-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Over 60% of houses in mid-size cities such as Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Kolhapur, Bilaspur and Kharagpur with less than one million population discharge waste water to the open drains, indicating how the government has a mammoth task in achieving complete sanitation even in urban areas. Nearly one-fourth of 416 such non-metropolitan cities have less than 20% households that have waste water outlets connected to the closed drainage...

-The Hindu Government sources told The Hindu that at PDS packaging centres, new unbranded bags were being replaced with used ones. Jute bags meant for packaging of foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS) allegedly provided their manufacturers — in league with some officials of procuring State government agencies, quality insurance inspectors and middlemen — an opportunity to siphon off thousands of crores in government revenue. So serious is the scam that the...

-The Indian Express Decades of mismanagement have hobbled India’s mental health programme An event commemorating World Mental Health week opened at the WHO in Geneva this week. At a key session, the Disease Control Priorities project released its recommendations to governments to address the burden of mental disorders. This was timely for India, for few countries have witnessed so many high-profile debates related to mental health while ignoring the centrality of mental health...

-The Hindu The production of waste in India is growing at an exponential rate. However, the welfare and dignity of the informal workers involved in the stigmatised sector of waste management remains at the bottom of any government’s political agenda. Human society has always produced waste and always will. Waste materials — substances without value — are constantly generated in all production, all distribution and all consumption processes. The time waste spends...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Aadhaar card is now the most widely held identification document in the country with a voluntary enrolment of 92 crore people. It is also perhaps the sole ID for many of its holders, including many families below the poverty line. In comparison, 5.7 crore people have passports, 17 crore people PAN cards, 60 crore voter ID cards, 15 crore ration cards and 17.3 crore driving...