-Outlook 13 people were killed in North India today due to biting cold which tightened its grip across the region. In capital Delhi, the maximum temperature was 16.6 degrees celsius, four notches below normal, while the minimum was 9.2 degrees celsius, two degrees above normal. In Uttar Pradesh, 13 people were killed due to cold in various parts of the state in the last 24 hours. While three persons died due to extreme cold...

-Outlook A parliamentary panel today questioned the Delhi Police chief over the gang rape incident in the capital and said deficiencies like vacancies at officer level and lack of vehicles to patrol the streets existed. Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home to face questions on 'growing atrocities against women in Delhi'. Home Secretary R K Singh, who was also to appear before the panel, could not attend...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...

-The Economic Times The government is likely to miserably fall short of its rural electrification target for the current fiscal as most villages that were to be covered under the scheme are located in difficult terrains, making it difficult for the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to lay power lines there. Officials from Rural Electrification Corporation, the nodal agency for implementing the scheme, say many of the villages that were to be supplied...

-The Hindu After having managed to push through the major reforms legislations such as the Banking and Companies Bills and also getting through with the 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, the UPA II dispensation will have to wait till the budget session of Parliament to get the Insurance Bill passed which seeks to raise the FDI cap in the insurance sector to 45 per cent. With the...