-The Hindu Business Line   With several State Governments voicing opposition to the Union Government's National Food Security Act, 2011, which was tabled in Parliament recently, the Union Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution, Prof K V Thomas, said that he will meet the Chief Ministers of the concerned States to allay apprehensions. The Minister said that all the States stood to gain from the proposed bill. Rice will be distributed...

-The Hindustan Times   Different Central government departments have different interpretations of the transparency law, Right To Information, when it came to disclosing information. While some government departments have proactively disclosed the information, others have denied similar information citing prohibitory clauses of the RTI law. This reporter had filed a RTI application with the Cabinet Secretariat seeking copies of the minutes of the Group of Ministers and Empowered Group of Ministers constituted since June...

Judicial activism was the key in many Supreme Court observations and judgments during 2011. 2011 CVC THOMAS: A three-judge bench led by CJI SH Kapadia declared “non est” — or nonexistent — the majority recommendation of a high-powered committee for P J Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner. The court ruled that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister’s recommendation amounted to “official arbitrariness”, coming in spite of the dissent of the third...

The Youth Congress has a question: why can some company not buy the potatoes that Punjab’s farmers are throwing on the streets and sell them in Kerala where the crop’s price is as high as Rs 18 a kg? The answer, for the outfit being groomed under the guidance of Rahul Gandhi, is foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. That’s the message from the monthly Youth Congress newsletter, which has now been...

-The Economic Times   The Trinamool Congress on Sunday reiterated that its support for the Lokpal bill will be contingent upon the removal of the Lokayukta provision from the proposed legislation. "Trinamool Congress is not going to compromise on the federal structure of the Constitution and amendments put forward by the party have to be accepted," Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy said. He was reacting to a statement of home minister P...