-The Telegraph Annual expenses for the government’s food security programme have been estimated at Rs 112,205 crore, which will make it very difficult for the government to fulfill its commitments on checking fiscal deficit. Food and consumers affairs minister K.V. Thomas disclosed the massive bill on the programme today in the Rajya Sabha, though no mention of this was made in Friday’s budget. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had just said he would foot...
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Food Bill implementation to entail Rs 1.12 lakh crore subsidy
-PTI Implementation of the National Food Security Bill will entail a subsidy of a whopping Rs 1.12 lakh crore, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister K V Thomas informed the Rajya Sabha today. Food subsidy as per 1993-94 poverty line and 2000 population census is Rs 88,976 crore and as per the 2011 census it would be Rs 197,096 crore, he said during Question Hour. Additional food subsidy burden for 2012-13 is estimated at...
More »GEAC, experts slip on basics? by Latha Jishnu
As the biotech industry takes heart from the prime minister’s remark, a fresh report shows India’s regulation and expertise on GM crops are sloppy BUOYED by the prime minister’s remark that NGOs were responsible for the moratorium on the release of GM or Bt brinjal, the biotech industry is stepping up its campaign to get it lifted along with “all constraints in the research and development work of biotech crops”. It...
More »Vodafone-Hutch deal: Retrospective change to I-T Act-Nikhi Kanekal and Kian Ganz
The government introduced a retrospective clarification to the Income-Tax (I-T) Act, 1961, virtually amending the law to ensure that cross-border transactions such as the $11.08 billion (around Rs55,735 crore today) Vodafone-Hutchison deal are taxable. The Supreme Court had ruled this deal as not being taxable in India. The amendment becomes crucial because a review petition by the government on this case is pending before the Supreme Court, which might now have...
More »Road to cheaper drugs by Rupali Mukherjee
The government's decision to bust the price as well as monopoly of Bayer's anti-cancer drug, through the process of compulsory licensing now opens up the field for the generic industry to follow suit and could well pave the way for the availability of cheaper drugs for lifestyle diseases. More generic companies could invoke the compulsory licensing clause of the Indian Patents Act, following Monday's decision to allow Natco Pharma to sell...
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