-The Telegraph New Delhi: Pollution may be at alarming levels in Delhi but the state transport department does not have annual data on the number of "Pollution Under Control " CERTificates issued by it, the Central Information Commission has lamented. The CIC has pulled up department officials for "sheer indifference" and directed them "to compile and publish" the numbers of PUC CERTificates after verifying that the vehicles meet emission norms. An RTI applicant,...

-The Hindu The Chief Statistician of India on the economy, the meaning of the new series of GDP data, and the need to wait for the impact of demonetisation to unfold T.C.A. Anant is the Chief Statistician of India, and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. He has been in charge of several notable changes in the way economic data has been recently presented, including the new GDP and Gross Value...

-Livemint.com SIT probe report on deaths of 40 farmers in Vidarbha during July-September will be made public during Maharashtra assembly’s winter session starting on 11 December Mumbai: The report of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Maharashtra government to investigate the deaths of cotton farmers and farm workers in Vidarbha during July-September will be made public only during the upcoming wintersession of the state legislature beginning 11 December in Nagpur,...

-The Indian Express Government is prioritising savings over MGNREGA and rights of the poor. Rambeti from Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, graphically described the predicament of MGNREGA workers like her in a recent press conference in Delhi. “The government repeatedly states that it will not let us die of starvation. But the truth is, it does not allow us to live either.” That is a terrible evaluation of MGNREGA — a landmark legislation enacted...

-The Hindu Senior citizens seek exception from registering biometrics in banks Chennai: Many senior citizens visiting banks for providing life CERTificate for pension and linking their Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts have been put to a lot of hardship. They complained that there was no common rule for banks and each of them was following whatever pattern their head offices had decided. Pensioners Herbert Clay, 69, and his wife Annie Clay, 63, had...