-PTI AHMEDABAD: Demanding justice, the kin of a 45-year-old tribal from Gujarat's Sabarkantha district has refused to perform his last rites and preserved the dead body for over 60 days. Jiva Bhumbariya's body was found at a secluded spot near Magwas village in December. Even though police investigations in Jiva's death concluded that he died in an accident, his family members have disputed this version, saying Jiva was murdered by three persons with...

-PTI Lunavada: Tribals in the eastern part of Gujarat feel that both BJP and Congress have failed to address their issues even after 52 years of formation of the state. The tribal voters spread over 12 districts of eastern Gujarat have sway over around 30 seats out of which 27 have been marked as Scheduled Tribes seats after the new delimitation orders. For the last many years, Congress has maintained its upper hand...

-The Hindu Private companies get loansat 6.5% with additional cash refunds; for farmers it is 7% The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), which is dedicated to promoting rural development by providing soft loans to State governments for social sector projects, has given hundreds of crores as loans to corporates on concessional terms. In the Union Budget of 2011-12, Rs. 18,000 crore was allocated by the Centre to NABARD’s Rural Infrastructure...

-DNA The police firing on dalits at Than town in Surendranagar district was the latest in a series of police atrocities committed on Scheduled Caste people in Gujarat. Most acts of police brutality towards dalits go unreported but even the five cases — including the Than incident — that were officially recorded in the last three months paint a sad picture of caste prejudice in the state. In one incident which took...

-The Economic Times A new book by Bibek Debroy on Gujarat looks at how this much-talked about state has performed in economic terms. The author argues history, luck and administrative clarity have been the determining factors. There has been a discernible pickup in Gujarat's growth performance since the 10th Plan (2002-07), the five-year Plans being natural periods for breaking up the timeline. It's tempting to argue that there is nothing exceptional in...