-The Times of India Karnataka, reeling under severe drought, has received a body blow: the Centre has withheld its next instalment of grant to a rural job scheme citing five shortcomings in its implementation in the state. "The release of the next instalment of the central share (for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) to the state depends very crucially on how it is able to spend the funds...

India is coming under increasing pressure from the U.S. and the European Union for the strict patentability criteria it applies for medicines. AS was only to be expected, the two landmark decisions made by the Indian patent office in recent times concerning pharmaceutical patent cases have not gone down well with the multinational drug industry. First, there was the rejection in 2006 of the patent application by the Swiss multinational...

In 2010, Andhra Pradesh witnessed a series of suicides. These were not cases of farmers' suicides—a regular occurrence in the state which continues to be in the grip of an agrarian crisis. The victims in these cases happened to be the poorest of the poor; most of them illiterate dalits and adivasis. The first information reports (FIRs) of the police reveal that most of the suicides were due to coercive...

-CNN-IBN West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has come up with yet another bizarre advice. She is now advising people on what television channels they should watch. Addressing a gathering in North 24 Parganas, she told people to stop watching certain news channels and switch to entertainment channels instead. She told her cadres to avoid some TV channels and listen to music instead. She also criticised a section of the media for...

-The Times of India   YAVATMAL: Information released under right to information (RTI) has revealed that the state government has paid Rs 2.83 crore to acquire land distributed to tribals and landless labourers under the Bhoodan movement to rehabilitate Pahur villagers displaced due to Bembla River Irrigation Project. Concerns are now being expressed that some government officials pocketed this compensation along with five land owners by forging documents and sale deeds. Sarpanch Ainuddin...