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KOLKATA: Trinamool leader Ms Mamata Banerjee, whom many regard as the future chief Minister of West Bengal , had better beware : some panchayats and civic bodies run by her party in various South Bengal districts are fast becoming dens of corruption!

The much hyped direct tax code, in its current form, is designed mainly to benefit handsomely multinational corporations (MNCs) operating or to operate in India. And, this appears to be the sole purpose of the tax code, which, otherwise, looks like a zero sum game for the rest. In one stroke, the proposed code attempts to slash the corporate tax for foreign companies by 25 per cent to 30 per cent. They will be put in the same bracket as with local firms in so far as the corporate tax payment is concerned.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Government announcing the schedule for the local bodies elections on October 23 and 25, both the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) are squaring up for an absorbing electoral battle.

The Reserve Bank of India sees economy's growth impulses strengthening while concerns over double-digit inflation, though moderating, have not lifted, thus calling for a further tightening of monetary policy for the present. In its first mid-quarterly review, RBI has raised both repo and reverse repo rates - the key benchmark rates in liquidity management - at a time real interest rates are still negative in an inflationary situation and deposit growth has declined.

When Omar Abdullah took over as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after a well turned out Assembly polls in January 2009, there was a ray of hope that things may look up in the valley. It was expected that the young chief minister might bring peace and development in the valley. However, what is happening since June this year is a disappointing tale as the state has plunged into a major crisis due to mishandling and callousness.

BHOPAL: Ananth Kumar, the BJP national general secretary in charge for Madhya Pradesh once again sent shock-waves through the state BJP circles when he publicly advised the Chief Minister to show the door to 'sharabi” and “ayyash” (drunkard and lecherous) Ministers. According to Ananth Kumar, many Ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chauhan ministry “drink heavily, get up very late in the morning and don't bother to meet party workers”.

KOLKATA: There are unmistakable signs of a popular backlash of late against Maoist excesses in parts of Midnapore district in West Bengal, unlike in other Indian states. While local bandhs called by Maoists still force shopkeepers and others to stop their business, their leaders would do well to ponder why this should be happening within two years of their “operations” in a left-ruled state.

After maligning the Indian and British researchers who recently published a paper in The Lancet, a reputed medical journal, on antibiotic resistance induced in bacteria by a gene named New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1, the Indian government has demanded that the Indian scientists explain how they collected biological samples for the study and transferred them abroad without permission from the Indian Council of Medical Research. This is one of the oldest tricks in the bureaucrat's armoury: when confronted with an unpleasant truth, throw the rule-book at its source.

The world is painfully reminded on the second anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in New York, which triggered a free fall in US financial market in September 2008 and a follow-on severe recession, dragging most nations into a destabilizing downturn and unemployment on a mass scale. Even as the global economy is yet to recover with confidence and weak data keep world markets depressed, especially in USA and Europe, there are new uncertainties including the sovereign debt crisis in EU zone.

The high level of understanding between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh was a key feature of UPA-I. Such unity of views between the Congress president and prime minister was rarely seen before. Although the differences did surface over the nuclear deal, especially when Sonia openly said that the communists had a point in their opposition, they were resolved amicably enough, presumably because of Rahul Gandhi's intervention in favour of the deal.