Indian federal investigators have announced an inquiry into 21 companies in connection with a banking loans scandal. Eight bankers have already been arrested this week, including senior executives of top state banks, accused of taking bribes to sign off loans. The Bombay Stock Exchange fell by 1% as a result of the inquiry, analysts said. The investigation is the latest in a series of corruption scandals to hit the country. Those arrested on Wednesday...

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), probing alleged financial bungling in the Commonwealth Games-related projects, has referred certain cases to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to check whether there was violation of foreign exchange laws. Official sources said that projects like construction of Commonwealth Games Village near Akshardham temple and flyovers, hiring and procurement of medical and fitness equipment and conduct of outdoor publicity campaign by the Organising Committee may come under the...

NIIRA RADIA — owner of PR company Vaishnavi Communications, among others — is not merely a fixer in the old sense of the word. She is a thermometer reading for a very ill society. In April this year, a clutch of mysterious documents had made their way to several media houses. At face value the documents seemed a synopsis of phone conversations between Niira — a powerful lobbyist for Mukesh...

Sitting on a huge debt burden of close to Rs 2 lakh crore, West Bengal government's finances are the worst among five highly-indebted states in the country, a noted economist attached with the Indian Statistical Institute here has said. "Revenue deficit of the state is the highest among the five highly-indebted states of UP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat," Abhirup Sarkar, the economist, told PTI. He said that for the...

The government is probing funds received by 77 NGOs from foreign shores , including tax havens, to find out their sources, suspected forex violation and alleged illegal investment. The probe has been launched after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) shared with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) the activities of the non-government organisations and their suspected foreign sources of funds. The investigations by the enforcement agencies will try to find out from which countries...