-The Telegraph The Centre today asked a panel of doctors to outline measures to improve drug approval procedures, three days after a parliamentary standing committee said India’s drug regulators had broken laws, ignoring the interests of patients. The panel announced by the Union health ministry has been asked to suggest steps to improve the procedural aspects of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO), the agency entrusted with approving medicines for sale...

The Government of India has formally launched the news Guidelines of the MGNAREGA based on the Mihir Shah Committee report. The news guidelines include many new works under conservation activities and it strengthens the hands of the village panchayats and gram sabhas. However, the list of works does not include the activities under the system of rice intensification (SRI) which encourages scientific method of paddy cultivation with better yield in...

-The Times of India As part of its mandatory obligation under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the government has invited expression of interest (EoI) from registered Indian law institutions\firms, academic or research organizations to undertake the self-evaluation study. Selected agency will be required to complete its works - assessment of compliance of domestic laws\measures vis-a-vis requirements under UNCAC provisions - within 36 weeks. India had ratified the global convention to...

A Delhi court has ordered a first information report (FIR) and criminal investigations into allegations that the agriculture ministry had allegedly paid trumped-up bills worth nearly Rs. 14 lakh as legal fees to its standing counsel. The court said there was evidence to suggest a nexus between the counsel and ministry officials to cause loss to “public exchequer” through “fraud” and “misappropriation of funds”. The complaint, moved by the All India Federation...

-The Economic Times Grain stocks with state agencies are likely to cross 75 million tonnes some time in June 2012, while covered capacity to store is less than 50 million tonnes. The rest would be under CAP (with pucca or even kachcha plinths) exposed to potential large-scale damage. An early and rational policy decision is required to reduce the stocks by at least 7-10 million tonnes to avoid high costs of...