-The Indian Express Eight years after the Sachar committee report on the condition of Muslims and creation of a Ministry of Minority Affairs, a post-Sachar evaluation committee, headed by former JNU professor Amitabh Kundu, has concluded that though a start has been made in addressing development deficits of the community, government interventions have not quite matched in scale the large numbers of the marginalised. Poverty levels among Muslims, the committee found, remained...

-The Indian Express Oorugonda/ Warangal: Twenty -two kilometres from Warangal, a narrow road from National Highway 202 leads to Oorugonda, a village of around a thousand farmers in Atmakur mandal. An eerie silence hangs around it, with a few middle-aged men sitting under a tree looking up inquisitively at visitors. They are not done grieving for 40-year-old Modanti Krishnamma. Last week, she killed herself after the cotton crop she and her husband...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Law minister Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday ruled out taking the ordinance route for any amendments in the Land Acquisition Act though he said the government was in favour of bringing some changes. "There is a proposal. The call has to be taken by the concerned (rural development) ministry," he said, without elaborating on the proposed changes. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had last week said the government will...

-DNA Aided schools flout norms, give glucose biscuits, poha, pav bhaji The mid day meal (MDM) scheme has been repeatedly hit by allegations of corruption and lack of hygiene. Now, dna tours the BMC schools or the aided ones in the city to find that not only is there blatant violation of norms, but also siphoning of good ration to replace them with sub-standard things is still rampant. The state government's resolution...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government could soon undertake extensive changes in its land use and acquisition policies as the PMO puts pressure on the agriculture ministry to implement the recommendations of an eight-year-old report that was prepared by a working group chaired by the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. The report had proposed that industries and developers could make use of productive agricultural land for industrialisation and urbanisation by ensuring...