-Livemint.com Parliamentary panel blames ministry for not utilizing budget in full, demands tightening of administrative steps New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has criticized the government for cutting funds for the environment ministry and asked it to revise the allocation since the ministry is tasked with arresting environment degradation. The committee also blamed the ministry for not utilizing its budget in full, and demanded that it tighten its administrative mechanisms. A report by the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government today gave in to the Opposition and referred the bill for regulating real estate to a select committee for scrutiny. Urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu brought a motion for sending the bill to the committee, to be headed by BJP MP Anil Madhav Dave. The 21-member panel will have to hand in its report at the start of the monsoon session. The Opposition had demanded examination...

-PTI Raising serious questions about the quality of Ph.D holders in the country, a parliamentary panel has sought an evaluation report to understand why suitable candidates were hard to find for vacant teaching posts. With over 7,000 research scholars being awarded Ph.D every year, the panel has suggested “reorienting” the entire system of evaluation of Ph.D and other research scholars. In its report tabled in Parliament last week, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on...

-DNA 38 districts under Green Revolution II affected by slow poison Indian government's ambitious project Green Revolution-II (GR-II) to promote growing rice in the Eastern states of India is bringing arsenic to your plates. As many as 38 districts spreading across six states out of the seven states where the scheme is being implemented are reported to be affected by arsenic. These states are Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre is weighing what appears a never-used parliamentary option to be able to re-promulgate the land acquisition ordinance before it lapses - having two budget sessions instead of a two-leg one. Ordinarily, the budget session is conducted in two halves, separated by a one-month recess. The first leg this year was to end on March 20 and the second leg to begin on April 20 and continue...