-The Telegraph Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government is scrambling to stitch together a cogent response to the default crisis that is escalating by the hour. The ruling establishment's agony has been compounded by the close ties several of its ministers, MPs and MLAs had nurtured with the collapsed Saradha Group. Within Trinamul and the government, questions are being asked about what senior leaders and ministers were doing while the crisis was building up...

-The Economic Times The government is reviewing the norms for keeping buffer stocks of wheat and rice required at a particular time of the year to feed the public distribution system and welfare schemes. The demand for wheat and rice distributed through welfare schemes is expected to rise with the implementation of the food security law. "The government is looking at the issue and we are discussing it with different departments," KV Thomas,...

-The Hindu Access to justice’ is a basic tenet; if it is denied, consumers could haul up courts, says T.S. Thakur Assailing the government for ignoring the demands of consumer courts for better infrastructure and staff, a Supreme Court judge on Thursday said if the consumers were to claim a “deficiency in service” on the part of the courts, then the government will be in trouble. To redress complaints of “deficiency in...

-The Business Standard FM allocates Rs 10,000 cr to implement the programme; this is apart from the usual food subsidy requirement of Rs 80,000 cr for the year The most ambitious social security programme of the government, the National Food Security Bill, got a leg-up in the 2013-14 Budget, with Finance Minister P Chidambaram allocating Rs 10,000 crore for implementing it. This allocation is over and above the usual food subsidy requirement of...

-The Times of India The Union government downplayed the opposition's concern over allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and informed the Supreme Court on Friday that the policy, when fully implemented, would touch the lives of only 13.3% of the country's population living in 53 cities. The government said its policy on FDI in multi-brand retail stipulated that retail sales outlets could be set up only in cities with a population...