-PTI Bankura: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday asked why the UPA government was in a hurry to legislate the Food Security Bill when its continuance was in doubt, while denying that Trinamool Congress was opposed to it. "Congress is saying that they are going to pass the National Food Security Bill and the Trinamool Congress is obstructing it," Ms. Banerjee told a panchayat election meeting here in Bankura district. "You...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A United Nations (UN) report has warned India that it is at greater risk by opting for public private partnership (PPP) mode of investment for raising its public infrastructure where the government has less control over its executing private partners and the latter has little interest in long term safety of the projects. A UN study, the Global Assessment Report (GAR) on disaster risk reduction, released...

-The Hindu There has been no public debate on the level of watch citizens can be put through, and on what the red lines should be while using intrusive mechanisms The tussle between government agencies' need for a better, faster and real-time interception, surveillance and monitoring mechanism through the Central Monitoring System (CMS), on the one hand, and demands by privacy, civil rights and free speech activists, for ensuring higher privacy for...

-The Hindu Tirupur: It is now almost 10 days since the eight bonded child workers were rescued by a special team, headed by the Revenue Divisional Officer and comprising officials and NGO members, from two textile units situated in the heart of Tirupur knitwear cluster. But till now, no police case had been registered in the incident leave alone arrest the accused. The revenue and the police officials were passing the buck...

-Outlook The government today approved Planning Commission's proposal to merge the 147 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and bring it down to 66 across various sectors for effective implementation and monitoring of the 12th Five Year Plan. "The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal to merge CCS", Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters after the meeting. Last month, a Group of Ministers, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, had approved merging of...