-The Telegraph The controversial poverty data from the Planning Commission has a message for Mamata Banerjee: the Marxists have brought down the number of destitute in Bengal but much more needs to be done. Latest data suggest that the number of poor has dipped by 7.5 percentage points in Bengal between 2004-05 and 2009-10, which covers the last five years of Left rule in the state. Poverty in urban areas in Bengal came...

-The Economic Times   Given the hurdles to infrastructure projects across India, there's good news from Tamil Nadu. The prolonged shutdown at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant has ended following chief minister J Jayalalithaa's decision to back the Rs 13,000 crore project. But, while accompanied by a welcome area development package, this official nod may not dampen the ongoing anti-Kudankulam agitation. So, police must use utmost care in dealing with protesters. And...

Some 134 private management institutes have this year sought technical education regulator AICTE’s permission to close down citing a lack of students, strengthening a trend that began last year. Government academics blamed the dwindling student interest in these private institutes on the “substandard education” they offer. B- school promoters, however, put the blame on the AICTE, saying the way it had allowed private management colleges to mushroom had led to supply...

-The Hindu   Liberal bail system adopted by courts Only 3.2 per cent of the people arrested for various crimes are in prison given the “liberal bail system” adopted by courts, according to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), New Delhi. Making a presentation on ‘Problems of overcrowding in prisons in India' at an all-India conference of DG/IG of Prisons here on Saturday, B.V. Trivedi, Deputy Director, BPR&D, said: “As much as...

-The Telegraph Lakshman Seth, the former CPM member of Parliament blamed for much of the bloodshed in Nandigram, was arrested by a Bengal police team this afternoon while hiding in a Mumbai guesthouse along with two party colleagues. Seth, former MLA Amiya Sahoo and East Midnapore leader Ashok Guria are the key accused in the alleged killing of six villagers during the CPM’s “recapture” of Nandigram in November 2007. Seth, entangled in...