Good morning,
There’s no denying the importance of billionaire Elon Musk as he flexes his muscles in American politics. Musk, however, isn’t done playing kingmaker. What’s also interesting is his growing affinity with right-wingers who share more or less Donald Trump’s anti-immigration and populist stances. Last week, Musk took to his social media mouthpiece, X, to endorse an ‘extremist’ far-right political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). This comes just weeks before Germany goes to snap elections with the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government. Now, there are reports that Musk is set to donate to Reform UK, a British right-wing party founded by Nigel Farage, with its treasurer promising “political disruption like we have never seen before”.
With that, let’s get to today’s edition.
Big Story
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been facing repeated setbacks in some of its high-profile money laundering cases. The reason? The Supreme Court had ruled last year that the watchdog cannot rely solely on “criminal conspiracy” as the “predicate offence” based on which it registers a case. The offence should also fall within the ambit of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) schedule.
For context: A “predicate offence” refers to the nature of a crime mentioned in the primary First Information Report (FIR) registered by another agency, based on which the ED builds its case.
Some of the cases that fell through because they relied on criminal conspiracy as the predicate offence include those against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and another against a retired IAS officer who had served under Chhattisgarh ex-CM Bhupesh Baghel. Incidentally, both are senior Congress leaders.
The ED has now decided to change tack.
Only in Express
Something’s amiss in the quiet Assagao village of Goa. Of the 45 houses around, villagers found that 25 had surreptitiously changed hands. The sale deeds, however, were forged with Portuguese-era calligraphy. In fact, the sellers included dead men and women. The forged deeds also found their way into official records, putting government officials under the scanner.
From the Front Page
Error 404: The Opposition has not taken kindly to the Union government’s decision to tweak the Conduct of Election Rules. The Congress called it part of a “systematic conspiracy to destroy the institutional integrity of the Election Commission of India.” The change in the Rule limits public inspection of election papers to only those documents specified in the provisions. This effectively means that any CCTV footage or electronic records of the electoral process will be excluded from public scrutiny.
The next level: India has important ties with Kuwait. Their bilateral trade was valued at US$ 10.47 billion in 2023-24. In fact, the Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in Kuwait. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Gulf nation, ties were raised to a “strategic partnership” with agreements on cooperation over defence, sports, culture and more.
Must Read
A-Z of Indian economy: How will India achieve its Viksit Bharat dreams by 2047? Is the Indian economy growing fast enough? What should the Union Budget focus on this time around? Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan answers all this and more in a detailed interview with The Indian Express.
Disagree: Hyundai was among eight automakers which were unable to meet the country’s second iteration fuel efficiency norms for 2022-23. Interestingly, Hyundai had sought a deferment of the implementation of these norms by a financial year, per records obtained through the Right to Information Act. The request, however, was rejected by two ministries.
Hit the brakes: The yellow Ambassador taxis have come to be synonymous with Kolkata since they were first introduced in the 1960s. The city of joy, however, is bidding adieu to its icon. Kolkata is set to phase out 80 per cent of the fleet by March. For the drivers of the yellow taxi, it’s an uncertain future ahead.
And Finally…
PR Sreejesh, considered one of the greatest goalies in hockey, has decided to hang up the boots on his international career. He now steps in as India’s junior team head coach. In the latest edition of Idea Exchange, Sreejesh looks back on his journey, how he formed a bond with the goalpost, and what’s in store for the future.
Before you go, tune in to today’s episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, where we discuss the opposition to the Katra ropeway project in Jammu. We also discuss the latest model of Artificial intelligence by OpenAI.
Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta
Business As Usual by EP Unny
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