-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The bread you eat everyday could be pushing you closer to cancer. More than 80% of 38 popular brands of breads, buns and ready-to-eat burger and pizza tested positive for potassium bromate and iodate, a study by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment says. The first of the two chemicals is a category 2B carcinogen – that can possibly cause cancer – and the second is known to...

-The Hindu The belt-tightening requires the poor to pay increased indirect taxes while the cushion of the social sector is consistently taken away from them. There is always a hype around a Union Budget but this time around, the expectations were running sky-high in terms of it being the make-or-break Budget for the Narendra Modi-led government since it happens to be in the middle of his five-year term. I must say at...

-The Tribune While giving concessions worth Rs.1,000 crore in the direct taxes paid by the rich, the government plans to net an extra Rs. 19,000 crore in indirect taxes, which are contributed by all. This reveals a regressive intent. Like all Union budgets, this one also is long on promises but hides the real dynamics, namely, how the resources are to be raised for the promised very substantial expenditures. The budget is...

-Business Standard Indian economy is closely integrated with the global economy, which is facing a slowdown, and so the headwinds are difficult to avoid, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian told journalists in an interaction after presenting the Economic Survey 2015-16. In this uncertain environment, monetary and fiscal policies should aim to purchase insurance, so to speak, against the global slowdown, he said. Edited excerpts: * In the backdrop of a global slowdown,...

-The Hindu The lack of any established principles or credible data prompts demands for reservation such as those of the Patels and Jats.The solution lies in shuffling reserved categories. It is only when Jats, Gujjars or Muslims demand reservation, and particularly when these demands become aggressive, that our political system suddenly wakes up and takes notice. However, this notice is simply confined to ascertaining whether the specific group demanding reservation is worthy...