Hit by the Forest Conservation Act, ITC chose the difficult option of farm forestry and came up trumps.

The Budget this year had a shocker in the form of five per cent service tax on all diagnostic tests in the private sector and on all services provided at private hospitals with 25 beds or more.

Many of the cities where companies are planning investments are located in states which till recently were loosely called backward states. High population regions, traditionally characterised by poor social indicators, are emerging as consumption hot spots.

Rising input prices coupled with poor access to capital and markets are pushing weavers into other professions.

The state domestic product, or SDP, has expanded at a modest 5.5 per cent over the last ten years, making it an underperformer compared to other big states such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. But with elections around the corner, hope reignites in West Bengal, an economy most had written off.

That food prices have spiralled out of control over the last 15 months shows inflation was not a priority for the UPA government. The onset of the New Year shook the government out of its stupor.

There is discontent on the ground that the Gujarat state administration has done little to grease the cogs of SME eco-system even while moving decisively on big infrastructure projects - mostly helping large businesses.Is the Modi government doing enough for SMEs?Read comment | Post comment

Had J.R.D. been alive - he died two years after Manmohan Singh unleashed reform - his heart would have leapt at today's per capita income of Rs 44,345. But, were the 1991 balance of payments crisis and the reform Budget truly serendipitous? Palaniappan Chidambaram, then a Congress MP, told me in April 1993 that the change was not as miraculous as it seemed.

Americans and Chinese point fingers, and India fails to sell its infrastructure funding idea. Puja Mehra reports from Seoul.

Investing in real estate stocks, as opposed to a direct exposure to realty, is not only a sound strategy but will yield rich rewards in the coming years.

India emerges a hotbed for emerging market innovations and new business ideas as the world looks for frugal solutions.

Some 590 million will live in Indian cities by 2030— about three-fourths more than in 2008. Massive and urgent changes in governance, funding and planning are needed to ensure that they live a good life.

What will it take for India, currently the 11th largest economy in the world, to become an advanced economy in one generation? This well-produced ADB study has answers that will be of interest and use to businessmen doing long-term planning.

The decade created unprecedented prosperity and the next decade will be even better. Government can influence just how much better it will be.

Here's some cause for cheer-India will figure in the World Bank's list of lower middle income nations this financial year itself.