To top bureaucrats, wards of Ministers The Patna High Court has ordered the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority to reply immediately to petitions alleging preferential allocation of prime government land at sub-par rates to top-ranking bureaucrats and wards of Ministers in the Nitish Kumar government. A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justices T. Meena Kumari and Vikas Jain directed the Authority to answer the petitions filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)...

For once, it is a happy farewell to the Monsoon. An indulgent rain god, who overstayed for a week to compensate two successive years of drought in Jharkhand, today departed with the golden promise of a bumper winter yield. Weathermen at the Patna Meteorological Office confirmed that the Monsoon trough had become weak after October 11, but faded away only today. “The rains have officially withdrawn from Jharkhand. But several parts of...

With the focus now on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year, the Congress led-UPA government has once again displayed its keenness to position itself with the agitating farmers by trying to ensure the passage of the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill during the winter session of Parliament. Assuming that the Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to his department is likely to give all stakeholders a fair...

-Live Mint   As United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi prepares to intervene next week in the great national debate about who is poor, she might want to visit north-eastern Mumbai to see how the poorest are not even classified as such and how a giant government scheme to save their children from malnutrition is failing. The nauseating stench from a mountain of garbage greets a visitor to Rafi Nagar at the base...

-PTI   Wheat production is expected to cross 86 million tonnes to set a new record in the ongoing 2011-12 crop year, boosted by a good Monsoon and a likely rise in support prices, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today.  Wheat production in India, the world's second-largest producer, stood at a record 85.93 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year (July-June). Wheat is only grown in the rabi season (winter).  "Indications are that rabi...