-The Hindustan Times The coal-block allocation scandal is increasingly looking like a sequel to the 2G spectrum scam as far as the behaviour of the companies involved is concerned. As was with the telecom scam, many of the “coalgate” companies that cornered the government-allocated resource — like the spectrum — have used it to raise money from the market at hefty valuations. Promoters of more than 10 companies are believed to have...

-The Telegraph Ranchi, Sept. 2: The state government is expected to cut a sorry figure before Jharkhand High Court tomorrow when it presents the status of construction of three educational institutions in Nagri. The court, while hearing the case on August 6, had granted the state time till September 2 to begin construction of National University for Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), IIM-Ranchi and IIIT campuses at the spot, which advocate...

-The Indian Express A year after it was mandated to create a database of financial crimes and issue alerts to enforcement agencies about black money, the country's top economic intelligence organisation CEIB is groping in the dark for want of good snoop information. Top sources in the Finance Ministry said the CEIB, in the last six months, has sent a number of reminders to agencies like the I-T department, ED, IB, CBI,...

-The Economic Times New discoveries of natural resources in several African countries - including Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique - raise an important question: will these windfalls be a blessing that brings prosperity and hope, or a political and economic curse, as has been the case in so many countries? On average, resource-rich countries have done even more poorly than countries without resources. They have grown more slowly, and with greater inequality...

-The Telegraph The government today dug out a 2006 verdict to argue that the Supreme Court was against auction of coal blocks as law minister Salman Khurshid questioned the presumptive revenue loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore in the allocation of 57 blocks. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, who addressed a joint media conference with Khurshid, read out the verdict that had nullified the NDA government’s plan for e-auction of coal blocks. The verdict...