-The Economist MID-AFTERNOON in Delhi, and a red blob looms in the haze. The sun barely illuminates the city. A yellow-green smog hangs low. Even indoors, fuzzy halos of dust and smoke surround lamps. Those foolish enough to be out jogging, or compelled to stand at junctions directing traffic, complain of shortness of breath, migraines, clogged lungs. Newspapers are crammed with articles about asthma, wheezing children at clinics, an epidemic of...

-CNN-IBN Ghazipur: Semraul village in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district is an example of how irresponsible the bureaucracy can be. The population of the village is 3,600 but on paper neither the village nor its inhabitants exist. Due to the negligence of government employees the population of the village on paper is zero. Village pradhan Sabhajit Singh Kushwaha is struggling to get this glaring error rectified. In this village there are more than...

-Outlook The Supreme Court today granted two more months to the Income Tax department to transcribe the entire intercepted telephone conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia. A Bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya said that the department must place the transcript of entire 5,800 conversations, running into more than hundred hours, on January 8. "Complete the exercise in two months. Not possible to give you more time," the bench...

-The Times of India SURI: A clash between farmers and policemen at the site of a mining project in Birbhum left 37 people injured on Tuesday and conjured up images of Nandigram, opening a new frontier in Bengal's bloody land battles. The protesters alleged police opened fire when they refused to let them take away earth-moving equipment brought in by a coal mining company. The equipment was stranded at the site after...

-DNA Top corporates and businessmen appear to be in a rush to defend themselves following a report in New Delhi-based tabloid Mail Today that they funded Arvind Kejriwal-led India Against Corruption (IAC). The Tata Social Welfare Trust clarified that while it had indeed made a grant of Rs 25 lakh a year to Kejriwal’s NGO, the Ghaziabad-based Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF) beginning 2009, the money was not meant to be used...