-The Indian Express The Congress's bill could end up sponsoring the NDA's campaigns A good thing about the logjam in Parliament, it has to be said, is that it has prevented the ill-advised food security bill from being passed. It would, though, be naive on our part to presume the BJP stalled Parliament - the Congress's blatant abuse of the CBI process was a big reason for this - only because it...

-The Economic Times My target for fulfilling Rajiv's vision has always been 2018. We can get there in less than 5 years if govt acts on our recommendations, says diplomat-turned-politician Mani Shankar Aiyar. You have been passionately talking about Panchayati Raj. But your party doesn't seem to share the same passion lately... Mani Shankar Aiyar: I don't agree with you here. The commitment of the party to Panchayati Raj and devolution of...

-The Hindu Instead of opening a debate on the Gadgil panel's report on the Western Ghats, the government has chosen to sideline and replace it with another by an alternate group This is a challenging time in India's development history where a number of tenets of environmental governance are being questioned by the imperative of growth. Environmental governance in India is under assault, and is thus in need of both fresh thinking,...

-NDTV In a meeting with the government's top law officers, the Prime Minister reportedly asked if he is an accused in a case that searches why coal fields were given to private players without transparency, allegedly losing the government vast amounts of money. For several of the years under review, the Prime Minister held direct charge of the Coal Ministry. But the government's real embarrassment lies in the revelation that last month, Law...

-The Indian Express By May 2, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) has to prove the "genuineness" of all its investors to the Supreme Court. It has a difficult task on its hands: the name ‘Kalawati' figures 5,984 times on that list, same names appear against different locations, and geography takes a giant leap with ‘Jaipur Nagpur Maharashtra' and ‘187 Aurangabad Lucknow UP' mentioned as addresses. SIRECL had given the list...