Two days after major opposition parties extended their support to the demand for a strong Lokpal (ombudsman) as proposed by the anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare during his one day fast at Jantar Mantar, Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also offered her conditional endorsement. Mayawati on Tuesday rejected the Parliamentary Standing committee's report on Lokpal bill. She described the Lokpal report drafted by the committee...

-CNN-IBN The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared three major anti-corruption bills – Citizen's Charter Bill, Judicial Accountability Bill and the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosures Bill (Whistleblower's Bill) – in a crucial meeting. The Cabinet, however, met amid reports of clearing four crucial bills, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi's favourite, the National Food Security Bill. However, a decision on the Food Security Bill was deferred to next week...

-The Indian Express   The government today claimed there has been an "impressive improvement" in the performance of the targeted public distribution system (TPDS), with leakage reduced to about 10-15 per cent on average now from 40 per cent earlier. "The leakage, on an average, is nearly 10-15 per cent," said Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution KV Thomas said in a reply during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha. The...

French nuclear giant Areva, which is planning to sell India six masssive1650 MWe EPR nuclear reactors for the Jaitapur site in Maharashtra, is facing serious financial difficulties with net losses in 2011 placed at well over €1 billion. Areva's CEO, Luc Oursel, announced drastic job cutbacks and the sale of over €2 billion worth of assets, essentially in the company's uranium mines sector, to offset these losses. Trading in the company's...

-PTI Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday got support from Press Council chief, Justice Markandey Katju, who said that he favoured filtering of “offensive material” on social networking sites as it could promote religious hatred. “The pictures and other content show religious figures of certain communities in a highly offensive and even pornographic manner. Such material is bound to create religious hatred and lead to most undesirable consequences,” the former Supreme Court...