🤦‍♀️ @Noon: Noose Tightens Around Trinamool’s Neck

1. 💰 Troubles for Trinamool escalate

Coal scam: The CBI on Wednesday conducted searches at the premises of West Bengal Law Minister Moloy Ghatak.

• Raids were in connection with a probe into alleged coal pilferage from Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in Asansol.

• The pilfered coal was sold to brick kilns and private factories.

• The scam is believed to have generated thousands of crores of Rupees.

Who else is involved: Central agencies have already questioned Abhishek Banerjee and a few other Trinamool functionaries for their alleged involvement in the scam.

• A former senior functionary of the Trinamool’s youth wing and closed aide of Abhishek Banerjee, Vinay Mishra, is alleged to be the kingpin of the scam.

• However, he fled the country, renounced his Indian citizenship and is now believed to be a citizen of Vanuatu Island in southwestern Pacific Ocean.

• Even Trinamool strongman Anubrata Mandal, who was arrested for his involvement in the cattle smuggling scam, is allegedly involved in the coal smuggling scam.

Previous scams: The chit fund scam netted then transport minister Madan Mitra, Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay and Tapas Paul, and some other Trinamool seniors.

• Top Trinamool ministers Firhad Hakim and (late) Subrata Mukherjee and other party seniors like Mukul Roy, Saugata Roy, Prasun Banerjee and Sultan Ahmed were caught on video accepting bundles of cash in the Narada sting operation.

Recent uncoverings: Senior Trinamool minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested for his involvement in the cash-for-jobs scam.

• Huge amounts of cash and valuables were recovered from the residences of his associate Arpita Mukherjee in late July.

• Anubrata Mandal was arrested in the cattle smuggling case.

Troubles for Mamata Banerjee: Both Chatterjee and Mandal are considered very close to the West Bengal CM.

• It is learnt that evidence is piling up against her nephew and his wife for their involvement in the coal mining scam and other cases.

• The Calcutta HC directed six close relatives of Mamata Banerjee -- her brothers, their wives and their children -- to file affidavits by 11 November listing their properties and assets.

• After the affidavits are filed, the HC may ask central agencies to scrutinise and probe their actual assets and in case any glaring discrepancies are detected, it will directly affect and tarnish the Banerjee’s image.

2. ✌️ Can BJP win Jharkhand?

Challenges for ruling alliance: Above image shows that the JMM’s popularity is actually restricted to just the south and east of the state.

• 2014 map is used because the JMM contested alone that time, while it allied with the Congress in 2019.

• Efficient vote transfers were not witnessed between the alliance partners.

BJP's edge: Although the party lost 10 seats in 2019 from 2014, its vote share went up by over 2 per cent.

• The ‘Others’ is steadily shrinking, with the larger chunk of those votes going to the BJP.

• The BJP coalition’s vote share (assuming that the coalition had been intact) has risen strongly to touch 47 per cent in 2019.

What this means: If the BJP, Marandi, and the AJSU had been united in 2019, their coalition would have trumped Soren’s by 10 per cent of the popular vote.

• In seats, that means the ‘NDA’ would have won 51 and the ‘UPA’ just 30.

• The ‘Others’ would have been wiped out, since their combined vote share has, in fact, dropped to an historical low of 15 per cent.

Present situation: The situation on the ground in Jharkhand today, is that the AJSU is re-allied with the BJP, and Babulal Marandi has re-joined the BJP.

• Venu Gopal Narayan concludes that if assembly elections are held now, the BJP and its ally will sweep the state.

• No wonder Soren was desperate enough to conduct a trust vote even as the state’s Governor contemplates the Election Commission’s recommendation to disqualify him.

3. 📢 Event announcement: Join us at Infrastructure Today Conclave in Mumbai

Swarajya is co-hosting the second edition of Infrastructure Today Conclave, with Infrastructure World on the 21st of this month.

• As one of India's leading print cum digital outlets, Swarajya has been in the forefront of chronicling developments in Indian Infrastructure through a dedicated vertical called India Infrahub.

• Our infrastructure related news, reports and coverage enjoys great degree of traction among policy makers, analysts and subject matter commentators.

As part of our continued focus on infrastructure space, Swarajya in partnership with ASAPP Media Group (a premier business media platform that operates publications including Construction World, Equipment Today, Infrastructure Today India Cement Review) is organising the second edition organise the second edition of Infrastructure Today Conclave 2022 on the theme of PM Gati Shakti and Indian Infrastructure.

• The event will be hosted at Taj Santacruz, Mumbai on 21 September 2022.

• The conclave will comprise of sessions on themes related to infrastructure like infrastructure financing, integrated logistics, rail, road, metro, urbanisation, defence, National infra Pipeline, High Speed Rails etc

• Each session will consist of a keynote address by a leading policy maker followed by a 30-45-minute discussion featuring key influencers, commentators, subject matter experts and leading thinkers.

Get your delegate passes now at a discounted price of Rs 7500 here.

4. 🎬 Boycott trend against Brahmastra

Reasons: Director Ayan Mukherji's viral post revealed that in Brahmastra, the lead character of Shiva, played by Ranbir, was originally named Rumi and the film’s title was Dragon.

• Now people are speculating that the names and themes in the film were probably changed after the success of Bahubali which is an opportunistic appropriation.

• Ranbir Kapoor has been facing flak online for a resurfaced interview in which he is seen saying that he is a “big beef guy” and has “roots in Peshawar”.

• His last film also faces boycott calls when Hindus saw the villain “Shuddh Singh” sport a large Tripund Tilak across his forehead.

• Alia Bhatt too is facing criticism even though the criticism is largely directed at her father Mahesh Bhatt, mother Soni Razdan and brother Rahul.

• The movie is a Karan Johar production, and sentiments against him are also contributing to the boycott calls.📱

5. 📱 Real-money games on Playstore

Google Playstore made policy changes to allow real-money games such as Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and Rummy apps on its app marketplace.

• The offering will be on a pilot basis from 28 September 2022 to 28 September 2023.

• Google clarified that the real money apps will be rated 18+ only and will not be eligible to use Google in-app billing.

In other countries: Besides the changes in its policy in India, Google has also allowed real-money online crane games in Japan for the same duration.

• In January 2021, Google made certain changes in its policy on real money games and allowed licensed gambling and sports betting apps from certain states in the USA and some European countries.

6. 🌏 India's partnership with Russia

Highlights from PM Narendra Modi's speech at the Eastern Economic Forum:

• He reiterated support to all peaceful efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.

• He also said Russia can become an important partner for the Indian steel industry through the supply of coking coal.

• While emphasising on the mobility of talent, he said that the talent and professionalism of Indians can bring about rapid development in the Russian Far East.

• "India is keen to strengthen its partnership with Russia on Arctic issues. There is also immense potential for cooperation in the field of energy," he said.

• He underlined India's investments in the Russian Far East in the areas of pharma and diamonds.

7. 👉👈 Delhi LG v/s Kejriwal

The accusations: LG VK Saxena has asked the chief secretary of the Delhi government for 'necessary action' on a complaint against CM Arvind Kejriwal.

• Kejriwal is accused of 'tax evasion' through 'undervaluation' of his three properties sold in Haryana.

• AAP claims that the 'ancestral property' was sold as per 'collector rates'.

Another matter: Saxena has asked Kejriwal to release Rs 383.74 crore due to the city's municipal corporations under education and health heads.

• It is alleged that the release of the fund is pending for two years.

• Saxena said that holding the fund 'without any reason' was adversely impacting primary education and health in Delhi.

8. 📚 Progress on PM-SHRI schools

The plan: The Union Cabinet approved Rs 27,360 crore for setting up over 14,000 PM-SHRI schools across the country.

• Of this, the central share would be Rs 18,128 crore.

• The scheme is expected to benefit 18.7 lakh students.

Selection process: Schools would be required to self-apply on the online portal.

• The portal will be opened four times a year, once every quarter, for the first two years of the scheme.

• The schools will be selected through a three-stage challenge.

• They would have to be certified to fulfill the defined criteria.

• The schools will be geo-tagged for selection and monitoring.