The OBC lobby within Congress blocked the government proposal to enhance 'creamy layer' for reservations to Rs 6 lakh, protesting it was on the lower side. The resistance prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to refer the issue for consultations.  The fresh look may be handed over to a group of ministers (GoM) or be done by social justice ministry that had moved the Cabinet note. Revised every four years, the 'creamy...

-The Hindu The killing of the Ranvir Sena chief and the violence it triggered expose the fragile foundations of Nitish Kumar's ‘new Bihar'   The assassination of Brahmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiya, founder of Ranvir Sena, the dreaded private army of upper caste Bhumihars, raises fears of the revival of “Barbaric Bihar”. From the first major massacre of Dalits in Belchi in 1977 to the killings in Mianpur in 2000 by socially dominant castes...

Araria, Bihar: If the government had bought bicycles to give them to schoolgirls, you would have had a bicycle scam in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar famously said, explaining why he gave bicycle vouchers to families. But when it came to giving land to landless Mahadalit families — the poorest and most marginalised of Dalits — the government forgot this wisdom.   Result: Allegedly acting in concert, government officials and brokers ganged...

This certainly won’t help swallow the  bitter petrol-hike pill. Petrol prices have tripled for the common man in the last 13 years but the country’s top civil servants haven’t had to deal with a fuel hike since 1999. Senior government officials pay a measly Rs. 700 every month to use their air-conditioned official cars for private purposes. This amount was last fixed in 1999, when petrol went for Rs. 23.80...

-Live Mint After a record harvest of 90.23 mt this year, the govt’s wheat stocks were at 38.2 mt as of 1 May Worry lines run deep on the faces of wheat farmers in Sehrala in Haryana as falling prices, higher input costs and poor infrastructure erode earnings and cast doubt over not just their next crop, but their future in agriculture as well. Agents in the grain market of Ballabgarh said spot...