-The Hindu India’s roads are deadlier than ever. The high rates of death and disability expose the lack of an organised system of traffic management and safety. Road safety is no one’s responsibility. It is time to make someone accountable. On the final day of this year’s ‘puja’ season in Chennai, a particular roadside temple near the iconic Central Railway Station had the long annual line of vehicles — vans, tempos, taxis,...

-Tehelka The sentencing of Wall Street wizard Rajat Gupta in the historic insider trading case has led to the fall of a one-time icon for many Indians “This is where destiny is taking me.” This is what former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director, Rajat Gupta, told old friend Pramod Bhasin, as he sat with a glass of scotch in hand, in a mid-town bar in New York. Little did Gupta know how prophetic...

-The Times of India Delhi, which was not even among the world's top ten urban sprawls by population in 1990, is already the second largest behind Tokyo and will continue to retain that position till 2025, according to a UN projection. Mumbai, which was at No. 5 in 1990, has climbed to the fourth spot and will be No. 3 in the next 13 years. The projections made in the UN's recent...

-The Hindu This was discovered during an awareness drive in two Jaipur slums recently Jaipur: The daily struggle of slum dwellers for getting basic amenities and the glaring deficiency in the reach of the much-touted urban poverty alleviation schemes as well as other programmes for welfare of widows, disabled people and destitute children were revealed during an awareness drive launched by two voluntary public service institutions in slum colonies here this week. The...

-Outlook Mumbai: Maharashtra government plans to formulate a new social forestry policy which will be implemented in non-forest areas of the state to increase green cover. "In Maharashtra, the forest land is about 19 to 20 per cent, which comes under the Forest Department. The Social Forestry Department has decided to provide green cover to 80 per cent non-forest area and will elicit co-operation from the local self government bodies in this...