The Union budget writes off Rs.240 crore in corporate income tax every single day on average — the same amount leaves India each day in illicit fund flows to foreign banks. In six years from 2005-06, the Government of India wrote off corporate income tax worth Rs.3,74,937 crore — more than twice the 2G fraud — in successive Union budgets. The figure has grown every single year for which data are...

With food inflation hovering in the double digit bracket for most part of 2010-11 and the aam aadmi up in arms, all hopes were pinned on the Union Budget 2011-12 for giving a new fillip to the farm sector. But the budget has disappointed most, in spite of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee allocating Rs 14,744 crore for agriculture. “An increase of only 2.6 per cent over last year makes the...

The sharp rise in food prices inflation will remain a major cause of concern as inflationary pressures on the domestic front are likely to be exacerbated by higher levels of global commodity prices, the Economic Survey has said. It also indicated that the political turmoil in the Middle East and the “easy money” policy being followed by developed nations trying to jump-start their own economies after the global recession of 2008-09...

President Pratibha Patil today reaffirmed the government’s resolve “to maintain the momentum for reforms on a wide front”, prompting policymakers to outline the possible economic agenda ahead of the budget just a week away. Top officials offered their take on the phrase, mentioned in Patil’s speech to Parliament at the start of the budget session. According to the them, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee are looking to...

It was widely reported in the print media that G.D. Gautama, the Home Secretary of West Bengal, in his affidavit before the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court in the Netai killings affair, hesitantly admitted the existence of illegal armed intruders in that village while denying any knowledge of the existence of similar harmad camps elsewhere in the Jungle Mahal area. One cannot avoid applauding his gallantry in holding our national motto...