-Outlook Nearly Rs 1.71 crore have been spent on foreign visits of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, her cabinet colleagues and members of the Assembly in the past nine years. According to an RTI reply, Dikshit, her ministers and MLAs undertook around 57 foreign visits including to the US, the UK, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Germany and Switzerland and an amount of Rs 1.71 crore was spent between 2004 and October 2012. As...

-Outlook Doha: The climate talks here in the Qatari capital limped into its final week today with hard close-door negotiations yet to yield any visible outcomes amid warnings from highly vulnerable nations that time was running out. The talks have a crucial agenda to decide a treaty which could replace the Kyoto Protocol besides ensuring that the parties to the pact commit to ambitions under the second commitment period which will come...

-The Hindu FDI is a debt inflow or liability foreign exchange because the profits or returns it generates will have to be repatriated. Will FDI in retail, single brand, banking or insurance enhance our foreign exchange earning capacity? Do they bring technology to the economy? There is so much of talk going around in all circles regarding FDI. Politicians, for obvious reasons, speak a language of their own, driven by ulterior motives....

-The Economic Times Something interesting happened in Mumbai last month. For the first time ever, Harvard Business School stepped out of its Boston campus to bring its leadership and corporate accountability programme for senior corporate executives to India. The programme focuses on promoting socially and financially responsible corporate conduct. In an environment where scams and business scandals are making headlines every day, the turnout for the four-day programme was expectedly impressive. "Corruption...

-Reuters India’s efforts to clamp down on illegal mining have handed a $15 billion lifeline to global iron ore giants, and there could be more to come. Steps taken by central and state authorities to clean up the mining and export of iron ore have shut down output in two key producing states, slashing shipments and forcing steel mills to import a raw material the country has in abundance. Now the Shah Commission,...