-The Telegraph   Wal-Mart Stores Inc — the $446 billion retail behemoth — will be able to open stores in 22 cities across the country after the government notified a press note tonight permitting foreign direct investment up to 51 per cent in multi-brand retailing operations. The press note — which contained clauses that were not spelt out in the controversial press release issued last Friday after the cabinet formally cleared the proposal...

-The Indian Express A group of teachers at Jamia Milia Islamia University has put together a compilation of terror cases that failed to hold up in court, all of these built by the Delhi Police Special Cell around youths they had arrested and described as terrorists. Titled “Framed, Damned and Acquitted: Dossiers of a Very Special Cell” and compiled from court judgments and media reports, the study by the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity...

-Economic and Political Weekly  The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...

-Outlook Seeking a SWOT analysis, the elite National Investigation Agency (NIA) is scouting for firms to monitor media reports of interest to the agency and give a feedback that could help improve its strategies. According to the tender floated by NIA which is available on its official website, firms have been asked to submit their bids by October 4 for "daily media monitoring" for its Director General and up to the level...

-The Indian Express India is likely to ban on Internet a controversial film deemed offensive to Islam that has sparked anti-US protests. The Home Ministry has forwarded a request of the Jammu and kashmir government to block all webpages where the film is available to Director General of Computer Emergency Response Team India for urgent action. "The DG CERT-In is looking into the matter and in all probability the webpages will be blocked...