Politics & the Nation
- An excellent comment on how the country's polity has totally become corrupt
- At present, for any political party to presume to take the moral high ground on corruption would be to invite derisive dismissal, with black references to pots and kettles. This is because, in the absence of an institutional means of funding, political parties have come to utilise corruption as the means to finance political activity: patronage is sold, as in the case of licences and leases or selective access to privileged information, state power is used to extort money from people in need of any kind of government service, or money is taken out of the exchequer through commissions on procurement, inflated contracts and under-delivery in government schemes.
- UPA blames NDA for all ills plaguing spectrum policy
- All allocations of mobile permits and airwaves since 2003 were against government policy, and did not follow the decision of the union cabinet and sector regulator, a one-man panel looking into the telecom scam revealed.
- The findings of the Patil Committee—set up by the government in December 2010 to examine all allocations of mobile permits and airwaves since 2001—will be sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which will establish criminal culpability.
- In 2003, the union cabinet had decided all mobile permits in the future would be awarded through a multi-stage bidding process.
- All procedures adopted since 2003 were ‘wrong’, including the first-come-first-served basis for allotment, Sibal said, adding that procedures followed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) since 2001 were also ‘unfair and unreasonable’.
- The report adds that bureaucracy played along with these lapses as ministers, secretaries and other public officials were at fault in more than 37 instances, notably during 2003-04 and 2007-08, when new mobile permits were issued to private firms.
- The Patil committee report has given grist to the government mill. And now it is accusing the NDA for all the ills in the telecom spectrum allocation policies.
- Nilekani panel moots pvt IT back offices for government
- The Nandan Nilekani-headed technology advisory group has recommended formation of private-owned bodies run by professionals and bureaucrats to act as IT back offices of the government.
- To be called National Information Utilities (NIUs), these bodies should be 51% owned by private firms having a net worth of at least 300 crore to self finance themselves, Nilekani said in his report presented to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.
- Nilekani has suggested that the NIUs should be chaired by a joint secretary or a private professional with a term of five years. These bodies should not be allowed to list on the stock exchanges.
- NIUs would help in various IT projects like Tax Information Network, New Pension Scheme, National Treasury Management Agency, Expenditure Information Network and the Goods and Service Tax.
- About 5-6 NIUs are expected to be created, of which the GST network would be the first.
- The committee which has members such as Sebi Chairman CB Bhave and DoT Secretary R Chandrashekhar, was formed in February, last year as part of the Union Budget. It recommends that no single private entity should own more than 25% of the shares in an NIU.
- Supreme Court ruling to make the life of law enforcers tough
- In a controversial order that could virtually handcuff law enforcers, the Supreme Court on Friday said members of banned organisations like al-Qaeda, Maoist Communist Centre, Lashker-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed or al-Badr cannot be counted as criminals by police unless they indulge in violence or incite it.
- This order of the Supreme Court runs counter to the legislature’s view. According to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, passed by Parliament, “a person, who associates himself, or professes to be associated, with a terrorist organisation with intention to further its activities, commits an offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation.”
- The ruling came in a judgement acquitting Arup Bhuyan, convicted by a Guwahati court under the repealed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
- Bhuyan was a suspected member of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), which figured at the top of ministry of home affairs' list of 32 banned organisations.
- He was convicted on the basis of his confessional statement, which was admissible as evidence under TADA.
- Though a confessional statement to police was admissible as evidence under Section 15 of Tada, the Supreme Court said “it is a very weak kind of evidence,” and the conviction could not be sustained in the absence of corroborative material.
- On the way forward for microfinance
- This is an excellent article from Sameer Sharma. A must read. It explains us concepts like social capital, bonding capital and bridging capital etc. Some excerpts:
- Robert Putanam, a social scientist found that the underlying idea in MFIs is that membership in associations (or SHGs) generates trust and norms of reciprocity. Typically, SHGs are small groups possessing ‘thick trust’ (trust based on personal knowledge of other actors in the group) that makes responses of group members predictable and enforcement of loan repayment relatively easy; therefore, attracting financial institutions to lend.
- In social capital — relationships of trust embedded in social networks — the poor have a non-monetised resource that metamorphoses into loans and the attractiveness of the SHG model is founded on inclusiveness, the unique democratic accessibility of social capital.
- Furthermore, researchers agree that social capital is a multidimensional construct having several forms and two forms of social capital — bonding (that links people together with others like them) and bridging (social ties that cut across differences such as caste, class or religion) — distinguished by Avis Vidal, are generally accepted.
- Xav Briggs has shown that the outcomes associated with the two forms of social capital are different. Bonding capital helps the poor to get by or cope with particular challenges (social support), as opposed to bridging capital that helps to change the opportunity set and get ahead in life (social leverage).
- Shipping ministry to set up port in Andhra
- In order to ease India's marine traffic, the shipping ministry is mulling to set up a new port in Andhra Pradesh, and is awaiting the state government's response regarding the same. However, the port location is yet to be finalised.
- I-T officials’ tax assessment limits raised
- In a significant organisational revamp, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has raised the monetary limit of tax assessments handled by income tax officers or ITOs.
- The move is designed to lighten the load on senior officers so that they can concentrate more on investigations, international taxation issues and transfer pricing. It also aims to ease the hardships of taxpayers in small towns and mofussil areas who have to travel to cities to attend to their tax matters.
- Under the revised monetary limits, revenue cadre officials in metros will handle non-corporate taxpayers with an annual income above Rs. 20 lakh and corporates with an income above Rs. 30 lakh. In case of non-metros, they will deal only with non-corporate taxpayers with an annual income above Rs. 15 lakh and corporates with income over Rs. 20 lakh.
- The country’s direct tax revenues have grown from Rs. 13,000 crore in 1991-92 to Rs. 3.87 lakh crore in 2009-10. The number of taxpayers has also grown nearly five times over the period to more than Rs. 3.2 crore.
- Facilities available for a Maharatna company
- A Maharatna company enjoys more financial flexibility. Under the current rules, a Maharatna company can invest 15% of its net worth in a single project for establishing a new venture or undertaking an acquisition with a cap of Rs. 5,000 crore.
- At present, there are only four Maharatna companies — ONGC, Indian Oil, SAIL and NTPC.
- India ratifies double taxation avoidance pacts with SAARC
- India has ratified the new Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements with SAARC nations taking forward its efforts to track and unearth black money. The revised treaties will come into effect from next fiscal, according to a government notification.
- According to the notification, the new agreement will apply to persons who are residents of one or more member states. The tax information exchange treaties amongst the South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations was struck first at Dhaka in 2005. Members of SAARC bloc include Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
- India is in the process of negotiating DTAA with 65 countries. This is to broaden the scope of article concerning exchange of information, specifically regarding banking and taxpayers not covered earlier.
- DTAA and Exchange of Taxation Information Agreement are two instruments under which information can be ontained to check and curb black money in the country.
- India had amended pacts with 23 countries to get information from various banks.
- Know anything about UNCAC?
- It is the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. It is the legally-binding international anti-corruption instrument. India is yet to accept the UNCAC rules.
- deus ex machina: Noun
- Any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an insoluble difficulty
- eg: It is futile to expect any deus ex machina to bring about this change.
- dormice: Noun
- Small furry-tailed squirrel-like Old World rodent that becomes torpid in cold weather
- murine: Adjective
- Of or relating to or transmitted by a member of the family Muridae (rats and mice)
- Noun: A rodent that is a member of the family Muridae
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