-Outlook Madhya Pradesh: All important events during the electoral process will be videographed during the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh this year, in adherence with the directives of the Election Commission of India (ECI). According to the Commission's directives, videography will be done for all important events like public campaigns, Postal ballot boxes' transportation and receipt, counting of votes and announcement of results, an official release said here today. Besides, first and second...

-The Hindu     The draft policy on the use of forest land is at odds with sound conservation principles and fails to plug holes in current guidelines that work to the advantage of project promoters The Supreme Court in July 2011 while delivering the Lafarge Judgment laid down guidelines on forest clearance procedures. These were to operate till a new regulatory mechanism was put in place. Two years after the judgment, the Ministry...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: At loggerheads with the Centre for wanting to probe top bureaucrats without prior approval in the court-monitored investigation into the coal scam, the CBI on Tuesday startled the Supreme Court by saying it was under the stranglehold of babus who frustrated its every proposal. During arguments on the necessity to adhere to Section 6A of Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act in court-monitored and court-directed investigations,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was supposed to be a game-changer ahead of the 2014 general elections, with the government planning to plug leakages by transferring cash directly into the accounts of beneficiaries and hoping to cash in on their goodwill. But eight months down the line, it is discovering that the grand plan has run into bureaucratic walls and the beneficiaries are not ready to...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government today announced a scheme to allow big private investors to directly procure farm produce - a segment that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee could not liberate from the stranglehold of the Forward Bloc. The scheme titled Brihat Krishak Bazar Yojana, which loosely translates into mega farmer market programme, seeks to "connect the local market to high-growth demand centres" and weed out middlemen. The project will allow private developers to...