-The Hindu   The Union CABinet is likely to meet either on December 18 or 19 after the return of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from Russia to take a call on the contentious issues related to the Lokpal Bill on the basis of inputs given by the Parliamentary Standing Committee and the all-party meet on Wednesday night. According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, the government intends to move the Bill in...

Besides taking into account the different viewpoints of parties on modalities of inclusion of the office of Prime Minister in the Lokpal Bill and the scope of the proposed ombudsman over the CBI and the CVC, the Union CABinet would take into consideration the ‘sense of the House' resolution adopted by Parliament in August committing itself to three specific issues raised by social activist Anna Hazare. On August 27, Parliament urged...

-The Indian Express   The entire spectrum of opinion on the Lokpal bill was on display at the all-party meeting on the issue. Meanwhile, Anna Hazare and his comrades promise another round of agitation, an indefinite fast, a jail bharo campaign and protest outside the homes of Congress leaders, if the bill is not cleared in this parliamentary session, and insist that the session be extended until it is passed. So far, the...

The Union CABinet on Tuesday deferred a decision on the draft National Food Security Bill that seeks to give legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains to 46 per cent ‘priority' families of the 75 per cent rural population and 28 per cent ‘priority' households of the 50 per cent urban population. “The discussion on the Food Bill remained inconclusive. We are trying our best to introduce the Bill in this session,” Minister...

Indian traders reject FDI in multi-brand retail and emphasise the need for a policy to regulate the labour-intensive sector. TRADERS across the country responded angrily to the Union CABinet's decision to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail trade, disproving the arguments of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the assessment of corporate India, which had tried hard to make it appear that traders and...