-The Hindu Kota, Rajasthan: The sun is about to set over grey-brown slabs in sandstone quarries in Kota district, Rajasthan. Babulal Khairwa sits at the edge of a quarry and attentively hits a taanki, a chisel shaped like a gigantic nail, placed on the stone with a hammer. Babulal hits the stone with the hammer till it cracks in a straight line. Each 2 by 10 square feet foot slab, or...

-IANS Banking services were paralysed, coal production came to a halt, and transportation was hit in Andhra Pradesh by the two-day nation-wide strike called by major trade unions, which began Wednesday. Bank services in Hyderabad and the rest of the state were totally paralysed as over 70,000 employees of public sector banks joined the strike. Coal production came to a halt in the mines of the state-owned Singareni Collieries, with 65,000 workers in...

The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the 73rd amendment and the landmark PESA and Forest Rights Act (FRA) have progressively acknowledged the rights, and special powers of the Gram Sabha in deciding developmental projects as well as playing a role in protecting the ecology and forests. But a clutch of clever exemptions in recent months are ensuring that centralised authorities take away the same powers through the back door, without routing...

-The Times of India There was no let up in bad news for the government on the economic front. Amid the debate over slowing economic growth, data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday showed industrial output fell 0.6% in December, posing fresh policy challenges. This is the second successive month of decline for factory growth which has remained anaemic due to a string of factors including high interest rates,...

-Frontine Walmart’s disclosure that it spent huge amounts of money on lobbying in India and the allegation that it entered the retail sector through indirect means highlight the power of global capital in dictating the country’s policies. The world’s largest multi-brand retailer Walmart’s disclosure to the United States Senate that it had spent $25 million (Rs.135 crore) since 2008 on its various lobbying activities, which include enhancing access to the Indian...