-The Hindu Business Line Research Bureau But indirect tax is inequitable as it is a burden for both the rich and the poor alike The growth in tax collection in relation to GDP growth has improved over the past couple of years under the Modi regime. In 2013-14, the final year of the UPA regime, tax buoyancy hit a four-year low at 0.71. Since then, it has improved to 1.23 in 2014-15 and...

-The Hindu Anger and frustration dominate discussions on demonetisation at a jan sunwai in Beawar, Rajasthan About five-six hundred people are crowded in and around a small shamiana-covered triangle, like the apex of the letter A. The two arms of the A are busy streets typical of small-town India, a press of pedestrians and two-wheelers punctuated with foraging cows, goats and impatient cars and tempos. Including the shopkeepers and hangers-on across the...

-Hindustan Times Low-cost State-sponsored food schemes are mushrooming across India. Inspired by Tamil Nadu’s Amma Canteens – where meals are sold for as little as Rs. 5 - Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Rajasthan have followed suit and started similar canteens in their states. Madhya Pradesh too is planning to launch a similar subsidised food scheme. The growth of such canteens across India underscores several issues related to the Right to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Premature deaths from kidney failure rose in India by about 38 per cent over the past decade, doctors said in a research study released on Tuesday that attributes this trend primarily to untreated or poorly managed diabetes. The study, based on an analysis of deaths in over a million households across the country, has found that kidney failure increased to 2.9 per cent of the tracked deaths between...

-The Hindu Public sector insurers, oil-marketing firms and others not to take a hit for cashless push The Centre has decided to bear the burden imposed on public sector firms on account of the many discounts and incentives offered to promote digital payments. The plan is to create a new expenditure head in the exchequer’s accounts that will absorb the costs of such measures. Public sector insurers, oil-marketing firms and others will thus not...