-CNN-IBN The Narendra Modi government's austerity polices have taken a hit after an RTI report claimed that many BJP MPs enjoyed their overstay at five-star hotels on tax-payers' money. The RTI report showed that till November 15,2014, 92 MPs, since their election, several of them from the BJP, have been living at the Ashoka Hotel in Delhi, in spite of being allotted the government accommodation, said an IBN Live report. The report further...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Indian immigration today stopped a Greenpeace activist from flying to Britain where she intended to tell parliamentarians that a London-registered company's coalmining activities in India were infringing on forest communities' rights. The environmental organisation said its senior campaigner Priya Pillai, who had a valid business visa to visit Britain, was stopped at Delhi airport and denied permission to board her London flight. Her passport was stamped "offloaded". Pillai had...

-AP American scientist Joshua Apte travels in an autorickshaw to present alarming findings for anyone who spends time on or near the roads in this city of 25 million. The autorickshaw lurched through New Delhi's commuter-clogged streets with an American scientist and several air pollution monitors in the back seat. Car horns blared. A scrappy scooter buzzed by belching black smoke from its tailpipe. One of the monitors spiked. Joshua Apte has alarming...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Air quality in the city is deteriorating every day as agricultural waste burning continues unabated in Punjab and Haryana. Doctors, too, are seeing a jump in cases of acute bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and asthma. They are advising those who are vulnerable or already suffering from respiratory disorders to avoid going out during peak traffic hours, keeping inhalers handy and, if smog is...

-The Hindu The failure of Narendra Modi's infrastructure plan reflects the larger failure of the Indian imagination, a mindless enumeration of ideas that have little or no bearing on Indian reality. When much of what is built is a half-baked imitation of disparate items tried and tested elsewhere, it becomes hard to fault Mr. Modi. If the recent image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi swinging on the jhula with Chinese President Xi...