T20I: New Zealand beat India by 80 runs

New Zealand have beaten India by 80 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series.

India were undone right in the beginning of their innings losing Rohit Sharma early before losing wickets in clumps, eventually catapulting to 139 all-out.

Williamson: “Fantastic performance all around. One of the complete performances you search for. Seifert was excellent. The bowling performance was outstanding. We had runs on the board but bowling and fielding were outstanding. The women’s game was a great game too. Throughout the series the two teams have followed a similar trend. Hopefully, they can do that in the next game and we can follow it up.”

Tim Southee was the pick of the bowlers for Kiwis with figures of 3 for 17 off his 4 overs.

Rohit: “We were outplayed in all three departments actually. We always knew 200 is not going to be an easy chase. We kept losing wickets, that kept throwing us out of the game. We have chased 200-run targets in the past. But when you don’t have a good partnership while chasing big totals, it’s always wicket. Us as a team we have chased down the targets, that’s why we are playing with eight batsman. We needed that one big partnership which we failed to do.”

Indonesia’s GDP in 2018 rose 5.17%

The rate was up 0.1 percentage point from the previous year’s figure. That is the highest increase since President Joko Widodo was inaugurated in 2014.

Sales of cars and motorbikes rose year-on-year.

Officials also attribute the expansion to a series of large-scale events held in the country, including the Asian Games.

President Joko has been pushing his administration to develop infrastructure and attract foreign investment.

He is expected to stress his economic record when he aims for reelection in the presidential poll planned for April.

SC upholds order linking PAN with Aadhaar :

The Supreme Court has said that linking of PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory for filing of Income Tax returns. A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said the top court has already decided the matter and upheld the section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. The court’s direction came on an appeal filed by the Centre against a Delhi High Court order allowing two persons, Shreya Sen and Jayshree Satpute, to file Income Tax returns for 2018-19 without linking their Aadhaar and PAN numbers.

“The aforesaid order was passed by the High Court having regard to the fact that the matter was pending consideration in this Court. Thereafter, this Court has decided the matter and upheld the vires of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. In view thereof, linkage of PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory,” the bench said.

The top court noted that with regard to Assessment Year 2018-19, it has been informed that the two petitioners had filed the Income Tax returns in terms of the orders of the High Court and the assessment has also been completed.

“We therefore make it clear that for the assessment year 2019-20, the income tax return shall be filed in terms of the judgment passed by this court. The special leave petition is disposed of in the above terms,” the bench said in an order on Monday.

The petitioners had told the High Court that “despite orders, and multiple attempts they have not been able to file their ITR, since there is no available option to opt-out of providing an Aadhaar or Aadhaar Enrolment number during e-filing, on the website”.

The apex court on September 26 last year had declared the Centre’s flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid but struck down some of its provisions including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions.

A five-judge constitution bench had held that while Aadhaar would remain mandatory for filing of I-T returns and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN), it would not be mandatory to link Aadhaar to bank accounts and telecom service providers cannot seek its linking for mobile connections. PTI

Analysis of Funds Collected and Expenditure Incurred by Political Parties: Karnataka Assembly Election, 2018

· Political parties are required to submit a statement of election expenditure to the Election Commission within 75 days of completion of Assembly Elections.

· The expenditure statement contains details of the total amount received as funds in the form of cash, cheques and demand drafts and the total amount spent under various heads.

· The expenditure statement contains information on the amount spent on the following heads at the central, state, district andconstituency levels by the party:

o Publicity

o Travel expenses

o Other expenses

o Expenditure towards candidates

· Political parties submit these statements providing information of funds collected and spent between announcement and completion of elections. This period could be between 3 weeks to 3 months based on the notification issued by the Election Commission.

· This report analyses the funds received and expenditure incurred by recognized political parties, during the state Assembly election to Karnataka, held in the month of May, 2018.

· 6 National Parties and 7 Regional Parties have been considered for analysis in this report.

· Election expenditure statements of JD(S), SHS, and JD(U) for Karnataka Assembly Election are unavailable on the website of the ECI.

Details provided in the Election Expenditure Statement

Funds Collected and Expenditure incurred by political parties

· Total funds collected by 8 political parties during Karnataka Assembly Election held in 2018 was Rs 356.04 cr and total expenditure incurred was Rs 170.16 cr.

· BSP and AIFB had not declared any funds collected at the Central Headquarters and State Units during Karnataka Assembly Election, 2018.

· Funds collected by the parties at the Central Headquarters was Rs 269.94 cr and expenditure was Rs 112.144 cr. Karnataka State Unitsspent Rs 58.014 cr.

Graph: Total funds collected and expenditure incurred by political parties during Karnataka Assembly Election, 2018

Graph: Funds collected and expenditure incurred by political parties (less JDS) from Central Headquarters and State Units during Karnataka Assembly Election, 2018

Expenditure incurred by political parties under various heads

· Political parties declare their expenditure under the heads of Publicity, Travel Expenses, Other/ Miscellaneous expenses andLumpsum amount paid to their contesting candidates.

· Political Parties that contested in Karnataka Assembly Election, 2018, spent the highest, Rs 129.72 cr on Publicity, followed by Rs 30.06 cr on travel expenses, Rs 17.84 cr on Lumpsum amount paid to candidates and Rs 9.63 cr on Other/Miscellaneous expenses.

· Expenditure on publicity is 69.28% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.

· Expenditure on travel expenses is 16.05% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.

Graph Expenditure incurred by political parties (less JDS) under various heads during Karnataka Assembly Election, 2018

Expenditure on Travel by political parties

· The ‘Travel’ head is segregated into travel expenses incurred specifically on star campaigners and that of the party leaders.

· Political parties spent 92.68% of their total travel expenses or Rs 27.86 cr on their star campaigners and the remaining 7.32% or Rs 2.20 cr on travel of their party leaders.

· Travel expenses from Central Headquarters by itself was Rs 17.52 cr or 58.28%, which was higher than Rs 12.54 cr or 41.72% spent fromKarnataka State Units.

Graph: Expenditure incurred on Travel by political parties during Karnataka Assembly Election, 2018

Observations of ADR

· The election expenditure statement of JDS is not yet available in the public domain despite contesting in Karnataka Assembly Election 2018 and emerging as the ruling party in the state.

· AIFB has not mentioned any funds collected and expenditure incurred from it Central Headquarter and State Unit in spite of contesting elections. NCP and AIADMK collected funds from the Central Headquarters and State Units respectively but have not shown any expenditure incurred in their statements.

· The expenditure statement of CPI does not provide any information about the breakup of general party propaganda expenses incurred by party headquarter.

Recommendations of ADR

· It must be made mandatory for all political parties to submit their statements of expenditure in the format given by the ECI, within the prescribed time limit. Political parties not submitting on time or in the prescribed format should be heavily penalized.

· The details of all donors who contribute to national and regional parties exclusively for their election campaigns must be declared in the public domain irrespective of the amount donated.

· A format similar to the donations report along with the date of donations, submitted to the ECI on an annual basis, has to be prescribed for the expenditure statement so as to bring in more transparency in the finances of the political parties especially during elections when it is said that black money plays a major role.

· Where possible, the expenditure must be limited to transactions via cheque/DD/RTGS so as to reduce the use of black money in elections, as per the transparency guidelines issued by the ECI.

· Similar to the shadow observers of the ECI for monitoring expenditure of candidates, there must also be observers for monitoring the expenditure of political parties.