-The Economic Times MUMBAI: Soaring diesel consumption by fleet owners, Telecom Companies to keep their towers running and malls to pamper their affluent customers is blowing up the theory that continuation of diesel subsidies is intended to help farmers and truckers in order to keep inflation low. Diesel consumption is growing at a rapid pace that is lining the pockets of the business community rather than the government's intention to help poor...

-Outlook Why free mobiles to BPL folks is a bad idea  “Here you don’t have money to provide them food, and you are thinking of giving them phones,” scoffs a minister in the UPA government, obviously off the record. His comment mirrors the general negative reaction to the ‘Har Haath Mein Phone’ scheme mooted by the Planning Commission, which aims to provide a free mobile phone to each below the poverty line...

-The Economic Times The government is ready to give up its monopoly over coal mining to meet the requirements of the economy, if BJP supports a long-pending legislation to amend the Coal Mine Nationalisation Act (CMNA). "We are ready to take up the bill and open up the coal sector to increase production. This is the only way forward and there is a consensus within the government on this. Once BJP comes...

-The Economic Times The power failure in India on July 30-31 was big news in US media. When the radio and TV stations began calling with the question whether this spelt the end to India's claims to global-power status, my first reaction was to remind them that a similar failure of the grid in 2003 had drowned the entire Northeast and Midwest in the US and Ontario in Canada into darkness. But,...

-The Hindustan Times Indian taxpayers may have lost as much as Rs. 3.8 lakh crore in scams in the power, aviation and coal sectors over the past eight years, the country's state auditor said in reports tabled before Parliament. The Comptroller and Auditor General charged the government with allotting coalfields and land for power projects and Delhi’s airport to private firms at a fraction of the market price, bringing the corruption issue...