-Frontline   But in Modi's Gujarat the difference between development and darkness is all too visible to those who care to see. NARENDRA MODI may have won three consecutive elections and ruled Gujarat for more than a decade after he was posted there almost as a night watchman, to borrow a cricketing expression. He may have mobilised a massive fan following that is shouting to catapult him into the Prime Minister's post,...

-Live Mint Lack of decentralization means municipalities lack power, resources to meet rising aspirations of ‘middle' India Othakadai, Madurai (Tamil Nadu)/Hubli (Karnataka): S. Paramasivam , president of the Othakadai panchayat, has big plans for his area. "Rainwater harvesting, removal of encroachments on roads, waste recycling, covered drainage, bigger primary health care centres and community parks," lists the 58-year-old, who has spent 30 years in the stainless steel business that dominates industry...

-The Times of India A year after the UPA presented a white paper on black money in Parliament, spelling out strategy to curb generation of illicit money and preventing its offshore flight, one of the most potent weapons created to tackle the menace and bring offenders to book - theincome tax department's Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) - stands dismantled and powerless. The last search-and-survey operation, better known as I-T raids,...

-The Times of India The collapse of Saradha Group, promoted by Sudipta Sen, is the greatest threat yet to Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress regime in Bengal. It could also imperil the finances of millions of people in Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Trinamool's blatant association with the bigwigs of Saradha, which raised vast amounts of money from poor people before collapsing, is a potentially fatal political body blow....

-The Economic Times For many, it is a sense of deja vu. Fifteen years ago, the government and India's financial regulators came under fire after hundreds of crores were cleaned up by a few individuals and entities from gullible investors, who were promised fabulous returns from plantation schemes. In the uproar that followed, the government and the regulators sought to palm off the responsibility of regulation of such schemes on each...