Governments find themselves expanding the entitlements of the least productive - farmers and bureaucrats - and abridging those of the more productive parts of the workforce.
'All of Indira Gandhi's bad economic ideas are being strengthened, from nationalised banks to anti-poverty, handout yojanas,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Indian elections are puzzling, to say the least. In Rajasthan, despite rolling out several pro-poor policies -- such as free medicine and a pension scheme for the poor -- the Congress lost resoundingly. In Mizoram, it won resoundingly, for precisely that reason -- pro-poor policies.
Narendra Modi on Thursday trained his guns on Sonia Gandhi, saying she should speak up on coal and 2G spectrum scams as he alleged that the Congress was "misleading" the country on issues like development, inflation and employment generation.
The new mining policy must be rock solid
Former Telecom Minister A Raja on Sunday said he was ready to serve life imprisonment if a single rupee or dollar was found in any offshore account in his name.
Rumour has it that former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad had once misbehaved with Amit Khare, the then district commissioner of Chaibasa in south Bihar, in full public view. The incident was enough to enrage the strong lobby of Indian Administrative Service officers to take on the all-powerful chief minister.
A top Home Ministry official said no note has been prepared yet to be placed before tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the Cabinet to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Admittedly, EVMs too have a UID number and any convergence of data can make the secret ballot system a party of history, warns Dr Gopal Krishna in the 5th part of his series against Aadhaar.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is meeting state finance ministers on Thursday to garner support for the Constitution Amendment Bill for a goods & services tax (GST), is likely to immediately dole out about Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) in Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation to states.
Infrastructure investments in politically-expedient sectors such as water supply, sanitation and irrigation have seen an increase during the first year of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17), but the same did not get replicated in other critical sectors.
The World Bank said improved infrastructure, specifically rural electrification, has had far-ranging effects
The shift was sudden, quite unlike Shukla's departure from North Block, which had been anticipated for some months even before Singh''s first Budget.
'I may not indulge in chest thumping to express my patriotism every day.' 'I may be cynical about many things happening in our country.' 'I may not roar Bharat Mata Ki Jai at the top of my voice. But I still love my country, just as one loves one's parents with all their weaknesses.' 'Does that make me any less of a patriot?' asks Shobha Warrier.
Entrepreneurs, however, say they are unsure when the many obstacles in India will be cleared.
If the EC decides to put on hold a gas price revision for RIL, it would set a precedent for pricing decisions of the government and policy decisions taken but undergoing procedural delays.
The much-touted Food Security Bill was taken up in Rajya Sabha, with opposition terming it as a "gimmick" with an eye on elections and accusing government of violating constitutional norms by issuing an ordinance when Parliament session was less than a month away.
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Sakshi Balani presents an FAQ on the Food Security Bill that was passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The new Companies Bill will boost such spending by both public and private companies. Praful Patel, Union minister for heavy industries & public enterprises, speaks to Business Standard on the issue.
Report card of the Narendra Modi-led central government for the first six months, on the basis of ratings by top CEOs, under key parameters.
The Oil Ministry is seeking Cabinet nod to allow Reliance Industries to retain three gas discoveries worth $1.45 billion in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block even after expiry of timelines.
The project has been delayed by three years, after a consortium of Port of Singapore and ABG Ports, which had won the bid by offering to share more than 50 per cent of the revenue with JNPT, backed off from the project, citing several reasons.
While the Delhi and Haryana governments have declared that they are all set to roll-out the food security programme on August 20 -- Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary -- there is confusion among the chief ministers about the implementation of the ordinance which gives the right to people to receive adequate quantity of food grains at affordable prices. Anita Katyal reports.
The financial crisis has challenged the intellectual assumptions on which previous regulatory approaches were largely built, and in particular the theory of rational and self-correcting markets.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden speech from Red Fort last Independence Day outlined some grand programmes. Shehzad Poonawalla does a quick check on the progress made.
Despite the rally, on the basis of valuations, Indian markets aren't too expensive, says Christopher Wood, managing director and equity strategist at CLSA.
Since 2000-01, the Indian economy has shown the tendency of being unable to absorb all domestic savings as investments.
Four specific areas will be watched carefully in the first half of FY16
It is actually quite remarkable that EPW has survived for so long. "I see it as a journal of dissent," says Rammanohar Reddy and is thankful to the EPW community for keeping it relevant.
'Rajan brought in a healthy air of competition in the banking sector.'
We should improve the business climate in Mumbai and Delhi, and India's ranking would immediately shoot up, says Bibek Debroy, a full member of NITI Aayog.
'The new generation voter is hyper-nationalistic, but it isn't essentially illiberal.' 'They will find the rants of Adityanath as laughable as Irfan Habib's. They will also find the BJP's polarising approach to vote-gathering unacceptable if it fails to deliver jobs and growth,' says Shekhar Gupta.
This Budget signals a shift from a hand-out to a hand-up economy.
Official websites of some states haven't been updated for years
Attacking the note ban move, Yechury said the PM's assertion that it will impact terror funding has not yielded any result.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the larger interest of the public sector would be fully protected.
'People on both sides of the Hindutva debate need to read and understand the texts first,' Bibek Debroy, translator of the unabridged Mahabharata, tells Kanika Datta as he gets started on a similar project for the Ramayana.
The centre's promise of a new deal for the states is a welcome development.
Experts say the Bill should include higher-value food items than just cereals
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created a flutter with his first Independence Day speech. While diverted the national attention to social issues, Modi smartly avoided political traps.
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