1. Enforcement Directorate raids office of P Chidambaram’s son.
2. Google CEO Sundar Pichai pushes projects to enable Internet access in rural India.
3. US Fed hikes interest rates for first time since 2006.
4. Air India technician dies after being sucked into a plane engine at Mumbai airport.
5. Supreme Court bans registration of diesel cars over 2000cc; Mahindra and Mercedes among those affected
6. ISL semi-finals: Chennai book spot in final after exciting second leg against Kolkata
The Big Story: Bitter days are here
As part of the fallout of the Central Bureau of investigation raid on Tuesday, both the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress demanded the resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for alleged irregularities at the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association.
The Congress said it was demanding Jaitley’s resignation as well as a joint parliamentary probe on the basis of the report of a three-member committee set up by Kejriwal, a Registrar of Companies report last year and the findings of a two-member commission constituted by the Delhi High Court as well as a fact-finding panel of the DDCA.
The Congress claimed that the finding of the two-member commission had revealed a lack of transparency at DDCA. The Trinamool Congress also joined the fray, supporting the demands of the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress.
An Enforcement Directorate raid on the offices of Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in Chennai will deepen the government-Opposition divide. The Indian Express reported that a senior officer of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence said the searches were conducted in connection with a case of alleged money laundering in the Aircel-Maxis deal, apart from alleged tax evasion and Foreign Exchange Management Act violations related to investments made in an eye-care chain.
The Congress described these raids as a part of the “blatant vendetta” of the Central government.
The Big Scroll
Arvind Kejriwal’s theory is that the CBI raids are a plot to protect Arun Jaitley from corruption investigation. Even if that’s not true, the raids hardly seem like a good idea from the point of the government, since they have only helped to unite the opposition.
Politicking and policying
1. Arunachal Assembly Speaker “impeached” amid high drama.
2. Government may drop 1% additional levy in GST; rate to be below 18%.
3. Ready to fight IS under UN, says defence minister Parrikar
Punditry
1. The credibility of India’s carbon emissions projections will rest on whether there’s large-scale investment in research and development, argues Nitin Desai in the Business Standard.
2. It is good to see Indian intellectuals retain their moral voice, says Prabhat Patnaik in theTelegraph.
3. Policies, reforms and infrastructure need to be redesigned to boost domestic consumption and reflect the realities of 2016. So far, India seems to be stuck addressing problems of 2013, saysJahangir Aziz, chief Asia economist, JP Morgan in the Indian Express.
Don’t Miss
Rahul Pandita explains why journalism is vital for democracy and takes on people given to bandying about the word “presstitute”.
“Even if we, for a moment, forget the intellectual argument, how do my friends see journalism as a profession? How is it different from the professionalism they have to display in their respective fields? Say, you are a doctor in Houston and one of your patients has been diagnosed with tumour. Do you not tell him and start his treatment because he has recently come from India and you think it will show your country in bad light? Even if you are a lousy medical practitioner and would rather be on Facebook than in an acute care centre, you are duty-bound to inform your patient.”
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