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Tax the rich, says Barack Obama

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's bid to get millionaires and multinational companies to pay more taxes may play well with many voters but it faces long odds in the deadlocked US Congress. Obama used his State of the Union speech on Tuesday to press the case for a new minimum 30% tax on Americans earning more than $1 million a year and for tougher treatment of corporations that move jobs out of the United States.

At the same time, he called for tax credits to lure jobs back to the United States.
"Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas," Obama said. "Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world."
Obama, facing a tough re-election campaign, for several years has called for steeper taxes on corporations' foreign profits and closing what he calls tax loopholes that also benefit multinational companies.

Ex-ISRO chief barred from govt jobs

New Delhi: Taking action in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, government has barred former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair and three other eminent space scientists from holding any government jobs.

The action comes in the wake of the controversial deal in which a private company was allotted scarce S band spectrum by ISRO allegedly in violation of rules. Besides Nair, K Bhaskaranarayana, former scientific secretary at ISRO, KR Sridharamurthi, former managing director of Antrix, commercial arm of ISRO, and KN Shankara, former director of the ISRO satellite centre, have been penalised by the department of space, an ISRO official said.

The contract with Devas was signed during the tenure of Nair as the chairman of ISRO.

Nair was also the person behind India's maiden moon mission Chandrayan I. The government action comes after considering a report of the high--powered committee (HPC) that went into the Devas deal and that of another panel which examined the HPC report.

Sensex reclaims 17K on sustained buying

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex rose over 80 points in early trade on Wednesday, led by lenders and energy conglomerate Reliance Industries, ahead of the expiry of monthly derivatives contracts.

Top-listed biotechnology company Biocon fell 2.6 percent after its quarterly net profit dropped a worse-than-expected 15.8 percent.
The 30-share index, which had gained 244.04 points in the previous session, moved up further by 82.34 points, or 0.48 percent, to 17,078.11 with all sectoral indices trading in the positive.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty Index moved up by 22.70 points, or 0.44 percent to 5,150.05 points.

Brokers said sustained buying by funds and retailers amid firming trend on the other Asian bourses mainly influenced the trading sentiment.