-The Business Standard TV channel says evidence 'farcical', meant to deter coverage of coal block allocation scam Naveen Jindal, chairman of Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) and Congress leader from Haryana, on Thursday alleged the Subhash Chandra-promoted news broadcaster Zee News Ltd tried to blackmail his company and extort money. Jindal played video clips to a packed media gathering in support of JSPL’s allegation that Zee News demanded Rs 100 crore from...

-The Business Standard The rural jobs scheme can boost productivity in farm and textiles sector. There is mounting evidence that Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of 2005, under which 100 days of guaranteed wage employment a year was to be provided to target households, is failing to meet its stated objectives. The total cumulative expenditure since 2005 under the MGNREGA is officially estimated to be Rs 1,50,000 crore, and the...

-The Times of India The questions over the source of funds to Nitin Gadkari's Purti Power and Sugar Ltd have deepened, with investigations revealing that money flowed in from a multi-layered maze of companies registered all over India. A TOI report on Tuesday had mentioned some two dozen companies, many with unverifiable addresses, whose directors included Gadkari's driver and astrologer. A closer look at the documents filed with the Registrar of Companies reveals...

-Pratirodh.com Biometric data based 12 digit Unique Identification (UID)-Aadhaar Number linked welfare schemes is being bulldozed with 2014 elections in mind with the ulterior motive of altering voting behavior of the citizens by creating a ‘universal identity infrastructure’ linked to ‘unified payment infrastructure’.   Ahead of next parliamentary elections, with the launch of 21st crore UID-Aadhaar Number and Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery (AESD) on October 20, 2012 contemptuously ignores Parliament, Parliamentary Committee,...

-Outlook Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz is one of the world’s leading economists. A former chief economist at the World Bank and currently University Professor at the Columbia Business School, he was recently in India to attend an international conference on development and to promote his new book, The Price of Inequality. He spoke to Pranay Sharma about growing inequality in the world and the challenges facing India. Excerpts: * Your coinage,...