-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Monday said the common man in India felt cheated as the authorities preferred to demolish illegal slums and hutments of the poor while sparing unauthorized constructions put up by the affluent. The court said the failure of the authorities to take prompt demolition action against illegal and unauthorized constructions owned by the rich gave out a loud message that "planning laws are enforced only...

-The Indian Express Ten kilometres from Jodhpur city, on a sultry afternoon under a flapping tent, a baby girl is born to Sadhu and Radha. People crowd around and peer into the tent to congratulate the couple. Someone in the crowd says, “The first Indian among us, she should be named Bharati.” The suggestion is met with nods of approval and cheers of “Bharati”. Over the last one month, the makeshift tent...

-The Hindu Property empire was built on soft loans handed out in unusual circumstances, documents show In February, as rumours of the ambitions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law swirled amidst the heat and dust of the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, her daughter Priyanka moved to scotch speculation about Robert Vadra’s possible political future. “He’s a successful businessman,” the younger Ms. Gandhi said of her husband, “who is not interested in changing...

-The Indian Express Families of Ahmed and Iqbal claimed they were detained in Jammu. The Special Cell had alleged that the ‘terrorists’ had been arrested outside Dilli Haat in South Delhi carrying arms On April 20, 2007, Mohd Shafi’s son Shabbir had gone on his regular trip to Jammu from their home in Bhadarwah, Doda District, to buy utensils for their crockery shop. When he did not return, Shafi went to Jammu...

-The Indian Express Conspiracy theories are a handy standby when one wants to avoid the effort of critical thinking. So Tavleen Singh would rather rely on “the foreign hand” — that old bogey out of Indira Gandhi’s box of tricks — than examine facts that reveal uncomfortable truths. Lamenting the closure of the Vedanta aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh, Orissa (‘Why India could remain forever’, IE, September 30), Singh asserts that, if...