-The Hindu Since 2005-06, taxes and duties for the corporate world and the rich have been written off at the rate of Rs.7 million a minute on average. Duties waived on gold and diamonds in the last 36 months equal the 2G scam amount Forbes has just added an “errata” to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s budget speech. The Minister had found a mere 42,800 people in the country with a taxable...

-The Hindu Despite government programmes, nutrition supplements for women and children are not to be found in Jharkhand’s villages More than two years after she gave birth to her youngest daughter, Shanti Oraon, an adivasi farmer in Bhandara village, Khunti district has been unable to resume working in the fields. “She has breathing trouble, and could not start walking even after she turned two and a half years old. I must stay...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Barely one out of 10 police personnel in the state is a woman against the mandated minimum of three. The appalling ratio appears grave at a time when crimes against women have seen a jump. State home department norms require that at least 30% posts in the police force be filled by women, barring the top positions peopled by the Indian Police Service cadre. But women make...

-The Hindu Amid criticism that his move to determine minimum qualifications for journalists is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the profession, Press Council of India (PCI) chairperson, Markandey Katju, called for a ‘healthy debate’ on the issue and lashed out at ‘touchy journalists’. He has also expanded the mandate of the committee, meant to decide on educational standards for journalists, to suggest ways to regulate and supervise journalism...

-The Hindu By hanging Afzal Guru secretly so that he could not approach the courts, and ignoring the pending case that could have affected his sentence, the Home Minister acted illegally On March 6, 2013, in response to an RTI request, the President’s Secretariat made available documents pertaining to Ajmal Kasab’s mercy petition. People from across the country and the globe had written to the President asking that he use his clemency...