-The Hindu Allahabad: With her legs crossed and hands folded, 10-year-old Shivani sits quietly on her bed at the Kamla Nehru Regional Cancer Centre's (RCC) Jawahar ward, named after the country's first Prime Minister. "I want to grow up to be a doctor. I like playing the doctor and using needles (injections)," she replied to this correspondent's query. Shivani's father Suresh Kesharwani, mother Bimla and elder brother Rohit (17) look on anxiously. Shivani...

-Tehelka.com The Sen-Bhagwati ‘debate' on economic policy is focussing on the wrong issues Several things are quite remarkable about the recent debate between Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. The first surprise is that such a debate could become a major news item at all, making headlines and filling screen time on news channels, when it is about economic strategies that are normally discussed only in relatively small academic and policy...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Are you taking proper care of pregnant inmates and ensuring that the children born to women prisoners do not grow up in the shadow of criminals? the Supreme Court asked the states and ordered inspection of their prisons. A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday ordered, "We direct all the State Legal Services Authorities to inspect all...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: When the Union cabinet yesterday decided to amend the Right to Information Act to exempt political parties from its ambit, it argued that citizens already have several legal avenues to find out about the donations the parties receive and details of their poll candidates. The cabinet approved the draft bill to be introduced in the coming Parliament session to amend the 2005 act, excluding political parties from the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: At the halfway mark, the monsoon shows no signs of flagging and, on current projections, is set to cross 100% of its long period average, promising to relieve a Stressed economy and ease the Manmohan Singh government's political burden. A bountiful monsoon is likely to benefit the kharif crop despite some hiccups in east India and the government is anticipating record rice production with the area...