-The Hindu It has sharply lifted tax buoyancy and ushered many new return filers into the income tax net The argument about whether demonetisation was good or bad for the economy refuses to die down even a year after the event. Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan took potshots at it in a recent speech. While one can endlessly debate, with very little data, on whether the ban on high-value currency notes dealt a...

-The Hindu The obsession for a male child in many parts of Asia can be changed. South Korea shows the way On the Vietnam Airlines flight to Hanoi, I did the opposite of what I usually do at take off — loosened my seat belt fully before I could buckle it. On most other flights I have to tighten the belt to make up for the passenger who occupied the seat before...

-The Hindu Business Line Eleven years since its inception, the State’s farmer’s debt relief commission has quietly eased the burden of debt on poor farmers, and grown to be a model worth emulating Earlier this week 35,000 debt-ridden farmers coursed through Maharashtra, walking 180 km on blistered soles, to converge at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan demanding freedom from debt and fair compensation for their produce. As the government scrounged for solutions, it could’ve...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government's drive, through a non-filer monitoring system, to target those who indulge in high value transactions but don't pay enough taxes has forced the filing of at least Rs 1.7 crore extra returns and helped the Centre MoP up close to Rs 26,500 crore till December. In a written reply, finance minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament on Friday that for the past few years, the...

-The Financial Express The NSSO 70th round survey estimates there are 156 million rural households in India, of which 57.8% are agricultural. Average monthly expenditure on crop production by cultivating agricultural households during July 2012-June 2013 was Rs 2,192. Of this, 24% is spent on fertiliser and manure. Using survey results, rough calculations suggest agricultural households’ spend on fertiliser/manure would be in the range of Rs 78,000-1,20,000 crore in next cropping...