-The Times of India CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: Chief election commissioner V C Sampath on Tuesday expressed his disapproval over the Centre's decision to go ahead with the direct cash transfer scheme when assembly elections were round-the-corner in Gujarat. Himachal Pradesh, the other state that went to polls, is yet to know the result, and model code of conduct is still in force. Sampath, who was in Chennai to review the ongoing summary revision of...

-The Economic Times DOHA: At a time when the reticence of industrialised countries to providing climate finance and reducing emissions is hampering an outcome at Doha , UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon unambiguously called on the industrialised countries to do more. At the same time, the UN top boss made it clear that all countries need to make an effort according to their level ofeconomic development to tackle climate change.  Negotiators from...

-CNN-IBN Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases lead to places where lies a darker side to India's economic boom. Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi's...

-The Times of India By announcing the direct cash transfer scheme and fielding senior ministers from the Congress platform, the Manmohan Singh government may have risked the ire of the Election Commission (EC). The election watchdog will meet on Sunday to deliberate over opposition BJP's complaint that cash transfers are essentially a poll sop, unveiled ahead of the Gujarat assembly election. The timing of the announcement in November although the scheme is to...

-The Economic Times Something interesting happened in Mumbai last month. For the first time ever, Harvard Business School stepped out of its Boston campus to bring its leadership and corporate accountability programme for senior corporate executives to India. The programme focuses on promoting socially and financially responsible corporate conduct. In an environment where scams and business scandals are making headlines every day, the turnout for the four-day programme was expectedly impressive. "Corruption...