-The Asian Age   West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, whose party Trinamul Congress is the key ally of the Congress, on Saturday gave her approval to the draft of the new Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, but with a rider. She wanted the Centre to give “a free hand” to the state government to introduce and implement a land acquisition law of its own. She made this announcement after a meeting Union rural...

In the backdrop of the Comptroller and Auditor General's scathing reports on award of 2G telecom licences and projects related to the Commonwealth Games, an extra-cautious Ministry of Home Affairs is seeking the audit of the processes of the proposed Rs 30,000-crore housing project for the paramilitary forces by the country's statutory auditor. This would be the first instance of pre-award scrutiny by the CAG. "We have received the reference,"...

With skewed sex ratios it is difficult to find a local mate Decades of unchecked sex-selective abortions have made the once fertile States of Punjab and Haryana suffer a drought of brides, making human-trafficking a lucrative and expanding trade. Often projected as a voluntary marriage, every year, thousands of young women and girls are lured into the idea of a happy married life with a rich man in Punjab or Haryana....

Barring the very corrupt, everyone would support the ongoing campaign against corruption. But not either Team Anna's specific solution or the means it employs. In fact, there is every reason to oppose and condemn the move to blackmail the government into conceding a very flawed demand. A monolithic, all-powerful body that would hold every functionary of the state including the judiciary to account, and investigate and prosecute them if necessary, while...

-The Telegraph   Labour laws will not be eased for the proposed national manufacturing investment zones (NMIZs), and there will be administrative arrangements for quick relief to workers in case a unit is closed. The government plans to generate 100 million jobs within a decade in these proposed zones. Proposals of flexible labour laws in these zones, which may have allowed hire-and-fire policies, had come under criticism from trade unions and as a...