-Outlook The issue of fuel price hike rocked Parliament today with opposition members in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha disrupting proceedings, demanding an immediate roll back. Several parties protested against the price hike with SP, Left, Trinamool Congress and AIADMK storming the Well of the Lok Sabha, while BJP members were on their feet. In the Rajya Sabha, the entire NDA - BJP, JD-U, SAD and Shiv Sena - protested as...

-The Times of India MANGALORE: Mangalore tahsildar Ravichandra Naik will have to cough up Rs 5,000 as penalty for not providing information on time to an applicant under the RTI Act. Karnataka Information Commission penalized Ravichandra for failing to provide information under the Act to applicant B Prakash Bhat, who had sought information related to Bantwal taluk office, where at the time of the complaint Naik was the tahsildar. Prakash filed an...

-Al Jazeera Widening wealth gap in Beijing has stoked concerns over its impact on political and social stability. The Chinese government has issued a pledge to narrow the widening income gap between rich and poor, which includes raising its minimum wage and requiring state companies to turn over more profits to pay for social programmes. The pledge on Tuesday promised more spending on health, education and job training but gave few details and...

-Tehelka Edited Excerpts From An Interview NOTED ECONOMIST and Columbia University Professor Jagdish Bhagwati’s pro-free trade stance is well-known. A friend of the prime minister and his batch mate from Cambridge University, Professor Bhagwati feels the UPA’s departure from the stagnation of the past few years is a welcome change, and lauds the decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail. In an interview to TEHELKA Business Editor Shaili Chopra, Bhagwati says more...

-The Business Standard Reetika Khera Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi* “Aadhaar is being made de facto compulsory for welfare schemes. With two-thirds without Aadhaar, they are bound to be denied entitlements” There are three components of the government’s direct benefit transfer scheme — computerisation, extending banking services and linking the benefits with Aadhaar. The real game-changers are the first two, whereas Aadhaar-enabled transfers carry the risk of excluding current beneficiaries. The Central government has...