-The Week Telangana leader claims he is making astronomical profits from capsicum farming Telangana: Not many politicians who own land are farmers. But Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhara Rao is different. While he ensures Telangana remains a burning issue, Rao is also busy growing capsicum, potato, bitter gourd, and bottle gourd. The capsicum crop itself, he claims, will fetch him Rs.10 crore. His claim of huge returns and promise of land...

-The Hindu Business Line Clientelism - tying benefits to political choices - cannot work because voting preferences cannot be ascertained. Do parties and their local agents link access to government services and benefits from government welfare schemes to how voters vote, or are expected to vote? This political strategy, which social scientists refer to as clientelism, depends on a massive investment in local leaders who collect information on voters' party preferences, vote choices...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-Outlook Some moderation in vegetable and fruit prices eased December retail inflation to three-month low of 9.87 per cent, giving the Reserve Bank of India more leeway to manage Interest rates. Inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November has been revised marginally downwards to 11.16 per cent from preliminary estimate of 11.24 per cent. Vegetable prices on annual basis rose 38.76 per cent in December, a slower pace than...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Government departments should not insist on seeking address of an RTI applicant if a post box number is being provided to them for communication, the Centre has said. The ministry of personnel has written to all central government ministries or departments, who act as public authorities mandated with providing information on RTI applications made to them, citing a judgement by Calcutta high court in this regard. "When the legislature thought...