-The Hindu Chronic corruption and lack of affordable access to treatments for serious diseases in the public health system stand exposed in the kidney commerce scandal in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district. Nothing can be a greater irony than the existence of such thriving sale of organs in a State that also has perhaps the best-run programme for donation of kidneys, livers, hearts and lungs by deceased donors. It is no small...

-The Times of India Of the five million odd graduates that India produces annually, only a little over half are employable in any sector of the knowledge economy. Inadequate English and computer skills are key factors holding back students, especially those from smaller towns. The National Employability Report by Aspiring Minds, an employability solutions company, revealed this, based on the computer adaptive test on 60,000 Indian graduates. The students were tested communication...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today observed that even if there was a grain of truth in the charges that Ranbaxy was supplying adulterated drugs, it was a "very, very serious matter" but refrained from issuing any orders till it received "prima facie material". The court said that drug-testing standards in the US were different from those in India, and what was happening in America might not necessarily be happening...

-PTI MUMBAI: Severely hit by drought since the past few years, the Maharashtra government has outlined a Rs 60,000 crore programme which includes creating decentralised water storage to make the state drought free in three years. "Maharashtra is reeling under severe drought crisis. We have outlined an investment of Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years to ensure that Maharashtra is drought free," Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said at the 177th...

-The Hindu Madurai: Fast urbanisation, unmindful quarrying, real estate boom, fragmentation of land and agriculture becoming highly unreliable are some of the major reasons cited that have led to the reduction in area under cultivation in Madurai district. According to statistics available with the district administration, the net area cultivated in the district which was 1.48 lakh hectares in 2000-01 had come down to 1.36 lakh hectares in 2010-11. However, the number...