West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday threatened to bring her anger to the streets of New Delhi and launch an agitation in the capital if the Centre didn't give in to her demand for a moratorium on debt repayment. In a rare and exclusive interview to TOI at the Writers' Buildings in Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress chief didn't once utter the words "threat" or "pullout", but her message was...

Central bank sold its majority stake in Oct 2010; change will ensure entire equity  is held by the govt The government will amend a law governing the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to allow the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to sell its 1% stake in the development lender. The central bank sold its majority stake in the lender to the government in October 2010. The government owns 99%...

-The Economist West Bengal’s populist chief minister is doing badly. Yet she typifies shifts in power in India BUYER’S remorse is common enough in the dusty markets of Kolkata, a delightful if crumbling great city, once known as Calcutta and still capital of the state of West Bengal. Those who buy cheap plastic goods or plaster-of-Paris busts of Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal’s cultural hero, may come to regret their haste. Likewise, many who...

-PTI Milk prices in the national capital and adjoining areas will rise by up to Rs 2 per litre from Monday with two leading suppliers hiking rates, but largest seller Mother Dairy is not increasing rates just yet. Amul and Quality Dairy will increase milk prices from Monday. Mother Dairy and Paras are the other two major milk suppliers in the national capital and its adjoining areas which consume over 115 lakh...

Amit Kumar, an Indian journalist based in the eastern state of Bihar, received a tip in 2009 from a village called Manan Bigha just two kilometers away from his home. There was a man there dying from starvation, he was told. The situation was urgent. Mr. Kumar rushed off to visit the man, Kangresh Manjhi, and exhaustively documented his story. He learned how Mr. Manjhi, a lower-caste, landless laborer, was forced...