-The Hindu Cheap imported bags are sold as Indian to government agencies for a higher procurement price. The Union Textiles Ministry has unearthed a major racket in large-scale import of cheap jute bags from Nepal and Bangladesh by Indian manufacturers, many of whom were supplying these to government agencies after putting their own seals. The Jute Packaging Materials (Compulsory Use in Packing Commodities) Act, 1987, mandates that jute bags supplied to government agencies...

-The Hindu Common Cause, the NGO whose PIL plea led to the cancellation of coal block allocations, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday accusing Aditya Birla group of Hawala transactions, money laundering and bribery and sought a CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe. The application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan for the NGO cited how coal extracted from a captive block allocated to the Sasan ultra mega power project was allowed to be...

-The Hindu Court rejects argument that disclosing names will violate right to privacy The Supreme Court made it clear to the Centre on Tuesday that it could not take shelter under the confidentiality clause for not disclosing all names of black-money account holders it had received from abroad. At the outset, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi told the court, "We (government) are not interested in hiding any information from the court. This government constituted the...

-The Hindu   Chennai (Tamil Nadu): Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar on Wednesday said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was under the scanner as there were complaints of diversion of workers to public meetings of political parties. At a press conference here, the CEO said the Returning Officer of each constituency had been asked to keep a watch on the work under the scheme. "We have asked them to...

-The Hindustan Times The Enforcement Directorate will "look with interest" at instances, if any, of tainted money being sent abroad through the illegal Hawala channel in the Saradha Realty case, of which, there is significant possibility, ED sources told HT. Reports said that a substantial chunk of money had found its way to Dubai through Hawala with the money being suspected to have been ploughed into the real estate sector. ED's investigations...