2015 will be a real test for Modi govt.
The three main regulators have different approaches to grievance redressal and different standards to stop harmful from coming pitched at the consumer.
After finishing six months in office, on Thursday, party president Amit Shah released a long list of the achievements of the National Democratic Alliance government. As expected, there was no mention of the Modi government's inability to push through promised reforms in several sectors, like land and health.
The 14-member task-force will develop a working definition of poverty.
Watal panel had suggested an independent payments regulator be set up.
The seventh Tibet Work Forum was held in Beijing on August 28 and 29. Delhi should be deeply concerned, at a time India faces a precarious situation in Ladakh, because the TWF also defines China's western border policies, observes Claude Arpi.
The time is ripe for debate on city governments in India.
The Finance Commission has substantially increased the allocation of funds to panchayats, but a large part of it is apportioned by state governments.
Modi had campaigned with promises of jobs, infrastructure and development.
'The boundary dispute notwithstanding, China has always had leaders who have been, on the whole, positively disposed towards India.' 'Given the centrality of the Chinese Communist Party, we need to strengthen the linkages with the crucial personalities in the highest echelons of the Communist party and political leadership,' notes China expert Alka Acharya.
In a few years from now, India will be looking at an entirely different type of military adversary across the borders, in our waters, in the air, in space and in our communication networks, says Nitin Pai.
NITI Aayog spent a considerable time on restructuring the setup.
The three-time chief minister and senior Congress leader, who gave Delhi its modern look, passed away on Saturday afternoon at a private hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest.
India's majoritarian regime is now making a dangerously fast-paced move towards theocracy, like its western counterpart did a few decades ago, warns Mohammad Sajjad.
India's fiscal deficit trends are a bit like an alcoholic trying, unsuccessfully, to reform. Virtue does not last for too long, says Shankar Acharya.
'The time has come to substitute the present Constitutional set-up with an alternative democratic framework,' argues B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Agricultural incomes can be taxed without hurting farmers, as a substantial section - the small and marginal ones - will remain outside the tax net simply because their incomes are likely to be below the basic exemption limit of Rs 250,000 per annum that is extended to all taxpayers in India, finds out Ishan Bakshi.
The former RBI deputy governor talked about the prospects of an economic revival, reforms in IMF, etc.
Commodity futures market's dream run came to a halt in 2013 as a Rs 5,600 crore scam in Jignesh Shah-led spot exchange NSEL and imposition of transaction tax on non-farm items hampered the growth of business, with turnover estimated to dip by 30 per cent to Rs 125 lakh crore.
'The critics are getting carried away.' 'The challenge for the RBI is not any erosion of autonomy caused by demonetisation.' 'It's the whole attempt to reduce the RBI's stature and role that has been under way,' says T T Ram Mohan.
Addressing a joint session of Parliament on Monday, President Pranab Mukhejee spelled out the Narendra Modi's government's agenda. Here are the highlights of his speech,
Will help in reviving the economy and push investment.
'Providing funds and autonomy to a few institutions that may not have the intent to excel must not become a case of trying to feed those who are not hungry and starving those who are famished,' says Jitendra Kumar Das, Director, FORE School of Management, New Delhi.
The Modi government has not lived up to the muscularity the prime minister promised while campaigning, says Ajai Shukla
It was better to first build a single-rate GST with a low rate, achieve full mastery of this, and then consider more complex possibilities such as high rates and multiple rates.
13 eminent economists, including former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and current International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Gita Gopinath, in a report have asked the political establishment not to resort to populist tricks.
There are some 20-odd schemes with this default provision, or something close to it.
'If some measures are implemented quickly, they can help revive growth.'
'My immediate concern is restoring prestige and decorum of Rajya Sabha...'
Xi Jinping has accumulated great power, but he faces trials that are just as great, says Claude Smadja.
The official cited it as an example of 'how the Chinese military is trying to resolve issues through dialogue mechanisms'.
Teachers across universities are questioning the "thoughtlessness, rushed manner and opacity" of the process in which the UGC announced the introduction of the choice-based credit system across universities in the country.
Dr Swarnim Wagle, the official behind Nepal's reconstruction strategy, speaks to Patrick Ward.
Persistent efforts by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and its full members to block implementation of some crucial recommendations of the Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha committee on Wednesday provoked the Supreme Court to observe that public functions relating to cricket can be taken over by the government with the enactment of a law in Parliament.
'A dangerous and false binary is now surfacing in Indian political discourse, which must be firmly rejected.' 'It is that we have to choose between freedom and development.' 'For us freedom is neither merely an instrument for development nor to be subordinated to development.' 'It is, as our founding fathers proclaimed early in our freedom struggle, 'our birthright' on which we shall never compromise.' 'Growth, wealth and development are fruits of democracy, not substitutes.' Dr Manmohan Singh's thoughts on democracy: A Must Read!
'It is the government's most important duty to ensure that when war breaks out, the armed forces are absolutely ready to face the adversary -- well equipped, well trained and in high spirits,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Ambassador Venu Rajamony, who served as press secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee during his tenure, salutes the statesman and political legend, who passed into the ages on Monday.
'In India, China's capacities to conduct new types of warfare is critically underestimated,' says Claude Arpi.
For 2017-18, the plan size has been pegged by the Railways at Rs 1,31,000 crore.
FM should avoid proposals such as to tax financial transactions and fringe benefits
