-Live Mint Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, the world’s biggest tractor maker by volume, cut its forecast for sales growth of the farm equipment in India as the worst rainfall in three years delays crop sowing. Mahindra estimates industry sales to expand as little as 2% in the year ending 31 March, Pawan Goenka, president of the automotive and farm equipment division at the Mumbai-based company, said in an email response on Thursday. Goenka...

-The Hindu The listing of the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill for discussion and adoption in the current session of Parliament is a welcome step. It is also welcome that the government has reversed its earlier unjustifiable position of keeping domestic workers outside the purview of the proposed legislation. Amendments moved on August 7 now include these sections of working women in a sector which has seen...

-The Indian Express Three new reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India increased the heat on the embattled government on Friday. The statutory auditor’s report on coal block allocations, implementation of public-private partnership at the Delhi International Airport and the award of ultra mega power projects (UMPP), tabled in Parliament, accused the government of indulging in favouritism, irregularities in bidding processes, and causing massive losses to the exchequer. The...

-The Telegraph Bengal should follow in the footsteps of Mendha Lekha if it wants to beat back Maoists. And so should Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. That’s what rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has advised in a letter he wrote last week. Create “more Mendha Lekhas”, he said, referring to the Maharashtra village that gave villagers community rights over minor forest resource and transit permit to sell such produce. For thousands...

-PTI Government auditor CAG on Friday said private firms are likely to gain Rs 1.86 lakh crore from coal blocks that were allocated to them on nomination basis instead of competitive bidding, which amounted to the loss to national exchequer. The CAG in its report, tabled in Parliament, names 25 companies including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power which have got the blocks in various states. "Delay...