-The Telegraph New Delhi: Many doctors across India have been offered prepaid cash cards as gifts by drug industry representatives over the past three years to try and influence prescriptions for patients, pharmaceuticals sales executives have said. While drug companies have long used largesse as "brand reminders" for doctors, a prepaid cash card leaked by an industry Whistleblower appears to be the first evidence to suggest doctors are also being offered cash...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: There was one aspect of the Lokpal bill Rahul Gandhi felt strongly about but finally decided to let go for now: Stronger accountability checks for members of the anti-corruption ombudsman. Having prodded his party to belatedly adopt the Lokpal bill, the Congress vice-president felt recent controversies involving the judiciary did raise questions about stricter standards that require closer attention. But tinkering with the Lokpal bill, already screened...

-The Hindustan Times Greater Noida: An RTI activist was abducted from Dankaur town in Gautam Budh Nagar district on December 13, burnt with cigarette butts on his private parts and beaten with iron rods before being dumped near a petrol pump in a neighbouring district four days later. A medical report of the Dankaur government hospital notes Anoop Singh, 29, has 40 burn injuries all over his body, including on his face,...

-The Hindu The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) has sought the simultaneous passage of the Lokpal Bill, the Grievance Redress Bill and the Whistleblower Protection Bill, contending that these laws formed a basket of inter-linked measures that constituted the much required accountability regime. Addressing a press conference, the NCPRI's Nikhil Dey, Anjali Bharadwaj and Shekhar Singh said that though the Lokpal Bill was not entirely to their satisfaction and...

-Outlook New York: Founder of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal is among Foreign Policy magazine's leading Global Thinkers of 2013, a list of 100 people who have made "measurable difference" and are "pushing the boundaries of the possible". Activists Urvashi Butalia and Kavita Krishnan have also made it to the list that has been topped by US intelligence Whistleblower Edward Snowden. Kejriwal, 45, who figures on the 32nd spot, is a...