-Outlook Amid furore over FDI in multi-brand retail, the politicians and farmers in the leading agrarian state of Punjab are speaking in different voices over the issue. While Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the concept may be successful in developed countries like USA, he feared that it may not work in this country. "If the FDI comes, big players will eat into the share of small traders and that will be against...

-The Hindustan Times West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will lead the campaign in the Congress strongholds during the ensuing panchayat elections in early 2013. She will lead the Trinamool Congress campaign in the green belt in North Bengal, which has always voted for the Congress. Mamata has  earmarked Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury’s bastion, Murshidabad, MP Deepa Dasmunshi’s base, North Dinajpur, and the late ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s home turf, Malda, now...

-The Telegraph The rural development ministry has claimed that an amended version of the land acquisition bill has taken into account concerns of industry though several cabinet ministers had blocked it last month fearing it would stall industrialisation. In a note last week to all members of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the bill, the ministry said the revised draft had relaxed key provisions, including consent norms for acquisition of land...

-The Hindu Taking up the cause of persons with mental illness, their families and care-givers, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has asked State governments to explore the possibility of identifying employment opportunities under the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Scheme that are particularly suitable for such people. Citing a recent government order of the rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department of Tamil Nadu, through which guidelines have been laid...

-The Times of India The Medical Council of India (MCI) has finally cleared introduction of the three-and-a-half-year long medical course. Calling it BSc in Community Health, it will be open to anybody after class 12. Speaking to TOI, MCI board chairman Dr K K Talwar said this special cadre of health workers will be trained mainly in district hospitals, be placed in sub-centres or primary health centres and will be taught "some...