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The Telegraph, By Peter S. Goodman, Jan 29, 2018, London  A decade after the world had descended into a devastating economic crisis, a key marker of revival has finally been achieved. Every major economy on earth is expanding at once, a synchronous wave of growth that is creating jobs, lifting fortunes and tempering fears of popular discontent. No tidy, all-encompassing narrative explains how the world has finally escaped the global downturn. The US has been propelled by government spending unleashed during the previous administration, plus a recent $1.5-trillion shot of tax cuts. Europe has finally felt the effects of cheap money pumped out by its central bank. In general terms, improvement owes less to some newfound wellspring of wealth than the simple fact that many of the destructive forces that felled growth have finally exhausted their potency. The global crisis began more than a decade ago with the calamitous end of an American real estate bonanza that set off a gl...

The Hindu,  New Delhi, January 28, 2018 If India joined FTA, norms may hit agriculture and manufacturing, says book If India were to join the mega-regional Free Trade Agreement (FTA) called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and adopt its norms, they would severely hurt the country’s agriculture, manufacturing, services and the generic pharma industry, according to a new book. Titled “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: A framework for future trade rules?” the book — co-edited by Abhijit Das, Professor and Head, Centre for WTO Studies (CWS), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) and Shailja Singh, Legal Consultant, CWS — has done an analysis of the almost the 5,544 pages of the TPP text. Released on January 27, the book comes in the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement at the World Economic Forum that he was open to the pact provided it offered substantially benefits for his country. It was under his orders that the U.S. had withdrawn from the...

The Times of India,  PTI  |  Jan 29, 2018, Beijing China today said it is ready to hold talks with India to resolve their differences on the contentious $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) that passes through PoK. Asked about Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale's interview to state-run Global Times in which he had said that differences on the CPEC should not be swept under the carpet, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China is willing to hold talks with India in this regard. "I noted the relevant report. Regarding the CPEC, China has repeatedly reiterated our position. As to the differences between China and India, China stands ready to communicate and hold talks with India to seek a proper solution so that these differences will not affect our general national interests. This best serves the interests of the two countries," she said. As to any differences arising between the two countries, the...

The Financial Express, January 29, 2018 While many recommend finance minister Arun Jaitley wait for the report of the Arbind Modi committee before making any changes in the direct tax structure, this would be a mistake for many reasons. For one, even before the Modi report comes in, the direction of change is pretty much known anyway. Two, with the highest tax buoyancy in a decade—budgeted at 1.34 and likely to be much higher—Jaitley can make sweeping tax reforms, take a bet on compliance and win middle-class votes in the bargain. The best way to go about making the personal income tax construct simpler would be to get rid of as many of the numerous exemptions—Section 80C, 80D, etc—as possible and drop the tax rates. As committees in the past have said, a simple transparent framework would ensure better compliance and boost collections. The YV Reddy committee had observed that the incentives are for gross savings that had led to “round tripping” of savings; this led to a...

Written by Khushboo Narayan | Mumbai | January 29, 2018 A large number of small and medium businesses are now choosing to register as Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) to ring fence the liabilities of promoters and partners with more promoters being dragged to courts by lenders over unpaid loans. According to data from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), registration of new LLPs have increased in India since 2014-15. The data suggests that the number of new LLPs registered in the country has doubled from 14,682 in 2014-15 to 29,403 in 2016-17. An LLP is a partnership in which some or all partners have limited liability and one partner is not responsible or liable for another partner’s misconduct or negligence. In the first nine months of the current financial year at least 25,334 new LLPs have been formed across the country, which is 86 per cent of the LLPs registered in fiscal 2017. Apart from this, between April and November 2017 over 50,000 private...