-The Economic Times State levies on grain purchase by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will reportedly push up the Centre's food subsidy bill by Rs 10,000 crore this fiscal year.  This is absurd and untenable. High taxes and commissions - 14.5% in Punjab and 10.5% in Haryana - on the minimum support price (MSP) of grain jack up the costs of procurement, drive private trade out of these markets, and set...

-PTI The Enforcement Directorate has questioned former Telecom Minister A Raja in connection with its Money laundering probe in the 2G spectrum case. This is the first time that the ED has questioned Raja in the case. During questioning, ED investigators grilled Raja on various issues related to spectrum allocation under his ministership and also about his personal finances, sources said. Raja, according to sources, was also questioned about his Ministry associates and their...

-Kafila.org Almost a century ago, Katherine Mayo published a book titled ‘Mother India’ that criticized the Indian way of living, and Rudyard Kipling  spoke of the ‘White Man’s Burden’. These writings reflected the colonial perspective that what colonizers did was in the best interest of the colonized people. Consequently, most well-meaning citizens of colonial powers were alienated from the horrible plight of the colonized. Purpose well served – unopposed exploitation. Years later,...

-The Hindustan Times A day after Hindustan Times exposed the tout-officer nexus at the transport department’s zonal offices, nothing had changed on the ground. It was business as usual for touts and staff at the transport authority (as these zonal offices are referred to). Touts were busy striking deals with gullible applicants. Typists and agents of ‘notary public’ were seen attesting copies of documents needed for learners’ and permanent licences. Missing...

Apparently, people across the country, bridging class, caste and income divides, are deliberately ensuring that girls are simply not born. The child sex ratio of 914 girls per 1,000 boys is a tragic situation and a poor reflection on India’s growth and development. This is in spite of laws, schemes, relentless activism and media campaigns spanning three decades in support of the girl child. According to activists and economists, a...