-The Hindustan Times The UPA government, staging a comeback through economic reforms after months of being on the back foot, got another boost after the Supreme Court said that auction was not the only method allowed in allocating natural resources. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has been rocked by criticism that it handed out telecom spectrum and coal fields at an alleged loss of Rs. 3.6 lakh crore to private players instead of...

-The Hindu The work of India’s supreme auditor cannot be put through an audit unless the institution itself initiates one The relentless campaign against the Comptroller and Auditor-General, of an unprecedented ferocity, compels me to write again on the subject. First, has the CAG caused a political and constitutional crisis, as some have argued? All that the CAG does is to submit audit reports. Any audit report, if it is a good report,...

-PTI After the big-bang reforms, Law Minister Salman Khurshid today indicated government's keenness to push bills on food security and land acquisition, insisting that even Mamata Banerjee will not be able to oppose them. He maintained that "the bills drive a deft political balance between populism and reforms". "The draft (food security) Bill is being given the final touches by the Cabinet. This will ensure that poor will have their stomachs full. Nobody...

-The Telegraph The Planning Commission has proposed a separate quota for single women in central schemes instead of clubbing them under the larger “family” category as is done now. If the move is cleared, even women who have never married will be included under the head “single”, along with widows and divorcees. “Not much progress could be made in this direction (towards having a separate category). This can be attributed to two factors....

-The Times of India The Planning Commission may drop reference to crony capitalism in the plan document after protests from some ministers who are of the view that any mention would be a tacit acknowledgment of the existence of the practice. Besides, it has suggested "transparent auction" of natural resources as the solution, something that the government is not willing to accept as the one-size-fits-all approach for all sectors. Apart from crony capitalism,...