Tight liquidity continues; rise in bank rates likely for such lending. The Andhra Pradesh government will take some time to reply in the high court to the petitions filed against the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Ordinance, issued last month. The Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), SKS Micro Finance and Spandana Sphoorty Financial have filed petitions saying the ordinance threatens to disrupt their business. The government sought an extension after...

Several newspapers and TV channels, some of them among India’s biggest, have claimed credit for exposing the Adarsh society scam in which the who’s who of India’s defense and political establishment are involved. The scam exposes the nexus between bureaucrats, politicians and unscrupulous defense service officers. Obviously it wouldn’t be anyone’s ‘exclusive’ if so many newspapers and channels broke the news. Or else there would be one journalist who reported...

The Mumbai Collector had, in a letter to the Defence Estates Officer, Mumbai Circle, dated July 12, 2004, denied that the government of Maharashtra allotted any land to the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Colaba. Records obtained using the Right to Information (RTI) Act by the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements (NAPM), which were released on Monday by Ms. Medha Patkar, Simpreet Singh and other activists, show that the Collector accorded...

The Orissa government on Friday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Orissa High Court order that quashed its decision to permit South Korean steel major Posco to mine iron ore in Sundergarh district of the state. The matter is likely to come up for hearing in November end. The state government had recommended the grant of prospecting licence (PL) to Posco India for the Khandadhar mines for its 12-million-tonne steel plant...

Directing the forest officials not to demolish the huts of the tribals and other forest dwellers in Khammam agency area, Justice C V Ramulu of the AP High Court on Wednesday made absolute a stay that was imposed earlier on such forcible evictions. The judge made this order while hearing a petition filed by the forest range officers of VR Puram and other areas of Khammam district who wanted the court...