May 21 to be observed as ‘protest day' across Orissa  “Naveen Patnaik compromising people's interests for land acquisition” Public meeting to be held at Balitutha to express solidarity with villagers BHUBANESWAR: Several Opposition parties and mass organisations of Orissa on Sunday condemned the police action against villagers opposing the Posco-India's steel project in Jagatsinghpur district. They also warned the Biju Janata Dal government against using police force on innocent people to acquire...

Haryana is infamous for its skewed sex ratio. But thanks to quotas for women in grassroots bodies, over 16,000 women are set to be elected in the panchayat elections next month, getting a chance to show their might. "The panchayat elections in the state are being held June 6 and 12. The reservation of seats for women candidates will give them a fair representation in these bodies," said state election commissioner...

There may be succour in store for the exploited lot of `domestic workers' with a key government panel recommending that `placement agencies', which work as mediators in employment of helps, should be regulated. It has also decided that government should ask states to declare minimum wages for these workers. The panel said that the Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1953, should regulate placement agencies. If this is implemented, the agencies...

Businessmen and society have a strangely contradictory relationship. The economic activity they generate can be an agent of social transformation and progress — a quick look at the changes in Indian society in the last two decades would be one indicator. Yet, businessmen in themselves are rarely conscious promoters of social progress. This is hardly unexpected. Business inherently seeks a stable environment in which to flourish, so businessmen tend not to...

The body of a business management student, head severed and legs chopped off, was dug out from a paddy field in Muzaffarnagar yesterday in another suspected “honour killing” amid fears that his missing girlfriend might have been murdered too. Police today arrested the girl’s father and brother, though both had got themselves admitted to a nursing home. Last month, a three-month pregnant Delhi-based journalist, whose family didn’t approve of her relationship with...