-The Hindu Common Cause, the NGO whose PIL plea led to the cancellation of coal block allocations, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday accusing Aditya Birla group of hawala transactions, money laundering and bribery and sought a CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe. The application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan for the NGO cited how coal extracted from a captive block allocated to the Sasan ultra mega power project was allowed to be...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Leprosy may have disappeared from the state's health mandate, but there is compelling evidence that the infection is returning to the community. Though officially eliminated from the state ten years ago, last year leprosy infected over 16,400 people, 13% of them children. Also, the state accounted for 13% of the country's new leprosy cases. Statistics also reveal that 57% of the newly detected cases were multibacillary leprosy-an...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A panel appointed by the Supreme Court has suggested that government advertisements stay politically neutral and avoid glorification of political personalities, positive portrayals of the ruling party or negative projections of the Opposition. It has said that governments should cut down on ads particularly before and during elections, and must not be seen as using ads to patronise media houses to secure favourable coverage. The court asked the Centre...

-The Hindu The absence of state accountability is at the core of issues facing tribal communities The Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India, under the chairmanship of sociologist Virginius Xaxa, was circulated last week. The 431-page report details the situation of tribal communities: Scheduled Tribes, de-notified tribes and particularly vulnerable tribal communities. Taking on board the findings and demands of social...

-The Hindu Silicosis deaths in Rajasthan mines leave behind a trail of young widows The Karauli-Dholpur-Bharatpur mining belt in eastern Rajasthan, which produces the country's best quality red sandstone, also has the largest number of young widows, most of them below 40 years. The older ones were widowed some decades ago, and worse, young girls almost see their future unfold before them. The common link: they were married to miners who died of...