-The Times of India MUMBAI: As many as 66% of businesses in the country believe that some form of bribery is acceptable, in spite of increased regulatory actions and public outcry against corruption, according to a survey. Around 80% believe that corruption is still widespread, with 52% saying offering gifts to win businesses is "justifiable to help a business survive", while 27% justify cash payments, the survey on fraud and corruption by...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has granted the military permission to test missiles targeting four ecologically fragile islands in the Andaman and Nicobar group in the Bay of Bengal, junking a UPA policy derisively known as "birds-over-bombs". The islands are uninhabited or largely uninhabited for most of the year, a source in the defence ministry claimed. Environmental organisations such as the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, claim the islands are home...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury today wrote to the chief election commissioner, protesting against what he called the poll panel's drive to link Aadhaar numbers with electoral cards and voicing fears that the data collected could be misused. In his letter, Yechury said the commission had "clarified" through a press communiqué that Aadhaar card details were "voluntary and not a compulsory requirement for being enrolled on the voters...

-Hindustan Times A dominant feature of the first year of Narendra Modi's leadership is the quiet dismantling of India's imperfectly realised framework of welfare and rights, covertly, by stealth.   A declared pro-corporate agenda, such as the land acquisition ordinance, proved politically messy and costly. Therefore, the government resorted instead for an enfeebling of the welfare architecture of the country through a combination of fiscal withdrawals, ignoring even legally mandated obligations.   But this attracted...

-The Hindu Business Line Agriculture development and food security form the foundation of manufacturing growth. Modi must realise this Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exhortation ‘Make in India’ would make perfect sense till we realise that by ‘making’ he means manufacturing. But could it be that his focus on manufacturing may come a cropper if we do not ensure that agriculture is placed permanently on a sound footing? The history of the great...