-The Times of India The government may raise the annual cap of six cylinders on subsidized cooking gas after the petroleum minister faced persistent demands from Congress leaders at the party conclave in Surajkund on Friday. The limit on subsidized LPG cylinders could go up to nine cylinders, and to 12 closer to elections. While Congress had in September expressed discomfiture with the decision to put a limit on subsidized cylinders, it...

-The Hindustan Times In an attempt that could help UPA 2 tide over the anti-incumbency factor and yield political dividends in 2014, the rural development ministry is proposing to cover 60 lakh additional below-poverty-line (BPL) people under its pension schemes. The proposals, including enhanced pension payouts, would cost the central exchequer an additional Rs. 9,500 crore. The recommendations of a committee under the ministry, if accepted, would add to the 260 lakh beneficiaries...

-The Hindu In the latest move on its social welfare agenda, the government may expand its pension scheme, widening the net for widows, single and divorced women, disabled people, Dalits and tribal senior citizens, as well as increasing the amount paid to older people. The Rural Development Ministry, which is proposing the expansion, estimates the additional cost at more than Rs. 18,000 crore per year. The Ministry has just accepted the recommendations made...

-The Times of India KANPUR: Kanpur Dehat police booked four activists who had been seeking information from a village pradhan (head) on various development projects in their locality under the Right to Information Act (RTI). Speaking to TOI on phone, Sunil Singh, a resident of Shahjahanpur Ninaya village, said, he had filed an RTI application at the office of the district magistrate in September seeking information from authorities on various developmental...

-The Economic Times Pan Singh Tomar, the legendary steeplechase athlete-turned-dacoit, earned an annual salary of 120 or thereabouts from the Indian Army, where he served as a hawildar in the 1950s. These days, his great grandson roams around their ancestral village dispensing similar amounts to those at the bottom of the Indian pyramid. If Tomar Sr had resorted to guns for the latter part of his life, Anuj Singh Tomar too has...