-PTI The CIC will seek a report from income tax department and directorate of estate regarding tax exemptions claimed by political parties and their assets to ascertain whether there is enough indirect funding from the government to bring them under the ambit of RTI Act.  The CIC is considering the case whether political parties, which receive benefits from the government in the form of subsidised buildings for offices, free air-time and various...

-The New York Times Blog The strength and direction of the Indian economy may be up for debate, but one remarkable fact is not: There has been massive growth in the number and wealth of billionaires in India since the economic liberalization measures in 1991. The phenomenon has often been compared to the United States’ experience in the latter part of the 19th century. This was a period evocatively described by Mark...

-Mainstream Weekly Intense and motivated propaganda, powerful national and international diplomatic pressure, verging on pure and simple arms-twisting of the kind the Third World has been facing for decades by means of the active role of the econo-mic hit-men in the policy establishments, huge cash-back lobbying, both in India and abroad, blunt attempts to bamboozle the persons holding key positions in India’s policy establishment through a combination of hissing and kissing...

-Bloomberg It wasn't the Gettsyburg Address -- unless it's poker faces we're comparing. Future historians aren't going to be parsing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech for hidden meanings, and rhetoricians won't be delighting in the majesty of its style and the compression of its effects. It inflamed no passions, as did Mitt Romney's words about the "47 percent," and asserted no big idea or thesis, unless there was one contained in the...

-The Telegraph   Wal-Mart Stores Inc — the $446 billion retail behemoth — will be able to open stores in 22 cities across the country after the government notified a press note tonight permitting foreign direct investment up to 51 per cent in multi-brand retailing operations. The press note — which contained clauses that were not spelt out in the controversial press release issued last Friday after the cabinet formally cleared the proposal...