-The Business Standard Says she considers political parties to be public authorities because they get substantive financial funding from the government of India While a parliamentary Standing committee today supported the move to keep political parties outside the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, committee member Anu Aga, (former chairperson of Thermax Ltd) was the lone voice of dissent on the 29 member panel. Aga who is a nominated member...

-Governance Now Professor Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti, a research programme of the New Delhi-based think-tank Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and one of our leading ‘election watchers', maintains that we must not read too much in the higher voting numbers and credits the election commission for preparing more accurate voter rolls. Excerpts from an interview with Trithesh Nandan: * What do you make of the phenomenon of higher turnouts? Everybody...

-The Business Standard Onion prices in wholesale markets of Mumbai declined 48.6%, the steepest among the four metros, compared to October In November, onions, which stoked inflation in recent months and probably played a part in the Congress party's dismal performance in four Assembly elections, turned cheaper in four major cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata - at both the wholesale and retail levels. However, the decline in wholesale prices was...

-PTI Allaying fears of a spurt in public expenditure ahead of Lok Sabha polls, finance minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said government will not compromise on fiscal discipline, notwithstanding the defeat of Congress in four states, including Delhi and Rajasthan. Inaugurating the Delhi Economic Conclave, Chidambaram blamed the states for "inaction" to check hoarding and said the incumbent government pays a price for high inflation. "The agenda, therefore, will be obvious. At the...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: An NGO set up in response to the 2002 carnage in Gujarat has decided to carry out awareness programmes across the country in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to highlight the potential pitfalls of Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister. "A dream of development is being shown to the people of India.... But that is not the reality. There is another side to the story of Gujarat,...