-Live Mint   A key reason for the surge in anti-incumbency faced by UPA has been its failure to curb inflationary pressures New Delhi: A key reason for the surge in anti-incumbency faced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has been its failure to curb inflationary pressures for most of the regime's second tenure. While inflation based on wholesale prices averaged 6.1% during UPA-1 (2004-2009), it was a percentage point higher at 7.1%...

-The Telegraph Shillong: The National Green Tribunal has ordered a stop to rat-hole coal mining across Meghalaya and it observed that neither the government nor the people were benefiting from "illegal mining" except the "coal mafias" while warning against illegal transportation of the mineral. This is the latest instance that a national authority has intervened in the traditional and unscientific form of coal mining that has been the order of the day...

-The Business Standard   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can be assertive when he chooses to. He has certainly imposed his will on the government to push the case for the controversial genetically-modified (GM) food crops. Documents reviewed by Business Standard show, for almost two years, Singh and his office have been the moving force behind the decision to go ahead with field trials of GM crops, including food crops, without awaiting regulatory reforms...

-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-The Hindustan Times Misunderstandings about the World Trade Organization (WTO) are pervasive. The media coverage of the recent WTO meetings at Bali has added to the confusion. The bone of contention was the government procurement of the food grains in India under the National Food Security Act. The final outcome is a stopgap arrangement that has bought the Indian government some time; most importantly, it does not have to undertake any...