-The Times of India NEW DELHI: BJP on Wednesday made a strong pitch for increasing the minimum pension to beneficiaries under the employees pension scheme (EPS) to Rs 3,000 per month and link it to the price index, against Rs 1,000 proposed by the government. "The BJP demands that the minimum pension under EPS 95 (EPF Pension) should be declared at Rs 3,000 per month and not at Rs 1,000 as government...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The rift between the Prime Minister's Office and the Congress is once again out in the open over passing of a landmark legislation to prevent diversion of funds earmarked for Scheduled Castes/Tribes, a core constituency that Congress has lost steadily. The latest bone of contention - the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan and Tribal Sub Plan Bill 2013 - is ready for the consideration of the Cabinet. While...

-The Hindu Business Line Clientelism - tying benefits to political choices - cannot work because voting preferences cannot be ascertained. Do parties and their local agents link access to government services and benefits from government welfare schemes to how voters vote, or are expected to vote? This political strategy, which social scientists refer to as clientelism, depends on a massive investment in local leaders who collect information on voters' party preferences, vote choices...

-Outlook Bhubaneswar: Optimistic about progress of Posco's Rs 52,000 crore steel project, Odisha government today said it would sign a fresh tripartite agreement with the South Korean steel major as the validity of the original MoU lapsed three years ago. "The state government will sign a fresh agreement with Posco and Posco-India for setting up the proposed mega steel mill near Paradip," Steel and Mines minister R K Singh said while describing...

-PTI     It could have been done in a more refined manner, it says The Centre on Thursday admitted before the Supreme Court that something went wrong with the coal blocks allocation and that it could have been done in a more refined manner. "We took the decision in good faith but something turned out to be wrong," Attorney-General Goolam E. Vahanvati told a three-judge Bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha. "In hindsight, we can...