-The Times of India Fireworks can be expected from a crucial meeting to be held on Wednesday after Arvind Kejriwal-led India Against Corruption (IAC) said that 76% of people surveyed were in favour of the activists forming a political party. This comes even as social crusader Anna Hazare has opposed forming a political party and also distanced himself from IAC. The results were published a day after Hazare, who will be reaching...

-The Telegraph The Planning Commission has proposed a slash in fuel and fertiliser subsidies, and subsidy delivery through cash transfer to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts rather than by providing cheaper goods. Commission’s deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia said providing food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies through cash transfer would help check leaks — that is, illegal sale of the subsidised goods in the market. Sources suggested that cash transfer was being considered mainly for...

Direct cash transfers or food coupons should be used by the government to provide services to the poor, says Farzana Afridi, Assistant Professor, Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. Afridi, who obtained her PhD in economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, says that although the Mid Day Meal Programme is having a substantial effect, the...

-The Times of India In a significant intervention aimed at settling a noisy policy feud, PM Manmohan Singh has asked health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to sort out differences over the thrust and formulation of the health policy in the 12th plan with Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The PM intervened during the full meeting of the Planning Commission on Saturday when Azad took up issues that have led to...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: It's been a year since CBI raided a few trains and seized dirty bed linen and bed rolls at the Central and Egmore railway stations. But nothing has changed. Recently, a judge of the Madras high court shot off a letter to the Southern Railway general manager stating that the bed rolls supplied to him and other passengers on an AC II tier coach of Nellai Express...