-The Times of India New delhi: In what could be an alarming fallout of air pollution, top cancer doctors say they have noted a significant rise in lung cancer among non-smokers in recent years. Roughly one in every five persons diagnosed with the disease does not smoke, they said. "Till about a decade ago, less than 10% of all lung cancer patients were non-smokers. This percentage has now gone up to around...

-TheWire.in The minister suggested making prenatal sex determination mandatory for all pregnancies to avoid sex selective abortions. Doctors and women’s rights activists on what this will mean in practice. New delhi: How do we improve the low status of girl children in India, or even ensure their existence and survival once the technologies that enable sex-selective abortion are widespread? On Monday, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi presented a...

-The Telegraph New delhi: Doctors have expressed surprise at Union minister Maneka Gandhi's idea of mandatory prenatal sex disclosure with some medics warning that such a move could lead to a steep increase in the abortions of female foetuses and legitimise a criminal practice. They say the idea to reveal the sex of an unborn foetus to every woman presumably to track any attempt to selectively abort female foetuses would provide couples...

-The Hindu Business Line 10 years on, MGNREGA to get more funds   New delhi: Barely three weeks ahead of Budget 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley indicated that the government could increase budgetary allocations for rural and social schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The allocation may be even higher than the ₹35,000 crore allocated in 2015-16. “One engine to grow further, despite the global slowdown that has also impacted our exports, can...

-The Telegraph New delhi: The Supreme Court has said that if states play vote-bank politics by obstructing central projects, such tactics will amount to a "breakdown of constitutional machinery". The court made the observation today while coming down heavily on the Jayalalithaa government for stalling a central gas pipeline project by citing farmers' interests. "We are not against farmers. But you can't prevent the project which is in national interest. If you (the...