-Live Mint The survivors are demanding that the 1989 verdict, in which India agreed to a $470 million settlement, be reopened New Delhi: On the intervening night of December 2-3 1984, a highly unstable chemical, methyl isocyanate (MiC), an intermediary substance used to manufacture Sevin, a pesticide, leaked from tank 610 in the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. The leak was first detected by workers about 11.30pm as their eyes began to...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Data collected by Reserve Bank of India over a period of one year blows the lid off what goes as loan classification in banks. In a presentation at the annual bankers' conference, RBI deputy governor K C Chakrabarty showed how banks have sacrificed over Rs 1 lakh crore by writing off bad loans to corporates, which is much higher than Union finance minister P Chidambaram's farm...

-The Indian Express For the Bharatiya Mahila Bank, the country's first pan-India national women's bank, it is a humble rural cooperative women's venture in Maharashtra that has provided the critical input to succeed: How to lend to women who do not have collateral to back their loans. Chetna V Sinha, founder and chairperson of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, explained that this is the prime weakness in giving loans to women. The...

-The Hindu     While it is apparent that due process has been subverted to the advantage of a few by the political executive, it is equally true that there has been some politicisation of the civil service Two recent events have focussed attention on the relationship between the political executive and public servants. At the international conference on corruption organised by the Central Bureau of Investigation on November 11, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

-Down to Earth Gives details to finance ministry on the impact of revised budget estimates on individual schemes The steep cut in budgetary allocations for social welfare schemes in an election year seems to have become a great cause of worry for Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. He has shot off a letter to finance minister P Chidambaram, expressing displeasure over the proposed Rs 15,000 crore funds cut in rural development...