Electoral Bonds legalised a route for political parties to secretly funnel unaccounted money from India and abroad into their coffers. But, no one is punished. No one expected they would be. We have been trained by experience to expect so little of democracy and its institutions. Nitin Sethi writes.
Data disclosure reinforces suspicion that State coercion fuelled donations from businesses in what is arguably the biggest scam in the history of independent India, writes Ajaz Ashraf.
Electoral bonds, the State Bank and the art of evasion
The Indian voter needs to know the sources of financial contributions to political parties well before she casts her vote in the general election, write Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri in today's The Hindu.
When asked to get electoral bond data, SBI limps before SC, but bolts for government
SBI has asked the Supreme Court time till June 30 to provide details of electoral bonds. While SBI moves sluggishly in disclosing the names of those who played secret santas to political parties saying it is a laborious task, the bank has in the past displayed stunning agility in fulfilling similar government inquiries.
SBI Asks Supreme Court For Time Till June-End to Hand Over Details of Electoral Bonds
The bank cited difficulties in following the court's original deadline of March 6 and said it had to process 44,434 sets of information regarding bonds bought and encashed in the last five years, LiveLaw reported.
Banks write off bad loans worth Rs 2.09 lakh crore in 2022-23: RBI
The RBI’s RTI reply to The Indian Express says that loan write-offs by banks rose to Rs 209,144 crore during the fiscal ended March 2023 as against Rs 174,966 crore a year ago in March 2022 and Rs 202,781 crore in March 2021.
Close to Half of Adani's Rs 34,000 Crore Mundra PVC Project To Be Funded By SBI-Led Consortium
The project will be undertaken by an Adani subsidiary called Mundra Petrochem. Work on the project was halted in March following Hindenburg Research's scathing attack on the conglomerate.