-NDTV The Congress is not in favour of a petrol price hike anytime soon, sources have told NDTV. The party's core group met this evening and discussed the issue, sources said. Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy, who is not a part of the core group, was also present at the meeting. Just a few hours, before the meet, Mr Reddy had said the "painful duty" of a hike in fuel prices cannot be...

-The Times of India State-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) are all set to increase price of petrol by Rs 5 a litre with effect from Saturday, while the prices of diesel, cooking gas and Kerosene will be increased next week once Congress president Sonia Gandhi returns after her medical checkup on September 10. A cabinet note on increasing the prices of sensitive petroleum products like diesel, cooking gas and Kerosene has already...

-The Hindustan Times As news filtered in of extended life sentences for 31 persons for the brutal slaughter 10 years ago in Naroda Patiya, a working-class suburb of Ahmedabad, my eyes clouded over. I remembered my first meetings with the traumatised survivors of the massacre in the crowded relief camps in the city, a full decade earlier. I was heartsick and stunned by their stories of incredible cruelty. I wondered if...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court has said it wants to end judicial monitoring of social welfare schemes, saying the task should be left to experts and courts “can’t be setting economic policy”. The court had earlier taken umbrage at the government for fixing the poverty line at a measly Rs 32 per day per person in urban areas and suggested free distribution of foodgrain, causing consternation in the government which felt that...

-The Economic Times The economic and social impact of reduction in petroleum subsidies in India will be much lower than perceived if a cash transfer system for directly subsidising vulnerable consumers is successfully implemented, studies commissioned by the Geneva-based International Institute for Sustainable Development have said. The government must, however, dismantle subsidies in a calibrated manner as vulnerable consumers will be able to adjust better if the under-recoveries are gradually eliminated, cautioned...