-The Times of India The Indian economy grew at its slowest pace in a decade in 2012-13, posing another fresh challenge for the UPA coalition to revive growth and boost sentiment ahead of the general elections next year. Data released by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) on Friday showed that the economy grew 5% in 2012-13, compared to 6.2% expansion in the previous year. It was in line with the advanced...

-Moneycontrol.com The government had tried to get the Food bill passed in Lok Sabha in the recently-concluded Budget session, but the debate on the proposed legislation could not be concluded amid din. Planning Commission Member Abhijit Sen today termed it exaggeration, the likely huge rise in government's subsidy burden on account of implementing the proposed National Food Security Bill, as suggested in some quarters. Introduced in Parliament in 2011, the Food Bill, which...

-The Telegraph Howrah/ Calcutta: Union minister Jairam Ramesh today hit back at Mamata Banerjee for daring the Centre to impose Article 356 in Bengal and termed her government a "circus". "I don't think the Centre is so irresponsible. (It) goes by the Constitution. I don't think Article 356 is applied because a chief minister dares the Centre to do so," the rural development minister, who had earlier met governor M.K. Narayanan, said...

-The Hindu Aruna Roy's decision to terminate her relationship with the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has returned the spotlight to the ideological divide within the ruling establishment on welfare spending. As the civil rights activist noted in her letter to the Congress president, the rupture came over the Manmohan Singh government's refusal to pay statutory minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act -...

-The Hindu   How a country like India can deny payment of minimum wages, she asks For the second time since it was created, rights activist Aruna Roy has resigned from the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), this time criticising the government for not accepting the council's recommendations on minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), even as she thanked the council's chairperson for the...