-Business Standard Food ministry needlessly wary of reform The report of the Shanta Kumar committee on food management contains several cogent recommendations and these have been submitted to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). But it is increasingly unlikely that the report will be accepted in full. In its comments on the report, the Union food ministry has either turned down or expressed reservations on the implementation of many of the reforms-oriented suggestions....

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has identified five "high-end services", including bills in four- and five-star hotels, which will attract additional service tax to fund Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign, and leave a slightly bigger dent in your pocket. Sources, however, indicated that against an "enabling provision" of levying up to 2% cess over the 14% service tax, the government is expected to notify an additional 1%...

-The Hindu Nine amendments have been adopted. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, popularly known as the land bill, was adopted by the Lok Sabha after debating it for two days. Congress and Biju Janata Dal walked out ahead of the voting, to protest the removal of a clause that makes it mandatory to get farmers' consent prior to the acquisition of land...

-The Indian Express In a last-ditch effort to stop moves that it says will "entirely defeat the purpose" of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has strongly objected to the revised guidelines for forest clearance that the government is in a hurry to notify. Prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) after a push from the Prime Minister's Office, the new rules will ease the...

-The Hindu The Prime Minister's Office has once again refused to release details of the correspondence during the Gujarat riots between then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, citing "third party objections." RTI activist Subhash Agarwal wrote to the PMO in December 2013 seeking complete copies of correspondence between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Modi between February 27, 2002, the day the Sabarmati Express was set on fire...