-The Telegraph Cuttack: Orissa High Court today directed the state government to constitute a high-level committee to check outbreak of jaundice in various parts of the state. The division bench of Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S.C. Parija issued the direction on a PIL. Giribala Behera, councillor of ward No. 4 of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, filed the petition seeking intervention for immediate measures to check spread of the outbreak in the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Election Commission is in the process of sending donation details of all political parties to the Central Board of Direct Taxes for a probe by the Income Tax authorities to ascertain whether entities making contributions were genuine. But what has rattled the poll watchdog is the huge expenditure made by some of the leading parties during the Lok Sabha elections in March-May last year, disproportionate...

-The Hindustan Times Bengaluru: A report released by the Catholic Secular Forum has documented 120 attacks on Christians and their institutions across India in 2014. The report, which was made available to HT, lists five murders across India in little over a year. Madhya Pradesh (23) and Chhattisgarh (19), both BJP-ruled states, along with Congress-ruled Karnataka (14) account for nearly half of all incidents across India. Between December 2013 and December 2014, 7,000...

-The Hindu Are political advertisements in newspapers on the day of an election legally permissible? India's leading political parties appear to be operating in a legal grey area, a position of ambiguity that they themselves have perpetuated. Section 126 of the Representation of People Act (1950) prohibits political parties from taking out television ads from 48 hours before an election. It does not, however, explicitly mention the print media. The relevant...

-HowIndiaLives.com The fall is more perceptible in states ruled by the Congress-led UPA than the ones ruled by BJP-led NDA The government's flagship rural employment guarantee scheme is on the decline. On almost every key metric, the scheme drafted under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)-which promises 100 days of employment a year to every rural household that demands it and mandates payments of wages within 15 days-is showing...