-The Hindu Widespread chewing, legendary paan shops and a ‘so-what’ attitude trump disease concerns. Chennai: Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda promised concerned members in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that he would advise all States to ban spitting in public. He was reassuring several MPs led by K.T.S Tulsi, who expressed worry that “the great Indian spit” was causing many communicable diseases. Yet, most municipal laws already prohibit spitting and prescribe penalties....

-Hindustan Times Bathinda: That pest whitefly is back. At least 4,400 hectares of the 36,000-hectare cotton area in Punjab’s border belt of Fazilka is under its invasion . The Centre will remain in touch with the state government to protect the crop in the remaining season. The next 45 days are critical, so the Union Ministry of Agriculture will keep the fibre crop under its eyes throughout. On Saturday, its three-member expert...

-Down to Earth Desperate to check growing prices, the country plans to encourage domestic players to grow pulses in Myanmar despite having bad experiences in the past Faced with shortage of pulses and increasing prices, India plans to encourage private companies to acquire land for exclusively growing pulses in Myanmar and supply them back to India. Myanmar is the largest exporter of pulses to India. According to a senior agriculture ministry...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Free health-care services during childbirth remain a pipe dream for most of India's poor, whether it relates to diagnostic tests, medicines, transport or even food, despite the Union health ministry launching a "free entitlements" programme five years ago. The families of most women who seek childbirth in government hospitals are forced to pay for supposedly "free" services, at times experiencing catastrophic expenditures likely to accentuate their poverty, two...

-Livemint.com Economist Joseph Stiglitz says govt clampdown on NGOs such as Greenpeace and Ford Foundation and the JNU row shine a poor light on India globally Bengaluru: Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has a blunt message for Prime Minster Narendra Modi: India has an image problem after the government’s clampdown on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and its actions against students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). “Some issues have got a lot of public...