-The Indian Express Researcher Meenal Rege has returned a cheque for Rs 1,000 to the office of the Pune bench of State Information Commission (SIC). This is the second time she is doing so. Rege says the cheque, sent to her by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) as a compensation on the SIC's order after she was denied information under the Right to Information Act, 2005, had "added insult to my...

-PTI   Approximately 68 million Indians are living in slums, according to a government census. Releasing the first such census report on slum households prepared by the Registrar General of India, Union Housing and urban poverty alleviation minister Ajay Maken today said that majority of them were located in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Presenting the highlights of the report, Census Commissioner C Chandramouli said,...

-The Economic Times The government plans to significantly liberalise foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for single-brand retail to attract big bucks into the sector. The finance ministry has asked the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to amend the policy to allow single-brand retailers to bring different brands belonging to the same product line under one company. It has also asked DIPP - the government department that frames foreign investment rules...

-PTI Colombo rejects U.S.-backed resolution, says it is "replete with misrepresentations" on the current situation; 25 countries vote in favour, while 13 nations including Pakistan vote against India was among the 24 countries which backed a U.S.-sponsored resolution on Thursday at the U.N. Human Rights Council against Sri Lanka asking it to conduct an "independent and credible" probe into allegations of human rights violations, an issue on which the DMK pulled out...

-The Times of India Sparrows have become so rare in the capital that it seems not even Delhi's environment department can identify it correctly. The department's ad campaign on the occasion of World Sparrow Day on Wednesday carried a picture of the Eurasian tree sparrow, which is neither found in Delhi nor in most parts of India, mistaking it for the house sparrow. It was an ironic reflection of the plight of...