India's Union Budget 2014

Here are the highlights of Union Budget 2014:


* Tax proposals on indirect tax front would yield Rs 7,525 crore.

* ​Indian Custom Single Window Project to be taken up for facilitating trade.

* Clean energy cess increased from Rs 50/ tonne to Rs 100/tonne.

* Additional 5% excise tax to be levied on aerated drinks with added sugar (cold drinks). Tobacco products also to get costly as excise duty hiked to 72%

* Government announces reduction in excise duty for specified food package industry from 10% to 6%.

*​ Excise duty on footwear reduced from 12% to 6%

FIFA World Cup 2014: Five reasons it went wrong for Spain

Spain became the fifth holders to be eliminated from the World Cup at the first stage after their 2-0 defeat by Chile at the Maracana on Wednesday.

We have a look at five reasons why it all went wrong for the holders in Brazil.

- Sticking with the old-timers

After the 5-1 defeat against the Netherlands, coach Vicente del Bosque was forced to react and chose to drop both Xavi Hernandez and Gerard Pique, replacing them with Pedro Rodriguez and Javi Martinez. However, it would appear that the rejuvenation of the Spain squad should have begun sooner. A player like Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke, full of energy and desire, was introduced to the side too late.

And the decision to keep faith in Iker Casillas proved to be a mistake. The captain of the great teams of the recent past he may be, but he has not been playing regularly for Real Madrid and Del Bosque has enough alternatives in the goalkeeping department, even in the absence of the injured Victor Valdes.

Who was worth the money

A look at the best and the worst buys from the auction based on players' performance in IPL 2014

Yuvraj Singh made news during the auction for being the most expensive purchase of the IPL, at INR 14 crore, while Pravin Tambe - one of the leading wicket-takers in this IPL - received no bids from other teams before being retained by Rajasthan Royals with a right-to-match card that depleted their purse by only INR 10 lakh. How did these buys fare for the teams? Who ended up being the most profitable purchase of the IPL? Which team spent their purse money most productively? This piece makes an attempt at answering such questions.

Performance on the cricket field is not easily quantifiable: it cannot be measured purely by the runs scored by a batsman or the wickets taken by a bowler. A quickfire 30 in a crunch situation of a chase may turn out to be of greater value than a 60 earlier in the innings. A wicket of an in-form opposition batsman might carry more value than the wicket of a tail-ender. And there is the question of how to value wicketkeepers' contributions, fielding efforts, catches taken etc. Surely, the catches taken by Kieron Pollard and Chris Lynn would be worth a few crores, if not more?

It's Brazil's World Cup to loose - World Cup Predictions

Looking for a World Cup favorite? All you really need to know is this: The World Cup gets underway Thursday in Sao Paulo, and it’s really hard to beat Brazil in Brazil.

The table below calculates every team’s chances of advancing past the group stage and eventually winning the tournament. The forecasts are based on the Soccer Power Index (SPI) — a system that combines game- and player-based ratings to estimate a team’s overall skill level — to calculate odds of each country’s performance during the two stages of the World Cup. SPI has Brazil as the heavy favorite, with a 45 percent chance of winning the World Cup, well ahead of Argentina (13 percent), Germany (11 percent) and Spain (8 percent).

True, Brazil is the betting favorite to win the World Cup — but perhaps not by as wide a margin as it should be. The team’s price at the betting market Betfair as of early Sunday evening implied that it has about a 23 percent chance of winning the World Cup — only a little better than Argentina (19 percent), Germany (13 percent) and Spain (13 percent).

World Events Calendar 2014

Find out exactly when and where your favourite international festivals are kicking off in 2014 and plan your trips accordingly, plus see our list of important dates and public holidays around the world.

January

• 01 Jan: New Year's Day
• 02 Jan - 02 Feb: Dubai Shopping Festival - Dubai 
• 05 Jan - 28 Jan: Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival - China
• 13 Jan - 26 Jan: Australian Open tennis - Melbourne, Australia
• 14 Jan: Jaipur Kite Festival - India
• 15 Jan: Full Moon Party - Koh Phangan, Thailand
• 20 Jan: Martin Luther King Day – USA
• 26 Jan: Australia Day
• 31 Jan: Chinese New Year

Promising the good times

An overwhelming election victory promises to reshape Indian politics.

INDIA brims with colorful politicians, but none has quite the sense of political theatre of Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He swept into Varanasi, India’s most ancient city, on May 17th pledging to clean the Ganges, its holiest and filthiest river. Three days later, in Delhi, BJP parliamentarians chanted and roared unanimous support for him, and he broke down in tears in mid-speech. After that he called on India’s president, Pranab Mukherjee, who agreed to swear him in as India’s 14th prime minister on May 26th.