-The Hindustan Times Underprivileged people of Muktsar district, the home turf of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, received a lion's share for construction of houses in 2011 in the run-up to the assembly elections, it has emerged. Funds to the tune of over Rs. 40 crore were pumped into Muktsar district alone from the social infrastructure fund (SIF) to help economically weaker sections (EWS) construct or repair their houses, while five districts,...

-The Hindu India Against Corruption has broken the unwritten code that politicians will not target each other’s kin, and in doing so has taken over the role the traditional Opposition and media should be playing The civil society formation, India Against Corruption, is a beast most find stunning and enthralling, yet few are able to define its precise nature. The confusion over IAC’s personality arises from the many simultaneous roles its activists...

-Outlook Allegations of extortion attempt made against a television channel by a private firm took a new turn today with the Press Council of India (PCI) taking up the issue and a broadcasting body removing an office bearer associated with the channel. PCI chairperson Justice Markandey Katju today wrote to the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) to probe an alleged extortion attempt by certain people belonging to Zee news from Jindal Steel...

-Outlook Mumbai: Seeking to corner the opposition on Maharashtra's irrigation scam, the Nationalist Congress Party demanded today that a white paper should cover functioning of all irrigation corporations in the state since its inception during the Sena-BJP government. Addressing a press conference, NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said that the Krishna Valley Development Corporation, Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation (KIDC), Tapi Irrigation Development Corporation (TIDC), Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) and Godavari Marathwada Irrigation...

-The Indian Express The International Monetary Fund’s recent downgrading of the growth forecast for India from 6.2 per cent to 4.9 per cent for 2012, which came on the heels of the decline in the actual growth rate to below 5.5 per cent in the first half of 2012, has brought reforms back to the centrestage of the policy discourse. Which reforms are needed and why? India’s growth trajectory has been unique....