The Supreme Court has dismissed a curative petition challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as the special director of CBI. In January, the court had rejected a review petition in the matter.

The curative plea was taken up in-chamber by a bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Madan B Lokur, A K Sikri and A M Sapre on December 11.

The court ordered, “We have gone through the curative petition and connected papers. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court (in a 2002 case). Hence, the curative petition is dismissed.”

The NGO Common Cause had approached the court last year challenging Asthana’s appointment, claiming that the CBI director had raised objections to it at the probe agency’s selection committee meeting held on October 21, 2017.

Vindicating the government stand and taking the sting out of the Opposition Congress attack over alleged irregularities in the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France, the Supreme Court Friday dismissed all four petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation, saying it found “no occasion to really doubt the process” of decision making, pricing and selection of offset partners.

It said there was no material to show that the government had favoured anyone commercially. The bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, ruling out any intervention on this “sensitive” issue and underlining that “our country cannot afford to be unprepared/underprepared”, said “perception of individuals cannot be the basis of a fishing and roving enquiry by this court, especially in such matters”.
The judges said “we do not find any substantial material on record to show that this is a case of commercial favouritism to any party by the Indian government, as the option to choose the IOP (Indian Offset Partner) does not rest with the Indian government”.

The choice of Reliance Aerostructure Ltd as an offset partner by Dassault Aviation Ltd, which manufactures the Rafale, was one of the issues raised by the petitioners who alleged that the deal was tweaked to favour the Anil Ambani-owned company.

India will be launching GSAT 7A, a military communication satellite for the Indian Air Force (IAF), on December 19 with its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk II) rocket, said Indian space agency.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), its GSLV rocket will launch the 2,250-kg communication satellite, GSAT-7A from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

The Indian space agency said just over 19 minutes after GSLV rocket's lift-off, GSAT 7A will be injected into a geosynchronous transfer orbit from where it would be lifted to its final geostationary orbit.

The satellite with a maximum life of eight years will be for the use of IAF. The satellite is built to provide communication capability to the users in Ku-band over the Indian region.

Earlier, ISRO had sent up GSAT 7 or Rukmini, a communication satellite, for use by the Indian Navy.

India and Saudi Arabia signed the 2019 Bilateral Annual Haj Agreement on Thursday. Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Saudi Arabia's Haj and Umrah Minister Mohammad Saleh bin Taher Benten were at the event

Mr Naqvi said the Saudi government has always played an active role in ensuring the safety and comfort of Indian Haj pilgrims and that has strengthened bilateral relations. India-Saudi Arabia relations have achieved new heights under the leadership and guidance of Saudi Arabia's King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he was quoted as saying by his office.

Mr Naqvi said a large number of Muslim women are likely to go to Haj without 'Mehram' (male companion) next year. More than 2,100 women have already applied.

India and Russia agreed to extend bilateral cooperation on defence joint-venture (JV) manufacturing projects on Thursday (December 13) at the 18th meeting of the India-Russia Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC).

The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Russian counterpart General Sergei Shoigu.

Intensive discussions were held on joint manufacturing projects, including the Kamov-226T helicopters, naval frigates and projects related to land systems.

The two countries also agreed to take forward inter-governmental arrangements for facilitating joint manufacturing of spares for Russian origin equipment in India, under the Make in India’ initiative.

The suspense over the next Rajasthan Chief Minister came to an end when Ashok Gehlot was formally announced as the Rajasthan CM-designate.

After being named the chief minister, Gehlot said, "Sachin Pilot and I will give good governance in Rajasthan."

Following the meeting earlier in the day, Rahul took to Twitter to share a photo with Gehlot and Pilot stating "united colours of Rajasthan", hinting at a possible resolution.

The government has constituted a Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to vet the recommendations of a high-level panel on stressed power projects, as per an official order.

The panel, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, had submitted its report last month.

“It has been decided with approval of the Prime Minister, to constitute a Group of Ministers (GOM) to examine the specific recommendations of High Level Empowered Committee constituted to address the issue of stressed power projects and forward their comments for consideration by the Cabinet,” the order said.

The International Monetary Fund said that global debt has reached an all-time high of 184 trillion US dollars with the United States, China and Japan accounting for more than half of it.

According to the IMF report, the amount in nominal terms, is the equivalent of 225 per cent of the world GDP in 2017. 

On average, the world's debt now exceeds 86,000 dollars per person, which is more than two and half times the average income per-capita. IMF said it is striking that the most indebted economies in the world are also the richer ones.   

Since the beginning of the millennium, China's share in global debt has gone up from less than three per cent to over 15 per cent.

India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday signed a $60 million loan agreement to reduce floods and the riverbank erosion in Assam, the Finance Ministry said.

"The Tranche 2 loan is part of the $120 million multi-tranche financing facility for the Assam Integrated Flood and Riverbank Erosion Risk Management Investment Program approved by the ADB Board in October 2010," a Finance Ministry statement said.

The loan aims to continue financing riverbank protection works, renovation of flood embankments and community-based flood risk management activities in critically flood-prone areas along the Brahmaputra river in Assam.

While Finance Ministry Additional Secretary Sameer Kumar Khare signed the deal on behalf of the Central government, ADB's India Resident Mission Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama signed it on behalf of the multilateral lending agency.

Producer-director Brijendra Pal Singh was appointed as the new president of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and chairman of the institute's governing council by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Thursday.
Mr Singh, best known as the producer-director of popular TV series 'CID', is currently the vice-chairman of the FTII governing council. He succeeds veteran actor Anupam Kher, who had stepped down as the chairman in October citing "international commitments".

"The tenure of Singh, who succeeds Anupam Kher, will be for the remaining period of block of three years starting from March 3, 2017 as per the provisions of FTII rules," an FTII release said.

The FTII functions as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Mr Singh is an alumnus of the FTII (1970-73 batch), and specialised in film cinematography.

The Singh-helmed crime drama recently completed a record 21 years of unbroken run on Sony TV.

In 2004, Mr Singh made it to the Limca Book of Records for taking a single continuous shot of 111 minutes to mark the completion of six years of 'CID'.

FTII Director Bhupendra Kainthola said Mr Singh, as a former chairperson of the FTII academic council and current vice-chairman of the governing council, was fully-conversant with all issues of the institute.

"It is his vision that launched FTII's countrywide film education outreach initiative SKIFT (Skilling India in Film and Television) in May 2017, which saw nearly 120 short courses conducted in over 24 cities and towns across India, touching nearly 5,000 learners so far. FTII looks forward to his guidance and support in the times to come," Mr Kainthola said.