-The Business Standard Interim Budget's partiality to sports utility vehicles   The interim Budget's decision to cut the excise duty on sports utility vehicles, or SUVs, from 30 per cent to 24 per cent will certainly benefit car makers (they have already reduced their price tags), but it raises some pertinent questions. Last year, while presenting the Budget for 2013-14, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had raised the duty on SUVs from 27 per...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Differently-abled people took to the streets in protest as Parliament adjourned sine die without passing the much-awaited Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill on Friday. The bill, which seeks to broaden the ambit of disability from the existing seven to 19 categories, could not be passed primarily due to disruptions in Parliament on Telangana and other issues. The bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha on February...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Faced with intense pressure from Rahul Gandhi, the UPA government is likely to approach the President for his consent for the promulgation of ordinances on anti-corruption legislations. Sources in the Congress said the government is likely to take up the matter with the President shortly. Rahul himself indicated that the ordinance route was on. "These bills were in national interest and we felt the oppoSITion would help...

-The Hindu With the era of cheap, bountiful water having been replaced by increasing supply-and-quality constraints, many international investors are beginning to view water as the new oil There is a popular, tongue-in-cheek saying in America - attributed to the writer Mark Twain, who lived through the early phase of the California Water Wars - that "whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over." It highlights the consequences, even if...

-The Indian Express Renowned agricultural scientist and vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural UniverSITy, Baldev Singh Dhillon wants farmers in other parts of the country Renowned agricultural scientist and vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural UniverSITy, Baldev Singh Dhillon wants farmers in other parts of the country to learn from Punjab and Haryana experience and judiciously use groundwater and fertiliser, to avoid problems faced by these two states today. Dhillon spoke to Sandip Das on the...