-The Times of India   The CBI will take into consideration the CAG report on National rural Health Mission fund implementation in Uttar Pradesh, which has pegged the irregularities to be around Rs 5,000 crore, and is likely to register some more preliminary enquiries (PEs). Agency sources said detailed analysis by the country's auditor will be helpful in ascertaining further losses to the exchequer.  Based on the observations by Comptroller and Auditor General,...

-The Indian Express   A key accused in Uttar Pradesh's National rural Health Mission scam has shot himself dead on Monday morning, according to police sources. Project manager Sunil Verma's role was being probed in the mismanagement of thousands of crores of central funds to be spent in the state health sector. On Friday, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had found anomalies in the spending of around Rs 5,000 crore under the scheme...

-CNN-IBN The Centre on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Karnataka High Court order on minimum wages in National rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The Centre told the Supreme Court that if the Karnataka High Court judgment is not set aside it will impose a burden of Rs 7,500 crore on the Government and cites lack of fund. The Karnataka government has fixed a minimum wage of Rs 145...

-PTI   The government has decided to give its skill development initiative a "major push" during the 12th Plan Period and set up sector skill councils to prepare standards required for training programmes. The National Skill Development Council (NSDC) which met here yesterday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also tasked S Ramadorai, adviser to the Prime Minister, to prepare a detailed proposal for mainstreaming the skill agenda in the next...

The smart card versus unique identity number battle between P. Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia will hit the ground tomorrow at Porthapur village in Andaman and Nicobar Islands when the home minister hands out the first tranche of 2.56 lakh resident identity cards. The resident cards are a rival to the unique identity number conceived by the Planning Commission to establish authentic identification for each resident and cut out corruption in...