The total expenditure on central schemes for the poor and on the major subsidies exceeds the states' share of central taxes. These schemes are chronic bad performers due to a culture of immunity in public administration and weakened local governments. Arguing that the poor should be trusted to use these resources better than the state, a radical redirection with substantial direct transfers to individuals and complementary decentralisation to local governments...

-PTI The retail sector, where the government permitted foreign direct investment in multi-brand, courted controversies during the year with several opposition parties making it a political issue in Parliament. Even before its entry into multi-brand retail, the global chain Wal-Mart was grappling with various issues, including spending money in the US on lobbying for entry into India. Adding action to the drama was Swedish furniture chain IKEA's hectic bargaining with the government over...

-PTI The government has slapped a notice of Rs. 5 crore demand on trusts run by Ramdev in connection with alleged service tax evasion while organising their yoga camps. Claiming that shivirs (camps) undertaken by Patanjali Yoga Peeth and Divya Yoga Trust in Haridwar were commercial activity, the revenue department has raised a demand of Rs. 5.14 crore payable on fees collected from individuals for learning Yoga, officials said. "The directorate general...

-The Times of India The income tax department on Thursday carried out searches on the offices of infrastructure major GMR, which has developed the Delhi international airport among several other large projects. Officials said searches were undertaken across several GMR offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad on suspicion that the company had not disclosed all financial information. The operations were underway till late in the evening but details were sketchy. The order...

-The Indian Express The Income-Tax department is set to cancel the registration of yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s trust as a charitable organisation and withdraw all exemptions provided to it. This follows a final order passed on August 24 by the Income-Tax (exemption) unit in the case of his principal charitable organisation, the Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust, for the year 2009-10, after a scrutiny revealed that it was involved in a host of...