-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's drive to revive investor sentiment by fast-tracking large stalled projects through the Cabinet Committee on Investments (CCI) and a special cell under it is encouraging Indian companies as well as big foreign investors such as Shell, Cairn India and Dell to knock on the government's door for urgent help. Over 250 projects worth Rs 11 lakh crore are now being considered by the...

-The Indian Express Holding back the RTI amendment is not the best way to address public concerns about party finance. There has been great civil society uproar over the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which aims to extricate political parties from mandatory public disclosures, and nullify the Central Information Commission's recent order. While passing the amendment would have been all too easy, given the broad political consensus, a last-minute turnaround in...

-PTI This is to make these bodies self-reliant and empowered with more rights to make inclusive growth in future Jaipur: Empowering elected bodies right from the grass root level on the recommendations of State Finance Commission (SFC), the Government of Rajasthan had made available a sum of Rs 1305.55 crore under "devolution of funds" to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) during 2012-13 for their inclusive growth. ...

-Economic and Political Weekly The government has notified a Draft Land Reforms Policy which, on paper, has all the requisites of an earnest programme. Yet, the near total failure of earlier efforts at land reforms in India leave little room for hope that something substantial will at last be done to combat landlessness. Harsh Mander (manderharsh@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, and works with survivors of mass violence,...

-The Hindu MADURAI: Muthumari's day starts at 4 a.m. She milks her cows in the cowshed behind the house and keeps cans of milk ready to be collected by a pickup van from a private dairy company. Then she turns to her household chores and sends her children off to school. Packing the day's food for herself, she proceeds towards the fields in her village at Udayanpatti. She is not just a...