-The Times of India It isn't just foreign investors who would have remembered the last Budget as a tough one. Even women lost out as the government withdrew tax benefits that were introduced in the form of higher tax exemption limit in 2000-2001. In 2000-01, Yashwant Sinha, the then finance minister, had introduced a special provision under which the basic tax exemption limit for women was pegged higher than that for men....

-The Hindu India’s infrastructure is bursting at the seams, unable to cope with the pressure from the growing economy. Developing the sector will help to create jobs and result in higher economic growth The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to grow 5.5 per cent and the economic slowdown shows no sign of halting. India’s infrastructure is bursting at the seams, unable to cope with the pressure from the growing economy. Spurring...

-Economic and Political Weekly The proposed legislation on the National Food Security Act has been steadily watered down since it was fi rst mooted in 2009. The Parliamentary Standing Committee that examined the 2011 Bill has disappointingly continued with "targeting". If the government passes the bill incorporating the committee's suggestions, a historic opportunity to combat hunger and malnutrition would be lost. Ankita Aggarwal (aggarwal.ankita87@gmail.com) is a Research Scholar at the Centre for...

-The Economic Times BANGALORE: It is one of the most expensive and ambitious projects in India's technology history connecting 2,50,000 gram panchayats in the country with a fibre optic network. It would need Rs 21,000 crore and as it is being planned now, the project needs exceptional project management, cutting-edge technology, and close coordination between several government agencies. While the government is preparing to start the project in the next two months,...

-The Economic Times KORAPUT/NEW DELHI: Villagers protesting against Hindalco's plan to mine bauxite at Mali Parbat in the Koraput district in Odisha have come up with a unique proposal that offers to compensate the state for its loss in revenue from royalty. Forty one villages from the district, two thirds of whose largely tribal population live below poverty line, have proposed to soon pass panchayat resolutions promising to pay Rs 35 crore,...