-The Times of India   India's GDP growth rate may have dropped in the past few years but that has had little impact on the bottomlines of the country's leading political parties. The coffers of the main parties have been swelling, with the richest amongst them, the ruling Congress, having made a cool Rs 1,662 crore in the last five years till 2011-12 and the BJP in second place with Rs 852...

The NAC lies defanged; the markets leap for joy at Manmohan’s & Co’s charge of a ‘new’ economy How swiftly things change. Just a month ago, the great Indian growth story was being written off. Now, the “new economy”, run by the PM-cum-FM, will sift through the rubble of under-seven per cent growth, find the hidden springs of recovery and throw in some reforms for good measure. A top taxman says...

-BBC A former head of Swedish police says there is no evidence that late Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi received a bribe in an arms scandal that contributed to his defeat as PM in elections in 1989. Sten Lindstrom led the probe and has identified himself as the whistle-blower who recently leaked documents. Mr Lindstrom said, however, that Gandhi had "done nothing" to prevent a "massive cover-up" in Sweden and India. Swedish arms firm AB...

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...

-PTI The government may grant the Income Tax department powers to re-open tax returns of beyond six years in specific cases of black money where "foreign assets" are involved. The I-T department needs these powers to pursue the ongoing cases where funds were found to be stashed abroad and these came to light after India received a classified list of bank account holders which include those in HSBC bank Geneva and LGT...