-The Hindu Business Line   Tells US, others there must be progress in agriculture, industrial goods and services pacts   NEW DELHI: India has said that negotiations on tightening fishery subsidies at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) pushed by the European Union, New Zealand and Chile should take place only after there is substantial progress in the areas of agriculture, industrial goods and services.   Warning against ‘cherry-picking' of issues, the Centre said that the proposal...

-The Business Standard   A seven-point agenda to fix India's public services, and overcome poorly designed systems India's Achilles Heel remains its inability to deliver public services. India's aspiration to be a global economic power will be unrealised if this remains unsolved. Why is this problem so particularly acute? Is it political interference and corruption, poorly designed programmes and weak administration? Or a much deeper cultural problem of aversion to collective action, often...

-The Indian Express   According to the I&B ministry, DD and AIR were paid Rs 45.67 crore for advertisements and advertorials run under the campaign.   As a last push to help the UPA wade through the elections, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting employed the entire media machinery at its disposal, including Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), to tom-tom the government's welfare and development initiatives.   Besides paying for direct advertising spots and...

-Outlook   Fear of torture in custody is widely prevalent among people across the world though respondents in many countries, including India, felt that the practice can sometimes be justified, a survey by Amnesty International (AI) has found. A new global survey by the human rights watchdog covering more than 21,000 people in 21 countries reveals that the fear of custodial torture spans all continents, AI said in a release today. According to AI,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Days before the new government will take the charge at Centre, a high-level task force, headed by the planning commission member K Kasturirangan, has submitted its report highlighting the ways and means to convert municipal waste into energy and pitched for involving private players in a big way for achieving the goal of sustainable waste management in the country. The report - Waste to Energy -...