-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The national capital is not “smart”, neither are financial capital Mumbai, information technology hub Bengaluru and eastern India’s biggest city Kolkata. They actually wallow at the bottom of a global livability survey of 181 cities. The 2016 Cities in Motion Index (CIMI), prepared jointly by the Barcelona-based University of Navarrara’s IESE Business School and the Centre for Globalisation and Strategy, found Indian cities floundering on most parameters that...

-The Times of India New Delhi: The health ministry will soon revamp its flagship immunisation programme 'Mission Indradhanush' to include four new vaccines. The mission, currently providing coverage against seven life-threatening diseases, will soon also include vaccines for rotavirus, measles rubella, inactivated polio vaccine biavalent and Japanese Encephalitis for adults, health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said. Mission Indradhanush — depicting the seven colours of the rainbow — will also be rechristened...

-The Hindu Figuring out key parameters on which to measure a State’s performance provides a playbook of best practices for others to follow. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (MGNREGA) aims at “enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household WHOse adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.” In the financial year...

-The Times of India The central government has spent Rs 9,093 crore on building about 1.8 crore toilets across the country under the Swachh Bharat Mission since October 2014. This is because Prime Minister Modi has made the drive a priority. The mission also envisages a cleaner India at large, although this part of the plan is hazy. The question that arises now is — how is this frenzy of toilet-building changing...

-The Hindu Business Line The Narendra Modi government has shown intent in pushing for rural electrification, but the devil lies in the detail, write Richa Mishra and Debabrata Das Soon after taking over at the helm of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at a function in Solapur, Maharashtra. Sharing one of his visions, Modi said, “Many elections have been fought in our country on this issue and the issue is...