IBC decision

This week will see the Ministry of Corporate Affairs take some crucial calls on reforms and other measures that were pending due to the absence of Secretary concerned, who had been away from office due to illness for almost a month. MCA Secretary Rajesh Verma is expected to be back at work on Monday and set the ball rolling on the government’s decision on IBC suspension.

The current suspension of insolvency proceedings in view of Covid-19 lapses on December 25.

PM Kisan easy to decode

The loopholes in the government’s digital architecture were exposed recently when fraudsters created fake PM Kisan accounts to corner the ₹6,000 a year meant for farmers.

Fraudsters can easily cheat the system if they get hold of a genuine Aadhaar card number and a correct name as was shown in the case of RS Sharma, former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman. Some persons enrolled the name of the ex-UIDAI chief for the PM Kisan scheme in January this year, to test out whether he would receive a sum of ₹6,000 in his bank account. Sharma had revealed his Aadhaar number in 2018 challenging anyone to show whether the system can be misused.

Interestingly, Sharma’s was not the only Aadhaar card misused for creating fake PM Kisan accounts. Similar PM Kisan accounts were created in the names of Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh and even ISI spy Mehboob Akhtar as well, punching holes in digital governance in the country.

Funding methods

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (Mahavitaran) seems to have hit upon a novel idea to raise funds. People who pay their bills on time are selected randomly and their bills are jacked up.

Two such people in Dombivli got a shock when they received a bill of ₹13,400 and ₹14,600 for their one-room kitchen flat. And the companies take 30 days to respond to complaints. Hopefully other consumer facing companies do not follow it, particularly when most salaried class have taken significant salary cuts.

Event management

Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Special Secretary (Logistics), speaking at the CII National Packaging Conference, said that in the last six months he had attended nearly 49 events but unfortunately none of the organisers came back to him with the findings or outcome from the events. “Out of the 49 events, I don’t remember getting any input or report from any of the meetings. I hope it does not happen here. Kindly send to me details on what you deliberate on,” he told the organisers, who promptly assured him to share the details.

In good company

India need not get unduly perturbed about the US Treasury once again putting the country on its currency manipulators’ watchlist, quipped a banker. Reason: India is in good company with nine other Asian countries.

Since, India is not tagged as an active currency manipulator as yet, the country’s image in the global financial markets is unlikely to be dented.

So the RBI can continue buying dollars and keep up the liquidity in the system.

Adopting the change

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala survived strong anti-incumbency to come up trumps in the just-concluded local body elections. It managed to defeat a strong show put up by Congress and the BJP-led NDA. Says a wag, voters chose to give credit where it was due, recalling how they were helped by the government during the 2017 Cyclone Ockhi and the 2018 floods, followed by the virulent Nipah and Covid viruses.

The LDF government’s red carpet to private investors and embrace of technology also helped it gain brownie points from the middle classes. Our Delhi Bureau

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