-The Times of India The Centre will stop direct transfer of funds to districts or societies operating in states, and will instead provide the money to the state exchequer, having concluded that the existing system was the reason for multi-crore scams like the one in the National Rural Health Mission. The new system to put funds in the consolidated fund of states is apparently aimed at putting central funds under the scanner...

-The Hindu Over 1,00,000 children, below the age of 11 months, die of diarrhoea annually in India which is the second leading killer of young children globally, after pneumonia. India accounts for the highest number of diarrhoeal deaths, a latest study has suggested. A new international study published in the latest edition of the British medical journal The Lancetprovides the clearest picture yet of the impact and most common causes of diarrhoeal...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: An investigation by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) into allegations of money laundering by private banks has found large-scale violations ranging from huge cash deposits without PAN to dummy numbers. The probe report, a copy of which is available with TOI, shows that three private players - HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank - had also hugely suppressed alerts generated by their system on...

-The Economic Times Three weeks ago, when the Supreme Court reopened the iron-ore mining door some more in Karnataka, miners in Orissa breathed a Rs 50,000 crore sigh of relief. Also in the dock for some offences of a similar nature, Orissa's iron-ore miners, who produce a third of this mineral that is critical to steel, had been dreading their fate, which lay in the hands of a Central government panel. The...

-The United Nations     While insects can be slimy, cringe-inducing creatures, often squashed on sight by humans, a new book released today by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says beetles, wasps and caterpillars are also an unexplored nutrition source that can help address global food insecurity. The book, Edible Insects: future prospects for food and feed security, stresses not just the nutritional value of insects, but also the benefits that insect farming...