-The Telegraph Calcutta: From Mamata Banerjee's backyard in Harish Chatterjee Street to Contai in East Midnapore, a contagion of protests is spreading in several parts of Bengal. Funds collection agents of the Saradha Group are besieging the seats of power with appeals to step in and avert a run on the chit fund-fuelled company since the Trinamul government was seen as the undeclared gilt-edged guarantor during the good times. Trinamul lent credence to...

-The Indian Express Bangalore: When affidavits were filed by the contestants for the 2008 assembly polls declaring their wealth, it was a close race between the two dominant money-spinning sectors in Karnataka - real estate and iron ore mining. Affidavits filed by 5,376 candidates in the fray for the May 5 assembly polls show that the real estate sector that flourishes in and around Bangalore and, to a lesser extent, around cities...

-The Hindu   Locals allege Coca-Cola is to blame for the rising water crisis in the area Varanasi: Holding it responsible for the aggravation of water crisis in the area, village councils here have opposed Coca-Cola's plans of expanding its existing bottling plant at Mehdiganj, 20 km from here, and called on the government to stop the company's current groundwater extraction. Fifteen panchayats or village councils here have asked the Central Ground Water Authority...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: If you get a phone call from your long-time Banker asking you to resubmit your name and address proofs, don't be surprised or irritated. It is the fallout of the Reserve Bank going beyond the cobrapost.com expose on unethical practices of Banks, forcing them to go back to the drawing boards to weed out bogus and wrong documentation that allowed many people to open accounts and launder...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the omnibus Ban on iron ore mines in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka and permitted 81 lease owners, who had committed minor violations, to resume mining after compliance of stringent conditions laid down by the courts. Moving forward from its reference to illegal mining activity for decades under active political patronage as "a shocking state of depredation of nature's bounty...