-The Business Standard   Increasing newsprint prices are likely to have a negative impact on profitability of the Indian Print Media industry in the short to medium term, according to a Fitch report. The report expects that an increase in advertising revenues may partly offset the rising cost of newsprint. Newspaper publishers generate about 70 percent of revenues from advertising, with the remainder coming predominantly from circulations. However, the agency's expectation of...

Nobody sheds a tear when the police harass ordinary citizens. But with the rich and powerful under the corruption scanner, the Prime Minister now fears a police state. The Prime Minister and his advisors just don't get it. At a time when the public is looking for an end to the loot of public money, the last thing they want to hear from their government is a bunch of excuses and...

-IANS   Under attack from civil society activists, the media and some of his own party members, over perceived communication gap over critical issues, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided on a media outreach plan that kicks off with a meeting with some senior editors Wednesday. The prime minister will meet a group of editors of regional and national dailies Wednesday, government sources said. Manmohan Singh has so far held only three nationally...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

Poor Andhra villagers now victims of clinical drug trials No Drug Resistance     * 35 women, some men from Guntur district put throughclinical trials of a breast cancer drug. They later complain of joint pains, nausea and chest pains.     * Biotech industry in Andhra is worth about Rs 455 crore     * Touts operating on behalf of pharma companies get people from the poorer districts to Hyderabad for the tests *** Some 35 women...