-The Telegraph A jump in the Centre's annual social welfare spending from Rs 7,500 crore in 1991 to Rs 3 lakh crore now has failed to make much difference on the ground because panchayati raj institutions are being kept away from implementation of the schemes, a committee has found. The committee headed by senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, in its report released on the eve of National Panchayat Day, pitched for...

-The Telegraph Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today asked Saradha Realty India to wind up its collective investment schemes and refund investors within three months. The company as well as its managing director Sudipto Sen have been prohibited from accessing the capital markets until all collective investment schemes are wound up and the refunds are complete. Legal proceedings and steps to wind up Saradha Realty would also be...

-The Times of India All coal blocks distributed between 1993 and 2008 were done in an unauthorized manner and allotment of all mines where production is yet to start should be cancelled, the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel has said in its latest report that is slated to be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. The committee, headed by Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, has also recommended that all "personnel" who have...

-Down to Earth Inadequate sewage treatment and disposal in the national capital territory is contaminating city's groundwater Delhi residents who depend on groundwater for their drinking water needs be warned. The latest data of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) shows that groundwater samples taken from observation wells in the national capital are getting contaminated because of their unhygienic catchments and untreated sewage, which is discharged in the open and into drains,...

-IANS Chandigarh: Allegedly harassed by police over their missing daughter, who was a rape victim, a Dalit family in Haryana's Hisar district Monday attempted suicide, leaving two dead and three others in a critical condition. The mother of the rape victim and her sister were declared dead by doctors in Hisar civil hospital, 230 km from here, while the father and two brothers, aged 11 and nine, were admitted to the Post-Graduate...