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India takes a big step towards dignity of labour via an extensive social security scheme for 50 crore workers

OpIndia Staff
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India takes a big step towards dignity of labour via an extensive social security scheme for 50 crore workers

In what might be a huge step towards ensuring social security for millions of India workers, the Labour Ministry has proposed an extensive scheme to provide benefits pertaining to retirement, health, old age, disability, unemployment and maternity, to about 50 crore Indian workers.

As reported by the Economic Times, this ambitious scheme will be implemented in three stages, with the first stage costing a whopping Rs 18,500 crores. Under the first stage, workers would get spartan benefits pertaining to health and retirement. The unemployment benefits would be added in the second stage and other schemes would be added in the third phase.

The beneficiaries of this scheme are mainly divided into four tiers. The first tier will comprise of people below the poverty line, all the scheme’s expenses for whom will be funded by the government. The fuel for driving this funding would be generated via the funds under National Stabilisation Fund and “Building and Construction Worker Cess”.

The second tier would be made up of workers belonging to the unorganised sector, who aren’t self-sufficient but have some contributory power. In the third tier, the workforce would be comprised of those who would contribute to the scheme themselves or with the help of their employers. The final tier would see people of some affluence who will contribute out of their own pocket.

While the whole success or failure of this ambitious social security exercise rests on the implementation, this announcement comes merely a month after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced another humongous welfare scheme in the form of National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS).

Under this scheme, initially, 10 crore poor and vulnerable families are expected to be provided about Rs 5 lakh per year, to go towards medical costs. Expected to benefit about 50 crore people, which turns out to be about 40% of the Indian population, this program is being pegged as the “world’s largest government-funded health protection scheme”.

So in the coming years, the Central government would have not one but two new extensive welfare schemes to worry about. But if the proposed social security scheme somehow manages to click, it could see itself becoming a huge fore in ensuring the dignity of labour for countless of marginal labourers, who would then, up to a certain extent, would enjoy the same benefits as those having cushy jobs.

This time, it’s semen filled balloons: Liberals malign a Hindu festival again

K Bhattacharjee
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This time, it’s semen filled balloons: Liberals malign a Hindu festival again

Social Media was abuzz with news of a balloon filled with semen being thrown at students from the Lady Sri Ram college in Delhi. The family of the girl who threw the balloon at them have submitted a written apology over the incident. Without denying the harassment of having balloons thrown at them, many people have speculated on the logical improbability of semen filled balloons.

Holi has always been attacked by liberals over wastage of water. However, this time they have gone ahead and used allegations of semen filled balloons to malign the entire festival. Manimugdha Sharma, the news editor with the Times of India, said that Holi had become a byword for sexual harassment.


Not to be left far behind, part-time journalist full-time propagandist Sagarika Ghose questioned if semen filled balloons was an expression of “Hindu Pride”.


And then there are some people who think even Sagarika Ghose is worth emulating.


It is on these occasions that one marvel at the fact that liberals religiously believe that terrorism has no religion but swear vociferously with the same dedication that hooliganism does, and only when it is related to Hinduism. No liberal maligned New Year celebrations entirely when women were molested on New Year’s even in Bengaluru. However, dubious allegations of semen filled balloons being thrown at girls are enough to malign an entire Hindu festival.

The liberals figured that their endless hypocritical rants about water wastage on Holi weren’t enough to dent the popularity of the hugely popular Hindu festival. Therefore, they decided to latch on to what appears to be highly dubious allegation to malign the festival of colours. No liberal has ever raised his or her voice against the self-flagellation that prevails on Muharram. However, all their courage and humanity are only ever on display when Hinduism can be criticized.

No proper investigation has been conducted yet to verify the veracity of the claims. That the accused in this case is a girl further raises question marks on the allegations. Instead of taking the rational path and demanding an investigation on the matter, the self-ordained guardians of rationality and scepticism have thought it best to attack the Hindu festival instead.

The primary objective here is clearly not to make a point against hooliganism that does tend to occur but to portray Hinduism in poor light. Holi is celebrated by millions and millions of Indians and yet instances of hooliganism are restricted to a remarkable few. And yet, time and again, it’s these few instances of hooliganism that hog all the limelight.

We do need strict action against hooliganism. However, maligning an entire festival due to the actions of a few is stretching things to the extreme. With time, liberals will realize that just like the widows at Vrindavan, who celebrate Holi for the ‘first time’ every year, Hindus will celebrate Holi with great gusto every year despite their best efforts at maligning it.

Digitisation and linkage to Aadhaar helps identify 2.75 crore bogus ration cards

OpIndia Staff
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Digitisation and linkage to Aadhaar helps identify 2.75 crore bogus ration cards

In a positive development when it comes to pilferage of public resources, reports have claimed that total digitisation and Aadhaar linkage of ration cards has helped identify a whopping 2.75 crore bogus ones. All these bogus ration cards were potentially used to avail highly subsidised food grains. As per food ministry officials, the digitisation of ration cards started back in January 2013 but gained momentum in the past four years.

Ram Vilas Paswan, the food and consumer affairs minister was quoted as saying that the government has plugged the leakages in subsidised wheat, rice and coarse grains, which was costing a whopping Rs 17,500 crores annually. The savings though doesn’t result in monetary gain as the benefits are now being transferred to the real beneficiaries.

The states which contributed the most to these 2.75 crore fake ration cards were Uttar Pradesh with about 68.80 lakhs, West Bengal with 66.13 lakhs, Karnataka with 27.49 lakhs, Maharashtra with 21.62 lakhs and Telangana with 20.97 lakhs. Other states having large bogus ration cards include Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

In total, about 23.19 ration cards have been issued under National Food Security Act, all of which as per the report have been digitised. The Aadhaar linkage of these ration cards though stands at about 82%.

A couple of days back, CR Chaudhary, the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had made a similar claim regarding ration cards. Minister Chaudhary incidentally claimed that 2.95 crore fake and duplicate ration cards were cancelled in three years of the Modi government.

Such an action against fake availing of public benefits was also noted in case of the mid-day meal scheme.

We had reported in March that the HRD ministry’s decision to make Aadhar card mandatory to avail mid-day meals had reportedly exposed a whopping 4.4 lakh fake students who only existed on paper in the three states of Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Jharkhand.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation denies Network 18’s report on Ayodhya ‘deal’

OpIndia Staff
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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation denies Network 18’s report on Ayodhya ‘deal’

The official handle of the Art of Living foundation has denied reports of a ‘deal’ by CNN Network 18 on the Ayodhya temple with former AIMPLB ‘s former member Salman Nadwi.

AOL foundation has denied CNN Network 18’s reports

News 18 had reported, that ‘deal’ involved a Fatwa to be organised by any of top five Islamic centres of scholarship endorsing a ‘formula’. The fatwa will clarify that giving mosque land for a temple will not violate Islamic religion in order to build public opinion in favour of the Ram temple claimed the channel.

However, the Supreme court which is examining the matter has said that it will treat this case as a land dispute alone and ignore all other considerations.


CNN Network 18’s reports were denied AOL foundation’s twitter handle. It called the reports ‘ a figment of the news channel’s imagination.’ Though it called the reports baseless and ridiculous, it did not disclose actual details of the talks.


While news channels are full of speculations regarding the Sri Sri formula, it remains to be seen if an our of court settlement is possible.

How GST has now helped catch a suspected bank loan fraud

OpIndia Staff
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How GST has now helped catch a suspected bank loan fraud

With the Nirav Modi – PNB case, bank loan frauds have attained importance. Various dubious means are used by businessmen sometimes in collusion with bankers or sometimes fooling them as well, to extract undue loans and credit facilities. It appears another such racket has been busted, but thanks to GST.

GST’s mandate is not to catch bank frauds, but the systems in place in the GST law have helped trace such a potential fraud. Today it was reported that two people were arrested by the Mumbai commissionerate of the Central Board of Excise and Customs for allegedly exchanging paper invoices without any movement of goods and claiming false input tax credit. The two accused are Sanjiv Pravin Mehta, director of Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt. Ltd, and Vinay Kumar Arya, director of V.N. Industries Pvt. Ltd.

The cause for arrest was violation of GST laws. As per the GST law, issuance of an invoice without an actual supply of goods and wrongful availing or utilisation of input tax credit can lead to arrest. In the current case, the department has alleged that Mehta and Arya, through their companies, exchanged fake invoices, without any actual goods sold. Thus they would claim credit of the “purchases” they made. While the input tax credit claimed by Mehta amounted to Rs 5.2 crore, it was Rs 2.03 crore in the case of Arya.

While more details have not been divulged, it is not too hard to imagine what was happening. Mehta’s company could have been making fake sale invoices to Arya’s company. And Arya’s company would make corresponding fake sale invoice to Mehta’s company, either directly, or via round-tripping it through various companies. The companies would then claim credit of GST paid on “purchases”. This was in violation of GST law.

But why would someone simply inflate sales? Inflating sales with fake invoices would mean higher income and correspondingly higher taxes. Investigation have apparently revealed that these invoices were being made with a “malafide intention to defraud the exchequer by opening Letters of Credit (LCs) on fake purchase transactions”. The game was simple: create fake transactions and extract credit facilities from banks based on these fake transactions.

GST has now caught them in the act. This has become possible because the clauses embedded in the GST law, mandate that for claim of any tax credits for purchases, “invoice matching” is needed and this is done on the GST portal. Thus all the transactions, including the fake invoices, are mapped on the system, with the respective GST numbers. Thus, it becomes easy to detect cases where invoices are fraudulently generated and round-tripped across the economy. The GST department has added that it was possible that similar fraud had taken place in several other companies linked to above two companies, and that the investigations are still on.

While this modus operandi has been detected as of now, using this route will become even harder in future. The GST council is expected to soon implement the “e-way bill” provisions. An e-way bill is an electronic document which needs to be generated every-time goods are moved, and has to accompany the vehicle transporting the goods. Once this comes, every sale invoice will also need an e-way bill and thus will also trace the movement of goods. The people who have been arrested probably felt that since there is no e-way bill needed as of now, they could get away with fake bills.

The above arrests signal a decisive shift in the way GST has been administered. Till now, the Government and GST department were going slow on the tax-payers, allowing them to get used to the new law. Now it appears, the department has had enough, and will slowly tighten screws on errant businesses.

Renuka Chowdhary laughs in between Rahul Gandhi meeting, will Congress supporters defend her now?

Sanghamitra
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Renuka Chowdhary laughs in between Rahul Gandhi meeting, will Congress supporters defend her now?

Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhary, or rather, her laughter is back in the ‘news’ again. Renuka Chowdhary was shot to media attention recently when she laughed hysterically during the Prime Minister’s speech and the PM joked that he had heard such a laughter for the first time after Ramayana serial. Renuka Chowdhary, according to reports has unleashed her laughter again. This time, however, it was in between a high-level party meeting called by Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Here is a refreshing reminder of that laugh inside Rajya Sabha:


According to “reports”, recently Congress President Rahul Gandhi had held a high-level party meeting where Renuka, being a senior Congress leader, was also invited. Rahul was speaking about the grim situation the party is in currently. He of course had Pidi sitting quietly and patiently in his lap. He added that the party leaders would have to ‘give their best’ to overcome the hardships. Right then, Renuka Chowdhary laughed at full throttle, again. A Congress leader, on conditions of anonymity, has stated that Renuka’s laughter was met with by stunned silence by other attendees. Pidi too cocked his little head to the right and couldn’t believe what had just happened. The Congress President, seeing that reaction, reportedly sat down abruptly without finishing his talk. Renuka Chowdhary however, continued her famous laugh. She stopped it after some precious moments but it was too late.

Renuka soon realised her ‘mistake’ and came out of the meeting. But as per the anonymous Congress leader, Rahul baba has taken offence to the laughter. The Congress leaders have been pretty displeased and Rahul Gandhi has even hinted that Renuka should not be there in party meetings after it. In fact, we are told he might soon be taking a vacation just to get away from the haunting sounds of that thunderous laugh. Congress leaders have told us in confidence how Rahul’s eyes became bloodshot while he clutched on to Pidi for moral support. In fact, Rahul has planned a visit to see his naani just to get some solace from the crackling sounds that won’t let him sleep at night.

When Renuka Chowdhary laughed during the PM’s address the whole Congress supporting ecosystem jumped to her defence. They even hailed Surpanakha as the heroine of the tragic saga of misunderstood feminism. Here are some gems:

 

Feminist journalists asserted that as male parliamentarians are known to create a ruckus in the house, Renuka Chowdhary has all the right to laugh however loud she wants to when the PM is making a speech. Hail women power!


Congress’s own spokesperson stood up for Renuka’s right to cackle too.


Even the Congress party itself has condemned the PM’s jibe and called it derogatory. There were hosts of ‘feminist’ articles calling for a woman’s right to laugh and ‘patriarchy’s’ centuries-old attempt to suppress laughing women.

Will Renuka Chowdhary have the same kind of support this time around too? Many Congress leaders are blamed for being hypocritical. At least Renuka Chowdhary has shown now that her laughter does not discriminate. She has laughed on camera, press briefings, in Parliament and now even in between Rahul Gandhi’s meeting too. She sure is one fearless woman who laughs without hesitation or regard to any ‘rules’ and cultural impositions by the ‘patriarchal’ society. Woman power comes from laughing in between serious statements in important events. We could now just LLRC (laugh like Renuka Chowdhury) at the entire chain of events.

Note: We had earlier reported a satirical article by Navbharat Times as news. The inadvertent error was because we relied on a ZeeNews report that had made the same error and failed to check the original source. We deeply regret the error and apologise to our readers. This article has been updated to rectify the mistake.

Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill : How Modi Government plans to prevent future absconders like Mallya

Naina
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Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill : How Modi Government plans to prevent future absconders like Mallya

The rising instances of white collar crimes and offences have led the Modi Government to draft “Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2017”. This Bill is extremely significant and is a step towards protecting the Nation’s financial interest, especially in evasion cases such as of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi who have defaulted on repaying loans worth thousands of crore and have fled the country.

Union Law Ministry has approved “Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill” to empower the government to confiscate the property of economic offenders and defaulters who flee India. The bill seeks to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by fleeing the country

The bill was drafted in pursuance of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s 2017-2018 Budget speech, promising legislative changes or even law to confiscate the assets of such fugitives. Finance Ministry had prepared the draft and sought Law Ministry’s opinion on it.

Who according to the bill, is classified as Fugitive Economic Offender? The Bill defines ‘Fugitive Economic Offender’ as an individual against whom warrant for arrest in relation to the economic offence has been issued and the person has left the country and refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution. The burden of proof for establishing that the individual is a Fugitive Economic Offender rests on the authorities.

The proposed bill will be applicable in cases where the value of offences is over Rs 100 crore. It will allow Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the premier technical snoop wing under the finance ministry to file an application for the declaration of Fugitive Economic Offender for the confiscation of their assets.

Bill entrusts such cases to be tried under “Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA)”. The Bill has provision for appointment of an administrator to dispose of property of fugitive offender to pay off the creditors. Besides, it has provisions to override provisions of other existing laws.

The Bill mentions two consequences for Fugitive Economic Offenders:

  1.  Any property involved in the offence that the individual is blamed for as well as any property owned in India by a fugitive offender will be confiscated. Such properties will become vested with the government, free from all encumbrances.
  2. If such a person is a promoter/key managerial personnel/shareholder of any company, he/she will not be allowed to present or defend any civil claim.

The draft bill covers a wide range of offences including wilful loan defaults, cheating and forgery, forged or fraudulent document of electronic records, duty evasion and non-repayment of deposits among others. The Union Law Ministry wants “Saving Clause” to be incorporated in the Bill before it is introduced in Parliament. Saving clause provides for a certain exception(s) in a statute. It enables repealed the law to be in force with respect to some existing rights as provisions of the proposed bill has bearing on the provisions of existing laws.

The existing laws under which such fugitive economic offender are tried include “Recovery of Debts Due To Banks and Financial Institutions Act (RDDBFI)”, “Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, (SARFESI)” and “Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)”.

Modi government is addressing the problem of NPA’s it received as a legacy from the previous corrupt Congress government, which are being recognized only recently by RBI Governor Urjit Patel. Earlier NPA accounts were not shown, evergreening was done and NPA’s were hidden by restructuring mechanisms such as corporate debt restructuring.

Modi government has carried out various reforms for rebuilding the strength of public sector banks since it came to power like Integration of State Bank of India and Recapitalisation, passing of new Insolvency and Bankruptcy code for time-bound recovery of loans.

Modi government is planning to bring law to tighten the noose on fraudsters like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. The government is likely to introduce the “Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill” in the second part of Budget Session commencing on March 6. The Bill will enable the government to impound and sell assets of absconding corporate defaulters and also allow recovery of dues through special court.

Once implemented this bill will enforce strict adherence to the law by curbing instances of economic defaults and controlling economic losses the country has to bear due to such offences.

Former Top Cop alleges political pressure in the case of assault by Congress MLA’s son, Nalapad

OpIndia Staff
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Former Top Cop alleges political pressure in the case of assault by Congress MLA’s son, Nalapad

Retired IPS Officer, BNS Reddy, has claimed that the police is under pressure from certain political sections in the Nalapad case. He has demanded that call records be made public.


Mohammad Haris Nalapd, son of Congress MLA NA Haris, had brutally assaulted a youth in a pub last month. He was expelled from the party for 6 years after the incident.

In a press conference, the former top cop of Karnakata has claimed that the incident involving the son of the Congress politician has “dented the image” of Bengaluru. He further stated that the attack on Vidwath in UB city has disturbed him. He has initiated the campaign ‘BhayaMukta Bengaluru’ to increase participation of citizens in maintaining law and order and prevent such crimes from happening in the future.


The campaign will work towards making Bengaluru a safer city. BNS Reddy lamented the lack of trust in the police force and hoped that citizens’ participation and co-operation with the police will help in making the streets safer for everybody.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar negotiates the Ayodhya dispute again

OpIndia Staff
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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar negotiates the Ayodhya dispute again

Sri Sri Ravishankar is trying to negotiate with a controversial cleric who was recently expelled by the AIMPLB. As per News 18 reports, the cleric Salman Nadwi has proposed to support the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya if the Hindus gave up claims on all other Masjids that were under dispute.

The Supreme court which is examining the matter has said that it will treat this case as a land dispute alone and ignore all other considerations.

Sri Sri told Republic that the talks were moving in right direction and meet with Hindu religious leaders and ulemas would be convened in Lucknow later on 28th of the month.


Salman Nadwi has espoused extremist Islamic views in the past. He had also supported ISIS and its commanders and later given a dubious clarification for his remarks. However, now he is posturing himself as a peace-loving person.


Stakeholders in the Ram Mandir case Subramanian Swamy and Nirmohi Akhara have reportedly rejected Sri Sri Ravishankar’s intervention as reported by CNNnews18


Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living has however denied that such a formula, as reported by News18 has been reached.

Unlike Salman Nadwi, Wasim Rizvi, the chief of Central Shia Wakf board had asked the AIMPLB to return a list of 9 temples that had been destroyed and converted into a mosque in the course of history. We will need to see how this out of court negotiation will progress in future.

In a further insult, AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia liken IAS officers to the Khap Panchayat

OpIndia Staff
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In a further insult, AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia liken IAS officers to the Khap Panchayat

To add further insult to injury, senior AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia have likened the IAS association with the infamous Khap Panchayats. In a letter to Lt. Governor Anil Baijal, Sisodia alleged that if officers were scolded, the IAS association was issuing a fatwa like a Khap Panchayat.

This letter was in regards to the officers’ decision to not interact with the minister. This, as per the report, includes officers boycotting phone calls and meetings of ministers to protest against the assault on Delhi’s Chief Secretary. In the letter, Sisodia also accused the LG of siding with the officers.

Sisodia in the letter demeaned both the LG and IAS officers by claiming that, if an IAS officer complained to the LG that he was scolded by a minister, this resulted in Baijal wiping the tears off the officer, regardless of the latter’s inefficiency. He then alleged that if the AAP government says too much then IAS association like a Khap Panchayat would issue a fatwa against them, which possibly means not answering calls, responding to messages and attending meetings.

As per other reports, Sisodia claimed that LG was requested to order some officers to attend meetings, despite which, the LG wrote to Kejriwal that he reach out to the officers directly. The main boycott is being carried out by IAS, DANICS and DASS officers.

Such an attack on IAS officers has also been carried out by another AAP leader and MLA named Saurabh Bharadwaj. In a tweet, he is seen as alleging that the head of officers’ Khap Panchayat lives in the Raj Bhawan, while possibly referring to the LG:


What might signal outrage over this comment by the senior AAP leaders is the controversial nature of these Khap Panchayats. Just in January, the Supreme Court had ruled that it was illegal for the Khap Panchayats to attack consenting couples for opting to carry out an inter-caste marriage. Besides this, it has been noted in the past that a UP Khap had barred girls from wearing jeans and carrying mobile phones. One Haryana Khap had in the past blamed eating noodles for rapes.

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