A Unique way to learn Vocab: Grand larceny in Kuala Lumpur

August 10, 2016    

A very good morning to all,…

Here we are with our next article based on current news which contains some difficult words, we will highlight and explain those words in order to improve your vocabulary skills and to have a good command on English language section. Hope this will help you with your preparation.

Article : Grand larceny in Kuala Lumpur

Source : The Hindu Article

Grand larceny in Kuala Lumpur(from The Hindu Article)

Turmoil has gripped Malaysia ever since the U.S. Department of Justice announced on July 20 that the senior-most political leadership in Kuala Lumpur was under suspicion for money laundering and multi-billion dollar theft from Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a corporation tasked expressly with financing Malaysia’s development. The revelation (रहस्योद्घाटन) that this former sovereign wealth fund had been pillaged (छीनना) to the tune of at least $3 billion has ignited (प्रज्वलित) Malaysian pro-democracy groups, and led to calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who until recently chaired the advisory council of MDB. Although Mr. Razak has not been officially named in the U.S. investigation, there are allegations that “Malaysian Official 1” mentioned in the lawsuits may indeed be him. The shadow of MDB has fallen upon some well-known entities and persons in the arenas of global finance and entertainment, including investment bank Goldman Sachs, which raised $1.4 billion that was then “misappropriated and fraudulently diverted to a Swiss offshore company.” It was also ironic that the American DOJ dragnet (महाजाल) pulled in some among those who financed the production of Hollywood blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street. From a global perspective, the ongoing fallout of MDB yet again highlights lack of regulation of dark pools of finance held by the ultra-wealthy and uber-connected. Despite the shockwaves of this year’s Panama Papers scandal, clearly much remains to be done in terms of tightening the laws around how this money gets moved in and out of offshore tax havens, particularly disclosure requirements and information-sharing agreements between authorities across disparate (असदृश) jurisdictions.

The implications of this scandal for Malaysia are far-reaching and fundamental. Along with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, the country is known as a “tiger cub economy” for following in the growth-model footsteps of the tiger economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. A critical element of the economic strategy promoted by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in the early 1990s and successive leaders in Kuala Lumpur was the development of the export sector as an engine of growth. In Malaysia’s case, oil wealth and its evolution as a major centre for Islamic finance added an edge that came from closer ties to West Asian powers, particularly Saudi Arabia. Somewhere along the journey, a sense of elite impunity (दण्ड से मुक्ति) crept in and transformed these inherent (निहित) advantages into rapacious (लालची) tools for self-enrichment. It is the common person of Malaysia who will now be left to pick up the pieces of a crumbling governance model, set aside ethnic rivalries (प्रतिद्वंद्विता) and demand transparent and accountable institutions.

Meaning of the words highlighted in the article

1. Revelation (noun) – a surprising and previously unknown fact that has been disclosed to others

Synonyms – betrayal, divination

Antonyms – concealment, secret

Ex: The revelation also threw a new light on why Alex halted his life to take care of Katie.

2. Pillaged (verb)– rob a (place) using violence, especially in wartime

Synonyms – arrogate, ravage

Antonyms – construct, protect

Ex: The neighbors devastated the garden and pillaged the rare flowers.

3. Ignited (verb)– catch fire or cause to catch fire

Synonyms – kindle, inflame

Antonyms – quench, extinguish

Ex: A spark of the old humor ignited in the amber eyes and she canted her head toward her father.

4. Dragnet (noun) – a net drawn through a river or across ground to trap fish or game

Synonyms – chase, pursuit

Antonyms – retreat

Ex: Our luck is like water in a dragnet: you pull at it and it bulges, but when you’ve drawn it out it’s empty!

5. Disparate (adjective) – essentially different in kind, not able to be compared

Synonyms – contrasting, divergent

Antonyms – similar, uniform

Ex: Everyone in the book club has disparate ideas on what we have read, but that’s what makes every discussion so interesting.

6. Impunity (noun) – exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action

Synonyms – liberty, privilege

Antonyms – denial, prohibition

Ex: Today the Internet is a lawless society, hackers can break into computers with relative impunity.

7. Inherent (adjective) – existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute

Synonyms – innate, connate

Antonyms – auxiliary, extrinsic

Ex: While I was dumbfounded, inherent pragmatism caused me to further prompt.

8. Rapacious (adjective) – aggressively greedy or grasping

Synonyms – predatory, ravening

Antonyms – satisfied

Ex: But she appears to have been passionate, exceedingly rapacious and ever careful of her own interest.

9. Rivalries (noun) – competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field

Synonyms –conflict, struggle

Antonyms – accord, agreement

Ex: Various adjustments and modifications still continue, and a number of scattered details may indicate that internal rivalries made themselves felt.

Word of the Day

Tortious

Meaning (English) – constituting a tort, wrongful.

Meaning (Hindi) – अनुचित

Example – Under these clauses of the new act, only when people are committing or threatening to commit a criminal or tortious act can they be prosecuted.

उदाहरण –नए अधिनियम के इन खंडों के अंतर्गत केवल उसी समय लोगों के विरूद्ध मुकदमा चलाया जा सकता है जब वे किसी आपराधिक या अनुचित कार्य को करते हैं या ऐसा करने की धमकी देते हैं।

Loading
Get more English Notes, Study Notes related tests, articles on your Android Phone. Install Now!

Let's block ads! (Why?)

A Unique way to learn Vocab: Grand larceny in Kuala Lumpur 4.5 5 Yateendra sahu August 10, 2016 A very good morning to all,… Here we are with our next article based on current news which contains some difficult words, we will highlight...


Load comments

No comments:

Post a Comment