-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has given a clean chit to Wal-Mart, the world's largest supermarket chain, in a case related to alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema), a move that may pave the way for the US retailer to pursue its India investment plans more aggressively. Earlier this week, ED wrote to the RBI, saying a case of violation could not be made out as...

-The Times of India PATIALA: After generating much-needed revenue from sale of government properties and taxes on sale of tobacco products in the state, Punjab is now set to pump money for its cancer relief fund from a cess on the sale of basmati rice. In a notification issued recently, the Punjab government has decided that 0.25% of the total revenue generated from the purchase of basmati in the state would be...

-The Telegraph The human resource development ministry today rejected a demand by two state education ministers that the Centre frame a national policy prescribing a uniform salary structure for schoolteachers in states and rules for recruiting them. At a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education, the highest advisory body on education that has state education ministers as members, Chhattisgarh's Brijmohana Agrawal and Bihar's P.K. Shahi said the HRD ministry should...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Much work remains to be done if the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act has to mark a meaningful shift for India's adivasi communities. Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) is a multimedia journalist and researcher, and currently with the Publics and Policies program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. Among the worst excesses committed in India's six decade-old democracy, the forcible displacment...

-The Times of India Put 50% cap on all reservations Affirmative action can work only in limited doses. It should not be used as a sledgehammer that rules out all other criteria of job selection. The 50% cap on reservations mandated by the Supreme Court earlier should be the absolute upper limit for all categories of reservations. Any relaxation of this upper limit would further dilute meritocracy in public services, impede good...