-Mongabay.com * Contamination of groundwater with chemicals like arsenic and fluoride is an important issue in several states of India. Even though government has schemes to address the problem not much has been achieved. * Authorities have been repeatedly told that efforts on war-footing are needed to protect millions of Indians from the contaminated groundwater but the work is yet to acquire the pace needed. * The parliamentary standing committee on rural development...

-The Hindu Says its work comparable to UPSC’s A Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) has recommended that the Centre accord statutory status to the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), one of the largest recruitment agencies in the country. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and all State Public Service Commissions either have constitutional or legal status. The SSC is the only such organisation that performs similar functions on a much larger scale, but does not...

-The Telegraph A sizeable portion of collections under the Primary Education Cess was never transferred to Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh The money every taxpayer pays towards the Primary Education Cess, meant to improve the quality of government schooling in the country, is not being used entirely for the purpose. A sizeable portion of the collections under the 2 per cent cess was never transferred to the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh (PSK), the dedicated corpus...

-The Hindu ‘Whole country was listening when they united for a common cause recently’ Mysuru: Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav has said that farmers issues and agrarian crisis have entered centre stage of Indian politics for the first time in more than 30 years and is likely to be the dominant factor during the 2019 parliamentary elections. “We had parliamentary elections fought on Emergency, Bofors, Mandal, Mandir, 2G and so on, but there...

-The Indian Express The Bill provides for “surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of specified dams for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning”. New Delhi: WHEN THE government introduced the Dam Safety Bill, 2018 in Lok Sabha last week, BJD floor leader Bhartruhari Mahtab questioned Parliament’s competence to do so. Days later, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami wrote to the...