-The Telegraph The Centre has renewed efforts to forge a consensus on allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail by writing to all chief ministers, seeking to drive home the urgency against the backdrop of grim economic data. “Letters have been written to all chief ministers to build consensus to open up the multi-brand retail sector to FDI,” a commerce ministry official said. The statement came a day after the country posted its...

Friday's murder of Brahmeshwar Singh, chief of the outlawed Ranvir Sena (a private army owing allegiance to the powerful upper caste Bhumihars) in Bhojpur, 71 km from Patna, could become a major test for the seven-year-old Nitish Kumar government's continued ability to maintain social harmony in Bihar. Within hours of the killing in the early hours, Singh's supporters went on the rampage, upsetting the delicate caste equilibrium in south Bihar,...

-The Times of India The Central Vigilance Commission has asked the CBI to examine a complaint about alleged losses suffered by the public exchequer in the allocation of coal blocks between 2006 and 2009, in what can potentially be fodder for civil society as well as the opposition seeking to attack the government over Coalgate. Although the complaint of BJP MPs Prakash Javadekar and Hansraj Ahir was forwarded by the CVC to...

Andhra HC judgment redefines the complex relationship between religion, caste and reservations The recent judgment of the Andhra Pradesh high court that sets aside a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for “socially and educationally backward classes of citizens belonging to minorities” within the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs reminds us of the contested notion of backwardness in the Indian context. Highlighting serious concerns regarding the ways in which social backwardness...

With the Central government unsure of getting the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010, through the Rajya Sabha, the Human Resource Development Ministry is now trying to allow “backdoor” entry to foreign institutions. The Ministry has asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to identify possibilities within the existing laws of regulating and allowing the foreign educational institutions. The two possible ways of going about it are allowing these...