-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: The more educated a woman, the higher the salary discrimination she faces at work, says a recent study by a faculty member of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). While women with no formal education earn more than their male counterparts, with an increase in educational qualification, the situation reverses. So women with basic education like advanced certificates or diplomas earn 10% less than equally qualified...

-The Hindu India should take its cue from Brazil and invest in ethanol as a viable commercial substitute for costly petrol The public and media were outraged recently after a suggestion that petrol stations could be closed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. to curb consumption. Oil import is the heaviest burden on India's foreign exchange, at $144 billion last year. The situation could get worse, given the potential for an increase...

-PTI HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh government has decided to seek financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore from the World Bank for reconstruction works in cyclone-devastated districts of the state. The state cabinet met here today and approved a proposal in this regard, according to Information and Public Relations Minister D K Aruna. Briefing newspersons after the cabinet meet, she said consecutive cyclones in 2009-10 left a trail of destruction in the coastal districts and...

-Economic and Political Weekly The government has notified a Draft Land Reforms Policy which, on paper, has all the requisites of an earnest programme. Yet, the near total failure of earlier efforts at land reforms in India leave little room for hope that something substantial will at last be done to combat landlessness. Harsh Mander (manderharsh@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, and works with survivors of mass violence,...

-The Hindu The recent launch of the first Dalit venture fund occasions an examination of the moral and ethical emptiness of capitalism History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics B.R. Ambedkar If only Milind Kamble, founder of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) and Chandra Bhan Prasad, Dalit thinker, columnist and DICCI mentor, had imbibed the wisdom of Manning Marable's How Capitalism Underdeveloped...