-Outlook Instead of playing a leadership role, the Manmohan Singh government has surrendered all political initiative internationally to the US and the EU countries and locally to parties such as the DMK, motivated by political opportunism Is there a neo-LTTE emerging nearly four years after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was wiped out in May, 2009, by the Sri Lankan security forces? That is a question that needs the...

-The Business Standard Kolkata: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has slammed the government's Right To Education (RTE) programme. This, he said, was only a step towards ensuring a means of livelihood for teachers. Banerjee said the programme, implemented in 2009, lacked sense. He said he wasn't hopeful about the outcome of the initiative. "It is simply for the teachers, by the teachers,...

-Outlook The US is going ahead with its resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva as the Rajapaksha government has failed to fulfill its international obligations, which it promised after the fall of the LTTE, the Obama Administration said today. Without naming any one, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference that the US is working with a lot of governments who...

-The Hindu Bangalore: In an open letter to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner, Amnesty International India has demanded that the BBMP ensure that those affected by its forced eviction of around 1,200 families from the Economically Weaker Section Quarters in Ejipura are immediately provided with essential medical services, drinking water, access to sanitation and basic housing, “in line with international Human Rights standards”. Amnesty International said that it is particularly worried...

-PTI The government on Tuesday said it proposes to bring a Bill to monitor the services of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) clinics and banks to regulate surrogacy in the country. “A draft Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill has been formulated and sent to Ministry of Law and Justice for concurrence,” Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. He said in order to monitor...