6 JANUARY 2015:Arvind - new supremo @ NITI aayog

Ø  Only about 10 per cent of the over 22 lakh non-governmental organisations scanned by the Central Bureau of Investigation, on the Supreme Court’s directions, file their annual income and expenditure statements with the authorities they are registered with. This was revealed in an analysis on NGOs functioning in 20 States and six Union Territories filed by the agency before the court. The CBI, represented by Additional Solicitor-General P.S. Patwalia, urged the court to impose a pre-condition on NGOs that they first submit their balance sheets, including income and expenditure statements, for the preceding three years before further grants were allowed.

Ø  The Pakistani boat episode has exposed the fault lines in the country’s intelligence set-up, with the Intelligence Bureau expressing unhappiness over being kept out of the loop. The intelligence input that led the Coast Guard to pursue the suspect boat on the night of December 31 was generated by the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a central technical intelligence agency, and fed to the Coast Guard. The input, disseminated to all the agencies concerned in Gujarat, was based on satellite phone intercepts. Also, there were technical surveillance reports on the boat’s suspicious movement in the Arabian Sea after it entered Indian waters. Even the local police were alerted. Intelligence inputs are shared on a need-to-know basis and this was apparently the reason why the information was not passed on to the IB immediately. The issue of intelligence sharing has come up in the context of recommendations by some agencies for a central anti-terror mechanism for more coordinated action.

Ø  In a sharp reaction to the U.S.’s decision to clear $532 million to Pakistan after certifying that it had cracked down on the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Ministry of External Affairs said it “didn’t believe” that Pakistan was showing “sustained commitment” against these groups. The government reacted to a report that detailed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s authorisation for civilian aid to Pakistan under the ‘Kerry-Lugar’ Act. The law required the Secretary to certify that the government in Islamabad had taken steps in the preceding year to prevent the LeT, the JeM and other al-Qaeda and Taliban groups from operating in Pakistan, to cease any support to them and to dismantle bases.

Ø  The U.S. government has denied Pakistan’s reports that the U.S. Congress had cleared $532 million to Pakistan on the Kerry Lugar Act that needs certification on action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. No certification has been sought for funds to Pakistan, and no funds disbursed since 2013.

 

Arvind Panagariya

Ø  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday appointed Columbia University Professor Arvind Panagariya as the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog Vice-Chairman. Mr. Modi also appointed economist Bibek Debroy and the former Secretary, Defence R&D, Dr. V.K. Saraswat, to the Aayog as full-time members. India’s Tryst with Destiny , a book Dr. Panagariya co-authored with economist Jagdish Bhagwati, praises Gujarat’s growth model. Before the Lok Sabha polls , he argued for scaling back the PDS and disapproved of the food security law. Dr. Debroy has worked at the Centre for Policy Research and National Council of Applied Economic Research. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh were all appointed as ex-officio members to the Aayog, according to an official release. The release also said that Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani and Union Social, Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot were special invitees to the Aayog.

Ø  U.K.-based healthcare group Bupa, on Monday, said it planned to increase stake in its Indian health insurance venture Max Bupa to 49 per cent from the current 26 per cent. With the announcement, the company has become the first foreign company to announce hike in shareholding following amendments to the insurance laws.