-The Times of India   The finance ministry has replaced S S Rana with Madhavan Nair as member investigation in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a change that is seen to be linked to the income tax department's embarrassment over the failed "search-and-survey" operation against Gurdeep 'Ponty' Chadha, a politically-connected businessman. Apart from Rana, who was instrumental in the raids against Chadha a day before the Uttar Pradesh polls got...

The irrationality and waste in energy subsidies in India has been a perennial theme in analysis of the Indian economy and in reform prescriptions. Progress has, however, turned out to be elusive in the face of ground realities and feasible politics.  The power ministry, after struggling for over a decade through repeated exhortations, had the satisfaction of getting a resolution in a Chief Ministers Conference in 2001 that free supply of...

Meet Vinay Rai, the man who took Google, Facebook and 20 others to court for posting ‘objectionable content’ Sitting in a plush office in Noida, Vinay Rai, 39, says he is a troubled man these days. He claims he does not want to be seen as a social activist fighting for censorship of the internet social network websites and search engines Facebook and Google. He is the one ‘activist’ whose name...

Liquor baron Ponty Chadha’s mercurial rise is all ‘Maya’ A reclusive liquor baron may seem like an anomaly in these never-ending good times. But Gurdeep Singh Chadha—better known by the moniker Ponty Chadha—fits the bill. Often called “Mayawati’s financier”, the 57-year-old Ponty has been making large (if silent) waves for the political patronage he enjoys in Uttar Pradesh. Any bottle of liquor sold in India’s most populous state goes through his...

In the case against Google and Facebook for posting “objectionable content” on their websites, petitioner journalist Vinay Rai’s counsel H Hariharan argued in the Delhi High Court (HC) on Thursday that Google could not cite the country’s information technology laws and seek exemption from censoring content since it modified the content on its website to “generate business”. Hariharan argued that Google India could not get exemption under Section 79 of the...