-The Indian Express   The UPA has done well to bring rights-based social welfare schemes to the forefront. All opinion polls suggest that the UPA has only a few weeks left in office. After 10 years as prime minister - this gives him the third position in terms of longevity as head of government after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi - what is going through Manmohan Singh's mind as he contemplates retirement from...

-The Hindu   Ideological labels are likely to mislead by channelling the debate into issues of capitalism and socialism and detract from the real problem George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Having forgotten the license-permit-quota-raj that enveloped us from 1950 to 1980 and its ‘crony socialism,' many intellectuals, mediapersons and politicians have now discovered ‘crony capitalism.' The license raj consisted of stifling controls imposed on...

-Down to Earth 68th Round of National Sample Survey makes it amply clear that the wave of economic growth has not percolated down from the 0.003 per cent of population of ruling elite (as per Income Tax records, only 42,800 persons have taxable Income more than Rs 1 crore in India). 99.996 per cent population is spending between just Rs 25.90 and Rs 37.36 per capita per day (average MPCE) in...

-Outlook For every rupee in government kitty, as much as one-fourth will come from market borrowing in 2014-15, lower than the current fiscal ending March 31. The government's dependence on debt has come down from 27 paise in the previous Budget to 25 paise in the coming year, reflecting ease of pressure on revenue collections. As per the proposals presented today by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the interim Budget, net borrowings of...

-Outlook Following are the highlights of interim budget 2014-15: Income tax rates kept unchanged 10 pc surcharge on 'super-rich' having annual income above Rs 1 crore to continue 10 pc surcharge on domestic corporates with income of Rs 10 crore Foodgrain production estimated at 263 million tonnes in 2013-14 Fiscal deficit at 4.6 pc in 2013-14...