-The Telegraph Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh elections appear to have turned a straight fight between the induction cooker and “pricey” LPG. The Congress, led by five-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh, was looking the clear favourite till incumbent Prem Kumar Dhumal unveiled a new voter sop in the final rounds of CAMPAigning. The BJP chief minister offered free induction cookers to tide the people over the cooking gas price hike brought about by the...

-Mail Today   THE edifice of Arvind Kejriwal’s guerilla war on politicians and big business has been bankrolled by corporate big wigs who donated to his Public Cause Research Foundation. India Against Corruption, which has unfurled the banner of revolt against all- pervasive corruption, actually draws its lineage from Public Cause Research Foundation. And if you were wondering where the movement got sustenance from, strangely it came from a combination of businessmen and bankers. They...

-The Indian Express Fifteen-year-old Altaf Hussain crouches effortlessly and heads into what looks like a black hole. Dragging a large wooden cart behind him, he disappears into the gaping darkness within seconds. After what seems like an endless wait but lasts just half an hour, he emerges from the hole with a cart laden with dark, glittering coal. The head of this group of 30 is Abu Kalam Mia. The 27-year-old ‘sardar’,...

-The Times of India Internationally acclaimed academician Noam Chomsky of Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the United States has warned that Koodankulam could be another Bhopal disaster in waiting. In a solidarity letter to the struggling people he said: "Nuclear energy is a very dangerous initiative, particularly in countries like India, which has had more than its share of industrial disasters, Bhopal being the most famous." "I would like to express my...

-The Times of India This is one 'sarkari damaad' who faded from anonymity to obscurity in a jiffy. Ranjan Bhattacharya was never one to court the limelight, preferring to be spoken of in hushed tones as the man who "ran the show". But no sooner did his source of strength, BJP's prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lose power in May 2004 that he disappeared without a trace, avoiding the post-mortem that...