-The Hindu Opposition parties, including the newly resurgent Aam Aadmi Party, a slew of people's movements and even RSS affiliates, have decided to join hands to challenge the Centre on the controversial Land Acquisition Ordinance. Emboldened by the results of the Delhi Assembly elections, these groups plan to hold protests together in the capital from February 22 to 24, coinciding with the start of the Budget Session of Parliament. For the ruling NDA,...

-The Hindu In the present state of the economy, when there is excess capacity in manufacturing, adequate stocks of foodgrain and the inflation rate is trending downwards, there is an opportune moment for a public investment-centred fiscal expansion Over the past eight months, the government has issued some strong statements on the economy and taken some bold steps aimed at transforming it. As it prepares to present its first real budget we...

-Business Standard The move will reduce demand for diverted PDS kerosene by improving availability of non-PDS kerosene in the open market The petroleum ministry on Tuesday announced that the government has freed regulatory control over storage, transportation and sale of kerosene sold outside of the public distribution system (PDS). To facilitate the move, aimed at increasing availability of white or market-priced kerosene, the government has amended the kerosene (restriction on use and fixation...

-IPS News CHINTOOR, India- Laxman, a 10-year-old Koya tribal boy, looks admiringly at a fenced-in vegetable patch behind his home in southern India's Andhra Pradesh state. Velvety-green and laden with vegetables, the half-acre patch is where Laxman's family gets their daily quota of nutritious food. But one day soon it will disappear under several feet of water, thanks to the Polavaram multipurpose project - a 45-metre-high, 2.32-km-long mega dam currently under construction...

-The Indian Express ONE of the late R.K. Laxman's best cartoons from the mid-1960's portrays a smiling food minister looking out of a window at a heavy monsoon downpour saying, "This year we can tell the Americans to go to hell." Fifty years ago, a good monsoon meant that that year, India was not dependent on food aid and wouldn't have to go hat in hand to the Americans for food...