Dhumal: BJP's CM Face for Himachal

Prem Kumar Dhumal, who has been the Himachal Pradesh chief minister twice, was declared BJP's chief ministerial candidate by its president Amit Shah in the poll-bound state. Shah's announcement at a public meeting, barely days before the assembly polls scheduled for November 9, seems to be driven by the party's calculation that the 73-year-old leader remains its best bet to oust the Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government from the state.

Union minister JP Nadda was seen as another strong contender for the party's choice for the top post due to his perceived proximity to its central leadership, but Dhumal's mass connect seemed to have tipped the scale in his favour.

CBI gives clean chit to Chouhan: Vyapam

In a major relief for Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, CBI concluded that there was “no tampering“ in the hard disk recovered from the office of Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board or Vyapam that had allegedly “deleted“ references to the letters `CM'. The alleged tampering was the basis on which Congress leader Digvijaya Singh levelled allegations of irregularities against Chouhan but CBI has, in its chargesheet filed in a special court, dismissed the claim. Singh could face prosecution for fabricated documents in keeping with CBI's submissions to the SC earlier this year.

“The computer from which the hard disk was seized was last shut down on July 15, 2013, three days before Indore Police searches. Nobody accessed any files on that computer after July 15,“ said CBI.

It has been reported earlier that CBI is veering around to the view that there was “no political conspiracy“ or “organised syndicate“ behind Vyapam cases and the alleged mysterious deaths of key figures associated with the scam and its investigation. CBI said most cases were individual irregularities. CBI's chargesheet said a detailed forensic analysis of the hard disk of the computer showed there was no file on “CM“.

To the contrary , the agency found that false documents and digital records were used to level allegations against Chouhan.

Digvijaya Singh and Vyapam whistle-blower Prashant Pandey had approached the Supreme Court alleging that the hard disk recovered from the computer of Vyapam accused Nitin Mohindra on July 18, 2013, was “tampered“ and the word `CM' (referring to Shivraj Singh Chouhan) deleted at 48 places.

CBI said “no tampering was done in the hard disk“ as alleged by Digvijaya Singh and Prashant Pandey .

Singh and Pandey had also separately claimed to be in possession of a pen drive having telephone numbers of Chouhan and his wife and that they exchanged messages with some of the accused in Vyapam scam.

“Two pen drives, one kept in custody of the Delhi HC on the petition of Pandey and the other submitted by him to CBI in a sealed cover were sent to CFSL, Hyderabad, for analysis. The pen drives as per the claims of Pandey contained the tampered and untampered versions of the impugned excel file,“ said CBI.

Navy's Rs.22000 cr plan for 111 helicopters

The defence ministry has given initial approvals to the Rs.21,738 crore naval project for 111 armed light utility helicopters as well as a Rs.450 crore proposal for nine active towed array sonar systems for frontline warships.

The new Strategic Partnership policy is aimed at boosting the indigenous defence production sector, with Indian private sector companies producing cutting-edge weapon systems in collaboration with global armament majors through joint ventures and technology transfers.

The defence ministry-Navy combine will now issue the formal tender or RFP to original equipment manufacturers for the light helicopter project, under which the first 16 choppers will be imported, with the rest 95 being manufactured in India later. But it will take at least two years for the contract to be inked for the twin-engine helicopters, which the Navy needs to replace its ageing fleet of single-engine Chetak helicopters.

Hurriyat reject talks with govt interlocutor

A week after the Centre appointed Dineshwar Sharma as interlocutor to engage all Kashmiris, the Hurriyat Conference described it as an eyewash. “Sharma's assertion that he is coming... to restore peace rather than addressing the dispute limits the scope of any engagement with him and makes it an exercise in futility,“ it said.

DoCoMo gets $1.3bn from Tatas

NTT DoCoMo has received the arbitration award of nearly 145 billion yen ($1.3 billion) from Tata Sons with regard to its 26% stake in Tata Teleservices, the Japanese major said. Concurrently, it has transferred all its shares in Tata Teleservices to Tata Sons. The development brings an end to a tumultuous eight-year relationship between the two Asian companies.

The move also paves the way for Tata Sons to merge Tata Teleservices' consumer mobile services business with Bharti Airtel. The $1.3-billion award includes DoCoMo's exit price from Tata Teleservices, interest and other costs.

DoCoMo had acquired a minority stake in Tata Teleservices for $2.7 billion in 2009. The investment had a clause that if Tata Teleservices failed to meet performance targets, then Tata Sons would have to buy DoCoMo's stake back for half of the sum it had invested.

Six years later, DoCoMo decided to pull out from the cash-guzzling, loss-making Tata Teleservices. But its exit was hindered by local laws and both DoCoMo and Tata Sons were entangled in a legal battle within and outside of India. Finally, in April 2017, the Delhi high court upheld DoCoMo's $1.3-billion arbitration award that it had the won in a London court.

In a statement on its website, NTT DoCoMo said it “has received from Tata Sons payment of the award amount in accordance with the high court of Delhi's decision regarding DoCoMo's stake in Tata Teleservices“.

The India Corruption Survey

Almost five out of 10 persons admitted to paying bribes in the last one year to avail primarily of government services and eight in every 10 persons paid bribe at a local level to police, employees of municipal departments or for matters relating to property registration and VAT, according to a sample survey by an online platform.

LocalCircles, which conducted the India Corruption Survey claimed the poll received one lakh responses to a set of eight questions with participants from 200 cities.

When asked how many times they had to grease palms, 25% said they did this several times and another 20% said they paid bribe once or twice in the last one year. According to the survey, 84% respondents who paid bribes said they paid this to local government or administration. Another 9% said they paid bribe for works relating to provident fund, income tax, service tax, railways and for tenders. Over one-third of the respondents said they felt paying bribe was the only way to get work done while about 20% felt saying no would have resulted in delay in service.

The survey also found that more than half of the respondents felt state or local governments have not taken any step to reduce corruption in the last one year. About 42% respondents felt though some measures had been taken, these were ineffective. Respondents also admitted that reporting corruption is a tough job and only 9% respondents said their state government has a functional hotline for reporting such offences.

Based on another survey in which 35,000 respondents participated, the agency ranked 12 states which have seen a drop in bribes changing hands. Uttar Pradesh ranked at the top of the list of states which have been able to reduce corruption followed by Maharashra and Delhi. Gujarat ranked fourth. Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal came at the bottom of the table.

“According to citizens, it should be mandatory for all commissioners, district magistrates, state and central government secretaries of various ranks, MPs and MLAs to be accessible on social media. Also, citizens said that there is a need for connectivity between rural leaders and citizens at zila panchayat level to reduce rural corruption and steps must be taken to enable the same,“ the survey findings suggested.

India jumps 30 ranks: Ease of doing Business

India today is a substantially easier place to do business than it was a year ago, the World Bank's Doing Business 2018 report said. The 15th edition of its annual study that rates 190 countries on ease of starting and running businesses has placed India at 100, 30 ranks higher than last year.

India's business environment improved at the fifth fastest pace in the world in the past 12 months, though it still ranks lower than other large emerging economies like China, Russia and South Africa. Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia too are ranked higher than India. Among the top improvers, India implemented the maximum reforms after Brunei Darussalam, the WB study said.

“It has never been easier to do business in India,“ PM Narendra Modi tweeted after the report was out. Pleased with the World Bank study saying that India has become a much easier place to do business, PM Modi tweeted, “India welcomes the world to explore economic opportunities our nation has to offer...Over the last three years, we have seen a spirit of positive competition among states towards making business easier.“ He promised to take steps to further improve the ranking.

Soon after coming into office in 2014, Modi had set an ambitious target of being among the top 50 countries in the Bank's ranking in three years. “That is doable and we will work on that with greater force,“ finance minister Arun Jaitley told a press conference.

The rankings will offer some respite to the Modi government which has been attacked by political rivals, led by the Congress, for making it difficult for small businesses to stay afloat after demonetisation and introduction of GST. The World Bank study showed that India had made significant gains on eight of the 10 parameters that underlie a country's rank. Paying taxes and resolving insolvency were areas where the maximum progress was made.

“The focus is on rolling out the red carpet for entrepreneurs. The ranking shows reforms are contributing to India closing the gap with the world's best on almost all indicators. We are committed to maintaining the momentum to ensure that India makes it to the top 50 in the next two-three years,“ said Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.