-The Indian Express Patna: Fifteen out of 29 Bihar ministers, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, are crorepatis. As a part of their anti-graft measures, started in 2011, the CM and his ministerial colleagues declared their moveable and immoveable assets this New Year. Four new entrants have joined the crorepati club this year. Thy are Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shyam Rajak, Bhim Singh and Bijay Choudhary. Parveen Amanullah is...

-Economic and Political Weekly The recent debate on the acceptability of foreign direct investment in the retail sector in India has been mostly political. It is necessary to look into the pros and cons of FDI in retail from a purely economic point of view. This article identifi es the safeguards that should be undertaken before allowing giant multinationals to function in the country. Abhirup Sarkar (abhirup@isical.ac.in) is with the Indian Statistical...

-The Times of India UPA-II's flagship direct cash transfer scheme has run into rough weather following warnings of a potential scam in the making, and evoking concerns of serious delays. Government functionaries have raised the red flag about how cash would be finally disbursed to beneficiaries and whether the National Population Register (NPR) would come into play in some states instead of the Unique Identification (UID) number to identify the end-users. Senior...

-The Hindustan Times Jaipur: Indian women are speaking out against violence, enraged by the gangrape of a 23-year-old inside a moving bus in Delhi. But past records show that women – especially in the hinterlands – who dare to speak up usually fight a lone battle against the system. Hindustan Times profiles a few courageous rape victims in Rajasthan, who are still awaiting justice. Bhanwari Devi (Bhateri, Jaipur district) Bhanwari Devi was gangraped in...

-The Hindu Centre buoyed by pilot scheme’s success Encouraged by the response to its pilot scheme on home delivery of contraceptives by women health workers, the Centre has decided to extend the programme across the country with immediate effect. The initiative of supplying contraceptives — condoms, oral contraceptive pills (OCP) and emergency contraceptive pills — at home by accredited social health activists (ASHAs) was launched on a pilot basis in 233 districts in...