Tamil Nadu offers maximum economic freedom and Bihar the least among 20 of India's big states, according to a study released on Tuesday. The Economic Freedom of the States in India 2011 ranked the states based on the extent of wealth, administrative and social parameters in 2009. The USbased Cato Institute published the rankings in association with Indicus Analytics and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Both the states retained their positions...

This article documents and then examines the various benefits that, it is claimed, will flow from linking the Unique Identity number with the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It filters the unfounded claims, which arise from a poor understanding of how the PDS and NREGS function, from the genuine ones. On the latter, there are several demanding conditions that need to be met in order...

In an attempt to deal with the use of black money in elections, the maximum poll expenditure for parliamentary constituencies has been increased to Rs 40 lakh and to Rs 16 lakh for assembly constituencies. Expenditure limit varies according to the size of states. On Wednesday, law ministry issued a notification amending the Conduct of Election Rules. At present, in big states, the upper spending limit in parliamentary constituency is Rs...

Opening the reply to the President's Motion of Thanks on behalf of the Left parties in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, demanded the stopping of the “loot” of public money in the form of concessions to corporates and high-end taxpayers. This relief, worth several lakhs of rupees, should be used to narrow the rich-poor divide, he added. Calling upon the government to shift policy...

Query on SC, ST status included; caste-based enumeration from June to September 2011 Census 2011, billed as the largest peacetime mobilisation in the world, will see the massive exercise of population enumeration across the country simultaneously, between February 9 and 28. Registrar-General and Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli said on Wednesday that the biggest-ever census attempted in the history of mankind to enumerate the country's 1.2-billion population would be conducted across 35...