Orissa is all set to renew its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with steel major Posco with a one-year retrospective effect by June 30th. The MoU for the proposed 12 million ton steel plant had expired on June 22, 2010 after a period of five years. State steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty said all formalities required for renewal of the MoU will be over shortly and the government would revalidate...

-The Hindu   There is good news for 47.50 lakh domestic workers in the country: they will now be entitled to health insurance cover under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). The extension of the medical insurance scheme, approved by the Union Cabinet here on Thursday, envisages smart card-based cashless health insurance cover of up to Rs. 30,000 annually to below poverty line workers in any empanelled hospital in the country. The RSBY will...

-The Hindu   Tata Motors LIMited will move the Kolkata High Court on Wednesday against a notification issued by the West Bengal government regarding the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011. The Bill was made into law on Monday after Governor M.K. Narayan gave it the nod. The legislation provides for the State government taking over the land leased to Tata for its small car project and ancillary units at Singur. The government...

To call Anna Hazare the 21st-century Gandhi, as some have started doing, is pure hyperbole, but many would see a similarity in their methods — in particular, in their resorting to fasts to achieve their objectives. This, however, is erroneous. Indeed, the fact that so many people consider Anna Hazare’s method to be similar to Gandhiji’s only indicates how little contemporary India remembers or understands Gandhiji. Gandhiji undertook 17 fasts in...

Days after the government placed the CBI under the category of organisations “exempt” from the RTI Act, the country’s first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has “requested” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to let the Central agency remain within the ambit of the transparency Act as “public interest would best be served by keeping these bodies transparent and accountable within the LIMits of the law”. However, the CBI has defended the move...