-The Indian Express   West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has not adapted well from a life in opposition to being the head of her state’s government. Yet even by her standards, and those of the hollowed-out administrative machinery of the state now in her care, her recent actions have been shocking. On Monday, a religious procession passed through a section of south Kolkata dotted by hospitals, including one for cancer patients...

The government has asked banks to accept identity proofs issued in other states as valid documents for opening no-frills bank accounts, in a move that will help millions of migrant workers, including domestic helps and drivers, access banking services.  At a specially convened meeting to push the financial inclusion agenda, the Finance ministry asked bankers to accept the identity proofs and use their branch network in other states to verify the...

The Centre may create a new category under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for resolving the conflict with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 in implementaing wages rates. At present, wages under MGNREGA is linked to the consumer price index. However, it is less than the notified minimum wages for agricultural labour in six states-Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Mizoram and Rajasthan. The rural development ministry has...

After the National Information Commission (NIC) issued an order in the name of the Finance Ministry to give information requester Taranath Dahal, an RTI activist, a copy of the report of the committee formed by Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to investigate practice of tax avoidance through fake VAT bills, the ministry provided it to him. Though the ministry provided incomplete information to the requester, it is, however, a good beginning...

Even as the details given by France on Swiss bank accounts of Indians continue to cause ripples back home, Denmark and Finland have passed information about another 2,000 bank accounts to India, prompting the I-T department to launch an investigation. Sources said the I-T department's Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) has been asked to probe these accounts. This is the third instance when foreign countries have shared details with Delhi about Indian...