-The Indian Express Odisha: A December night two desperate men, held captive by a labour contractor, were asked this, and had to make a choice. DEBABRATA MOHANTY reports on the latest victims of Orissa's vicious migration cycle It had been a fortnight that Dialu Niyal and Nilambar Dhangdamajhi had been held captive and subjected to physical and verbal abuse. Nothing though had prepared them for what happened on December 15 night deep...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Seeking to send a positive signal to industries, the new environment and forest minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday said no files will be kept pending in his ministry and the "image" of the green regulator would never be compromised in the process of project clearance. Immediately after taking additional charge of the environment and forest ministry, the Union petroleum and natural gas minister Moily said,...

-The Hindustan Times Two leaders on opposite sides of the political spectrum have expressed similar views on this. Both minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi have spoken about the need for toilets above temples. And they could not be more right. More than 620 million people - over 50% of the population - have to conduct their ablutions in the open. Madhya Pradesh, where more...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Muslim leaders urged Congress to pass the communal violence bill, putting a tough poser to the party that has failed to promulgate the legislation promised in its election manifesto. The strong pitch for the legislation, with Muzaffarnagar riots as the reason, came at an interaction organized by Congress with civil society working among minorities to elicit their views on issues to be included in the 2014...

-BBC A survey done earlier this year shows that public facilities in the poorest regions of India have steadily expanded, improving the lives of people there, writes development economist Jean Dreze. Once upon a time, not so long ago, public facilities in the poorest districts of India were few and far between. Most people were left to their own devices and they lived in the shadow of hunger, insecurity and exploitation, with no...