-The Times of India   The public health department has sought chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's intervention to introduce stringent clauses against medicos who complete their education from state-run or civic hospitals but refuse to serve the mandatory one-year rural stint.  According to an official, the government was considering not issuing medical registration certificates--which is mandatory for higher studies, pursuing job in any hospital or even for starting a dispensary of their own-to students...

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes is upset that two important bills that would affect tribals have got the cabinet’s nod without incorporating suggestions given by the panel. “The ministries of mines and rural development failed to consult the NCST as mandated by the Constitution,” commission chairman Rameshwar Oraon told The Telegraph on Wednesday. Secretaries of both ministries had met Oraon, but what the NCST chief meant was the final drafts of...

Admitting that the growth of Naxalism was as much because of failure of the Union Government as for a variety of other reasons, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has underlined the need for a renewed sense of urgency to address problems afflicting the masses through a stratagem hinged on synergy of security forces and implementing agencies. Delivering the annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture here on “Tirupati to Pashupati: Some reflections...

The media imagery of a “liberated” Red corridor extending from Andhra Pradesh, cutting across the heart of India, all the way to Nepal is the most vivid representation of the threat that Maoists pose to our country. The Prime Minister describes the Maoists as India's most serious internal security challenge and the Home Minister rates it as a “problem graver than terrorism.” In search of an effective response, official committees have,...

-The Telegraph   Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today opposed sharing of certain “privileged” and “secret” matters under the right to information (RTI) law, echoing cabinet colleagues Salman Khurshid and M. Veerappa Moily. “Ministers write to the Prime Minister on a variety of issues. There has to be a concept of secrecy in government,” Ramesh said. According to Ramesh, communications leading to a cabinet decision or a policy decision of the government should be...