-The Hindu Business Line Automating the systems seems to be the biggest challenge New Delhi: With less than a week to go for the new indirect tax regime to kick in, small businesses are trying to understand the modalities of the goods and services tax (GST) as the compliance burden for them is set to significantly rise. Making a relaxation for small businesses, rules allow those with an annual turnover between Rs. 20...

-India Today West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been awarded the highest public service honour by the United Nations for her project on girl child empowerment- Kanyashree. In a major boost to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's pet project 'Kanyashree', the United Nations today accorded its highest award for public service to the West Bengal government for the scheme initiated to empower the girl child with education. The project was launched in 2011...

-The New Indian Express THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is said to benefit Kerala in terms of life saving allopathic drugs, is set to spell doom for ayurvedic medicines and products with the proposed 12 per cent tax slab. With the high tax incidence, ayurvedic products and medicines will be out of reach of the common man. The doctors say most of the drugs used for degenerative diseases, allergy...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution". "Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious...

-Livemint.com Skill development ministry, led by Rajiv Pratap Rudy, has refused to spell out a new number that the government and its ministries will chase New Delhi: The government has abandoned its goal of training 500 million people in new skills by 2022, in a clear shift in strategy. Skill development ministry officials, at a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, also refused to spell out a new number that the Union...