-The Economic Times The per capita income may have gone up by 14% during the last financial year, but the debt burden on every Indian - in the form of the government's debt - went up by 23%, latest official estimates show. According to finance ministry data, the per capita debt in India was estimated at nearly Rs 33,000 at the end of March 2012, compared to a little over Rs 26,600...

Cabinet clears change in divorce law: Women to get part of husband’s property In a move that could be a setback to land acquisition for commercial use, a parliamentary committee unanimously recommended that the government should not acquire land for industrial, commercial or for-profit enterprises or private companies. Instead, the panel, which has proposed legislation favouring landowners, recommends that private companies and public-private partnerships would have to buy land in the open...

The UPA II’s third anniversary on May 22 may witness a repackaging of old schemes, promises and achievements in the “Report to the people” as the government has little to show for 2011-12. Sources say the 13-chapter report struggles to contest the perception of policy paralysis by pointing out social-sector initiatives based primarily on welfare schemes launched during the UPA I regime or in the first year of UPA II. The government...

A parliamentary panel has cited the practice in developed countries to reject a key provision in the land acquisition bill allowing the government to acquire plots for private companies. The committee said in the US, Japan and Canada, land is purchased by private enterprises, not acquired by the state. Why should India continue this “anomalous practice”, asked the parliamentary standing committee on rural development in its report on the Land Acquisition,...

Justice Markandey Katju's prescription for a regulated media regime is a misplaced step that can actually de-democratise the fourth estate. IT is open season on the political class and the news media. But then, again, it's more like a chase of one's own tail. A self-righteous, delusional, Anna-Baba NGO-ised fringe sets out to stigmatise politics and Members of Parliament; the news media salivate at the prospect and rush to provide...