-The Hindu Business Line Kolkata: Everyone knew that the bomb was ticking. But, there was not much action to curb the mushrooming ponzi schemes that were collecting thousands of crores from hapless investors across West Bengal since 2007-08. Some promised to grow money by 34 times in 25 years by investing in teak Bonds. Others offered to double money in 15 months by investing in the potato trade. As a result, investments...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government is scrambling to stitch together a cogent response to the default crisis that is escalating by the hour. The ruling establishment's agony has been compounded by the close ties several of its ministers, MPs and MLAs had nurtured with the collapsed Saradha Group. Within Trinamul and the government, questions are being asked about what senior leaders and ministers were doing while the crisis was building up...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-The Hindu     The shortened lifespan of the quarry workers of Uttar Pradesh is spent breaking stones and residing among the pollution- laden boulders Mired with sandy roads and rocky terrain, the landscape in south-western Allahabad creates a remarkable mirage under the blue sky. Some of the larger rocks here have sizeable craters formed in them -- a sign of their depletion over time, by an activity that is hazardous yet critical to the...

-The Hindu Raipur: For the first time since the formation of Chhattisgarh in 2000, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will hold a "full commission" sitting in State capital Raipur. NHRC chairperson Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and its members, Justice B. C. Patel and retired diplomat Satyabrat Pal, will hold several sessions till Friday. According to sources in the NHRC, investigating officers and the special rapporteur of the commission had visited the State,...