-The Hindustan Times The UPA government’s economic policies have resulted in record reduction of poverty over the last two years, with the individual’s monthly expenditure rising by around 18% per annum, the highest since 1987, government data released a week before the Parliament’s monsoon session claimed. The government’s National Sample Survey Organisation released the provisional data of the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2011-12 on Wednesday. The study is the most crucial...

-The Economic Times Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, the Left Front has upped the ante against the government over the food security bill, demanding a universal public distribution system and scrapping of Planning Commission's poverty estimates. CPM, CPI, RSP and All India Forward Bloc - kick-started a five-day sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar on Monday. Senior Left leaders, including CPM leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat, Basudeb Acharia, CPI's AB...

-PTI CPI(M) today said it is opposed to the Food Security Bill in its current form and the government should bring a new and a revised legislation in the monsoon session of Parliament.  Launching a five-day nationwide agitation by Left parties against the current Food Security Bill here, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said, "The Bill, in its present form, excludes majority of poor people from its bracket and is totally flawed....

-Live Mint The much-awaited land acquisition Bill seems to be in jeopardy with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government rejecting a parliamentary standing committee’s suggestion the government should not acquire land for public-private-partnership (PPP) projects. But it has accepted that land procured for special economic zones (SEZs) and some defence projects cannot be exempted from the purview of a land acquisition Bill and promised to amend other laws pertaining to purchase...

-The Times of India With an expert panel rejecting the SK Thorat committee's recommendations for large scale deletion of cartoons of politicians from school textbooks, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is likely to do away with only two illustrations from political science texts for classes IX to XII. A formal response to the Thorat report is being prepared, but NCERT is expected to delete two cartoons - one...