-The Economic Times The economic and social impact of reduction in petroleum subsidies in India will be much lower than perceived if a cash transfer system for directly subsidising vulnerable consumers is successfully implemented, studies commissioned by the Geneva-based International Institute for Sustainable Development have said. The government must, however, dismantle subsidies in a calibrated manner as vulnerable consumers will be able to adjust better if the under-recoveries are gradually eliminated, cautioned...

-Frontline A recession-hit world is only just waking up to the prospect of the coming food crisis resulting in a period of political turmoil with unexpected consequences.  For the third time in five years, the world is braced for another food crisis. Bad weather conditions are leading to projections of major production shortfalls in some of the world’s leading food suppliers. Substantially reduced access and sharp price increases are, therefore, expected to...

-The Times of India Expectedly, CAG's reports on coal, power and Delhi airport have raised a storm. Yes, one takeaway is the need for transparency in resource disbursal and use, be it minerals or land. But if CAG - whose job is to keep accounts - habitually hypothesises about presumptive revenue loss owing ostensibly to absence of this or that policy in the past, where will it end? Its coal audit...

-The Economic Times The three reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on coal, ultra-mega power projects and airports, playing out in the public discourse as major indictments of corruption and of the government, serve only to spread confusion and convert infrastructure building into a political battleground. The reports are ill-informed by commercial logic, sometimes deficient in factual detail. However, since they bear the authority of a constitutional body, the...

-The Hindu Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has rejected the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s conclusion that coal blocks allocation helped private companies gain Rs. 1.86 lakh crore. Talking to journalists after the report was tabled in Parliament on Friday, he said: “The policy adopted to allocate coal blocks was not faulty. There could not be a more transparent policy for allocation of coal blocks [since 2004 when there was no competitive bidding].” The CAG...