Jade Goody Dies in Sleep, Tributes Pour In 
by Dipankar De Sarkar
Seven years after becoming Britain's best known reality TV star, cancer-stricken Jade Goody died quietly in her sleep Sunday, earning handsome tributes from around the world, including India where she learnt last year that she did not have many months to live. Read On

• Pakistan's Top Judge Back in Office 

Indian Business Visitors
Seek End to 'Restrictive' German Visa Policy 
by Manik Mehta
Indian business visitors to Germany have called for a "level playing field" in visa arrangements between the two countries, complaining they are only issued visas for limited periods while German visitors to India are easily given long-term, multiple-entry visas. Read On

India Should Caution Obama
Against 'Good Taliban' Approach: Mishra 
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with US President Barack Obama early next month, former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra Saturday said the Indian government should try to convince Washington about the fallacy of making a distinction between "good Taliban" and "bad Taliban".  "There is nothing like good Taliban or bad Taliban. Taliban is bad. All Taliban are equally bad and dangerous. We should try to make President Obama and his team understand this," Mishra said at a seminar held in New Delhi. Read On

Obama's Budget Plans Will Shorten Recession: Experts
The bipartisan US Congressional Budget Office Friday said the ambitious reform projects of President Barack Obama combined with the huge federal stimulus programme would produce larger budget deficits than Obama has projected. But it also said it expected the recession to end by autumn, the Wall Street Journal reported. Read On

• British Thinktank Warns
  of 'Global Pandemic of Unrest'

UN Seeks $750 bn for Global Green New Deal 
The world's 20 most advanced economies should consider investing one percent of the global gross domestic product - about $750 billion - in five sectors to build an environmentally sustainable global economy, the UNEP said Thursday. Such an amount could finance a "Global Green New Deal", drawing on the idea of the New Deal launched by former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt to help put an end to the Great Depression in the 1930s. Read On

US House backs 90% Tax on Bail-out Bonuses
Spurred on by public ire over bonuses paid at firms that received government bail-outs, the US House of Representatives gave strong backing to a 90% tax on retention bonus payments by companies receiving more than $5 billion in federal funds. Read On

Sharif Could Return,
Parliament to be Supreme: Gilani 
In the strongest assertion of his authority yet, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has said opposition leader Nawaz Sharif could rejoin his government, which will endeavour to return to parliament the powers that had been taken away by former military strongman Pervez Musharraf. Read On
► Sleepless Nights for Zardari, Musharraf

Indian, US Businessmen Join Hands
Against Protectionism by Arun Kumar
Captains of Indian and American industries have vowed to work together for the revival of the global economy while fighting growing calls for protectionism in either country. The calls for India and the US to further strengthen economic ties amid the global economic crisis came at a panel discussion in Washington Wednesday on "India and the US: Partners in the Global Economic Recovery". Read On

• US Move to Cut Back Foreign Student Hires
  to Hurt Economy: Study 

• AIG, Obama Under Fire
  as Congress, Public Take Aim
• AIG Not the Only Company
  to Pay Bail-Out Bonuses 

IPL Bandwagon to Roll Out of India 
The Indian Premier League (IPL) was Sunday shifted to the foreign shores because of clash of dates with general elections in the country. The move came as a shock for fans across the nation and raised the political pitch with the main opposition party holding the central government responsible for the decision. Read On

RJD to Fight On Congress Seats Too in Bihar
The rift in India's ruling coalition widened Sunday with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) deciding to contest even in the three Lok Sabha seats the Congress won five years ago in Bihar.  Hardening his stand against the Congress, RJD chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said here that his party would field candidates in Aurangabad, Sasaram and Madhubani with the backing of Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Read On

Election Commission Action Against Gandhi
in Haste: G.V.G. Krishnamurthy by Rashmi Saksena
Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh candidate Varun Gandhi may have sparked off a controversy by his allegedly provocative speeches, but the Election Commission's action against him has been in haste and beyond jurisdiction, says former election commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurthy. Read On

• Mayawati's Poll Rally in Uttar Pradesh a Big Draw
• Nano Set for Commercial Roll-out Monday

Slowdown-hit India Inc has Wish List Ready
for Next Government by Pupul Dutta
Hit by a demand slowdown and meltdown in the global economy, India Inc has its wish list ready for the next government, with sector-specific policy reforms and tax sops on top of the agenda to tide over the crisis. The ailing export sector, which in October witnessed a decline for the first time in a decade due to the contraction in global trade, has sought an exemption from paying income tax for some five years to deal with the turmoil. Read On

'Outplacement' is New Corporate Mantra
in Stressed Times by Anuradha Shukla
In these difficult times for the corporate sector when job cuts have become commonplace, employers are not leaving their fired staff in the cold. Rather, many are hiring what are called outplacement agencies to find suitable new openings for them. Read On

TV Ads Making People Realize
the Importance of Voting by Ruchika Kher
While political parties are gearing up for elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, garnering the attention of the people are thought-provoking and crisp television ads urging them to vote -- and vote responsibly. Campaigns like Lead India 09, Tata Tea "Jaago re" and UTV Bindass "Ungli Utha Vote Kar" are aimed at motivating Indians to vote in the coming elections starting April 16. Read On

Angry Congress to Go Solo in Bihar,
Can't Help, says Lalu Prasad 
The cracks in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) over seat sharing in Bihar widened Saturday, with the Congress deciding to go it alone after being rebuffed by partners Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). The RJD retaliated by saying it could not help it if the Congress was unhappy. While announcing it was going solo in Bihar, the Congress was at pains to state that the UPA coalition was intact. RJD chief Lalu Prasad too said his party was very much part of the coalition. Read On

Mohan Bhagwat is New RSS Chief,
Sudarshan Quits
By Arun Anand and Shyam Pandharipande
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief K.S. Sudarshan Saturday stepped down on health grounds, handing over the mantle to Mohan Bhagwat, a veterinary doctor who detests party politics. Expressing his inability to continue to shoulder the "onerous responsibility" that entailed hectic touring across India, Sudarshan, 74, requested colleagues that he should be allowed to resign. Read On
► Mohan Bhagwat: A Vet and RSS Pracharak
    for Over 30 Years 

A Tempestuous Election Scene
 - And Never a Dull Moment by Amulya Ganguli
It is turning out to be one of the most tempestuous polls in recent memory. Every party is being buffeted by gale force electoral winds. Perhaps the most battered is the Bharatiya Janata Party. Not only did it lose a decade-old ally, the ruling Biju Janata Dal in Orissa, the nearly week-long spat between party president Rajnath Singh and chief election strategist Arun Jaitley also deeply embarrassed the BJP. Read On