-The Economic Times The Left and the Right came together on Thursday to protest against the steepest petrol price hike, even as the government accused the opposition of unnecessarily politicising the issue. The nation-wide bandh evoked a mixed response, with incidents of violence being reported from Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. BJP and Left leaders courted arrest in several states. Activists targeted commercial establishments that refused to down shutters. In Delhi, the bandh...

A government report lends credence to the notion of “two Indias”, or the distinction between “India” and “Bharat” – a theme often debated in recent years. At a time when urban India is growing and policy makers have expressed clear preference for the trend, this report, by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), brings India’s deep urban-rural divide into focus, showing disparities in scale and levels of expenditure and consumption and, equally...

A prolonged dry spell in most parts of India is hurting the sowing schedule for paddy, a major kharif crop, raising the country's anxiety about monsoon rains, as parched fields urgently need moisture to plant crops. The weather office has forecast normal rainfall in the June-September monsoon, but showers in the months before the rainy season are vital for soil moisture required to raise paddy nurseries and subsequently to sow the...

-The New York Times India's coalition government just celebrated the third anniversary of its tenure with a self-congratulatory banquet that could not have been more poorly timed: India's currency, the rupee, is falling; investment is down; inflation is rising; and deficits are eating away at government coffers. While short-term growth has slowed but not ground to a halt, India's problems have dampened hopes that it, along with China and other non-Western economies,...

The policy deep-freeze and land acquisition woes have resulted in over 500 projects, mostly power and steel, being shelved or put on hold during 2011-12, entailing a total investment of over Rs 5,00,000 crore. According to CMIE estimates, during the year Rs 1,70,000 crore worth of investment projects had been abandoned by project developers, and another Rs 3,30,000 crore worth were stalled on account of various procedural issues. The core sectors, led...