-The Times of India The government on Thursday seized upon Supreme Court's ruling that auctions are not mandatory for allocating natural resources as a validation of its stand against the comptroller and auditor general's (CAG) findings in the 2G spectrum and Coalgate cases. Talking to media after the verdict, telecom minister Kapil Sibal and law minister Salman Khurshid welcomed the judgment, suggesting it had vindicated the government's position. Sibal said all constitutional authorities...

-The Times of India A new scam worth several thousands of crores has come to light. The Central Bureau of Investigation has started a probe into serious irregularities in awarding offshore mining blocks to private companies which did not fulfill the eligibility criteria. The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against officials of the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), the ministry of mines as well as private companies which secured licences...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Car users can't be penalized for not switching to public transport system, Delhi high court observed on Monday while analyzing the effectiveness of the BRT corridor. "The policy shouldn't be such that you will be punished for doing something... that's not the way to encourage people to use public transport and discourage use of private vehicles," a division bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Manmohan...

-The Times of India Keeping the festive season in mind, the Manmohan Singh government, which is on a reforms-fiscal correction mode, hit the pause button on Monday, deferring a decision on Scrapping subsidy on levy sugar under the public distribution system (PDS) quota. Removing the subsidy would have meant a steep hike in the price of the commodity to Rs 23 per kg from Rs 13.50/kg. The relief is expected to last...

-Economic and Political Weekly  The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...