-The Telegraph The government today dug out a 2006 verdict to argue that the Supreme Court was against auction of coal blocks as law minister Salman Khurshid questioned the presumptive revenue loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore in the allocation of 57 blocks. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, who addressed a joint media conference with Khurshid, read out the verdict that had nullified the NDA government’s plan for e-auction of coal blocks. The verdict...

-The Economic Times Ram Kishen, 52, half-blind and half- starved, holds in his gnarled hands the reason for his hunger: a tattered card entitling him to subsidised rations that now serves as a symbol of India's biggest food heist. Kishen has had nothing from the village shop for 15 months. Yet 20 minutes' drive from Satnapur, past bone-dry fields and tiny hamlets where children with distended bellies play, a government storage facility...

-IANS LUCKNOW: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday conducted raids in Uttar Pradesh as well as Gujarat in connection with the probe into embezzling of funds from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Raids were conducted in Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Agra as well as in Vaapi, Gujarat, CBI sources said. The action, seen as knee-jerk, comes after a severe rap by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Wednesday...

-The Economic Times The elderly will find it hard to buy health insurance with the public sector insurers bringing down agent commissions by more than a third for policies sold to those over 55. Companies with high claims, too, will find it difficult to get agents to service them as group policies where claims exceed premium will not be eligible for commission. The new commission structure that is effective from this month...

-Live Mint Cabinet refers land acquisition Bill to GoM to resolve differences after five ministers express apprehensions Differences within the Union cabinet have nixed the plans of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to fast-track a new legislation for land acquisition and compensation, widely seen as a key measure to spur investment in the economy. Consequently, the cabinet on Tuesday referred the controversial land acquisition Bill to a ministerial group (a so-called group...