At a talk with the media while she was in Vadodara to participate in a forum organised by the Women's Studies Research Centre of M S University, actress/film maker Nandita Das compared Gujarat CM Narendra Modi with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. She put a positive spin on the comparison.

She recalled that Germany's autobahns were constructed during Hitler's regime, and are still considered the best city link roads in Europe. He was a music lover, a vegetarian and non-alcoholic, qualities he is not remembered for.

Das said that riots apart, Modi has been a good administrator who brought considerable economic growth and development to the state. She referred to Gujarat as progressive enterprising state whose infrastructure is better than several other states.

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Bharathi 25, preaches to a congregation of 45 parishioners, including 14 families. She is India's first transgender pastor at the Evangelical Church of India (ECI) in Chengalpattu, Chennai.

The move by the ECI to permit transgenders to be pastors, coincides with evangelical denominations in other countries such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America who also permits transgender pastors.

Bharathi was raised as a boy and was shunned, taunted and traumatised at school. Pastor Bharathi says social acceptance was once just a dream for her and still is for thousands of transgenders across India. The church soon became Bharathi's home and she embraced Christianity at age 12.

She has formed a team to work with her among transgenders in Chengalpattu, to bring them into the church and help them stay out of trouble. Her parents are now proud of her achievements.

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Cricketer Yuvraj Singh 30, has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy in the Cancer Research Institute in Boston, USA.

Singh has been in the US since January and is being treated for what was earlier thought by his family to be a tumour in the lungs, as a result of a delayed wrong diagnosis by an Indian hospital. It has now been diagnosed as malignant.

His physiotherapist Dr Jatin Chaudhary says the condition is curable and batsman Yuvraj will be fit to resume his cricket in May, even though the tumour is cancerous, but it was detected in stage one, and is not life threatening and responds well to chemotherapy.

Yuvraj was Player of the Tournament in the World Cup last year and was awarded four Man-of-the-Match awards.

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Speaking to chief secretaries from state governments at a conference in Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government has moved forward substantially in tackling corruption, but it has a long way to go.

PM Singh also said he is confident a strong anti-corruption bill will still pass in parliament even though it unfortunately failed in the upper house in December. The bill proposes setting up an independent ombudsman, or Lokpal.

The government has been dogged by several corruption scandals and a recent survey said corruption has cost billions of dollars and threatens to derail growth.

Speaking on growth in the country, PM Singh said the reduced projection of 7-7.5% is due to the continuing uncertainty in the global economy and the need for monetary tightening to curb inflation.

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To the amusement of some in the corridors of power, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to install CCTV cameras in the ministers' chambers in Kolkata.

Officials say there have been frequent thefts in the administrative headquarters and the decision was taken at the top level in order to increase security at the premises. Others say this is probably a 24X7 watch on the ministers.

This will be the first time there will be cameras inside the ministers' chambers.

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