-The Economic Times   MUMBAI: Maharashtra's mega irrigation scam, which strained relations between Congress and its alliance partner, Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP), is getting murkier. In another explosive revelation, TOI has learned that costs of 38 irrigation projects in Vidarbha were increased from Rs 6,672 crore to Rs 26,722 crore by the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC). More shockingly, this mind-numbing 300% cost escalation of over Rs 20,000 crore was approved in a...

-The Hindu Entire concept of APL and BPL population needs to be scrapped, says Karat The Left parties began here on Monday a five-day sit-in against price rise and to demand the right to food through a universal public distribution system (PDS). Addressing the participants, who had come from Haryana and Delhi, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said the government’s thrust should be on giving people access to cheap...

-Live Mint The much-awaited land acquisition Bill seems to be in jeopardy with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government rejecting a parliamentary standing committee’s suggestion the government should not acquire land for public-private-partnership (PPP) projects. But it has accepted that land procured for special economic zones (SEZs) and some defence projects cannot be exempted from the purview of a land acquisition Bill and promised to amend other laws pertaining to purchase...

-PTI Amid growing political opposition in India for easing of foreign investment norms in retail and other sectors, US-based companies like Wal-Mart and Prudential Financial are lobbying hard with their own lawmakers here to garner support for their Indian business expansion plans. As per their latest lobbying disclosure reports filed with the House of Representatives and the Senate, the US-based companies and industry groups spent millions of dollars since the beginning of...

-The Indian Express From Nariman Point to Tirupur, from broking firms to ancillary industries — as a two-part series in this newspaper has illustrated — the economy is seeing a steady contraction in employment opportunities. The economic and social cost is sobering but the UPA should also worry about the political implications. Lakhs of jobs are being lost when India is heading for a general election that could be decided primarily...