-PTI In an incident reminiscent of the murder of IPS officer Narendra Kumar, two members of a mining mafia on Wednesday allegedly tried to kill a police officer who tried to stop tractor-trolley carrying illegally mined sand. The incident occurred about 40 km from here under the jurisdiction of Chinnoni police station, the police said. Station in-charge Hitendra Rathore found during the checking of vehicles that a tractor-trolley was carrying illegally mined...

-The Economic Times The story of rotting foodgrains and hunger rocked the Lok Sabha yet again on Wednesday morning, prompting the government to say it was ready for consultations with political parties to find a long-term solution to the problem of storage facilities. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee gave this assurance when an angry Opposition sought greater availability of jute sacks for wheat before the monsoon. BJP and its ally JD(U) have been...

With the elderly likely to constitute a quarter of India's population by 2050, there is need for a publicly-funded, universal scheme that will overcome destitution among the aged India's social security system is woefully inadequate, when compared even to those in third world economies with no higher per capita incomes. Some States in India have fairly comprehensive social security schemes — notably Kerala, also West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — but...

-NDTV The government has waived off almost Rs. 2 crore, allegedly owed by Speaker Meira Kumar for use of her father Jagjivan's Ram residence in Delhi. An RTI query has revealed that Meira Kumar, on getting the bill, said she had vacated the house number 6 at Krishna Menon Marg in November 2002 and so the government decided to withdraw the recovery notice. The bungalow was allotted to her when she was appointed...

-The Hindustan Times The government stocks a fifth of its grain out in the open, left to be washed by the monsoon. As the UPA’s most ambitious welfare programme — food security for poor Indians — is unrolled, more grain will be collected and allowed to rot unless warehouses are built to stock an additional 35 million tonnes beyond the 110 million tonnes of storage we already have, the Planning Commission...