-The Hindu ‘Though bound by legal assistance treaty, Malaysia is holding out on information’ The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that a politically and economically powerful person in Malaysia was stalling the probe into the foreign angle in the Aircel-Maxis case involving the former Union Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and others. Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, told a Bench of Justices G.S....

-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,...

-Macroscan.com In his speech introducing the 2012-13 budget, the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had declared his intention to introduce a General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) to counter ''aggressive tax avoidance schemes''. What GAAR means is that even if a transaction appears to be legally valid, if it is entered into for the sole purpose of tax avoidance, then the Indian tax authorities can deny tax benefit to the concerned entity. GAAR...

-The Times of India While it is no secret that former President Pratibha Patil set new records with her incessant travel, RTI records have revealed another dubious first. Patil travelled twice as many times as the PM and vice-president over the last three years spending over Rs 140 crore in air travel expenses alone. According to data given by Air Force in response to an RTI filed by activist Subhash Agrawal, IAF's...

A universal pension scheme for social protection must be part of a broader strategy of economic expansion different from the present neoliberal order. INDIA must be one of the worst countries in the world in terms of not providing even minimal social security for most of its people. This is not just a major failure of the development project in the country – it is also a significant cause of...