-The Business Standard The government runs out of money for fertiliser subsidy The government, according to recent newspaper reports, finds itself unable to clear the mounting subsidy dues of the fertiliser industry — the budgetary allocation for this purpose has already exhausted. This is as much a reflection on the shocking flaws in the Budget-making exercise for this financial year as on India’s misguided fertiliser subsidy policy. The arrears payable to...

-The Times of India The bad news is hidden inside the good news. Seemingly comforting headlines tell us that inflation has hit a three-year low, with wholesale price increases slowing down to 7.2% in December. But the common man will take a hit with prices of food products shooting up by 11.2% - the highest increase in almost two years. Unlike in previous years, when increasing food prices were attributed to...

-Reuters India’s efforts to clamp down on illegal mining have handed a $15 billion lifeline to global iron ore giants, and there could be more to come. Steps taken by central and state authorities to clean up the mining and export of iron ore have shut down output in two key producing states, slashing shipments and forcing steel mills to import a raw material the country has in abundance. Now the Shah Commission,...

-The Economic Times It has never happened since Independence. May be not even in the last 1,000 years what happened during October 2011-September 2012. India exported 10 million tonnes of rice, valued at around $6 billion, becoming the largest exporter of rice, replacing Thailand and Vietnam, generally the two largest exporters of rice. This is now known to many in rice circles. But what is little known is that in 2011-12, India also emerged...

-The Business Standard The move is aimed at having a stringent regulatory system while bringing in uniformity in approach for pricing of drugs  The drug price regulator would now visit manufacturing facilities of pharmaceutical companies while fixing prices of essential medicines. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has issued internal guidelines putting in place norms for verification of actual cost data, provided by companies, through plant visits.  The move is aimed at...