-FirstPost.com Preparation of budgets is traditionally an incremental process: the first railway budget of the present government took off from the landscape sketched in the 12th Five Year Plan. Expansion, modernisation and development of railway infrastructure were to be given thrust through 3Ps: Public-Private Partnerships. Budget 2016-17, however, promises a new horizon on two fronts: overcoming challenges through 3Rs: Reorganising, Restructuring and Rejuvenating Indian railways, and introducing pillars of strategy, including zero-based...

-Livemint.com It has repeatedly failed to protect the domestic food security agenda The cabinet’s approval of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) on Wednesday is, on the face of it, a relatively innocuous development. As WTO deals go, this is low-hanging fruit. The agreement is to reduce administrative barriers at Ports and customs, reducing transactional costs of international trade and consequently—according to various studies—increasing global gross domestic product...

-PTI The issue was raised by the American side during the US-India Trade Policy Forum meeting Washington: India has said that the recent order that removed "stock limit exemptions" for pulses held by importers as part of its effort to address the shortage of pulses and prevent undue hoarding is "not a trade distortion". The issue was raised by the American side during the US-India Trade Policy Forum meeting here after the US...

-Business Standard Plans to enhance buffer stock to 500,000 tonnes; Gujarat exempts importers from stock limit Even as retail prices of pulses continued to exceed Rs 200 a kg in some cities, the Centre stepped up its countrywide crackdown on hoarders and black marketers. The central government claims to have seized around 50,000 tonnes of pulses so far from 10 states, about 15,000 tonnes in the last few days alone. Officials say the...

-The Hindu Retail prices of pulses skyrocket; raids unearth 50,000 tonnes. Even as the government intensified its crackdown on hoarders to rein in the prices of pulses in the retail market, importers on Friday urged the government to exempt them from stockholding limits. With their request came the offer that they would supply 100 tonnes of imported dal at Rs.135 per kg every day to hold the price line. Imposing stock limits...