SC fines petitioner who sought probe by CBI into 2009 Dantewada killings

SC fines petitioner who sought probe by CBI into 2009 Dantewada killings

IMPOSING A penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the main petitioner, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition seeking a CBI probe into alleged torture and extrajudicial killings by the Chhattisgarh Police and Central forces during anti-Maoist operations in Dantewada in 2009. The court said the investigation indicated that Maoists, and not the security forces, were responsible for the “alleged massacre”.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and J B Pardiwala said “the filing of charge sheets at the conclusion of the investigation into the various FIRs” lodged in connection with the alleged incidents “would indicate that the alleged massacre was at the end of the Naxalites (Maoists)”.
It said: “The materials collected in the form of the charge sheets substantiate the case put up by the respondents that the villagers were attacked and killed by the Naxalites. There is not an iota of material figuring in the investigation on the basis of which even a finger can be pointed towards the members of the police force.”
The court said: “…we have reached to the conclusion that no case, worth the name, has been made out by the writ petitioners for any further investigation, much less through an independent agency to be appointed by this Court”.
The bench imposed an “exemplary” cost of Rs 5 lakh on the main petitioner Himanshu Kumar to be submitted within four weeks failing which authorities can take appropriate steps for recovery. Kumar had told the court that he ran an NGO, Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, in Dantewada.

Pointing out that “prima facie… false information was given by the first informants to the police as regards the alleged massacre”, the court left it “to the State of Chhattisgarh/ CBI…to take appropriate steps in accordance with law…”
It said: “We clarify that it shall not be limited only to the offence under Section 211 of the IPC (false charge of offence made with intent to injure). A case of criminal conspiracy or any other offence under the IPC may also surface. We may not be understood of having expressed any final opinion on such action/ proceedings. We leave it to the better discretion of the State of Chhattisgarh/ CBI to act accordingly keeping in mind the seriousness of the entire issue.”
Referring to the petition, the bench expressed “surprise that the learned senior counsel appearing for the writ petitioners is absolutely oblivious of the fact that all the FIRs were investigated by the concerned investigating agencies and, at the end of the investigation, charge sheets came to be filed in different courts of the State of Chhattisgarh for the offences under the IPC like murder, dacoity, etc”.
The petition was filed on the alleged killing of 17 people in separate incidents in Dantewada on September 17 and October 1, 2009. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves had appeared for the petitioners — Kumar and family members of some of the local residents who were killed at the time.
The petitioners had alleged that Chhattisgarh Police, Special Police Officers (SPOs), activists of Salwa Judum (a vigilante group backed by the Chhattisgarh government) and paramilitary forces comprising CRPF and CoBRA Battalions were responsible for the alleged “brutal massacre”.
Acting on the Supreme Court’s direction, a District and Sessions Judge in Delhi had in 2010 recorded statements of the petitioners, other than Kumar, in the presence of an interpreter and Kumar.
Referring to them, the Supreme Court said “the statements of the petitioners Nos. 2 to 13 recorded before the Judicial Officer demolishes the entire case put up by the petitioner no.1 (Kumar)…”.
The judgement cited the statement of one of the petitioners, Soyam Rama, who said he “had run away from the spot” when the firing happened and “could not see as to who had opened fire” and that he “would not be in a position to identify” the assailants.
Pointing out that “all other statements of the rest of the writ petitioners are on the same line and footing”, the bench said “when we called upon Mr. Gonsalves to make us understand as to why his clients had to make such statements before the Judicial Officer, a very curious reply came from Mr. Gonsalves. According to Mr. Gonsalves, the entire mode and manner in which the statements were recorded by the Judicial Officer of the rank of District and Sessions Judge was absolutely incorrect.”
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The bench said: “According to the learned senior counsel, specific questions ought to have been put by the Judicial Officer to each of the writ petitioners while recording their statements in accordance with the directions issued by this Court…”.
Referring to this, the Supreme Court bench said: “We are afraid, we are not in a position to accept such submission after a period of almost 12 years. The statements we are referring to recorded by the Judicial Officer are of the year 2010. Not once in the last 12 years any grievance has been made either orally or in writing before this Court as regards the mode and manner of recording of the statements. It is for the first time in 12 years that such a grievance has been made.”
In April, denying the allegations levelled by the petitioners, the Centre had urged the Supreme Court to direct a probe by a Central agency “to identify the individuals/ organisations who have been conspiring, abetting and facilitating filing of petitions premised on false and fabricated evidence…with a motive to either deter the security agencies to act against the Left Wing (Naxal) militia by imputing false charges on them or to screen off the Left Wing (Naxal) militia from being brought to justice by creating a false narrative of victimisation…”.
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RBI eyes BNPL norms, to rope in fintechs amid concerns over cards by non-bank PPI issuers to extend short-term loans

RBI eyes BNPL norms, to rope in fintechs amid concerns over cards by non-bank PPI issuers to extend short-term loans

After slapping curbs on non-bank buy now pay later (BNPL) companies, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to come out with guidelines for the BNPL segment which was using pre-paid instruments (PPIs) to extend short-term, interest-free loans to customers for online purchases.
“This novel method shall be examined, and issuance of appropriate guidelines on payments involving BNPL shall be explored,” the central bank said in its Payments Vision 2025 document. The RBI had last week communicated to non-bank PPI issuers — or BNPL companies — to stop issuing cards where the funds are loaded through a credit line from NBFCs, sending jitters in the segment.
According to banking observers, the Reserve Bank is not happy with fintech companies using PPIs as a credit instrument, circumventing the regulatory oversight. The banking regulator is in discussion with fintech players to find a way out and bring the segment under a regulatory framework so that PPIs are used as a payment instrument and not as a credit avenue.

While BNPL services have developed into a new payment mode alongside the existing payment modes like cards, UPI and net banking, it has remained outside the direct RBI regulation. This channel, facilitated by a few payment aggregators, leverages the existing nodal account (escrow account after authorisation) to route payments between a BNPL customer and a merchant. “We welcome RBI’s move on barring wallet and PPIs top up from the credit lines. This will bring more transparency in the fintech lending space. We believe the main purpose of a PPI licence is to act as a payment instrument and not as a credit instrument,” said Nipun Jain, CEO, RapiPay Fintech Ltd.
The latest regulation is probably coming from recent developments wherein newer business models of credit-based payment products were built by companies using PPI as a vehicle, analysts said. The RBI has raised concerns on funding of these PPI instruments through a credit line from an NBFC, Kotak Securities said in a report.

ExplainedHow does a BNPL company operate?A customer who holds a BNPL card or account can make a purchase at a participating retailer and opt for the ‘Buy now, pay later’ option. After the purchase, the customer can repay the BNPL firm in a series of interest-free EMIs – unlike credit cards which carry a high interest rate of 42 per cent — spread over 3 months or as a lumpsum amount. If it remains unpaid, interest will be charged. The BNPL company will pay the merchant immediately. However, for a purchase of Rs 500, instead of settling the full Rs 500, they would pay something like Rs 470 or Rs 450 and pocket the difference. The merchant agrees to give a discount to the BNPL firm.

The RBI’s working group on digital lending had recently proposed restricting balance sheet lending by digital lending apps (DLAs) only to regulated entities of the central bank or entities registered under any other law for specifically undertaking lending business, enacting a separate legislation to prevent illegal digital lending activities and treating BNPL as part of balance sheet lending, and prohibition on unregulated entities from offering first loss default guarantee (FLDG).
Another major factor that worries the RBI could be the high delinquency levels in the BNPL segment. In the case of 60 days past due (DPD) credit, delinquencies in the BNPL segment are 18.9 per cent whereas non-BNPL show 10.1 per cent delinquencies, according to TransUnion Cibil data.
BNPL is India’s fastest-growing online payment method with a significant impact on banks, large merchants and card schemes. Due to its hassle-free on-boarding experience, extension of credit facility, low-cost structure for the customer and facilitating easy repayments, BNPL is growing popular among young income earners.
Some of the popular BNPL companies are LazyPay, Simpl, ZestMoney, Amazon Pay Later, Ola Money Postpaid, Paytm Postpaid, Flexmoney, Slice, UNI and EPayLater.
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“Regulatory clarity for big tech and fintechs as well as BNPL will really help entities plan long term and invest even more in fintech in India,” said Avinash Godkhindi, MD and CEO, Zaggle.
The RBI ban on credit lines from NBFCs is likely to hit fintech companies in the BNPL segment. BNPL companies are active on Zomato, Swiggy and other e-commerce sites.
For customers around the globe, e-commerce payment preferences continue to shift away from cash and credit cards towards digital wallets and BNPL. In its report ‘Digital Payments in India: A US$10 Trillion Opportunity’, BCG said the digital payment market In India will be $10 trillion in the next five years (by 2026), with non-cash contributions comprising 65 per cent of all payments and two out of three transactions will be digital in the next five years.

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Citing fiscal strains, Expenditure Department advises against PMGKAY extension

Citing fiscal strains, Expenditure Department advises against PMGKAY extension

It is not advisable to continue the Pradhan Mantri Garia Kalyan Anna Yoajana (PMGKAY) beyond its present extension (till September) both on “grounds of food security and on fiscal grounds” given that it is as it is “far beyond the need of non-pandemic times”, the Department of Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance has stated. Huge increase in fertiliser subsidy burden (both urea & non-urea), re-introduction of subsidy on cooking gas, reduction of excise duty on petrol, diesel and customs duty on various products have created a serious fiscal situation, it said.
“The budgeted fiscal deficit at 6.40 % of GDP was itself extremely high by historical standards, and deterioration therein poses a risk of serious adverse consequences. It is vital that major subsidy increases/tax reductions are not done. In particular, it is not advisable to continue the PMGKAY beyond its present extension, both on grounds of food security and on fiscal grounds. As it is, each family is getting 50 kg of grains, 25 kg at a nominal price of Rs.2/Rs.3, and 25 kg free. This is far beyond the need at a non-pandemic time,” the Expenditure Department said.
In March, the government extended the PMGKAY scheme for another six months till September 2022. The government has spent approximately Rs 2.60 lakh crore till March and another Rs 80,000 crore will be spent till September 2022, taking the total expenditure for PM-GKAY to nearly Rs 3.40 lakh crore. The scheme covers nearly 80 crore beneficiaries providing 5kg of foodgrains per month for free under this scheme. The additional free grains are over and above the normal quota provided under the NFSA at a subsidised rate of Rs 2-3 per kg.
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The Budget had pegged the fiscal deficit at 6.4 per cent of the GDP or Rs 16.61 lakh crore. In April, the first month of the current fiscal, the deficit stood at Rs 74,846 crore – or 4.5 per cent of the full-year target. In 2021-22, the deficit was 6.71 per cent or Rs 15.86 lakh crore, lower than the revised estimates of 6.9 per cent on better tax revenue mop up.
Fertiliser subsidy is estimated to rise to Rs 2.15 lakh crore from the budgeted level of Rs 1.05 lakh crore for 2022-23, having already seen an outgo of Rs 60,939.23 crore for the first six months of this fiscal. The government’s finances are also strained after the recent excise duty cuts, which are estimated to cost Rs 1 lakh crore. The cooking gas subsidy to the poor is estimated to cost the government Rs 6,100 crore, while the revenue loss from the recalibration in customs duty on iron and steel and plastic is expected to be Rs 10,000-15,000 crore.

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Explained Books | Prescription for post-Covid world: resilience

Explained Books | Prescription for post-Covid world: resilience

“The Covid-19 pandemic has worked like an X-ray machine, revealing the hidden challenges under the surface of many societies,” Markus K Brunnermeier says in the introduction to his book. Indeed, the pandemic has hit every country — the adverse health impact was just the starting point; the virus ended up disrupting every aspect of society, and the global economic order.
Complex supply chains built and refined over decades had to be abruptly shut down or broken to prevent or slow the infection’s spread. Jobs and livelihoods were lost, inequalities of all kinds widened, governments were pushed to pile on millions of dollars of debt to extend relief, and central banks had to resort to every possible way to stimulate the economy even as health systems collapsed and countries and societies turned more insular and protectionist.

The Covid-19 shock pushed back most countries by several years, possibly decades. And just as it appeared that the world was starting to break free from the seemingly unending cycles of lockdowns, Russia invaded Ukraine, unleashing consequences that reverberated around the world — from costlier fuel prices to scarcity of food items to dramatically heightened geopolitical tensions.
Within just a couple of years, the world economy has swung from trying to avoid a prolonged deflation to desperately fighting inflation. The post-Cold War consensus around globalisation, already under strain from the time of the global financial crisis of 2008-09, has now developed into a militant desire to reduce dependence on other countries.
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Was the world prepared to survive these shocks in 2020? Is it prepared in 2022? More importantly, will it be prepared in the future? If so, how?
In The Resilient Society, Princeton University economist Brunnermeier details the global economic fallout of the Covid disruption. Many of the book’s key insights are distilled from a Princeton webinar series called Markus Academy, which featured influential economists, including more than a dozen Nobel laureates.

In the end, for the author, the touchstone for any society, economy, or indeed the world is “resilience”, or the ability to rebound. It is resilience that sets the reed apart from the robust oak, which has the ability to resist. “I bend but do not break” — that is the essence of resilience.
After explaining the concept and how societies could be redesigned to become resilient in part 1 of the book, Brunnermeier uses Covid to explain the core elements of resilience management in part 2. In parts 3 and 4, he looks at macroeconomic and global challenges that countries face.
The book was released last year, but the Ukraine crisis shows, even though the world has moved to the next shock, Brunnermeier was spot on in underscoring the need to be resilient. The main lesson for societies
is to give up the “just in time” production approach that accords primacy to efficiency, and instead move towards a “just in case” approach that allows for safety buffers.

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Rs 30 for 90 mins: Co-working space for freelancers, working mothers

Rs 30 for 90 mins: Co-working space for freelancers, working mothers

Until recently, Kolkata-based Pooja Maitra, a media professional and a mother of a four-year-old girl, had a nickname for her car: mobile office. She would often use it to work in after dropping off her daughter at school while waiting to pick her up.
For all its ills—the car would get excruciatingly hot and it was not easy to charge the laptop—it helped Maitra juggle her career and family. Sometimes, she would choose to sit at a cafe, but working out of these was expensive.
This changed when she discovered Happy Works, a co-working space introduced by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation or HIDCO, a public sector undertaking, in the city’s New Town area.
The Happy Works space essentially comprises working pods, which provide a comfortable setting for people to work — at minimal rates. The charge is Rs 30 for the first hour-and-a-half (90 minutes), after which one would have to pay Rs 20 for each additional hour. Many customers also book the pods on a monthly basis by paying a one-time charge at the beginning of the month.
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These pods have been set up at three locations in New Town and are increasingly attracting freelancers, upcoming entrepreneurs and, of course, working mothers. Most of the people using these pods had let go of their rented offices during the pandemic. “I am so happy that the government has come up with something like this,” said user Sukanya Guha. She, too, is the mother of a five-year-old and is working to establish her startup, a recruitment firm.
The working pods, painted in vibrant yellow, have been set up on an 800-plus sq ft area. There are about 20 working desks; each one is numbered and comes with a bookshelf.
It is an air-conditioned space with free high-speed Wi-Fi. People also have the option of working from the rooftop in winters.
For many customers, especially young mothers, working from home isn’t always the most convenient option. For one, many families do not take women’s careers seriously enough. Moreover, it is tough to focus on the constant demands from family members.
The working pods are open on all seven days, from 9 am-8 pm.
“Working pods are the coolest thing in our city today,” said Maitra, who is now a regular user.

Beyond the obvious convenience, customers also enjoy working with a diverse set of people, exchanging ideas and socialising.
“I come monthly to hold meetings and meet my teammates. Earlier I used to book In Kolkata, govt sets up co-working spaces, charges Rs 30 for 90 mins
hotels for such meetings but now I book the conference room of these working pods. They charge me Rs 200 an hour,” said 44-year-old Abhinav Biswas, who heads the eastern zone of a start-up that works on women’s hygiene.
The first of the three working pods was inaugurated in August 2021 by state minister Firhad Hakim and Chairman and Managing Director of HIDCO, Debasis Sen.
“These pods are gaining popularity with each passing day not only because they are very affordable—just Rs 20 an hour—but also because they are very conveniently located,” said Sen. “The idea behind charging some money for these pods was just to recover the wifi and electricity expenses, not to gain profit.”
These working pods have now been handed over to self-help groups. Around 20-25 women take turns running the three working pods in Newtown.
In the next phase, HIDCO is working towards setting up a larger co-working space with an option of co-living as well.

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