-The Telegraph One Singh has told the Congress what another Singh probably wants to: create a political environment conducive for reducing subsidies. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has told Congress MPs that subsidy cuts are essential if India has to preserve its growth momentum — a statement more in line with the known views of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh than the populist line preferred by many Congress leaders. Many Congress MPs,...

-The Hindu One of the first principles that students of auditing are taught is that auditors are watchdogs and not bloodhounds. The Manmohan Singh government would have us believe, in the wake of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s reports first in the 2G case and now in the coal mining issue, that this basic principle is being violated by the incumbent CAG. Why should the CAG comment on the...

-The Economic Times The three reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on coal, ultra-mega power projects and airports, playing out in the public discourse as major indictments of corruption and of the government, serve only to spread confusion and convert infrastructure building into a political battleground. The reports are ill-informed by commercial logic, sometimes deficient in factual detail. However, since they bear the authority of a constitutional body, the...

-The Economic Times The CAG's report on Delhi International Airport (DIAL) is naive and uninformed. It asks why land was made available to a private developer at reduced rates to build and run an airport for 60 years, and insinuates that the developer, Hyderabad-based GMR group, got a sweetheart deal from the government. It seems to find it abhorrent that 5% of the land allotted could be used commercially and claims...

-Live Mint The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the allotment of captive coal mines is a scathing narrative on the mis-governance and mismanagement of the country’s natural resources. As early as 2004, the government realized that the then prevailing system of allotment of mines was not transparent. An internal debate kicked off with the coal secretary pushing for a 28 June 2004 deadline for reforms in the...