India wants data localisation in RCEP for security interests
Interestingly, although the FSA was negotiated by the RBI, the contact point for the FSA is the commerce ministry and not the central bank.
View: Why many among the Sangh Parivar still love to hate Mahatma Gandhi
Fifty-six years after the recalibration, much of the Sangh Parivar now accepts Gandhi but there are still many who love to hate the Mahatma.
Slums are emerging as arenas of competence politics: Tariq Thachil
Thachil's book 'Elite Parties, Poor Voters: How Social Services Win Votes in India' showed how the goodwill generated by the Sangh Parivar’s social service activities translated to votes for the BJP.
Panel seeks ‘Right to Health’, shift to Concurrent list
The idea of making healthcare a right has been a matter of debate for long.
Kerala plans seminar on new Fifteenth Finance Commission mandate
``We are inviting economists and policymakers to the seminar. We are also inviting finance ministers from other states, including BJP-ruled states,’’ Thomas Isaac, finance minister, Kerala said.
Indresh Kumar outfit to expand break-up-Pakistan campaign
"There is no reason why Pakistan should exist. What has been its contribution except terrorism?’’ Kumar told ET.
Central funds to states may be cut to create internal security fund
NK Singh-headed Finance Commission working on proposal; cabinet cleared enabling approvals on July 17.
CAG demonstrates how govt relies on off-budget resources to fund deficit
India’s deficit numbers have come under lens as the govt is increasingly depending on off-budget borrowings.
GSTN-like body on cards: Govt plans co to screen and rate borrowers
The govt is considering on creating an SPV similar to GSTN to monitor & screen commercial borrowers.
View: What shape will the BJP-RSS dynamics take under Modi 2.0?
With the Lok Sabha secure, the Sangh Parivar is hoping to have a bigger say in govt policies.
Making of an umpire: India’s tryst with the Competition Commission of India
One statistical detail captures the growth pangs of India’s anti-trust watchdog perfectly. In the nearly seven years of its functioning, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered penalties totalling about Rs 14,000 crore. Of...
Did Mondelez India get official approvals for a factory that did not exist?
First, it was a phantom factory that marred Cadbury’s India story of 67 years. This March, the Central Excise department concluded that part of its plant at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh did not exist on the...
Hyderabadi mojo in Seemanchal
Kishanganj: Mohammad Faraz articulates Asaduddin Owaisi’s appeal the best. “If he wins, it will be like Hyderabad.’” By he, Faraz means Hyderabad-based Owaisi’s party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which is contesting six assembly seats...
Is original objective of caste-based reservation lost in muddied waters of entitlement politics?
Many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and leaders believe that if their party loses the Bihar state elections, one of the key reasons would be its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s...
How Indian companies are misusing public trusts to launder their CSR spending
NEW DELHI: The statutory corporate social responsibility (CSR) norms introduced two years ago were expected to revolutionise funding of social causes, but some sections of India Inc may now be abusing these for laundering of black...
Neeb Karori Baba: The baba who has been magnet for tech honchos like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs
A few years ago, Vinod Joshi, the secretary of the trust that manages a small temple and ashram nestled in a picture-postcard valley called Kainchi near Nainital, got a call from Larry Brilliant, an American...
Forest Rights Act: How rules fail in the jungle
Behold, my friends, the spring has come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! Every seed is awakened, and all animal life....
Krishna conscious
On September 5, Kerala witnessed a socio-political inflection point—the dominant Left party Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM’s children’s wing, Balasangham, organized processions to celebrate Janmashtami, a festival venerating Lord Krishna’s birth. The CPM’s...
With industries adding few jobs, clamour for reservation may get louder
Social unrest of the kind seen in Gujarat could rise and spread to other states that are heavily invested in manufacturing because quality jobs are disappearing even as the number of young people searching for...
With governance deficit, caste violence haunting Nitish Kumar’s regime, will he be third time lucky in Bihar?
When Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar hits the campaign trail later this year, it is not the caste-riven electorate he will need to really worry about. His Achilles’ heel would be his own administration which...
Bihar Polls: RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav & JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar come together. But is the relationship real?
Lalua’ is a name uttered with much affection in Bihar. Lalua, or the chubby, floppyhaired Yadav leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, is the kind of guy Bihari men love to hang out with, accompanied by khaini,...
Labour laws: Modi government’s effort to unilaterally push through reforms delaying process
On September 25, the eve of his first visit to the US as India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi wrote a signed article in the Wall Street Journal titled, ‘An invitation to make in India’. It...
High hopes from Make in India may not help the government
The Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 conclusively proves that large parts of the country is hopelessly poor and more than half of the population exists on uncertain daily wages. What is really revealing in...
How the 12-yr-old idea of Sebi-FMC merger is finally becoming a reality this September
Big institutional changes in India often follow big crises. The balance of payment crisis of 1990 paved the way for radical changes in the financial system, including near autonomy to the central bank. Electronic stock...
Bihar: Why the politics over mangoes mixes with cold calculations of caste
The juiciest of stories circulating in Patna these days is chief minister Nitish Kumar denying former chief minister and estranged party colleague Jitan Ram Manjhi the joy of eating mangoes growing in his own backyard....
Can the uneasy truce between PM Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat hold?
In December 2014, Rajeshwar Singh, a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and then head of the Dharm Jagran Samiti, raked up a storm when he reportedly helped convert 250 Muslims to Hinduism at...
Dattapant Thengadi may spoil PM Modi’s first anniversary after coming to power
In 1999, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was about to celebrate its first anniversary when it was hit by a broadside. Dattopant Thengadi, then a doyen of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, called Vajpayee a ‘petty...
