-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In yet another twist to the Ranbaxy scandal, the drug regulatory authority of the UK government has issued a statement clarifying that they have found no evidence of any Ranbaxy product in the UK market having been "of unacceptable quality". Last month, WHO had issued a similar statement. It had said that there was no evidence of any of the Ranbaxy products being of unacceptable...

-PTI     FATF is an inter-governmental body that sets standards and promotes policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing for countries across the world. In a major boost to measures being taken by India against money laundering and terror financing activities, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) today said the country has substantially addressed the deficiencies in its regulatory framework and has become largely compliant with global standards in this regard. FATF is...

Groundwater, which irrigates half of Indian agriculture and provides 85% of rural drinking consumption, is an increasingly scarce resource. There is a growing understanding that it must be approached as a common property resource for collective benefit. It is best understood and managed by those who live near them and use them rather than agencies who visit sporadically - that is the central premise of efforts around participatory groundwater management....

-The Hindu Could the Uttarakhand tragedy have been avoided, or at least minimised? There is no simple answer. Environmentalists describe the death and damage as a man-made disaster while geologists say the extent of destruction could have been far lesser if stricter Regulations had been put in place and the authorities equipped to deal with the situation. Importantly, the events focus attention on the debate on the December 18, 2012 notification of the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: As a humongous natural calamity grips Uttarakhand, it is now emerging that the state has had no disaster management plan worth its name despite the region being highly disaster prone due to fragile mountains, tectonic activity and climatic events. A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) released as recently as on April 23 this year says that the State Disaster Management Authority, which was formed in October...