-The Times of India While Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh waxed eloquent on the "success" of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and called it a key instrument for "financial inclusion" at a government conference in New Delhi on Saturday, latest data reveal a picture of declining employment generation under the scheme. Even more startling: Jobs created for the most marginalized sections - dalits and adivasis - have...

-The Indian Express The deafening silence from official circles on the Verma committee recommendations is in sharp contrast to the widespread well-deserved appreciation that the committee has received. It is common for governments to form such committees to buy time and take the heat off themselves. Perhaps that was the government’s intention when it set up the committee at the height of the protests in the wake of the brutal gangrape...

-The Times of India Aam Aadmi Party may be demanding a strong lokpal but its own "internal lokpal" has been a bit of a non-starter. Four months after the group announced its internal ombudsman, there has been little headway in the matter. In October last year, the activists had announced that a three-member panel of retired judges headed by Justice AP Shah would investigate charges of impropriety against its members including...

-The Hindu Patna: The rejection of the Lokpal committee’s recommendation on transfer of CBI officers had exposed the government’s intention of maintaining a grip on the investigating agency, senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat said at a press conference here on Friday. “There is a question mark on the understanding of the ruling alliance on Lokpal. They forcibly passed the Bill in the Lok Sabha and when it was...

-Live Mint Of the total amount paid to media firms (around 40% of the poll expenses of parties), the EC estimates half to be towards paid news The Election Commission of India (EC) has estimated the market in so-called paid news, or political advertising masquerading as journalism, at as much as `500 crore.   The move is likely to buttress demands for greater scrutiny of election expenses. EC has been seeking to crack down...