Supporters who hit the streets are from all walks of life The response to Team Anna's protest in Mumbai was lukewarm on Tuesday, compared to the popular support it received in New Delhi earlier. Though members of India Against Corruption claimed that 30,000 people visited the MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Authority) ground in the Bandra-Kurla Complex here, it did not look more than 3,000. There was a spurt in the number of...

-Express News Service   The government today decided to create a 4.5 per cent sub-quota for backward minorities within the 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in jobs and admission to educational institutions.   The political significance of the move lies in its timing just ahead of elections in Uttar Pradesh. The sub-quota was one of the Congress’s 2009 poll promises, but it appears in the current context to be targeted...

-Live Mint The National Food Security Bill (NFSB) has finally been cleared by the cabinet. While this should have been seen as an important step forward towards the objective of food security for all, the Bill has come under severe criticism for being too ambitious and disastrous for the economy. While some of these fictitious numbers are expected from the media, concerns have also been raised by senior government functionaries, notably...

The approach paper for the 12th Five-Year Plan with focus on faster, sustained and inclusive growth is candid and forward-looking. On poverty reduction, the document notes, without comment, the annual trend decline of 0.8% accelerating to 1% during 2004-05 to 2009-10, against a promised target of 2% in the 11th Plan. It emphasises that India will easily meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty by 2015, over 25...

-The Hindu   The government on Tuesday said it would soon undertake a survey of the number of manual scavenger in the country so that they could get benefits of various schemes meant for them. Replying to a calling Attention notice on need to take adequate safety measures to protect the lives of ‘safai karmacharis' by Arjun Ram Meghwal in the Lok Sabha, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik said the Centre...