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In a sudden and surprising move, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung, resigned yesterday. While sources said Jung had met the Home Secretary the day before, he did not give any indication of his plan to quit. Calling this decision a personal one, he is reportedly planning to go back to academics, his first love. In his tenure at the LG Jung had several run-ins with the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party-led administration.
In an exclusive interview with HuffPost India at his home in Badal village, Congress Party leader Manpreet Singh Badal said that if his party should win the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls, the acute drug problem in the state would be brought under control within four weeks, with the help of the military if necessary.
Is the Aam Aadmi Party the worst hit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to demonetise high-value currency notes? So long the former had used anti-corruption politics as one of their electoral planks, but suddenly the PM has pulled a fast one on it and become the new Anna Hazare. What does AAP's future look like in this light?
The income tax department has identified a further 67.54 lakh non-filers who carried out high-value transactions in the 2014-15 financial year but did not file tax returns for 2015-16.The department is set to initiate action against them soon on the basis of information that was collected from banks and other financial institutions.
An investigation carried out by The Indian Express revealed some 255 delisted electoral parties exist only on paper and have invalid addresses attached to them. This list was sent by the Election Commission to the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), asking him to initiate "necessary action", since the parties are no longer entitled to any tax benefits that accrue to registered political entities.
Parasmal Lodha, the Calcutta-based businessman known in realty circles as "Fiddler on the Roof" for his purported skills to add floors to buildings, has been arrested in a multi-city operation on the charge of converting demonetised notes valued at ₹25 crore into valid currency.
The Centre pulled up the Manipur government for its failure to resolve the continuous blockade of the National Highway-2 by certain groups, which has led to an acute shortage of essentials in the State and a "breakdown of public order." Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh sent a letter to Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh asking him to "discharge the constitutional obligations with utmost promptness" as "maintaining law and order and essential supplies is the State's responsibility".
A trial run to do away with the cumbersome process of having the hand baggage of travellers stamped by airport security did not end up saving as much time for the passengers or the staff as was expected. In all likelihood, the practice will be continued again, though there will be trials at more airports in India to check its efficacy in the long run.
After four years, the Syrian army finally took control of Aleppo, after the rebel forces were ousted by the former in one of their biggest victories against the opposition. The loss of east Aleppo is the biggest blow to the rebels in the nearly six-year-old conflict, which has killed more than 310,000 people. It puts the government in control of the country's five main cities: Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Damascus, and Latakia.
Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections coming up next year, Gilles Verniers analyses the trends in the assembly over the last few decades in The Indian Express. "The average turnover of the members of the Uttar Pradesh state assembly between 1957 and 2012 was 58.5 per cent," he writes. "It means that on an average, nearly 60 per cent of the members of the legislative assembly are first-time MLAs, in every assembly," A fact that is going to have long-term repercussions on the future of UP politics.
If 2016 was a year that shook up the contours of geopolitics, it dealt a real strong blow to Indo-Pak relations. Happymon Jacob revisits, in The Hindu, the key moments of strife that erupted between the neighbouring nations and what their strategic implications are going to be in the months to come.
Economics and business also through several upheavals in 2016, especially with the demonetisation of old currencies in India. If you're a lay person curious about the workings of the financial world but also a bit intimidated by the jargon, Mint has a list of ten books on the subject to make your life simpler.
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