Plan and Policy

The Centre has banned new offshoots of terror organisations al-Qaeda and ISIS under the stringent anti-terror law — Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, according to an official order.

Amonth after the Union Home Ministry approved the deployment of elite counter-terror force National Security Guards (NSG) in Kashmir as part of the counter-insurgency (CI) grid, a contingent of the elite force has moved into the Valley.

The finance ministry on Thursday said fresh revelations under the ‘Panama Paper’ leaks are being looked into by the multi-agency group, which includes the tax department and the RBI.

The probe, it said, would go on as per the standard operating procedures, which include examining information revealed in the media releases with the disclosures made by the alleged persons in the annual returns of income, particularly in the foreign assets schedule and foreign remittance details.

Companies can no longer be complacent by just taking care of their employees; getting toddlers of the employees to crèches is also their headache. Since the Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act came into force, daycare service providers are seeing an unprecedented demand from companies for setting up crèches in their office premises or in their vicinity.

The railways ministry see­ms in no mood to relent on recalling officers from Rail Vikas Nigam, a PSU under its control, even as its means reduction in staff strength at the IPO-bound company.

It has issued show-cause notice to many officers and is in the process of firing more such letters noting that railways would deem them to have resigned, as they have not reported back to the cadre after expiry of the approved deputation.

Almost rejecting the power sector’s plea of exemption from the NPA re­s­olutions mechanism, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday indicated to the fin­a­nce ministry that its Fe­bruary 12 circular prov­i­des enough space for resolution of bad loans and companies can even go for restructuring within the timeframe.

The finance ministry is open to putting in a higher amount for bank recapitalisation than the Rs 2.11 lakh crore announced last year, if a need arises. However, the ministry thinks the Rs 2.11 lakh crore set aside to recapitalise public sector banks (PSBs) through bonds and funds would be sufficient for now, even though many banks are grappling with high provisioning, PCA restrictions, frauds and losses.

From living off money collected by her 4-ye­ar-old daughter to spending at least 50 per cent more on eating out and shopping, Ruth Timmy Verg­hese says she’s had a sharp lifestyle turnaround in the last few months.

The 32-year-old housewife said she had to break into her daughter’s piggy bank to meet household expenses when the government suddenly pulled most high-denomination currency notes out of circulation in November two years ago.

Incensed by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new tariffs, India has hiked duty on 29 products, including pulses and iron and steel products, imported from the US. The decision is seen as a retaliatory action against the tariff increase by Trump administration.

The duty hike would come into effect immediately for 28 products, while for artemia, a kind of shrimp, the rate hike would be effective from August 4, the finance ministry said in a notification. A duty of 120 per cent on imports of walnuts is the strongest action yet against the United States.

The BJP will organise a “tractor rally” in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur on July 1 in an apparent show of strength in the Assembly election year with the district having emerged as a locus of farm politics following the death of five farmers in a protest last year. The state, where the BJP has been in power since 2003, goes to polls later this year.

The Congress, the saffron party’s main rival, has made the alleged farm distress a key plank of its campaign. Congress president Rahul Gandhi was in Mandsaur earlier this month in a show of his party’s solidarity with the farmers.