Singapore spot market, not production costs, driving Indian petrol price Have you ever wondered why when petrol prices go up or down they do so uniformly across the retail outlets of the three oil marketing companies — Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum? If they are three different companies with their own refineries and distribution systems, then surely their costs and selling prices must be different? Welcome to the strange world...

Dalits lay siege to tahsildar's office and forced Salem district administration to take firm action Dalits of Sanyasipatti near Sankagiri in Salem district fought bitterly for five days before forcing the district administration to take firm action to demolish a four-foot-high and 20-foot-long wall erected right across a tar-topped road with the intention of preventing them from using it. The ‘wall of untouchability' erected on November 29 in the middle of the...

-The Hindustan Times   The Delhi High Court has sought the Delhi government’s reply on a PIL accusing it of not taking action against private schools not reserving seats for students of economically weaker sections. The schools have been accused of violating the Right to Education (RTE) Act. A bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw issued a notice to the Delhi government and its Directorate of...

-The Hindustan Times A 45-year-old cotton grower tried to end his life by consuming pesticide at the election meeting of the chief minister Prithviraj Chavan at Dhamangaon in Amravati district, some 200 kms from here in western part of Vidarbha, on Sunday. According to reports reaching here this evening, the incident occurred when the chief minister was addressing an election meeting for the ensuing municipality elections at Dhamangaon on Sunday afternoon.  The...

The FDI in retail debate has apparently fully traversed the realm of reason and for it seems to have degenerated into name-calling. I had intimation of this when a diplomat who meets me from time to time asked me if I was being put up, for a price, by Indian corporate interests to stymie the entry of the big western firms like Wal-Mart and Carrefour? I can well imagine the...