Morning Brief: Zakir Naik In Trouble, Govt Rubbishes Congress’ Telecom Scam Allegations, France Offers Help To Develop Jet Engine

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

Zakir Naik

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday told PTI that he has asked the Mumbai Police Commissioner to conduct a probe into Naik’s speeches and submit a report.The notorious tele-evangelist’s social media accounts and even his sources of funding will be looked into.

Zakir Naik has been in news for the last few days after it emerged that some of the terrorists responsible for the Bangladesh Gulshan restaurant attack were his followers. Naik has put out a video statement saying he never inspired the killing of innocent people.

Monsoon Update

Last week India received 35% surplus rainfall across India except the Southern peninsular regions. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) this monsoon season has so far recorded a 1% surplus rainfall.

A slow start and bad rains in June (a deficit of 11%) had worried policy makers and farmers alike. It appears the rain gods have been mollified and are returning to their normal behaviour!

PLA Submarines In Indian Ocean

A Chinese defence ministry spokesperson has said that Chinese submarines routinely cross the Indian ocean and other sea areas. He said that such movements were legitimate and in accordance with international practices. The official also said that China has never objected to the Indian navy’s presence in the South China sea region.

China is currently locked in a severe dispute with Philippines on sovereignity over some regions in the South China sea. In fact China claims nearly all of South China sea as being under its control. This is being disputed by Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bruei and Taiwan.

Government Trashes Telecom Scam Allegations

The CAG recently came up with a report in which it highlighted understatement of revenues (to the tune of Rs 45,000 crores) by six telecom service providers during the years 2006/07 to 2009/10.

Why is this important? The license and spectrum usage fee that telcos owe the government are calculcated based on their revenue. Therefore an understatement of revenue by telcos lead to revenue losses for the government. In this instance the government would be owed Rs 5,000 crores in fee/usage charge and Rs 7,000 crores in interest.

The Congress is trying to project this understatement and a government review of these numbers as a major scam. However, the government has said that it will slap a demand notice for total owed amount of Rs 12,000 crores on the six telecom companies soon. It has also pointed out that the revenue understatement had happened under the Congress led UPA government and not under the current NDA administration.

French Help For Kaveri

France has in-priciple agreed to help India revive the unsuccessful Kaveri jet engine project. First started to power the Tejas, the Kaveri jet engine never saw the light of the day. Although the engine development proceeded until high altitude trials in Russia it was decided not to proceed with plans of integration with Tejas - the engine simply failed to measure up!

The French offer comes as negotiations over the Rafale jet deal enter final stages.

Must Read Op-Eds

Globalization and its discontents : The recent Brexit vote, the rise of maverick politicians in the rich countries and the collapse of global trade are just some of the disparate indications of how the globalization project is under pressure.

Not for Muslims alone : The people who have the best interests of the AMU in their mind should opt to make the AMU a plural and representative university where religion is reduced to an ever insignificant role.

Why is Smriti Irani always subjected to misogynist, sexist attacks? A lot of the attacks have tended to focus on her identity as a woman and even on her physical appearance.

Swarajya Special

How Quota Discrimination & Liberal Grading By TN Boards Are Destroying Top Hindu-Run DU Colleges

The think-tanks dedicated to education policy with aggregate funding of $200 million (per the FCRA estimates) failed to come up with any analysis of this absurdity.