Just when they seem to be hurtling towards confrontation, Congress has successfully reached out to the Anna Hazare camp, persuading the civil society activists to appear before the standing committee on law and justice. Activist Arvind Kejriwal confirmed to TOI that he along with his colleagues have accepted the invite from the Parliamentary panel led by Congress's Abhishek Singhvi and will attend the deliberations on Wednesday. Gandhian Anna Hazare, former law...

-The Times of India   The information on tax evaders and those who have stashed unaccounted money abroad has started trickling in, with the government admitting for the first time that total deposits of Indians in Swiss banks have come down by more than 50% in the last five years. The total liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indians have declined in the last five years. The deposits of Indians have come down from...

-PTI   All major agrarian states are facing shortage of farm labourers due to factors like implementation of NREGA and migration of labours to urban areas for better job prospects, Parliament was informed today. "All major agricultural producing states where rural employment generation programmes are being implemented are facing this problem (labour shortage)," Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. Factors such as implementation of Mahatma...

-NDTV   A latest report on the Adarsh Society scam indicts two former Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and names some top Army officers for flouting norms. The report, prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), was tabled in Parliament today. It says, "Maximum concessions were given to the Adarsh Housing Society when Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde were chief ministers. Mr Shinde was the Chief Minister when wrong environment clearance was...

The Seed Bill 2010 -- which stayed in controversy because its initial draft seemed to favour agri-business rather than the farmer -- is now ready to get debated and passed in the current session of Parliament. Despite consultations, first in a Parliamentary Standing Committee and later in an all party meeting, a large number of farmers’ unions, opposition parties and civil society groups believe that the Bill fails to protect...