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In his second address to the nation after March 19, announcing a complete lockdown of the country for three weeks from midnight of March 24-25, the Prime Minister of the “world’s largest democracy” omitted addressing several key issues relating to the survival of the bottom 25% of India’s population of 1.3 billion. How would they be fed if they had no work? Even as he urged everyone to stay at home, Narendra Modi did not mention those who had no homes. In his second half-hour speech in five days...

The legal tussle over allegations of fraud and racketeering began a decade ago. The individuals and corporate entities involved are, or have been based, in different countries across the globe. The countries and cities where the dramatis personae have been located, or have operated out of, include: Hyderabad in India; Pittsburgh, Washington and Delaware in the US; Toronto in Canada; Bahamas and British Virgin Islands (tax havens); Singapore; and Hong Kong. This international dispute may not be...

On February 9, Shubanso Pul, the 20-year-old son of former Chief Minister (CM) of Arunachal Pradesh, Kalikho Pul, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his apartment in Sussex, England. Shubanso was studying law in the country. His death reminds us of the tragic suicide of his father three-and-a-half years ago on August 9, 2016. While news from Arunachal Pradesh often remains under the radar of much of the mainstream media in India, Kalikho Pul’s death did attract considerable...

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Gujarat legislative Assembly recently prepared a report to follow up audit observations that had been submitted in 2014 by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to the Gujarat government sharply criticising it for bestowing “undue” favours on a company in the Adani group that operates India’s largest private port. Gautam Adani heads the Adani group of companies. He is the country’s second richest man, according to one estimate. The...

The relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian and Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), appears to be souring. Some observers are reading a lot into certain recent actions of the income tax (IT) Department, while some others argue that what has taken place is a mere tax dispute that may soon get resolved. According to a report in Business Standard (linked here), the IT department plans to approach the Supreme Court after its objections to...

Why have so many young people across India come out on to the streets to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the attempt by the Narendra Modi government to put together a countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR)? Is it simply because the CAA and the NRC are perceived to be discriminatory against a particular religious community that comprises one-seventh of the country’s population, namely, Muslims, and that this is the first time...

In December 2012, Adani Realty, the real estate wing of the Adani group, announced the establishment of a joint venture (JV) with the Delhi-based M2K group. The JV, called Adani M2K projects, was set up to develop a housing project named, Oyster Grande, in Gurugram, Haryana, involving an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore. The M2K group, headed by Mahesh Bhagchandka, has a presence in biotechnology, infrastructure, real estate, multiplexes, aviation and defence equipment. It made headlines in...

The Bharatiya Janata Party is exuding confidence that it will be able to win the floor test in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra, presumably on 30 November, after a Speaker from the party has been elected. How easy or how difficult will this task be? This is a difficult question to answer at present. The BJP has access to huge financial resources to “persuade” MLAs to switch sides, make them suddenly absent themselves from the assembly or even, in extreme situations, allow themselves to be...

On November 1, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the investigative arm of India’s customs authorities, filed an affidavit before the Delhi High Court clarifying the status of its investigations into alleged over-invoicing of imports by a number of companies. The imports – which included a range of capital goods and raw materials like coal that were brought into the country by companies operating in core infrastructure sectors, such as power generation and transmission, ports and...

On October 17, the Bombay High Court ruled in favour of a company in the Adani Group by passing an order quashing the issuance of letters rogatory (LRs) to various foreign government bodies by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the investigative arm of India’s Customs authorities. The LRs—that are formal requests for information issued by Indian courts on behalf of the country’s law-enforcing and investigative agencies to courts in foreign jurisdictions to facilitate the gathering of...