-PTI This rule will apply to essential commodities that are sold both in loose and packaged form in retail markets To check inflation, the government has amended the metrology rules which would allow it to fix retail prices of essential commodities like pulses and sugar in extraordinary situations. Under the present system, retail prices are fixed by market forces, leaving very little room for the government to check undue spike in prices. “We have...

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: The 2015-16 drought in Marathwada was caused not by climate change but poor management of water resources, a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology-Pune and the Indian Institute of Science-Bengaluru has revealed. The two institutions analysed 145 years of monsoon rainfall data to arrive at the conclusion. While admitting that the region is prone to droughts, the study states that the magnitude of the last drought could...

-PTI NEW DELHI: All central government departments were today asked to put copies of RTI applications received and their responses on their websites except applicants' personal details "as they do not serve any public Interest". As per norms, all public authorities shall proactively disclose RTI applications and appeals received and their responses, on the websites maintained by them with search facility based on key words. "It is clarified that while proactively disclosing RTI...

-The Hindu The State has taken the lead in providing some essential and basic health-care training to these informal providers. In West Bengal, nearly 3,000 quacks — informal health-care providers with no formal medical education — are to be trained for six months. The crash course in medicine, and to be conducted by 130 trained nurses, is to begin from December 1. The objective is to provide these informal providers with a minimum...

-The Hindu Business Line Despite a recent crackdown, employers continue to wield power in the child labour racket Rajan (name changed) is nowhere to be seen. About a month ago, the 12-year-old and his younger brother Yash (name changed) were working at a roadside tea stall located on one of the busiest roads in the financial capital of Gujarat. The tea stall, as claimed by the boy, was owned by his 'uncle'...