THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-December 23, 2016- Topic 1
Income tax authorities on the trail of
illegal acts of money exchange in commercial banks following the demonetisation
are netting bigger fish than they may have expected. Investigations into the
hoarding of new currency notes in the denomination of Rs. 2,000 have implicated
not only mining barons and contractors, but also government officials and
politicians. But with Wednesday’s searches in the residence and
office premises of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao (who
has since been replaced) leading to the
seizure of loads of cash and gold, expectations are that more high-profile
personalities will come under the scanner of the enforcement agencies trying to
grapple with diversion of currency notes by bank officials to those in need of
converting their stockpiles of ill-gotten high-value currency notes. It is now
clear that in the first few days after the demonetisation
announcement, when government-imposed limits on
withdrawals were in force, and people were queuing up before banks, several
unscrupulous officials of both public sector and private banks conspired to
convert demonetised notes to benefit black marketeers and corrupt public
servants. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have accounted for most of the seizures,
running to more than a hundred crore rupees in new notes, but this is surely an
all-India phenomenon. If other States have not witnessed such seizures, it is
more likely due to failure
Many of these cases would not have come
to light but for the illegal exchange of old notes that the black money
hoarders were forced to undertake following the demonetisation. Whatever the
flaws in the implementation of the demonetisation process — and there are
indeed many — the fact remains that it was the demonetisation drive that enabled
the law enforcement agencies to get to some of the money-launderers. Although
the seizures are huge, these are not much more than the tip of the proverbial
black money iceberg. That black marketeers and corrupt public servants have
been able to quickly change so much of their under-the-radar wealth into new
currency notes easily explains how most of the notes out of the Rs.15.4 lakh
crore that were in circulation before the demonetisation have been returned to
banks a week before the December 30 deadline. By all accounts, deposits in the
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for black money disclosure are not very
significant. The Centre is therefore under pressure to prove that the
demonetisation drive has been effective in unearthing black money. Substantial
seizures from the corrupt is a way of signalling this, and it will be no
surprise if the raids only intensify in the days to come.
Vocabulary
Trail: a mark or a series of signs or objects left behind by the
passage of someone or something.
Example: A trail of blood on the grass
Synonyms: series, string, chain, succession, sequence, aftermath, wake
Netting: open-meshed material made by knotting together twine,
wire, rope, or thread.
Example: She makes wonderful things out of papier-mache, and chicken netting and
copper wire.
Hoarding: amass money or valued objects and hide or store away.
Example: Thousands of antiques hoarded by a compulsive collector
Synonyms: stockpile, store, store up, stock up on, put
aside, put by, lay by, lay up
Implicated: show someone to be involved in
a crime.
Example: Police claims implicated him in many more killings
Synonyms: incriminate, compromise, involve, connect, link, embroil, enmesh
Enforcement: the act of compelling
observance of or compliance with a law, rule, or obligation.
Example: The strict enforcement of environmental regulations
Grapple: engage in a close fight or struggle without weapons;
wrestle.
Example: Passersby grappled with the man after the knife attack
Synonyms: wrestle, struggle, tussle, brawl, fight, scuffle, battle
Stockpiles: accumulate a large stock of goods
or materials.
Example: He claimed that the weapons were being stockpiled
Synonyms: store up, amass, accumulate, store (up), stock up
on, hoard, cache
Conspire: make secret plans jointly to commit an unlawful or
harmful act.
Example: They conspired against him
Synonyms: plot, scheme, plan, intrigue, machinate, collude, connive, collaborate
Phenomenon: a fact or situation that is
observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in
question.
Example: Glaciers are unique and interesting natural phenomena
Synonyms: occurrence, event, happening, fact, situation, circumstance, experience
Flaw: a mark, fault, or other imperfection that mars a
substance or object.
Example: Plates with flaws in them were sold at the outlet store
Synonyms: defect, blemish, fault, imperfection, deficiency, weakness, weak
spot
Indeed: used to emphasize a statement or response confirming
something already suggested.
Example: It was not expected to last long, and indeed it took less than three weeks
Synonyms: as expected, to be sure, in fact, in point of fact, as
a matter of fact
Disclosure: the action of making new or
secret information known.
Example: A judge ordered the disclosure of the government documents
Synonyms: revelation, declaration, announcement, news, report, leak
Unearthing: find something in the ground
by digging.
Following last year's trench
excavation at the site by Channel Four's Time Example:
Team, experts, students and local volunteers have returned to the
grounds to unearth the remains of Sion Abbey.
Synonyms: dig up, excavate, exhume, disinter, root
out, unbury