-The Times of India NEW DELHI/ NAGPUR: Grave questions have surfaced over the source of funds for Purti Power and Sugar Ltd, controlled by BJP president Nitin Gadkari. Investigations reveal significant investments and large loans to Purti by a construction firm, Ideal Road Builders (IRB) Group, which had won contracts between 1995 and 1999, when Gadkari was the PWD minister in Maharashtra. Besides IRB Group, the other significant shareholders in Purti are...

-Outlook Out in our streets, disabled people feel the pain everyday The Gaping Holes     India yet to get a cohesive, standardised sign language     Barrier-free infrastructure yet to be implemented in public areas like bus stations, railway stations, schools, cinema halls     Lack of basic, inclusive civic facilities: no audio-enabled traffic signals, pavements with ramps, few disability-friendly toilets, negligible penalties     Poor functional entertainment accessibility, like no subtitling on local language TV channels     Reservation...

-Pratirodh.com Biometric data based 12 digit Unique Identification (UID)-Aadhaar Number linked welfare schemes is being bulldozed with 2014 elections in mind with the ulterior motive of altering voting behavior of the citizens by creating a ‘universal identity infrastructure’ linked to ‘unified payment infrastructure’.   Ahead of next parliamentary elections, with the launch of 21st crore UID-Aadhaar Number and Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery (AESD) on October 20, 2012 contemptuously ignores Parliament, Parliamentary Committee,...

-The Indian Express The privatisation of power sector in Delhi has been very successful and it has resulted in saving of around Rs 30,000 crore by the city government in last ten years, a report has said. The report by SBI Cap Securities on the power sector came amid an outcry over hike in power tariff in the city by nearly 50 per cent in the last one year. The report, which examined...

-Outlook Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz is one of the world’s leading economists. A former chief economist at the World Bank and currently University Professor at the Columbia Business School, he was recently in India to attend an international conference on development and to promote his new book, The Price of Inequality. He spoke to Pranay Sharma about growing inequality in the world and the challenges facing India. Excerpts: * Your coinage,...