-The Hindu Business Line   Activists cry foul over ‘dilution' of the scheme New Delhi: On the ninth anniversary of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Government and civil society organisations locked horns over the scheme's "alleged" dilution. At a press meet, activists complained of a "systematic effort" on the Finance Ministry's part to "finish" the scheme step by step. They alleged that the Centre, citing that...

-The Hindu No qualified candidates to contest; seven posts fall vacant Jaipur: The impact of the amended Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 to include minimum educational qualification as an eligibility criteria for contesting the Panchayat elections, is now becoming visible with reports of posts going vacant pouring in from across the State. Worse, the Sikar police have arrested a gang of people who have reportedly sold fake marks sheets and Transfer Certificates to...

-The Hindu The inequities in infrastructure could not be starker. While several schools continue to deny the most basic sanitation facilities for poorer children, a select band of them dangle air-conditioned classrooms and dormitories and other accessories before the more affluent ones. Repeated knuckle-rapping by the Supreme Court over the years has evidently had little effect on State administrations, as the case of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana illustrates. In October...

-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: A fresh bout of opposition has been filed against Gilead's patent application on hepatitis c drug sofosbuvir. This comes close on the heels of a spate of developments involving the drug, last month. Non-government organisation Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust, represented by the Lawyers Collective has filed a pre-grant opposition on the drug in the Delhi patent office. (A pre-grant opposition allows interested parties to oppose a patent application...

-The Hindu The Shanta Kumar Committee's recommendations to unbundle the Food Corporation of India are in tune with U.S.-led demands raised in the World Trade Organization The Shanta Kumar Committee report, released last week, on a range of issues relating to procurement, storage and distribution of food grains is not only deeply flawed in its reading of the situation on food security, but also short on facts. It was prepared under the...