NEWS

In a relief to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) and its former member P J Joseph, the Supreme Court has said that comments made by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against him will be expunged. In its order allowing an appeal against SAT, the SC said that the tribunal’s comment that an earlier action of Joseph amounted to aiding corruption is absolutely baseless and was uncalled for.

The appeal relates to a SAT order that used unusually strong language against Irdai and made comments against the member in March 2018. SAT charged Joseph of “virtually aiding and abetting corruption”. Its order relates to an appeal filed by UK-based insurance broker Atkins Special Risks against an order issued by Irdai. Atkins said it had provided reinsurance cover to a private company Jagson International between 2002 and 2012 on a yearly brokerage/commission of 27.5%. Atkins had complained that Jagdish Gupta, chairman of Jagson, has been demanding from Atkins a cut from the commission earned by them.

Electoral politics is a relay run in which the final lap throws up the winner or the distance by which the better-endowed team leaves others behind.

The analogy is apt for Punjab which goes to polls on February 20 with five claimants to the medal that’s the border state: The ruling Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party-Punjab Lok Congress, and the farmers’ formation called the Sanyukta Sangharsh Morcha.

Quite instructive to understand the run of the tide this time is the way the 2017 election shaped up amid a deafening clamour for AAP but a victory for the Congress. More surprising than the latter taking the power podium was the length with which it romped home. From the 46 seats it had in the outgoing assembly, the party grabbed 77 in the new House compared to the AAP’s 20 and the SAD’s 18.

Amid differences between the old and new guard in the Trinamool Congress, party supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday made it clear that veterans who have toiled to build the party cannot be dispensed with at the cost of a new generation of leadership.

"We do need the new generation, but the old is also gold," Mamata told members of the newly formed TMC working committee, the party's highest policy-making body, at its first meeting in Kolkata.

The 20-member body with Ms Banerjee at its helm was announced on February 12, but all existing posts belonging to the party's top brass were abolished, including that of her nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the "Gobar-Dhan (Bio-CNG) Plant" in Madhya Pradesh's Indore at 1 pm on Saturday (February 19, 2022) via video conferencing.

The prime minister recently launched the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0, with the overall vision of creating "Garbage Free Cities", according to the Prime Minister`s Office (PMO).