-PTI New Delhi: The attachments of over 780 benami assets, worth crores, risk being invalidated because of the government's failure to create a designated adjudicating authority in the 19 months since enforcing a stringent law against black money and corruption. The Centre had amended the Benami Property Transaction Act of 1988 and enforced the tighter version on November 1, 2016, days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised 1,000-rupee and 500-rupee notes. Section 7...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts and PAN cards was intended to screen genuine tax payers from dishonest elements evading taxes. The government made the comments while trying to allay fears that people could be harassed for money-laundering offences. Appearing for the Centre and the Aadhaar-issuing Unique Identification Authority of India, additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta told a five-judge...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday conceded in the Supreme Court that Aadhaar cannot be a panacea for detecting bank frauds like the one allegedly committed by diamantaire Nirav Modi, saying the scam would not have occurred if due "diligence" had been exercised by banks. The admission comes against the backdrop of the Centre's aggressive push for Aadhaar for the receipt of various government benefits and as an antidote to...

-The Hindu Raises questions about violation of SC orders and insurance regulator’s norms Chennai: Despite the government extending the deadline for linking Aadhaar to various services to March 31, 2018, many insurance companies are insisting that customers part with their Aadhaar details for accessing their services. Principal among such insurers is the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), whose newly designed web portal requires mandatory registration of policy holders’ Aadhaar details to even...

-The Indian Express Far from reducing opacity in how politics is financed, this new vehicle merely legitimizes it. It is an open secret that political finance in India is, to put it mildly, a sordid affair. When it comes to political contributions, opacity reigns. The situation is not much better when it comes to expenditure, as candidates regularly declare laughably small amounts of campaign spending in order to give the appearance...