-Outlook The state elections rolled out smoothly, but it's money power which ruled on the ground As we celebrate the smooth working of a massive electoral exercise-simplistically dubbed by many as the semi-final to the greatest show on earth, General Elections 2014-a realisation has dawned that the role of ‘money power' is reaching alarming proportions. Sure, elections are more fool-proof today than in the past, and most (rightly) salute the EC...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a startling decision which has ramifications for sensitive cases, the Gauhati high court has ruled that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was legally not a police force and stripped it of its powers to investigate crimes, arrest suspects and file charge-sheets. The ministry of home affairs (MHA) had, by a resolution dated April 1, 1963, constituted the CBI as a police force under the...

-Newsclick.in Caste discrimination percolates down to the food plates for Musahar community in Madhepura district of Bihar reports Neha Dixit "The mahant of the Shankar Math told me to stay away from ultra-Left people the day I questioned the Collector about the hunger deaths in my village," recounts Prabhansh Manjhi. Prabhansh is from the Musahaar community in Madhepura district of Bihar. Estimated to be 2.3 million in the country, they are Mahadalits, one...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI: For almost eight months, 30-year-old Reena Sahani spurned inappropriate requests by her boss to meet him outside of work. He changed tack, loading her with more work to make her stay back late in office. Finally, emboldened by chats with a company-appointed counsellor, she lodged a complaint. Rooma Sircar, an IT executive, tolerated an innuendo of sexually explicit jokes by a senior male colleague for...

-Down to Earth The most controversial aspect of the food security law is the restructuring of the public distribution system to cover an unprecedented 67 per cent of the population, most of them in the poorer states. LATHA JISHNU, JYOTIKA SOOD and SUCHITRA M explain why there are winners and losers in the new dispensation and how states with better PDS will have to find huge resources to keep their numbers...