-The United Nations While commending India's generally high level of commitment to human rights, a United Nations expert today urged the Government to continue to fight impunity for extrajudicial executions, and communal and traditional killings. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, said he recognized the size, complexity, security concerns and diversity of India – however, he remains concerned that the challenges with respect to the protection...

-IANS The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government will soon move the Central Government to increase Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) wages to Rs.200 from Rs.136. Unhappy with the Central Government hiking the wage for the 100-day rural job guarantee programme from Rs.130 to Rs.136 in the state, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress is planning to take up the issue with New Delhi. "We will soon demand that the Central Government...

-The Times of India   Health services in the state are likely to get a new fillip with 388 regular doctors being appointed and posted in rural parts of the state. Appointment letters were handed over to the doctors by chief minister Arjun Munda at a function organized by state health department and Jharkhand Rural Health Mission (JRHMS) at the Reproductive and Child Health Centre, Namkum on Thursday. Handing over the appointment letters...

A Supreme Court-appointed panel on illegal mining has recommended an investigation into alleged kickbacks paid to companies linked to the family of former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa. The Central Empowered Committee wrote in a report on Wednesday that payments of 6 crore by a mine owner to two companies controlled by the close kin of the former chief minister must be "investigated in public interest". The Supreme Court's forest bench will...

Under fire over data integrity issues, the government has tasked a panel to revise the wholesale price index (WPI) with the mandate to "enhance the reliability" of official statistics on all inflation measures.  The 31-member panel, to be headed by Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri, has also been asked to explore the possibility of getting a single agency to collect data for compiling WPI and industrial production that are hitherto dealt...