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Chinese lawmakers are considering amending the family planning law to allow couples to have two children amidst efforts to counter shrinkage of the work force and an ageing population. “The State advocates that  one couple can give birth to two children ,” Xinhua cited a draft amendment submitted for review at the bi-monthly session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee which opened on Monday. The draft came after the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) Central Committee decided in October, to give the go ahead for the universal two-child rule, which will replace the decade-long “one couple, one child” policy. Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), said the CPC’s decision was made to adapt to the transition of China’s population from young to old currently underway. In order to implement the decision, the top legislature must amend the family planning law which took effect in 2002. Under the current law, citizens who ...

Six excise duty increases on petrol and diesel since November 2014 may have added Rs 25,700 crore to the government kitty, but  consumers   are no less rich. Largely automobile owners, consumers together gained a little over Rs 60,000 crore from lower petrol and diesel prices in the first seven months of the current financial year. On an annualised basis, the total hike in excise duty can add Rs 92,915 crore to the government kitty based on 19.1 million tonnes of petrol and 69.4 million tonnes of diesel Indians burnt last financial year. The total increase in excise duty has been Rs 9.65 a litre for petrol and Rs 7.97 a litre for diesel. This could have directly translated into reductions in retail prices but the government decided to use the fall in global prices to allow state-owned oil refiners to partially pass on the benefit through periodic price cuts.   The savings to consumers on account of lower prices came despite higher consumption of both fuels. B...