Special

Addressing reporters here, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that on October 2014 the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, an institution of the Ministry of Finance, had announced that there was a huge scam in the case of export of coal and his investigation has begun.

Jairam Ramesh said that the first announcement took place in October, 2014, DRI made a statement and DRI has been ordered to investigate the over-invoicing in coal import. After this DRI gave a second statement on March 31, 2016, and for the first time in this statement it was informed that 40 companies are being examined before the proceedings, 40 companies are involved in this scam and overall, there is a scam of Rs 29,000 crore. The statement from DRI was given for the second time, on March 31, 2016. This statement came from the DRI, investigating the Rs 29,000-crore scam in the purchase of 40 companies and most of the coal from Indonesia.

Overvaluation of Coal Imports: AICC Press Briefing By Jairam Ramesh at Congress HQ

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is probing approximately 40 companies for overvaluation of Indonesian coal imports.

This overvaluation of coal imports amounts to ₹29,000Cr.

Among these 40 companies, Mr. Narendra Modi's industrialist friend Gautam Adani's company, too, is included.

DRI issued Letters Rogatory (LRs) to Singapore seeking its help to access documents lying with overseas branches of SBI bank, where coal import transactions took place.

Adani firm had asked Singapore Court to quash the LRs issued by DRI, but Singapore court rejected the plea. Now Adani firm asks Bombay HC to stall the DRI probe.

An SIT must be set up to ensure objective and time-bound enquiry.

In India, the Supreme Court has arranged in an important decision that in one state, the SC-ST person can not take advantage of reservation in government jobs by going to another state. However, this system will not be applicable in Delhi and other Union Territories. In this, people from all over the country can take advantage of reservation in jobs.

The Constitution Bench of five judges, headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said in a unanimous decision on Thursday that a member of a Scheduled Caste can not be considered as belonging to Scheduled Castes in other states where it is intended for employment or education. This person does not go to take his SC-ST status to another state. It is of course that he can claim a reservation in his native state by staying there.

The court said that this claim can be made in the Union territories whose services have been considered as All India Services. Other members of the Constitution Bench include Justice NV Ramana, R Bhanumati, M Shantanagoudar and S A Nazir.

Although Justice Bhanumati expressed dissatisfaction with the view of majority in relation to the implementation of central reservation policy about SC-ST in the national capital, Delhi. The Constitution Bench gave this system to those petitions, in which the question was raised whether in one state can the person notified as SC-ST get reservation in another state?

Supreme Court said in Bir Singh Vs. Delhi Jal Board case that a state wants to give the benefit of reservation to the people of other states other than those notified in their state, then it will have to talk to the central government for this. The central government will amend the list of SC-ST for that state by the parliamentary process. The unilateral decision of the state will not be correct on the criteria of Article 16 (4) of this Constitution and this will spread constitutional lawlessness. Therefore, it can not be allowed at any cost.

The Constitution Bench said that as far as the national capital Delhi is concerned, subordinate services are clearly central services. Referring to the central service rules, the court said that as far as the services related to central government affairs are concerned, wherever its office is anywhere, whether it is in Delhi or in other state or in the region of central region, all the posts here Recruitment will be for all-India basis. The reservation will be at the All India level.

The Constitution Bench said that in view of Das Rule - 1967 and CCS rule - 1965, it adequately narrates the nature of the subordinate services of NCT Delhi. These are obviously general central services and perhaps this is the reason that the central government has said in the affidavit that the Delhi Administrative Subordinate Services is a feeder cadre for the Central Civil Services Group B. For this reason, the All India Eligibility Policy has been adopted completely. The court said that Delhi is a subtle India.

France got the distinction of becoming the world champion for the second time by defeating Croatia 4-2 in a thrilling finals of the FIFA World Cup. In the 18th minute, France made an impression with Mario Mdjukiewicz's suicide goal, but Ivan Pervilleche scored a goal of equalizing in the 28th minute. France got the penalty soon, however, which Antoine Greizman converted in the 38th minute, which resulted in France leading 2-1 ahead of the intermission.

Paul Pogba scored the third goal in the 59th minute, while Kylian Mbeppe scored France's 4th goal in the 65th minute. When it seemed that now Croatia got out of hand, Mandzukich made his hopes alive in the 69th minute.

France had earlier won the World Cup in 1998. Then his captain was Didier Deschamps, who is now the coach of the team. In this way Deschamps became the third person to win the World Cup in the form of a player and coach. Before them, Brazilian Mario Jagalo and Germany's Frank Bacenbauer achieved this feat.

Croatia reached the final for the first time. He made every possible effort on his behalf and won the audience's heart with his skill and agility, but in the end, the Jalotak Dalich's team had to be content with becoming a runner-up. Of course, Croatia played better football, but France showed a more effective and clever game, this is his true strength, on which, he was successful in becoming the champion after 20 years.

Both teams landed on the field with a combination of 4-2-3-1. Croatia did not change in the starting eleven of winning the match against England, then French coach Deschamps has focused on strengthening his defenses. Croatia made a good start. Not only more control over the ball in the first half but in the meantime, aggressive tactics have also been adopted. He filled the thrill of the audience, while France disappointed with his game. It is a different matter that luck was with France and he managed to score two goals without any special effort.

France got its first chance in the 18th minute and he managed to make an edge over it. France got a free kick near the box on the right. The cross shot of Grizzman was rising toward goalkeeper Daniel Subasich, but then Mandjukich placed his head on it and the ball entered the goal. In this way, Mandjukich became the first player to score a suicidal goal in the World Cup final. This is the record of the current World Cup, the 12th suicide goal.

Parisić, however, soon gave the goal of equalizing to the passion of Croatian fans and Mandzukich. This goal of Parisis was visible, which did not leave the spectators sitting in the luznicky stadium to thrill. Croatia got a free kick and France could not prevent its threat.

With the effort of Mandzukich and Domagose Vida, the ball was awarded to Winger Parisić. He took a while and then put the shot on the left foot and handed the ball to the goal. The French goalkeeper Hugo Loris did not have any answer. But soon after the mistake of Parisis, France got a penalty. The ball inside the box was taken by Parisic's hand. The referee took the help of VAR and gave the penalty to France. The experienced G reisman did not make any mistake in the goal. This is the first time in the World Cup since 1974, whereas in the final, there were three goals before the intermission.

Croatia made consistent efforts to increase this number, but France put on its strength to save the goal. Meanwhile, Pogba stopped Dejan Lovran from scoring goals. Croatia also adopted an invasion strategy in the second half and kept France under pressure. In the 48th minute of the game, Luca Modritch gave the ball to Ante Rebecc, who scored a good shot on the goal, but Loris saved it with great beauty. But it is important to make goals and France again prevailed in it. In the second half, his team seemed to be changing anyway.

In the 59th minute of the game, Kylian Ambape went forward by taking the ball from the right end. He delivered the ball to Pogba, whose shot was stopped by Vida. On the rebound, the ball again reached Pogba who scored a penalty on it. Six minutes later, Ambape scored a score of 4-1. He made control of the ball from Lukas Hernández on the left side and then shot a goal from 25 yards away, which did not have any answer with Vida and Subasich.

Ambape scored the goal at 19 years 207 days and became the youngest player to score in the World Cup final. But Croatia was not going to give up. Despite losing three goals, his emotions were worth a look, but he made the second goal by mistake of French goalkeeper Loris. They then dribble the ball, while Mandjukich was nearby. The Croatian forward has snatched the ball from them and easily put it in the goal.

Even after this Croatia did not give up. He made some good efforts, but his shot went out. Meanwhile, Pogba got a chance to make his second goal in the injury time, but he missed it. After the referee's last whistle, France was sunk in celebration.

Paul Pogba scored the third goal in the 59th minute, while Kylian Ambape scored France's 4th goal in the 65th minute. Now Croatia have got a chance, then Mandjukich made his hopes alive in the 69th minute.

On July 14, 2016, 31-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel ploughed a rented 19-tonne truck through crowds out celebrating France's Bastille Day in Nice.

He was shot dead by police at the scene but 86 people died and 458 others from 19 different countries were wounded.

There have been 12 vehicular attacks since 2006, 10 of which occurred in the two-year period following this incident. Nice has the highest death toll.

One of Bouhlel's first victims was Fatima Charrihi, a Moroccan woman wearing a headscarf. In fact a third of the victims that day were Muslim men, women and children - including four year-old Kylan al-Majri who had come out to enjoy the fireworks with his family.

Truck Attack in Nice looks at the event through the eyes of three Muslim families who lost two young sons and a wife and mother. They re-tell their own versions of their ordeals on an evening that started with celebration and ended in violent tragedy, as they all struggle to come to terms with a loss that they simply cannot comprehend.

The relatively high numbers of Muslim victims in Nice and in the similar Barcelona attacks a year later, challenge the common perception that this type of violence is somehow an expression of Islamic teaching or values.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had been radicalised quickly through ISIL propaganda a few weeks before Bastille Day. He was known to French police for threatening behaviour, violence and petty theft but did not figure on the "Fiche S", or France's high-security watch list. He was a loner whose neighbours said smelled of alcohol and behaved strangely.

The 2016 attack in Nice followed those in 2015 on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and Bataclan nightclub and neighbouring restaurants in Paris. Each incident turned up the heat in the debate about the relationship between Islam and violence in French politics and society.

In the months following Nice, politicians were campaigning for the French presidency.

Marine Le Pen seized the opportunity to make political capital out what she and her party call "the Islamisation of France", and former Prime Minister Francois Fillon spoke of what he called a new type of fear running through some parts of French society.

"This radical Islam is plaguing some of our fellow citizens. It challenges our common values. I won't allow this. I want strict administrative control of the Muslim religion before it takes root within the Republic," he said.

But the French Muslims families in this film see things quite differently. For them, it's not about Islam at all.

"Don't involve Islam in this issue," said Tahar al-Majri, who lost his ex-wife and four-year-old son Kylan in the Nice attack. "He ran down people aged four to 80. You can't kill people and say, 'God is Great'. God never tells us to kill people."

Rising waters, falling oxygen levels and no easy way out.

It's a treacherous situation for anyone, especially 12 children and their football coach who've been trapped in a cave in Thailand.

It's a story that has gripped the attention of much of the world. And on Sunday, several of the trapped boys were successfully rescued and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Elite divers guided the boys through hours of walking, crawling, and swimming with an oxygen tank, out of a deep cave complex.

The team-mates along with their coach, had been trapped for more than two weeks.

In this special edition of The Listening Post, we track the making and breaking of the West Africa Leaks, an investigative series looking into the offshore financial dealings of the rich and powerful in the region.

With more than a dozen journalists from 11 countries, the West Africa Leaks is the largest media collaboration in West African history.

It's the latest major investigation coordinated by the DC-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which teamed up with the Norbert Zongo Cell for Investigative Journalism (CENOZO) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

As Will Fitzgibbon, the Africa Projects Coordinator for ICIJ told us: ''What we've seen with global and media collaborations, not only is it the more the merrier, but the more the punchier.''

The Listening Post followed the investigation since February this year when the journalists involved first met in Dakar, Senegal to lay the groundwork for the project.

During a two-day workshop set up by the ICIJ and Cenozo, the journalists were given access to data in six major leaks held by the ICIJ, all relating to the murky world of offshore finance, and were shown how to navigate their away around roughly 30 million documents.

West Africa accounts for more than one-third of the estimated $50bn that leaves Africa each year illegally, more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of six of its poorest countries combined.

Governments in the region seem to lack the ability, or the will, to prevent the illicit flow of money offshore.

West African news outlets are typically owned by politicians, or those close to them, so coverage steers away from holding the elite to account, contributing to a climate of impunity that has allowed this kind of corruption to go unchecked for decades.

And this is why it didn't take long for the journalists in this media collaboration to start uncovering some newsworthy stories in the data.

In Niger, an ambitious government-funded project never materialised despite large amounts of money changing hands.

In Togo, a businessman with close ties to the ruling family tried to wire money out of the country while two state companies in his charge were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Contrary to the Vienna Convention, a former Ghanaian ambassador to the United States set up an offshore company while in office to apparently conceal his share of a lucrative oil deal.

And in Liberia, it looks like a close friend of the former president was able to leverage her government connections to land a controversial mining license for a foreign company.

On May 22, the West Africa Leaks went live.

The journalists had overcome a number of obstacles along the way to produce a series of stories that were published simultaneously across the region. The stories lit up social media, but the official reaction was muted.

That governments were slow to respond to the revelations in the West Africa Leaks - or ignored them completely - came as no surprise.

What was more concerning was the lack of response from other news outlets in the region. One would expect stories about high-level corruption and financial irregularities in some of the poorest countries on earth to top the news agenda.

However, the subjects of these investigations are the very people who - in large part - control what gets reported in West Africa, and what does not.

For the journalists involved, however, the impact of projects like West Africa Leaks isn't to be measured in the here and now.

As Emmanuel Dogbevi of Ghana Business News told us: "What no one can take away from the West Africa Leaks is the fact that it's historic, it's the first time you have this number of journalists within the sub-region collaborating and working together on a project, which itself adds to the value of the work we do as journalists. And we hope that in the long term, that collaboration will serve as inspiration for other African journalists."

Last week it was Europe. This week, China.

Step-by-step, US President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium are taking effect and the world, in turn is responding.

In addition to the EU and, now, China countries as far afield as Canada and India have also slapped tariffs on American goods in retaliation for the Trump administration's levies on imported steel and aluminium.

The trump administration has responded by threatening even more levies on foreign goods entering the US.

But the fight between Washington and a growing list of countries is not just about trade.

At last month's G7 summit in Canada, Trump was at odds with most of his country's closest allies.

Many of the same tensions seem likely to cloud next week's NATO summit in Brussels.

In all these debates, President Trump talks about ''winning'' and what he calls ''better deals.''

But it often seems like his real target is the web of international institutions and alliances that have evolved in the decades since the end of the second World War - often at the behest of America itself.

So, can the global system of rules-based institutions survive Trump's efforts to undermine them?

In this episode, The Stream speaks with journalists from the around world to explore:

Remember the Rohingya?
Al Jazeera Senior Correspondent Mohammed Jamjoom joins us live from Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar to talk about the ongoing - and under-reported - Rohingya refugee crisis. Tens of thousands of people are threatened by flooding and monsoon rains, which are expected to damage refugee camps and increase the potential for waterborne diseases such as cholera. Hundreds of shelters and latrines have collapsed or been destroyed, and the UN estimates that half of the 200,000 people in the camps are children.

Approximately 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 2017, and although both nations agreed on a plan to repatriate refugees, less than 200 have been resettled since November. Aid groups, including the UN refugee agency, are now racing to get relief to those who could be affected by the flood waters.

Denmark's ''ghetto'' controversy
New laws in Denmark are to subject children from low-income, primarily Muslim, communities to mandatory training in ''Danish values.'' The new policy will require toddlers to receive weekly instruction in Danish religious and cultural norms. Proponents say the laws will not only help children better integrate into Danish society, but tackle high crime rates and unemployment in ''parallel communities'' of uneducated immigrants from ''non-Western countries.''

''To me this is about, no matter who lives in these areas and who they believe in, they have to profess to the values required to have a good life in Denmark,'' justice minister Soren Pape Poulsen has said.

But critics say the rhetoric used by several politicians to describe people living in the so-called ''ghettos'' recalls Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews prior to World War II.

''We call them 'ghetto children, ghetto parents,' it's so crazy. It is becoming a mainstream word, which is so dangerous'', Social Democrat MP Yildiz Akdogan told the New York Times. ''People who know a little about history, our European not-so-nice period, we know what the word 'ghetto' is associated with.''

Mosul, one year later
It's been almost one year since Iraqi government forces ended ISIL's occupation of Mosul. The battle for Iraq's second-biggest city left it in ruins and forced hundreds of  thousands of civilians from their homes. As residents move back to rebuild lives and recover bodies from the rubble, ISIL is now reportedly stepping up efforts to regain position in the historic city. We'll look at how Mosul has changed since ISIL's defeat, what's still necessary to secure it, and whether ISIL can make a comeback.

In the case of Swiss banks depositing money by citizens and companies of any country, India reached 73 in 2017. In this case Britain remains on top. In 2016, India's position was 88th in this case.

According to a recent report of Swiss National Bank, in the year 2017, the deposits of Indians in Swiss banks increased by 50 per cent and it became almost 7,000 crore rupees. In 2016, it dropped by 44 percent and India's position was 88th.

In this list, the neighboring country Pakistan has been ranked 72st. Although it is less than its previous position, the money it deposits has decreased 21 percent during the year 2017. In the report of Swiss National Bank, this money has been shown as liability towards its customers. Therefore, it is not clear how much of that time is black money.

These official figures are issued annually by the Central Bank of Switzerland. These figures do not include funds deposited in the name of units from other countries by Indians, NRIs and others. It is often alleged that people of Indian and other countries deposit their illegal earnings to Swiss banks, which are considered as safe havens to avoid taxes.

Although Switzerland has signed a deal to share automatic information with many countries including India. With this, India will start getting the information of depositors in Swiss Bank automatically from January next year. It is notable that according to the money, India's position was 75th in 2015 and 61st in 2014. Britain is the first and USA is the second place in the list.

The top ten countries include West Indies, France, Hong Kong, Bahamas, Germany, Guernsey, Luxembourg and Cayman Islands. China ranked 20th in the list of BRICS countries, Russia's 23rd, Brazil's 61st, South Africa's 67th. In neighboring countries Mauritius is ranked 77th, Bangladesh's 95th, Sri Lanka's 108th, Nepal's 112th and Afghanistan's 155th place.

Between 1996 and 2007, India was among the top 50 countries on this list. Then in 2008, it was 55th, 59th in 2009 and 2010, 55th in 2011, 71st in 2012 and 58th in 2013.

During the Modi regime, the accumulated wealth of Indians in Swiss banks has increased 50 percent. For the first time in 4 years, the accumulated money deposited in the Swiss bank increased to one billion Swiss francs (7,000 crore rupees) last year. This figure shows an increase of 50 percent compared to a year ago.

This is revealed in the latest figures of Swiss bank's central bank. According to this, the money kept by Indians in Swiss bank accounts increased by more than 50 percent to Rs 7,000 crore (1.01 billion francs) in 2017.

Earlier, there was a steady decline in deposits of Indians in the three years here in the banks. In the compounding of Indians in Switzer Land, which is an identity for their banking secrecy, it is surprising that the visible increase in time is at this time, while the Indian government has been campaigning against black money holders abroad.

According to the annual data of Swiss National Bank (SNB), Indian wealth deposited in Swiss bank accounts declined by 45 percent in 2016 to 67.6 million francs (about 4500 crore rupees). This amount was the lowest since the beginning of publication of this figure since 1987.

According to the SNB data, the funds placed directly in Swiss bank accounts by Indians became approximately 6891 crore (99.9 million francs) in 2017. At the same time, the money kept by the representatives or the wealth managers was 112 crore rupees (1.62 million francs) during this period.

According to the latest data, Rs. 3200 crores in the form of customer deposits in the money deposited in Swiss bank accounts, Rs. 1050 crores through other banks. All these items have increased the wealth of Indians in the year ahead.

Indians' wealth in Swiss bank accounts increased by 12 percent in 2011, 43 percent in 2013 and 50.2 percent in 2017. Prior to this, in 2004, the fund raised 56 percent. These figures of SNB have been released at such times, while a few months ago, a new system of automatic exchange of information between India and Switzerland has been implemented. The purpose of this arrangement is to get rid of the problem of black money.

Meanwhile, the profits of Switzerland's banks increased by 25 percent to 9.8 billion francs in 2017. However, the deposits of foreign customers of these banks declined during this period. Before this, the profits were reduced to almost half of the 7.9 billion francs in 2016.