-The Times of India Patna: The midday meal (MDM) scheme has come a long way since November 2001 when the Supreme Court (in PUCL vs Union of India and others case) ordered all state governments to provide cooked midday meal to children in primary schools. Though it took Bihar nearly five years to put the midday meal programme, 61 per cent parents were satisfied with the quality of food served, according...

-Outlook   New Delhi: Civil society, NGOs, socio- political organisations will be asked to provide Volunteers to guard more than 11,000 unmanned railway crossings across the country to minimise death on tracks, Lok Sabha was told today. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said during Question Hour that a decision has been taken to publish advertisements inviting civil society, NGOs, socio-political organisations to provide Volunteers to guard the unmanned railway crossings. Prabhu said 18,735 people have...

-The Telegraph Regulators in several European countries are suspending marketing approval for 25 generic drugs because of concerns over the quality of data from human studies conducted by an Indian contract research company, a French medical safety agency said on Friday. Drug regulators in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg have decided to suspend the marketing authorisation for the generic drugs after they discovered "irregularities" in documents relating to human studies conducted by...

-ETV/ News 18 Claiming that the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides destroyed Punjab in the two decades, Volunteers from Punjab - once an agri-role model-have cautioned Madhya Pradesh against the same. These Volunteers from Kheti Virasat Mission - a group of volunteer activists from different fields working in Punjab for promoting organic farming, said this while participating in Vikalp Mela as part of Bhopal gas tragedy's 30th anniversary events in...

-The Indian Express The tragedy of several women dying after undergoing sterilisation operations in the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh has once again thrown up uncomfortable questions around India's population programme. Although the cases are being investigated and the exact cause of the deaths has not been ascertained, the incident brings to light the abysmal conditions in which women are compelled to accept government-provided contraception. India is a signatory to an agreement at...