Jairam wonders why Aadhaar talk postponed

Ramesh said members had two days back got an official notice from the Rajya Sabha secretariat on a discussion being listed on Aadhaar on Wednesday. However, this morning another notice came saying the discussion has been postponed. When he inquired the reasons for postponement, “I was informed that the Finance Minister is unwell” and will not be available to reply to the discussion tomorrow. He however said Jaitley, who was sitting in the House, looked hail and hearty and sought to know why was the debate postponed. “Will he be unwell tomorrow,” Ramesh asked much to the amusement of the members. Jaitley, who had on Monday taken ill and not attended Parliament, did not respond to Ramesh.

Public sector banks have been able to recover only a fraction of the more than Rs 8,000 crore loan outstanding against embattled businessman Vijay Mallya, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. Banks had reported Rs 8,191 crore as loan outstanding against Mallya as on December 31, 2016, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in the Rajya Sabha. “As reported by PSBs, amount of Rs 155 crore has been recovered by conducting online mega auction by selling from seized properties from defaulting loan borrower Vijay Mallya,” Gangwar said.