-Tehelka The new biotechnology Bill will allow biotech firms to tamper with our food In March, US President Barack Obama signed the HR 933 continuing resolution - popularly known as the Monsanto Protection Act - that effectively divests the federal courts of their constitutional power to stop the planting or sale of genetically modified (GM) seeds and crops regardless of the health and environmental consequences. In other words, whether you like...

-Reuters Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has fined a unit of energy conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd Rs. 11 crore over a 2007 insider trading case. The company, Reliance Petroinvestments Ltd, has 45 days to pay the fine, the Sebi said in its ruling published late on Thursday. The regulator said Reliance Petroinvestments made a profit of Rs. 3.83 crore through several trades between February and March 2007 that were...

-Live Mint Even as India struggles in efforts to usher in transparency, some panchayats are offering a refreshing contrast Chandana/Jind: Sometime last year, Surendra Singh got a call from a military outpost in Srinagar. The soldier had an urgent inquiry for the 31-year-old sarpanch of Chandana, a village in Haryana's Kaithal district. The man, who hailed from the village, had lost his voter ID card and needed a letter from the...

-PTI A Parliamentary committee has approved a bill which seeks to give limited powers to the Election Commission to determine change in nomenclature of a parliamentary or assembly seat where a caste has been included or excluded from the SC/ST list in the last one decade. The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Bill, 2013 was referred to the Standing Committee on Law...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Giving in to pressure from the autorickshaw lobby, the Delhi government on Wednesday decided to raise auto and taxi fares by a significant 25%. The government defended the hike citing inflation and costlier CNG but remained silent on a deadline for installing GPS in 55,000-odd older autorickshaws, a move that could prevent unsuspecting passengers from being taken for a ride. The auto fare hike is substantial. From...