Prolonged captivity of hostages & perceived helplessness of government have adverse impact on psyche of society Maoists may be patting themselves on their back for forcing the Chhattisgarh and Odisha governments to give into their demands in exchange for those abducted by them, but kidnap as a tool of revolutionary warfare could prove to be counter-productive to them. The prolonged captivity of hostages and the perceived helplessness of the government, which fears...

-The Deccan Chronicle In a late-night decision on Friday, the Akhilesh Yadav government has decided to remove the reservation system from promotion. The Supreme Court has already upheld the Allahabad high court’s verdict to quash provision of reservation Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) officers and employees in promotions. The state Cabinet, by circulation, approved an ordinance to repeal the existing rule related to reservation in promotions. A formal proposal will...

-The Times of India The national project to give unique identity numbers to all Indians, and enable welfare payments electronically, is now facing a snub from the very part of the government that funds it, and has been its most staunch supporter so far: The finance ministry. Two moves initiated by the banking division in the finance ministry over the past three months appear to duplicate and bypass the work being done...

-The Telegraph Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal has invited a group of students from the Northeast to discuss the problems they face while studying in other cities. Coordinators of the Justice for Richard Loitam Facebook campaign told this correspondent that the Union minister has invited Monika Khangembam, a Manipuri student in Bangalore, to be a member of the group of students from the region. She had coordinated the Facebook campaign, which...

-The Economic Times Springing a surprise, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday said the Kudankulam nuclear power project is all set to go on stream within 10 days. "Within 10 days we will start the project," an optimistic Jayalalithaa said after participating in the Chief Ministers' conference in New Delhi. Senior officials at the Nuclear Power Corporation Limited, however, did not share the CM's enthusiasm about the short deadline for...