-Reuters   The world's urban areas will more than double in size by 2030, presenting an opportunity to build greener and healthier cities, a UN study showed on Monday.   Simple planning measures such as more parks, trees or roof gardens could make cities less polluted and help protect plants and animals, especially in emerging nations led by China and India where city growth will be fastest, it said. "Rich biodiversity can exist in cities...

-The Hindu Dudu (Rajasthan): The Union government launched an Aadhaar-enabled service delivery system here on Saturday with a promise of eliminating fraud, black-marketing, pilferage in schemes and bribery through a reliable mechanism of direct cash transfer to beneficiaries in a transparent manner. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the ambitious programme, which seeks to integrate the government-run flagship schemes with the Aadhaar card system at a...

-The Times of India India's two top metros, Mumbai and Delhi, still lack what it takes to be world class cities. In a United Nations report on world's cities, India's financial capital ranked 52 among 95 cities while the political capital came in 58th. The State of World's Cities report released by UN Habitat on Wednesday, ranked cities on five parameters of "prosperity". While Shanghai, Beijing and Bangkok were all ranked higher...

-The Hindu The Commerce Ministry has cancelled the proposed 1,840-hectare multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) project being developed by the Adani group at Mundra in Gujarat for violation of norms. The Adani Port and SEZ (APSEZ) project was de-notified as the proposal did not conform to contiguity norms, and was in violation of the rule, which required the SEZ site to be vacant before approval was sought, officials in the Commerce Ministry...

-The Indian Express Chandigarh: Less than a week after Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited Jind in Haryana to visit the family of a rape victim, 30 MPs will be in Jind and Kaithal on October 17 to meet the families of Dalit rape victims. The gravity of the situation notwithstanding, the state government seems to have chosen this opportunity to impress the visiting MPs with its hospitality. Among the various duties assigned...