-The Hindustan Times Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who recently took a dig at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over her remarks that the UPA government is "brain-dead", showered lavish praises on the chief minister on Thursday even describing her as a role model of political mobilisation in Maoist-affected areas. "I wish other chief ministers follow Banerjee's political approach for Maoist-affected areas. She has transformed the Jangalmahal area of her...

-The Business Standard Clamp down on burning of waste, industrial smoke Come winter, and Delhi is wrapped in a blanket of smog. It isn’t pretty. Also, it poses grave environmental, health and transportation hazards. Winter seems to have come early this year, and so has the smog. The economic costs are considerable: the winter schedule of airlines and trains invariably goes haywire owing to poor visibility. People breathe in more particulate...

-The Economic Times Pan Singh Tomar, the legendary steeplechase athlete-turned-dacoit, earned an annual salary of 120 or thereabouts from the Indian Army, where he served as a hawildar in the 1950s. These days, his great grandson roams around their ancestral village dispensing similar amounts to those at the bottom of the Indian pyramid. If Tomar Sr had resorted to guns for the latter part of his life, Anuj Singh Tomar too has...

-The Times of India In a recent election rally, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi advised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the country's top economists, to follow the Gujarat model of development , to cure the country of its ills. "Mr Prime Minister, if you try to follow the path of Gujarat state, the condition of the country will be transformed." Modi, who is projecting himself as the champion of economic...

-Down to Earth Rice cultivation has led to waterlogging and soil salinity in Haryana’s Jhajjar district CASTE-BASED khap panchayats of Haryana are usually in the news for passing regressive and, often, controversial orders in the name of honouring social customs. But this year in January, the Jhakkar khap panchayat of Jhajjar district gave a rather unusual order in the larger interest of the farming community. It ordered that all the 36...