Quite often it is argued by mainstream economists that a sizeable chunk of the Union Budget every year is wasted because the Government spends that on food and fertiliser subsidies. The burgeoning size of these two subsidies relative to the entire budget as well as the gross domestic product (GDP) is often used to build the argument that economic as well as environmental sustainability of the country is at stake...

-Down to Earth The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs has sought feedback from stakeholders on the draft National Action Plan on Business & Human Rights by March 20, 2020 The patriarchal society’s attempt to control a woman’s body from time immemorial has been documented across the world and in different ages. The fear of a woman’s sexuality and reproductive abilities has, throughout history, spurred religious texts and mythological epics. Man-made laws find ways...

-Firstpost.com * The stark divergence in banks’ estimates vs that of the RBI has raised many eyebrows in the investor community prompting them to avoid such companies till clarity emerges * Recently, Bank of Baroda reported a divergence of Rs 5,250 crore in gross NPAs for the year ended March 2019 * Ever since divergences came to public, banks have begun to make higher provisions to cover up the mess An element of trust...

-The Hindu With a strength of over 83,000, it procures 3.5 lakh litres of milk a day Tirupati: Before Shreeja entered her life, middle-aged Gangamma of Palamaner mandal in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district had to be content with the daily drudgery of maintaining her barn and selling the milk from her cows to a private supplier. And that came with the attendant problems of first realising payments from the buyer, and once...

-Down to Earth The use of tax incentives to attract investments is prevalent around the world. However, there is no definitive data on the global magnitude of incentives granted because not all countries collect and publicly report such data and there is no common methodology for reporting across all countries. Rough estimate by Action Aid (2013) pegs the incentives granted by developing countries from corporate income tax (CIT) at $138 billion....