-Outlook Bhubaneswar: Rejecting a UN panel recommendation for halting POSCO's port-to-steel plant project, both the Republic of Korea and the Odisha government today exuded optimism to go for the ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed facility near Paradip early next year. "We are happy that the state government has acquired the land required for POSCO project. I hope everything will be ready and the POSCO project work will start soon," Korean ambassador Joon-gyu...

-PTI President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday gave his assent to the Pension Bill, which provides for investment of funds in equity market and opens the sector to up to 26 per cent FDI. The long-pending Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill was passed by Parliament on September 6. "The PFRDA Bill, 2013 has received the assent of the President of India," an official statement said. The legislation provides subscribers a wide choice...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government today announced a scheme to allow big private investors to directly procure farm produce - a segment that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee could not liberate from the stranglehold of the Forward Bloc. The scheme titled Brihat Krishak Bazar Yojana, which loosely translates into mega farmer market programme, seeks to "connect the local market to high-growth demand centres" and weed out middlemen. The project will allow private developers to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Foreign corporations have created over 247,000 jobs through research and development (R&D) investments in India over the past decade, but most of the activities appear relatively unimportant with little long-term gains , researchers have said. The study, described as the first comprehensive assessment of foreign direct investment (FDI) in R&D, has challenged suggestions by Indian science policy makers and foreign corporations a decade ago that turning India into...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Left and the Trinamul Congress have both promised to oppose the passage of the pension reform bill that the government plans to push with the BJP's support. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) bill was listed for passage in the Lok Sabha today but was stalled because of protests over various issues. One of them was the fuel price hike, which found Trinamul and the...