-The Times of India NEW DELHI: National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) has put out a detailed analysis on the Kejriwal government's Delhi Janlokpal Bill 2015. Pointing out that as per the draft the Janlokpal is not independent of the government, the report also questions the silence over how expenses will be met. NCPRI, which has been continuously questioning the government's decision to bring the bill without any public consultations,...

-Economic and Political Weekly The importance of hand-washing in personal and public hygiene has evolved over the centuries. While the market with its countless number of soaps and hand-wash products for personal hygiene with the accompanying advertising has created a false sense of security, it is community hygiene implemented through public health measures that is really effective in the battle against disease. Lekha D Bhat (lekhabhatd@gmail.com) teaches at the Department of Social...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Anti-cracker campaigns by the central and Delhi governments appeared to have made no significant impact as the capital celebrated another dirty Diwali, with fireworks well into the night, leaving the city's air choked with alarmingly high levels of pollution. Real time data showed levels of coarse pollution particles (PM 10) peak up to 19 times the national safe standard for 24 hours and levels of fine,...

-Down to Earth From providing agricultural information for specific countries to identifying trends in the sector, censuses serve a variety of purpose In the backdrop of a round of country-driven agricultural censuses which will begin in 2016 to gather information and statistics on the global agriculture sector, senior FAO statiscian Jairo Castano discusses with Down To Earth the importance of the exercise. * How helpful are agricultural censuses in gathering information and statistics...

-The Hindu Denies PMO's comments saying the report was the personal opinion of an employee Moody’s Analytics has denied that its report expressing concern over what it called the belligerent provocation of various Indian minorities and warning Prime Minister Narendra Modi that unless he steps in to rein in the members of the BJP, India runs the risk of losing domestic and global credibility, was the personal opinion of an analyst...