By the end of the next decade, NREGA, the mother of all employment programmes, can help rid the economy of its two biggest problems—unemployment and poverty. Here's why it can achieve the impossible.

The New Pension Scheme was expected to tap one million Indians in the first year. The subscriber base after seven months: 2,400.

The UPA government’s stimulation packages held up the Indian economy. As the buzz grows on exiting such expansionary spending, the casualty could be economic goodies.

Is it worthwhile to explore a career in the government after B-school? A sampling of B-school bureaucrats answer an emphatic yes.

The P-word often rises unbidden in the hallowed halls of education. But now many are beginning to shed their inhibitions about it. Shamni Pande tells more.

After being bailed out by equity from ICICI Venture and loans from SBI, Medica has stabilised cash flows but needs to secure a small funding component.

Inefficiency in public spending is one of the biggest and most persistent problems plaguing governance in the country. Arvind Virmani offers a way out: creation of a numeric ID and a web-based database that can be accessed by all and hence easily verifiable.

...There must be smuggling. Indian-made cigarettes, the #1 FMCG, are facing a tidal wave of smuggled imports that get away without paying killer excise rates.

In businesses, big or small, ranging from manufacturing to music, the fight for intellectual property is getting intense. Neglect it and you could be out of business.

After Bangalore, technology is focussing on other Indian cities.

BT asks the who’s who of India’s corporate world—as well as some professionals and leaders from other fields for good measure—to jog their memory and recall the best advice they ever got. What the advice was, who gave it to them and when, and how it helped them.

Despite negative perceptions about law and order and poor infrastructure, two cities from Uttar Pradesh—Kanpur and Lucknow—rise buoyed by positive consumer and investor sentiment. Do they denote a glimmer of hope for the rest of UP?

A slew of big-ticket investments in Orissa is transforming its capital from a sleepy tourist town to a glitzy business destination.

As a slowdown looms, it’s time to look at niche companies that are insulated from the downturn.

Don’t touch my wallet” (BT cover story, July 27) was a timely reminder of the inflationary crisis that is upon us. But what is different this time around is the level of our preparedness and our ability to tackle this hydra-headed monster.

The Manmohan Singh government’s performance can, at best, be labelled ‘middling’. With general elections due within the next 6-8 months, we take a look at the UPA's report card.

Key reforms are stuck with states because the onus of implementation lies with them, and not the central government. But the laggard states have to get moving if they want their share of the country’s economic bonanza. BT's Shalini S. Dagar reports.

A good pre-budget analysis - What will he do? Clearly And systematically evaluates the issues, considerations and the approach that is likely to be adopted by the Finance Minister in Budget 2008.

The economy is slowing down, foreign investors have turned wary, and there is an election to be won next year. So, will Finance Minister P. Chidambaram script Budget 2008 for votes or growth? Shalini S. Dagar tells us what we can expect this year.  Full coverage: Budget 2008-09

The Business Today-Aditya Birla Group Acumen 2007 finals saw the best B-school talent quiz and debate about women, mile-high clubs and breaking the glass ceiling, among other things.