-Business Standard We should work in unison to boost growth: FM Even as the Centre harped on devolving higher share of funds to states following the recommendations of the 14th finance commission, the latter demanded that they be given more money and the Union government should retain its share of funding for centrally-sponsored schemes in the upcoming Budget. At the pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday, states also sought more...
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As customs duty exemption goes, 76 life-saving drugs to get costlier -Vidya Krishnan
-The Hindu Haemophilia patients dependent on U.S. drug likely to be worst-hit. In a move that could inflate the cost of essential life-saving imported drugs, the Finance Ministry has withdrawn exemption of 76 medicines from customs duties. The list includes 10 HIV drugs and at least four cancer drugs, but haemophilia patients are likely to be the most affected by the decision. Haemophilia is a genetic disorder in which the patient tends to...
More »Data in doubt -Divya Trivedi
-Frontline The NCRB data used to justify the new law bringing down the age of responsibility for criminal action are open to interpretation. Often the same data can be interpreted in different ways to arrive at contrary conclusions. Portions of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data have been quoted ad nauseam by the government and the media alike to justify the changes made in the juvenile justice law. Experts from the...
More »Stalemate continues at WTO meet in Nairobi -Arun S
-The Hindu The WTO Nairobi meet — which was expected to produce by noon local time (2.30 PM IST) on Friday a Ministerial Declaration to liberalise global trade — stretched into overtime with the developing and the developed world failing to bridge their differences over farm issues as well as on whether to continue with the ongoing 14-year-old Doha Round talks. Hectic parleys were on between member countries, during the last day...
More »To subsidise or not: All you need to know about food security -B Sundaresan
-Hindustan Times Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the WTO will have to give a permanent solution to India’s food security issue. HT explains. * What has WTO got to do with food security? The World Trade Organisation was established in 1995 to facilitate trade among members, who now number at 161. The WTO facilitates trade through rounds of negotiations — there have been nine rounds till now, the latest being the...
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