-The Hindu All India Confederation of SC, ST Organisations, State unit, is organising a national seminar here on June 17 to discuss implementation of reservations for Dalits in private sector and higher judiciary. The seminar would also review recent Supreme Court's judgement against reservations in promotions. The meeting would be presided over by Udit Raj, who had earlier rallied SCs, STs across the country at Ramlila Grounds in New Delhi when the...

Health activists from across the country have asked the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry to take immediate cognisance of the recent report of the Department Related Standing Committee that has criticised the functioning of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for irregular approvals for clinical trials and sale of medicines to pharmaceutical companies that put patients at risk. In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the activists asked the...

-The Times of India Government on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that the home ministry had noted an instance where a foreigner was found to be extending his support to the CPI (Maoist) and its front organizations. It, however, added that there is "no direct evidence" to suggest that foreigners are engaged in an organized way to help the Maoists.  Referring to the instance, MoS for home affairs Jitendra Singh told the...

-The Times of India The government has maintained that NCERT is an autonomous body. Well, if the insistence is correct, the cartoons which triggered a political storm should stay in the textbooks.  A month before the row over the cartoons erupted, leading to the decision to banish them, NCERT had defended their use in textbooks, even telling the National Commission for SCs that there was nothing offensive about the B R Ambedkar...

-The Hindu Costing Rs.37, 000 with DRDA grant of Rs.9, 000 The first ‘zero waste toilet system' (ZWTS) in the country was inaugurated at Evoor village near Musiri on Thursday by Collector Jayashree Muralidharan. This is an integrated urine diversion biogas linked flush toilet system and has five modules-a flush out toilet, a bathroom, a urine diversion bowl, a cultivated wetland for treating bathroom water, and a biogas plant. The Collector said that the...