9754 - Political updates: Govt to probe Indian names in Panama Papers - Live Mint

Last Modified: Tue, Apr 05 2016. 10 17 AM IST

The govt has set up a team to investigate suspected tax evasion by Indian individuals named in Panama Papers as maintaining offshore accounts

Pretika Khanna

New Delhi: The assembly elections in the states of Assam and West Bengal kicked off on Monday with the two states registering high voter turnout. Meanwhile, Mehbooba Mufti took charge as the first female chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir. This comes after the state saw months of uncertainty over government formation. Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the ‘Stand up India’ initiative, to give a push to entrepreneurship and to provide loans to scheduled castes/scheduled tribes (SCs/STs) and women entrepreneurs.

Elections to the West Bengal and Assam legislative assemblies held on Monday witnessed high voter turnout of 82.63% and 78.06%, respectively. In Bengal, high turnout and peaceful polling was reported from the 18 assembly constituencies, of which 13 were identified as left wing extremism-affected region. The first phase of polling in Bengal is spread over two days. In Assam, where 65 out of the total 126 assembly constituencies went to polls on Monday, Behali constituency in Biswanath Chariali district clocked the highest turnout of 85%. The next phase of polling in the two states is on 11 April. Read more

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti made history on Monday by becoming the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Mehbooba Mufti took oath in Jammu along with 17 cabinet ministers and six ministers of state (MoS). Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Nirmal Singh also took oath as deputy chief minister, as per the alliance agreement between the two parties. Interestingly, this is the first time Mehbooba Mufti is holding an administrative post in the state or at the national level, as so far she had limited herself to party work.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Stand Up India initiative on Tuesday. The initiative will promote entrepreneurship among the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and women by facilitating loans in the range of Rs.10 lakh to Rs.100 lakh. Each branch of a scheduled commercial bank shall facilitate at least two such loans. A web portal will also be launched for the initiative, to enable online registration and support services.

The government has set up a team to investigate suspected tax evasion by Indian individuals named in the so-called Panama Papers as maintaining offshore accounts. Names of more than 500 Indians appear in a list of individuals who paid Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca to set up offshore entities in tax havens around the world, according to an Indian Express report on Monday. Read more

The Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) finally struck a seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly elections on Monday. The Congress party has been assigned 41 seats and the remaining will be distributed with DMK contesting a larger portion of the seats. The Tamil Nadu state assembly has 234 seats. Read more

The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) headed by J. Jayalalithaa on Monday announced its candidates for the upcoming assembly elections. The party will contest 227 of the 234 seats. Read more

Hitting out at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who criticised the Union government’s move to levy excise duty on jewellery, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that keeping out luxury goods from the goods and services tax (GST) would push up the rate under the new indirect tax regime beyond 18%. Referring to Kejriwal’s comment against the levy of excise duty on jewellery, Jaitley said that Delhi itself levies value added tax (VAT) on jewellery. Read more

Panchayat elections held at the village level are an exercise of the ballot at the most basic grassroots level. Yet an examination of gram panchayat polls across two districts in Uttar Pradesh’s distressed Bundelkhand region points to the increasing use of money power. A lack of checks on election expenditure means it is easy for candidates to bribe voters.

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Monday accused the BJP’s central leadership of luring Congress MLAs with its money power and asked people interested in the welfare of the state to come forward to “save democracy”. Read more

Having notched up a win in the Bihar assembly elections last year, the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) is set to elect a new party president in its national council meeting on 10 April. Current party president Sharad Yadav has decided not to seek a fourth term.

The evolution of healthcare in India over the past 25 years has been a mixed bag. While key health metrics such as the infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality ratio (MMR) have come down substantially, healthcare expenses have shot up—a direct fallout of lower public health spending. The government’s allocation to healthcare as a percentage of the country’s gross domestic product has fallen to 1.05% in 2015-16 from 1.47% in 1986-87. Read more

Authorities in Maharashtra’s Latur town, which is experiencing an unprecedented water scarcity this summer, on Monday said they have decided to deploy police at water supply spots if the situation demands. Read more