Mamata Banerjee won big on two fronts today. She won a legal battle against Ratan Tata that's centred on the land allotted to him in Singur. She also won her assembly by-election from her constituency of Bohwanipore by nearly 50,000 votes. She was earlier an MP. Her legal victory was declared first this morning. The Calcutta High Court ruled that the Singur Land Rehabilitation Act is constitutional and valid. The Act...

-The Pioneer   The Government may go for a comparative study of RTI in different countries in order to check its misuse. The Government will table Public Procurement Policy Bill and a Bill on electoral reforms to check corruption in the public arena. “Undoubtedly, RTI is being misused…Even judges feel that it is hampering the work of courts in matters of decisions and appointments of judges…We can have comparative study on it,” said...

A new house bearing Tara Chand’s name awaits to be occupied by his family. The house was constructed by the government around four months ago, claim members of the Balmiki community in Mirchpur, Haryana. Tara Chand and his physically challenged daughter were burnt alive in April last year during a clash between the Balmiki and Jat communities. His wife and three sons moved to Hisar. On Sunday, the only telling signs...

IN preparing the approach paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan, the Planning Commission engaged “all interested persons” in the country in a wide, web-based consultative exercise and also involved a varied group of “stakeholders”. The resulting document clearly indicates some awareness of the complex problems likely to be faced by the economy in the coming period. But it falls short of expectations because it does not provide a cohesive...

On one day — one minute — in the next month, the world's seven billionth human resident will be born. The United Nations is marking the occasion on the last day of October with what it describes it as an “opportunity” to promote “seven billion actions” for environmental sustainability and women's education, estimating that the world's population will top out at nine or 10 billion mid-century before declining as economic...