-The Economic Times   The Haryana government on Friday imposed a ban on the week-long workers' strike at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant by passing prohibitory orders, seeking to find a solution through legal recourse to the issue which threatens to spiral into a labour unrest in India's biggest auto hub. Despite the government mounting pressure by deploying additional police force at the factory on late Friday evening, workers have decided to continue...

-The Business Standard   Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was being economical with the truth when he said that last Saturday’s petrol price hike decision was entirely that of oil marketing companies (OMCs). True, the government correctly but belatedly deregulated petrol pricing several months ago, but it is clear that despite a sharp increase in global crude oil prices in the past six months, the OMCs restrained themselves from increasing domestic...

Over the last couple of years, the Delhi government's budgets had focussed largely on beefing up the city's physical infrastructure in time for the Commonwealth Games. With the Games over, the budget for 2011-12, the first presented by Sheila Dikshit, shifted focus to social infrastructure with welfare measures in health and education targetted at the school-going. Welfare measures apart, the budget cited environmental concerns to hike taxes on diesel vehicles and...

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh today said the use of sports utility vehicles and BMWs in India was “criminal” and called for changes in diesel pricing to discourage people from riding fuel-guzzlers. He said India’s SUV market was growing on subsidised diesel, the owners benefiting from the subsidies intended mainly to help farmers. “The growth of large-size vehicles like SUVs is a growth of concern.... The use of vehicles such as SUVs and...

Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh Friday called for corrections in the fiscal policy to discourage luxurious cars like BMW and Audi in the country as they were a major source of greenhouse gases. Speaking at a workshop on 'Promoting Low Carbon Transport in India' here, Ramesh said there was no need to subsidise diesel as it only helped the sale of luxurious cars in the country. "We don't need subsidy in...