-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...

-The Hindu   Ranjit Sinha says CBI is part of government, not autonomous The widening sinkhole that the coal scam has become claimed its first victim on Wednesday as Additional Solicitor-General Harin Raval resigned for having misled the Supreme Court, while CBI Director Ranjit Sinha?brought the executive and the judiciary to the verge of open confrontation by stating that his agency was not an "autonomous organisation" but part of the government.? The CBI, which...

-The United Nations The Asia-Pacific region, which has overtaken the rest of the world in consumption of raw materials as affluence and manufacturing increase, must boost its resource efficiency or risk losing ground in lifestyle, economic growth and environmental sustainability, according to a UN report released today. From 1970-2008, consumption of construction minerals increased 13.4 times, metal ores and industrial minerals consumption 8.6, fossil fuels 5.4, and biomass 2.7 times, according to...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: It was Rajkumar Pandian's day out. The suspended IPS officer who has been arrested in two of the most sensitive fake encounters of Gujarat - Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati - was allowed to go home without any police escorts on Sunday night. This nocturnal jaunt was caught on camera by a local news TV channel on Sunday. Before going home, he even spent some time...

-The Times of India Less than 24 hours before the Supreme Court takes up the coal scam hearing on Tuesday, a blame game broke out within the government over who was responsible for incorrectly telling the court that the CBI had not shared the contents of its status report on " Coalgate" with the political executive. In a four-page letter to attorney general Goolam Vahanvati, additional solicitor general Harin Raval said he...