-The Hindu Hearing of proposed 100-MW thermal power plant of KPR Industries postponed after stones thrown at dais Balabhadrapuram (East Godavari): The public hearing on the proposed 100 MW thermal power plant of KPR Industries (India) Limited on Wednesday between Dontamuru of Rangampeta mandal and Balabhadrapuram of Bikkavolu mandal in East Godavari district was disrupted by villagers and some ‘outsiders’. A total of 40 persons, including four policemen, were injured in lathi-charge and...

-PTI The retail sector, where the government permitted foreign direct investment in multi-brand, courted controversies during the year with several opposition parties making it a political issue in Parliament. Even before its entry into multi-brand retail, the global chain Wal-Mart was grappling with various issues, including spending money in the US on lobbying for entry into India. Adding action to the drama was Swedish furniture chain IKEA's hectic bargaining with the government over...

-The Hindu Sequence of attacks on “well-known business units” suggests violence was not spontaneous Last week’s violence in Faizabad district during the Durga Puja procession which left two persons dead, several injured and dozens of shops razed, was executed in a planned manner and the targets had been selected, according to a fact-finding team and accounts by victims and eyewitnesses. The fact-finding team of human rights organisation Rihai Manch said the sequence of...

-The Hindu Pitched battles at Kudankulam; one killed in Tuticorin police firing The hitherto-peaceful agitation against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu turned violent on Monday, with protesters attacking policemen, and police resorting to lathi-charge and the firing of teargas shells. The agitation, which was confined to Idinthakarai and surrounding villages, spilled over to the neighbouring Tuticorin district where one fisherman died when police opened fire. Battlefield In the morning, the Idinthakarai beach...

-Tehelka The district administration in Karauli has undertaken steps to ban the practice after Change.org's Video Volunteers brought the discriminatory practice into light  When 39-year-old Sunita Kasera, a journalist for Video Volunteers, was sipping tea one hot afternoon in Dangariya village, eastern Rajasthan, she noticed something peculiar. Many women, who left their houses with their footwear on, would abruptly remove them in the middle of the road and wear them again after...