Said it failed to state ethical aspects involved in the study Proposal was based on the assumption that vaccine was safe and efficacious: PHFI Brinda demands compensation for all subjects victimised by vaccine programme The proposal for conducting the now controversial “Post-licensure observational study of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination: Demonstration Project,” carried out by a non-governmental organisation PATH for two major pharmaceutical companies, had been turned down by the Public Health Foundation...

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wants it to be the new Singapore. State officials call it Urjanchal, land of energy. For sociologist Sakarama Somayaji, the enduring image from India’s emerging energy wonderland in Singrauli is the women who sell baskets of stones on the roadside. Individually or in groups, the women break stones, and sell them to passing trucks for R80-R90 a basket, a day’s labour. The women are...

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found that the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the State neither conducted any survey for identification of beneficiaries nor followed the survey conducted by the Panchayat and Rural Development Department in 1998-99, to select the beneficiaries of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) for the Public Distribution System (PDS). The status as of September 2007, as per the BPL census of 2002,...

The Supreme Court on Friday said that the government does not want to prop up a strong judiciary expressing its dipleasure over the meagre budgetary allocation to it. “No government wants a strong judiciary . It is only on the paper. Look at the budgetary allocation. It is less than one per cent,” said a bench comprising Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly. The court pointed out that the judiciary is...

The RSS-sponsored Samajik Kumbh at Mandla, which is known for considerable tribal population and sizeable church presence, has created a sense of unease among Christians who fear they may be targets. The Kumbh — where lakhs of people are expected to gather from February 10  to 12 — at Mandla, 95 km from here, is being seen as a show of strength by the RSS. There is buzz that it is...