-The Times of India If you have a kutcha house or have a tarpaulin to cover youself, the socio-caste survey will not consider you homeless. If a farmer has a hand-pump provided by the government or a kisan patra to take loans against that, the same BPL scheme could now disqualify him from a BPL card.  If a widow has a 16 year-old son, she may end up losing the BPL status...

The audience, organisers, and fightersknow that sham wrestling is not to betaken seriously. But the World Economic Forum takes itself seriously. The comforting thing about the sham wrestling ‘championships' on television is that everybody knows they are a farce. Steroid-stuffed Cro-Magnons stomp the living daylights out of painkiller-primed Neanderthals. Good, unclean fun. The results are safely predictable. You should expect the 600-pound gorilla to overwhelm the 900-pound one in a staggering...

The country's main planning body will overhaul of the system of village panchayat in the next Five-Year Plan period to improve its functioning and check siphoning of funds meant for social sector programmes.  Over 250,000 panchayats or village councils in the country collectively handle about Rs 90,000 crore in social sector funds every year, but embezzlement by village representatives often prevents the benefits of welfare schemes from reaching the needy.  To remedy...

-CNN-IBN As the Cabinet meets to decide on allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the multi-brand retail, it remains to be seen whether the Prime Minister will bite the bullet. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left, UPA ally Trinamool Congress along with some Cabinet ministers Veerappa Moily and Mukul Wasnik have opposed it. While the BJP feels that FDI will lead to unemployment, the Left has said that it may lead...

-The Indian Express   The Cabinet today approved the Companies Bill 2011 which, once approved by Parliament, will replace half-a-century-old Act. "The Cabinet has cleared Companies Bill, 2011. It is likely to be tabled (for consideration and passage) in the ongoing Winter Session," a Corporate Affairs Ministry official said after the Cabinet meeting. The Bill, which has already been vetted by the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Finance and also by different ministries, seeks to...