On November 23, the Supreme Court is slated to hear a damning report submitted by the court-appointed Commissioners on how politically connected contractors—legally barred from the ICDS program—might be subverting the social welfare measure in the state of Maharashtra.  The ICDS is an Rs 8000 crore government-funded program aimed at ending India’s abysmal rates of child malnutrition by supplying hot cooked meals and take home rations to children through decentralised women-run,...

-The Economic Times Pan Singh Tomar, the legendary steeplechase athlete-turned-dacoit, earned an annual salary of 120 or thereabouts from the Indian Army, where he served as a hawildar in the 1950s. These days, his great grandson roams around their ancestral village dispensing similar amounts to those at the bottom of the Indian pyramid. If Tomar Sr had resorted to guns for the latter part of his life, Anuj Singh Tomar too has...

-Pratirodh Bureau Condemning the arrest of woman tribal-activist and journalist Dayamani Barla in Jharkhand, rights activists have demanded that the "false cases" against her be dropped and that she be immediately released.   The police have reopened an earlier case registered in 2006, when she spent fourteen days in Judicial Custody, after being charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.   She was arrested again this month, and when granted bail on 19th...

-The Times of India Congress will hold a massive rally on Sunday to defend its decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, in what will showcase government's new assertiveness on reforms and the backing extended by the Congress brass in the face of populist criticism that giant retailers will harm farmers' interests and pop and mom stores. The party has, especially its units in Delhi and neighbouring Haryana, have pulled out all...

-The Times of India In a recent election rally, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi advised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the country's top economists, to follow the Gujarat model of development , to cure the country of its ills. "Mr Prime Minister, if you try to follow the path of Gujarat state, the condition of the country will be transformed." Modi, who is projecting himself as the champion of economic...