-Live Mint     Gujarat has grown faster than the national average—a point worth noting. But there’s no need for drumbeats  Gujarat's economic performance has been facing great scrutiny ever since chief minister Narendra Modi emerged as one of the top prime ministerial candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I have been asked to compare Gujarat's economic performance during the past decade with that in the past and separate fact from fiction...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Taking on the rampant money and muscle power in politics, a new political party, Nav Bharat Democratic Party, was launched on Thursday, promising clean candidates and transparent democracy. The party helmed by a motley group of professions, including a retired naval officer, entrepreneurs, lawyers and others, promised to provide an accountable government. The party will field candidates, including working professionals, entrepreneurs and veteran politicians, weaned away...

-The Economic Times When the voting stops on August 19, the scorecard, which is currently 9-0, may well read 12-0. An emphatic and embarrassing rejection of state and corporate plans to mine bauxite atop the Niyam Dongar hilltop in the Kalahandi district of Odisha. Twelve tribal villages that call this mountain range home have, in all likelihood, secured their religious rights over the hill and its natural resources, including 72 million...

-The Economic Times The Union Government has proposed to provide land to the landless. Nearly half of the country's rural population is absolutely or relatively landless, according to the National Land Reform Policy Draft 2013 formulated by Union Ministry of Rural Development released on July 18 open for discussion and comments till August 31, the policy is going to face opposition from farmers' organisations as it proposes to take away excess...

-Tehelka.com The Sen-Bhagwati ‘debate' on economic policy is focussing on the wrong issues Several things are quite remarkable about the recent debate between Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. The first surprise is that such a debate could become a major news item at all, making headlines and filling screen time on news channels, when it is about economic strategies that are normally discussed only in relatively small academic and policy...