Its founder president, Ashok Chauhan, was charged with fraud in the 1990s by authorities in Germany, where he ran a network of companies. He returned to India and was never extradited. A plastics company in the U.S. also sued Chauhan in 1995 for failing to pay $20 million in debts. "They are a subsidiary of a conglomerate of companies," said Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of State College and Universities. "This is by no means reassuring, if you ask me."   read more

This is a rags to riches story – and back again – courtesy the State Bank of India (SBI). Urmila Yadav, who works as a domestic help in Kanpur, recently found she was one of India's richest women when the Rs 2,000 ($32) in her bank account suddenly turned into Rs 95,71,16,98,647 ($1.5 billion).   read more

The former UN climate change panel (IPCC) chief, Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, has been removed from his post as head of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi. The move came days after a court allowed Pachauri to return to his office while facing sexual harassment allegations.   read more

Japan is expected to take part in the 2015 edition of India’s joint naval exercises with the United States that are scheduled in October. This is being seen as a sign of stronger military and diplomatic ties between India and Japan, and an attempt by India to recover its position as the dominant maritime power in the Indian Ocean that has recently seen inroads by China.   read more

A decade has passed since the landmark Right to Information (RTI) Act came into effect, providing ordinary citizens with the power to demand details from their government on its functioning and its decisions. Yet the bureaucracy still finds innovative ways to deny this information, as Kumar Ram Krishna, a history teacher in Delhi, found out recently when he was asked to cough up Rs 80,000 ($1,257) for the information he wanted.   read more

Poor Ashish Khetan. The AAP leader first announced that he had got the status of a cabinet minister as the vice-chairman of the newly instituted Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC). But once the political implications of this largesse became evident, the AAP government quickly denied that he had ministerial status. But it nevertheless let him keep all the goodies entitled to a state cabinet minister.   read more

A U.S. construction management company, Louis Berger, has agreed to pay $17.1 million in criminal fines to resolve charges that it bribed officials in 4 countries, including India where it won two water developmental projects in Goa and Guwahati. The firm paid bribes of $976,630 for its Goa project, including to a minister whose name has not been disclosed by the U.S. Department of Justice.   read more

Indian guest workers are in demand at construction sites across the world, from the Middle East to the U.S. But they often exploited by their employers and have to make do with poor living standards. This could change with the $20 million settlement that 200 Indian workers have received from a U.S. company that defrauded and exploited them.   read more

Reality caught up with Indian cricket on Tuesday with the Justice RM Lodha committee announcing a two-year ban on former champions Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Two prominent club officials, Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, also got life bans for betting on IPL games or being in contact with illegal gamblers. But will this verdict succeed in cleaning up Indian cricket?   read more

India and the United States have signed a tax information sharing agreement that will make it more difficult for Indians and Americans to dodge tax by stashing it abroad. This will also boost Indian tax revenues as tax authorities will get information about Indians working in the U.S.   read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted an invitation from his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to attend the SAARC summit in Islamabad next year. In doing so, Modi has set the agenda for dialogue with Pakistan: dealing with terrorism.   read more

The group of emerging economies known as BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are as different in their values as they are in their economic growth. This informal club has in the past decade largely spent its time challenging the developed world. But the time has now come for closer cooperation and coordination, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who proposed a 10-point initiative at the ongoing BRICS summit.   read more

The Vyapam scandal in Madhya Pradesh, a large examination rigging scam with thousands accused, has seen the death of more than 40 people connected with it – including a journalist and the dean of a medical college – many in suspicious circumstances. This has deepened suspicions about a systematic elimination of people linked to the racket, with opposition parties demanding an independent CBI probe.   read more

The Maharashtra government has sparked a controversy by declaring that madrasas, or Islamic seminaries, that do not teach primary subjects such as English and mathematics would be considered "non-schools" and their students "out-of-school" children. Muslim leaders and opposition parties have criticised the move as discriminatory and unconstitutional.   read more

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a list of 21 fake universities for the benefit of students, saying these “self-styled and unrecognized institutions, functioning under the contravention of the UGC Act are declared as fake, and are not entitled to confer any degrees.” According to the list, six of these fake universities are in Delhi, while Uttar Pradesh topped with nine.   read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched India Digital Week to boost e-governance and strengthen the country’s digital infrastructure. Several companies have pledged Rs. 4.5 trillion ($70 billion) for electronics manufacturing and reducing imports by 2020. However, India will have to overcome a number of challenges before it can achieve its ambitions.   read more

A senior bureaucrat in Telangana has sued Outlook magazine for describing her as "eye candy". Smita Sabharwal, additional secretary to the Telangana chief minister, said she found the remarks against her "sexist" and "demoralising." In response, Outlook said it was a satirical piece in its regular 'Deep Throat' column. Nevertheless, the magazine has removed it from its website.   read more