Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh today frowned upon the state government and demanded greater reliability on the question of funds use after enduring a bumpy ride to a Dumka village, which to his surprise lacked road connectivity. Ramesh, who arrived in Dumka from Calcutta this morning, met self-help groups (SHGs) engaged in tussar silk production at Dhaka village, 30km from the district headquarters, in rebel-hit Shikaripara block. The minister appreciated...

Ignoring widespread concern over the safety, efficacy and cost of pentavalent vaccines, India’s central health ministry has, this month, approved inclusion of the prophylactic cocktail in the universal immunisation programme in seven of its provinces. Pentavalent vaccine doses, a cocktail of five antigens in a single shot, confers immunity against five paediatric diseases - diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), with the last one considered particularly...

-News on Air The government is considering to open Liquified Natural Gas, LPG distribution agencies in every block of the country to bring it within the reach of the common man. This was stated by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Mr. RPN Singh in the Lok Sabha yesterday. He informed that during 2009-12, public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) commissioned 905 regular LPG distributorships and 1,026 Rajiv Gandhi...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would attempt to strike a balance between the right to dignity, reputation and fair trial of the accused with press freedom before laying down principles outlining the contours of Article 19(1)(a) of Constitution guaranteeing right to free speech and expression. A five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices D K Jain, S S Nijjar, R P Desai and J S...

Meena Kandasamy, one of Chennai’s well-known activists and poets, was recently in Hyderabad delivering a few lectures at NALSAR and other institutions about Ambedkar, when she heard about a beef festival at Osmania University being organised by the Telengana Students’ Association and the Progressive Students Union. Several students and teachers had gathered to support the event organised by the dalit students and also as a symbol of admonishing cultural oppression from...