Private-public partnership projects in India suffer from a number of weaknesses, but this model is nonetheless the best route for building infrastructure.

Kick-starting the core sector

Business Standard

The state aims to hike spending on infrastructure from 3.2% of Gross State Domestic Product to 8-9% during the Twelfth Plan.

Karnataka will set up specialised agency to speed up PPP projects

The aim is to boost growth by providing affordable infrastructure.

Enticing the private sector to help drive development 

The government wears multiple hats as sovereign, developer and consumer, leading to conflicts of interest.

Wanted: An independent regulator

PPP projects are complex and call for an implementing agency.

'There's been no discourse within India on PPP'

Ensuring improved governance standards has emerged as the main challenge in meeting the country&rsquo;s infrastructure shortages.

Closing India's infrastructure deficit

The Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) is expected to meet on 30 December to endorse the blitzkrieg by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa earlier this week: expelling friend, advisor and &lsquo;sister&rsquo; VK Sasikala and 14 members of her family from the official residence of the Chief Minister, the ADMK and Jayalalithaa supporters hope, permanently from her life.

Newsmaker: J Jayalalithaa

Plans to set up a training institute and a Rs 100-crore mega cluster.

Bengal government to revive the ailing handloom sector

Ship breaking at Alang in Gujarat has once again become booming business thanks to the slump in global trade, where owners would prefer scrapping their ships than seeing them sit idle. Now, if only they could take better care of their migrant labour.

As ships come in to die, Alang breathes new life

Anna Hazare overwhelmed the country this year by becoming the face of the anti corruption movement. The movement itself grabbed the attention of the urban masses coming, as it did at the tail end of a series of scams as well as the arrests of powerful people accused of wrongdoings.

Newsmakers of the year: Anna Hazare

The winter session of the Parliament was always going to be explosive, thanks to the Lok Pal Bill that was on the agenda. Yet the first ten days of the session were dominated by hullabaloo surrounding the Prime Minister&rsquo;s pet policy initiative&mdash;foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.

Newsmakers of the year: Mamata Banerjee

The first is the elections to several state assemblies, due in February. By 15 March 2012, the results of the assembly elections will be out and governments installed. The most important is of course Uttar Pradesh.

Will 2012 see Rahul on the driver's seat? 

The Central government&rsquo;s MSP has proven to be unrealistic and ultimately disastrous for India&rsquo;s farmers.

The growing irrelevance of a MSP

Three lakh Indians working abroad will migrate back to India within the next five years owing to better opportunities in their native country when compared to several Western economies, according to the latest study findings released by recruitment consultancy firm Kelly Services India.

Jobs will woo 3 lakh NRIs to come back home by 2015: Study

Caught in the middle of a maelstrom of controversies, the Planning Commission has been accused of being disconnected from ground realities. Its 12th Plan hopes to fix that.

Can the Planning Commission be reinvented?

Swami Agnivesh&rsquo;s headline-grabbing stint with his entry to Big Boss was short-lived. It was cut short by none other than Bengal&rsquo;s very own Mamata Banerjee, aka, Didi, at her theatrical best. For a spectacle-loving nation, the Chief Minister ensured that she provided her audience with the ultimate political reality show.

Newsmaker: Mamata Banerjee

The seven billionth baby has many in India worried about our burgeoning population and poor family planning. A look at the numbers reveals something else.

Are we too many?

Rise in withdrawals from small savings throws government&rsquo;s plans of funding fiscal deficit offtrack.

Fiscal deficit funding plan goes awry

Slowdown in services sector may compel the RBI to rethink policy tightening.

Economic moderation broadens to services

Some months ago, when the tension between the Congress party and the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office (PMO) was at its most intense, Business Standard asked a top Congress party functionary whether Pulok Chaterji would be recalled to Delhi, cutting short his World Bank tenure.

Newsmaker: Pulok Chaterji

Mayawati&rsquo;s creation of ten new districts since 1994 is just &lsquo;political gimmickry&rsquo;, conceptually flawed and makes administration more difficult, say experts.

Does UP need so many districts?

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