-The Telegraph New Delhi: Successive Indian governments have ignored repeated alerts and done little to introduce laws to curb practices that could explain how lead could slip into noodles and other raw and processed food, analysts say. India introduced unleaded petrol in March 2000 but the governments since then have not moved enough to impose mandatory limits for lead in paints which remain a key source of environmental lead pollution in the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: If a police officer in your area doesn't work efficiently and has an offensive attitude, it is because he is overworked, a new study has said. The study, 'National Requirement of Manpower for 8-hour Shift in Police Stations', carried out by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) and Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) has found that 90% of police officers work for more than...

-The Hindu The State’s recent experience shows that even the worst-governed States can reform their public distribution system and make good use of the National Food Security Act. “In Lalu’s days we had a lal card [BPL card], with Nitish we got coupons, and when Manjhi came we got this new ration card”. This is how Anuj Paswan, a Dalit resident of Tetar village in Gaya district, sees recent changes in Bihar’s...

-Livemint.com Increase in calorie consumption in rural and urban areas has surprised sceptics who doubted the sharpest fall in poverty seen in the last decade since the 1980s A long-standing puzzle in the Indian context has been the steady decline in calorie intake over the years despite economic progress. Many have argued that the decline in calorie consumption as seen from the surveys of national sample survey Office (NSSO) is evidence...

-The Indian Express With the country’s ace survey body unsure, the matter has been in a limbo for a year now. New Delhi: The government’s efforts for a nationwide assessment of drug abuse has hit an unexpected hurdle. The country’s largest survey body, the national sample survey Organisation, has said it cannot carry out the job as it does not have the required expertise. NSSO has, however, said at internal meetings...