Five must-read stories—January 11

SC orders audit of three million NGOs

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that any NGO found to have cooked its books or indulged in misappropriation should be subject to immediate criminal prosecution. Besides, the government should initiate civil recovery proceedings against such rogue organisations. The Court demanded that the government file a compliance report by March 31. The judicial order is unprecedented because defaulting NGOs so far have been only blacklisted by the government. In The Hindu.

Kejriwal as AAP’s Punjab CM?

AAP leader Manish Sisodia triggered on Tuesday a ‘Punjabi vs Outsider’debate by telling people that they should vote in Punjab assuming that Arvind Kejriwal would be the chief minister. Immediately after the Election Commission announced the schedule on January 4, Kejriwal had said the AAP would go to polls in Punjab without projecting a chief ministerial face and that the elected legislators would take a call on who would helm the state if the party won. On Sunday, comedian-MP Bhagwant Mann, the AAP candidate from Jalalabad against Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, had sought to pitch himself as the next chief minister of the state. In The Telegraph.

Automobile sales hit a 16 year low

Sales of two-wheelers and three-wheelers, which are mostly paid for in cash, posted the sharpest decline in monthly sales in some 18 years. Their sales declined 22.04% and 36.23%, respectively. Car sales declined 8.14% in December, the most since April 2015, when they dropped 10.15%. The decline in car sales means that the Indian passenger vehicle industry is unlikely to post double-digit growth for yet another financial year. In Mint.

President Obama’s powerful farewell speech

President Barack Obama in his farewell speech in Chicago called upon Americans to protect democracy. The president called on citizens to maintain faith in democracy by participating in it, such as having an open dialogue with those that disagree and running for office. “Show up. Dive in. Stay at it. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you will lose,” he said. In The Guardian.

PM’s closed door meeting with CEOs

If Modi began his day by skipping yoga to meet his mother, it ended with a closed door meeting with 50 leading CEOs from across the world. Prominent among those were Boeing International president Bertrand Marc Allen, president of Emerson Electric Company, Edward L Monser, Suzuki Motor Corporation president Toshihiro Suzuki, and executive chairman of CISCO John Chambers, Gautam Adani, Anand Mahindra and the Ambani brothers. In The Times of India.