-The Hindustan Times A cartoon on BR Ambedkar in a government schoolbook rocked Parliament on Friday, forcing HRD minister Kapil Sibal to apologise to the nation and order the removal of the “objectionable” caricature. The row over the cartoon — more than 60 years old — sidetracked the ongoing controversy over  the Aircel-Maxis deal, which the BJP and other Opposition parties have been using to target home minister P Chidambaram. Instead, members cutting across...

-The Telegraph The Centre today asked a panel of doctors to outline measures to improve drug approval procedures, three days after a parliamentary standing committee said India’s drug regulators had broken laws, ignoring the interests of patients. The panel announced by the Union health ministry has been asked to suggest steps to improve the procedural aspects of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO), the agency entrusted with approving medicines for sale...

Having watched from the ringside for many years now, I have no doubt in advising that the steering wheel must be firmly grasped by the government and direction given to policies that should be stable for at least the medium term. This is crucial for the growth of Indian pharma, a $20-billion industry growing at an average of 12% considering both domestic and export arenas. Price control: The biggest and most...

The same full page appeared twice in three years, the first time as news, the second time as an advertisement “Not a single person from the two villages has committed suicide.” Three and a half years ago, at a time when the controversy over the use of genetically modified seeds was raging across India, a newspaper story painted a heartening picture of the technology's success. “There are no suicides here and people...

Differently-abled children can join any school Parliament passed the Right of Children to Free and compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2012, with the Lok Sabha passing the measure on Wednesday, thereby providing for an integrated education process which would allow differently-abled children in the age group 6-14 the right of admission to any school. Replying to a discussion on the Bill, which the Rajya Sabha had passed earlier, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil...