-The Telegraph   The RSS today came out in support of Anna Hazare’s protest against the Centre over the Lokpal bill. An official statement, based on a news conference addressed by Sangh general secretary Suresh “Bhaiyya” Joshi, said: “The RSS, in a resolution it had passed at its national delegates’ convention in March 2011, said clearly that it will support the campaigns against corruption. Accordingly, our swayamsevaks have participated constructively in all these...

-Reuters   India’s food price index rose 9.03% and the fuel price index climbed 13.13% for the week ended 6 August, government data on Thursday showed. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee termed the over 9% rate of food Inflation as “not acceptable”, but expressed hope that government policies and a good monsoon will help ease prices. “Food Inflation at the level of 9% is not acceptable. I do hope the measures taken to remove supply...

The proposed regulations aim to create a new countrywide infrastructure for trading of commodity-based securities in the form of electronic receipts as with equity shares on exchanges A committee under the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) has recommended regulatory changes that can effectively control prices of food items, improve lives of farmers and change the warehousing landscape in India. The proposed regulations, drafted in consultation with the capital market regulator, the...

You said that the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies conducted a survey asking people what they felt about street protest. What did you find? One of the first national representative surveys was the National Election Study held in 1971. This is when a protest culture was beginning to take shape in the country. There was the Naxalite movement and also a time when the Congress was dislodged for the...

-The Economic Times   Concern over protecting the 'holy cow' status to the job guarantee programme, MGNREGA, appears to be overshadowing genuine worries in the government over increasing shortage of unskilled farm labour. Shooting down a suggestion from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that the programme may be suspended during the peak farming season, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that there should not be any dilution in the programme. In an...