-The Hindu     Minister relaxed tax benefit-related residency norms for foreign investors Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday allayed apprehensions over the imposition of Wealth tax on agricultural land within urban area limits to provide a big relief to farmers, especially in Haryana and Punjab. Mr. Chidambaram relaxed the tax benefit-related residency norms for foreign investors routing funds through countries such as Mauritius and lowered the withholding tax rate to five per cent from...

-The Hindu Chandigarh: The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab will launch a nation-wide protest against the Centre's proposed move to impose Wealth tax on agricultural land. Describing the decision as a blow to debt-ridden farmers, media advisor to the Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Bains said here on Thursday that the SAD- BJP alliance will also launch state-wide peaceful dharnas from May 2. A decision to this effect was taken at...

-Live Mint Mani Shankar Aiyar, India's first panchyati raj minister, talks about the challenges the institutions face On Wednesday, India marked 20 years of panchayati raj, an exercise in devolving power to people at the grassroots. Rajya Sabha memberMani Shankar Aiyar was India's first panchyati raj minister, appointed to the newly created ministry in 2004. He headed a committee that examined the reasons why attempts at sharing power with self-governance units haven't...

-The Hindu Business Line   The Bill does not take into account the extremely varied nature of land markets. It looks like the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Bill is going to be finally presented in Parliament for passage in the current session. The full details of what is in the current Bill aren't known because over 150 amendments may have been made to the last version that was available for public scrutiny. But...

-The Hindu If a citizen applies to the government for security cover, is the latter bound to oblige him even if he is the country's most Wealthy individual? The short answer is yes, provided the government finds the threat credible. Why then has the decision to accord Mukesh Ambani ‘Z' category security - which is second only to the ‘Z-plus' protection accorded to such VVIPs as the Prime Minister, the President,...