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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday empowered the boards of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to privatise, disinvest or close their subsidiaries and sell stakes in joint ventures. The move will give a fillip to the government’s efforts to unlock capital, which are either stuck or sub-optimally employed in state assets, and put these into more productive use.

The move is also expected to reduce the burden on Dipam, which could now focus on privatisation of holding companies or parent CPSEs.

Many large profit-making CPSEs like Coal India, ONGC and NTPC have valuable subsidiaries or JV partnerships (see chart). The Cabinet decision will enable them to monetise parts of these assets without having to secure the approval of the Cabinet or go through the process involving the administrative ministries and/or the department of investment and public asset management (Dipam).

With the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi controversy being debated in court rooms, the RSS Wednesday said the time has come for “historical facts” to be put in the “right perspective” before society.

“Right now the issue of Gyanvapi is going on. There are some facts which are coming out in the open. I believe we should let facts come out in the open. In any case, truth always finds a way to come out. How long can you hide it? I believe the time has come to put historical facts in the right perspective before society,” RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh (all-India publicity in-charge) Sunil Ambekar said at the Devrishi Narad Patrakar Samman Samaroh, an RSS event to felicitate journalists.

The CBI has filed an FIR against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and four others and conducted nationwide raids on his properties in connection with its probe in a case where the ministry of home affairs issued visas to over 250 Chinese professionals, working at a power project in Punjab.

The case goes back to 2011 when visas were issued within a month of the application being made and were beyond the permissible limit.

In a statement, the CBI alleged that the application was made following a meeting between a power firm executive and a “private person” in Chennai.

Disapproving of the government’s further verification of candidates already recommended by the Search and Selection Committee (SCSC) for appointment to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed it to place any material it has on the candidates before the SCSC itself for a decision on their suitability.

It will be “appropriate”, Justices D Y Chandrachud and P S Narasimha said, “if all inputs on candidates, whether in form of Intelligence Bureau inputs or from any other sources, be placed before SCSC by the Union government.”

Placing the material before the SCSC, the court said, will put the panel in a position to determine “if any modification (to orders already passed) is necessary in view of the subsequent facts”.

The Varanasi court has sacked the commissioner of the team appointed to survey the Gyanvapi mosque complex for allegedly leaking information to the media. The court commissioner, Ajay Kumar Mishra, had also allegedly hired a private cameraman, who has now been accused of leaking to the press.

The court, while axing the top official it had appointed weeks ago, termed his conduct 'irresponsible' and emphasized that any court-appointed official must act like a public servant. But Mishra appointed a private cameraman who leaked information, it noted.

The other two members of the team, Ajay Pratap Singh and Vishal Singh, will continue at their posts and they have been asked to submit the report of the survey within two days.