-The Telegraph New delhi: The Supreme Court today pulled up the government for engaging in endless litigation over land acquisitions, denying due compensation to farmers. "You have enacted the new land acquisition law for payment of compensation to farmers, but you don't pay the farmers for years. You (the defence ministry) spend Rs 100 crore for the Republic Day parade but when it comes to payment of compensation to the poor farmers,...

-The Times of India NEW delhi: The Election Commission is in the process of sending donation details of all political parties to the Central Board of Direct Taxes for a probe by the Income Tax authorities to ascertain whether entities making contributions were genuine. But what has rattled the poll watchdog is the huge expenditure made by some of the leading parties during the Lok Sabha elections in March-May last year, disproportionate...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: The Centre today asked Assam to tread the "lab-to-land" route to boost farm output and said an Indian agricultural research institute would be set up in the state. Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said Assam should make optimum use of its soil, which is of the highest quality, on the lines of Pusa (in Bihar where the research institute was incepted in 1905), to boost agricultural output. "Assam has...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The performance of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rajasthan was debated for its stupendous performance in the initial years of the scheme, but also for the relative sharp decline after 2010. Based on a large representative primary survey, this paper argues that the decline in performance of this scheme in Rajasthan is not entirely due to the lack of demand. Instead, the supply-driven top-down nature of...

-The Economic Times NEW delhi: India is poised to become the world's fastest-growing major economy, possibly overtaking a slowing China this year itself, according to data released by the statistics office on Monday. But the numbers, based on a new series, seem to have intensified the bewilderment among experts who see little evidence of such a sharp growth surge. "The numbers are quite puzzling," said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic advisor, State...