-PTI   Pune: Ahead of the Budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday assured investors more reforms as he rolled out the red carpet to multinationals, inviting them to make use of the large pool of highly talented youth in the country. "I invite all those who want to participate in the economic development of the country to generate employment for our youth. Your (investors) growth is also linked to our growth," the...

-The Hindu In the present state of the economy, when there is excess capacity in manufacturing, adequate stocks of foodgrain and the inflation rate is trending downwards, there is an opportune moment for a public investment-centred fiscal expansion Over the past eight months, the government has issued some strong statements on the economy and taken some bold steps aimed at transforming it. As it prepares to present its first real budget we...

-The Hindu Measures on urea, LPG, kerosene to go The Modi government is putting on hold its plans for some key economic reforms Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his maiden Budget last July. These include decontrol of urea prices, fewer subsidised cylinders a year and withdrawal of kerosene from the public distribution system (PDS). Fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar told The Hindu that the administered price controls for urea would stay. "We...

-The Indian Express "If we did not have a patent system, it would be irresponsible, on the basis of our present knowledge of its economic consequences, to recommend instituting one." So said Fritz Machlup, a wise American economist several decades ago. His words remain as true now as they were then. For, the patent system is one of the most faulty legal regimes that one could possibly have conceived. It purports...

-Business Standard It is an annual review of the state of IPR protection and enforcement of America's trading partners Notwithstanding the recent bonhomie of sorts between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, India's status as ‘Priority Watch List' country for having an alleged weak intellectual property rights (IPR) and patents regime is unlikely to see any improvement in the US' 2015 Special 301 Report. The 2015 Special 301 Report is...