-Hindustan Times Drunken driving will invite a fine of Rs.10,000, talking on phones while driving will result in a fine of Rs.5,000, and for jumping red light, driving without seat belt and helmet, the proposed fine is Rs.1,000. A parliamentary panel has agreed to a 10% annual increase in the fines for various traffic violations including drunken driving, talking on mobile, rash and negligent driving. The panel was studying the Motor Vehicles (Amendment)...

In a country where inter-departmental coordination hardly takes place in the government, a joint exercise undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is bearing fruits. The NCRB has started coordinating with the RBI for collection and sharing of Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) data. The new tables, which have been introduced in the NCRB's annual publication on crime, reveal that although the...

-Down to Earth Death of cotton farmers due to pesticide poisoning in the Vidarbha region raises vital questions about the government's attitude towards regulation of toxic pesticides One more evil has reared its ugly head in Maharashtra’s arid Vidarbha region, which has so far been infamous for farmer suicides. Some 35 farmers in the region have died of pesticide poisoning in last four months. Most of them were working in cotton and...

-Hindustan Times While Delhi came under flak for running fewer buses than that it did three years ago and therefore failing to enforce blanket road rationing, compliance of even basic anti-pollution measures was impossible in the NCR because of poor infrastructure. The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) mandated by the Supreme Court to counter air pollution was meant to be an effort in regional cooperation. The entire National Capital Region (NCR), which...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move to ensure efficacy of medicines sold in India, the drug regulator has made it mandatory for companies to include Indian patients in global clinical trials if they want to market in India a new drug developed outside the country. The decision was taken in a recent technical committee meeting, headed by director general of health services Jagdish Prasad. The committee, which was formed...