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S.P. Balasubrahmanyam no more
Legendary playback singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on Friday. He was 74. Balasubrahmanyam was hospitalised in August at MGM Healthcare after testing positive for Covid-19, and while he reportedly did well initially, he took a turn for the worse, and was put on a ventilator and ECMO support. On September 4, he tested negative for Covid-19 but continued to be on the ventilator and ECMO even as he participated in passive physiotherapy. "In a further setback this morning, despite maximal life support measures and the best efforts of the clinical team, his condition deteriorated further and he suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest. With profound grief, we regret to inform that he has passed away on September 25th at 13.04 hours," MGM Healthcare said in a media release. Popularly known as SPB, Balasubrahmanyam made his singing debut in 1966 with the Telugu film Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna. He has sung over 40,000 songs in as many as 16 languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. Balasubrahmanyam was also a voice-over artist. He was the voice-over artist for actor Kamal Hassan whenever the latter's Tamil movies were dubbed in Telugu. He has also acted in a few movies. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter. Centre used GST compensation cess elsewhere, violated law: CAG The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found that the Union government, in the very first two years of GST implementation, wrongly retained ₹47,272 crore of GST compensation cess, which was meant to be used specifically to compensate states for loss of revenue. In its audit report of government accounts, the CAG flagged that the amount was to be credited to the non-lapsable GST Compensation Cess collection fund for payment to states for loss of revenue due to implementation of GST since 2017, but the government did not do so, and thus violated the GST law.  The issue of compensation cess has been driving a wedge between the Centre and states at the GST Council, the highest decision-making body of the GST regime. States have still not been paid their promised compensation for letting go their powers to levy taxes on goods and services, since last fiscal. The Centre has maintained that a slowdown in the economy due to the pandemic and lockdown has meant that not enough money was collected. It has instead asked states to borrow for meeting the revenue shortfall. However, the states ruled by the Congress, the Left, TMC and AAP have opposed the move completely, arguing that the Centre should borrow and provide to the states, since the states have transferred the majority of their taxation powers to the Centre under the GST regime introduced in July 2017. Significantly, the CAG's findings run contrary to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's submissions in Parliament last week, that states could not be compensated for revenue shortfall from the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI). She had relied on an opinion from the Attorney General of India that there was no such provision in the law. Vodafone wins international arbitration against India in ₹14,200 crore tax dispute case Vodafone Group Plc has won an international arbitration case against the Indian government in a ₹14,200-crore retrospective tax dispute, Reuters reported. The tribunal ruled that the Indian government's imposition of a tax liability on Vodafone is in breach of the investment treaty agreement between India and the Netherlands. The British telecom giant had moved the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2016. The tribunal, in its ruling, said the government must cease seeking the dues from Vodafone and should also pay over ₹40 crore to the company as partial compensation for its legal costs.  The tax dispute involving ₹12,000 crore in interest and ₹7,900 crore in penalties stems from Vodafone's acquisition of Indian mobile assets from Hutchison Whampoa in 2007. The government said Vodafone was liable to pay taxes on the acquisition, which the company contested. In 2012, India's Supreme Court ruled in favour of the telecom provider but the government later that year changed the rules to enable it to tax deals that had already been concluded. Bharat Bandh: Protests against farm Bills in Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, UP Thousands of farmers across north India hit the streets today to protest against the three farm Bills passed in the monsoon session of Parliament. The protests enjoyed the support of ten central trade unions and several Opposition parties, including the Congress, the DMK, AAP, RJD, Janata Dal and TMC. Farmers blocked traffic on highways leading to Delhi, causing massive jams. Over 250 farmer and farm-worker organisations, under the umbrella of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), had given a call for the 'Bharat bandh'.  Farmers on tractors shout slogans as they arrive to block the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border during a protest against farm bills passed by India's parliament, in Noida. The Congress, which is part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, on Friday said it would work towards ensuring that the farm sector bills are not implemented in the state. "We will work together and take a decision on non- implementation of the new farm laws in Maharashtra," state Congress president and minister Balasaheb Thorat said during a press conference. Bihar assembly poll in three phases Bihar Assembly polls would be held in three phases — October 28, November 3 and November 7 — and votes will be counted on November 10, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced today. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said the number of phases as well as the duration of the conduct of polls has been reduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the polling hours have been increased (except in the Left wing extremism-affected districts) by an hour, from 7 am to 6 p.m. instead of 5 pm, Arora said. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 58,92,518 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 93,385. India for the first time recorded a high of nearly 15 lakh Covid-19 tests being conducted in a single day, according to a release issued by the Health Ministry on Friday. "With 14,92,409 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the cumulative tests have touched nearly 7 crore (6,89,28,440)," the Ministry said.
In Brief:
France opened an anti-terror investigation after two journalists were stabbed in Paris on Friday near the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine that was attacked by Islamist militants in 2015. Prime Minister Jean Castex, who rushed to the scene, said the main attacker had been arrested. A second person was also in custody. "I was in my office. I heard screams in the road. I looked out of the window and saw a woman who was lying on the floor and had taken a whack in the face from what was possibly a machete," a witness told Europe 1 radio. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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