-Live Mint High on hype, the budget speech of the Union finance minister today is merely a statement of account. As India’s economy diversifies—with the private sector playing an increasingly important role—this annual feature has assumed much lower salience. Not only have fiscal policies lost the space they enjoyed in earlier years, even major policy announcements are restricted to being mere statements of account. Examples from other arenas include “activism” on...

-The Hindu In a swift move that would surely choke the supply of weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to Maoist guerrilla fighters in different States, the police busted well-organised weapon-making units in Kolkata and Mumbai on Thursday. Maoist cadres were using these workshops, in central locations of Kolkata and Mumbai, to fabricate rocket launchers, pressure-activated mines and hand grenades. The Kolkata and Mumbai raids led to seizure of bagfuls of parts...

-The Times of India The Enforcement Directorate has issued notices to two former executives of the UBS Switzerland to appear for evidence recording at Mumbai in the Hassan Ali money laundering case. The former executives are believed to have helped the Pune-based businessman Ali in his money laundering allegedly estimated at more than $8 billion. The income Tax had also served Ali with notices in the same case for recovery of Rs...

  MGNREGA, which entitles millions of workers enrolled under it to at least Rs 100 a day for 100 days of work in a year, is undergoing an overhaul based on a set of recommendations of a committee headed by the Planning Commission member Mihir Shah.   Encapsulated in The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 - Operational Guidelines 2012 in what is being called “MGNREGA 2.0”, the recommendations aim for...

Foundation to be set up with a corpus fund of Rs. 500 crore   The Centre is in the process of setting up a foundation with a corpus fund of Rs. 500 crore to provide a livelihood to tribals in about 900 blocks, spread over 170 districts of nine States, to strengthen its anti-naxalite campaign. The latest proposal, evolved jointly by the Ministry of Rural Development and the Planning Commission, envisages a concerted...