-The Hindu While the people of Jammu & Kashmir have a deep-rooted MIStrust of state institutions, there are also substantive and unacceptable provisions in the proposed legislation While much of the country is focused on the budget and its implications for the economy and individual pocketbooks, Kashmir is focused, with much trepidation, on a draft police reform bill. This in itself gives one a sense of the disconnect that exists between Kashmir...

-Live Mint Evasion of duty of over Rs.50 lakh to be made non-bailable offence; arrest provisions under service tax proposed The government may find itself in hot water on budget proposals that make duty evasion beyond a certain threshold a non-bailable offence, allow arrest on suspected withholding of service tax, and provide tax authorities powers to recover dues from a defaulter’s bankers.   Although finance minister P. Chidambaram in his budget presentation on 28...

-The Indian Express Even as Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s Union Budget for 2013-14 is being touted as a ‘balanced’ budget, members of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) have criticised it for not having done enough for the social sector. They feel the budget, which comes just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due next year, falls short on delivering to the less advantaged groups and is relatively...

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha governmentresumed land acquisition for the proposed Poscosteel plant in Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday, a day after three people were killed in a bomb blast in the project area. Official sources said government representatives demolished three betel vines at Gobindapur village, restarting land takeover after about a month. The work was done amid the deployment of about a dozen platoons of security personnel. Jagatsinghpur collector...

-The Economic Times The government plans to revive cultivation of crops that make Punjab's iconic "makki ki roti and sarson ka saag" -- maize and mustard -- along with horticulture and fodder to breathe life into the stressed soil and the rapidly depleting water table in the green-revolution state. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is pushing hard for crop diversification in Punjab and has appointed an inter-ministerial panel on crop diversification led by Agriculture...