Daily News | 13 February

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, two Bills which have generated much heat inside and outside Parliament and have cleared Lok Sabha, will lapse if Rajya Sabha does not pass them Wednesday, the last day of the Budget session. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's findings on the Rafale deal is also to be tabled today which can withhold the citizenship and triple talaq Bills in Rajya Sabha.The Bill will lapse if not passed as in next term 16th Lok Sabha will dissolve which has passed it. As per the Rajya Sabha rulings, A Bill pending in Rajya Sabha which has not been passed by Lok Sabha does not lapse on the dissolution of Lok Sabha but a Bill which is passed by Lok Sabha and is pending in Rajya Sabha lapses on the dissolution of Lok Sabha.

Opposition leaders from all the two dozen parties who had gathered at the Brigade Ground in Kolkata are expected to meet at a mega rally at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday and seek to corner the Narendra Modi government on various issues. This time, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is the one playing host. Apart from Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar would attend the rally. Leaders from SP, DMK, RJD, RLD are likely to attend the rally. But presence of any leader from INC is not confirmed.

Cryptocurrency Firm CEO Gerald William Cotton suffers mysterious death in Jaipur last month. Along with him, gone are the keys and passwords of over 1000 crores Rupees of digital currency. He has started a crypto currency startup QuadrigaCX in December 2013. QuadrigaCX is a crytocurrency exchange where people could trade in digital currency using real or virtual money. Sometime around that time Gerald William Cotten apparently came to India. Jaipur to be specific. He had come to the Pink City reportedly because he wanted to help build an orphanage.

Lawyers for RCom and its chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday argued in the Supreme Court that no contempt of court was made out in the case over a Rs 550-crore outstanding payment to Ericsson. Lawyers stated that RCom tried all it could to clear the arrears, but its efforts to raise funds didn’t materialise.

The psbloansin59minutes portal — a central government initiative to provide in-principle approval for small business loans of up to Rs 1 crore from public sector banks and Sidbi in less than an hour — has seen around Rs 30,000-crore loans sanctioned since its launch in September. Borrowers have to submit details such as IT returns, GST data and bank statements to avail the credit facility.

After accumulated losses of over 31,000 crores and becoming India's largest loss making PSU, BSNL has been asked by the government to look for various options including revival strategy, disinvestment, sale and even closure. This came after the meeting of top BSNL executives with the Telecom secretary Aruna Sundarajan. BSNL Chairman Anupama Shrivastava briefed on financial health of the PSU. BSNL also suggested monetisation of the company's large land-bank and buildings holding, which is estimated to be worth Rs 15,000 crore.

The tax department has asked IBM to pay up ₹620 crore in unpaid customs duties for under-invoicing imported equipment and software. In its notice issued last week, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence also charged the tech giant for not paying customs duty on intra-company transfer of equipment to India. Experts believe that IBM and the tax authorities differ in the way imports and exports are recorded.

Placements at India’s leading business schools are off to a flying start. IIMs in Calcutta, Lucknow and Kozhikode placed all students within three days, with consulting, financial and IT firms. Other top B-schools such as MDI Gurgaon, IIFT Delhi, XLRI and TISS Mumbai are also seeing lucrative offers. The average annual salary offered is easily crossing the ₹20 lakh mark.

Air Deccan founder GR Gopinath is under the scanner for his alleged role in the loan fraud by Vijay Mallya. Gopinath is being probed for signing the instruments through which Air Deccan diverted loans from SBI and Axis Bank to its new owner, the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Earlier, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office raised questions over a ₹30 crore “non-compete fee” paid by Kingfisher to Gopinath without due disclosure. Gopinath joined the Kingfisher board after selling Air Deccan to Mallya in 2007.