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Made for Big Pharma

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be patting himself on the back because President Barack Obama has agreed to India’s position on food stockholding norms in World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, New Delhi seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate the American government and giant multinational corporations (MNCs) in the pharmaceutical industry, which will work to the detriment of our country’s interests. In less than six months, the Modi government has taken several steps that play...

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REVIEW: Notes On The Margin

Book: Off The Record: Untold Stories From a Reporter’s Diary Author: Ajith Pillai Publisher: Hachette Price: Rs 395 Whenever a journalist meets someone who is not part of the media, she or he is invariably accosted and asked to provide tidbits of information that are not supposed to be in the public domain. Journalists are expected to be repositories of facts that they cannot write or speak openly about, vignettes about the foibles and frailties of the high and the mighty, the rich and the...

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Polinomics: The axis of symmetry

The room is rather spacious, much bigger than the size of an entire flat occupied by a typical upper middle-class Indian family. Is there something about the biggest room located at the western end of the northern of the two blocks of symmetrical buildings on opposite sides of the great axis of Rajpath that makes its occupants speak more or less the same language irrespective of their political affiliation? After finance minister Arun Jaitley presented his maiden Union Budget on July 10, few had...

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डीजल की कीमतों में छिपी गुत्थियां

जैसी कि अपेक्षा थी, प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी की अध्यक्षता में आर्थिक मामलों की कैबिनेट समिति ने देश में सर्वाधिक उपयोग किए जाने वाले पेट्रोलियम उत्पाद डीजल की कीमतों को नियंत्रणमुक्त करने का निर्णय ले लिया। कच्चे तेल की वैश्विक कीमतों में जो अप्रत्याशित गिरावट आई, उससे उत्साहित होकर ही सरकार डीजल की कीमतों में कटौती करने का निर्णय ले सकी है। किंतु डीजल की कीमतों को नियंत्रणमुक्त करने के अपने जोखिम और अनिश्चितताएं हैं। देर-सबेर पेट्रोलियम की अंतरराष्ट्रीय कीमतों में फिर उछाल आना ही है, तब डीजल

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Decontrolling Diesel: Hidden Risks

As had been anticipated, on October 18, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to decontrol the prices of diesel, the most widely-used petroleum product in the country. Riding on an unexpected fall in world prices of crude oil, the government was able to simultaneously announce a sharp fall in consumer prices of diesel by Rs 3.37 per litre (in Delhi). But the decision to take the price of diesel outside the administrative control of the...

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BBC
Adani: The Indian group buying coal mines in Australia

In the picture above, published in the Indian media on 22 May, Narendra Modi is leaving the western state of Gujarat, where he had been chief minister for 12 years, to be sworn in as prime minister of India. As he waves to people seeing him off at the airport in the city of Ahmedabad, the logo of the private aircraft carrying him is clearly visible: Adani. Gautam Adani, 52, one of India's richest men, is a businessman who is not shy of displaying his proximity to India's most powerful person...

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Polinomics: The Power of 3

The victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections indicates that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his trusted lieutenant, party president Amit Shah, will now move full steam ahead to marginalise regional political parties while seeking to establish the party’s presence across all parts of the country. On his way towards a Congress-mukt Bharat, Mr Modi has set his sights on making the BJP the tallest pole in the polity for some time to come. His task has...

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Journey from ‘regular’ babu to India’s ‘conscience keeper’

How did Vinod Rai metamorphose from just another nondescript bureaucrat, albeit an upright one, to a crusader against corruption who acquired iconic status? One reason is related to the fact that he became a constitutional authority, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. T.N. Seshan, who was reportedly a pliant bureaucrat, starting roaring like a lion after he became the head of the Election Commission. Mr Rai’s present persona is a product of circumstances, a consequence of the...

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Charges of Favour to Reliance General Insurance: CBI probing former Irda chairman

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started a preliminary enquiry into allegations that the former chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), J Hari Narayan unduly favoured Reliance General Insurance Company more than five years ago. The investigating agency is inquiring into whether there was any mala fide intent in a decision taken in July 2009 by Narayan to reduce from Rs 17,500 crore to Rs 20 lakh the potential penalty that could have been levied on the...

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Charges of Favour to Reliance General Insurance: CBI probing former Irda chairman

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started a preliminary enquiry into allegations that the former chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), J Hari Narayan unduly favoured Reliance General Insurance Company more than five years ago. The investigating agency is inquiring into whether there was any mala fide intent in a decision taken in July 2009 by Narayan to reduce from Rs 17,500 crore to Rs 20 lakh the potential penalty that could have been levied on the...

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