Women's groups may need to take lessons from Team Anna in campaigning for their quota bill Most MPs are opposed to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, just as they were opposed to the Women's Reservation Bill. But the Lokpal Bill stands a better chance of being enacted. Unlike the Women's Reservation Bill, which had no support on the streets, the anti-corruption law...

The approach paper for the 12th Five-Year Plan with focus on faster, sustained and inclusive growth is candid and forward-looking. On poverty reduction, the document notes, without comment, the annual trend decline of 0.8% accelerating to 1% during 2004-05 to 2009-10, against a promised target of 2% in the 11th Plan. It emphasises that India will easily meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty by 2015, over 25...

-The Telegraph   An encounter with hungry children at a government-run school left chief minister Arjun Munda apoplectic with rage on the second day of his road trip through Palamau. Munda’s interaction today with students of Classes I and III of Rajkiya Utkrisht Mahavidyalaya at Chhattarpur, about 35km from the Daltonganj circuit house, began with a question from him: “Kaisa lag raha hai, khana theek milta hai (How are you liking it, are...

Some time ago, newspapers in Britain carried full-page advertisements from the curiously named British Pig Association. This consortium of pig farmers was clamouring publicly that the supermarket chains were squeezing the farmers dry. Alongside them, Britain’s dairy farmers complained that a supermarket cartel was paring down their prices, while production costs went up and up. These farmers too have powerful lobbies; they are still in business. To this end, Britain, like...

-PTI   Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement that saw Indians rally in support has been named among the top 10 news stories in the world this year by Time magazine, which listed the Arab Spring and killing of Osama bin Laden as the top attention-grabbing headlines. Time magazine compiled 54 wide-ranging lists of the top 10 happenings in 2011 in the field of politics, entertainment, business, sports and pop culture. Among the 'Top 10 World-News...