-Cobra Post A sting operation conducted by online magazine Cobrapost across various branches of private financial institutions has revealed how bank employees are accepting black money from customers to convert them into white money. Cobrapost claims that the nationwide operation shows how private banking and insurance affiliates launder money as part of standard procedures. The sting also shows that money laundering services are openly being offered even to walk in customers who...

-The Hindu NCPRI urges government and Opposition to pass the bill for time-bound services to citizens The Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011, will not violate the spirit of federalism, civil society groups said here on Saturday, urging Opposition parties to help the government pass it swiftly. The existing Public Services Guarantee Acts in some States, they said, did not have as...

-IANS Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said stringent action would be taken, if any irregularities are found in the Rs. 52,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. "If irregularities are found, we will take stringent action," Manmohan Singh told Rajya Sabha. There was uproar in both houses of parliament as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties raised the issue Wednesday. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)...

-The Hindu As Marathwada’s groundwater table plummets to 500 ft, farmers here, as in other districts, are freely violating the law in a frantic bid to strike water. Mahadeo Mule has invested Rs. 1 lakh during the past five months to save his crops and livestock, drilling at five different points on his land, despite already having a borewell. He has also spent close to Rs. 35,000 on water from private...

-Live Mint Evasion of duty of over Rs.50 lakh to be made non-bailable offence; arrest provisions under service tax proposed The government may find itself in hot water on budget proposals that make duty evasion beyond a certain threshold a non-bailable offence, allow arrest on suspected withholding of service tax, and provide tax authorities powers to recover dues from a defaulter’s bankers.   Although finance minister P. Chidambaram in his budget presentation on 28...