-The Indian Express   The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is being increasingly questioned, as reports emerge about the divisions within the agency on calculating the loss to the public exchequer from the 2G licencing process. The CAG shot for drama in its high-profile press conferences, in which eye-catching numbers were trumpeted that became firmly ensconced in our collective memory. The 2G report was brandished triumphantly, like a World Cup trophy,...

-The Economic Times   India's new mining Bill has provisions which seek, rightly, to shovel money from mining companies to rural people affected by mining, but the devil could lie in the detail. The proposal has three defects. One, it seeks differential treatment for coal and other minerals - coal miners would share 26% of their profits, while miners of other minerals would give additional royalty payments. Pray, why? Two, it exempts...

A committee headed by Planning Commission member Arun Maira, the former head of The Boston Consulting Group in India, wants all acquisitions of Indian pharmaceutical companies by foreigners to be scanned by the Competition Commission of India or CCI. The report will now be sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Prime Minister Singh is expected to take a final view on the...

-The Business Standard   It appears a committee headed by Planning Commission member Arun Maira examining the case for continued unrestricted foreign direct investment (FDI) in the pharmaceutical industry has opted to oppose the move to change the present regime. The only concession it is willing to make to the health and commerce ministries’ demand that approval of such investment be routed through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board is to ask for...

Drug prices have shot up phenomenally in India over the past decade and a half. A Planning Commission's expert group says there was nearly 40% rise in all drug prices between 1996 and 2006, thanks to the nation's pricedecontrol policies of the 1990s. Citing a study conducted in 2008, the Commission's high-level expert group (HLEG) on universal health coverage, headed by Dr K Srinath Reddy, says during the same period...