Around 100 cooperative sugar mills in Maharashtra have lost one round of a battle on income tax (I-T) arrears dating back to 1992-93, with an appellate authority rejecting their argument on dues. If the decision, by the commissioner of income tax (appeals), is not appealed again, the mills may have to pay Rs 2,500 crore in arrears. Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, chairman of the Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories in Maharashtra, told Business Standard:...

Organized retail of packed food and raw food reduces prices of food for urban citizens and pays farmers a better price for the agricultural produce. It eliminates middle men and decision making at every other level. This is not rocket science. However, politicians refuse to do away with the WWII public distribution system in order to retain power at the district level. Well, for one thing, the format of the...

The Centre is planning to increase the spending on social activities with a rise in government revenue, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here today. "With rise in government revenues we will increase it further," he said at the inauguration of a Union Bank branch in the Murshidabad district. The government is keeping aside a major portion of the budget for social activities and this share is going up from Rs 2.43 lakh...

Even as the media celebrate the Mercedes Benz deal in the Marathwada region as a sign of “rural resurgence,” the latest data show that 17,368 farmers killed themselves in the year of the “resurgence.” When businessmen from Aurangabad in the backward Marathwada region bought 150 Mercedes Benz luxury cars worth Rs. 65 crore at one go in October, it grabbed media attention. The top public sector bank, State Bank of India,...

The economic resolution adopted by the All India Congress Committee at the Burari session is a reiteration of the party’s last two election manifestos. It combines a commitment to rapid economic growth with that to redistributive policies that would help make the growth process socially inclusive. There is a helpful explanation of the three sources of inflation — excess demand, improved prices to farmers and global commodity price inflation —...