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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rejected calls by some MPs to tax rich farmers and firms that seek exemptions despite earning crores in profits. He said the Centre has no intention or intent to do so. As far as income earned from other sources being passed off as agricultural income is concerned, he assured, the income tax officials are aware of it and taking action.



Lok Sabha passed the Bankruptcy law incorporating all the suggestions of a joint parliamentary committee. The Bill, if signed into law, will deal with corporate insolvency and help creditors recover debt faster. Though the NDA govt doesn’t have the majority in Rajya Sabha but the endorsement of bipartisan joint parliamentary committee might help see it through. The bill is vital to improving India’s ease of doing business ranking, especially on the insolvency parameter where it is ranked 136 among 189 nations.



NIA claims that Dawood hatched a plan to spread religious tension and social unrest by targeting RSS leaders and churches, soon after Modi came to power. NIA will file chargesheet on Saturday against 10 members of D-company who were involved in the conspiracy. NIA uncovered the plot while probing the sharpshooters who killed two Hindu leaders in Gujarat last year.



Centre has handed over pink slips to 33 tax babus, including seven Group A officers, for their non-performance as well as harassing the tax assesses. So far, 72 babus have been prematurely retired by the Finance Ministry alone in similar cases since Modi Sarkar came to power.



Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha announced a torrent of freebies in her party’s election manifesto released yesterday. Key promises include: 100 unit free electricity, Free laptops for class 11, 12 students with free internet connection, Working women to get 50% subsidy for buying scooters, Financial assistance to pregnant ladies will be raised to ₹18000 and nine months maternity leave, Housing loan for government employees to be raised to Rs.40 lakh, 8 gm gold as marriage assistance, Education loans of unemployed youth to be paid by the government.



US Speaker and highest ranking elected Republican, Paul Ryan, said he was not ready to support Donald Trump. He called for Mr Trump to unite the Republican party and adhere to the Conservative principles. The New York businessman shot back saying he is not ready to support Ryan’s agenda either but hoped they could work together in future. All top four living Republicans - Romney, George HW Bush, George Bush and Ryan - have refused to support Trump.



Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had fallen out with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced his resignation yesterday. President Erdogan is trying to transition his country’s political system to a presidential one and he had his differences with the Prime Minister on this and a range of other issues including but not limited to peace talks with the Kurdish militants.



Op-eds You Shouldn’t Miss



A Recurring Scandal: The history of past transgressions shows that at least three stages in the acquisition cycle are potentially vulnerable to undue influence: Formulation of the services qualitative requirements, field evaluation and contract negotiation.



Niti Aayog’s Real Problem - A Surfeit Of Macroeconomists, A Deficit Of Micro: In India we need more microeconomists to solve problems in which macroeconomists can offer only generic ideas.



Swarajya Special



Obit - Balraj Madhok (1920-2016): The ideologue who attempted to combine liberal market economics with Hindu Nationalism.



We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!