-The Hindu While the people of Jammu & Kashmir have a deep-rooted mistrust of state institutions, there are also substantive and unacceptable provisions in the proposed legislation While much of the country is focused on the budget and its implications for the economy and individual pocketbooks, Kashmir is focused, with much trepidation, on a draft police reform bill. This in itself gives one a sense of the disconnect that exists between Kashmir...

-The Economic Times The government plans to revive cultivation of crops that make Punjab's iconic "makki ki roti and sarson ka saag" -- maize and mustard -- along with horticulture and fodder to breathe life into the stressed soil and the rapidly depleting water table in the green-revolution state. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is pushing hard for crop diversification in Punjab and has appointed an inter-ministerial panel on crop diversification LED by Agriculture...

-Outlook Ranchi: CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat today calLED for an immediate end to the "division" of people on the lines of below poverty line, above poverty line, and advocated for universal Public Distribution System (PDS). "Now the people are being divided and are given ration cards on the lines of BPL, APL and Antyodaya, which should be stopped immediately," Karat said at a meeting of the party's Sangharsh Sandesh Jatha...

-The Times of India Under pressure to energize the economy ahead of the 2014 election, the Manmohan Singh government is reaching across political divides to rescue mining projects in opposition-ruLED states of Goa, Odisha and Karnataka. With third quarter growth sinking to 4.5% and the economic survey pointing to a mining and quarrying slowdown as a reason for poor industrial growth, the Centre has decided to ask the Supreme Court to relax...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: Brides are being bought in Madhya Pradesh - sometimes in exchange for a buffalo and some cash. It might have sounded bizarre had there not been such a tragic tinge to it. In districts like Ashoknagar and Guna, where men far outnumber women probably due to female foeticide, desperate grooms are turning to human traffickers to find a wife. It's no problem if they don't have deep...