-The Economic Times   The Supreme Court on Friday refused to ease its three-month old ban on the manufacture, sale and use of pesticide endosulfan despite an expert committee report favouring lifting the restrictions for all states except the worst-affected Kerala and Karnataka. However, a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar agreed to consider the industry's request for permission to export the...

-The Hindu Business Line   Over 56 per cent of Indian farmers are not aware about the maximum retail prices (MRP) of fertilisers they buy, while 45 per cent fork out more than the MRP and 59 per cent face problems in getting their season's full requirement in time. These are the startling findings of a countrywide survey of 5,498 farmers conducted by field audit teams of the Comptroller and Auditor General...

Steelmakers and mine owners, reeling under a ban on mining in Karnataka, are keeping their fingers crossed about the Supreme Court hearing scheduled on Friday. The uncertainty in iron ore and the resultant rise in ore prices have led the steel industry to actively consider an upward revision in prices, just days after most companies mentioned of keeping product price levels unchanged. "Iron ore spot prices have been rising by $1-2 daily...

-The Business Standard   The Supreme Court decision banning both mining and movement of ore in Bellary district in Karnataka, following the Lok Ayukta report, is excessive. The blanket ban penalises even those who did nothing wrong. While the outrage over the illegal profiteering of over Rs 12,000 crore by a politician-operator-bureaucrat combine is understandable, applying the brakes on all mining and related activity in the district is an undifferentiated response. The...

The Lokpal Bill is in danger of skidding off the rails. As it is introduced in Parliament, eminent activist Aruna Roy tells Shoma Chaudhury why we should not rush into it. THE LOKPAL BILL is now being debated in Parliament, almost 40 years after the idea was first mooted. Unfortunately, parented on one side by decades of wilful government inertia and, on the other, by the panicked hustle of ‘Team...