-The Telegraph   An international sympathiser group for Indian Maoists has declared it will protest outside offices of Indian multinationals worldwide, adding to problems the government already faces in combating the home-grown rebels. Last week, the International Committee to Support the People’s War in India announced the plan to launch its “international week of action from January 14 to 22” next year to support the CPI (Maoist)’s “people’s war” against the Indian state. The...

-The Times of India The Centre on SaTurday announced a Rs 6000-crore package for the handloom sector, doubling the announced financial relief, in what is seen as an outreach to the weaver community with authorship of Rahul Gandhi ahead of crucial UP elections. The sop increased with the government including individual loan defaulters, who are not part of a cooperative for loan amnesty, and in giving incentive for timely payment of loans...

- Women's FeaTure Service   These are busy days for Aruna Roy, founder member of the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), with the Jan Lok Pal and the need to check corruption emerging as big concerns in India. The woman, who traded a promising career in the bureaucracy for an activist’s existence in 1975, is presently intensely involved in the issue. Pamela...

Several state governments have come out strongly against how the centre has planned the resource mobilisation for the national food security law, a key initiative of the UPA-II government. States including those ruled by the Congress party has complained to the Union food ministry that legal entitlements for subsidised grain to a large section of the population as envisaged in the Bill would put an enormous financial burden on them....

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh will visit Jungle Mahal on SaTurday and meet Mamata Banerjee in Calcutta on Sunday to finalise a development package for the Maoist zone. The idea is to take up Jungle Mahal as a test case for the two-pronged approach of development and police action to rein in the rebels. The state government recently decided to resume counter-Maoist operations in the region. Ramesh will visit West Midnapore...