The CPM’s top leadership has advised comrades in poll-bound Bengal to focus on corruption and price rise and how the Centre was playing with the “livelihood of the poor” but warned against targeting Mamata Banerjee personally. “Too much attack” on the rival could prove counterproductive, a top leader said. The decision to concentrate on graft and price rise came as the CPM politburo and central committee met in New Delhi today. Sources...

The need for the media to take voluntary, not paid, ownership of creating awareness for better participation of voters in the election process was recommended at a roundtable on the “Role of media in building voters' awareness” here on Friday. The recommendation was part of a national consultation on voters' participation organised by the Election Commission (EC). Other roundtables at the consultation pertained to fighting urban apathy, connecting with youth in...

Caught between public outcry and Congress reservations, the government on Tuesday indicated that it was willing to review the Budget proposal to levy a service charge on healthcare costs of individuals. But those opting for medical insurance might have to remain under the ambit of the levy. ''Whether the service tax will be on 25-bed hospitals or whether it will be on all tests is something that can be discussed,'' revenue...

Technically, we know how to check the black economy but the problem is political. More studies or committees and treaties with foreign governments are only to stall action. Another Joint Parliamentary Committee has been announced. The government has been trying to create an impression of being proactive with regard to tackling the black economy. The President's address and the speech by Sonia Gandhi in January mentioned the need to curb it....

Peasant leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, who is spearheading an anti-corruption campaign in the state almost single-handedly, will move the Election Commission with details of property owned by ministers and their families ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections. Gogoi today said the recent asset lists made public by some of the ministers revealed only a small portion of their assets, scattered across different parts of the state. “Using the RTI Act,...