-The Hindu Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are taking steps to rewrite the unconstitutional law on beggary and decriminalise poverty According to the 1959 law on beggary, Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, anyone perceived as having “no visible means of subsistence” and “wandering about” can be branded a beggar and detained in certified Institutions for a period of not less than one year and up to 10 years for second time offenders. For many...

-Tehelka The sentencing of Wall Street wizard Rajat Gupta in the historic insider trading case has led to the fall of a one-time icon for many Indians “This is where destiny is taking me.” This is what former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director, Rajat Gupta, told old friend Pramod Bhasin, as he sat with a glass of scotch in hand, in a mid-town bar in New York. Little did Gupta know how prophetic...

-The Hindu New norms come after many households in city surrender additional permit Here’s some relief to large households worried about restrictions on LPG connections. They need not surrender the additional connection. As per the new norms announced by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Friday, consumers can retain multiple connections but will have to shell out more for the cylinders. They will be priced thrice as much as the subsidised...

-The Hindu This was discovered during an awareness drive in two Jaipur slums recently Jaipur: The daily struggle of slum dwellers for getting basic amenities and the glaring deficiency in the reach of the much-touted urban poverty alleviation schemes as well as other programmes for welfare of widows, disabled people and destitute children were revealed during an awareness drive launched by two voluntary public service Institutions in slum colonies here this week. The...

-ENS Economic Bureau At a time when companies such as Kingfisher Airlines and Suzlon Energy have defaulted on bank loans, finance minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday made a strong pitch for individual borrowers with low income, asking banks and financial Institutions to not hesitate in giving loans to them. “The poor in India are not bad borrowers. The poor in India are not dishonest borrowers. The poor in India are ethical, honest...