-PTI Government auditor CAG on Friday said private firms are likely to gain Rs 1.86 lakh crore from coal blocks that were allocated to them on nomination basis instead of competitive bidding, which amounted to the loss to national exchequer. The CAG in its report, tabled in Parliament, names 25 Companies including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power which have got the blocks in various states. "Delay...

-PTI Officials of Uttarakhand Food Department today carried out raids on the premises of Divya Yog ashram of yoga guru Ramdev and collected samples of various ayurvedic medicines. The food department officials collected samples of honey, salt, gram floor among other things from the ashram during the nearly 3-hour raid. The raids were criticised by Ramdev who alleged the action was taken at the behest of the Centre. "This is war between the elite...

-The Business Standard No movement yet on quality control in higher education The state of professional higher education in India is abysmal. Consider engineering. All told, there are 1.5 million engineering seats in the country. Almost a third of these are unfilled, so about a million engineers are produced every year. Yet, barely 10 per cent of them are readily employable. About a quarter don’t know enough English to make sense...

-The Indian Express At a time when the government is struggling to get past objections from its coalition partners to attract investment in certain sectors such as retail, aviation and pensions fund management, a grim internecine ministerial battle has applied the brakes on foreign direct investment flow into one of the more attractive and lucrative sectors — pharmaceuticals. Clearances for over Rs 1,000 crore FDI in this sector, the second largest in...

-The Telegraph The CPM today disclosed that levy collected from party members plus small, voluntary contributions had swelled its coffers but denied it was a big beneficiary of corporate donations. “The CPI(M) does not accept donations from corporates. However, there have been contributions from some Companies in Andhra Pradesh. These donations, when it came to the notice of the politburo last year, was discussed and it was decided not to accept donations...