-The Economic Times A year after the Centre shelved a move of introducing norms, including a 250-word limit on RTI applications, it has resurrected the proposal. The file pertaining to draft RTI rules has been sent to Prime Minister's Office, putting the proposal back on the agenda of UPA-II. The Centre had in November, 2010, sought to introduce amendment to RTI rules for filing applications. The rules framed by the Department...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Where will the nuclear waste from the Kudankulam nuclear power plant be kept and what are the Centre's plans to process the spent fuel to ensure that it does not damage the environment? This is what the Madras high court, hearing a batch of public interest petitions on the nuclear plant, wants to know from the Centre. But in the absence of the additional solicitor-general (ASG) of...

-The Economic Times The positive impact on agricultural wages and distress migration from rural areas not withstanding, the government's flagship rural employment scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, leaves a lot to be desired for. This is evident from the rural development ministry's compendium of more than 100 major research papers on the programme, MGNREGA Sameeksha. The slim 120-odd page volume, which is to be released by the Prime Minister...

-The Hindu The debate over the cartoons used in NCERT textbooks as aids to learning have thrown up a range of issues. The discussion has crystallised around a set of oppositions: motivated political correctness of our elected representatives vs. the necessity of preemptory parliamentary intervention on educational material appropriate for schools; institutional autonomy vs. political responsibility of a state presiding over a diverse and fraught society; the hubris of ‘experts’ vs....

Tuberculosis re-emerges as a major threat as new drug-resistant strains develop because of mismanagement of the disease. At the beginning of the year, doctors at Mumbai’s P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre reported that they had 12 patients infected with TDR-TB, or totally drug-resistant tuberculosis, a condition in which the TB bacilli is resistant to all first- and second-line drugs used in the conventional treatment of the disease. Panic...