What made news this past fortnight: PM Modi's suit's auction, Deepak Parekh and more

What made news this past fortnight -

LUCKY MODI?

"The thing is that our Prime Minister had a lucky period in these nine months... after nine months, there is a little bit of impatience creeping in..."

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, in an interview to PTI, reported by several newspapers, added his voice to the rising chorus that Narendra Modi has so far been a lucky PM. He added that little had been done in the new government's first nine months to make it easier to do business in India - the cornerstone of the Make in India campaign.

266.272 kg

The amount of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple gold lost when it was out for melting and purification, according to an audit by former CAG Vinod Rai, who is known for his much-debated loss to the government in the so-called 2G scam. The gold lost is nearly 30 per cent of what went out, as reported by The Hindu. The newspaper adds that the last Murajapom, a festival conducted every six years, concluded on January 14, 2014, but the calf elephant to be offered to the deity reached two weeks later. Rai puts the loss due to this delay at Rs 35 lakh.

PRE-NUP BREAKUP

There is one couple that is warring before even marrying, reports Reuters. Readers of this page, admittedly a population that may not be very large, would be familiar with the Mirach Capital Group, which planned to bail out the Sahara Group with a big loan - estimates range between $1 billion and $2 billion. Mirach gave a letter to Sahara that purported to prove the US group had the funds in an account at Bank of America, but after a Reuters report earlier this month raised questions about the authenticity of the document, Sahara said it was a forgery.

"...it's an irony that after having seen lethargic governments, you today have a government which is criticised for being too fast"

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while launching the government's e-biz portal, refused to respond directly to Parekh. But maybe he did respond.

Rs 4,31,31,000

The winning bid for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pinstriped monogrammed suit. It went to Lalji Patel and his son Hitesh, of Surat's Dharmanandan Diamonds. Hitesh, the company's MD, said their mission was to get the suit at any cost. A Rs 5 crore bid was rejected because it came after the auction had closed. The proceeds from the auction, which had 455 other gift items received by Modi, and 361 received by Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, will be spent on cleaning the Ganga.