-PTI   JAITAPUR: CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat and CPI leader D Raja today assured all support to the local people in Jaitapur, who are protesting against the proposed 9,900-MW nuclear power plant. The two Left leaders visited the house of Tabrez Sayekar, resident of the Sakhrinate village, who was killed in police firing during the anti-Jaitapur protests in April this year. They offered condolences to the victim's parents and wife....

Can the promise of a car or a mixer grinder help keep India's population in check? Well, that's what health authorities in the northern state of Rajasthan apparently believe. They are offering a cheap car, among other things, as a prize in an attempt to sign up some 20,000 people to meet an ambitious sterilisation target. Time will tell whether this turns out to be another gimmick or an innovative incentive. But...

-IANS   The Supreme Court Monday asked Delhi police to explain their behaviour and the need to resort to teargas and baton-charge in the closed enclosure when people were sleeping during yoga guru Baba Ramdev's protest gathering at the Ramlila Ground here last month. An apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice Swatanter Kumar said that there are documents and DVDs to show that the yoga exercises were undertaken at the...

In contrast to the 1990s, when age-old matters of identity drove electoral politics, it appears that development-related issues such as land acquisition and law and order will play a critical role in the contentious campaign for the UP elections due next year. While this can be attributed to the BSP’s “sarvajan” agenda, it also signals the impact of the market economy and the need to attract private investment, which has...

-The Economic Times The Supreme Court's July 5 ruling asking the government of Chhattisgarh to disband its so-called Special police Officers has a bearing on the entire conduct of anti-insurgency operations across the country. The Union government as well as state governments will do well to take this fully on board, to avoid further raps from the judiciary. At the operational level, the Court has delegitimised and demobilised the armed bands...