Morning Brief: Crackdown Begins On Benami Properties; Hafiz Saeed Under House Arrest; New BCCI Bosses

Good Morning, Swarajya Readers! Here's What You Need To Know Today.

I-T Crackdown Begins On Benami Properties: The Income Tax Department on Monday said it has issued 87 notices and attached bank deposits worth crores in 42 cases nationwide under the newly-enforced Benami Transactions Act, which attracts a heavy penalty and rigorous jail term of a maximum seven years. The department had initiated a nationwide operation to identify suspect bank accounts where huge cash deposits have been made post 8 November demonetisation.

Mumbai Attack Mastermind Hafiz Saeed Under House Arrest: Pakistan on Monday ordered Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, accused by the United States and India of masterminding the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial capital Mumbai that killed 166 people, to be placed under house arrest. An Interior Ministry source confirmed Saeed and the other men "are under house arrest" and on the exit control list, meaning they could not leave the country. Saeed has reportedly released a video, saying that the warm friendship between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump has led to his arrest.

RBI Lifts Curbs On ATM Withdrawals: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday announced that limits placed on cash withdrawals from ATMs stand withdrawn from 1 February. However, the weekly withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000 will continue. The central bank also said that all limits on current account and overdraft accounts stand withdrawn with immediate effect. The RBI, however, allowed the banks to maintain their discretion on own operating limits.

EC Asks Candidates To Open Current Accounts After RBI Snub: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday rejected Election Commission’s (EC) suggestion to relax the cash withdrawal limit on savings bank accounts yet again, and pointed out that the cap on withdrawing from current accounts had been lifted. This prompted the EC to ask all poll candidates to use current accounts for meeting their campaign expenses. The RBI on 29 January 29 had turned down the EC’s request, in the wake of assembly polls in five states.

Manmohan Singh Says Economy Not In Good Shape: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday released the Congress Party’s “Real State of the Economy” report for the last two years. The 78-page report pointed to a 90 per cent drop in job creation from the 11 lakh new jobs in 2010 to less than 1.5 lakh new jobs added in 2016, a sharp deceleration in private investments, credit growth slowing to its “lowest in decades” and a drop in road construction to about 6 km a day as against the targeted 30 km.

Congress Told To Hold Organisational Elections By June: The Election Commission of India has directed the Congress to conclude its organisational elections by June, rejecting the grand old party’s plea for a one-year extension. “We will talk to them (EC) and complete our organisational polls on a mutually agreed date,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said. Party sources said the organisational polls were likely to be held anytime after the results of the assembly polls are announced on 11 March.

SC Appoints New BCCI Bosses: The Supreme Court on Monday appointed a four member-panel of administrators to manage the affairs of the cricket board and report on whether it has complied with the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. The panel of administrators will be led by former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, and have historian Ramchandra Guha, career banker and IDFC managing director Vikram Limaye, and former women’s Test cricketer and captain Diana Edulji as members of Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Manmohan Singh Helped Mallya, Says BJP: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed on Monday that former prime minister Manmohan Singh helped beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya get huge loans to bail out Kingfisher Airlines. “Not only that, only on the former prime minister's insistence, the income tax department went soft on Mallya and his accounts were also unfrozen," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, and asked, was a sinking ship, that is, the Congress, helping out the sinking Kingfisher Airlines?

Vodafone-Idea Merger Move Is Biggest Consolidation: The biggest consolidation in India’s telecom sector is now underway with Vodafone and Idea Cellular confirming they are in talks to merge their businesses which could create the country’s largest mobile phone operator. If the merger between India’s No 2 and No 3 firms materialises, the combined entity will topple Bharti Airtel from the top slot for the first time in over 15 years, and present a strong response to Jio’s formidable challenge.

MUST READ OP-EDS

Budget 2017 Is An Opportunity To Follow Through On Banking Reforms: Since any deterioration of PSBs becomes ultimately costly to all the related parties – the exchequer, India Inc and average households – the time has come to take banking seriously. Let this Budget make the necessary beginning.

Avoiding Fiscal Feudalism: The budget has assumed importance because it will solidify the way the NDA government sees the fiscal governance of this country. What the government needs to do is to make both taxation and its administration less adversarial.

Protest Nations: The last few weeks was packed with protests from anti-Jallikattu ban to Women’s March against President Trump, the extent of which was enhanced by social media. Protests have been seen as a way to signal boundaries beyond which leaders should not trespass if they’d like to remain in place.

Protecting Borrowers In The Digital Era: Institutional lenders are unable to lend without appropriate collateral, and the high costs of lending limit the flexibility of lending products. Digital lending has the potential to benefit Indians immensely, but it also poses some major risks.

Did Free Market Fundamentalism Spawn The Likes Of Donald Trump? US President Donald Trump’s first week in office, and the executive orders on immigration ban and H1B visas, show we are no longer dealing with politics as usual. He is out to disrupt the status quo.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

The Forgotten Story Of The Marichjhapi Massacre By Marxists: Nearly 1,700 Bengali Hindu refugees from East Pakistan were massacred by police and communist cadres in the dawn of Jyoti Basu’s rule in Bengal. Not a single person has ever been held accountable for what was by far the worst massacre of its own people by a state in independent India.

We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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