-Bloomberg The corpse of Indian farmer Bengali Singh burned to ash atop a blazing funeral pyre on the banks of the river Ganges in 2006. Five years later, the dead man was recorded as being paid by India's $33 billion rural jobs program to dig an irrigation canal in Jharkhand state. Officials in his village and the surrounding region used at least 500 identities, including those of Singh, a disabled child of...

-Live Mint Subsidized loans given to farmers through KCCs could very well be the next big source of NPAs for banks Mumbai: A surge in exposure to farm debt through Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) could emerge as a risk for India's state-run banks, according to experts. Subsidized loans are given to farmers through KCCs by state-owned banks. Until March 2012, the outstanding amount on such loans was`1.6 trillion through 20.3 million cards, as...

-The Times of India President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the tougher anti-rape bill, bringing into force the new legislation which provides for stringent punishment for rapists and repeat offenders and makes provisions of strict punishment for offences like stalking, voyeurism, disrobing and acid attacks. Presidential assent to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, came on Tuesday - just two days before the February 3 Ordinance on the issue was...

-The Indian Express India is no insecure dictatorship junking international obligations for cheap populism. The highest court of the world's largest democracy has made a nuanced distinction between real innovation and marketing gimmickry. Yet, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis's response to the recent Supreme Court verdict in Novartis vs Union of India has been imperial in tone. The judgment "discourages innovative drug discovery", it claimed. It accused Indian law of lagging...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to a senior bank official accused of molesting a teenage girl, saying that "he is a high-profile person and has been exposed to humiliation already". Joginder Singh, a deputy general manager with the Oriental Bank of Commerce, was Booked by the police for allegedly molesting a 16-year-old girl in the lift of his residential building in Vile Parle on...