Security forces will need to retool their strategy to ensure that innocent lives are not lost in anti-Maoist ops, reports Vicky Nanjappa  The killing of 19 persons alleged to be Maoists in Sarkeguda in Chhattisgarh on June 29 in a major operation by the Central Reserve Police Force has sparked off a major controversy, with villagers crying foul and calling the entire operation a fake one in which innocents were killed. According...

The army is bristling at a fresh move in the government to dilute or revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The AFSPA gives the army extraordinary powers in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast to enforce law and order in aid of the civilian authority. The army is particularly concerned about proposals floated from the Union home ministry to make it mandatory for soldiers to seek permission from a civilian authority...

-The Times of India Fresh from clinching his party's nomination for the post of president, finance minister and presidential hopeful, Pranab Mukherjee found himself in the corruption crosshairs of Team Anna. Arvind Kejriwal, Team Anna's most vociferous member, on Sunday demanded an independent probe into graft allegations against Mukherjee before elections to the country's highest office are held.  Kejriwal claimed the inquiry should be completed before the presidential elections as once Mukherjee...

-AP Less than four months ago the world was cheered to learn that India had gone a full year with no new cases of polio, a landmark that left only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on the World Health Organization's list of countries where the disease is endemic.  But the battle is far from over, judging by the WHO's latest expressions of alarm. It says that in both Nigeria and Afghanistan the number...

-The Times of India The government's white paper on black money, tabled in Parliament on Monday, listed a one-time tax amnesty to recover funds stashed abroad and a gold deposit scheme for locals as possible ways to deal with the menace, while suggesting that individuals get the tax department's go-ahead for all property deals and face undue scrutiny on cash in their possession. It also called for setting up of independent regulators,...