-PTI   The Competition Commission of India (CCI) today imposed a penalty of Rs 165.58 crore on 48 LPG cylinder makers for forming a Cartel while bidding during the tenders floated by Indian Oil in 2010-11. The competition watchdog imposed the penalty after finding them guilty of manipulating the bids and quoting "identical rates in groups through an understanding and collusion action". The ruling was based on the findings of the CCI's Director General...

Eleven years ago, Muturkham forests, lying southeast of capital Ranchi, used to be the timber mafia’s busy workplace. No different from the rest of the state, which has lost 50% of forest cover to illegal logging in the last 10 years. Until 1999, when Muturkham’s jungle mafia met ‘Lady Tarzan’. Jamuna Tuddu, 32, a short and stout woman belonging to the Santahl tribe who had studied till Class X, led a...

To banish hunger and malnutrition from the country, Parliament is likely to pass the National Food Security Bill (NFSB). In our earlier article on this issue, Can we Afford Rs 6-Lakh-Cr Food Subsidy Bill in 3 Yrs? (ET, December 17, 2011), we concentrated on the likely financial implication that we estimated at roughly Rs 6,00,000 crore over a period of three years. In this piece, we address the operational challenges...

India's competition regulator Competition Commission of India has absolved sugar manufacturing associations and their members of Cartelisation and price manipulation charges.  Earlier, the competition regulator had sent a notice to sugar mills associations and their members charging them of Cartelisation and price manipulation. The suo motu action charged Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma), National Sugar Mills Co-operative Federation, and some private sugar firms of Cartel violation.  However, the sugar associations and companies...

-The Times of India In a follow-up action to the scathing CAG report on the sub-standard foodstuff and rations being provided to soldiers, the parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) is said to have blasted the defence establishment and the Army for "deep-rooted and widespread malpractices". The PAC report, expected to be tabled in Parliament soon, conducted a detailed examination of last year's CAG report that punched several gaping holes in Army's entire...