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Bizarre though it may sound, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the regulatory authority of the civil aviation industry, had told the Supreme Court last month that it has no role in tariff fixation. The plea was promptly turned down by the bench of Justices D K Jain and Madan Lokur.

Since the death of Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray in November last, there has been much speculation about his son Uddhav and nephew Raj burying their differences and merging their parties to form a formidable force in Maharashtra. The story goes that before his death the senior Thackeray had called Uddhav and Raj and asked them to join forces. Vaidya, maternal uncle of Uddhav and Raj, has publicly pledged to fulfill this dream of the departed Sena chief.

WASHINGTON: Although the international economy has integrated considerably in recent decades, a new database developed jointly by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the World Bank reveals that trade costs fall disproportionately on developing countries.

The government may disagree, but it has habitually been the worst planner and poorest performer when it comes to deal with business – of its own or others. And, the biggest beneficiary of the government’s weak planning and poor execution of matters pertaining to business is mostly its private sector ‘associates’. Be they spectrum, or coal block allocations or the Delhi Commonwealth Games execution, or annual PSU stock-sale, the government is always seen as a big loser.

Next time your ‘friendly’ HR department executive ‘works out’ your annual pay package to help you out with ‘larger’ monthly take-home salary, make sure, if you have any choice, it is not at the cost of your basic salary and retirement benefits such as provident fund and pension even though you may be a habitual job-hopper for better opportunities and quicker promotions as you keep moving on with retirement benefits.

India has not had a more adverse report card on its economic performance than the IMF’s Annual Health Check of 2013, in over two decades of the post-liberalisation era - a substantial slowdown in growth, elevated inflation, combined fiscal deficit of 8.7 per cent of GDP, widening current account deficit, and new risks to the financial sector.

Amidst campaign within the party to project Narendra Modi as its PM candidate during the next Lok Sabha elections, BJP is giving indications that it is going back with all force to its basic Hindutva agenda of the construction of Ram Temple on a disputed plot in Ayodhya. Since the demolition of Babri Mosque, BJP had tried many times to raise this issue, but it could not succeed to incite Hindus of even Uttar Pradesh.