The Mamata Banerjee government has initiated an ambitious project to bring specialised health care to rural Bengal, asking private hospitals to set up “super-speciality” units alongside state-run hospitals in the districts. As a start, the chief minister has taken up with cardiologist and Asia Heart Foundation chairman Devi Shetty a plan to set up six such hospitals that would provide the sort of critical care that is now missing in most...

By exposing its lesser arm, is the petromin hiding bigger sins? Petro Fallout     * Murli Deora, who as petroleum minister sought the CAG audit and sanctioned a CVC probe, offers to quit his ministerial post     * CBI action reinforces CAG draft report findings blaming DGH for oversight in implementation of production-sharing contracts     * Unease in market, as yet another CBI probe into charges of DGH having favoured RIL in its...

-The Telegraph   The Mamata Banerjee government has kickstarted a process to hold talks with Maoists without mentioning conditions but acknowledged the responsibilities of governance by adding that central forces will remain until Jungle Mahal is cleansed of arms. The initiative also sought to address a fundamental issue often overlooked by the security and political establishments: the chief minister gave an assurance that the villagers will retain the right to forest resources so...

-The Telegraph   Tata Motors today sought Calcutta High Court’s permission to move an ex-parte petition to make amendments to its earlier plea as it had been filed in “great hurry”. The original petition of the Tatas had challenged the constitutional validity of the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, through which the government has taken back the land acquired for the Nano project in Singur. A Tata Motors spokesperson said in...

Those of us interested in gender equality tend to be obsessed with the politically and economically important areas in which we need this equality — education, employment, health, political representation. But equality in these important but grim attributes leaves out many things that actually make life more enjoyable and thus more worth living. Women deserve more from gender equality than better housekeeping and management skills. In most societies, men are much...