-The Hindu The Election Commission has disqualified 2,045 candidates who contested by-elections/general elections to the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies of various States and Union Territories for failing to submit their poll expenditure accounts within the stipulated 30 days from the date of announcement of results. These persons, most of them non-serious contestants, will be barred from standing in any election conducted by the EC for three years from the date...

-Reuters Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has fined a unit of energy conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd Rs. 11 crore over a 2007 insider trading case. The company, Reliance Petroinvestments Ltd, has 45 days to pay the fine, the Sebi said in its ruling published late on Thursday. The regulator said Reliance Petroinvestments made a profit of Rs. 3.83 crore through several trades between February and March 2007 that were...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee today waved at a rally photographs and newspaper advertisements that she claimed established "links" between CPM leaders and the Saradha Group and other deposit-mobilising companies, but steered clear of commenting on Trinamul's alleged connections with such entities. Addressing her first public meeting since the Saradha crisis unfolded, the chief minister did not mention if she was planning action against Trinamul leaders whose names have cropped up in...

-Live Mint Even as India struggles in efforts to usher in transparency, some panchayats are offering a refreshing contrast Chandana/Jind: Sometime last year, Surendra Singh got a call from a military outpost in Srinagar. The soldier had an urgent inquiry for the 31-year-old sarpanch of Chandana, a village in Haryana's Kaithal district. The man, who hailed from the village, had lost his voter ID card and needed a letter from the...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Sluggish economy and soaring personal aspirations are teaming up to create fertile ground for quick-rich chit fund schemes and non-banking finance companies such as the now-infamous Saradha to mushroom, but rules to give Jharkhand investors the much-needed safety net are hanging fire since over a year. Jharkhand Assembly had early last year forwarded rules framed by the state's institutional finance department for the President's consideration under The Chit Funds...