-The Hindu ‘But cumbersome anti-graft apparatus can delay decisions'   With a slew of scams vitiating the government's policy-making environment and holding up reforms, the Economic Survey 2011-12 on Thursday advocated need for a ruthless crackdown on corruption, but cautioned that a large and cumbersome anti-corruption bureaucracy could impact decision-making. “While we need to ruthlessly crack down on corruption, it must, at the same time, be recognised that the fear of a large and...

-IANS The flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government got a higher allocation of Rs.20,822 crore in the 2012-13 Budget presented on Friday.  Presenting his seventh budget in the Lok Sabha, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the increase in the allocation for NRHM.  He also said the National Urban Health Mission was being launched. Under this scheme, the basic primary health needs of the urban poor living...

-The Indian Express Gay rights activists today submitted in Supreme Court that criminalising homosexual acts is against constitutional values and that the law should not interfere when consenting adults are involved. Naz Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare and rehabilitation of HIV infected people, contended that homosexuals face social ostracism with gay sex being declared as an offence. Appearing before a bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya, the...

Government-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) may witness a 52% jump in losses on account of selling fuel below cost at state-mandated prices to Rs.2 trillion in the next financial year, said R.S. Butola, chairman, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer. Such an increase will impact the financials of government-owned OMCs such as IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), which currently register...

-The Economic Times   The government has allowed a local drugmaker to make and sell a patented cancer drug at a fraction of the price charged by Germany's Bayer AG, setting a precedent for more such efforts by Indian firms and heightening the global pharmaceutical industry's anxiety over the use of the controversial compulsory licensing provision.  The outgoing patent controller of India, PH Kurian, on Monday granted the country's first compulsory licence to...