-Live Mint Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the committee's recommendations will be accepted New Delhi: A government committee has recommended issuing below-poverty-line (BPL) cards to all 4 million households in 22 backward districts that are affected by the Maoist insurgency. The committee, set up by the rural development ministry, also recommended the inclusion in another 34 such districts of households that are headed by a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe member,...

-The Economic Times The huge delay in bringing the Food Security Bill to Parliament and the massive opposition to it have seen most states going ahead with key provisions of the proposed Bill, Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen tells ET. Sen has doubts whether the bill would be passed in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Edited excerpts: * Do you think Food Security Bill would be passed in the Monsoon Session? I am not...

-The Indian Express By May 2, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) has to prove the "genuineness" of all its investors to the Supreme Court. It has a difficult task on its hands: the name ‘Kalawati' figures 5,984 times on that list, same names appear against different locations, and geography takes a giant leap with ‘Jaipur Nagpur Maharashtra' and ‘187 Aurangabad Lucknow UP' mentioned as addresses. SIRECL had given the list...

-The Business Standard The Novartis verdict by the Supreme Court emphasised the importance of flexibilities in drug patent laws, in contrast to Western countries which are seeking TRIPS-plus hardening through free-trade agreements As curtains on the six-year-long legal tussle with Swiss drug giant Novartis AG finally came down earlier this month, the Indian government did not waste a second in hailing the Indian patent law which it said was in "full...

-The Business Standard Kolkata: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has slammed the government's Right To Education (RTE) programme. This, he said, was only a step towards ensuring a means of livelihood for teachers. Banerjee said the programme, implemented in 2009, lacked sense. He said he wasn't hopeful about the outcome of the initiative. "It is simply for the teachers, by the teachers,...