At a time when India is struggling to manage its Current Account Deficit (CAD) and also fall in rupee value vis-à-vis dollar, the government intends to borrow $ 4.3 billion over and above the single-borrow limit from World Bank’s lending arm International Bank for reconstruction and Development (IBRD) through special private placement bonds.

The question is not if we can do this.

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not in favour of taking up the much-talked-about Direct Taxes Code Bill at this juncture, which aims to “rationalise” the tax structure and levy a higher income tax rate of 35 per cent on the “super-rich” (defined as those earning Rs 10 crores or more a year), the matter was not taken up at Thursday’s meeting of the Union Cabinet.

Fearing a third consecutive power drought in Madhya Pradesh, which is set to go to the Assembly elections by the year-end, the Congress leadership has recently insisted on the need for unity in the state unit of the party at a meeting, which was attended by all the Union ministers from the state besides functionaries of the PCC.

With the principal Opposition BJP on board, the government has decided to bring an amendment bill to disband the collegium system of appointing judges in the Supreme Court and high courts by replacing it with a Judicial Appointment Commi-ssion (JAC).

With BJP president Rajnath Singh deciding to put the entire rank and file of the party under Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi while deftly elevating himself to the league of stalwarts Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, the wily saffron leader has proved right those who say he is a “fox”.

Once the decision on Minimum Support Price (MSP) is taken, tribals and forest-dwellers, who are currently forced to sell items such as tamarind for `8 per kg, as compared to the market price of `100-1

India’s poverty ratio has declined sharply by 15.3 per cent in 2011-12 from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05, when the UPA came to power at the Centre after defeating the NDA.

The poverty ratio in the country has declined sharply by 15.3 per cent in 2011-12 from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05, the year in which the UPA came to power at Centre after defeating the BJP-led NDA.

The Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh has failed miserably in ensuring proper implementation of social and rural sector schemes, as the Planning Commission in one of its reports revealed that expenditure on UPA’s flagship programmes is “very slow” in the state.