-The Times of India GWALIOR: Barely two weeks after he embarrassed BJP by saying the party lost Karnataka due to "opportunistic" politics, L K Advani sought to run down Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi suggesting his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan deserves more credit. Advani reiterated his argument that Chouhan's achievements rank higher as he is the CM of a "bimaru" (laggard) state, while Modi only improved economically well-off Gujarat. "He...

-The Telegraph Hyderabad: Thousands of Bastar tribals have fled to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh since Sunday to escape the security forces' combing of areas around the Sukma-Jagdalpur road following Saturday's ambush. Although exact figures are not available yet, Andhra district officials say some 10,000 to 15,000 people - mostly tribals but including some middle-class traders - have entered the Khammam and Warangal districts through Bhadrachalam, Chintoor and Venkatapuram. "This is the worst time for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The comptroller and auditor general has started conducting secret studies, called management reports, which are not tabled in Parliament. Starting with a report on Commonwealth Games (CWG), four such reports have been out. In the form of advisories, these reports are meant to forewarn the government on systematic faults and alert the departments to adopt fiscal prudence. Besides the one on CWG, the official auditor has produced...

-The Telegraph The Union health ministry has signalled its intentions to go ahead with plans to introduce a cadre of rural health care providers through a new BSc course, ignoring objections from a parliamentary panel. The ministry told Delhi High Court this week that it had sent a draft cabinet note on the three-and-a-half-year course in community health to the Prime Minister's Office for comments. This is standard procedure before the matter...

-The Hindu   How a country like India can deny payment of minimum wages, she asks For the second time since it was created, rights activist Aruna Roy has resigned from the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), this time criticising the government for not accepting the council's recommendations on minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), even as she thanked the council's chairperson for the...