-PTI Soaring inflation, high fuel cost, rising cost of education and health insurance premiums have eroded the real incomes of middle-class Indian families, with household savings rates dropping by a staggering 40 per cent in the last three years, says an Assocham survey. "Poor households are unable to maintain the consumption levels at current prices while middle income families find their purchasing power erode fast, thus having far less surplus money," Assocham...

-The Hindu India needs an early agreement, and also adequate atmospheric "space" in terms of allowed carbon emissions to pursue its development goals. It needs to take a proactive stance on this By all accounts, no dramatic developments are to be expected from the 19th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that started in Warsaw last week. But it is generally...

-DNA An allocation of Rs 17,700 crore in the 2013-2014 Union Budget but not a single accountable rupee spent for pre-school education or a plate of food for the homeless children in Mumbai. Yoshita Sengupta investigates the absence of homeless children from ICDS registers Mumbai: In 2010, Ms. Rekha, a homeless woman living on the footpath in Mumbai in her last month of pregnancy, slipped while trying to cross a wall. She...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: This party season, you could save yourself some trouble by keeping the music down. For, the cops intend to be party poopers at raucous gatherings. The force is procuring noise meters to book people found violating the permissible sound limit. If Delhi Police sources are to be believed, cops would not stop at that in their drive for a less noisy city. The hand-held meters would...

-The Times of India JAIPUR: If you want a government job in Rajasthan, vow never to smoke cigarettes and chew gutka. The department of personnel has issued a circular to all government departments and district collectors to extract an undertaking from candidates to the effect that they do not smoke or consume gutka while in government service. A copy of the circular, issued on October 4, has been sent to the governor,...