-The Hindu   Dr. Ahluwalia does not contradict a single fact in the article: (i) Rs.2.02 lakh daily average expenditure for trips between May and October 2011 (well after his “busy” G-20 period ending in 2010). No “gross extravagance”? (ii) 274 days abroad, or one in every NINe. Factor in travel days and it could be one in seven away from office. (iii) 42 trips, half of them visits to the U.S. (several trips not...

A rural Indian spending Rs. 22.50 a day would not be considered poor by a PlanNINg Commission whose Deputy Chairman's foreign trips between May and October last year cost a daily average of Rs. 2.02 lakh Pranab Mukherjee's stirring call for austerity tugs at the national tear ducts. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pleaded for it in the past and watched his flock embrace it creatively. With the Finance Ministry even...

Health activists say new policy may not address the weaknesses in ongoing routine immunisation programmes and would flood poor countries with new vaccines When the global health leaders meet in Geneva from May 21 to 26 for the World Health Organization's 65th General Assembly, introducing new vaccines in the low- and middle-income countries would be high on their agenda. A “global draft vaccine action plan”, available on WHO's website, details the implementation...

Next time you brush your teeth, be careful. Some popular toothpastes and toothpowders in India have high levels of nicotine, a known carcinogen, a study has found. Researchers at the Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research (DIPSAR) tested 10 toothpowders and 24 toothpastes brands. They found large amounts of nicotine in 11 of these non-tobacco products. The highest amount of nicotine at 18 milligram/gram (mg/g) was found in Colgate Herbal products...

-PTI Swinging into action a day after filing an FIR against former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in connection with illegal miNINg, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials on Wednesday conducted simultaneous raids at the senior BJP leader’s residences here and in some other places in the state. A joint team of CBI officials from Hyderabad and Bangalore also raided residences of Mr. Yeddyurappa’s sons B Y Raghavendra, MP, and B...