-The Indian Express Nearly 50 activists and organisations are coming together on a common platform to lobby for “issues of the people” with political parties ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. They include Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan’s (MKSS) Aruna Roy (a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council); former NAC member Harsh Mander; Ekta Parishad’s P V Rajagopal, who recently led a march of tribals and others from MP to...

-Outlook In poll-bound Himachal, where political heat has reached to the maximum in its last leg, the capping on LPG cylinders following a recent order by the Centre has pushed all other issues on the backburner with the ruling BJP banking on it to keep voters away from Congress. "Gas ke chulhe ki mar ya Induction chulhe ka uphar (choice is yours, whether a free induction stove or the pinch of cap...

-The Hindustan Times West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will lead the campaign in the Congress strongholds during the ensuing panchayat elections in early 2013. She will lead the Trinamool Congress campaign in the green belt in North Bengal, which has always voted for the Congress. Mamata has  earmarked Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury’s bastion, Murshidabad, MP Deepa Dasmunshi’s base, North Dinajpur, and the late ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s home turf, Malda, now...

-PTI After the big-bang reforms, Law Minister Salman Khurshid today indicated government's keenness to push bills on food security and land acquisition, insisting that even Mamata Banerjee will not be able to oppose them. He maintained that "the bills drive a deft political balance between populism and reforms". "The draft (food security) Bill is being given the final touches by the Cabinet. This will ensure that poor will have their stomachs full. Nobody...

-The Telegraph Ahmedabad, Sept. 2: Rajesh Shah, 32, is an engineering graduate and former stockbroker but claims he knew nothing about Adolf Hitler when he opened his latest menswear shop 10 days ago and named it “Hitler”, earning international notoriety. He says the store, which he co-owns, draws its name from the nickname “Hitler” by which his business partner’s late grandfather Dungromal Chandani, a very “strict” man, was known. Ask him about the...