-Down to Earth Mounting expenses, under-provisioning of food subsidy budget leading to a huge debt is highly worrisome A fiscal crisis has been brewing in the last few years. Mounting food subsidy arrears — payable to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) due to ‘under-provisioning’ of food subsidy expenses in successive union budgets — has forced FCI to take loans to finance its operations. FCI is the central agency that manages procurement, storage...

-IANS CCI to investigate Flipkart, Amazon deep discounting on mobile phones New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has launched an investigation to find out if the exclusive arrangements, deep discounting and preferential listing by e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart for mobile phones are causing an adverse effect on competition. The CCI on Monday passed directions for investigation under Section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002. The order was passed by...

-The Indian Express “All ministries have been directed to reduce wasteful expenditure on travel, food and conferences by 20 percent. The CCIG has asked the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, to take necessary action in this regard,” a source told The Sunday Express. In an austerity move, the Union government has decided to reduce wasteful expenditure on items such as travel and food by 20 percent, it is learnt. A decision of...

-The Indian Express Cotton growers are realising decent rates despite bumper crop this time, thanks to government procurement. Aurangabad: In early-November, when Satyakumar Kolhe went to sell 18 out of his total 35 quintals produce of kapas (raw un-ginned cotton) at the Ambad wholesale market in Jalna district, the traders there quoted an average price of Rs 4,500 per quintal. The 45-year-old from Guru Pimpari village of Jalna’s Ghansawangi taluka, who grew...

-Medianama.com Accusing e-commerce platforms of openly flouting FDI rules, traders’ body CAIT has asked Finance Minister Piyush Goyal to conduct an investigation into and place a blanket ban on festival sales by e-commerce companies for indulging in “predatory pricing” and “deep discounting”. Praveen Khandelwal, national secretary-general of CAIT, wrote to the minister on September 13 (see letter below), with “substantial evidence” of e-commerce companies indulging in predatory pricing and deep discounting. CAIT...