There’s no outrage when law, policy are outsourced to corporates IN order to get our perspective on issues of national importance right, we could do well to turn our ears from the din created by vested interests. The unduly vehement questioning of the process of concerned citizens (or “civil society”) engaging in legislative and policy consultations is exactly the sort of noise we must not allow to deflect our attention...

Continued poor performance of some key infrastructure sectors cause for concern As India is on the path of achieving 8.5 per cent economic growth, aiming to exceed the 9 per cent growth mark next fiscal, the biggest worrying factor that could derail this horse power of growth and play spoilsport in the “growth story” of the UPA II government is the poor state of infrastructure and its tardy pace of development...

Farmers can save about Rs 600 crore over the next five years through mobile broadband-based services which provide them with quick information on market prices and vital crop inputs, says a report. Getting information quickly on best prices and cultivation practises, with special focus on areas like plant protection from diseases and weather-related damage, will help farmers take fast decisions, saving them about Rs600 crore by 2015, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report said. Lack...

Eleven months after B. Ramalinga Raju, the former chairman of Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services, confessed to masterminding a $1.2 billion fraud at Indias fourth largest I.T. outsourcing company, the dirt is still tumbling out. On Nov. 24, the country's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) released findings that show the alleged fraudulent accounting and embezzlement was far larger than originally thought. Raju and nine accomplices skimmed some $2.5 billion from the...

A survey reveals that desperate times have led to illegal measures THE recession has taken its toll on morals as well as profits. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a consulting and accounting firm, has conducted a biennial survey of economic crime for the past ten years. The most recent, published on November 19th, is not only the most thorough, based on over 3,000 responses from firms in 54 countries. In many ways it is...