Senior commerce and consumer affairs officials in the government are unable to explain why public sector firms imported pulses at a loss of up to 30% a year from 2006 to 2011, totaling Rs.1,200 crore, while private sector importers had no such losses.

A third of India's pulse imports are sourced by government groups that tender the legumes on arrival, a process that has benefited some four or five private parties specifically.

Now explanations are demanded for the irregularities that date to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's stewardship of the food and public distribution ministry.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has begun an inquiry.

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A defence ministry investigation has uncovered a Rs.1500 crore land scandal in which private parties were allowed to buy over 200 acres near sensitive military installations in Srinagar, on the basis of no-objection certificates that were given fraudulently by corrupt individuals.

The investigation found that officials of the defence estates department, the state government, and land sharks, colluded to sell land on the fringe of the high security air force station and 15 Corps headquarters.

The Corps are at the centre of counter-terrorism operations in the Valley and are also responsible for guarding a 300 km stretch of the line of control between the Pir Panjal range and Zojila.

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Some months ago the Belgaum district administration in Karnataka ordered ten districts to verify beneficiaries of government pension schemes and were horrified to discover that there are over 72,107 bogus pensioners in the district.

The government has consequently lost several hundreds of crores of rupees in claims for pensions. Some were even made by young healthy people who claimed pensions meant for the physically handicapped

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The so-called 2G Scam that placed a yoke around the neck of the Indian government's reputation, is either a masterstroke of genius, or a sheer accident of good fortune for the people who struck while the telecom signals were hot.

2-G is Second Generation and Spectrum is the Wireless Telephone Technology for the use of cell phones in India.

In 2008 Telecom Minister A Raja issued 122 licences for the 2-G Spectrum to 85 companies given the astronomical rise in demand, Many of the selected companies were amateurs at the enterprise. As will happen, the improper allocations caused huge losses to the Government, estimated (even now) at around Rs.60,000 crores.

That started the blame ball rolling. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India found the process of allocation was skewed, improperly conducted, flawed, prejudiced, secretive, unfair and fraudulent. Also, 9 operators including some market leaders were questionably allotted Spectrum adding to the Government's crushing losses in the case.

Various explanations were offered by the Telecom Ministry that ended up in a maze of buck-passing, denying reponsibility, etc, all of which involve not the purest of politicians. Minister A Raja for his part claimed he did not break any rules and did what he did with the concurrence of PM Manmohan Singh.

As is the norm he was backed by some and not by others and he ended up resigning.

And so, the endless investigation continues, multiple reams of documents are being scrutinised, the Supreme Court joined in the action and arrests were made and more and more enquiries ordered.

As the thus-far inconclusive story evolves, people wonder where this will end, and if indeed the end will be the beginning of another mystery history, and whether future generations will read about it in their political study textbooks.

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India has cancelled the licences of 14 airline pilots after they were accused of faking documents.

According to the director general of civil aviation, the pilots faked their flying hours and a case was filed by police upon which basis their licences have been cancelled.

Media reports of unqualified pilots came after a statement by the civil aviation minister that 57 pilots were caught in 2009 and 2010, with alcohol limits over those permitted, but only 11 were fired.

Authorities are now conducting checks to see if more pilots are flying with false records.

Recently a Spicejet pilot resigned after she was suspended on suspicion she was using false documents to obtain a licence.

Remarkably, India's 6 major carriers flew 52 million people in the year 2010.

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