-The Hindu New norms come after many households in city surrender additional permit Here’s some relief to large households worried about restrictions on LPG connections. They need not surrender the additional connection. As per the new norms announced by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Friday, consumers can retain multiple connections but will have to shell out more for the cylinders. They will be priced thrice as much as the subsidised...

-The Indian Express The International Monetary Fund’s recent downgrading of the growth forecast for India from 6.2 per cent to 4.9 per cent for 2012, which came on the heels of the decline in the actual growth rate to below 5.5 per cent in the first half of 2012, has brought reforms back to the centrestage of the policy discourse. Which reforms are needed and why? India’s growth trajectory has been unique....

-The Hindu Stay refused, time granted to RBI to amend regulations With the Supreme Court observing on Monday that the Centre’s policy decision permitting FDI in multi-brand retail sector lacked legal sanction, the Attorney General (AG) G. E. Vahanvati assured that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would come out with amended Regulations within two weeks. A Bench of Justices R. M. Lodha and Anil R. Dave, while refusing to stay the policy...

-Mainstream Weekly Intense and motivated propaganda, powerful national and international diplomatic pressure, verging on pure and simple arms-twisting of the kind the Third World has been facing for decades by means of the active role of the econo-mic hit-men in the policy establishments, huge cash-back lobbying, both in India and abroad, blunt attempts to bamboozle the persons holding key positions in India’s policy establishment through a combination of hissing and kissing...

-The United Nations A top United Nations official today strongly encouraged governments to adopt special temporary measures, such as quotas, to boost the number of women in parliament and decision-making positions, pointing to the progress achieved by women in India as a result of affirmative action. “Here in India, quotas have spurred one of the world’s greatest successes in women’s empowerment and grassroots democracy,” Michelle Bachelet said in her keynote address to...