-Economic and Political Weekly   Budget 2012, built yet again at the altar of fiscal fundamentalism, will not convince anybody. In this era of immediate assessment it took just a few minutes for the Union Budget for 2012-13 to be given one or the other negative appellation – “lacklustre”, “anti-growth”, “back to the 1980s”, “without reform” and the like. Such evaluations forget that union budgets have long since ceased to be statements of...

-The Hindustan Times   Rambai, a lean and sprightly 34-year-old, has never been the quiet sort. So when her neighbours at the Rokra hamlet were asked to choose a community health worker (CHW) — called Mitanin (friend) in Chhattisgarh — they knew that Rambai would be an ideal candidate. “We selected her because she could communicate well and interact with officials with ease, even though she has studied till Class 5,” said...

-The Economic Times   Anna Hazare and his team were once again on the confrontation course with the Manmohan Singh government, with the activist setting 2014 - which coincides with the next general elections - as the deadline for converting the Jan Lokpal bill, drafted by them, into a law.  "Government's intention is not clear on removing corruption and that is why they are not bringing Jan Lokpal Bill," alleged Hazare while staging...

-The Times of India Seventy-year-old Kalyanasundaram's face wears a permanent look of defiance. Popularly known as 'Thagaval Thaatha', a veteran of over 300 applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, he faces threats from close to home - his neighbours.  Kalyanasundaram, who gathered with 50 other people from the city on Link Road in Egmore on Sunday morning in response to Anna Hazare's call for a day-long nationwide hunger fast, says...

-The Times of India   KENDRAPADA: An England-based NRI will make a documentary on the protests by seaside villagers of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang against the proposed Posco steel plant. The film-maker, Prafulla Mohanty (74), is from Nanpur village, 20 km from here. Mohanty, also a writer and painter, visited several villages in the area to make the film recently. "I will also write a book on the anti-land acquisition movement," Mohanty said. "Through...