HEADLINES

• Cyrus Mistry selected to the Chairman of the Tata Group after Ratan Tata
• Supreme Court grants bail to 5 corporate executives in the 2G case
• Yemen's president Saleh agrees to step down; signs power transfer deal
• Protests continue in Egypt even after army promises to speed up the transition of power

NATIONAL NEWS

• Revised draft of Food Security Bill gives primacy to cash transfers, coupons
  • The Govt's new move to give primacy to the revised bill which focuses on controversial schemes like cash transfers and issuance of food coupons to identified public distribution system beneficiaries in lieu of foodgrain entitles is not favoured by social activists;
  • The revised act calls for leveraging the aadhaar unique identification with biometric information of the beneficiaries for proper targeting of benefits linked to the reforms in the targeted Public Distribution System.
• India, UAE step up security cooperation
  • Increasing cooperation in security-related matters, India and UAE signed two key agreements on security cooperation and the transfer of sentenced persons.
• Contracts with Russia, France, Ukraine to upgrade IAF fleet
  • Contracts have been signed with RAC MiG Russia for upgrading the MiG-29 aircraft, with Spets Techno Export from Ukraine for upgrading the An-32 aircraft and with Thales of France along with HAL to upgrade the Mirage-2000.
• India pips China to be on UN oversight body
  • India won an election of the UN beating the Chinese candidate for the United Nations oversight post reserved for Asia. India got 106 votes out of 183. India last managed to serve a term for this post only in 1968-77.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial on the economic crisis in Spain
• Read this article on the influence of Qatar in the middle-east
• Read this article and this article on the OPERA project which is experimenting on neutrinos traveling faster than light

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Parliament to consider the cabinet note on FDI in the retail sector today