On August 25, 2014, the Supreme Court (SC) pronounced 194 coal blocks allocated since 1993 ‘illegal’ as all these allocations suffered from what it described as ‘vice of arbitrariness’ and showed no concern what so ever for public/national interest. The judgement vindicates findings of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). In its report (August, 2012), CAG had estimated loss due to such arbitrary allocations made during 2006-2011 to be Rs 186,000 crores or US$ 31 billion (based on price at which coal is sold by CIL). This would be many times more if computation is done using price of imported coal. At another level, the judgement has created consternation among beneficiaries of illegal allotments. They are crying horse if these allocations...
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Category: Governance reforms
Modi’s prescription for economic resurgence
Critics have derided prime minister N Modi for absence of any major initiative or scheme for nation building in his independence day address on August 15, 2014. Some congress leaders even opined ‘he was giving an election speech’! With a pre-meditated and prejudiced mindset, they won’t be able to see any. One only needs to make an objective assessment to get to the bottom of what he gave to 1.25 billion country men and even to fellow citizens in our neighbour and beyond. Modi’s extempore speech covering a wide spectrum left no one in doubt that he gave us a recipe for social, cultural, economic and industrial, renaissance. This is eloquently captured in a couple of phrases that he coined...
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National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) – a big leap to stem rot in judiciary
Lok Sabha has passed the landmark National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) bill. After its passage in Rajya Sabha – likely in view of support from parties across the spectrum – its enactment in to law is a foregone conclusion. NJAC will replace the extant collegium system whereby a group of senior most judges of the Supreme Court (SC) under chairmanship of Chief Justice of India (CJI) recommend appointment of judges of high courts and their chief justices as also the judges of SC. Government of India (GoI) makes appointments on the basis of recommendations of collegium. The former can at best send back recommendation for re-consideration. But, when collegium reiterates its initial choice, GoI has no option but to fall...
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A crude anti-reforms attitude
Unkind burden And illogical too jorgen mcleman / shutterstock.com The Gujarat government’s efforts to squeeze out more royalty from ONGC could impact production and exploration The Modi government is keen to take up administrative and judicial reforms in a big way, but the actions of the Gujarat government may become a stumbling block. A case in point is the Gujarat government’s decision to collect a royalty of 20 per cent on the discount given by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on sale of crude to downstream oil PSUs. It stands to reason that royalty or cess should be levied on the sale price (after discount), as has been established by precedent as well. However, the Gujarat government’s...
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UPA-appointed Governors – should exit with honour
Congress, and other opposition parties have launched a tirade against Modi government for its polite request to governors – appointed during erstwhile UPA dispensation – to put in their papers and thus give a free hand to latter in running the affairs of the country. Astutely ignoring its own actions in 2004 (when UPA came to power) in dismissing lock stock and barrel governors appointed during the earlier NDA regime (1999-2004) – in some cases, not even giving time to make an honourable exit (for instance, Gujarat’s Kailashpati Mishra) – Congress is now citing a judgement of the Supreme Court (SC) in 2010 which requires that government cannot arbitrarily transfer/remove appointed governors without ‘compelling’ reasons. Any words of un-solicited advise...
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Who is polarizing the voters in India?
Ever since his anointment as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate over 6 months ago, all along Narendra Modi has kept development and good governance at the center stage of election campaign. He has not deviated even an inch from this agenda despite an orchestrated game plan by his opponents (Congress and its allies) to brand him as communal and a polarizing figure. In hundreds of speeches delivered across length and breadth of India, Modi has been extremely circumspect in choice of his words to leave no scope for subjective interpretations and has come un-scathed so far. That is a huge accomplishment in back drop of a hostile environment and provocative statements hurled from all sides. Modi has carved out a space...
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Why BJP must cross the ‘272’ milestone?
Poll surveys conducted by various agencies/new channels are unanimous in giving a clear lead to BJP in ensuing Lok Sabha elections during April/May, 2014. The chances are bolstered by a perception that there is a ‘Modi wave’ all over India. ‘Modi wave’ is a euphemism for majority of people expressing a strong feeling that a government led by Modi can fulfil their aspirations in regard to increasing employment, reducing inflation, combating corruption and ensuring rapid development. An emboldened BJP is pulling all stops to sustain the momentum till voting is completed in every parliamentary constituency by May 12, 2014. It’s objective is to cross 272 mark on its own to ensure that new government is not hamstrung by compulsions of...
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Sahara scam – a crystal clear case of ‘money laundering’
It is almost 20 months since Supreme Court (SC) ordered Dr Subroto Roy, chairman, Sahara Group in August, 2012 to return a gargantuan sum of Rs 20,000 crores that two of its group companies in real estate sector had taken from millions of investors. Dr Roy had contested the amount stating that its outstanding liability to investors was only about Rs 5000 crores and this was deposited with SEBI towards end of 2012. SEBI – with full backing of SC – has been doing a wild goose chase to ensure recovery of full amount with interest and penalties. But, that has not yielded results leading to recent arrest of Dr Roy. SC had directed him to come up with a...
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Sacrificing Coal India (CIL) at fiscal altar
Following a ‘subtle’ diktat from powers that be, the Board of Coal India Limited (CIL) has approved an ‘interim’ dividend of Rs 18,300 crores out of which Rs 16,485 crores will accrue to central Government. Together with dividend distribution tax (DDT) of Rs 3100 crores, the Government would have garnered close to Rs 20,000 crores during current fiscal 2013-14 by way of interim dividend alone. Originally, the Government was contemplating to divest 10% of its shares in CIL to mobilize Rs 20,000 crores which represents 50% of total proceeds from divestment of PSU shares at Rs 40,000 crores. This was scaled down to 5% in view of mounting resistance from various quarters. Intended to generate around Rs 9000 crores, even...
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Milching PSUs for Government profligacy
Faced with huge shortfall in tax revenue and expenditure (especially subsidies) going out of bound, Government is frantically looking for resources to rein in deficit within 4.8% of GDP or Rs 540,000 crores for the current year i.e., 2013-14. It has opened battle lines on several fronts. The steps under serious consideration include a substantial compression in plan expenditure, postponement of subsidy payments and cut in Government procurement etc. Another item on the centre stage is proceeds from dis-investment of Government’s shares in public sector undertakings (PSUs). While, preparing the budget, it had estimated these proceeds to be Rs 40,000 crores. It had also taken credit of Rs 14,000 crores from sale of its residual holding in BALCO & HZL....
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