-The Times of India MUMBAI: It's known as the land of politically powerful sugar barons and has long been the leading producer of sugarcane in the country. But this year, Maharashtra has turned out the highest sugar output ever in its 55-year history. By May, it's expecting an output of a record 103 lakh tons—34% more than in 2014. But the glut is not good news. Sugar prices have crashed by Rs...
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Hocking the family jewels for a song -Claude Alvares and Rahul Basu
-Hindustan Times The issue of recovering the full extent of the value of our natural resources from parties to whom they are being assigned has reverberated throughout the economy ever since the Supreme Court delivered its judgements in the 2G scam (dealing with the State's earnings from selling spectrum) and on coal block allocations. In both instances, past practice and legal provisions had unwittingly handed these resources to parties at a pittance. Under...
More »Panchayat schemes off Centre table -Basant Kumar Mohanty
-The Telegraph New Delhi: Eight central schemes have been left to states following the Centre's decision to raise their share of federal taxes, but this has left the Union panchayati raj ministry almost jobless. The schemes de-linked from central support are: Backward Regions Grant Funds (BRGF) of the panchayati raj ministry; Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyaan (RGPSA) of the panchayati raj ministry; E-governance...
More »No clean slate -Arvind Virmani
-The Indian Express The forthcoming budget is expected by some to be make-or-break or path-breaking, by others, to provide a legislative or economic roadmap for the rest of this government's term. Most likely, it will focus on issues within the purview of the finance ministry, namely, macro management, taxation, expenditure, the financial sector and balance of payments. The abolition of the Planning Commission and the 14th Finance Commission recommendations on tax devolution...
More »8 Centrally Sponsored Schemes Delinked from Support of the Centre
-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Finance The plan outlay of 2015-16 reflects the compositional shift in the allocations for various Programmes and Schemes in view of high devolution; 42% of Union Taxes, to States as per the recommendation of 14th Finance Commission. Making his Budget Speech while presenting the General Budget 2015-16, the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley said that consequent to this substantially higher devolution, many schemes on the State...
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