-The Economic Times The Centre plans to make bank creditaccess easier for rural population, especially in states were poverty is high. In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the gap between credit available to self help groups and the demand for credit is stark. At present, 80 per cent of all bank support to SHGs is in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya...

-The Hindu In an incident that has assumed a communal tinge, a group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad supporters allegedly assaulted a girl at her college in Bellare, Sullia taluk, on Tuesday afternoon. The FIR, however, was registered by the Sullia police only on Wednesday evening, with a counter complaint coming immediately from the accused. The students had allegedly roughed up the final year B.A. student for not participating in the ‘Bharat...

-The Indian Express In contrast to the Thorat committee report which had recommended removal of over 20 cartoons from NCERT textbooks, the NCERT’s textbook development committee and national monitoring committee have listed only three-four cartoons for removal. However, the cartoon that is reported to have offended UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is not in the list, leaving the Kapil Sibal-led HRD ministry in a spot. Highly placed sources said the ministry has asked...

-The Indian Express Competitive politics within the legislature is threatening to undermine the space and legitimacy of executive authorities to implement social and economic policies in the country. The Congress-led UPA may have been weakened to a point where any observation by the CAG becomes a millstone around its neck, even if the CAG is seen as excessive in the way he interprets the alleged lapses by the government. The danger...

-People's Democracy IT seems the Sheila Dixit government of Delhi, backed by powerful elements in the UPA-2 central government, will let nothing stand in the way of water privatisation in the capital. Several earlier attempts going back many years to fully or partially privatise distribution of water, especially the big loan application to the World Bank in 2005, were foiled by vigilant community organisations, public interest groups, trade unions and political...