-Outlook Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi has proposed mandatory annual audit of funds and donations received by political parties. "We want all political funding should be transparent and checked. There should be annual compulsory audits by an independent auditor to be picked up from a panel suggested by the Election Commission," Quraishi told PTI. He said the report of such audit should be put in the public domain. "Everybody will be able...

-Al Jazeera Treaty to ban chemicals that harmed the ozone layer came about when there was consensus between science and politics. In 1974, chemists Mario Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland published a landmark article that demonstrated the ability of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to break down the ozone layer, the atmospheric region that plays a vital role in shielding humans and other life from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. It marked the opening salvo of...

-The Hindu Drugs Controller must be told of adverse events within 24 hours Under sharp criticism for inadequate monitoring of clinical trials in the country, the Union Government is contemplating major changes in the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, and its Rules. These would make it mandatory for the Investigator to report all serious adverse events, including deaths, to the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI), as well as the sponsor and...

-The Hindu She led a movement against acquisition of farmland Activists and supporters of Dayamani Barla, award-winning tribal activist and journalist who was released on bail in a case but arrested soon after in another case on October 19 in Ranchi, are preparing to intensify their demand for her release. They have decided to move for her bail on November 29 and the Adivasi Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manchi (AMARM) has announced a protest...

-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...