-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the ministries of social justice and health and family welfare to respond to a plea to set up homes for senior citizens across the country because "over-ambitious" children were increasingly neglecting their aged parents. Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit, however, refrained from issuing notices to the Centre, states and Union territories on three other pleas: a national commission for senior citizens,...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The stage is all set for the resumption of iron ore mining in Goa after it was suspended in the state in 2012, to curb its indiscriminate and illegal mining. The Goa government's decision to renew the mining leases comes at a time when the economics of iron ore mining have changed and environmental concerns have gained more prominence. Pamela D'Mello (dmello.pamela@gmail.com) is a Goa-based journalist. The state government...

-The Hindu Vijayapura (Karnataka): The desire of the people of North Karnataka to have Jowar under Public Distribution System (PDS) is not going to be met this year too owing to acute shortage of Jowar in the market. "In all likelihood, the people of NK will not get their staple diet in their monthly ration because of the unavailability of adequate quantity of Jowar for procurement", said Dinesh Gundurao, the Minister for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The European Union has directed its diplomats in Delhi to install air purifiers at home and office to reduce exposure to high air pollution levels. Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to India Joao Cravinho said EU would not monitor air pollution levels in Delhi as the US embassy in Chanakyapuri is already doing so but hoped India would implement tougher policies to...

Quite opposite to the top-down model of budgeting, the newly elected Aam Aadmi Party-led Government in Delhi has decided to go for a 'citizen-centric' budget planning at 'mohalla'-level for the fiscal year 2015-16. Drawing lessons from the success stories of participatory budgeting conducted at municipal-level in cities like Porto Alegre (Brazil), the AAP-led Delhi Government has decided to launch this form of decentralized budgeting on a pilot basis in a...