-The Hindustan Times New Delhi: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Saturday surveyed more than 100 houses built illegally on forestland in the Neb Sarai area and sealed 10 of them. The forest department, on its part, issued 40 notices, ordering the occupants to vacate the premises. Action is likely to continue. The authorities swung into action only after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday had ordered Delhi's two top...

-Outlook     Nagpur: The Maharashtra government has so far extended financial assistance to the tune of Rs 71.41 crore to farmers in Vidarbha region who were affected by excess rains recently. "The authorities received a total of Rs 100 crore, including Rs 80 crore on March 20 and Rs 20 crore on April 5, and have disbursed Rs 71.41 crore till today, to about 81,860 farmers affected by the heavy rainfall," official sources...

-The Business Standard     Institutions such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are considered the panacea of all ills that developing countries like India face. Although the amount of money these institutions lend is small, their influence on the economy is high. They continue to be the benchmark for social and environmental policies, good governance, climate change, corruption and so on. A look at some of the reports of these...

-Deccan Herald   Barely emerging out of the shadows of freak weather, the warning of a weak monsoon will push millions of farmers into dire straits. In the midst of all the noise and muck-slinging that dominates the election campaigns there is bad news on the horizon. No, I am not talking of the possibility of a hung Parliament where the numbers don't add up for any political front, but the possibility of...

-The Indian Express   The UPA has done well to bring rights-based social welfare schemes to the forefront. All opinion polls suggest that the UPA has only a few weeks left in office. After 10 years as prime minister - this gives him the third position in terms of longevity as head of government after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi - what is going through Manmohan Singh's mind as he contemplates retirement from...