Five must-read stories—December 23

I-T lens on 67.5 lakh non-filers who made high-value transactions

The income tax department has identified an additional 67.54 lakh non-filers who carried out high-value transactions in the 2014-15 financial year, but did not file tax returns for 2015-16. The I-T department is set to initiate action against these people soon, reports The Times of India.

Uttar Pradesh and 4 other states may have simultaneous polls

Uttar Pradesh will, in all likelihood, go to polls with four other states—Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, says The Economic Times. The main reason for this is that the Election Commission feels that declaring results of the four assembly polls could influence the voting preference in UP.

RBI’s latest figures on new notes are a mathematical impossibility

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has failed to give a credible account of the new notes supplied to the public. The gap between what the apex bank claims it has disbursed and what, according to its own earlier numbers, it could possibly have disbursed, has now grown to over ₹66,000 crore. An IANS report in The Wire.

How Modi government lobbied Moody's for ratings upgrade, but failed

The Modi government criticised Moody's ratings methods and pushed aggressively for an upgrade, documents reviewed by Reuters show, but the US-based agency declined to budge citing concerns over the country's debt levels and fragile banks. A Reuters report in The Economic Times.

Turning point in Syria as Assad regains all of Aleppo

The seizure of all of Aleppo, Syria’s industrial capital, by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and his allies signals a turning point in the nearly six-year conflict, reports The New York Times.