-The Hindu Business Line Registration committee favours review of each pesticide in 10-year intervals New Delhi: The Anupam Verma Committee, set up to review the continued use of 66 pesticides that have been barred/restricted for use in farming in other countries, has recommended a ban on 13 ‘extremely hazardous’ pesticides, phasing out of six ‘moderately hazardous’ ones by 2020, and review of 27 pesticides in 2018. The six pesticides suggested for phasing out...

-The Indian Express Jaitley says UPA govt left scheme in ‘pitiable’ state, Manmohan says Modi govt killed its ‘soul and spirit’ The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) completed 10 years on Tuesday, sparking a political slugfest as both the Congress and the BJP rushed to take credit for its “success”. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Narendra Modi government had given the scheme, allegedly in a “pitiable” state...

-The Times of India Unnao, a district in Uttar Pradesh, rarely hits headlines except when its rabble-rousing MP Sakshi Maharaj says something. Now, though, it is making news for all the right reasons, and aren't the women in the region tickled pink about it. From the district magistrate to the superintendent of police, the chief development officer to the chief medical officer, from the zila panchayat president to the sub-divisional magistrate,...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar (Odisha): The Centre-sponsored Jan Aushadhi scheme is suffering from shortage of medicines and reluctance of doctors to prescribe drugs by their generic names. The scheme, which is being run by the Odisha branch of the Indian Red Cross Society in 22 districts of the state, was launched to sell quality generic medicines at subsidised prices. Though the city has two Jan Aushadhi stores, chances are that you will have to...

-TheWire.in Maneka Gandhi should lay off the law banning sex determination tests Maneka Gandhi, a senior minister in the Narendra Modi government has shown how completely at sea she is from her remit for women and child development by suggesting that the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act be abolished and that all pregnant women be subjected to a sex determination test on their foetus, the results of which would be...