-The Hindu Property empire was built on soft loans handed out in unusual circumstances, documents show In February, as rumours of the ambitions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law swirled amidst the heat and dust of the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, her daughter Priyanka moved to scotch speculation about Robert Vadra’s possible political future. “He’s a successful businessman,” the younger Ms. Gandhi said of her husband, “who is not interested in changing...

-The Economic Times A new book by Bibek Debroy on Gujarat looks at how this much-talked about state has performed in economic terms. The author argues history, luck and administrative clarity have been the determining factors. There has been a discernible pickup in Gujarat's growth performance since the 10th Plan (2002-07), the five-year Plans being natural periods for breaking up the timeline. It's tempting to argue that there is nothing exceptional in...

-The Guardian  Oxfam calls on World Bank to stop backing foreign investors who acquire land for biofuels that could produce food International land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1 billion people. Analysis by Oxfam of several thousand land deals completed in the last decade shows that an area eight times the size of the UK has been left idle by speculators or is...

-The Economic Times Housewives can expect tough times ahead maintaining household budgets as all indicators suggest that prices of non-subsidized domestic cooking gas cylinders are expected to go up till March, 2013, much before they exhaust their quota of another three subsidized cooking gas cylinders. This is because the price of domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or cooking gas) has been linked to international gas prices which typically shoots up during the...

-The Times of India Average life expectancy in India jumped up by 4.6 years in the decade up to 2008, according to the latest data released by the Registrar General of India. Since this was also the period when economic reforms had the maximum impact, it gives the lie to an idea that's pervasive in the political domain - that reforms benefited only a tiny elite, leaving the rest of India's...