-The Hindu Building ‘capitalism with Indian characteristics’ means decisions cannot ignore concerns of voters and communities As the economy slows down and the rupee wilts, Manmohan Singh has bitten the ‘reforms’ bullet with both eyes on the credit rating agencies whose negative reports have done much to dampen the ‘animal spirits’ of investors, foreign and native. Last November, when the Congress party made a push to introduce foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail,...

-The Hindustan Times In the face of public outrage over a series of unpopular fiscal steps such as hike in diesel prices and cap on LPG, the government plans to come out with two feel-good initiatives — the food security bill and health cover for all. The UPA’s flagship National Food Security Bill would give 67% of the population (nearly 800 million people) a legal right to foodgrains at less than half the...

-Live Mint Cabinet refers land acquisition Bill to GoM to resolve differences after five ministers express apprehensions Differences within the Union cabinet have nixed the plans of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to fast-track a new legislation for land acquisition and compensation, widely seen as a key measure to spur investment in the economy. Consequently, the cabinet on Tuesday referred the controversial land acquisition Bill to a ministerial group (a so-called group...

-The Economic Times Nearly 6 crore formal sector employees could look forward to retiring with a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 a month, in addition to their provident fund savings, if the finance ministry green signals a labour ministry proposal to increase the pension of PF subscribers.   At present, most provident fund subscribers receive less than Rs 500 a month as pension after decades of service, with some getting as low as...

-The Times of India   India's GDP growth rate may have dropped in the past few years but that has had little impact on the bottomlines of the country's leading political parties. The coffers of the main parties have been swelling, with the richest amongst them, the ruling Congress, having made a cool Rs 1,662 crore in the last five years till 2011-12 and the BJP in second place with Rs 852...