-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked its affiliated schools across the country to shut down shops selling textbooks, stationery, schoolbags, uniforms, shoes and similar articles within their premises. The board asked schools on Thursday to strictly comply with its affiliation byelaws and "not indulge in commercial activities". This includes sales through "selected vendors". The directive comes close on the heels of the board's effort...

-The Economic Times Chandigarh: Cotton, often termed by farmers as 'white gold' for bringing higher remuneration, is set to regain lost ground in Punjab where the area under the crop is expected to rise by more than 50 per cent after it fell to ever lowest 2.56 lakh hectares in the last year. The revival of the fibre crop is buttressed by highest productivity of 756 lint kg per hectare in...

-The Times of India The President's approval to make Hindi compulsory in CBSE and Kendriya Vidyalya has ruffled feathers with most non-Hindi speaking states accusing the Centre of suppressing other native languages. Deputy leader of Trinamool Congress Saugata Roy alleged the move is meant to implement the BJP's majoritarian idea based on their slogan, 'Hindi, Hindu, and Hindustan'. "The Centre should have been more cautious before implementing the decision in non-Hindi speaking...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Regulatory efforts to get doctors in India to prescribe medicines only through their generic names, initiated about 15 years ago, will need to overcome legal challenges and resistance from sections of doctors and the pharmaceutical industry, experts said. Senior pharmacologists and industry analysts have also said it will be misleading to presume that prescriptions with generic names will automatically translate into lower medicine bills for patients as studies...

-The Indian Express Say subsidy applications made last year for purchasing machines to clear fields are still pending Ludhiana: While the departments of agriculture and pollution control are active enough these days in their campaign to control burning of wheat fields, farmers complain the agriculture department has failed to call any applications from them for seeking subsidy against the agricultural machinery used to pick straws to avoid burning them in the...