India may seek the setting up of a special panel within the World Trade Organization to resolve the dispute with the European Union (EU) over the seizure of generic drug exports. The Commerce ministry is ready to push for this at the WTO in the next week after months-long consultations with the concerned authorities, said a ministry official familiar with the development. Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar said both sides are still talking...

Coal companies in the public and the private sector should share either their profits or their royalty with project-affected people, Union Minister of State (Independent charge) Sriprakash Jaiswal said. Talking to the media after addressing a seminar on “Indian coal sector: issues and prospects” here on Monday, he said this would become law once the new mining policy was finalised. When asked for his views on this issue, he said, “We...

An inter-ministerial panel will decide on the contentious issue of opening organised retail to foreign investment after examining stakeholder feedback to the discussion paper put out by the government. “A panel of six ministries was constituted on September 27, which will be chaired by Kewal Ram, senior economic advisor in the consumer affairs ministry,” a government official told ET. The committee will have representation from the department of industrial policy and promotion,...

Soon, the National Food Security Act  will become law. The ruling United Progressive Alliance flagship social security programme of providing every Below the Poverty Line (BPL) family with 25 kg of rice or wheat at Rs 3 per kg per month is a welcome step to alleviate some of the human trauma that haunts the poor in our country. The government also hopes that the Act will secure freedom from...

Bhaggu, 65, says he can trace his memory back to when he was five. And he remembers the paradox that’s taunted him since: Of his village — Sohras, in northern Uttar Pradesh — being flooded every year and him having no water to drink. “They (government) distribute food, tarpaulin, kerosene, matchboxes but never made any arrangement for water,” says Bhaggu, a farm worker who goes by one name. “I think no...