-The Times of India NEW DELHI: If you were to ask any random aam aadmi anywhere in India what is the single biggest failing of the UPA, the answer would be - price rise. This is so because the most important items of family spending - food items - have relentlessly risen for the past several years despite repeated promises to bring them down by the economic mandarins and policy wonks...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Government has proposed standards for playschools that include the size of the classroom and outdoor space, mandatory use of mother tongue or vernacular language as medium of instruction and student-caregiver ratio. These conditions are part of the 'early childhood care and education' (ECCE) formulated by the women and child development (WCD) ministry and slated to be discussed in the Union Cabinet on Friday. Among the "base...

-The Telegraph New Delhi/Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today landed in the national capital with a demand of a relief package of Rs 12,000 crore from the Centre. A day after declaring 33 of Bihar's 38 districts as drought-hit, Nitish, who met finance minister P. Chidambaram and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, said the state's agrarian economy was totally paralysed because of the acute rainfall deficiency during the kharif season. Nitish requested Chidambaram to...

-PTI PATNA: Concerned over depleting Water resources due to soaring population, Bihar government has undertaken an exercise to conserve Water along with large scale afforestation. The forest department is carrying out the exercise of Water harvesting on mountains by building small structures, secretary environment and forest Dipak Kumar Singh said. The task had been successfully carried out in Gaya, Rajgir, Banka, Rohtas, Kaimur and Jamui having large forest cover alongside mountains, he said. Singh...

-The Telegraph Patna: Bihar's honeymoon with double digit growth appears to be headed for a rocky phase with the government today declaring 33 of the state's 38 districts as drought-hit. The agriculture and allied sectors, which contribute around one-fifth (18.91 per cent) of Bihar's gross state domestic product (GSDP), are staring at a lower growth rate for the second consecutive year. The overall growth rate of the state was a little...