact that there will be opposition,” Justice Chandrachud told Mr. Mehta. The Maharashtra government claimed that their raids unearthed …
Read More »J&K artists weave life back into the antique shawl
Workshop to revive Valley’s vanishing breed of master darners Once sought after by Mughal emperors for their finesse, Kashmir’s master darners, known as rafugars, have become an endangered species. The Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) government is now making efforts to revive this dwindling breed of craftsmen whose rare ability to …
Read More »Cabinet clears Rs. 3,466 crore dam improvement project
198 existing structures in 7 States will benefit from scheme The government has approved a 65% hike, and extended by two years, a project to improve the stability and working of dams in 11 States. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the …
Read More »Translocated tigress accused of killing woman may be innocent
Post-mortem report fails to establish that the deadly attack was by a big cat Many of the villagers living on the fringes of Odisha’s Satkosia Tiger Reserve (STR) were against having a tiger in their neighbourhood. But they had no say in the matter when two big cats were transferred …
Read More »Assam foreigners’ tribunal detects use of fake documents
In Morigaon town, most citizenship certificates were forged or tampered with A Foreigners’ Tribunal in central Assam’s Morigaon district observed last month that the process of identifying foreigners and doubtful voters had become “an industry” for “minting money.” The “unfair practices” involved, it noted, turned Indians into foreigners and foreigners …
Read More »‘Will return home and work for peace’
Says situation in Afghanistan is far worse than it was earlier In a dramatic move that has set diplomatic circles in Delhi as well as political circles in Kabul abuzz, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India Shaida Mohammad Abdaliresigned during President Ghani’s visit to India on Wednesday. He explained his decision in …
Read More »‘Why no such action against Hindu men?’
Opposition parties, women activists question govt. move With the government taking the ordinance route to make ‘instant triple talaq’ a penal offence, Opposition parties and women activists on Wednesday wondered why no similar provisions are made for Hindu men deserting their wives. Some said the ordinance ignored problems it could …
Read More »NRC to process claims from September 25
Exercise will continue for 60 days: SC The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the opening of the process for receiving claims and objections from 40 lakh persons left out of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam from September 25. A Special Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and …
Read More »Triple talaq is criminal offence
The new law has safeguards, including bail to the accused before the start of trial The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared an ordinance that makes talaq-e-biddat , or instant triple talaq, a criminal offence that will attract a maximum jail term of three years. President Ram Nath Kovind later in …
Read More »Indian Reforms. Sir A.H. Fraser’s Views.
In a letter to the ‘Times’ Sir A.H. Fraser says: He and other members of theIndo-British Association do not agree wholly with the unfavourable views on the reform scheme expressed by some speakers at a recent meeting of the Association. He welcomes the general principles and tendencies of the Report …
Read More »Inter-Caste Marriages Bill.
At a solemn conclave convened on Friday [September 13] of the Mahamandal Council and other prominent orthodox leaders of Benares including pundit authorities presided over by the Maharajah Darbhanga, the general President of the Mahamandal, it was decided, first, to inform the supreme Government that the proposed Bill of Mr. …
Read More »With protesters in a police station
How an agitation against price rise cost the protesters Journalists have the best seats in the political theatre. This also means that we have to simply hear whatever is being said, whether spectacularly boring or even vitriolic. But there are good days when, for instance, an ironical drama unfolds in …
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