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India’s Top Corporations Funding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party
According to a Reuters analysis of public records, the headquarters of an electoral trust operated by just two individuals is located behind the doors of a small, unassuming office in the heart of New Delhi in India.
The Prudent Electoral Trust has raised $272 million since its inception in 2013, with around 75% of that going to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party. The trust’s donations to the BJP are ten times greater than the $20.6 million it gave to the opposition Congress party, according to the data.
The previous Congress-led administration established electoral trusts in 2013 to enable for tax-free contributions to political parties. It stated that the approach will increase transparency in campaign financing by lowering cash contributions, which are more difficult to trace.
However, other election experts argue that the trusts contribute to opacity surrounding political party finance in India, where this year’s general election, set to take place within weeks, is projected to put Modi to power for a rare third term, according to surveys.
While Prudent does not disclose how specific corporate donors’ gifts are divided, Reuters examined public documents from 2018 to 2023 to trace flows from some of India’s major corporations.
According to Reuters, eight of India’s largest business groups donated at least $50 million to the trust between 2019 and 2023, after which the foundation delivered cheques to the BJP.
Four businesses mentioned by Reuters in transactions – steel company ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel), telco Bharti Airtel, infrastructure developer GMR, and energy major Essar – have not provided money to the party directly and are not on its donor list.
In response to Reuters‘ inquiry, GMR and Bharti Airtel stated that Prudent selects how donations are disbursed.
Prudent makes decisions
Prudent makes decisions “as per their internal guidelines, which we are unaware of,” according to a GMR spokesman. He also stated that the corporation doesn’t “like to align with any political party.”
Bharti Airtel, which founded Prudent before handing over authority to independent auditors Mukul Goyal and Venkatachalam Ganesh in 2014, claimed it has “no influence on the decisions, directions, and mode of disbursal of funds.” The other groups’ spokespeople did not return phone calls, text messages, or emails.
Goyal and Ganesh did not react to inquiries received via email or post. When asked about how Prudent worked during a brief phone chat, Goyal responded, “That is something we do not discuss.”
Prudent, the largest of India’s 18 electoral trusts, is legally compelled to reveal how much it has collected from each contributor and how much it has given to each party.
However, it is the only one of India’s four main electoral trusts that accepts contributions from multiple corporate groups.
Trusts “provide one layer of separation between firms and parties,” said Milan Vaishnav, an expert on Indian campaign money at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank in Washington.
Political funding in India is typically seen as murky, with the majority of political donations remaining undeclared, Vaishnav stated.
Financial influence over India’s Congress
The BJP’s most recent public statement in March 2023 stated that their political war chest, which included financial reserves and assets, was worth 70.4 billion rupees ($850 million).
This provides it a massive financial advantage over Congress, which has 7.75 billion rupees in funds. BJP spokespersons did not reply to many requests for comment on this story.
According to the documents, Prudent was also the highest known donor to the Congress party in the decade leading up to March 2023.
In a February campaign finance verdict, India’s Supreme Court stated that corporate contributions are “purely business transactions with the intent of securing benefits in return.”
Reuters was unable to determine whether political parties know the identities of contributors who give through trusts that accept contributions from multiple groups.
MV Congress’s head of research, Rajeev Gowda, told Reuters that electoral trusts are a “semi-fig-leaf” and that he believes parties know the donors’ identities. Gowda, who does not oversee the party’s finances, did not give evidence.
Companies affiliated with billionaires
The Tata Group’s Progressive Electoral Trust is the BJP’s next greatest known donor, having donated the party 3.6 billion rupees collected from the conglomerate’s firms. Progressive is also Congress’ second-largest donor, having contributed 655 million rupees.
Progressive’s bylaws require it to distribute funds in accordance to the number of seats held by each party in parliament. Prudent has no equivalent limits, and a Reuters review of its donations revealed no such pattern.
Trusts may retain up to 300,000 rupees for annual operational expenses. Remaining funds must be disbursed during the fiscal year in which they were received.
In its study of Prudent’s contribution reports filed with electoral officials, Reuters discovered 18 transactions between 2019 and 2022 in which the eight corporate entities made big gifts to the trust. Prudent promptly issued cheques to the BJP for the same sums.
Prior to the 18 contributions, which do not include all of the groups’ gifts to Prudent, the trust lacked sufficient funds to make payments to the BJP. Companies affiliated with billionaire L.N. Mittal’s ArcelorMittal group were among Prudent’s most generous donors.
On July 12, 2021, for example, ArcelorMittal Design and Engineering Centre Private Limited handed Prudent a cheque for 500 million rupees ($6.03 million). Prudent issued a check to the BJP for the same amount the following day.
ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India also granted Prudent 200 million rupees on November 1, 2021, and 500 million rupees on November 16, 2022. The corresponding sums were sent to the BJP on November 5, 2021, and November 17, 2022. A spokesperson for ArcelorMittal did not reply to calls for comment.
Massive Corporate Funding
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel released 250 million rupees to Prudent on January 13, 2022, and 150 million rupees on March 25, 2021. On January 14, 2023 and March 25, 2021, the trust issued cheques to the BJP in the amounts specified.
Three firms in the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group – Haldia Energy India, Phillips Carbon Black, and Crescent Power – issued cheques for 250 million rupees, 200 million rupees, and 50 million rupees on March 15, March 16, and March 19, 2021.
Prudent gave the BJP a 450-million-rupee cheque on March 17, and another 50-million-rupee payment on March 20.
Reuters was unable to find a similar pattern of monies being deposited to the trust and then quickly transferred to Congress.
However, Reuters discovered a similar pattern involving two regional parties. Megha Engineering and Infrastructure transferred 750 million rupees to Prudent in three separate transactions between July 5 and July 6, 2022.
On July 7, the trust gave a cheque for 750 million rupees to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, a centrist party in Telangana state, where the Megha group is based.
On November 27, 2020, Avinash Bhosale Group, a property developer situated in the western Maharashtra state, paid Prudent 50 million rupees.
On November 30, the trust sent a cheque for that amount to the Maharashtra Pradesh Nationalist Congress Party, which is independent of the national Congress party.
The corporate groupings did not immediately respond to calls for comment. The BRS’s general secretary stated he was “not aware” of the specifics of the donations, while a senior NCP official noted the party had recently split and “every record will not be available with us.”
According to public records and party reports, the BJP’s war chest has increased from 7.8 billion rupees ($94.09 million) in March 2014 to 70.4 billion rupees in March 2023. Congress’s funds climbed from 5.38 billion rupees to 7.75 billion rupees during the same time frame.
BJP and Congress a concern
The fundraising difference between the BJP and the Congress is cause for concern, according to Jagdeep Chhokar of the Association of Democratic Reforms, a Delhi-based civil society organization that was the primary petitioner in the Supreme Court’s electoral bonds case.
“Level playing field is an essential part of democracy,” he went on to say.
Some BJP officials have previously claimed that the vast money raised on its books demonstrate the party’s transparency.
Electoral bonds, a structure that permitted contributors to provide limitless amounts to parties without public disclosure, have benefited the BJP the most.
It received 65.66 billion rupees out of the 120.1 billion rupees in such bonds sold during their inception in January 2018 and March 2023. In all but one fiscal year since their introduction, such bonds accounted for more than half of the BJP’s total contributions.
In February, the Supreme Court declared the method “unconstitutional” and ordered the government-owned State Bank of India, which issued the bonds, to disclose buyer information. Specifics will be available by March 15.
Source: Reuters
News
Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion
A recent report indicates that since Trudeau’s announcement of his gun buyback program four years ago, almost none of the banned firearms have been surrendered.
The federal government plans to purchase 2,063 firearm models from retailers following the enactment of Bill C-21, which amends various Acts and introduces certain consequential changes related to firearms. It was granted royal assent on December 15 of last year.
This ban immediately criminalized the actions of federally-licensed firearms owners regarding the purchase, sale, transportation, importation, exportation, or use of hundreds of thousands of rifles and shotguns that were previously legal.
The gun ban focused on what it termed ‘assault-style weapons,’ which are, in reality, traditional semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have enjoyed popularity among hunters and sport shooters for over a century.
In May 2020, the federal government enacted an Order-in-Council that prohibited 1,500 types of “assault-style” firearms and outlined specific components of the newly banned firearms. Property owners must adhere to the law by October 2023.
Trudeau’s Buyback Hasn’t Happened
“In the announcement regarding the ban, the prime minister stated that the government would seize the prohibited firearms, assuring that their lawful owners would be ‘grandfathered’ or compensated fairly.” “That hasn’t happened,” criminologist Gary Mauser told Rebel News.
Mauser projected expenses ranging from $2.6 billion to $6.7 billion. The figure reflects the compensation costs amounting to $756 million, as outlined by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).
“The projected expenses for gathering the illegal firearms are estimated to range from $1.6 billion to $7 billion.” “This range estimate increases to between $2.647 billion and $7 billion when compensation costs to owners are factored in,” Mauser stated.
Figures requested by Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs concerning firearms prohibited due to the May 1, 2020 Order In Council reveal that $72 million has been allocated to the firearm “buyback” program, yet not a single firearm has been confiscated to date.
In a recent revelation, Public Safety Canada disclosed that the federal government allocated a staggering $41,094,556, as prompted by an order paper question from Conservative Senator Don Plett last September, yet yielded no tangible outcomes.
An internal memo from late 2019 revealed that the Liberals projected their politically motivated harassment would incur a cost of $1.8 billion.
Enforcement efforts Questioned
By December 2023, estimates from TheGunBlog.ca indicate that the Liberals and RCMP had incurred or were responsible for approximately $30 million in personnel expenses related to the enforcement efforts. The union representing the police service previously stated that the effort to confiscate firearms is a “misdirected effort” aimed at ensuring public safety.
“This action diverts crucial personnel, resources, and funding from tackling the more pressing and escalating issue of criminal use of illegal firearms,” stated the National Police Federation (NPF).
The Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association (CSAAA), representing firearms retailers, has stated it will have “zero involvement” in the confiscation of these firearms. Even Canada Post held back from providing assistance due to safety concerns.
The consultant previously assessed that retailers are sitting on almost $1 billion worth of inventory that cannot be sold or returned to suppliers because of the Order-In-Council.
“Despite the ongoing confusion surrounding the ban, after four years, we ought to be able to address one crucial question.” Has the prohibition enhanced safety for Canadians? Mauser asks.
Illegally Obtained Firearms are the Problem
Statistics Canada reports a 10% increase in firearm-related violent crime between 2020 and 2022, rising from 12,614 incidents to 13,937 incidents. In that timeframe, the incidence of firearm-related violent crime increased from 33.7 incidents per 100,000 population in 2021 to 36.7 incidents the subsequent year.
“This marks the highest rate documented since the collection of comparable data began in 2009,” the criminologist explains.
Supplementary DataData indicates that firearm homicides have risen since 2020. “The issue lies not with lawfully-held firearms,” Mauser stated.
Firearms that have been banned under the Order-in-Council continue to be securely stored in the safes of their lawful owners. The individuals underwent a thorough vetting process by the RCMP and are subject to nightly monitoring to ensure there are no infractions that could pose a risk to public safety.
“The firearms involved in homicides were seldom legally owned weapons wielded by their rightful owners,” Mauser continues. The number of offenses linked to organized crime has surged from 4,810 in 2016 to a staggering 13,056 in 2020.
“If those in power … aim to diminish crime and enhance public safety, they ought to implement strategies that effectively focus on offenders and utilize our limited tax resources judiciously to reach these objectives,” he stated.
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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue
Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.
According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.
Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.
Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.
Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.
To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.
Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.
Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.
TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.
When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.
And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.
Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.
A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.
Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.
But today, it feels more like reality.
Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.
SOURCE | CNN
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.
(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.
The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.
Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.
This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.
In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.
The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.
This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.
The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.
In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.
According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.
Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.
The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.
For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.
Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.
As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.
As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.
The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.
SOURCE: AP
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