Kalahandi: from starvation to record produce! Bhubaneswar: Kalahandi for decades has stood for starvation and utter poverty. But the image needs to be modified now in the light of some new facts. Odisha’s Kalahandi district — once the cause of global embarrassment for India due to its high number of starvation deaths — today stands tall with a five-fold increase in its rice production since 1999, figures reveal. The agriculture ministry’s recent crop data ranks Kalahandi among the top 25 rice producing districts of India. The three-year average of its rice production ending 2010-11... 

  Peeking eyes: to end cricket mischief! New Delhi: Against the backdrop of allegations of spot-fixing during IPL matches, Union Minister Ajay Maken today said the BCCI – the national governing body for cricket in India – should come under the ambit of the RTI Act. “BCCI should agree to come under RTI. Any organisation entrusted with job of selecting a National Team can not call itself a Private Body!,” Maken, who till recently held the Sports portfolio, twitted. His Twitter account clarifies that the Union minister’s tweets are personal. Maken, who holds Housing... 

    Assam is handy for filing! Guwahati: it is normally a privilege to have a prime minister file for nomination from your city. But when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Guwahati on Wednesday to submit his nomination papers seeking re-election to the Rajya Sabha for the fourth consecutive time, it was amid protests by opposition political parties and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). While the AGP and BJP staged demonstrations opposing Singh’s re-nomination from Assam, the AASU demonstrated by parading 15 persons with Manmohan Singh masks, each holding a placard... 

  Special cushions: Bihar cheered and favoured! Patna: In a move that is bound to appease Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said a high-level sub-committee will soon be constituted to finalise the new criteria for “backwardness.” He also added that under the new criteria Bihar would qualify for ‘special status’ as a backward state. “The criteria is to determine backwardness. Once we agree on this criteria, once we implement the criteria, states will qualify under that criteria and going by whatever information that I have, Bihar... 

  The Ponzi financial model! New Delhi: Amid lakhs of investors believed to have been defrauded by Ponzi schemes in West Bengal, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman U.K. Sinha on Wednesday said the regulator is working hard to ensure that small investors’ savings are not put to risk. “Within the powers given to us, SEBI is working extremely hard to ensure that savings of small investors are not put to risk,” Mr. Sinha said. He, however, said that SEBI has some legal limitations and he would not be able to comment on specific issues concerning specific companies as there... 

    Blood on hand: yet blameless! Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was Tuesday acquitted of all charges by a Delhi court in one of the three 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, a verdict that evoked vociferous protests from victims’ families, one of whom hurled a shoe at the judge. District and sessions judge JR Aryan let off Kumar in the 29-year-old case in which he was accused of murder and of instigating a riotous mob that killed five Sikhs in Delhi’s cantonment area. Five others — Balwan Khokkar, former councillor, Mahender Yadav, former MLA, Kishan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and Captain... 

    Modi vs Nitish: masks vs models! Patna/Ahmadabad: what is the Gujarat model of development? To put it simply, provide infrastructure, incentives and land to the investor in a resource rich state and wait for the positive results to follow. As for the people, let them find their place in the economic scheme of things. If and when they happen to come in the way of the development juggernaut, just push them under. Does this amount to a model or a vision is the question, since every state is trying to do exactly the same to the best of its ability. But the question is – is Bihar’s development... 

  Modi nightmare: coming to repay debt! Gandhinagar: Hours after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took an indirect dig at Narendra Modi for his “exclusivist politics”, the Gujarat chief minister bared his national ambitions by saying it was time for him to repay his “debt to Mother India”. “People are saying that I have repaid the debt of Gujarat. They are now asking me to repay the debt owed to Mother India. Every citizen owed a debt to the country. If you are a teacher, your duty is towards your students. If you are a doctor, you owe it to your patients,”... 

  Uncovering unpleasant truths: means transfer! Chandigarh: The Haryana government Thursday transferred for the second time in six months senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka —- the man who stirred a political storm alleging irregularities in land deals involving UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and private realty giant DLF. Khemka, at present Managing Director, Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC), has been posted as Secretary, Haryana Archives relieving Vikas Yadav of the charge. This is the 44th transfer posting of Khemka in his 22-year career. While no... 

  Afghanistan: the future to avoid! New Delhi: With the US withdrawal from Afghanistan coming closer, neighbouring countries are hedging against bad outcomes in that part of the world. The jitteriness is palpable, with Afghanistan’s neighbours all tying up with each other in different combinations as they scramble to contain what many fear a Taliban surge supported by Pakistan and extremism/terrorism spilling over its borders. China is teaming up with Russia and Pakistan on a trilateral on Afghanistan, and the first meeting is scheduled in a few weeks. This comes weeks after India, Russia...