-PTI Days after two tribals from Pune district filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging a Government notification which empowers Lavasa Corp to act as a special planning authority, the company termed the move as "motivated and malafide".  The realty firm, constructing a hill city (called Lavasa) near Pune, said the tribals, residents of Mulshi taluka, have no locus to file the petition since they are not owners of land...

Muslims, SCs, STs reflect better social indices, closer to national averages Early in the morning, Mohammad Nadeem, a 25-year-old ‘pakka adati’, big wholesaler, at one of Muzaffarnagar’s fruit and vegetable mandis, briskly sets about selling carrots and oranges. As he expertly sifts through sacks of fresh produce, it’s difficult to picture him hawking peanuts by the roadside. But for five years in this bustling western Uttar Pradesh mandi, Nadeem’s store...

An MGNREGA programme officer, currently posted at Bahadurganj in Kishanganj district, has landed in the soup following disclosure about his qualification under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. MGNREGA programme officer Ranjit Kumar Pramanik secured the job allegedly on the basis of a 'fake' MBA certificate, according to a response to the RTI. The officer had submitted MBA certificate claiming that he had obtained the MBA degree from L N Mishra...

-The Economist   Opposition to the world’s biggest biometric identity scheme is growing FOR a country that fails to meet its most basic challenges—feeding the hungry, piping clean water, fixing roads—it seems incredible that India is rapidly building the world’s biggest, most advanced, biometric database of personal identities. Launched in 2010, under a genial ex-tycoon, Nandan Nilekani, the “unique identity” (UID) scheme is supposed to roll out trustworthy, unduplicated identity numbers based on...

A desperate state is making Maoists out of innocents Arun Ferreira smiles easily. The four years and eight months of incarceration, as an alleged Naxalite/Maoist, sit lightly on the 40-year-old quintessential Bandra boy. Released on January 5 from Nagpur Central Jail—acquitted in 10 of the 11 cases and bailed in one—Ferreira is taking his time to readjust to his life with family and friends in Mumbai. He must build anew...