-IANS Kolkata: As the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released figures showing West Bengal recorded the highest number of crimes against women for the second year on the trot, the state government contested the data, claiming its disclaimers were not published. The fresh NCRB statistics said West Bengal recorded 30,942 cases of crime against women in 2012 - of which 2,046 were rape cases, 4,168 kidnapping, 593 related to dowry deaths, and...

-The Hindustan Times Kolkata: Probing the infamous Saradha scam for Bengal's investigating agencies is like searching for the man who stole overcoats in Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat. It is a mammoth task made more difficult due to the involvement of political bigwigs. The enormity of the challenge is manifold. First, the web of financial irregularities amounting to thousands of crores of rupees. Second, the involvement of politicians in the scam and third,...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said today that New Delhi had turned down the state's request for 300 companies of central forces for the panchayat elections. Mamata said the Centre's inability to spare forces was the reason that held her back from making such a request that was necessitated by a court ruling. But sources in the state election commission said the state had done "too little, too late" and the...

-The Economic Times Kolkata: Prices of vegetables and spices have dropped up to 20% in the past month and are likely to remain low as higher output along with the brisk start to the monsoon has calmed the market. The drop in vegetable prices, on top of the global fall in various commodities from aluminium to zinc, is good news for policymakers as stubbornly high inflation has hindered moves to cut interest...

-PTI NEW DELHI: India's economic development has led to the worsening of air quality in major Indian cities, according to the results of a survey by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The transport sector was ranked the highest followed by factories in and around the city as the second highest contributor towards air pollution in Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. While respondents from Bangalore...