On November 23, the Supreme Court is slated to hear a damning report submitted by the court-appointed Commissioners on how politically connected contractors—legally barred from the ICDS program—might be subverting the social welfare measure in the state of Maharashtra.  The ICDS is an Rs 8000 crore government-funded program aimed at ending India’s abysmal rates of child malnutrition by supplying hot cooked meals and take home rations to children through decentralised women-run,...

-The Business Standard The sorry implications of the LPG price rollback  Following the government’s decision to increase the price of diesel and introduce a cap on the number of subsidised gas cylinders available for household use in September, there was a reasonable amount of hope that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had learned some lessons. First, that it was essential to reduce the fuel subsidy bill, the most obvious component of the...

-The Times of India A day after India Against Corruption (IAC) charged the government with selling out to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on the company's KG-D6 gas field off the Andhra coast, the oil ministry on Thursday hit back by describing the allegations as "baseless and frivolous".  In a point-wise rebuttal to IAC charges, a ministry statement — issued after former oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar met incumbent Veerappa Moily for over...

-The Indian Express Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily on Thursday refuted Arvind Kejriwal’s accusations of the UPA government favouring Reliance Industries Ltd saying that the decisions were taken objectively “without fear or favour” and assured that his ministry would continue to uphold transparency. “The ministry is committed to upholding the rule of law and decisions are taken objectively without any fear or favour. The system is not influenced or guided by whims and...

-The Business Standard The consequences of unplanned growth in Haryana real estate One of the positive consequences of the recent focus on the dealings between companies owned by Robert Vadra and the real estate giant DLF is that the unregulated nature of the Haryana land market has become a topic of discussion. Mr Vadra’s companies’ purchases of additional land and apartments were funded from the windfall gains that accrued after a 3.5...