-The Indian Express Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has begun retracing the reported trips of a Malegaon inverter dealer to Nashik, Ujjain, Indore and Devas before he was arrested in connection with the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts as these cities are alleged to be strongly connected to the 2008 bomb blast in the textile town which has been blamed on Hindu extremists. The man, Abrar Ahmed, claims he had heard a...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court decided on Monday to examine the constitutional validity of the provision giving the definition of juvenile in the Juvenile Justice Act which treats a person as a minor till he attains the age of 18 years. The apex court has issued notice to the Centre on a PIL seeking lowering of age of juvenile to 16 years from the present 18 years. The issue assumes significance...

-The Hindu Bidders asked for an extended deadline, says SHRC director The last date of submission of the much awaited bids for establishing private diagnostic centres in public health facilities of Chhattisgarh has been moved to February 10 from February 1. Explaining this change, J.P. Mishra, architect of the privatisation programme and State Health Resource Centre (SHRC) Director, an autonomous body that is overseeing the privatisation, told The Hindu that the bidders...

-The Hindu By opting for a U.S.-style medical care model, India is endangering its universal health coverage goal, and paving the way for a corporatised, for-profit system As India continues to debate how best to implement universal health coverage, two recent and seemingly unrelated news items need to be analysed carefully. The first one pertains to a report released earlier this year by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine in...

-The Hindu MGNREGA records manipulated; workers’ wages siphoned off from accounts Rankikalan (Jharkhand): At noon on Tuesday last, a dozen men gathered on the banks of the Auranga near Rankikalan village in Latehar district. As they performed the dashmirites, the wailing from the huts in the village continued. Bhuiatoli village had lost 23 men, women and children when the truck in which they were returning to the village after working on landlords’...