-The Hindustan Times The recent spurt in protests against projects from Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu to Mahan coal block in Madhya Pradesh to Tata’s Power Plant in Mundra, Gujarat, has raised a key question --- are American and European philanthropic groups supporting these agitations?   A conference organised by such groups from the two most developed regions of the world --- US and Europe --- in Istanbul this July provides an insight how...

-The Times of India SHIMLA: Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh's interest in buying LIC policies bear an interesting pattern over the past 10 years. These policies are at the heart of a controversy with allegations of money laundering levelled against him by the BJP. Before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the 78-year-old state Congress chief had only two LIC policies for himself, each with a premium barely one-hundredth of that...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Has the amendment to the Hindu Succession Act conferring equal rights over property to daughters shattered the peace at home? A study put together by an American and a Canadian university not only arrives at this conclusion but goes one step further and draws a co-relation between the Act being changed in 2005 and a subsequent rise in suicides. The paper, called 'Suicide and Property Rights in...

-Outlook Having noticed instances where objectionable and vulgar content was being broadcast on private FM Radio channels, the Information and Broadcasting ministry has asked them to ensure that the programmes were clean and the language of jockeys decent. In an advisory to these channels, the ministry said it has come to its notice that "vulgar and objectionable content is very often being broadcast on several FM Radio channels." "It has also been noticed...

-The Hindu This was discovered during an awareness drive in two Jaipur slums recently Jaipur: The daily struggle of slum dwellers for getting basic amenities and the glaring deficiency in the reach of the much-touted urban poverty alleviation schemes as well as other programmes for welfare of widows, disabled people and destitute children were revealed during an awareness drive launched by two voluntary public service institutions in slum colonies here this week. The...