Express daily briefing: IL&FS top executive bent norms to favour Ansals; Gujarat braces for Cyclone Vayu and more

Exclusive: IL&FS top executive bent norms to favour Ansals

An internal probe report of the IL&FS Group reveals an alleged nexus between Ramesh Bawa, former MD of IL&FS Financial Service (IFIN), and the Ansal Group. While IFIN extended questionable loans to Ansal Group companies, Bawa had financial links with Ansal Group companies through AAA Infosystem that was fully owned by Asha Kiran (his wife) and Akansha Bawa (his daughter).

Gujarat braces for Cyclone Vayu, over three lakh people to be evacuated

Gujarat is on high alert as severe cyclonic storm ‘Vayu’ is expected to make landfall on June 13, even as its effects will be witnessed from June 12 midnight. It is likely to severely affect Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Porbandar districts along with heavy rainfall along the coast, which may cause inundation in low-lying areas.

Editorial: Listen to him

Nothing “political” should be read into former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian’s piece, which provides a strong case for a relook of the new GDP estimation process as well as the high-growth assumptions guiding policymaking in the last few years. Instead of looking for ex-CEA’s motives, all sides would do well to address the key questions his paper raises on the slowdown.

False charges to remarks about women: Cloud over sacked senior tax officer

Two weeks before the I-T department announced operation clean-up and compulsorily retired 12 officers, S K Srivastava, Commissioner (Appeals) in Noida, was served a voluminous chargesheet listing seven charges against him including sexual harassment. “In their desperation, they have tried to retire me but the fight will go on,” Srivastava tells Ritu Sarin.

Wreckage of An-32 spotted, teams to fly to site today

A day after the Indian Air Force confirmed that it had spotted the wreckage of its An-32 aircraft 16 km north of Lipo in Arunachal Pradesh, teams will be flown to the site in helicopters “to look for survivors and other things”. The location is so remote that it had taken a team of election officials three days of trekking to reach a village in the area.

Filling a Shikhar-sized void: Selectors dial Rishabh Pant but who will open?

As opener Shikhar Dhawan is certain to miss India’s next few matches due to a thumb fracture, the team management will find it hard fixing the opener’s and number 4 slot in the team. If K L Rahul opens the batting with Rohit Sharma, who would be most suited to play at number 4 — Karthik, Shankar, Pant or Dhoni? Shamik Chakrabarty explains.

And finally…

According to a study commissioned by WWF, you may be ingesting five grams of plastic a week, the equivalent of eating a credit card. The main source? Drinking water.