Pranab Mukherjee dwelt on prosaic things such as beeswax and probiotics in his budget speech last year. Let's hope P. Chidambaram does not do likewise.

Start-ups always get our adrenaline going, and an able group of writers joined Das in telling the tales. Deputy Chief Photographer Shekhar Ghosh shot the cool cover and the gatefold after, helped by the intrepid pictures team.

News you may have missed over the past fortnight: gold demand in India rises by 9 per cent, 2G spectrum auction fails to generate big money, RIL facing challenges in getting project approvals and more.

Barack Obama's re-election as US president is likely to make many Indian IT services companies edgy. The president has time and again reiterated his opposition to outsourcing.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, battling fatigue and nerves, darted across crucial swing states in their desperate final bids to woo the starkly polarised American electorate.

As US President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney returned to the campaign in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, new polls suggested Obama appears to have a very slight edge.

US President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney exchanged sharp barbs when they fought over economic topics including policies ranging from economy, taxation, jobs and healthcare during the first of the three high-stake presidential debates.

Starring: Sharad Pawar, Jack Sim, Sandeep Goyal, Effendy Ibrahim and Ronnie Screwvala

Sharpening his election campaign's attack against Romney after the Post report, Obama said that his Republican rival, who touts his corporate experience on the campaign trail, has the wrong ideas about how to turn the economy around

\"If Mother Teresa were charged with bank robbery, the jury would still have to determine whether or not she committed a bank robbery,\" US District Judge Jed Rakoff told the lawyers at a pre-trial hearing for Rajat Gupta.

Asian benchmarks recorded sharp losses earlier in the day. Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.1 per cent to close at 8,801.17, its lowest close since January 30.

The recently released Gallup research at the Behaviour Economics Forum in the Capital says Only 8 per cent of Indians who are employed are currently engaged in their jobs and close to 32 per cent feel disengaged.

The state's Big Four - Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, BJP and Congress - remain reticent when it comes to naming the dream merchants responsible for the airbrush job.

\"People of UP will get to see the results of our policy in the power sector by 2014. Sad that the new government will take the state backward,\"said Mayawati, BSP chief, on news channels.

Newsmaker of the last fortnight: Akhilesh Yadav, Pratik Pota, Chhavi Rajawat, Pradeep Sindhu and Punitha Arumuga.

The benchmark resumed lower at 17,598.42 and hovered in a range of 17,691.96 and 17,008.77 before settling the week at 17,503.24 - a net loss of 133.75 points or 0.76 per cent.

While Sahara India Parivar, promoted by Subrata Roy, is likely to bounce back due to its proximity to the Samajwadi Party, Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani is expected to see more opportunities in power and infrastructure projects in the state.

Congress leaders quickly rushed to insulate their star campaigner in Uttar Pradesh and general secretary Rahul Gandhi from criticism, saying that a wide variety of factors were to blame for the multiple disaster.

Counting is on in the five states - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa - where polls were conducted during the last two months.

Large chunks of our 'mind space' are taken up by big events, and the government's annual Budget is truly like an assault on Everest - lots of base camps, sherpas carrying in demands and requests from the praja to the raja.