New Delhi: Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, who demits office on Wednesday, will be remembered for turning the statutory body into a pugnacious watchdog of good governance and administrative integrity at a time when India is experiencing the need for greater transparency and a rebalancing of power that has tilted over the years towards the executive.
Rai's five-year tenure (2008-2013) has been a tad controversial because of the unprecedented public profile the CAG's office - which the average Indian knew little about previously - acquired and the political storms it generated, with many of the audit reports proving troublesome for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The CAG's reports on the 2010 Commonwealth Games and allocation of licenses for 2G telecom spectrum and coal mining blocks have severely dented the UPA government's image and provided ammunition to the opposition. There have been also suggestions of the CAG has exceeded its brief.
"Nobody in the political class, except for saying that I have political aspirations or that I am looking for a post-retirement career in politics, has actually made any substantive criticism of my work...Saying that I want a political career is an easy allegation to make," Rai said in an interview. ...
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12:45 PM, May 21, 2013
Pune: Three years after the German Bakery blast killed 17 people and injured over 60, a Pune court come out with a crucial judgement on Monday. It was the first major terror strike in Pune that dented its tag of being a peaceful city. On February 13, 2010, a deadly blast ripped through Pune's famous eating joint German Bakery. Seventeen people died and 64 others were injured. A Pune court...
08:46 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Shane Watson, James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja have been axed after failing to comply with team rules. ...
01:24 PM, Mar 11, 2013
A look back at the Mohali Test of 2010, when VVS Laxman, Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha kept a rampaging Australia at bay and helped India pull off a sensational victory. ...
01:09 PM, Mar 11, 2013
Five persons, accused in the murder of former All-India Gorkha League president Madan Tamang, were arrested by the Central Bureau of Invstigation from a hotel in Darjeeling. The five suspects had escaped after Tamang, a prominent Gorkha leader, was brutally murdered on May 21, 2010 by an armed mob in broad daylight at Upper Clubside Stand in Darjeeling town while he was overseeing preparation for a public meeting. ...
10:00 AM, Feb 16, 2013
A Delhi court is likely to frame charges against sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and others on Monday for allegedly cheating, conspiring and causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer in a Games-related corruption case. Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur had on January 10 posted for Monday the framing of charges in the case that also involves former OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot...
11:30 AM, Feb 03, 2013
A young doctor was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court for raping a 30-year-old woman patient in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital at Navi Mumbai. Thane Additional Sessions Judge RD Sawant handed out the punishment to 26-year-old Dr Vishal Vanne, who was also fined with Rs 1,000 along with another three-month imprisonment in the 2010 case. ...
06:59 PM, Jan 29, 2013
Pune's landmark German Bakery, which was targeted in a terrorist attack in 2010, has virtually risen like a phoenix 35 months after it was completely devastated. An excited Snehal Kharose, the daughter of the founder, said that it was thrown open Thursday with a soft launch, "just to inform the people and our patrons that we are still here". ...
12:23 PM, Jan 13, 2013
Borrowers from NBFCs have now time till March 31 to replace their old system bank cheques with new ones with added security features for their EMI payments, as RBI has extended the deadline in this regard for non-banking finance companies. In a circular RBI said that it has been decided to extend the time for NBFCs up to March 31, 2013 "to ensure withdrawal of Non-CTS 2010 Standard compliant cheques...
12:38 PM, Dec 23, 2012
New Delhi: The Government on Monday termed the arrest of suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Fasih Mohammad as a "very important catch", saying Saudi Arabia fully cooperated in his deportation to India. "It was a very important catch. He was deported by Saudi Arabia," Union Home Secretary RK Singh told reporters here. Giving the first official reaction after Fasih's arrest by Delhi Police at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here, the...
04:50 PM, Oct 22, 2012
New Delhi: Five members of a family were on Friday awarded death penalty for in connection with the 2010 honour killing of a teenaged couple who were beaten up mercilessly, tortured and then electrocuted by the convicts who objected to the marriage as the boy belonged to a different caste. "It can be safely concluded that the prosecution has been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons...
12:56 PM, Oct 05, 2012
A look back at the third ICC World Twenty20 in 2010, when England won their first major ICC title. ...
09:27 AM, Sep 16, 2012
New Delhi: Officials of 2010 Commonwealth Games organising committee had allegedly misused the name of Indian High Commission in the UK to award the contract of work related to Queen's Baton Relay, an event in the run up to the Games, to an accused firm owned by a London- based businessman. CBI, which had filed the chargesheet in connection with the QBR case, alleged work of hiring of transportation was...
10:12 PM, Aug 22, 2012
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to former Haryana Minister of State for Home Gopal Kanda after a petition was filed against him by an INLD worker in connection with a 2010 assault case. The petition alleged that Kanda had beaten up some INLD workers who were protesting in Sirsa. The incident happened in the month of April. Kanda currently faces arrest in connection with the...
11:55 AM, Aug 09, 2012
New Delhi: Terming the 2010 Commonwealth Games a "nightmare", Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi on Friday said the event is being remembered more for its controversies, which denied the nation the pride it got from the performance of its athletes. "What a nightmare it was, something we should have been proud of, that pride was denied to the nation... Unfortunately we did not get any time to bask in the...
10:37 PM, Jun 01, 2012
New Delhi: The Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, which seeks to protect owners of literary or musical works, has been passed by the Rajya Sabha and will be presented to the Lok Sabha before it becomes law, much to the delight of singers, writers and composers. The bill, which is to provide exclusive and moral rights to performers in conformity with the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and performances...
03:27 PM, May 22, 2012
New Delhi: A bill was on Monday introduced in the Rajya Sabha to amend existing laws to make divorce easier, with BJP opposing the legislation on the ground that certain provisions could be "dangerous" for women. Introducing the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said by amending the Hindu Marriage Act, 2007, and the Special Marriage Act, 1954, the government proposes to make divorce easier in case...
08:00 PM, Apr 30, 2012
Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that she is against the hike in passenger fare announced in the Railway Budget presented by her party colleague Dinesh Trivedi. ...
09:03 PM, Mar 14, 2012
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday framed charges against six accused, including four MCD officials, in the 2010 Commonwealth Games street lighting case. The trial in the case will begin on April 3. The persons who face charges in the scam are MCD Superintendent Engineer DK Sugan, Executive Engineer OP Mahala, Accountant Raju V and civic body's tender clerk Gurcharan Singh besides Director JP Singh and Managing Director TP...
12:20 PM, Mar 12, 2012
New Delhi: A number of documents related to Commonwealth Games projects have either gone missing or are untraceable making tough the ongoing probe into alleged irregularities in conduct of the Games. Sources said that problems were being faced by officials of various probe agencies including the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (I-T) department. "There are many documents related to the...
05:33 PM, Mar 05, 2012
