-PTI   Within hours of Supreme Court dismissing the review petition in the Vodafone's tax case, government on Tuesday refunded about Rs 2,500 crore plus four percent interest to the firm. When asked, a Vodafone spokesman said "the money has been refunded--Rs 2500 crore plus four per cent interest". Earlier, Law Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters that the government would have to repay the money. "To curative petition to my knowledge ... I suppose...

Madrasa managements across the country are keenly watching the budget session of Parliament. No, they are not looking forward to the kind of budget that will be presented by the Finance Minister. Their anxiety is to see the promised relief coming in the Right to Education (RTE) Act for minority institutions. The government has promised to bring amendments to certain sections of the Act seen as having a ‘negative impact'...

India's decision this month to produce Germany-based multinational Bayer's anti-cancer drug Nexavar, in the first use of "compulsory licensing" in South Asia, will save lives but also raises intricate questions. Under the compulsory licensing process, a government can under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules bypass a patent owner's rights after three years and order the manufacture and sale of life-saving medicines at much cheaper cost than by obtaining the medicine from...

-The Hindu   Chief Minister dwells on findings of experts' panel The State government's Rs.500-crore package for infrastructure development in Kudankulam consists of facilities for repairs of mechanised boats of fishermen and fish cold storage, according to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. Announcing the State government's decision on the resumption of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNNP) in a five-page statement, Ms. Jayalalithaa stated that the package also included housing and road infrastructure improvement. She gave an...

-The Economic Times Data released by the Planning Commission on Monday showed that poverty had significantly declined between 2004-05 and 2009-10. The catch is that this decline is based on a poverty line that is even lower than the earlier Rs 32-per-day mark that had triggered an outrage when the government submitted it to the Supreme Court.  The new estimates are based on a poverty line that averages Rs 672.8 per month...